On Jan. 24, 2003, a new law enforcement and investigatory agency whose duties include functions taken from as many as 22 other federal agencies came into existence. The reorganization of these operations reportedly marks the biggest government bureaucratic shake-up since the creation of the Department of Defense half a century ago.
Even before the new Department of Homeland Security opened its doors, controversies arose over not just how it would operate and exercise its powers, but what level of access to information it would allow, and how it would respond to news media requests. Will new exemptions be carved out of the FOI Act, either by law or by practice? Will officials and agents feel free to tap phones of journalists, or subpoena their records during investigations? Will the new director consider procedural safeguards, like those adopted years ago by the Department of Justice, to ensure that freedom of the press will not be denied? And will those practices be followed?

But "homeland" security is not the only concern for journalists covering anti-terrorism initiatives; military actions abroad often present a greater challenge, as questions over disclosure of information, access to troops, and restraints on reporting seem to resurface anew with each conflict.

Questions and issues like these led the Reporters Committee to launch this "weblog," so that there will be a centralized site on the Internet for journalists who want to follow these issues and pass along information they learn while covering -- or worse, being covered by -- the new department and other anti-terrorism actions. Please submit comments and pass along tips to make this project as useful, thorough and up-to-date as possible.

A few words about what this project will not do. We do not intend to cover many of the issues that will undoubtedly come up as the Department takes shape, even if those issues are the ones generating headlines. We will cover information access and free press issues, but will not follow debates over many civil liberties issues that, while important, are outside of our domain.

Funding for the launch of this site was provided by The Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.

Feb. 27, 2003

JUDGE REJECTS CHALLENGE TO NEW FBI POWERS From an AP report from Portland, Ore.: "The FBI does not have to explain why it applied for search warrants to bug homes and tap phones of defendants in a terrorism case, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in an early test of the government's new and expanded spying powers." — Posted at 6:44 pm

PATRIOT II AND NEWSPAPERS. The American Society of Newspaper Editors has posted an evaluation of the effect of Patriot Act II on newspapers. Attorneys Richard Schmidt, Jr., and Kevin Goldberg conclude that Patriot Act II's impact in on the First Amendment can be divided into three general categories: (1) Increased surveillance authority that might chill speech, especially political dissent; (2) Increased restrictions on access to government information, either generally or through the Freedom of Information Act; and (3) Increased criminal provisions that might affect the First Amendment protections of the right to free association. — Posted at 6:32 pm

DHS FOIA REGS. The Reporters Committee filed comments Feb. 26 on interim final Freedom of Information Act regulations issued by the Department of Homeland Security asking that the agency incorporate an expedited review provision adopted by the Department of Justice that gives priority to FOI requesters who can show that there is "widespread and exceptional media interest in which there exist possible questions about the government's integrity which affect public confidence." The Justice department had granted expedited review for some requests regarding arrest of detainees that were made to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. INS, once a part of the Justice department, is now located in Homeland Security. — Posted at 6:01 pm

GUNS AND HOMELAND SECURITY. The U.S. Supreme Court said this week that it would not hear whether the government can keep secret a gun sales database because Congress may already have settled the issue by banning ATF from spending money to release the data. The House report on the bill said releasing the data "would not only pose a risk to law enforcement and homeland security, but also to the privacy of innocent citizens." The justices were scheduled to hear arguments March 4 as to whether the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms should be forced to release a database information that includes the names of gun shops and gun owners whose weapons were eventually traced by law enforcement. All briefs, including an amicus brief written by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, had already been filed in the case. (Read accounts in The Washington Post and the Reporters Committee's website. — Posted at 5:38 pm

HUSSEIN INTERVIEW. The White House fought with CBS news executives over Dan Rather's exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein, which aired last night. According to reports in The New York Times and USA Today, the White House wanted time in the 60 Minutes II broadcast to respond to Hussein's "propaganda." CBS invited an appearance by President Bush, Vice President Cheney or Secretary of State Colin Powell, but the Administration wanted to send press secretary Ari Fleisher or his assistant, Dan Barlett. CBS declined. Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism told USA Today the demand was an example of "the White House's almost obsessive control of message." — Posted at 3:55 pm

