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.

Jan. 30, 2004

NO OPEN GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ. According to a Washington Post editorial, most records of the former-Iraqi government were seized during the invasion and are currently available only to the U.S. group searching for weapons of mass destruction. About 80 percent of the records are available to no Iraqi people, and disputes have arisen as to who should control the remaining records. "This is a mistake. As long as the documents are solely under U.S. control, they will serve as a focus for rumors and conspiracy theories," the Post said. — Posted at 3:17 pm

MCCAIN, LIEBERMAN SEEK EXTENSION FOR 911 COMMISSION. Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), key authors of the bill that brought about the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, said yesterday they will introduce next week a bill calling for an extension of the commission's work, extending its life from July to next January. The senators said they want to ensure that the commission's work is not affected by partisan politics as the next presidential election approaches. According to The New York Times, the commission itself has asked for a two-month extension until July. Commissioners have complained that some agencies have not been cooperative in making records available. — Posted at 10:11 am

Jan. 29, 2004

SECRECY ISN\'T SECURITY. An editorial in The Wichita Eagle criticizes two bills in the Kansas legislature that would create open-meetings and open-records exemptions for "security measures." The exemptions' broad references to "criminal acts" could be used to shield the actions of police, prosecutors and judges from public view. All exemptions to Kansas' open-records law are set to expire in 2005, and are being re-evaluated by the legislature. According to the editorial, "lawmakers' goal this session should be reducing, rather than increasing, the ways that information can be kept from Kansans." — Posted at 4:27 pm

INQUIRY CLEARS BLAIR; CRITICIZES BBC. A British judicial inquiry Wednesday exonerated Prime Minister Tony Blair of allegations that he had exaggerated claims of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the director of the probe, Lord Brian Hutton, chastised the British Broadcasting Corp. for what he said were "unfounded" remarks. The BBC reported in May that Blair had "sexed up" an intelligence dossier on Iraqi weapons capabilities. Washington Post foreign service reporter Glenn Frankel reported that BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies immediately resigned when Hutton's report came out. The BBC apologized for inaccuracies in its initial report. However, the BBC insisted that the bulk of its reporting had been accurate and had served the public interest. British weapons expert David Kelly committed suicide after he was identified as the source of the story and Blair appointed Hutton, a retired senior judge, to conduct an inquiry into the allegations. — Posted at 3:22 pm

MORE DEVELOPMENTS AT GUANTANAMO. The Defense Department announced today that it has transferred three juveniles, ranging from 13 to 15 years old, from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to their home country of Afghanistan, where they will "re-integrate into civil society," according to the announcement. The names of the youths have not been released. The announcement claims age was not "a determining factor" in the juveniles' detention or release, and asserts that the three are being freed because they "no longer posed a threat to our nation." But a senior Pentagon official told Reuters that the three teenagers were "very, very dangerous people." The government says no other juveniles are being held at Gitmo. In related news, The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday granted the Bush administration's request to forbid the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, from informing a Guantanamo detainee of the lower court's favorable ruling in his case last month. The Supreme Court has put that ruling on hold pending its review. — Posted at 3:03 pm

Jan. 28, 2004

BRITISH WMD INQUIRY REPORT RELEASED; BBC CHAIRMAN RESIGNS. Reuters reports that the chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation resigned Wednesday and the broadcaster apologized for some of its reporting on the buildup to the war in Iraq after it was lambasted in an inquiry by a senior judge. The inquiry by Lord Hutton criticized journalist Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's management and its supervisory board of governors, for a radio report saying the government "sexed up" intelligence in a dossier on Iraqi weapons. Click here for the BBC's summary of the report's findings. — Posted at 5:06 pm

SADDAM SECRETLY DESTROYED BIOLOGICAL, CHEMICAL WEAPONS. The Washington Post reported today that former chief weapons inspector David Kay in an interview yesterday said that Saddam Hussein's regime quietly destroyed chemical and biological weapon stockpiles in the mid-1990's but did not reveal the destruction to U.N. weapons inspectors, even when threatened with war, in order to maintain an "aura of power." Kay said that should not delay investigation into why weapons allegations were wrong. — Posted at 4:22 pm

