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.

Jun. 30, 2004

CIA AUTHOR\'S ANONIMITY IS NOT SELF-IMPOSED. According to The Boston Phoenix , the CIA author of the book "Imperial Hubris" is being unwillingly compelled to remain anonymous by the CIA to avoid political inconvenience. The Phoenix identified the author, who has given a number of anonymous interviews and is known to be a 22-year veteran with counterterrorism experience. He refuses to identify himself, citing an agreement with the CIA, but says "anonymity isn't something I asked for." It had previously been reported that his anonymity was to protect him from terrorists. The book asserts that Osama bin Laden is not on the run and that the Iraq invasion has not made the U.S. safer. — Posted at 8:20 pm

KEEP EYES PEELED ON CONGRESS The Watcher, newsletter for public interest group OMBWatch, urges those who care about the right to know to keep their eyes peeled on Congress. Among the bills it discusses are a senate provision to add language to a $350 billion transportation bill (H.R. 3550) to preempt state and local sunshine laws in order to mandate secrecy about public safety problems in aviation, rail and other transportation systems, expanding already broad protections for "sensitive security information." Ten senators have introduced S.2476 to make the Patriot Act permanent. The Senate endorsed a ban on media coverage of flag-draped coffins returning to the U.S. — Posted at 8:19 pm

FILMS BLAST MEDIA COVERAGE OF WAR Several recent films about the war in Iraq have taken aim at the U.S. news media, the Boston Globe reports. Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11," journalist Danny Schechter's "WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception," Robert Greenwald's documentary "Uncovered: The War on Iraq," and Jehane Noujaim's "Control Room" have one thing in common according to the article: "a belief that when it came to the war, the U.S. media primarily functioned as cheerleaders." — Posted at 6:18 pm

INTERNET FREEDOM CURBED FOR \'NATIONAL SECURITY\' A global report by Reporters Without Borders concludes that the war against terrorism has compromised Internet free expression. There is stricter monitoring of the Internet in countries under both democratic and authoritarian rule, "Internet Under Surveillance" says. Authors studied Internet freedom in more than 60 countries. In the name of "national security" governments have expanded power to spy on Internet users, to filter information on the Net and to use information from it to sanction political dissidents around the world. — Posted at 5:57 pm

BUILDING DETAILS NOT CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the city of Roanoke, Texas may not withhold all details of a Citibank building under construction as \"critical infrastructure\" under the state\'s Homeland Security Act. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ruled that the act did not protect information about the building\'s height and landscaping plans, but did protect utility, drainage and engineering plans. The building, which will serve as a data-processing center, has been granted tax breaks values at $10 million. The ruling came in response to an open records request by the Star-Telegram. — Posted at 5:36 pm

NO ACCOUNTABILITY, NO TRANSPARENCY A report by humanitarian group Christian Aid criticizes the U.S.-controlled coalition in Iraq's handling of Iraqi oil revenues. "For the entire year that the CPA has been in power in Iraq, it has been impossible to tell with any accuracy what the CPA has been doing with Iraq's money," says head of policy at Christian Aid Helen Collinson in a press release. Although independent audit of the oil expenditures is required by UN Security Counsel resolution, an audit is not expected until mid-July, after the CPA will no longer exist, partly because an auditor was not appointed until April, 2004. — Posted at 4:15 pm

Jun. 29, 2004

JOURNALISTS SCRAMBLE TO COVER TRANSFER OF POWER. The sudden transfer of power from the American-led coalition to the appointed Iraqi government, held two days early with almost no notice and little fanfare, left journalists complaining about access issues as they scrambled to cover the story. The secrecy started as journalists were given 30 minutes notice before what was supposed to be a background briefing by L. Paul Bremer. Upon arrival, they were forced to surrender their cell phones, and were told they would be using one pool camera and that news of what was a transition ceremony would be embargoed for two hours. American journalists were lucky, though: Journalists from the Arabic satellite channel al-Arabiya and from al-Jazeera were not invited to cover the transfer of power at all. Washington Post writer Philip Kennicott wrote that the timing took by surprise al-Arabiya, the Arabic-language channel with the largest viewership in the region, and left it scrambling for visuals. Kennicott said al-Arabiya's assignment editor voiced "disgust and a lot of weary irony," venturing that after Abu Ghraib and after what he considers a sham investigation into the killing of two al-Arabyia journalists, who believes the Americans anyway? In a related vein, NPR's "On the Media" recently looked into Coalition media regulations that will remain in effect in Iraq, giving the new government a great deal of control over the broadcast media. — Posted at 5:48 pm

WATCHDOG SUES FBI The Washington Post reported on a government watchdog group's suit against the FBI and Attorney General John Ashcroft over the re-classification of previously public information. Information about FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, who was fired after complaining about how important translation information was being handled by the bureau, was discussed in unclassified briefings to the Senate Judiciary Committee and in publicly available letters from Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to the bureau. The information was removed from the Senators' websites after it was re-classified by the FBI in May. The suit was brought by the Project on Government Oversight. — Posted at 10:58 am

Jun. 28, 2004

FBI GIVES REPORTER THE SILENT TREATMENT. The FBI tried to deny all access to information to New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau last fall after he wrote a story the bureau didn't like, according to a Washington Post account. An FBI spokeswoman reportedly distributed a memo disputing the story and encouraging "each of you to please avoid providing information to this reporter. He has consistently demonstrated that he lacks the ethics of a respected journalist." — Posted at 7:04 pm

SUPREME COURT ISSUES THREE MAJOR TERRORISM DECISIONS The Supreme Court today handed down opinions in three cases concerning the Bush administration's handling of the war on terrorism. The Associated Press has this early report on the cases, which largely rejected the administration's arguments. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, only one of the nine justices (Thomas) fully accepted the Bush administration's position that the President has authority to order the indefinite detention of a U.S. citizen captured abroad on the basis of the President's assertion that the detainee is an enemy combatant. There was no opinion of the court, but a four-justice plurality said the detainee, Yaser Esam Hamdi, must at least be given a hearing, while two others would have gone farther and declared his detention improper. Interestingly, perhaps the strongest opinion for Hamdi was by Justice Scalia, who, joined by Justice Stevens, argued that, absent suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, Hamdi must either be charged in federal court or released. In Rumsfeld v. Padilla, which involves an American citizen captured in the U.S. and held as an enemy combatant, the Court dismissed the case on procedural grounds by a 5-4 vote. The citizen, Jose Padilla, must refile his case against a different defendant. In Rasul v. Bush, the Court ruled 6-3 that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals captured abroad and held in secret detention in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That holding directly repudiates the Bush administration's position. — Posted at 4:50 pm

COMPANY DENIES ABUSE ALLEGATIONS CACI International, Inc. issued a statement clarifying its contract with the Army to provide interrogators in Iraq. The statement was released to counter "erroneous, inaccurate and false information being widely disseminated and repeated." CACI denies any wrongdoing on its own part or on the part of any of its employees, including Steven A. Stefanowicz who is identified in the report by General Taguba on the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison. CACI has not released the actual contracts or details about Mr. Stefanowicz's activities. — Posted at 1:59 pm

