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.

Sep. 30, 2004

JUDGE STRIKES DOWN LAW AUTHORIZING SECURITY LETTERS AND REQUIRING SECRECY. A federal judge in New York has declared unconstitutional a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the feds to issue "security letters" demanding confidential customer data from communications companies, such as internet service providers, and forbidding the companies to talk about it. In ruling in favor of the ACLU, which had to file its suit against the Justice Department under seal because of the law, the judge declared that "democracy abhors undue secrecy." The ACLU hailed the decision as "a landmark victory" against US Attorney General John Ashcroft's "misguided attempt to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans in the name of national security." — Posted at 10:24 am

Sep. 29, 2004

NAVY REFUSES TO IDENTIFY SEALS. The Associated Press reports that the Navy is keeping a tight lid on the identity of seven of its elite SEAL commandos who have been charged with assaulting Iraqi prisoners. Few details have been released since charges were first announced Sept. 2. Navy Capt. Raul A. Pedrozo, the judge advocate for Naval Special Warfare Command in Coronado, where the SEALs are based, denied a Freedom of Information Act filed by The Associated Press requesting the identities of the accused and additional details. Among the reasons Pedrozo cited was that U.S. law exempted identities of members of "sensitive units" from disclosure. — Posted at 7:26 pm

TIMES RESISTS ANOTHER SUBPOENA. The New York Times has asked a federal court to block the subpoena of two reporters' phone records in a terrorism-related grand jury investigation. The investigation, headed by federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, is looking into who leaked to the reporters a planned government asset siezure of an Islamic charity suspected of funding al Qaeda. The FBI suspects that the reporters tipped the charity to the seizure by calling for comment. The subpoena seeks phone company records of Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon. Miller is also fighting a subpoena from Fitzgerald in the unrelated investigation into the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity. On Tuesday, Times reporter Adam Liptak analyzed the government's recent plethora of subpoenas of journalists. — Posted at 6:10 pm

Sep. 28, 2004

GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS REVEAL CONTENTS OF CLASSIFIED PREWAR INTELLIGENCE ON IRAQ. In January 2003, two months before the beginning of the war in Iraq, the National Intelligence Council presented two classified reports predicting the likely effects of a U.S. invasion, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. On Monday, government officials publicly revealed those reports' predictions for the very first time; among them was an estimate that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply-divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict. — Posted at 4:26 pm

Sep. 27, 2004

ARMY, NAVY DIFFER IN RELEASE OF INFORMATION ABOUT DEFENDANTS. Two U.S. soldiers have been charged with murder in the death of an Iraqi civilian, raising to four the number of U.S. soldiers from the same unit charged with murder of Iraqis in the past week. The 1st Cavalry Division, which operates in and around Baghdad, named the two soldiers as Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne and Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban, both from the 1st Battalion of the 41st Infantry Regiment, based at Fort Riley, Kansas. Last week, two soldiers from the same unit, Sergeant Michael Williams and Specialist Brent May, were charged with premeditated murder in the wrongful deaths of three Iraqi civilians. By contrast, the Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs, kept most details about its latest case under wraps last week, refusing to release the sailors' names and rank or details of the allegations against seven SEALS charged with prisoner abuse. Unlike other Navy units, the command withholds sailors' names until a day or two before preliminary hearings begin. — Posted at 4:51 pm

IRAQI CIVILIANS KILLED MORE OFTEN BY U.S. AND MULTINATIONAL FORCES THAN BY INSURGENTS. An exclusive report from Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau, which has gained much renown for war-related scoops in the past year, revealed Saturday that U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis, most of them civilians, as attacks by insurgents. The statistics were compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder. Iraqi officials said about two-thirds of the Iraqi deaths were caused by the U.S. side and police; the remaining third died from insurgent attacks. — Posted at 4:47 pm

ATTORNEYS KEPT OUT OF GUANTANAMO HEARINGS. Osama bin Laden's alleged accountant boycotted a review hearing to evaluate his legal status on Thursday, and was the second Guantanamo Bay prisoner in less than a week whose attorney was prohibited from attending the proceedings, The Associated Press reported. Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi, 44, is one of four prisoners charged with war crimes at the U.S. naval base on Cuba's eastern tip. The United States says al Qosi, of Sudan, worked as al-Qaida's chief accountant, paymaster and supply chief. Defense attorneys have criticized the review hearings as shams, warning their clients not to speak in any proceedings unless they have an attorney present. — Posted at 4:33 pm

BUSH\'S IRAQ CLAIMS DISPUTED. Reuters reporter Adam Entous wrote that key congressional aids, Pentagon documents and lawmakers refute claims about progress in Iraq made by President George W. Bush last week. Bush made his remarks about progress in Iraq in response to presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's warnings that the situation there is deteriorating. The presence of only eight U.N. electoral advisers in Iraq with the U.N. hesitant to send more conflicts with the president's claim that U.N. electoral advisers are on the ground. Documents showing that only 8,169 of the 90,000 thousand in the police force have had the eight-week academy training while 46,176 are listed as "untrained" contradicts Bush's claim that 100,000 are "fully trained" with that number to rise to 125,000 by the end of the year. The article addresses similar disparities regarding other claims. — Posted at 4:19 pm

U.S. TO RELEASE HAMDI BY THURSDAY. American-born Yaser Hamdi will be released from a South Carolina naval brig by Thursday and returned to Saudi Arabia, Reuters reports. According to documents not released publicly until Monday, Hamdi agreed not to travel to the U.S. for 10 years or outside Saudi Arabia for five years. Hamdi - whom officials deemed is no longer a threat to national security after holding him as an enemy combatant for nearly three years - has renounced "terrorism and violent jihad," and must inform Saudi officials if he learns of any planned acts of terrorism. — Posted at 3:50 pm