PATRIOT ACT PARTIALLY STRUCK DOWN; DOJ REPORT RELEASED. For the first time, a federal judge ruled last week that a provision of the USA Patriot Act is unconstitutional. In a 36-page decision, U.S District Judge Aubrey B. Collins, of Los Angeles, ruled that a measure forbidding "expert advice or assistance" to terrorist groups is unconstitutionally vague, in violation of the First Amendment. Judge Collins declined to find the provision facially overbroad, however, and denied the plaintiffs' request for a nationwide injunction. In another Patriot Act development, the Inspector General of the Justice Department Tuesdayreleased a report finding no instances of abuse of authority under the Act by DOJ employees, while referring many complaints to other agencies. Notably, the report acknowledges that only 162 out of 1,266 complaints were investigated at all. The Associated Press covers further details of the report. — Posted at 10:03 am

Jan. 27, 2004

SOLDIER: THE STORY AT DOVER MUST BE TOLD. American soldier Jonathan Evans writes a thoughtful essay about being one of the soliders meeting caskets on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base in this week's U.S. News & World Report. The public is not allowed to witness the military tradition of "receiving the remains," Evans says. "Instead, there are soldiers, roused at dark hours to stand in the confines of what seems like a secret as the dead are brought home." Evans concludes, "There are those who would politicize this scene, making it the device of an argument over the freedom of the press. But if this scene were ever to be exploited by the lights and cameras of our 'infotainment' industry, it would be offensive. Still, the story must be told. A democracy's lifeblood, after all, is an informed citizenry, and this image is nowhere in the public mind. The men and women arriving in flag-draped caskets do not deserve the disrespect of arriving in the dark confines of secrecy." — Posted at 5:02 pm

CNN EMPLOYEES KILLED; REUTERS WRITES ANOTHER LETTER. Two CNN employees were killed, and a third was lightly wounded Tuesday afternoon when the cars they were traveling in came under fire. CNN.com reported that the employees were returning to Baghdad in a two-car convoy from an assignment in the southern city of Hillah, when they were ambushed on the outskirts of Baghdad. Translator and producer Duraid Isa Mohammed, 27, and driver Yasser Khatab, 25, died from multiple gunshot wounds. Cameraman Scott McWhinnie, traveling in another vehicle, was grazed in the head by a bullet. Also Tuesday, Reuters issued a statement saying it has written to the U.S. Department of Defense to express its growing frustration at the U.S. military's failure to address its concerns about the safety of journalists in Iraq, and to answer its requests for more information regarding incidents which have cost or endangered their lives. Last year, two Reuters cameramen working in Iraq, Taras Protsyuk and Mazen Dana, were killed by U.S. troops. On 2 January this year, two Reuters journalists working in Iraq and their driver were arrested and detained for 72 hours by U.S. troops after they apparently were mistaken for enemy combatants. Following their release, Reuters lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. military authorities over, among other things, their mistreatment in detention. Reuters asked the U.S. military to retract or correct its statement that enemy personnel posing as journalists fired on U.S. forces, or if there were any basis for this charge, to provide evidence to support it. — Posted at 4:29 pm

Jan. 26, 2004

FOREIGN JOURNALISTS DETAINED AT U.S. AIRPORTS. Confused by tougher enforcement procedures, an increasing number of foreign journalists traveling from Europe and Australia have been detained and refused entry at U.S. airports in recent months, provoking concern and consternation here and abroad. The Chicago Tribune reports that one likely result could be reciprocal treatment of U.S. journalists traveling abroad. — Posted at 3:07 pm

INFRASTRUCTURE ANTI-DISCLOSURE BILL ADVANCES. The Kentucky House State Government Committee approved a compromise version of a contentious homeland security records bill, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal reports. If passed, the bill will prevent disclosure of records that "have a reasonable likelihood of threatening the public safety by exposing a vulnerability," such as anti-terrorism plans, security assessments and infrastructure records. The rejected version of the bill would not have required infrastructure records to expose a vulnerability to be withheld. A similar bill has stalled in the state Senate Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection over concerns that it is too broad. The senate version also allows public agencies to meet secretly when discussing the records. — Posted at 1:16 pm

