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.

Nov. 30, 2004

TRAVEL BY NON-EMBEDDED REPORTERS IN IRAQ CURTAILED. The Washington Post reports that reporters working independent of the U.S. military in Iraq have been barred from traveling through towns south of Baghdad. — Posted at 3:54 pm

FEDERAL UNIONS PROTEST NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS Two federal government employee unions have asked the Department of Homeland Security to rescind a May 11 directive requiring its employees to sign binding non-disclosure agreements to protect sensitive but unclassified information. In Nov. 23 letters to Secretary Thomas Ridge and general counsel Joe Whitley, the National Treasury Employees Union and the American Federation of Government Employees said that the agreement, which must be signed by new employees, is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech. Secrecy News, which has regularly tracked this issue has posted the letter as well as the directive and form. — Posted at 12:29 pm

Nov. 29, 2004

WHAT\'S THE SECRET NAVY PROJECT ON THE MALL? Shortly after dawn on a recent morning, two dump trucks and a water tanker pulled up to a new, unmarked complex of buildings at East Potomac Park, the grassy peninsula near the Jefferson Memorial. The drivers exited their cabs, knocked at a gatehouse with blacked-out windows and waited for a security guard to emerge from behind a locked door. A few minutes later, according to a story in The Washington Post, a panel of 10-foot-high security fence slid open, and the trucks disappeared inside, leaving the joggers and cyclists along the waterfront none the wiser about their mission. What goes on beyond the fence is a mystery. The multi-agency review normally required to erect anything on federal parkland did not apply to the beige, metal buildings. The Navy, which operates the site at Ohio and Buckeye drives SW, calls the work a "utility assessment and upgrade" and volunteers nothing more. Frederick J. Lindstrom, acting secretary of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, said it is illegal for him to discuss the matter. He did say the Navy started the work without seeking review from the commission, which oversees the city's Potomac River parklands. — Posted at 6:20 pm

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REQUESTS TASER INFORMATION. Amnesty International has made a Freedom of Information Act request to the Defense Department for information on the U.S. military's use of Taser guns on its detainees, The New York Times reported today. The human rights organization said that it felt "uneasy" with the idea of Taser use, and is seeking data from microchips inside U.S.-owned guns. Every unit's microchip records the number of times it has been discharged. — Posted at 5:13 pm

CRITICAL REPORT RELEASED NEAR HOLIDAY. The US Defense Department released a highly critical report by the Defense Science Board late Wednesday. The advisory board finds the administration's efforts in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are fostering the belief among Muslims that the U.S. favors Israel over Palestine and is cementing and even increasing support for what Muslims see as tyrannies, most notably in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Tom Regan of The Christian Science Monitor examines the report. — Posted at 5:09 pm

INSPECTOR GENERAL RECOMMENDS WITHHOLDING HALLIBURTON PAYMENTS. Stuart W. Bowen, Jr., a special inspector general for the Iraq reconstruction effort, has recommended that the U.S. government withhold 15 percent of contract payments to Halliburton until the company improves its cost-reporting, The Dallas Morning News reported last week. Bowen's recommendation echoes similar ones already made by the U.S. Army Materiel Command and Defense Contract Audit Agency. The demand for an accurate audit of Halliburton's spending has intensified recently after charges by Bunnatine Greenhouse, the top contracting official for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that Halliburton received preferential treatment in the reconstruction bidding process and was overpaid for services. Greenhouse's allegations have given rise to an FBI investigation, and agents spent more than eight hours interviewing her on Nov. 17, according to an Associated Press article. — Posted at 4:49 pm

TERROR SUSPECT CLAIMS GOV\'T ILLEGALLY SEIZED EVIDENCE. Lawyers for suspected Islamic Jiihad leader Sami Al-Arian have asked a federal judge to throw out government evidence gathered using allegedly improper searches and surveillance, the Associated Press reports. A secret court authorized wiretapping Al-Arian under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, under which the government did not need to show probable cause to secure a warrant. Because the warrant documents are classified, defense attorneys asked the judge to be Al-Arian's "eyes and ears" in determining their legality. — Posted at 11:43 am