ARNETT ON IRAQ COVERAGE. In a commentary in Wall Street Journal Online, Veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett says he probably has little useful advice for the international reporters currently reporting from Baghdad. Arnett says there are 260 international reporters in Baghdad holding 10-day visas that can be extended. That is five times that of the press corps in Baghdad just prior to the Gulf War. Fifty or so leave each week to be replaced by a similar number coming in. The chief of the Foreign Ministry's International Press Department, Odei al Taie, is fond of telling journalist visitors who complain about the patience-straining bureaucracy that "you need us more than we need you," a comment buttressed by a visa waiting list of 700 applicants. — Posted at 11:40 am

Feb. 26, 2003

FBI AND FISA PROBLEMS. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) released a report describing systemic problems revealed by the Senate Judiciary Committee's Congressional oversight on the FBI and Justice Department's failure to implement FISA. The same three senators also introduced a bill to enhance congressional oversight and public reporting of the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts. (View AP story via CNN) — Posted at 5:31 pm

Feb. 25, 2003

FERC IGNORES CONCERNS. The Federal Energy Regulatory Committee has released new rules for the release of critical energy infrastructure information. The new rules implement the proposed rule and apparently ignore comments made by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and other groups pointing out negative implications for the public's right to know. — Posted at 2:44 pm

EMBEDDING RESTRICTIONS ANALYZED. Veteran war correspondent Sydney Schanberg reviewed Pentagon rules for "embedded" reporters for Editor and Publisher. His reaction? He's impressed by the Pentagon's promise of media access and long list of what will be "releasable." It appears to be a "big leap forward" from the military's shutting off (or jerking around) reporters in the country's most recent armed conflicts. But he noted a handful of potential problems. E&P also reports that new ground rules for war coverage in a potential conflict in Iraq could inhibit reporting if journalists must remove "sensitive" information from their reports. E&P reports that "A section in the ground-rules document labeled #3R states, 'There is no general review process for media products.' However, it adds, "See para 6A for further detail concerning security at the source." In a copy of the ground rules obtained by E&P, section 6 concerns 'Security.' " — Posted at 2:03 pm

Feb. 24, 2003

SPOOKING READERS. Washington Post Ombudsman Michael Getler reports that a Feb. 13 story by reporter Thomas Ricks drew complaints from many readers who said they were "aghast," "appalled" and "incensed," that the Post would publish a story about U.S. special forces searching for weapons sites in Iraq. The readers said that it was irresponsible to print this and that it could endanger U.S. forces. Getler says the paper checked the information with senior officials at the Pentagon and elsewhere and, on their request, dropped some geographic information from the story. But, he acknowledges, readers logically wonder "how and why a story like this gets leaked or published. Is it true and meant to spook Saddam Hussein? Is it misinformation meant to spook him? Is it intended to subtly propagate in public an internal assessment that the new ground war strategy "promises to substantially lessen the impact on the Iraqi population," as the story says? Or has it simply been ferreted out and reported as part of informing the public?" — Posted by Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director, 3:05 pm

Feb. 21, 2003

NO FUNDS FOR GUN DISCLOSURES. The Associated Press reported today that President Bush signed the government spending bill today. It contained the last minute amendment to prohibit use of funds to disclose information on gun dealers who sell to criminals. The Supreme Court is slated to hear an appeal March 4 of an appeals court decision that orders the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to give that information to the city of Chicago under the Freedom of Information Act. — Posted by Rebecca Daugherty, FOI Service Center Director, 6:20 pm