CANADIAN MAN SUES U.S. OFFICIALS FOR SENDING HIM TO BE TORTURED IN SYRIA. Canadian citizen Maher Arar has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and a number of other U.S. officials for their roles in secretly shipping him to Syria, where he was held for 10 months. The complaint, filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, alleges that U.S. government officials knowingly sent Arar to Syria for the specific purpose of being interrogated under torture, a practice known as an "extraordinary rendition." Arar says U.S. authorities arrested him without cause, detained him in secret, denied him access to a lawyer, and forced him to sign documents -- including, apparently, a "consent" to be sent to Syria -- without having the opportunity to read them. Further details of Arar's story have been reported in The Washington Post. — Posted at 12:11 pm

Jan. 23, 2004

JAILED WITH THE CHECK OF A BOX. A report in the New Jersey Law Journal reveals that the Department of Homeland Security has been using administrative rules that were written to combat terrorism to secretly confine sex offenders and other non-terrorists -- sometimes at the mere check of a box by a government lawyer. Immigrants detained under the program, called "Operation Predator," typically have little or no access to judicial review prior to their detention, and are instead forced to bring after-the-fact, habeas corpus challenges to their confinement. The program's use raises questions about the legitimacy of the national security justification for the rules. — Posted at 4:56 pm

GRAND JURY PROBES PLAME LEAK. Time magazine reports that a federal grand jury began hearing testimony Wednesday in the investigation of the leak of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. The article states that prosecutors are starting out with third-party witnesses but will soon decide whether to subpoena journalists for their testimony. A lawyer familiar with the case told TIME that this latest development signifies that prosecutors have a good handle on the case. — Posted at 3:57 pm

Jan. 22, 2004

FORMER INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS URGE CONGRESS TO CONDUCT PLAME INQUIRY In a letter to Congressional leaders, ten former intelligence officers sharply criticized the leak of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity and urged Congress to conduct its own inquiry into the leak, The New York Times reports. Expressing concern that the Justice Department investigation of the Plame leak will dead end, the group asks Congress to "send an unambiguous message that intelligence officers . . . must never be turned into political punching bags." On Wednesday, several Democrats introduced legislation that would authorize an independent inquiry by the House. — Posted at 5:53 pm

WAXMAN WANTS CONSISTENCY OF PROBES Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asked Condoleezza Rice to explain "apparent inconsistencies" in the administration's handling of allegations about the release of sensitive information. In a Jan. 14 letter, the congressman asked the assistant to the President for national security affairs to explain why the administration had triggered investigations on some but not other releases of sensitive information. An investigation followed the release of sensitive information with regard to former Treasury secretary Paul O'Neill after his criticisms of the administration were published, he said. Another probed media accounts of "an irate" vice president who told congress of "deep concerns" that news media had described cryptic references to possible attacks on Sept. 10, 2001. Waxman asked what kind of investigation was made after administration sources apparently publicly identified a CIA agent who is also the wife of an ambassador. — Posted at 5:51 pm

MOUNTIES RAID REPORTER\'S HOME TO FIND SOURCE. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided the home and office of a reporter for The Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday during a search for the identity of a source who leaked secret documents concerning a Syrian-born Canadian citizen suspected of terrorist ties, according to accounts in the Citizen and other news services. The president of the Citizen's parent company condemned the action, saying it "smacks of a police-state mentality." — Posted at 5:46 pm

MORE DETAILS ON WARSAME DETENTION. The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune today reports more details in the case of Mohammed Warsame, the Minneapolis man who was secretly detained in December and accused yesterday of providing material support to al Qaida. Most notably, the Star Tribune reports that Warsame told federal agents six weeks ago that he attended an al Qaida training camp in 2000 and 2001 under the alias "Abu Maryam." The account also says Warsame is expected to be transferred back to Minneapolis from New York, where he had appeared before a grand jury, and that he will likely be represented by federal public defender Daniel Scott. There is still no word on how open the proceedings will be. Coverage is also available in The Washington Post and, from the perspective of Warsame's home country, in the Toronto Globe & Mail . — Posted at 2:55 pm