Jun. 25, 2004

WOLFOWITZ REGRETS DIG AT JOURNALISTS Deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz Thursday apologized to journalists covering Baghdad expressing "deep regret" for remarks he made in testimony that journalists are "frankly" afraid to travel and "sit in Baghdad" reporting rumors. He acknowledged that 34 journalists have died covering the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and that "many journalists continue to go out each day -- in the most dangerous circumstances -- to bring us coverage of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan." Wolfowitz blamed journalists in his remarks Tuesday before the House Armed Services Committee, where he said that Americans get only a partial picture on America's mission in Iraq. — Posted at 4:23 pm

Jun. 24, 2004

BUSH INTERVIEWED IN PLAME LEAK INQUIRY President Bush was interviewed today by the special prosecutor investigating the leak of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity, the New York Times reports. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald interviewed Bush in the oval office for 70 minutes in the presence of his private attorney, Jim Sharp. The questioning comes after several members of the Bush White House have been interviewed in recent weeks regarding the leak, including Vice President Cheney and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. The investigation may lead to criminal charges under federal law. — Posted at 4:03 pm

SECRETIVE GUANTANAMO REVIEW PROCESS MAY BEGIN The Defense Department announced yesterday that the Secretary of the Navy, Gordan R. Englund, has been designated as the civilian official to oversee the annual administrative review process for detainees at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. It appears that the review process will be highly secretive: as The New York Times points out, boards of three military officers will be able to consider any information, including "hearsay, rumors and intelligence reports" in recommending to the Secretary whether to release a prisoner, transfer him with conditions, or continue to hold him in secret detention. The prisoners will be represented by military officials, not lawyers, and the process will be closed to the public. — Posted at 3:41 pm

TERRORISM REPORT REVISED. The revised report on global terrorism shows twice as many terrorism deaths in 2003 than it originally reported, The Washington Post reports. The number of deaths is now reported at 625 rather than 307, the second highest number of terrorism deaths since 1998. John O. Brennan, the CIA official responsible for the report, blamed antiquated computers and personnel shortages for the error. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said of Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had used the report to illustrate that the war on terror was having a postive effect, "I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that they're simply incompetent, but even that's distressing." Waxman had called the previous report a manipulation to serve the administration's interests. — Posted at 2:10 pm

Jun. 23, 2004

WASHINGTON POST REPORTER QUESTIONED IN PLAME LEAK PROBE A Washington Post reporter was questioned yesterday by the special prosecutor investigating the leak of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity, the Washington Post reports. Plame's identity was revealed after her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, publicly criticized the Bush administration's claims regarding Iraq's efforts to obtain uranium from Niger. Wilson was sent on a CIA-sponsored trip to Niger to investigate in 2003. Reporter Glenn Kessler agreed to give a deposition that will be provided to the grand jury investigating the leak, stating that he had been urged to discuss conversations with a source, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby, who is Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, signed a waiver of his right to confidential conversations with reporters about the Plame matter several months ago. In a statement, Kessler explains: "I face an unusual situation. Mr. Libby signed a waiver in which he asked me to discuss with the Special Counsel whether the Wilson matter was raised in two conversations that I had with him in 2003. Under these circumstances, at the request of my source, I am giving a deposition regarding these questions." — Posted at 6:20 pm

Jun. 22, 2004

SENATE REJECTS COFFIN COVERAGE MEASURE. The Senate yesterday rejected 54-39 a proposal by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) to reverse Pentagon policy discouraging media coverage of the arrival of war dead at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Lautenberg said the prohibition "prevents the American people from seeing the truth about what's happening." The Senate instead endorsed a resolution introduced by Sen. John Warner (D-Va.) to approve the policy for privacy reasons. — Posted at 6:43 pm

NEW YORK LAWYER BRACES FOR FIGHT OVER ALLEGED TERRORISM COMMUNICATIONS. The trial of Lynne Stewart, the New York criminal defense attorney who faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of providing "material support" to terrorists, begins this week. The charges stem from the alleged help she gave her client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, to communicate with the outside world in violation of Special Administrative Measures imposed by the Justice Department. The presiding judge has complained that the government's definition of material support "reveals a lack of prosecutorial standards." The case raises the disturbing question of whether the government is prosecuting an attorney for zealously representing an unpopular client. — Posted at 6:18 pm

DISCLOSURE INTENDED TO COUNTER CRITICISM The Associated Press reports that the White House will release internal documents on interrogation rules to counter claims that it authorized torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Iraq. The 2-inch thick stack of papers will detail deliberations within the administration over interrogation proceedures and will include documents that, while previously obtained by the media, have not officially been made public. The documents cover a period of several months and agencies, including the Department of Justice. White House counsel Alberto Gonzalez will brief reporters on the documents. According to Reuters, some defense officials oppose the release, saying it will give information to potential captives. — Posted at 5:27 pm

9/11 COMMISSION SEEKS CHENEY\'S ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. According to The New York Times the 9/11 commission has asked Vice President Dick Cheney for information Cheney has claimed to have about a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. After the commission had determined that it has found no link, the White House continues to assert that there was one. When asked if he had information that the commission did not, Cheney reponded, "Probably." Commission chairman Thomas Kean was surprised and would be "very disappointed" if the White House had withheld information form the commission. — Posted at 4:44 pm

POST RESPONDS TO ACCUSATIONS The Washington Post responded in an editorial to accusations by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld that newspapers, including the Post, harmed the war effort and put troops in harm's way by reporting and editorializing that the United States government authorized torture. "What strikes us as extrordinary is that Mr. Rumsfeld would suggest that this damage would be caused by newspaper editorials rather than by his own actions and decisions and those of other senior administration officials," wrote the Post. "What is needed is a full and independent investigation of the matter, including the decisions made by Mr. Rumsfeld and other senior officials, and a forthright and unambiguous commitment by President Bush to strictly observe U.S. and international law in the future. That pledge should be accompanied by a return to the public disclosure of U.S. interrogation policies. If U.S. soldiers, Iraqi citizens amd foreign leaders can see for themselves that American doctrine excludes illegal abuse, then the dangers Mr. Rumsfeld cited will be greatly lessened." — Posted at 4:32 pm

Jun. 21, 2004

U.S. SEEKS TO DEPORT EX-ROOMMATE OF FRIEND OF 9/11 HIJACKER. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday on the ordeal of Hasan Saddiq Faseh Alddin, a 34-year old Saudi national who has lived in the United States for nearly a decade. The government is currently seeking to deport Alddin, a married father of two, on the basis of two misdemeanor counts for spousal battery in 1998 and 2000. The government\'s actual motive is more likely related to the war on terrorism - the Department of Homeland Security has said that Alddin shared an apartment for a month in 1995 with a man who, years later, befriended two of the Sept. 11 hijackers. At a hearing before an immigration judge last week, the Times reports, a federal prosecutor submitted sealed evidence and invoked \"national security\" as a basis for Alddin\'s continued detention. — Posted at 2:31 pm