Nov. 24, 2004

SECRET REPORT CRITICAL OF GOVERNMENT\'S COMMUNICATION SKILLS. A harshly critical report by a Pentagon advisory panel obtained by The New York Times says the United States is failing in its efforts to explain the nation's diplomatic and military actions to the Muslim world. But the report it warns that no public relations plan or information operation can defend America from flawed policies. The Defense Science Board report, which has not been released to the public, says the nation's institutions charged with "strategic communication" are broken, and calls for a comprehensive reorganization of government public affairs, public diplomacy and information efforts. — Posted at 4:48 pm

NO DETAILS RELEASED ABOUT LATEST MILITARY REVIEW TRIBUNALS. U.S. military review tribunals have ordered eight more men to remain held at the U.S. Naval outpost in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The rulings brought to 143 the number of detainees ordered to remain held as a result of the tribunals, Ross said. Only one Pakistani prisoner has been freed. Rulings in 267 cases are pending, while some 140 have yet to be heard. The military did not release details about the eight latest rulings. — Posted at 4:43 pm

NYT OMBUD INVESTIGATING PAPER\'S CLAIM OF \'UNCONFIRMED\' CIVILIAN CASUALTIES. Daniel Okrent, public editor of The New York Times, tells Editor & Publisher magazine that he's "not ready to say anything conclusive" about why the newspaper continues to claim that civilian casualties in April's offensive in Iraq are "unconfirmed" or "inflated." — Posted at 11:54 am

Nov. 23, 2004

CLARKE\'S 2002 TESTIMONY CONSISTENT WITH STATEMENTS BEFORE 9/11 COMMISSION. A transcript of CIA counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke's June 2002 testimony before a closed, joint congressional hearing on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been declassified and corroborates his later testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Salon.com reported in its Friday edition. When Clarke's March 2004 testimony before the 9/11 Commission proved damaging to the Bush administration, some Republicans alleged his allegations were inconsistent with his statements before the congressional panel in 2002. U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, (R-Tenn.), for example, said that "Mr. Clarke has told two entirely different stories under oath," referring to his statements before the congressional panel. Through his spokesman, Frist later admitted that he had never actually read the June 2002 transcript. — Posted at 4:11 pm

GITMO DETAINEE ASKS FOR SUPREME COURT REVIEW. Lawyers for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, held at Guantanamo for the last three years on suspicion of being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard, have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and immediately decide the legality of military commissions established to prosecute alleged al Qaeda and Taliban fighters, The Washington Post reports. In asking the high court to take the case, Hamdan's attorneys, who are joined by former military lawyers, seek to skip the expedited appeal that the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., granted last week - a process that could take up to a year and may ultimately end up at the Supreme Court anyway. Hamdan's trial was postponed indefinitely after a federal district judge ruled the commissions are illegal. — Posted at 4:09 pm

COLORADO SECRECY LAW RECONSIDERED. Colorado state Senator Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, says that a homeland security law he co-sponsored in 2002 goes too far in limiting access to public information and should be scaled back, the Rocky Mountain News reported. The law in question closed all documents sent to or from the state's homeland security department from public view. Although there is bipartisan support to reverse the law's excessive secrecy, GOP lawmakers do not want the Democratic-controlled Legislature to amend the law. Instead, they prefer that Gov. Bill Owens' Republican administration promulgate new rules redefining the law's scope. — Posted at 11:58 am