SECRET US PLAN TO INFLUENCE IRAQ ELECTIONS REVEALED, DENIED Time magazine reports the existence of a secret government proposal that the CIA offer clandestine aid to select Iraqi candidates in that country's upcoming January elections. In the face of a subsequent negative congressional response, the Bush Administration has denied that any such plans still exist. — Posted at 2:43 pm

BETTER INTELLIGENCE, WORSE OVERSIGHT. Associated Press writer Katherine Pfleger Shrader examines the government's gathering of geospatial intelligence, the science of combining imagery such as satellite pictures, in an article Sunday that explores the increasing ability of the government to gather information and the decreasing emphasis on public oversight of the collection activities. — Posted at 2:37 pm

REPORTER SUBPEONAS CHILLING. The New York Times editorializes that Justice Department actions threaten First Amendment principles and common law notions of reporters privilege. The department should not look to reporters for information about who leaked the name of Joseph Wilson IV's wife, a CIA operative, to the press, the paper says. If an official at the White House intentionally triggered publication of the name of a CIA operative to undermine Mr. Wilson's credibility and silence criticism of Iraq policy, it was a serious abuse of power. The legacy of the investigation should not be a perverse legal precedent that makes it easy for prosecutors to undo a reporter's pledge of confidentiality, thereby discouraging people with knowledge of real abuses to blow the whistle to the press, the Times says. — Posted at 11:55 am

Sep. 24, 2004

3 MORE SEALS CHARGED WITH PRISONER ABUSE. The Navy said today it has filed assault and other criminal charges against three more of its elite SEAL commandos in connection with probes of prisoner abuse in Iraq, The Associated Press reported. The three, whose names were not released, are in addition to four SEALs charged Sept. 2 with assault and other alleged offenses in connection with the death of a prisoner last November. At the time of the reported abuse, all seven were members of SEAL Team-7, a counterterrorist group that sometimes operated in Iraq with CIA officers. It is based at Coronado, Calif., and reports to the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego. — Posted at 6:20 pm

EDITORIAL: HANDLING OF HAMDI CASE DAMAGES GOV\'T CREDIBILITY. Yaser Esam Hamdi, the American-born Saudi held as an "enemy combatant" for nearly three years, may have been released as part of an acceptable plea agreement this week, but the "unnecessary assault on [his] civil liberties" led by the Bush administration remains unacceptable, says The Washington Post in today's lead editorial. The paper noted the government argued, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, that it had the right to deny a U.S. citizen the protections of a civilian justice system, "with no significant judicial review and no opportunity to rebut the facts behind the decision" to hold him, until the high court decided otherwise. Such a tack was "unpardonable" now that it turns out Hamdi was no serious threat after all - and saps any credibility the government may have had to take such measures "in a truly exceptional situation." — Posted at 12:34 pm

LAWYER SAYS JIHAD CHARGE VIOLATES FIRST AMENDMENT. The attorney for an Islamic spiritual leader charged with inciting members of a "Virginia jihad network" decried the arrest of Ali Al-Timimi as a violation of the constitution. "This is mean spirited, and it's all about free speech and the First Amendment," attorney Martin F.McMahon said in The Washington Post. An Alexandria, Va., grand jury has indicted Timimi for allegedly telling followers at a meeting in Fairfax, Va., days after 9/11 that "the time had come" for them to join the jihad in Afghanistan. — Posted at 11:49 am

Sep. 23, 2004

FBI WHISTLEBLOWER SUES DOJ FOR INVESTIGATIVE REPORT. The Washington Post reports that Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI linguist who was fired in April 2002 for raising questions about the accuracy of the agency's wiretap translations, has filed a lawsuit against the DOJ to compel the release of its investigative report on her termination. That investigative report, marked "Secret", has been circulated among the 9-11 commission, among other government bodies. — Posted at 3:28 pm

PROSECUTION DROPS SPY CHARGES AGAINST HALABI. Espionage charges against Syrian-born U.S. airman Ahmad Halabi were dropped yesterday in exchange for his guilty plea on four lesser charges, The Washington Post reports. The is the third time in recent months the government has withdrawn "security-related" charges against a serviceman stationed at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Post. Prosecutors declined to reveal the terms of the plea agreement with Halabi, except that both sides agreed on a maximum sentence that is expected to be handed down shortly. — Posted at 10:28 am

U.S. TO RELEASE DETAINEE HELD FOR 3 YEARS WITHOUT CHARGE A Saudi national held for nearly three years at Guantanamo Bay as an "enemy combatant," but who was never charged with a crime, will be flown home by this weekend. The Justice Department refused to discuss the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi except to say he was being released because "he no longer poses a threat," according to The Washington Post. Hamdi was held in solitary confinement after being captured with pro-Taliban fighters in 2001 in Afghanistan. — Posted at 10:25 am

Sep. 22, 2004

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WON\'T ACKNOWLEDGE WHETHER THERE\'S ACTUALLY A LAW REGARDING PASSENGER IDENTIFICATION. The Justice Department won't acknowledge whether federal rules demanding airline passengers show identification before flying even exist, according to court documents filed with a federal appeals court Monday. The Bush administration told the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that air-travel security initiatives are a matter of national security and therefore should not be available for public inspection. The Justice Department documents were lodged in response to a lawsuit brought by Oakland, Calif., resident John Gilmore, who sued the government and airlines. Gilmore, a Libertarian who made millions as a founding employee of Sun Microsystems, wants to see the law that he says violates his rights to assemble freely. The government had requested that it file its case under seal, but on Sept. 10 the court ordered it open for public inspection. — Posted at 5:36 pm