DOWN ON DISCLOSURE. Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wrote in USA Today that there is "plenty" wrong with publicizing cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. Setting off public alarms about the threats, including those that do no damage, could lead to "hundreds of thousands of class action suits," strangling the Internet, he said, without providing any better security. The negative publicity, he said, could drive customers away from good corporate citizens, threatening their ability to survive. Furthermore, full public disclosure "advertises vulnerabilities to potential cyberattackers, helping them learn what works and what doesn't," he said. The Chamber lobbied for the confidentiality provisions in the new Homeland Security Act that prohibit disclosure of "critical infrastructure information" that businesses share with that department. — Posted at 6:15 pm

BOOKSELLERS IN A BIND. The Associated Press reports that booksellers have begun to react to expanded powers of the government to seize reader records in bookstores and libraries by purging purchase records. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 allows the government to get a court order for the records in its terrorism investigations. Booksellers and librarians are then required by law to keep the subpoenas secret — Posted at 6:09 pm

OVERSTATED SUCCESS. The Philly Inquirer follows up on a GAO study that the newspaper prompted after a December 2001 article said that federal prosecutors initially classified 174 convictions this way in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 - but had been wrong most of the time. The GAO found that Federal prosecutors overstated their success in convicting terrorists last year, with at least three of four cases wrongly classified as "international terrorism," the General Accounting Office has found. Among the examples cited as "international terrorism convictions" were immigrant airport employees working with false documents. — Posted at 4:05 pm

TARGET PRACTICE. K.P. Nayar of The Telegraph in Calcutta, India, argues that America's mass media, by and large, has abdicated the responsibility to report the truth and gone along willingly with the administration's plans for war. As a result, there is confusion in the minds of Americans what the conflict with Iraq is all about. — Posted at 2:26 pm

Feb. 20, 2003

TERRORISM CONVICTION TALLY. The General Accounting Office reported Wednesday that Justice Department terrorism statistics may be inflated because of insufficient oversight at the agency. The GAO reports: "As for the accuracy and reliability of EOUSA's terrorism-related statistics included in its annual performance reports, we found that DOJ does not have sufficient management oversight and internal controls in place, as required by federal internal control standards, to ensure the accuracy and reliability of its terrorism-related conviction statistics. At least 132 of the 288 USAO cases (about 46 percent) were misclassified as resulting in terrorism-related convictions in fiscal year 2002." — Posted at 7:23 pm

RIDGE AND PUBLIC DISCLOSURE. In remarks promoting the Administration's new "ready campaign," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge acknowledged yesterday that he has struggled with the question of how much information about possible pending attacks should be disclosed to the public. As The New York Times reports, Ridge is caught between two veins of criticism, one advocating for more disclosure of information about threats, and another arguing that specific information about potential terrorism creates unnecessary panic. — Posted at 7:18 pm

Feb. 19, 2003

MOUSSAOUI HEARINGS. Recent hearings in the Zacarias Moussaoui case in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., have been held in secret. Jerry Markon of The Washington Post reports that next month a federal appeals court will take up a government appeal of a secret ruling that granted Moussaoui's attorneys access to a key al Qaeda detainee. In doing so, the court will weigh Moussaoui's right to interview witnesses who might help his defense against the government's right to make national security decisions. If the court rules in favor of Moussaoui, the government may yank his and future cases into a military tribunal. A big question remains as to how much of the case will be conducted in public if it goes to a tribunal. — Posted by Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director, 5:55 pm

NEW JERSEY CHEMICALS. In the Village Voice, columnist James Ridgeway discusses how passage of the Homeland Security Act has made it harder for communities to protect themselves from deadly accidents by preventing citizens from investigating the chemical industry's operations under the Freedom of Information Act and government whistleblowers from reporting the dangers. Ridgeway poses, for instance, that if terrorists blew up one of the nearby chemical plants in New Jersey, winds would "waft the toxins across the Hudson over a helpless Manhattan," but that citizens now have no way of learning about those dangers. — Posted at 2:35 pm