Nov. 22, 2004

REPORTER GETS RUNAROUND TRYING TO INTERVIEW DETAINEE National Public Radio reporter Daniel Zwerdling says it took nearly three months and "dozens" of phone calls and emails to get permission from federal officials to interview an immigrant detainee who had been attacked by a dog while being held at the Passaic, N.J., County Jail. Zwerdling, who was investigating tales of abuse of detainees being held in American jails prior to deportation, says, "In my 30 years reporting on government programs and policies, I've never encountered as much trouble getting information as I did while researching these stories on immigrant detainees." Read the two-part series Zwerdling prepared for NPR, including claims by detainees that they were beaten by guards and bitten by dogs at two New Jersey jails. In response to the series, the Department of Homeland Security has "undertaken a review" of the situation and plans to release a report by next spring. — Posted at 6:05 pm

NOT A GOOD TIME TO BE A U.S. JOURNALIST. Los Angeles Times columnist David Shaw says reporters in this country are under siege - not a military siege, not a life-threatening siege, but a siege nonetheless, mounted largely by the federal government. What this siege comes down to, for the most part, is that many reporters, in different cases, have been threatened with jail sentences unless they reveal their confidential sources. Shaw says that, "With the reelection of Bush, the most media-averse president in recent memory, the siege only figures to get worse." — Posted at 5:42 pm

POLICE, MEDICOS REACH ACCORD IN SECRET. An agreement in New York City worked out in secret meetings between public health and law enforcement officials provides for doctors to make available to police medical diagnoses that could indicate terrorism - but only on a confidential basis. The New York Times reported that the public health commissioner said, "Unless there is a bioterrorist event, that information is essentially sealed from the public, permanently and forever." — Posted at 5:04 pm

AFTERGOOD SUMS UP \'SECRETS OF FLIGHT.\' In online newsletter Slate, Steven Aftergood sums up the "Secrets of Flight" triggered by the legislation and regulations that expanded airline security secrets so expansively that Des Moines Police Chief William McCarthy told The Des Moines Register that a non-disclosure requirement the Transportation Safety Administration required of local law enforcement was so stringent it could have prevented police from describing the arrest of a drunk at the airport. Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) objected and TSA Administrator James Loy said, in clarification, that the agreements only meant that the federal government was to receive direct notification of security incidents rather than "press" accounts. — Posted at 5:02 pm

PUBLIC FAA DATABASES COMING DOWN. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is announcing withdrawals of unclassified public domain information, according to news items in Secrecy News, the newsletter of the Federation of American Scientists. A Federal Register notice Thursday said the agency intends to remove its Flight Information Publications (FLIP), Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF), and related aeronautical safety of navigation digital and hardcopy publications from public sale by October 2005. Some of that information has been available to the public for nearly 69 years. The agency has also notified a Web site that it must remove high-resolution digital images of Fallujah from its Web site. — Posted at 4:59 pm

CLARKE TESTIMONY DECLASSIFIED. USA Today reports on declassified 2002 testimony by former cybersecurity adviser Richard Clarke, author of Against All Enemies, a book that criticizes the Bush administration's dealings with terrorism. It quotes Sen. Jay Rockefeller, (D-W.Va.), who worked with the Senate Intelligence Committee to have the testimony released: "A detailed review shows that his testimony is not inconsistent with his testimony before the 9/11 Commission." However, Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)is quoted as saying that the Clarke testimony was "effusive" in its praise of the Bush administration's efforts against al Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks. — Posted at 4:56 pm

LT. GEN. DECLINES TO GIVE REPORTERS NUMBERS OF ENEMY DEAD IN FALLUJAH. Lt. General John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, told reporters he would not speculate on the number of enemy fighters killed in the battle for Fallujah. "A number of 1,200 has been thrown out multiple times. I would say that is probably a safe number." — Posted at 4:51 pm

EDITORIAL: BUSH SHOULD HEED FED COURT\'S RULING ON MILITARY COMMISSIONS Although the recent federal ruling that Guantanamo Bay military commissions are unconstitutional may be vulnerable analytically on appeal, the Bush administration should still heed its main point because correcting the problems now plaguing the commissions is "the right thing to do," according to an editorial in The Washington Post. Judge James Robertson's ruling earlier this month halted the trial of "enemy combatant" Salim Ahmed Hamdan. "Involving Congress in the creation of the military tribunals that will judge these cases would greatly fortify the administration's position before the courts," the Post notes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has agreed to expedite an appeal of Robertson's ruling, according to Agence France Presse; the government has until Dec. 8 to make its case. — Posted at 4:48 pm