Sep. 21, 2004

CASE AGAINST AL HALABI LOOKS FAVORABLE FOR DEFENSE. Lawyers for naturalized U.S. citizen and accused spy Ahmad Al Halabi are pushing to get the charges dropped or the case against him dismissed on the eve of trial. The Los Angeles Times reports that the judge, in a closed door session, pressed the prosecution to determine exactly what charges they will try him on. The judge declared in open court that the defense case was appearing "more favorable." The general in charge of Travais Air Force Base, where the pretrial wrangling is taking place, met yesterday with Air Force lawyers to discuss the case. Al Halabi, who originally faced some 30 charges relating to his alleged attempt to pass off classified documents from Gitmo, now faces 16 charges. A review of the documents earlier this month revealed only one of the documents is classified. — Posted at 6:54 pm

JUDGE: EXPLAIN WHY DETAINEES SHOULD NOT BE LET GO. The Defense Department has until Oct. 4 to explain why 60 detainees held at Gitmo for nearly three years without being charged should not be released, a federal judge ordered yesterday. The order comes three months after the U.S. Supreme Court held that the alleged al Qaeda and Taliban detainees have the right to challenge their incarceration in court. Co-counsel for several of the detainees, who have sued the government to win hearings, expects the cases to be argued in open court instead of private meetings between lawyers and the judge, The Washington Post reports. "These are big public attention cases, they deserve to be out in the open," said attorney Michael Ratner. — Posted at 6:53 pm

Sep. 20, 2004

LEAKED MEMO YSA BLAIR KNEW U.S. HAD NO POST-WAR IRAQ PLAN. British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced another firestorm after the Daily Telegraph published a leaked memo from 2002 that showed Blair was primarily interested in regime change in Iraq, not in finding weapons of mass destruction, and that he had been warned that the U.S. had no plan for what to do after it overthrew Saddam Hussein. The Sydney Herald-Sun reported that the British government has been accused of "clearly misleading" the public over plans for post-war Iraq after a the Daily Telegraph story was reported.T he Foreign Office responded to the Daily Telegraph story by issuing a statement: "The security situation in Iraq is serious, but the country is on the path to a democratically elected government on a timescale agreed by the whole of the international community." Meanwhile, The Independent reported Sunday that a senior British intelligence officer knew in January that Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib were allegedly being abused but failed to tell his superiors. — Posted at 5:32 pm

35 GUANTANAMO DETAINEES SENT TO PAKISTAN. The Pentagon announced on Saturday that it had transferred 35 detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Pakistani custody, as part of a continuing effort by the Bush administration to reduce the number of prisoners at the naval base there. Under the terms of the transfer, which a Pentagon spokesman said Saturday had already been completed, Pakistan will hold 29 of the detainees while releasing another six. Pakistani officials said the detainees, 34 Pakistanis and one Afghan, arrived there late Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported. A Pentagon spokesman refused to confirm whether one of the released detainees was from Afghanistan. — Posted at 5:16 pm

Sep. 17, 2004

NEW REPORT: STILL NO EVIDENCE OF WMDS IN IRAQ. A new report on Iraq's illicit weapons program is expected to conclude that Saddam Hussein's government had a clear intent to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons if United Nations sanctions were lifted, government officials said Thursday. But, The New York Times says that like earlier reports, it finds no evidence that Iraq had begun any large-scale program for weapons production by the time of the American invasion last year, the officials said. In its current form, the report reaffirms previous interim findings that there is no evidence that Iraq possessed stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the American invasion in March 2003, the officials said. Prewar intelligence estimates that said Iraq actually possessed chemical and biological arsenals and was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program were cited by the Bush administration as the major rationale for war. — Posted at 3:59 pm

RUMSFELD ALLEGES JOURNALISTS RECEIVED TIP-OFFS ABOUT ATTACKS. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld charged that journalists have received tip-offs from terrorists of impending attacks in Iraq, singling out Al-Jazeera television as "Johnny-on-the-spot a little too often for my taste." Rumsfeld gave no specifics or evidence to back up the accusation, which he made during a talk to troops at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the army's 101st Airborne Division. — Posted at 3:57 pm

MOYERS SAYS SECRECY IS \"CONTAGIOUS, SCANDALOUS AND TOXIC.\" Last week, journalist Bill Moyers held an audience of journalists spellbound with his thoughts about why journalism matters. Moyers, who was speaking in New York at the national convention of the Society of Professional Journalists, said he will be retiring from "active" journalism in three months. Moyers said, "Never has there been an administration like the one in power today - so disciplined in secrecy, so precisely in lockstep in keeping information from the public at large and, in defiance of the Constitution, from their representatives in Congress." — Posted at 2:36 pm

SUBPOENA STANDS IN PLAME INVESTIGATION. A federal judge has ruled that New York Times reporter Judith Miller must testify before the grand jury investigating the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity, The Washington Post reports. The opinion by Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC, held that neither the First Amendment or federal common law provide a privilege for Miller to refuse to testify about her confidential sources. "The information requested from Ms. Miller is very limited, all available means of obtaining the information have been exhausted, the testimony sought is necessary for the completion of the investigation, and the testimony sough is expected to constitute direct evidence of innocence or guilt," Hogan wrote. Miller never actually wrote a story about Plame, or about her husband Joseph Wilson, but spoke with one or more confidential sources regarding Wilson's article "What I Didn't Find in Africa." Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has served two subpoenas on Miller in the investigation: one concerning conversations with a specific administration official, and another seeking documents related to the conversations. Fitzgerald has also subpoenaed Miller in an unrelated case. According to The New York Times, Miller's attorney, Floyd Abrams, says she will appeal the ruling. Such an appeal would follow a finding that Miller is in contempt of court for not obeying the order to testify. — Posted at 11:27 am