Jan. 21, 2004

U.S. FORCES DENY CIVILIAN DEATH CLAIMS. Reports of civilian deaths continue to be a problem for U.S. forces, as military sources denied claims made by Afghan officials that a U.S. air raid in southern Afghanistan killed 11 villagers, including four children. — Posted at 5:19 pm

MINNEAPOLIS MAN CHARGED WITH SUPPORTING AL QAIDA A federal indictment unsealed today charges that Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, a 30-year old Canadian of Somali descent, conspired to provide material support and resources to al Qaida. Until now, Warsame had been detained secretly and without charges since December, when he was arrested by the FBI for undisclosed reasons. The Justice Department announcement says the charges are "a grim reminder that al Qaida...continues its shadowy efforts to destroy the lives and freedoms of the people of the United States." Further coverage is available from the Associated Press and Reuters. — Posted at 5:17 pm

Jan. 20, 2004

MORE CONCERNS ABOUT GUANTANAMO An editorial in Sunday's Washington Post complains of the continued lack of transparency in the military detention system, and praises a brief filed by five of the military lawyers appointed to defend detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in secretive military tribunal proceedings. In the brief, the military lawyers concede the executive branch's jurisdiction to try "enemy combatants" in military tribunals, but argue that the proceedings cannot constitutionally take place entirely without recourse to civilian courts. An opinion piece by Richard Cohen in today's Post takes a more aggressive view, condeminng the lawlessness and lack of public accountability in the Guantanamo situation. — Posted at 5:15 pm

FEDERAL COURT SECRECY CALLED EXCESSIVE. Reporting from Florida, correspondents from the Associated Press and Knight Ridder wrote this week about excessive levels of secrecy in cases moving through the federal court system. While some secrecy has always been part of the process, defense attorneys, civil libertarians and news media say the federal courts are going too far in closing their work to the public, particularly in terrorism and drug cases. Both stories point to the case of Algerian-born Mohamed Bellahouel, who was arrested after he was linked to at least two of the terror hijackers. He's appealing a deportation order but the case remains under seal, presumably for national security reasons, and has reached the U.S. Supreme Court in a case called M.K.B. v. Warden. — Posted at 1:09 pm

Jan. 16, 2004

COLUMNISTS DECLARE AN IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY. Findlaw columnist John Dean says several cases currently before the U.S. Supreme Court lead him to conclude that the Bush Administration is the closest thing this country has ever seen to an "Imperial Presidency." He cites the super-secret M.K.B. v. Warden and the Center for National Security Studies v. Department of Justice cases as examples supporting his thesis. Meanwhile, New York Times contributor Anthony Lewis concludes "In the American system as it has developed, it falls on the Supreme Court to have the last word. George W. Bush can hardly object to that role for a court that made him president." — Posted at 3:41 pm

Jan. 15, 2004

FEINGOLD SAYS POST WAS WRONG. In a letter to the editor in today's Washington Post, Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold takes The Post to task for its editorial dismissal of "the concerns raised by libraries, booksellers and civil libertarians about Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the business record subpoena provision." — Posted at 5:14 pm

WHAT HOUSE WANTS TO DECIDE WHAT PUBLIC IS TOLD IN EMERGENCIES. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis. The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment. — Posted at 5:11 pm

Jan. 14, 2004

FREEDOM DIMINISHED. The New York Times today editorialized on the Supreme Court's decision not to review the CNSS FOI Act case earlier this week, noting: "The Supreme Court made it easier this week for the government to drape a cloak of secrecy over the imprisonment of people accused of crimes when it rejected an appeal seeking the identity of hundreds of men rounded up after the Sept. 11 attacks. The freedom of all Americans is diminished." — Posted at 6:56 pm

NATIONAL SECURITY CASE REVEALED: $250 FINE OVER IGNORED SCREENER. FAA officials pushed for complete secrecy in a federal appeals court proceeding for national security reasons, but after a judge refused to grant the broad protection and released the documents, the case turned out to be over a $250 fine levied against a woman in 1999 who allegedly ignored a Denver airport screener's request to have her purse searched. The Rocky Mountain News reported that her purse was searched and she was immediately released -- and only fined six months later after complaining to the FAA about her treatment. — Posted at 4:47 pm