U.S. TO RELEASE HUNDREDS OF IMMIGRATION DETAINEES. Under a pilot project starting today, the government will provide supervised release for hundreds of detainees in eight U.S. cities, The [Minneapolis] Star Tribune reports. Since Sept. 11, technical immigration violations have sometimes served as a basis for secretly detaining Muslim men when authorities suspect terrorist connections, but lack sufficient evidence to file charges. The new program, overseen by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, contemplates the use of such non-prison alternatives as electronic ankle bracelets, home visits, and telephone check-ins. Jorge Saavedra, chief legal officer of a nonprofit immigration-law organization, was skeptical. "They're only trying to save a buck," he told the Star Tribune . "The number one issue for immigrants that end up in the enforcement system is a virtual lack of due process, especially since Sept. 11." — Posted at 12:37 pm

Jun. 18, 2004

ATTORNEY: INTIMIDATION LODGED AT MEDIA. Reuters reporter Gail Appleson wrote that a leading American lawyer today accused the White House of "intimidating reporters, attorney and judges who question the Bush administrations 'relentless pursuit of power.'" The comments by Michael Tigar, counsel to a civil rights lawyer charged in a terrorism case, came during a pre-trial hearing centered on arguments by news organizations hoping to quash government subpoenas aimed at forcing reporters to testify at the trial. Tigar's client, New York attorney Lynne Stewart, is accused of illegally helping her own client communicate with terrorist followers. Staff reporters from Reuters, The New York Times and Newsday and a freelance journalist have been subpoenaed by the government. — Posted at 4:39 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INVOKES SECTION 215. The FBI asked the Justice Department last fall to seek permission from a secret federal court to use the most controversial provision of the USA Patriot Act, four weeks after Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that part of the law had never been used, according to government documents disclosed this week. The Washington Post reports that a one-paragraph memo - saying the FBI wanted to use the part of the law that allows investigators in terrorism and espionage cases easier access to people's business and library records - was in a stack of documents the government has released under court order, as debate persists over whether use of the anti-terrorism law violates civil liberties. The records, which were disclosed to the American Civil Liberties Union, do not indicate how many times the FBI has invoked Section 215 since October 2003. — Posted at 3:44 pm

9/11 COMMISSION MAY HAVE CROSSED MOUSSAOUI JUDGE. The judge overseeing the Zacarias Moussaoui case agreed to provide the Sept. 11 commission with classified statements from al Qaida detainees on the condition that they not be made public, but the information "was released this week with great fanfare," The Washington Post reports. The Post obtained an April 28 letter in which U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema approves prosecutors' request to turn over the materials "[a]s long as the classified summaries remain out of the public's view." Moussaoui's lawyers complain that the release jeapordizes his right to a fair trial, but others contend that the information - which yielded conflicting statements about Moussaoui's role - weakens the government's case. — Posted at 3:41 pm

SENATE PANEL REFUSES TO SUBPOENA JUSTICE MEMOS. A divided U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday refused to subpoena Justice Department memos on U.S. torture policy toward enemy combatants, Reuters reported. On a party-line vote of 10-9, the committee rejected a Democratic proposal that would have given U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft until June 24 to turn over the materials or make an acceptable claim of privilege not to do so. "It's a dumb-ass thing to do," said Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, urging all sides to try to reach a voluntary accord. Ashcroft refused last week to release the memos, telling a Judiciary Committee hearing they were part of his private advice to President Bush. — Posted at 2:48 pm

U.S. OPERATES WORLDWIDE NETWORK OF SECRET JAILS. A report released Thursday by Human Rights First says the United States is holding terrorism supsects in more than two dozen detention centers worldwide, at least half of which operate in total secrecy. Deborah Pearlstein, director of the group's U.S. Law and Security Program, told Reuters that the secretive conditions make "inappropriate detention and abuse not only likely but inevitable." The report coincided with news that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld ordered military officials to hide a detainee from the Red Cross in Iraq. — Posted at 11:54 am

Jun. 17, 2004

DID THEY COLLABORATE, OR DIDN\'T THEY? The Sept. 11 commission reported Wednesday that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq. Along with the contention that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials have often asserted that there were extensive ties between Hussein's government and Osama bin Laden's terrorist network; earlier this year, Cheney said evidence of a link was "overwhelming." But the report of the commission's staff, based on its access to all relevant classified information, said that there had been contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda but no cooperation. In yesterday's hearing of the panel, formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, a senior FBI official and a senior CIA analyst concurred with the finding. Nevertheless, Cheney, who took the lead in pushing the idea of long-standing links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, has no intention of backing down despite a finding to the contrary by the commission, aides said on Wednesday. The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin sifts through the previous statements of Bush administration officials about the alleged link. — Posted at 5:47 pm

SECRET STATEMENTS ABOUT MOUSSAOUI RELEASED BY COMMISSION. The coordinator of the Sept. 11 plot told interrogators that he believed Zacarias Moussaoui was to participate in the hijackings, but another top al Qaeda detainee said Moussaoui was part of a second wave of attacks, according to a report released Wednesday. The secret statements of Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, unveiled by the independent commission probing the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, provide by far the most specific information to date on the key issue that has stalled Moussaoui's prosecution. Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with Sept. 11, has been seeking access to the two detainees to bolster his defense. The issue has been tied up in the courts for more than a year. — Posted at 5:40 pm

RUMSFELD ORDERED MILITARY TO HIDE DETAINEE. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison's rolls, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials said Wednesday. The New York Times, The Washington Post and U.S. News & World Report reported that this prisoner and other "ghost detainees" were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy. Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, the Army officer who in February investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees there and at other detention centers as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law." Meanwhile, Reuters said President Bush voiced support for Rumsfeld today after the secret detention story was reported. "I'm never disappointed in my secretary of defense. He's doing a fabulous job and America's lucky to have him in the position he's in," Bush told reporters at the White House when asked if he was disappointed at Rumsfeld's move. — Posted at 5:28 pm

MORE CLASSIFICATION = MORE LEAKS. Secrecy News reports that J. William Leonard, director of the Information Security Oversight Office, the government office responsible for overseeing classification policy, warns that overclassification is a danger to keeping classified information secret. "Too little classification can subject our citizens, our homeland security, and our interactions with foreign nations to potential harm," said Leonard at an annual meeting of classification officials, but "Too much classification unnecessarily impedes effective information sharing, and inappropriate classification undermines the integrity of the entire process." He says that while he believes Bush administration policies on classification to be sound, he is concerned with how it is being implemented "in some quarters." Leonard says that overclassification leads to a lack of confidence in the system, which has lead to a "veritable epidemic of leaks." — Posted at 5:04 pm