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS U.S. TO RESPOND TO ACLU FOIA REQUEST IN ONE MONTH. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ruled Wednesday that the government must respond by October 15, 2004, to a FOIA request by the American Civil Liberties Union for documents regarding detainee treatment and casualties at U.S. detention facilities worldwide. The ACLU's FOIA request has been pending for nearly one year, and absent the Southern District's intervention, there was no indication that the U.S. intended to product the documents in the near future. Noting that a timely response is part of the government's FOIA obligations, Judge Hellerstein said, "If the documents are more of an embarassment than a secret, the public should know of our government's treatment of individuals captured and held abroad." — Posted at 10:31 am

Sep. 16, 2004

DEFENSE GIVEN ONE WEEK TO RELEASE BUSH\'S GUARD RECORDS. The Associated Press reported late today that the Department of Defense has one week to release any files about President Bush's service in the Air National Guard that have not previously been released. Federal District Judge Harold Baer Jr. this afternoon ordered the records released to AP in response to its Freedom of Information Act request by Sept. 24. The department must also provide a written statement of the steps it has taken to locate the records, according to the order. — Posted at 7:13 pm

DEMS QUESTION SSI DESIGNATION. Two leading Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee have asked government auditors to review how the Homeland Security Department is using its authority to withhold transportation security information from the public, according to a report in GovExec.com. Reps. David Obey, D-Wis., and Martin Olav Sabo, D-Minn., said they are concerned that DHS, and the Transportation Security Administration in particular, are misapplying the "sensitive security information" designation. Obey is the full committee's ranking member, while Sabo is ranking member of the committee's homeland security subcommittee. — Posted at 4:57 pm

CLASSIFIED REPORT PESSIMISTIC ABOUT IRAQ\'S FUTURE. A highly classified National Intelligence Estimate assembled by some of the government's most senior analysts this summer provides a pessimistic assessment about the future security and stability of Iraq, The Los Angeles Times reports. The National Intelligence Council looked at the political, economic and security situation and determined that, at best, stability would be tenuous, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said late Wednesday. At worst, the official said, were "trend lines that would point to a civil war." The official said it "would be fair" to call the document "pessimistic." The estimate, prepared for President Bush, contrasts with public comments in which Bush and his senior aides have spoken optimistically about the prospects for a peaceful and free Iraq, The New York Times reported. — Posted at 4:48 pm

PENTAGON NOT REPORTING ALL IRAQ CASUALTIES. Nearly 17,000 service members medically evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan are absent from public Pentagon casualty reports commonly cited by newspapers, according to military data reviewed by United Press International. Most don't fit the definition of casualties, according to the Pentagon, but a veterans' advocate said they should all be counted. The Pentagon has reported 1,019 dead and 7,245 wounded from Iraq. The military has evacuated 16,765 individual service members from Iraq and Afghanistan for injuries and ailments not directly related to combat, according to the U.S. Transportation Command, which is responsible for the medical evacuations. Most are from Operation Iraqi Freedom. — Posted at 4:44 pm

BROADCASTERS TELL CONGRESS TOO MUCH PUBLIC INFORMATION HAS DRIED UP. Several broadcasters testified Wednesday before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security about the role the broadcast media play in keeping the public informed during national emergencies. Joining RTNDA President Barbara Cochran on the panel were RTNDA members Robert Long, vice president and news director at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, and Greg Caputo, news director at WGN-TV in Chicago. Broadcasting & Cable magazine reported that Cochran used the hearing as an opportunity to express RTNDA's concerns with attacks on the Freedom of Information Act. She pointed to information that had disappeared from government agency Web sites and new categories of information, including infrastructure information, being removed from public view. That, she said, was one obstacle to broadcasters' role in keeping the public informed. — Posted at 4:38 pm

JUDGE IMPOSES GAG ORDER AS AL-HALABI TRIAL DELAYED. A pretrial hearing in the case of U.S. airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi, who is accused of trying to spy for his native Syria during a stint as a translator at Gitmo, was delayed until today. Lawyers for both sides met in closed session twice this week to discuss "administrative" matters pertaining to the hearing, which was set to begin Tuesday. Al Halabi's lawyer said the judge has issued a gag order forbbidding disclosure of the reason for the delay. — Posted at 12:20 pm

ARMY CENSORS BLOGGERS WRITING FROM IRAQ. The military has cracked down at least three blogs written by soldiers now serving in Iraq, including one known as "My War," written under the pseudonym CBFTW and chronicling the daily life of an infantryman stationed in Mosul. The bloggings posted by CBFTW, identified by The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) as Army Specialist Colby Buzzell, now must be reviewed by his commanders in an effort to minimze what the Army charatcerizes as potential breaches of operational security. Others, however, suspect the crackdown is meant to stifle dissent from soldiers writing about conditions in Iraq to the public back home. — Posted at 12:17 pm

SUBPOENAED REPORTER TESTIFIES IN TERRORISM TRIAL. Egyptian Reuters reporter Esmat Salaheddin testified as to the accuracy of a published article and nothing else in the trial of Lynn Stewart, a lawyer accused of aiding terrorism, The New York Times reports. Stewart is accused of relaying messages from a jailed client to terrorists via public statements. The client, Shiek Omar Abdel Rahman, is barred from communicating with anyone outside the prison other than his lawyers, and Stewart signed an agreement not to communicate his views to the press. Salaheddin interviewed Stewart for a June 14, 2000 article which quoted her as saying Rahman no longer supported a cease-fire by militants in Egypt. Salaheddin was subpoenaed by prosecutors and lost a fight to quash the subpoena. Four other reporters have been subpoenaed in the trial, but only Salaheddin has testified. — Posted at 12:03 pm