Jan. 13, 2004

SUPREME COURT DENIES IMMIGRATION DETAINEE APPEAL. The Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal challenging the secrecy surrounding the arrest and detention of hundreds of people, nearly all Muslim men, in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Without comment, the court let stand a ruling by a federal appeals court in Center for National Security Studies v. Department of Justice. Click here to see Attorney General John Ashcroft's statement about the appeal. Here also are today's stories from the New York Times the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. — Posted at 4:25 pm

REUTERS COMPLAINS TO THE PENTAGON. The international news agency Reuters has made a formal complaint to the Pentagon following the "wrongful" arrest and apparent "brutalisation" of three of its staff this month by US troops in Iraq, according to a report in The Guardian. The complaint followed an incident in the town of Falluja when American soldiers fired at two Iraqi cameramen and a driver from the agency while they were filming the scene of a helicopter crash. The US military initially claimed that the Reuters journalists were "enemy personnel" who had opened fire on US troops and refused to release them for 72 hours. — Posted at 4:22 pm

Jan. 12, 2004

EDITORIAL: CURB THE ZEAL FOR SECRECY. The case of an Algerian-born waiter in Florida who was locked up for more than five months in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks offers a troubling glimpse into the unusual secrecy that shrouds the government's terror-related arrests and detentions, according to an editorial in the Chicago Tribune. The government is trying to keep the case of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel a secret, and keep its reasons for the secrecy secret. The editorial called for the government to curb its "zeal" for secrecy. — Posted at 4:44 pm

SOME NY 9-11 INFO RELEASED. A New York appeals court has ordered more Sept. 11 emergency response information released, the Associated Press reported. The Manhattan court held that the city could not withold statements about emergency workers' personal feelings and reactions concerning the attacks because such statements did not fit within any exemption to the open records law. The court also ordered diclosure of factual information given to the federal government by the city for the Zacharias Moussaoui prosecution. However the court allowed the city to withold emergency workers' opinions and recommendations made after the attacks, as well as tapes of 911 calls. "Disclosure of the highly personal expressions of persons who were facing imminent death, expressing fear and panic, would be harmful to a reasonable person of ordinary sensibilities who is a survivor of someone who made a 911 call before dying," the court wrote. Both The New York Times, which filed the lawsuit, and the city are considering filing appeals. — Posted at 4:40 pm

LIEBERMAN WOULD OPEN UNNECESSARY SECRETS IF ELECTED. Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman on Friday pledged to break the "Bush wall of secrecy" with proposals designed to safeguard personal information and open unnecessary secrets in federal government. Lieberman would direct the Justice and Homeland Security departments to disclose as much information as possible about how they are using the Patriot Act and about those arrested and detained in the war on terrorism. He also said he would reverse Bush's executive order on presidential records, which blocked the release of non-classified records from past presidential administrations. — Posted at 4:31 pm

U.S. MAY REPATRIATE SOME GITMO PRISONERS. The State Department is in discussions with several foreign governments over releasing "a large number" of the approximately 660 prisoners held in secret detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, The New York Times reports. Currently the Gitmo detainees are being held incommunicado and without charges. The Times reports that U.S. authorities are in the process of dividing the prisoners into three categories: those who will be released, those who will be sent back to their home countries for trial or monitoring, and those who will be tried by U.S. authorities in military commissions. — Posted at 4:15 pm

JUSTICES REJECT APPEAL OVER SECRET 9/11 DETAINEES. The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to consider an appeals court ruling that names of the more than 700 detainees held by the federal government can be kept secret in order to protect national security. The Center for National Security Studies, a Washington-based public interest group, was lead plaintiff in the case to reveal who was picked up and held in custody after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Most have apparently been deported and only one, Zacarius Mousssaoui, has ever been prosecuted in connection with the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press was one of the plaintiffs in the case. In a friend-of-the-court brief, 23 news and media groups asked the high court to rehear the appeals court ruling. CNSS director Kate Martin told the AP, "The Justice Department is keeping the names secret to cover up its misconduct." She said the department wants to keep secret its roundup of "innocent Arabs and Muslims instead of suspected terrorists." — Posted at 11:32 am