Feb. 18, 2003

FISA DECISION REVIEW SOUGHT. According to an ACLU press release: "In an unprecedented legal move, a coalition of civil liberties and Arab-American groups today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an extraordinary decision by a secret appeals court that broadly expanded the government's powers to spy on U.S. citizens." The Petition for Certiorari comes in the case involving the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. — Posted at 7:22 pm

MAKING PUBLIC INFORMATION SECRET IN MISSOURI. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial denounced legislation coming before a Missouri senate committee that would make information secret if it could endanger public safety. The legislation, Senate Bill 411, provides that a public governmental body is authorized to close a meeting or record to the extent they relate to operational plans or other documents held by an agency responsible for public health or safety that are used in responding to or preventing certain critical incidents or events that appear to be terrorist, criminal or hostile in nature and which have the potential to endanger an individual's or the public's safety. The Post-Dispatch wrote: "It should be called the Cover Your Backside Act of 2003. It would permit local law enforcement, public health and public safety agencies to close any document related to how the agency would respond to events that are 'terrorist, criminal, or hostile in nature.'" — Posted at 7:10 pm

SCIENTISTS AND CENSORSHIP. The New York Times reported Sunday that more than 20 leading scientific journals have agreed to censor articles that they believe may affect national security. The new policy, adopted at a scientific meeting in Denver last week, is likely to affect publication of research relating to bioterrorism. Critics say the self-censorship policy promotes ignorance and could have a chilling effect on researchers. — Posted at 7:06 pm

MORE ON EMBEDDING JOURNALISTS. Following earlier stories on plans to embed journalists with troops in Iraq, The New York Times reports that the embedding will be done on "a scale never before seen in the American military," but confirms that the journalists will be subject to strict prohibitions concerning what and when they may publish. — Posted at 5:00 pm

Feb. 14, 2003

GUN DATABASE CLOSURE. A spending bill includes a provision that would keep secret, and not releasable under the federal Freedom of Information Act, the names of gun shops and gun owners whose weapons are used in crimes, the Associated Press reported today. (See News Media Update item.) The amendment by Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wash) is intended to set aside a ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago (7th Cir.) which is now on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaccao and Firearms. — Posted at 7:04 pm

EMBEDDING RESTRICTIONS. Editor & Publisher reports that journalists who accompany U.S. military to combat zones in Iraq will have to agree to strict prohibitions on what they can publish about the war. A military document reveals that government officials have created categories of "releasable" and "not releasable" information and says reporters will have to promise, before they embed, to obey the rules. "Not releasable" information, according to the document, includes photography showing levels of security, rules of engagement, photographs of detainees' faces, and information on missing aircraft or vessels while search and rescue operations are underway. — Posted at 6:07 pm

PATRIOT II CRITIQUE. OMB Watch, a Washington, D.C., public interest group, posted a short analysis of how the draft Domestic Security Enhancement Act, leaked from the Department of Justice last week, could affect the public's right-to-know. The draft bill (dubbed Patriot Act II) would "greatly constrain" the free flow of information and allow people in official positions to be imprisoned for revealing the existence of an anti-terrorism investigation, the analysis points out. Other troubling provisions: It specifically would prohibit disclosure of information about the investigation of detainees in terrorism investigations. (A federal district court in Washington, D.C., ruled in January that the public is entitled to much of that information.) It would drastically reduce public access to information on "worst-case scenario" reports by facilities which use large amounts of hazardous chemicals and could cause catastrophic harm to nearby communities. It expands civil immunity for corporations and employees that voluntarily provide information to federal law enforcement agencies to assist in the investigation and prevention of terrorist activities and it prohibits the government from releasing that information. (A similar highly controversial provision in the Homeland Security Act protects information on vulnerabilities in the "critical infrastructure" but only at the Homeland Security Department.) — Posted at 5:40 pm