POST REPORTER GIVES DEPOSITION BUT NOT SOURCE. The Washington Post reports that Post reporter Walter Pincus has given a deposition in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, but did not revealed his source, and that Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, who had previously testified, has been subpoenaed again. Pincus' source revealed himself to prosecutors and gave Pincus approval to testify. In a statement, Pincus said, "I understand that my source has already spoken to the special prosecutor about our conversation on July 12 [2003], and that the special prosecutor has dropped his demand that I reveal my source. Even so, I will not testify about his or her identity." Following Pincus' deposition, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald issued another broad subpoena to Cooper. Cooper's attorney, Floyd Abrams, said Time will seek to quash the subpoena. Three weeks ago, Cooper testified under subpoena and threat of jail about his conversations with White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby after recieving permission from Libby. Both Pincus and Cooper have testified that they spoke with Libby, but that the conversations did not involve Plame's identity. — Posted at 10:37 am

Sep. 15, 2004

AMERICANS SENTENCED TO PRISON IN AFGHANISTAN. Three Americans have been sentenced to up to 10 years in jail after being found guilty by an Afghan court on charges including torture, running a private prison and illegal detention, Reuters reports. Jonathan "Jack" Idema, a former U.S. Green Beret, was arrested in July along with another ex-serviceman, Brent Bennett, and documentary film-maker Edward Caraballo. — Posted at 6:18 pm

CIA EXPERT TELLS CONGRESS AGENCY IS UNDERSTAFFED. Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the CIA has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, a senior CIA officer with extensive counterterrorism experience has told Congress. Excerpts from Michael Scheuer's letter to Congress were read publicly by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Tuesday at a Senate hearing on the confirmation of Porter J. Goss as director of central intelligence. Congressional officials later provided a copy of the letter to The New York Times. — Posted at 6:13 pm

WE MAY NEVER KNOW IF NUCLEAR PLANTS CAN DEFEND FROM ATTACKERS. Nuclear power plants will soon be required to defend against bigger, more capable groups of attackers, but Congressional auditors said Tuesday that it would be years before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would know if the plants meet the requirements. The commission has been ordering changes since the Sept. 11 attacks, and in April 2003 it published requirements, which take effect next month, for how many attackers a plant must be prepared to repel, and what training, weapons and tactics it should employ. The commission required plant owners to submit plans on how they would comply, The New York Times reported today. But the question of how well the nation's 104 commercial nuclear power plants are prepared to repel terrorists has become murkier in the last few months, since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission removed almost all data on the subject from its Web site. It had shut down the site after Sept. 11 and later restored much of the information on security, but has removed that data again. This has left the Government Accountability Office, which has a security clearance, as one of the few authoritative critics of the security arrangements. — Posted at 6:09 pm

JUDGE REFUSES TO SEAL COURT PAPERS IN AIRPORT ID CASE. The federal government must publicly argue its case against a California privacy advocate who is fighting a federal law that requires passengers to produce ID before boarding an airplane, The Associated Press reports. The DOJ said it needed to file under seal its court papers detailing why the appeals court should throw out Oakland resident John Gilmore's challenge. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the government late Friday, according to lawyers in the case. The government, which has argued that national security requires directives dealing with transportation be kept secret, is scheduled to file its legal arguments to the court in two weeks. — Posted at 4:22 pm

Sep. 14, 2004

FOURTH CIRCUIT\'S MOUSSAOUI OPINION HEAVILY REDACTED. A federal appeals court on Monday rejected a bid by Zacarias Moussaoui that would have made him ineligible for the death penalty, clearing the way for the first U.S. trial on charges related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit denied Moussaoui's appeal of its order that he cannot interview key al Qaeda detainees. A trial judge had barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty and from presenting Sept. 11-related evidence as punishment for their refusal to turn over the witnesses. Monday's ruling for the first time allows Moussaoui to submit written questions intended for the detainees, sources familiar with the classified portions of the decision told The Washington Post. But the interrogation process is so secretive that Moussaoui's lawyers won't know if the questions were asked or what the answers were unless the information happens to show up later in interrogation summaries, the sources said. CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen says the heavily redacted th Circuit opinion is "admirable for getting this long-delayed case back on track." The Los Angeles Times reported that the new opinion followed a closed-door hearing in June that, at least in part, was apparently called after the government indicated it had failed to fully inform the court of contacts between the federal prosecution team and some of the prisoners. — Posted at 6:00 pm

RECORDS ABOUT TRANSPORTATION ARE SHUT OFF BY FEDS. Citing the threat of terrorism, federal officials are keeping more information about the security of the nation's seaports secret, but new regulations - and proposed legislation - could also shut off records about safety and environmental issues, the Miami Herald reported Sunday. Critics say the new rules could block disclosure of data about the driving records of hazardous-waste haulers, the criminal records of port stevedores and the recent safety history of railroads and vessel operators. Florida has strong open-government laws, which have played a role in investigations of corruption at the Port of Miami-Dade, Port Everglades and other facilities. That could change under a small provision of a massive transportation spending bill that Congress may pass this fall. Requested by the Bush administration, the provision would give the TSA wide-ranging authority to extend secrecy to any transportation "facilities, infrastructure or employees." The new law would override state freedom-of-information laws such as Florida's. — Posted at 5:54 pm

INTERNAL REVIEWS RESULT IN NO DISCIPLINE. Internal reviews still under way at the Central Intelligence Agency and recently completed at the Justice Department, examining their performance in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, have not resulted in any disciplinary actions, government officials told The New York Times on Monday. The reviews were sought in December 2002 by the joint Congressional committee that investigated Sept. 11 events. The purpose, it said, should be to determine "whether and to what extent personnel at all levels should be held accountable" for any mistakes that contributed to the failure to disrupt the attacks. Neither review has been made public. — Posted at 5:46 pm

CONGRESSIONAL WHITE PAPER DECRIES BUSH SECRECY. The Bush Administration's actions to limit disclosure of government records while expanding its authority to operate in secret represent an unparalleled assault on the principle of open government, an extensive examination of secrecy in the Bush administration concludes. The lengthy White Paper released today by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) says the administration has narrowed the scope of every open government law passed by Congress and has repeatedly expanded the interpretation of laws tht allow government secrecy. Concurrent with release of the report, Waxman and others in the House introduced legislation to reverse these actions. — Posted at 5:21 pm