NYC MAN HAS BEEN SECRETLY JAILED SINCE APRIL. Reuters and The Associated Press are reporting that Mohammed Junaid Babar, a Pakistani-American who grew up in Queens, was secretly jailed in April, without charges, in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to blow up London train stations and pubs. Babar, 29, was first held as a material witness, then pleaded guilty yesterday to unspecified charges in a closed hearing in a Manhattan federal court, Reuters says. At this point, no government official has acknowledged the case's existence on the record. The story was first reported yesterday by ABC News. — Posted at 2:41 pm

Jun. 16, 2004

WHO\'S THE BOSS? The Washington Post reports that Vice President Dick Cheney's spokesman denies that Cheney had advance notice of the award of a no-bid contract to his former employer, Halliburton. Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellums and his chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, both said that while the office of the vice president received notice, a decision was made not to tell Cheney. — Posted at 6:05 pm

NO CREDIBLE CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL QAEDA IN ATTACKS ON U.S. There is "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq collaborated with the al Qaeda terrorist network on any attacks on the United States, including the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings, according to a new staff report released this morning by the commission investigating the hijacking plot. — Posted at 5:54 pm

CIA CLASSIFIES REPORT ON SELF. As expected, the CIA has classified much of a report by the Senate Intelligence Committee that is highly critical of the agency, The New York Times reports. Up to 40 percent of the 400-page report has been classified. Both Republican and Democratic leaders of the committee have pushed for release of the full report and are considering an appeal to the White House. They could also release a redacted version of the report, rewrite the classified portions or release the entire report after gaining consent of the full Senate. — Posted at 5:48 pm

PROPOSED LAW WOULD BAN SECRET TRIALS. In an Op-Ed in The Washington Post, Georgetown professor David Cole touts the Civil Liberties Restoration Act of 2004, a bill that seeks "to ensure that the next time we suffer a terrorist attack, we will hold fast to basic principles of fairness, due process and human rights, especially in our treatment of foreign nationals." Cole says the act would bar the practice of blanket secret trials, reserving secrecy for cases in which the government can demonstrate a specific need. It would require that when the government locks someone up, it must inform him of the charges within 48 hours, and bring him before a judge within three days. It would limit preventive detention to situations in which the government actually has evidence that an individual poses a risk of flight or a danger to the community. And it would end "special registration," which selectively targeted men from Arab and Muslim countries for fingerprints, photographs and interrogations. — Posted at 5:29 pm

ARMY SAYS G.I. NOW ELIGIBLE FOR DISABILITY PAYMENTS. After first denying a former soldier suffered a traumatic brain injury in a training exercise and ignoring his requests for disability payments, the U.S. Army now says Spc. Sean Baker was injured during the drill and is qualified for 100 percent disability benefits. Baker says that on the morning of Jan. 24, 2003, he was choked and beaten by fellow MPs on the steel floor of a 6-by-8 prison cell during a botched training exercise. Baker says he volunteered to put on an orange prison jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee in a training drill. But the Los Angeles Times reports that the five-man MP "immediate response force" sent in to extract him was not told of the exercise. According to Baker's lawyer, the soldiers were told that Baker was an unruly detainee who had been doused with pepper spray after assaulting a sergeant. The military at first said Baker's medical discharge was not related to the beating at Guantanamo. Last week, the military reversed itself, saying the incident was partly responsible for his discharge. The announcement that he was now qualified for disability benefits came Monday, after substantial publicity about his predicament. — Posted at 5:14 pm

GOVERNMENT REFUSING TO TURN OVER SECRET NO-FLY LIST. A federal judge in San Francisco publicly reprimanded the U.S. government yesterday for refusing to turn over records concerning its secret no-fly list, The Associated Press reported. Information is being sought by two peace activists who publish a national newsletter critical of President Bush. After being detained upon boarding a plane because they were on the government's no-fly list, designed to prevent terrorists from boarding planes, the women filed a Freedom of Information Act request. The Transportation Security Administration has refused to reveal how many people are on the list and the system by which someone is placed on the list. — Posted at 11:43 am

Jun. 15, 2004

AP CHIEF DENOUNCES GOVERNMENT SECRECY. Friday's "Now" with Bill Moyers on PBS featured a conversation with Associated Press President Tom Curley. Curley, who runs the world's largest news organization with more than fifteen thousand media outlets worldwide, recently made an important speech calling for a "media advocacy center" to lobby for open government in Washington. Click here to read the transcript. — Posted at 6:01 pm

EDITORIAL CALLS FOR RELEASE OF CRITICAL CIA REPORT. An editorial in today's New York Times takes the Bush Administration to task for withholding 400-page "indictment" of the Central Intelligence Agency's bungling on Iraq and of the hype and wishful thinking that underpinned President Bush's decision to go to war. A two-week task has grown to four weeks-plus, the editorial says, and it may drag on further, leaving the Senate Intelligence Committee's leadership threatening the rare step of seeking a vote to release the report before the C.I.A. and ultimately the White House have signed off on it. The intelligence panel's chairman, Pat Roberts, (R-Kan.) "is correct in stressing that there has been time enough to review the report and that the public's right to know is now paramount." — Posted at 5:30 pm

WORKERS DESCRIBE HALLIBURTON MISSPENDING. Six contract workers recently told members of the House Committee on Government Reform they witnessed examples of misspending and mismanagement by Halliburton subsidiary KBR while serving overseas, the Washington Post and Knight Ridder reported today. They described how $85,000 trucks had been abandoned on roadsides in Iraq for minor problems, such as flat tires, or driven into the ground because of a lack of basic maintenance. A woman hired to oversee Halliburton subcontracts said the company paid almost $1 million against the Army's wishes to house 100 employees at a hotel in Kuwait over a three-month period, a cost that was passed on to the government. Details about the workers' claims came to light yesterday in a letter from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), the committee's senior Democrat, to Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), the chairman, objecting to Davis's decision not to include the workers' testimony in a hearing today about contracting in Iraq. — Posted at 5:21 pm

POWELL SAYS TERROR REPORT WAS \"A BIG MISTAKE.\" Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Sunday that a State Department report claiming a global decline in terrorist incidents last year was "a big mistake," but he said there was no intent to "cook the books" for political purposes. Powell said during appearances on Sunday talk shows that the State Department was working over the weekend with the CIA to determine what went wrong. The "Patterns of Global Terrorism Report," released in April, had said that the number of terrorist incidents worldwide had dropped last year to 190, which would have been the lowest level in more than three decades and a decline of 45 percent since President Bush took office in 2001. The original report's accuracy had been challenged by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), and the Congressional Research Service urged a review of the report's "structure and content." — Posted at 4:42 pm

ABDI INDICMENT SAYS NOTHING OF ALLEGED SHOPPING-MALL PLOT. A federal indictment unsealed yesterday accuses a Somali man, Nuradin Abdi, of providing material support to al Qaida, in part by using fraudulent travel documents to travel to Ethiopia for military-style training. But as The New York Times observes, the indictment makes no mention of the most serious charge to emerge from Attorney General Ashcroft's news conference -- namely, that Abdi and others "initiated a plot" to blow up a shopping mall in the Columbus, Ohio, area. That claim is found only in a motion filed by prosecutors to justify Abdi's ongoing detention after his Nov. 2003 arrest on immigration charges. — Posted at 4:16 pm