DEATH CERTIFICATE INFO REMAINS SEALED A New York judge indefinitely delayed judgment yesterday on an Associated Press request to unseal the material used to decide whether to issue death certificates for people missing after the World Trade Center attack. Fifty of the 2,400 requests were denied because of suspected fraud. — Posted at 3:16 pm

Feb. 13, 2003

TRACKING CHANGES IN PROSECUTIONS. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse reported today that in the year after the September 11 attacks there were "very big changes in the government's handling of criminal matters it classified as involving terrorism or internal security." The group found a "ten-fold increase in such prosecutions during the fiscal year ending September 30, 2002." The report is available on the group's website. — Posted at 6:56 pm

WARNING ON PRIVATE INFORMATION. A bulletin issued Wednesday by the FBI and the National Infrastructure Protection Center warns private companies to check their Internet sites and consider removing information that might be useful to terrorists interested in planning an attack, according to an AP report. — Posted at 6:03 pm

FAST TRACK IN N.Y. A New York Times editorial criticized Gov. George Pataki's fast track early this week for a legislative terrorism package he sent the legislature which passed it affter only 24 hours. Pataki used his emergency powers to speed passage of the measure with no public hearing until "later". Writers said it was difficult to figure out what was new in the bills and said the lawmakers "trampled the legislative process in their stampede to get before the cameras." — Posted at 4:49 pm

Feb. 12, 2003

NEW STATE TERRORISM BILL. A new anti-terrorism bill was passed by the New York legislature yesterday, The New York Times reports. The law toughens penalties for terrorism and terrorist activities, lowers the threshold for the kind of evidence that can be admissible in court, and hands greater powers to the police. Critics charge that this new law tramples civil liberties and ignores fundamental constitutional protections. — Posted at 8:02 pm

SECRECY IN TURKEY. In an editorial yesterday, The Christian Science Monitor criticized the Turkish parliament for taking a secret vote to allow U.S. engineers into the country to upgrade bases and ports. Parliament made the right decision, it said, but by closing parliamentary debate and taking the vote in secret -- not to be opened for 10 years -- represents a step backward for a country "eager to show its democratic credentials." — Posted at 7:57 pm

VIDEOTAPE DOUBLE STANDARD? Just after September 11, Condoleezza Rice urged networks not to air tapes made by Osama bin Laden, claiming that they might contain coded messages to terrorists. But yesterday's bin Laden tape, aired first by al-Jazeera after a "sneak preview" by Colin Powell, apparently didn't raise the same concerns at the White House, according to The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz. Fox News aired the full bin Laden tape, Kurtz reports, and Ari Fleischer said he received no complaints from security officials. Could it be because Powell was busy arguing to Congress that the statements prove a link between al Qaeda and Iraq? — Posted at 6:52 pm

NYPD FREED TO SPY ON ACTIVISTS. Newsday reported on a ruling Tuesday by senior federal district JudgeCharles Haight that the Handschu guidelines, which have limited surveillance of political activity by the New York City police department since 1985, now "limit the effective investigation of terrorism" and that their application can be modified. The guidelines required that, except for one unit of the NYPD -- the Public Security Section -- police investigations had to be based on some suspicion of unlawful activity. The Handschu guidelines were effectively placed on the department by decades-old rulings by Haight himelf. Those earlier rulings were based both on a consent decree, initially reached in a settlement between law enforcement authority and political activitsts Barbara Handschu, Abbie Hoffman and others, and on court challenges to that settlement. The guidelines prohibited police surveillance based on the exercise of First Amendment activity and it is not clear what effect the ruling will have on writers and journalists who, in the past, have been the subject of surveillance because of what they wrote. Deputy Police Commissioner David Cohen, argued persuasively that "the entire resources" of the NYPD must be available to investigate political activity and intelligence related issues. — Posted by Rebecca Daugherty, FOI Service Center Director, 5:41 pm