DOJ PROBES WRONGFUL ARREST OF MUSLIM LAWYER UNDER PATRIOT ACT The Justice Department's inspector general is investigating the FBI's arrest of Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield, a converted Muslim who was jailed for two weeks after faulty fingerprint analysis wrongly linked him to the terrorist bombings in Madrid. News of the investigation was included in a report released Monday detailing internal probes of alleged civil rights and civil liberties violations by DOJ under the USA Patriot Act. Mayfield complained that the FBI secretly searched his home after the agency had erroneously matched his fingerprint to a latent print found on a bag of detonators connected to the deadly train bombings. The FBI later admitted that the print belonged to an Algerian man and apologized to Mayfield. According to The Associated Press, the Mayfield case is one of three being investigated that involve acts against "Muslims, Arabs or other groups considered vulnerable to backlash in the war on terror." — Posted at 5:15 pm

Sep. 13, 2004

\"WHAT MAKES HIM A FLIGHT RISK NOW?\" JUDGE ASKS. A federal judge on Friday postponed a decision on whether to release an accused Iraqi spy pending trial, saying the case was too "highly charged" and she didn't want to make the wrong decision. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer asked why federal prosecutors waited so long to charge Sami Khoshaba Latchin, 57, of Des Plaines, Ill., when his last alleged crime took place in 1998. Latchin is a suspected spy who worked at O'Hare Airport in baggage and security. He was charged with making false statements to U.S. immigration officials when applying for citizenship. "I'm very aware this case was indicted the very last day it could have been," Pallmeyer said. "The government's known about his activities for years . . . . What makes him a flight risk now?" In the meantime, federal prosecutors revealed more about their case against Latchin, including allegations that Saddam Hussein sent him to the United States as part of an Iraqi spy program set-up after the Persian-Gulf War. — Posted at 6:18 pm

HERSH SAYS ADMINISTRATION WAS WARNED PRISONERS WERE BEING ABUSED. Senior military and national security officials in the Bush administration were repeatedly warned by subordinates in 2002 and 2003 that prisoners in military custody were being abused, according to a new book by Seymour M. Hersh, a writer for The New Yorker. Earlier this year, Hersh was among the first to disclose details of the abuses of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The New York Times reports that Hersh makes the charges in his book \"Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib" (HarperCollins), which was released today. Hersh asserts that a CIA analyst who visited the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in the late summer of 2002 filed a report of abuses there that drew the attention of Gen. John A. Gordon, a deputy to Condoleezza Rice, the White House national security adviser. On Sunday, Rice denied assertions in the book. In a statement issued Friday, the Defense Department said: \"Based on media inquiries, it appears that Mr. Seymor Hersh's upcoming book apparently contains many of the numerous unsubstantiated allegations and inaccuracies which he has made in the past based upon unnamed sources.\" For a look at how newspapers in the United Kingdom are reporting the story, click here to read The Guardian. — Posted at 6:07 pm

DECLASSIFIED RECORDS RELEASED REGARDING AL QAEDA BOMBINGS. Two days after U.S. missiles struck Afghanistan in retaliation for al Qaeda's bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, the head of that country's Taliban government told a State Department official that Congress should force then President Bill Clinton to resign "in order to rebuild U.S. popularity in the Islamic world," according to documents released last week. The Washington Post reports the suggestion is contained in a newly declassified State Department cable recounting the first and only direct communication between the U.S. government and Mohammad Omar, the reclusive Taliban leader who was reaching out in the wake of the U.S. strikes on alleged al Qaeda facilities in his country and Sudan. The cable was among more than a dozen Taliban-related documents released late yesterday by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which obtained the records through a Freedom of Information Act request and posted them on its Web site. — Posted at 5:56 pm

REPORTERS COMMITTEE RELEASES 5TH EDITION OF HOMEFRONT CONFIDENTIAL. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press over the weekend released the 5th Edition of its "White Paper" chronicling the effects the War on Terrorism has had on the public's right to know. The 95-page report, called "Homefront Confidential: How the War on Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know," outlines actions taken over the last three years by state and federal government agencies that limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs. — Posted at 5:51 pm

ROCKEFELLER WANTS TO KNOW WHO LEAKED INFORMATION TO WOODWARD. The vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has sent a second letter to the CIA asking why the agency did not launch an investigation into the disclosure of classified information appearing in the best-selling book "Bush at War," by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward, the Post reported Saturday. In March, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) wrote the CIA to ask why it had not made a formal criminal referral to the Justice Department regarding the possible unauthorized disclosure of classified information contained in the book. Rockefeller cited 20 passages that he said contained highly classified information. — Posted at 5:46 pm

JOURNALIST AMONG THOSE KILLED IN U.S. HELICOPTER ATTACK. A TV journalist was shot dead Sunday as he made a live broadcast from Baghdad when U.S. helicopters fired on a crowd gathered around the burning wreckage of a US armoured vehicle. Mazen al-Tumeizi, working for al-Arabiya, an Arab satellite TV channel, was killed in the incident. Reuters reported that witnesses and officials in Baghdad said 13 people died and 61 were wounded during fierce battles in the area where the gunship fired. — Posted at 5:39 pm

Sep. 10, 2004

\'GHOST DETAINEES\' NUMBER UP TO 100 Pentagon investigators told Congress Thursday that up to 100 "ghost" detainees -- whose identities and locations are not revealed -- have been held by the CIA in Iraq. However Army Gen. Paul Kern said that the number of prisoners and the conditions under which they have been imprisoned are unknown because of the CIA's refusal to provide the Pentagon information on the detainees. Kern is in charge of an investigation into prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Pentagon previously had reported only eight cases of failure to account for prisoners, an apparent violation of international law under the Geneva Convention. — Posted at 2:31 pm