FREELANCE CAMERAMAN RECEIVES HATE MAIL, DEATH THREATS Kevin Sites, a freelance cameraman working for NBC News, received hate mail and death threats after taping a Marine killing a wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque, The New York Times reported. Sites also has his own Weblog: I'm not some war zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a 'gotcha' reporter - hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it. — Posted at 4:44 pm

HOW FCC\'S REACTION TO BONO DIRECTLY RELATES TO WAR REPORTAGE IN IRAQ. In The New York Times, Frank Rich opines about how American culture affects war coverage. By possibly inflating both body counts and the fighting prowess of the local army against guerrillas, the Bush administration is constructing a "Mission Accomplished II" that depends on a quiescent press (as well as on a public memory so short that it won't notice the similarity between the Falluja narrative and Tet). — Posted at 4:42 pm

FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN CHALLENGES AIRPORT PAT-DOWN. Former congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage refused to be patted down at an airport after security officials denied her request to see the secret regulation that requires such secondary screening, The Idaho Statesman reported. Because she refused to submit to the pat-down, Chenoweth-Hage was not allowed to board the plane. Meanwhile, a suit by California privacy advocate John Gilmore over the secret security rule requiring airline passengers to show ID is still pending in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. — Posted at 4:40 pm

HOW THE MILITARY COUNTS DEATHS OF ENEMY SOLDIERS. The U.S. military does not officially count deaths of enemy soldiers, leaving reporters to piece together information from individual military campaigns, Slate reported. This reticence can be traced back to the Vietnam War and the significant problems that emerged during that conflict when Defense Secretary Robert McNamara overemphasized body counts as a metric of success. — Posted at 4:39 pm

REPORTING THE WHOLE TRUTH TOUGH IN IRAQ. Hannah Allam, Baghdad bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers, says Baghdad has never been more difficult for journalists. — Posted at 4:38 pm

SEALED DOCUMENT FILED IN FBI INFORMANT\'S FEDERAL BANK FRAUD CASE. One day before FBI informant Mohamed Alanssi was scheduled to be sentenced last month for federal bank fraud, a sealed document was filed in U.S. District Court, The Washington Post reported. The docket does not say which side filed the sealed document in the case, nor is the outcome of the case known. — Posted at 4:36 pm

REPORT: FBI CULTURE LED TO WRONGFUL ARREST A recently released report by a panel examining the wrongful arrest of Oregon lawyer and one-time terror suspect Brandon Mayfield blames the mistake on the closed-mouth culture of the FBI, which discouraged fingerprint experts from disagreeing with their superiors, The New York Times reported. Mayfield was implicated in the March 11 train bombing in Madrid after a fingerprint from a plastic bag found near the attack initially appeared to match that of Mayfield, a converted Muslim who once served in the Army. The FBI apologized for the error. Mayfield is now suing the federal government, claiming civil rights violations. — Posted at 4:33 pm

MEDIA SHUT OUT OF ALBANY TERRORISM CASE. A federal judge has denied the media's request to intervene in an alleged money-laundering-for-terrorism case in Albany, finding no First Amendment right of access to secret materials filed in a court proceeding under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), the New York Law Journal reported. If granted, the motion would have made several media companies parties to the case, enabling them to be notified and to have an opportunity to be heard whenever information in the case is sealed. Capital News 9 in Albany reports that the judge, in keeping with CIPA, has gagged the lawyers in the case, which involves two members of an Albany mosque accused of laundering funds that they believed came from the sale of a missile launcher meant to be used in a New York City terrorist attack. — Posted at 4:30 pm

FREELANCE IRAQI REPORTER CAPTURED IN FALLUJA MOSQUE. The Washington Post reported that two journalism advocacy groups are demanding that the American military release a freelance Iraqi reporter arrested in a Falluja mosque last week. — Posted at 4:28 pm