Feb. 11, 2003

INTELLIGENCE FROM BOOKS. CIA director George Tenet and FBI director Robert Mueller went to the Hill today to tell the Senate Intelligence Committee about developments in the fight against terrorism. Sen. Trent Lott revealed what's he's learned from Bob Woodward: Senator Lott: One final question ... You know, members of Congress are supposed to get briefings, and we do on occasion. Some of them are classified and very sensitive. But I've found recently that I find out more about what's happening with the intelligence community in a book than I'd ever gotten in a briefing about what happened in Afghanistan -- "Bush at War." Now, I think there's a lot of material in that book that probably shouldn't have been there. Do we have some process of trying to control leaks like that or deal with information like that that is disclosed and it shouldn't be? I guess I'm looking at you, Mr. Tenet. Director Tenet: It's an interesting book, sir. Senator Lott: Interesting book. Yeah, very interesting information in there, too. Director Tenet: And I think that obviously any time operational detail and other issues are given away, it causes us concern. It's one of the issues we work at all the time. So it's a complicated and difficult problem to deal with. Senator Lott: Well, I think you need to have an ongoing effort to try to stop that kind of information from getting into that type of medium. The focus of the hearing was on reports that the al Qaeda terrorist network is planning attacks in the United States and the Arabian Peninsula, but the attention quickly turned to Iraq. Tenet sought to bolster the allegations about an Iraq-al Qaeda connection by linking them through a third party: he pointed out that members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which he called "indistinguishable" from al Qaeda, have been "operating freely" in Baghdad. Among the other surprising news items dropped at the hearing, according to a CNN report: Mueller said the FBI has charged 197 suspected terrorists with crimes and have so far won 99 convictions; and Tenet said the number of al Qaeda members detained by the United States increased during the past year from 1,000 to 3,000. — Posted at 7:10 pm

CONTENT-NEUTRAL RULES FOR PROTESTS. A federal judge in Manhattan ruled yesterday that protesters cannot parade past the U.N. building, finding that security interests and the need to keep the U.N. functioning "without interruption" justified tight restrictions. Judge Barbara Jones held that the restrictions were "content neutral" and thus not unconstitutional, even though non-protest parades are allowed in the same area. Coverage: Law.com; AP via Freedom Forum. — Posted at 4:22 pm

Feb. 10, 2003

SECRETS AT DISEASE TESTING CENTER. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and New York state Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) told a town meeting on Long Island that changes at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center could mean research on more dangerous diseases, rather than just animal diseases, and a cutoff of public information about the work there, according to a Newsday report. The center is being moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Homeland Security. Addressing the possibility of a change to more dangerous experiments, Clinton told the crowd that "that is not a decision that should be made in secret." According to the report, she said she is worried about being "stonewalled" by the department under the guise of national security. — Posted at 6:38 pm

ABA ON COMBATANTS The Associated Press reports today that the American Bar Association recommended that U.S. citizens and other individuals who are arrested as "enemy combatants" should have access to an attorney. According to the AP, the ABA recommended that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court should "give annual statistics of its work and clarify when it can allow surveillance." [ABA report in PDF format] — Posted at 5:12 pm

WEEKEND WRAPUP. The New York Times and The Washington Post covered "Patriot Act II" over the weekend, while AP reported on a site identified by Colin Powell in his U.N. speech as a "Terrorist Poison and Explosive Factory," and "found a half-built cinderblock compound filled with heavily armed Kurdish men, video equipment and children -- but no obvious sign of chemical weapons manufacturing." — Posted at 4:18 pm

JUSTICE INQUIRY TO WRAP UP. Congressional Quarterly reports today that a special Justice Department team is completing a months-long inquiry into why hundreds of Middle Eastern men who were detained after 9/11 on minor immigration violations were held for long periods without facing criminal charges. "So far, the Special Operations Branch of Fine's office has interviewed 32 detainees, more than 110 federal officials and reviewed more than 200 files," according to Congressional Quarterly's report. [Access to report requires paid subscription] — Posted at 2:01 pm