PROSECUTOR SUBPOENAS REPORTERS\' RECORDS The U.S. Attorney who subpoenaed reporters in investigating the leak of undercover C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame's identity has subpoenaed reporters phone records in another unrelated investigation, The Washington Post reports. Federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald informed The New York Times by letter last week that he had subpoenaed telephone company records in an attempt to determine whether someone in the government leaked planned asset seizures of an Islamic charity suspected of funding al Qaeda. The subpoena seeks the records of two Times reporters, Judith Miller, who is currently resisting a subpoena in the Plame investigation, and Philip Shenon. Times attorney Floyd Abrams said the matter is still under discussion with Fitzgerald. Abrams does not know if Fitzgerald has already obtained the records or not, or if he has, whether he can be persuaded not to look at them. — Posted at 10:32 am

Sep. 8, 2004

GUANTANAMO SPY RING CASE MAY BE FALLING APART. Military prosecutors who accused an Air Force translator at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, of taking part in a spy ring that tried to pass more than 200 secret documents to U.S. enemies now say that only one of the documents was secret, USA TODAY reports. The prosecutors' move, six months after the collapse of a case against a Muslim chaplain in the same probe, is fueling questions about whether there ever was a spy ring at Guantanamo. Senior Airman Ahmad Al Halabi still faces 16 counts - including attempted espionage, lying to investigators and disobeying orders - and could face life in prison. But the prosecutors' concession has led Al Halabi's lawyers to call for some counts to be dismissed, and military law specialists say it has stripped much of the backbone from the charges. — Posted at 6:17 pm

HOLDING \"GHOST DETAINEES\" WAS SOP. It was standard operating procedure for the Army to hold some detainees in secret in Afghanistan for up to several months without reporting them to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to military officers familiar with the policy. Knight Ridder correspondent Elise Ackerman reports that a similar practice was later used at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, where the physical and sexual abuse of detainees prompted the Department of Defense to launch several sweeping investigations of its detention policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, three recently completed Pentagon investigations didn't examine the Army's practice of holding secret detainees, now known as "ghost detainees," and whether it may have contributed to abuse. — Posted at 5:19 pm

DETAINEE WILL BE ALLOWED TO GO HOME. Wire services reported today that a U.S. military panel has determined that one detainee at the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was incorrectly classified an "enemy combatant" and will be allowed to return to his home country. Navy Secretary Gordon England declined to release any information about the person, including his name and nationality. — Posted at 5:15 pm

Sep. 7, 2004

NAVY SPECIAL FORCES PERSONNEL CHARGED IN ABU GHRAIB DEATH CASE. Four unidentified Navy special forces personnel have been charged with abusing an Iraqi detainee who later died during questioning at Abu Ghraib prison last November, and then lying about it, Navy officials said last week. It is the first time Special Operations forces have faced criminal charges in connection with the prisoner-abuse scandal. The charges against three Navy Seals and another sailor attached to a Seal unit, who were not identified but include at least one junior officer, include assault, maltreatment of detainees and giving false statements to investigators, according to a Navy statement and Navy officials. A spokesman for the Naval Special Warfare Command in San Diego, Cmdr. Jeffrey Bender, said more Seals would probably be charged "in the near future" as part of a widening inquiry into abuses in Iraq between October 2003 and April 2004. . — Posted at 6:21 pm

SOME CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST TRANSLATOR BECAUSE DOCUMENTS WERE NOT SECRET. A military translator accused of espionage at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, asked a military judge today to drop some charges after the prosecution acknowledged detainee letters found in his possession were not classified, Reuters reported. Senior Airman Ahmad al Halabi is accused of carrying the letters, jail maps and other documents from the prison where terrorism suspects are held. The supply clerk worked there as an Arabic translator between November 2002 and July 2003. The defense said it received a document last week from the military prosecutors, who have already dropped 14 of 30 charges brought last year, saying the letters were not classified. — Posted at 5:43 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WANTS TO FILE BRIEF IN SECRET. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked an appellate court to keep its arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an airplane. A federal statute and other regulations "prohibit the disclosure of sensitive security information, and that is precisely what is alleged to be at issue here," the government said in court papers filed Friday with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Disclosing the restricted information "would be detrimental to the security of transportation," the government wrote. Attorneys for Gilmore, a 49-year-old San Francisco resident who co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said they don't buy the government's argument and that its latest request raises only more questions. — Posted at 5:33 pm

AMERICAN MEDIA NOT READY FOR THE NEXT ATTACK. An analysis in this month's Columbia Journalism Review by Trudy Lieberman concludes that America's media are not ready for the next catastrophic attack on an American city. Lieberman says extensive and specific searches by CJR show that over the last couple of years, coverage of the effort to prevent another 9/11 has been spotty, episodic, reactive, and shallow. The strong stories she found are the exceptions that prove the rule, and "they more than demonstrate the need for a continuing and critical assessment of whether the government's policies and practices actually match their stated purpose of safeguarding America." — Posted at 11:32 am

Sep. 3, 2004

PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT OR WHISTLEBLOWER RETALIATION The New York Times reports that a federal judge has throw out terrorism convictions of two Muslim immigrants that had been hailed by Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department as a major victory in the war on terror. Judge Gerald Rosen of the Federal District Court in Detroit threw out the convictions with the agreement of prosecutors, citing misconduct by a former prosecutor in the case, Richard Convertino. Rosen said Convertino had ignored and avoided evidence that undermined the defendants' guilt. Convertino, who is currently being investigated for misconduct, denies that he withheld significant evidence and says that he is being punished for cooperating with a Congressional inquiry into the nation's antiterrorism strategy. The defendants are being re-tried on document fraud charges unrelated to terrorism. — Posted at 4:24 pm