EDMONDS, ELLSBERG URGE FEDERAL WORKERS TO TALK. Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the news media in 1971, held a news conference yesterday in Washington, D.C., urging any federal employees with knowledge of the information Edmonds is under gag order not to divulge to come forward and make that information available to the press and to Congress. Edmonds had asserted that records she was hired to retranslate after 9/11 show that hijackers were known to be in the country planning an airplane attack on skyscrapers, when Attorney General John Ashcroft in October 2002 invoked the "state secrets" privilege and issued a gag order prohibiting her from further discussing the matter. The order has prevented her testimony in a class action lawsuit by the families of 9/11 victims. She has sued to have the gag order lifted but yesterday a hearing in her case before the federal district court in Washington, D.C., was postponed for the fourth time. Also, in today's New York Observer, Gail Sheehy reports on the government's treatment of Edmonds. — Posted at 4:09 pm

Jun. 14, 2004

ONLY FEW OF 50 FAILED AIRSTRIKES ACKNOWLEDGED. The New York Times reported today that senior military and intelligence officials said only a few of 50 failed air strikes against a broad array of Iraqi leaders in the early days of the war last year have been acknowledged by the administration. The unanimously unsuccessful strikes occurred for one month beginning in March 2003 against 13 Iraqi leaders and caused many civilian casualties, the newspaper said. The military had acted primarily on information from an Iraqi source that Saddam Hussein was in an underground bunker at the site, information that prompted an acceleration of the timetable for the beginning of the war, the Times wrote, quoting "senior intelligence officials." The Times reported that 43 of the top 55 Iraqi leaders, those featured on a deck of playing cards, have by now been taken into custody or killed, but none were taken into custody until a month after the strikes began. The source of the information about Hussein being in the bunker was himself killed in the raid. He had used the Arabic word "manzul" to describe Hussein's whereabouts, but that can be translated as either "bunker," or "place of refuge," according to the Times. — Posted at 5:51 pm

LEAHY SAYS ASHCROFT USES NATIONAL SECURITY POWERS TO SCORE POLITICAL POINTS. Attorney General John Ashcroft appeared at an oversight hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 8 for the first time in 15 months and he was soundly rebuked by the Committee's ranking minority member, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). "For this democratic republic to work," Senator Leahy said, "we need openness and accountability." But at the Ashcroft Justice Department, he said, "Documents have been classified, unclassified, and reclassified to score political points rather than for legitimate national security reasons." Click here to read Senator Leahy's numerous complaints in a strongly worded opening statement. Click here to read Attorney General Ashcroft's perspective on his Department's achievements here. — Posted at 5:22 pm

SENATORS: CIA IS STONEWALLING RELEASE OF INTELLIGENCE REPORT. Senate Intelligence Committee members are accusing the CIA of hindering the release of a report that gives an unflattering assessment of pre-war intelligence on Iraq. Committee chairman Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican, said Sunday that his committee plans to approve the report with "almost unanimous" support this week. But CNN reports that the CIA is still reviewing the document to prevent the release of classified information and intelligence methods. Roberts said the agency was supposed to have completed its review two weeks ago, and committee staffers are saying additional delays are likely. "It's taking too long," Roberts said. The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, said the CIA appears to be stonewalling. — Posted at 5:15 pm

DHS IMPOSES EXTRAORDINARY CONTROLS ON UNCLASSIFIED RECORDS. Secrecy News reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is imposing extraordinary new access controls on unclassified information that it deems "for official use only" (FOUO). The new information policy, which was spelled out in an internal DHS directive last month, imposes several classification-like access restrictions on information that is "sensitive but unclassified." So, for example, such unclassified information may only be shared with individuals who are determined to have a "need to know" it. Furthermore, DHS employees and contractors must sign a special Non-Disclosure Agreement before receiving access to unclassified FOUO information. As far as could be determined, no other executive branch agency systematically requires a non-disclosure agreement for access to unclassified FOUO information. Click here to read the directive. — Posted at 5:10 pm

GITMO MEMOS SHED LIGHT ON DETENTIONS. Sunday's Washington Post reports new details on the treatment of inmates at the secretive U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Citing Defense Department memos, the Post reports the precise nature of many of the concerns raised by the Red Cross, such as 30-day isolation holds for refusal to provide information, extraordinarily long interrogation sessions, and the use of open-air cages. On a related note, USA Today reported Friday that the Army has formally warned military and civilian employees of the Guantanamo prison not to talk to defense lawyers for the detainees. — Posted at 4:22 pm

Jun. 10, 2004

WEB MASTER ACQUITTED ON TERRORISM CHARGES. University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a computer whiz at the center of a confrontation between the First Amendment and the war on terror, was acquitted today in Boise of charges he used his Internet skills to foster terrorism. Al-Hussayen was acquitted on all three terrorism counts against him, as well as one count of making a false statement and two counts of visa fraud, The Associated Press reported. Jurors could not reach verdicts on three more false statement counts and five additional visa fraud counts, and a mistrial was declared on those charges. — Posted at 5:49 pm

LAWYERS GAVE VARIED TORTURE ADVICE. On the eve of the war in Iraq, Bush administration lawyers spelled out a strikingly broad view of the president's power that freed the commander in chief and U.S. military from the federal law and international treaties that barred the use of torture, according to an analysis in today's Los Angeles Times. The legal memo, written last year for the Defense Department and disclosed this week, did not speak for President Bush, but it claimed an extraordinary power for him. It said that as the commander in chief, he had a "constitutionally superior position" to Congress and an "inherent authority" to prosecute the war, even if it meant defying the will of Congress. Meanwhile, USA Today reports that military attorneys working for the Pentagon's top general raised concerns early in 2003 that interrogation guidelines approved for use at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could put their boss in legal jeopardy if prisoners there were abused, three Defense Department officials say. Staff lawyers for Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined a group of the Pentagon's top uniformed legal officers in questioning tougher interrogation methods for prisoners at Guantanamo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld eventually authorized in April 2003. — Posted at 5:41 pm

MEN POSING AS JOURNALISTS ARRESTED IN BAGHDAD. Reuters reports that four Arab men posing as journalists were arrested this week when explosives residue was detected on them as they tried to enter the Baghdad headquarters of the U.S.-led administration, a senior U.S. army officer said. The officer, a top security official in the compound which hosts news conferences given by senior U.S. and Iraqi officials and houses the U.S. consulate, said explosives were found in the men's hotel room after the arrests on Sunday. — Posted at 5:30 pm

