Chip Gibbons is a journalist and researcher. His work explores the intersection of U.S. national security policy, civil liberties, and human rights. His original reporting has appeared in The Nation, The Intercept, Jacobin, and Drop Site News. He also contributed opinion and analysis to The Guardian and The Washington Post and appeared on Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera, and BBC.

He is the author of the forthcoming book The Imperial Bureau: The FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Rise of the US National Security State (Verso Books). A revelatory new history of the FBI it explores the relationship between domestic political surveillance and the emergence of the US national security state. The book is based heavily off of archival research, including new information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and through litigation.

Chip has also reported on a number of legal cases, including the extradition hearings of journalist Julian Assange, the prosecution of drone whistleblower Daniel Hale, the prosecution of Trump inauguration protesters, and South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention before the International Court of Justice.

In addition to his work as a writer, Chip is also the Policy Director of Defending Rights & Dissent, a national civil liberties organization that defends the American people’s right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism. At Defending Rights & Dissent, Chip has advised both state and federal lawmakers on the First Amendment implications of pending legislation and challenged government surveillance. Chip leads the First Amendment group’s advocacy around the Espionage Act, having worked closely with whistleblowers prosecuted under the law and having helped draft the first comprehensive legislative proposal to end the law’s use against both whistleblowers and journalists. Chip also led an effort of journalists, media, and press freedom groups to call on the State Department to cut off arms to Israel in light of its deliberate targeting of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

He can be found on Twitter @ChipGibbons89.

 

 

Photos by Alex van den Heever