Jan. 9, 2004

SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR "ENEMY COMBATANT" CASE The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to decide whether a U.S. citizen detained abroad in the war on terrorism has the usual legal and constitutional rights due U.S. citizens, the Associated Press reports. The high court accepted review of the appeal of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a U.S.-born man who was captured during the fighting in Afghanistan. The Court did not address whether it will consolidate the case with that of alleged enemy combatant Jose Padilla, as Solicitor General Theodore Olsen has urged. The administration has not yet filed its petition for review in the Padilla case. — Posted at 5:45 pm

NEWSPAPER: SECRET COURTS HAVE NO ACCOUNTABILITY. The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) is the latest newspaper whose editorial page has come out against secrecy in the federal courts. In describing the Florida case involving Mohammed Bellahouel (M.K.B. v. Warden) now before the U.S. Supreme Court, the editorial said, "The government has assumed the rights of a star chamber, to act secretly and therefore without accountability. . . .The government has gone too far in violating the right of habeas corpus. It cannot be permitted to operate in complete secrecy. That was how Saddam Hussein operated." — Posted at 2:46 pm

Jan. 8, 2004

REPORT CONCLUDES WMD MISREPRESENTATION. A Carnegie report released today on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq includes among its conclusions that U.S. officials misrepresented the threat of Iraqi weapons. One policy recommendation of the report is that a nonpartisan independent commission establish a clear picture of what the intelligence community knew and believed it knew about Iraq's weapon's program. The full report is online. — Posted at 5:22 pm

SECRET FLORIDA DOCKET HIDES CASES FROM PUBLIC. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports this week on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida maintaining a dual, separate docket of public and non-public cases. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has taken legal action in both cases mentioned in the story - one involving Algerian-born waiter Mohammed Bellahouel and the other involving convicted Colombian drug lord Fabio Ochoa Vasquez. — Posted at 1:53 pm

Jan. 7, 2004

PRESS CLUB PRESSES PENTAGON. U.S. Newswire reports that the National Press Club has complained to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that a new Pentagon policy restricting access to information is unnecessary and susceptible to abuse. The policy bars electronic publication of "information not specifically approved for public release; information of questionable value to the general public; and information for which worldwide dissemination poses an unacceptable risk to national security or threatens the safety and privacy of the men and women of the armed forces." The Press Club points out that the Freedom of Information Act and its exemptions already enable the government to withold sensitive information, and there is no need for individual agencies to add their own restrictions. — Posted at 5:19 pm

INFRASTRUCTURE FEARS INSUFFICIENT. "Anxiety concerning public safety should not become a canard for creating an exception," wrote Connecticut Superior Court Judge Howard Owens Jr. in denying the Town of Greenwich's appeal from an order to release ariel photos and digital maps in a municipal database. The Greenwich Time reports that the town argued "release of detailed information on infrastructure, public safty facilities, schools and celebrities' homes would lead to breaches in security and privacy." Owens ruled there was a lack of evidence of the dangers claimed by the town. The information is all publicly available elsewhere, and the convenience of having it in one location "should also benefit the public," Owens wrote. — Posted at 5:17 pm

COLUMNIST SUSPECTS THAT KEY WITNESSES HAVE COME FORWARD, AIDING LEAK INVESTIGATION. Recent developments in the investigation into who leaked the name of an undercover CIA officer suggest that key witnesses have come forward, according to Findlaw columnist John W. Dean. Ashcroft's decision to remove himself from the investigation may mean that mid-level government officials - fearing the prospect of answering questions before a grand jury - came forward to identify high-ranking administration officials who have close ties to Ashcroft. The column also points out that on Dec. 30 when Deputy Attorney General James Comey announced Patrick J. Fitzgerald as the new head of the investigation, he noted that if Fitzgerald: "needs to issue a subpoena involving the media, for example," he will not need to obtain approval from the Justice Department. It is unclear whether this comment means that Fitzgerald does not have to follow the Attorney General guidelines on issuing subpoenas to members of the news media, which require that federal prosecutors exhaust alternative sources of information before turning to reporters and negotiate with the reporter before issuing a subpoena. — Posted at 11:22 am