PENTAGON APPROVES CHARGES AGAINST HICKS The Defense Department today announced its charges against David Hicks, an Australian who becomes the third Guantanamo detainee to be charged. Hicks is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder by an unpriviliged belligerent, and aiding the enemy. The Pentagon's news release specifies that prosecutors will not seek the death penalty and that Hicks' conversations with counsel will not be monitored, based on the "security and intelligence circumstances" of his case. No trial date has been set. The charges are available here. — Posted at 3:58 pm

Jun. 9, 2004

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MEMOS SUMMARIZED. A series of memos from the Justice Department, many of them written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law professor who was serving in the department, provided arguments to keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. The memorandums, principally one written on Jan. 9, 2002, provided legal arguments to support administration officials' assertions that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to detainees from the war in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported today. — Posted at 5:39 pm

ARMY CHANGES STORY ABOUT G.I.\'S HEAD INJURY. Reversing itself, the Army said Tuesday that a G.I. was discharged partly because of a head injury he suffered while posing as an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Army had previously said Specialist Sean Baker's medical discharge in April was unrelated to the injury he received last year at the detention center, where the United States holds suspected terrorists. — Posted at 5:37 pm

SENATE LEADERS WANT REPORT DECLASSIFIED. The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee are pressing the Central Intelligence Agency to agree to a broad declassification and release of the panel's 400-page report, which is highly critical of the agency's prewar performance on Iraq. The agency and, ultimately, the White House have the power to decide how much of the report should be declassified, giving them great influence over a document that will focus on mistakes related to Iraq and its illicit weapons. The Senate could vote to release classified material even over White House objections, but such a step would be rare, the New York Times reported. — Posted at 5:33 pm

NEWSPAPERS ATTACK SECRET MEMORANDA. Major newspapers weighed in today on reports about secret memoranda from Bush administration lawyers that appear to have endorsed the use of torture and abuse against prisoners and detainees. Editorials in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times said the actions are shocking and unacceptable. — Posted at 4:53 pm

NBC AND TIME MOVE TO QUASH SUBPOENAS. Two news media organizations have filed motions to quash subpoenas that were issued by a special prosecutor investigating the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity, attorneys in the case said yesterday. The motions, filed under seal Friday as part of ongoing grand jury proceedings in Washington, ask a judge to throw out the subpoenas served on NBC's Tim Russert and Time reporter Matt Cooper or issue a protective order blocking testimony. — Posted at 4:49 pm

NEW DOCUMENTS: MI OFFICERS TOLD TO \"TAKE THE GLOVES OFF.\" The Los Angeles Times reports that instructions in late 2001 from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's legal counsel, contained in previously undisclosed government documents, are the earliest known evidence that the Bush administration was willing to test the limits of how far it could go legally to extract information from suspected terrorists. After American Taliban recruit John Walker Lindh was captured in Afghanistan, Rumsefeld's office instructed military intelligence officers to "take the gloves off" in interrogating him. — Posted at 4:45 pm

LESS IS MORE. The State Department understated the number of terrorist attacks in 2003 and will revise its annual report following criticism that it was politically influenced, the Los Angeles Times reports. The report, released in April, stated that terrorist attacks declined 45 percent since 2001 and was relied on by the Bush administration as objective proof that it was winning the war on terror. Critics have since pointed out that the report omitted attacks that occured after early November 2003 due to a printing deadline. A Congressional Research Service study found that the report was influenced by political and economic considerations, and used outdated criteria to define terrorist attacks that omitted attacks against American troops in Iraq and attacks committed by terrorists within their own country. — Posted at 2:33 pm

Jun. 8, 2004

ASHCROFT DENIES MEMOS LED TO PRISONER ABUSES. U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and congressional critics clashed today in a heated session over whether Justice Department legal opinions may have contributed to the abuse or torture of prisoners of war or other U.S. detainees. At issue were department memorandums written in 2002 that said the United States need not abide by international treaties and other laws against torture in interrogating Al Qaeda suspects. The authors of the memos - reported in today's editions of the Washington Post and New York Times - indicated that they felt that the executive power of the president during wartime trumped anti-torture laws. Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was unaware of any presidential order implementing the memo. He decried the use of torture as an interrogation technique, saying it was counterproductive and unjustified. He also said the department was investigating a number of detainee abuse cases. But he also stoutly refused to turn over the disputed memos. He said that their disclosure would impair the ability of the department to give candid legal advice to the executive branch. — Posted at 4:23 pm

VISA REQUIREMENTS LEAD TO 15 FOREIGN JOURNALISTS BEING DEPORTED FROM U.S. The Christian Science Monitor reports today about actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security to revive a visa requirement, dormant since 1952, that required journalists to apply for a special visa, known as an I-visa, when visiting the United States for professional reasons. This visa requirement also applied to so-called "friendly nations" - 27 countries whose citizens do not have to apply for a visa in order to visit the U.S. for personal reasons. But the decision to restart the visa requirement is so little known that most foreign (and American) journalists have no idea it even exists. As a result, last year 15 journalists from "friendly nations" (Britian, Australia and others) were deported from the US. Twelve of those deportations occurred at Los Angeles International Airport. — Posted at 4:16 pm

WEB DESIGNER ACCEPTS LIBEL DAMAGES FROM LONDON NEWSPAPER. A Web site designer accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages Tuesday from a London newspaper that said he was suspected of being an accomplice of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network, the man's lawyer said. According to The Associated Press, Adam Musa King, the creator of Mathaba.Net, had sued the Sunday Telegraph over two "offensive and distressing" articles published after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. — Posted at 4:12 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MEMOS OFFERED JUSTIFICATION FOR TORTURE. In August 2002, the Justice Department advised the White House that torturing al Qaeda terrorists in captivity abroad "may be justified," and that international laws against torture "may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations" conducted in President Bush's war on terrorism, according to a newly obtained memo. The Washington Post reported that the memo concluded that if a government employee were to torture a suspect in captivity, "he would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by the Al Qaeda terrorist network." The memo, from the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, was written in response to a CIA request for legal guidance. Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that a team of administration lawyers concluded in a March 2003 legal memorandum that President Bush was not bound by either an international treaty prohibiting torture or by a federal antitorture law because he had the authority as commander in chief to approve any technique needed to protect the nation's security. That memo, prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, also said that any executive branch officials, including those in the military, could be immune from domestic and international prohibitions against torture for a variety of reasons. — Posted at 3:57 pm

FOUR IRANIAN BROTHERS SECRETLY DETAINED AFTER 9/11. The Los Angeles Times has an article on four Iranian brothers who have been in U.S. custody since Oct. 2, 2001, when they were rounded up on the basis of unspecified "changed circumstances" from earlier immigration proceedings. The men remain locked up to this day despite never having been charged with a crime. Ironically, it appears they were targeted for having attended meetings of a group that Attorney General Ashcroft once hailed as freedom fighters - the Moujahadeen Khalq (MEK), an organization dedicated to regime change in Iran. Ashcroft, then a U.S. Senator, and others in Congress supported MEK in the late 1990s, even after the State Department placed it on a list of terrorist organizations in 1997, the Times reports. — Posted at 2:38 pm