POST ASKS FOR FIX. In an editorial, The Washington Post calls upon Congress to fix the loophole in the new Homeland Security law that gives private companies broad powers to prevent release of information they provide that concerns vulnerabilities in the infrastructure. — Posted at 12:58 pm

Feb. 7, 2003

PATRIOT II. The Center for Public Integrity reports that it has obtained a draft copy of the "Domestice Security Enhancement Act of 2003," a sort of "PATRIOT Act II" that is being circulated by the Justice Department. According to a law professor who reviewed the draft for the Center, the law "would radically expand law enforcement and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce or eliminate judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA database based on unchecked executive 'suspicion,' create new death penalties, and even seek to take American citizenship away from persons who belong to or support disfavored political groups." — Posted at 6:05 pm

SECRET DIRECTIVES. Washington Post staff writer Bradley Graham reports that President Bush signed another secret directive ordering guidance on determining how and when to attack enemy computer networks. — Posted at 3:00 pm

POWELL CONT'D. The Washington Post's Walter Pincus looks into further allegations of inconsistencies or disinformation in Powell's U.N. speech today. — Posted at 2:59 pm

MOUSSAOUI TO MOVE? The New York Times reports today that Zacarias Moussaoui's case will likely be transferred to a military tribunal if the decision by Judge Leonie Brinkema to give him access to an alleged al-Queda operative held by the government is not overturned on appeal. — Posted at 2:52 pm

Feb. 6, 2003

FDNY HAS TO OPEN WTC RECORDS The New York Daily News reports that Mayor Bloomberg will appeal a court decision requiring the city to turn over documents, transcripts interview transcripts and 911 concerning the Fire Department's response to the World Trade Center attacks, after The New York Times sued for access to the records. — Posted at 5:34 pm

ROUNDUP ON POWELL SPEECH. Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council was discussed well before it was given, not just for whether it would sway opinion against Iraq, but over questions like whether the U.S. would declassify important information to make its case, or whether officials might engage in a disinformation campaign. Responding to "previews" of the key points of the speech, weapons inspector Hans Blix had said evidence for many of the claims, including alleged mobile labs, simply didn't exist. The morning-after analysis reveals plenty of fodder for more argument. The Washington Post weighed in with a look at what the intelligence releases mean, asserting that the U.S. government has never disclosed this much sensitive, recent intelligence at one time, and the technical disclosures "stunned" former officials and lawmakers. But the big news, according to the Post, was that the way it was presented revealed that the U.S. must be getting intelligence from Iraqis in the country. British officials are still arguing over whether their government is misleading the public by overplaying evidence of the link between Iraq and al Qaeda, and England's Channel 4 has alleged that the Prime Minister's analysis of Iraqi intelligence that was "heralded" by Powell was actually based on a California grad student's paper. Elsewhere, some have alleged that officials still haven't clearly defined what a "weapon of mass destruction" even is. — Posted at 3:55 pm

SCIENTISTS AND SECURITY. Washington Post reporter Guy Gugliota examines the national security dilemmas faced by scientists while the Bush administration designs restrictions on dissemination of "homeland security information that is sensitive but unclassified." — Posted at 3:28 pm

"ENEMY COMBATANTS" MAY GET BAR SUPPORT. Reuters (via CNN.com) looks into the upcoming American Bar Association vote on a recommendation against allowing the government to hold "enemy combatants" indefinitely without access to an attorney, which has been part of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts. — Posted at 3:03 pm

FISA TRANSCRIPT. Following up on the discussion of the FISA Review Court's deliberations, Secrecy News has posted the complete transcript of the hearing. — Posted at 2:25 pm