Jan. 6, 2004

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES SECRET SUPREME COURT BRIEF Continuing the pattern of secrecy that prompted 23 media and public interest groups to file a motion to intervene in the U.S. Supreme Court case M.K.B. v. Warden, the government yesterday filed its brief opposing review entirely under seal. The only public part of the government's filing was a two-sentence motion from Solicitor General Theodore Olsen asserting that the case "pertains to information that is required to be kept under seal." Stories by the Associated Press and CNN describe the extraordinary nature of Olsen's request. The case involves Mohamed K. Bellahouel's challenge to his post-Sept. 11 detention. — Posted at 4:51 pm

SUPERFLUOUS SUPERSECRECY SURROUNDS PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEFINGS "There seems to be a group of intelligence agencies, and they are classifying everything in sight. I have told friends of mine in Congress that one of the things they should look into is overclassification," said Sept. 11 Commisssion head Tom Kean in an interview with The New York Times. In the interview Kean discusses Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facilities (SCIFs), secretly located rooms around the White House and Congress that house classified documents including the President's daily briefings. The SCIFs are wired, cell phones won't work in them, and any notes the 9/11 Commissioners take on the documents in them must remain in the room. Kean says that it is "inconvenient" to have to travel to the SCIFs every time he wants to review a document, or even look at his notes, but that it is not hampering his investigation. — Posted at 3:57 pm

Jan. 5, 2004

POST LAMBASTS CONGRESS, JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. The editorial page in today's Washington Post criticizes both Congress and the Justice Department. In the first editorial, the editorial board conceludes that ever since it passed the USA Patriot Act after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has stood by in an alarming silence while a fabric of new law governing the balance between liberty and security has been woven by the other two branches of government. Likewise, the second editorial concludes, the latest report from the Department of Justice's inspector general on the treatment of immigration detainees rounded up after Sept. 11, 2001, is among the most disturbing to date. Elaborating on a chapter of an earlier report, it documents a pattern of physical and other abuses of inmates at the Bureau of Prisons' Metropolitan Detention Center in New York and apparent obstruction of the inspector-general's efforts to bring these to light. — Posted at 5:12 pm

SUPREME COURT CALENDAR WILL FOCUS ON RIGHTS IN FACE OF TERRORISM. The Washington Post's Supreme Court correspondent, Charles Lane, reports today that key cases on the court's docket for early 2004 will, to some extent, define the human rights of both Americans and non-Americans. The justices will, for the first time, consider key elements of the Bush administration's aggressive assertion of executive authority in the global war against terrorism. The results will help determine not only the court's power vis-a-vis the executive branch, but also the place of the U.S. judiciary, and of the U.S. Constitution, in the international sphere. — Posted at 5:06 pm

REUTERS, NBC IRAQI WORKERS HELD AFTER HELICOPTER CRASH. Reuters reported today that American soldiers released three Iraqis working for Reuters news agency and an Iraqi freelancing for NBC after holding them over the weekend. They were taken Friday close to the scene of a Kiowa helicopter crash that killed the pilot and wounded another serviceman near Falluja, west of Baghdad. A brigadier general told news media that the crash had been caused by Iraqis posing as journalists. However, AP reported Monday that without announcing any error in taking the Reuters and NBC workers, the military announced Monday that it was investigating the incident. — Posted at 4:56 pm

MEDIA GROUPS SEEK TO INTERVENE IN TERROR-RELATED CASE. A coalition of 23 media and public interest groups organized by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has filed a motion to intervene - that is join the case directly as parties - in the U.S. Supreme Court appeal of Mohamed K. Bellahouel, an Algerian-born man who was secretly detained after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The groups seek to obtain a direct role in order to assert the public's right of access to the proceedings, which so far have been conducted in extreme secrecy. For more details, see The Reporters Committee's press release, the motion to intervene in M.K.B. v. Warden, and coverage in The New York Times and the Associated Press. — Posted at 11:34 am