Jun. 7, 2004

KAY: IDEA THAT WMDS WILL BE FOUND IN IRAQ IS \"DELUSIONAL.\" No stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq, and coalition leaders were wrong in their assessment of Saddam Hussein's arsenal, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector said Saturday. David Kay's comments came a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared to suggest that the Iraq Survey Group may cite evidence of such weapons when it gives its next report. Kay, who resigned from the CIA in January after searches failed to turn up weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, dismissed any suggestion that such arms could be found and called Blair's claims "delusional." — Posted at 5:23 pm

PADILLA\'S LAWYER CAN\'T DISCUSS HIM IN PUBLIC. Attorney Donna R. Newman's options are extremely limited when it comes to defending her client Jose Padilla's interests in news stories. The government alleged last week that her high-profile client trained at al Qaeda terror camps in Afghanistan and came to the United States to blow up apartment buildings in New York and elsewhere, and perhaps set off a radioactive "dirty bomb." Under ordinary circumstances, prosecutors would be legally required to file an indictment detailing these accusations. Newman pondered her legal options for responding - and concluded they hovered between few and none. "I listened to [the prosecutor] and thought: 'Okay, that's his opening statement,' " Newman told The Washington Post. "Now when do I get to speak up? Everything my client says to me is classified. I can't offer any defense. . . All I know is we've come a long way since the Magna Carta." — Posted at 5:14 pm

SPANIARDS CHALLENGING FBI\'S STORY ABOUT MAYFIELD CASE. Two weeks after U.S. authorities cleared a Portland-area lawyer of any connection to the deadly terrorist bombings in Madrid, high-level Spanish law enforcement officials are challenging key aspects of the United States' version of events in the case, touching off a muddy dispute between the two allies and painting a portrait of FBI officials who repeatedly rejected evidence that they had the wrong man. Stories about the FBI's refusal to reconsider Brandon Mayfield as their chief suspect appeared in The New York Times and The Seattle Times. — Posted at 5:08 pm

EMAIL AUTHOR DENIES CHENEY LINK TO HALLIBURTON CONTRACT. The Washington Post reports that the author of an email stating that a contract awarded to Halliburton was "coordinated" with vice president Dick Cheney only meant that Cheney had been informed as a courtesy. The author, who's name was redacted from the version of the email released to the public, is Stephen Browning, a civilian regional director of the Army Corps of Engineers. Browning was allowed to come forward yesterday, and says that by "coordinated," he meant that Cheney's office was informed of the contract award as a courtesy because of the possibility of a controversy stemming from the award to Cheney's former company. "Based on my knowledge, and my involvement, there was absolutely no involvement of the office of the vice president, by the vice president," Browning said. — Posted at 2:22 pm

UNLUCKY IN KENTUCKY. The Lexington (Kentucky) Herald-Leader reports that the Kentucky Legislature is poised to create a "homeland security" exemption to the state's Open Records Act. A bill, requested by state Office of Homeland Security director Erwin Roberts, will be introduced by Rep. Mike Weaver (D-Elizabethtown) when the legislature reconvenes in January. The House passed a "homeland security" exception, also sponsored by Weaver, 93-0 last term, but dropped it after the Senate tacked on a measure to also exempt university donation records from the act. — Posted at 10:32 am

HICKS TRIBUNAL MAY NOT BE IN AUGUST. Although Australian Prime Minister John Howard issued a statement on May 30 saying charges would be filed against suspected terrorist David Hicks in early June, a Pentagon spokesman told the Sunday Mail in South Australia that a timeline has not been set for the charges against the man, who is being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. — Posted at 10:19 am

PROFESSOR QUESTIONS GOVERNMENTS MOTIVES IN RELEASING PADILLA INFORMATION. In a commentary in the Los Angeles Times, George Washington University professor Jonathan Turley criticizes the Justice Department's actions last week in finally detailing the case against Jose Padilla. "After insisting for two years that details of the case of Jose Padilla, an American citizen accused of being an "enemy combatant," had to be kept secret even from the federal courts, the Justice Department suddenly released detailed information on his interrogations and their results," Turley wrote. "What made this press conference particularly notable was its intended audience: the U.S. Supreme Court." — Posted at 10:14 am

Jun. 5, 2004

PROBE OF NUCLEAR PLANTS; LOCATIONS KEPT MUM. Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that nearly a dozen nuclear power plants, including the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and the Millstone Power Station are being asked to inventory their fuel rods after some rods were lost at those two facililities. However, Sheehan would not identify the other plants. "There is an even higher sensitivity to properly safeguard this material post 9/11," he said, according to an Associated Press story in the Rutland Herald. — Posted at 11:53 am

MEDIA SUBPOENAED IN TERRORISM CASE. Several reporters have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of attorney Lynne Stewart, who has been charged with helping her client Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman communicate with terrorists, according to a Reuters report. Rahman was convicted in 1995 of conspiring to blow up several New York landmarks, among other things. The New York Times, Reuters, and Newsday are seeking to quash subpoenas of their reporters. Prosecutors maintain that they are seeking only to confirm published information, but Times counsel George Freeman says any testimony by the reporters will compromise their independence: "We are supposed to be the watchdog of our government, not its lap dog." — Posted at 11:49 am

Jun. 4, 2004

MOUSSAOUI LAWYERS ASK APPEALS COURT TO RECONSIDER. In a closed hearing Thursday, lawyers for terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui asked an appeals court to reconsider a ruling that allowed the government to prosecute Moussaoui and seek his execution. Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States with crimes related to the Sept. 11 attacks, wants a three-judge panel to review the April decision or have the full 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hear the case. Defense lawyers and prosecutors refused to comment after the hearing, which was closed because classified information was discussed, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 12:37 pm

VICTIMS\' FAMILIES GATHER TO HEAR 9/11 AUDIO TAPES. Family members who lost relatives on the four planes that were hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, gathered at a hotel near Princeton, N.J., today for a closed-door briefing to hear audio tapes of phone calls between passengers and family members or co-workers on the ground. Justice Department letters sent to family members said they would be able to listen to tapes of cell phone calls from the flights, including calls made by American Airlines Flight 11 flight attendants Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney before their plane hit the World Trade Center. Family members were required to sign non-disclosure agreements before being admitted to the two-hour briefing. — Posted at 12:33 pm

A FREE SHOT FOR THE GOVERNMENT IN PADILLA CASE. An editorial in The Washington Post criticizes the government for delivering a "broadside smear against which no defense is possible" in the Jose Padilla case. Earlier this week, the Justice Department released a summary of allegations about Padilla's alleged plotting of terrorist acts. But the allegations were not contained in an indictment or any other document subject to legal challenge, the Post notes. Indeed, Padilla and his attorney - who reportedly has had only two conversations with him - are barred from commenting at all, leaving the government free to level serious charges against a U.S. citizen in public, without the possibility of a response. — Posted at 11:48 am