Sep. 2, 2004

GOVERNMENT WANTS TO SEAL BOEING COURT RECORDS. Moving to protect "ongoing criminal investigations," the government has sought to seal court records involving Darleen Druyun, a former U.S. Air Force official who has admitted illegally negotiating a job with Boeing while still overseeing its Air Force contracts, according to a Reuters report. A motion filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia did not say if the investigations involved any Boeing Co. officials other than Druyun and Michael Sears, the company's former chief financial officer. — Posted at 5:53 pm

FOLLOWUP ON COLLAPSED DETROIT TERROR CASE. Several major newspapers today published followup stories on the collapse this week of a Detroit terrorism case in which the government asked a judge to dismiss terrorism charges against two defendants and retry them for document fraud. The Detroit Free Press quoted experts who said Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department deserve much of the blame for the collapse of the case. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Justice Department conceded Wednesday that in its zeal to win convictions in a terrorism case in Detroit last year, prosecutors engaged in "a pattern of mistakes and oversights" that may constitute criminal misconduct. The Washington Post reported that the Justice Department released a harshly critical review yesterday that shows that prosecutors failed to turn over dozens of pieces of evidence to defense attorneys in the first major terrorism trial after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and chronicles "a pattern of mistakes and oversights" so egregious that the government has agreed to abandon the terrorism portion of the case altogether. The New York Times reported that after nine months of investigation, federal prosecutors compiled a wealth of evidence that they said fatally undermined every aspect of their terror case. They also sharply rebuked the prosecutor who led the case, Richard G. Convertino, suggesting he knowingly withheld evidence that he was obligated to share with defense lawyers. — Posted at 1:44 pm

LAWYER\'S GROUP SAYS PENTAGON SHIELDED HIGH-LEVEL OFFICERS FROM SCRUTINY. Human Rights First asserts that in classifying key portions of a recent Army report, the Defense Department may have shielded high-level officials from scrutiny concerning actions that contributed to the abuse of detainees. An unclassified 177-page version of the Fay-Jones report, detailing the role of military intelligence personnel in prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq, was released on August 25. Since that time, additional information on the report has been provided to the New York Times and Washington Post - much of it revealing the role played by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, commander of joint U.S. forces in Iraq, in approving a range of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Abu Ghraib. That information was omitted from the public version of the report issued on August 25. — Posted at 1:38 pm

ARMY DID NOT DISCLOSE THAT AFGHAN DEATHS WERE HOMICIDES. Army criminal investigators will recommend that about two dozen soldiers face criminal charges or administrative punishment in connection with the deaths of two prisoners at an American detention center in Afghanistan in December 2002, Army officials said Wednesday. The charges, which follow an inquiry that took more than a year to complete, would include negligent homicide, dereliction of duty, and failure to report an offense, two Army officials said. In both Afghan cases, at the time of the men's deaths, Army officials publicly attributed them to natural causes. They did not disclose that Army pathologists declared both deaths "homicides" until journalists obtained copies of Army death certificates that had been given to Afghan families who did not speak English. — Posted at 1:31 pm

Sep. 1, 2004

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS JUDGE TO THROW OUT TERROR CONVICTIONS. The Justice Department is asking a judge to throw out the convictions of a suspected terror cell in Detroit because of prosecutorial misconduct, a dramatic setback for the administration's war on terror on the eve of President Bush's re-election pitch at the GOP convention. In a late Tuesday night court filing, the department told U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen it supports the Detroit defendants' request for a new trial and would no longer pursue terrorism charges against them. The defendants at most would only face fraud charges at a new trial. The Justice Department is "concurring in the defendants' motions for a new trial" and asks the court to dismiss the first count of the original indictment charging the defendants with material support of terrorism, according to a summary of the government's filing that was obtained by The Associated Press through the court's electronic access system. The Detroit News reported that the filing alleged prosecutors repeatedly withheld evidence, misled jurors and altered notes of interviews. As a result, FBI agents and prosecutors kept federal jurors from fairly assessing the evidence against Detroit terrorism suspects. Richard Convertino, the government's lead prosecutor, and Special Agent Michael Thomas, along with other officials, are the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department. US News & World Report reported that officials have provided Convertino with documents from their internal review, and that he responded to their questions with "information that is at odds" with the evidence and testimony. Click here to link to the Justice Department's filing. — Posted at 6:03 pm

COURT-MARTIAL CLOSED TO PUBLIC. The court-martial at Ft. Lewis, Wash., of a soldier accused of trying to pass military information to al-Qaida was closed to the public Tuesday so the judge could hear sensitive testimony. — Posted at 5:48 pm

PENTAGON CENSORS FOI VIDEO. The Defense Department spent $70,500 to produce a Humphrey Bogart-themed video called "The People's Right to Know" to teach employees to respond to citizen requests for information. But when it came to showing the tape to the public, the Pentagon censored some of the footage. Officials said they blacked out parts of the training video with the message, "copyrighted material removed for public viewing," because they were worried the government didn't have legal rights to some historical footage that was included. Citing the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, The Associated Press asked the Pentagon for a copy of the video nearly 18 months ago. The Defense Department released an edited version of the tape and acknowledged the irony of censoring a video promoting government openness. — Posted at 5:46 pm

DHS CAUTIONS ABOUT USE OF BIRTH AND DEATH RECORDS. Ohio officials report that the regional New Orleans Passport Agency and the Department of Homeland Security have told them that their birth and death records are part of a large fraud problem, Kassouf said. The problem is particularly bad with with death certificates, which in Ohio list Social Security numbers. As fraud concerns lead the remaining open-records states to restrict access, adoptee organizations are pushing for the opposite, said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York, a national nonprofit dedicated to improving adoption policy. — Posted at 5:41 pm