Feb. 5, 2003

SWEDEN DEMANDS RELEASE OF GUANTANAMO DETAINEE An AP item from yesterday that we can't find on the web: STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Tired of waiting for U.S. action, Sweden has demanded that one of its citizens being held at a military prison in Cuba be tried or released. Kristina Oestergren, a spokeswoman for Sweden's Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the demands were made to William Taft III, the head of the U.S. State Department's legal office Monday. Sweden has sharply criticized the United States for labeling Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali, 23, an enemy combatant instead of a prisoner of war. Sweden has repeatedly asked the United States to present evidence against Ghezali or release him. — Posted at 6:03 pm

PARADE SUIT. Organizations that had planned an anti-war rally for Feb. 15 sued the city of New York today for denying permission for a march past the United Nations. The Associated Press reports that the city wants the organizations to eliminate the parade portion of the rally and use a plaza across the street from the UN instead. — Posted at 5:42 pm

SECRET-EVIDENCE DETAINEE FREED. The Washington Post today reports that New Jersey prosecutors are still refusing to explain why they considered an Arab American man dangerous and held him in jail for months on secret evidence. Mohamed Atriss, 46, who spent six months in the Passaic County Jail, pleaded guilty to one felony count of selling false identification documents, was freed on Tuesday. — Posted at 5:40 pm

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S LAWYER QUESTIONED ON ROLE IN "CULTURE OF SECRECY." Judicial Nominee Jay Bybee, whose tenure at the Department of Justice included opinions on trying terrorist suspects in military tribunals must be questioned about his role in "perpetuating the culture of secrecy that has enveloped the Justice Department over the last two years," according to a statement from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Bybee, up for a spot on the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Cir.), is the assistant attorney general for the department's Office of Legal Counsel and during his tenure the publication of the office's opinions has been "only three," Leahy said. "This non-disclosure fits a consistent pattern of an expansive view of executive privilege that has marked his time in government, and I look forward to hearing from him on that issue," Leahy said. — Posted at 2:34 pm

Feb. 4, 2003

WAITING FOR THE BOMBS TO FALL. Editor & Publisher reports on the American journalists who are waiting for bombs to fall in Baghdad. While no American news organization is forcing reporters to stay in Baghdad during air strikes or an invasion, they apparently have not found it difficult to find reporters willing to stay once war breaks out. It remains to be seen what types of reports will be allowed out of the country because sattelite phone calls may only be made from the Ministry of Information and most hotel phone lines are bugged. — Posted by Lucy Dalglish, Executive Director, 3:41 pm

FISA JUDGE TALKS. U.S. Court of Appeals Senior Judge Edward Leavy of the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco was one of the three judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Review Court that in November of last year broke down the wall between foreign intelligence and criminal case investigations within the FBI, meaning evidence from otherwise illegal searches and wiretaps of foreign intelligence agents can possibly be used against U.S. citizens. Leavy gave the inside scoop on the secretive court's proceedings inside the special steel-walled courtroom to a reporter for The Recorder, a San Francisco area legal newspaper. (Linked article above posted by the California First Amendment Coalition.) — Posted at 2:01 pm

Feb. 3, 2003

JUDGE ORDERS ACCESS TO DEFENSE WITNESS. The Washington Post reported Saturday that U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema ordered that attorneys for accused terrorist Zacarais Moussaoui have access to Ramzi Binalshibh, a co-ordinator of the September 11 attacks who, the government alleges, wired Moussaoui $14,000. The newspaper reports that the Justice Department will be appealing the order. — Posted at 3:56 pm

U.S. SEEKS DISMISSAL OF SUIT OVER STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE. The New York Times reported that the government asked the federal district court in Los Angeles to dismiss a suit brought by an antimissile technology critic because of the state secrets privilege. Dr. Nira Schwartz, once a senior engineer with the government contractor she is suing, said that the government is "afraid that if it goes to trial, the truth will come out--that the technology doesn't work." She has sued under the False Claims Act claiming that the heart of the system is faulty but that industry and government have conspired to cover up. No secrets are involved, she said, only physics. — Posted at 2:36 pm