DEFENSE LAWYERS FACE UPHILL BATTLE IN MILITARY TRIBUNALS. Attorneys for the first two men to be tried in upcoming U.S. military tribunals say their ability to represent their clients is being compromised by lack of resources and access to witnesses, the USA Today reports. Military defense lawyers for Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi and Ali Hamza Ahmad Sulayman al Bahlul - both in secret detention at Guantanamo - say the Pentagon has been slow or nonresponsive to requests for translators, interpreters, and paralegal assistance. In addition, they say, prosecutors have ignored their requests for access to witnesses, an issue that was litigated in the Zacarias Moussaoui case in federal court. Unlike Moussaoui, however, defendants in the secretive military tribunal system are outside the purview of civilian courts or even of military courts-martial. — Posted at 11:12 am

Jun. 3, 2004

DEMS CALL FOR INDEPENDENT COUNSEL. Reuters reports that a number of House Democrats have called for an independent counsel to investigate Vice President Dick Cheney's involvement with contracts awarded to Halliburton, Co. The letter from Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich) and ten other House members to Attorney General John Ashcroft was prompted by a Pentagon email that says the award of a no-bid contract to Halliburton subsidiary KBR was "coordinated" with the vice president's office. "The public deserves to know the truth about whether the Vice President commingled his official and personal dealings," the letter says. — Posted at 3:47 pm

LAWSUIT FILED FOR PRISON ABUSE RECORDS. The American Civil Liberties Union, joined by the Center for Constitutional Rights and a number of medical and veterans' groups, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense for illegally witholding records of detainees held by the American military. The ACLU requested the records, which would include information about Abu Ghraib prison, under the Freedom of Information Act in October, and asked the DOJ to expedite processing of the request. The DOJ refused arguing that the request did not concern "questions about the government''s integrity which affect public confidence" and that the "life or safety of any individual" was not endangered. A copy of the complaint filed with the court is available on the ACLU website. — Posted at 11:03 am

BUSH CONSULTS ATTORNEY ABOUT LEAK INVESTIGATION. President Bush met with a private attorney recently, for advice regarding the investigation of the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity, according to The New York Times. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush intends to hire Washington attorney Jim Sharp if he is questioned regarding the leak of Valerie Plame's identity, which was first disclosed by columnist Robert Novak in July. The article notes that the while the names of several White House advisors have been thrown out as possible suspects, the president himself is not seen as a potential target of the investigation. Bush could, however, be called as a witness in the investigation, the Times reports. — Posted at 10:27 am

Jun. 2, 2004

CHALABI INFLUENCE PROBED. In "The Manipulator" published in the June 7, 2004, New Yorker, Jane Mayer examines in detail the long history of wealthy Iraqi Shiite Ahmad Chalabi's efforts to influence U.S. policy toward Iraq - particularly toward the overthrow of Saddam Hussein - through close past friendships with high-level U.S. political figures, through leadership in the exile opposition Iraqi National Congress and through the use of public relations and propaganda that played a leading role in influencing the country to believe in the existence of weapons of mass destruction. — Posted at 4:58 pm

UNPUBLISHED ARMY REPORT SAID MANY DETAINEES NOT A THREAT. Hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were held in Abu Ghraib prison for prolonged periods despite a lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to American forces, according to an unpublished Army report completed last fall. The unpublished report, by Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, reflects what other senior Army officers have described as a deep concern among some American officers and officials in Iraq over the refusal of top American commanders in Baghdad to authorize the release of so-called security prisoners. Some of those prisoners were held for interrogation at Abu Ghraib in the cellblock that became the site of the worst abuses at the prison. General Ryder's report to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top American commander in Iraq,, was obtained by The New York Times. — Posted at 4:52 pm

CHENEY SAYS PATRIOT ACT HAS LED TO HUNDREDS OF ARRESTS. In a speech Tuesday in Kansas City, Vice President Dick Cheney said the USA Patriot Act had helped root out terrorists in New York, Oregon, North Carolina and Virginia, the Kansas City Star reported. He credited it for the arrest of 300 persons on terror-related charges, and said that more than half either had been convicted or pleaded guilty. Asked to respond to Cheney's claims that the law is not being misused, ACLU spokeswoman Laura W. Murphy, said the vice president would be in a better position than anyone to know if the act has been abused. "Most of the act is applied in secret," she said. "We have no way of finding out most of the time if it's being abused." — Posted at 4:32 pm

AUSTRALIA SAYS FIRST GITMO TRIBUNAL WILL BE IN AUGUST. The Australian government says that one of its citizens imprisoned at the American naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, will be charged by the United States this month and is expected to go before a military tribunal sometime in August, The New York Times reported. A spokesman for the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C. said on Tuesday that Prime Minister John Howard would discuss the issue of the prisoner, David Hicks, with President Bush in a visit to the White House this week. Mr. Howard, in a statement over the weekend in Canberra, said he had been told that Mr. Hicks, who is accused of having fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan, would be tried in August. — Posted at 4:26 pm

NEWS ORGANIZATIONS WITHHELD STORIES ABOUT CHALABI LEAK. The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and several other news organizations, which learned last month that Ahmad Chalabi and at least one aide were suspected of disclosing to Iran details of top-secret U.S. electronic intercepts, agreed to a Bush administration request not to publish reports on what they knew to protect what officials described as an ongoing national security investigation, the newspapers reported today. The administration withdrew its request on Tuesday, saying information about the code-breaking was starting to appear in news accounts. Chalabi, an leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials. — Posted at 4:06 pm

HALIBURTON CONTRACT LINKED TO CHENEY. An email obtained by government watchdog group Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit raises questions about Vice President Dick Cheney's involvement with government contracts granted to his former employer, Haliburton, The Washington Post reports. The name of the email's author was redacted before it was released. According to the email, available on Judicial Watch's website, the award of the multi-billion dollar no-bid contract was "coordinated" with the vice president's office. Cheney has previously stated that he has no ongoing relationship with Halliburton. Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said that the word "coordinate" meant that the vice president's office had taken part in discussions about the need for such a contract, but not about the award to Haliburton. The story was first reported in Time Magazine. — Posted at 4:01 pm

PUBLIC EDITOR: TIMES GOT IT \"MOSTLY RIGHT.\" New York Times Public Editor Daniel Okrent wrote this week that top editors got it "mostly right" last week when they addressed the internal investigation into the newspaper's reporting on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. — Posted at 1:58 pm

GOVERNMENT RELEASES INFORMATION ON PADILLA. Under pressure to explain its indefinite detention of a U.S. citizen, the government yesterday released some details of its allegations against Jose Padilla. The declassified documents, approved for release Friday by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, are available here. The Washington Post reports that the release of information is unlikely to have much impact on the U.S. Supreme Court's upcoming decision in Padilla's appeal, which has probably been voted on and assigned already. Instead, the move seems to be aimed at satisfying the concerns of Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who had asked the Bush administration for information about the case, as well as influencing the court of public opinion, the Post says. — Posted at 10:26 am