FBI ASKS OFFICIALS TO RELEASE REPORTERS FROM CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENTS. In an effort to uncover who leaked the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, FBI investigators have asked administration officials to waive their rights to have private conversations with reporters, according to an article on Time magazine's Website. The waivers would release reporters from any confidentiality agreements regarding conversations about Plame. The article quotes Reporters Committee executive director Lucy Dalglish saying that prosecutors are pursuing this tactic because "it is likely a precursor to subpoenaing journalists to testify before a grand jury, and then asking a judge to hold them in contempt if they refuse to do so." Columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's identity in July after it was told to him by unidentified senior White House officials. Plame is married to former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who has publicly criticized the Bush administration's policy toward Iraq. — Posted at 11:31 am

Jan. 2, 2004

PENTAGON ANNOUNCES MILITARY TRIBUNAL APPOINTMENTS. The Defense Department on Dec. 30 announced several key appointments relating to the military trials of alleged terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The position of "appointing authority" - the person responsible for approving charges and supervising many aspects of the military commission process - will be filled by John D. Altenburg, Jr., a retired Army major general. Altenburg succeeds Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in that role. The Pentagon also named Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Hemingway as legal advisor to the appointing authority and designated four individuals to serve on the military review panel, the equivalent of a court of appeals (with the exception that the Secretary of Defense has veto power over many of the court's decisions). At a press briefing, a senior defense official said the military continues to foresee no role for civilian courts in the process. — Posted at 3:13 pm

LEAK PROBE MAY NOT EXPOSE ILLEGALITY; NEW TOP INVESTIGATOR KNOWN FOR TENACITY. Whoever leaked information regarding undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame may not be guilty of violating the Intelligence Indentities Protection Act of 1982, according to an article in The Washington Post. If the leakers did not know that Plame was an undercover operative they will not have committed a crime, the Post reports. However, The Post reports in another article that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, appointed this week to lead the leak investigation, has a reputation as a doggedly relentless prosecutor. Fitzgerald's assignment is to discover who leaked Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak last July. Plame's name was revealed after her husband, Jospeh C. Wilson IV, publicly criticized the Bush administration in 2002 for its claims that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from Niger. Many speculate that high-level White House officials are the source of the leak. — Posted at 3:10 pm

PATRIOT ACT CHANGES SIGNED ON A SATURDAY WHEN NO ONE WAS LOOKING. In a Christmas Eve column, San Antonio Current writer David Martin takes the President to task for "stealthily" using the Saturday (Dec.13) when the country was preoccupied with the capture of Iraqi dictator Sadaam Hussein to sign into law broad new law enforcement powers as a part of the second installment of the Patriot Act. Martin quotes a White House spokesperson who explained the curious Saturday signing as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But he notes that the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago when he needed to sign a spending bill to prevent shutting down the federal government the following Monday. "[W]hile most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records," Martin said. The 2001 Patriot Act allows the FBI to probe individuals' records at "financial institutions" by presenting a "national security letter" and it gags the institutions from revealing that happened. The newly signed law redefines "financial institution" to include not only banks but stockbrokers, casinos, airlines and any other institution "whose cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory matters" even if the feds don't suspect any involvement in crime or terrorism. The old Patriot Act provision checked the issuance of the letters by requiring that they be reported to Congress. The new Patriot provisions eliminate that requirement. — Posted at 2:13 pm

ASHCROFT MEMO NOT A NEW FOIA EXEMPTION. Attorney General John Ashcroft's October 2001 memo urging an expansive reading of the Freedom of Information Act's exemptions does not provide new legal authority to deny FOIA requests, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency concedes. Secrecy News quotes a DTRA official as saying "Our reference to the Attorney General's memorandum in this respect was an error." The DTRA is still deciding whether it will release an unclassified report on lessons learned from the 2001 anthrax attacks. — Posted at 10:55 am

PENTAGON TERMINATES NO-BID CONTRACT The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon has terminated the much-criticized Haliburton no-bid contracts to supply fuel to Iraq. Haliburton has recently been accused of overcharging the U.S. for the fuel, paying $2.27 a gallon for gasoline from Kuwait while gasoline from Turkey cost only $1.18 a gallon. The overcharge has been estimated by Pentagon officials to be at least $61 million. The Pentagon denies that the contract termination is related to the allegations. The fuel supply will be handled by the military until a new contract is awarded within the next 60 to 90 days. Haliburton would be eligible to submit a bid for the new contract, but has indicated that it will not. — Posted at 10:11 am