Nov. 17, 2004

GOSS ORDERS SUPPORT FOR ADMINISTRATION. CIA chief Porter Goss directed agency employees not to "identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies" and to "scrupulously honor our secrecy oath" in an internal memorandum circulated Monday. The memorandum apparently followed interviews given by senior analyst Michael Scheuer, who was critical of Bush administration policies. Former CIA director George Tenet had permitted Scheuer to publish a book. — Posted at 11:21 pm

Nov. 16, 2004

RCFP RELEASES REPORT ON GONZALES\' FOI TRACK RECORD. A new report from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press paints a picture of White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales - who has been nominated to replace U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft - as someone who has worked tirelessly to keep information from the press and public if he believes it could hurt the president, and does not appear ready to change. "Every attorney general has a significant impact on the media's ability to gather and report news, as well as the public's right to know what its government is doing," the report states. With that in mind, the Reporters Committee staff researched Gonzales' performance both in Texas, where he was a top adviser to then-Gov. Bush before serving on the state's Supreme Court, and as White House counsel since January 2001. — Posted at 5:38 pm

MARINES INVESTIGATING SHOOTING WITNESSED BY NBC JOURNALIST. The U.S. military is investigating the killing of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner inside a mosque in Falluja during combat operations here, the Defense Department told NBC News on Monday. NBC's Kevin Sites, who witnessed the incident Saturday while assigned to represent a pool of news organizations, reported Monday that the man was shot by a Marine who appeared to be unaware that the Iraqi was a wounded prisoner and did not pose a threat. Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Defense Department, told NBC News that the military was investigating the incident observed by Sites. Reuters reported today that marines are rallying rallied round their comrade under investigation for killing the wounded Iraqi saying he was probably under combat stress in unpredictable, hair-trigger circumstances. — Posted at 5:21 pm

DHS TRIES TO GET CONGRESSIONAL AIDES TO SIGN SECRECY PLEDGES. The Department of Homeland Security is requiring thousands of employees and contractors to sign nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from sharing sensitive but unclassified information with the public. But The Washington Post reported today that the department was rebuffed when it also tried to require congressional aides to sign the secrecy pledges as a condition for gaining access to certain materials, majority and minority spokesmen for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security said Monday. — Posted at 5:16 pm

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR CAN\'T SELL HER BOOK IN THE U.S. Nobel prize-winning Iranian author Shirin Ebadi writes in today's New York Times Op/Ed page that she is dismayed that it will be nearly impossible to distribute her memoir to an American audience. Ebadi says that despite federal laws that say that American trade embargoes may not restrict the free flow of information, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control continues to regulate the import of books from Iran, Cuba and other countries. In order to skirt the laws protecting the flow of information, the government prohibits publishing "materials not fully created and in existence." "Therefore," Ebadi says, "I could publish my memoir in the United States, but it would be illegal for an American literary agent, publisher, editor or translator to help me." — Posted at 5:08 pm

FOI ACT DISCLOSURE SHOWS RESPONDERS ILL-PREPARED. An 11-month old Army Audit Agency report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Deseret News said police, firefighters and doctors are ill-prepared to respond to attacks against Army bases with weapons of mass destruction despite Army efforts to improve their preparedness after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. However, the newspaper reported that the Army in written responses said it has taken numerous steps since then to improve the effectiveness of first responders. — Posted at 3:33 pm

PLUGGING LEAKS LEAVES PUBLIC DRY. Because leak investigations are rarely successful at stopping leaks or finding leakers, but will prevent the public from getting truthful, important information, Congress should pass a federal reporters' shield law The Washington Post editorialized on Monday. Discussing the contempt sentences of reporters who refused to disclose confidential government informants in the Valerie Plame investigation, the Post writes, "As a newspaper, we are generally troubled by aggressive leak investigations, which rarely bear fruit but may chill legitimate journalism. The point here, however, is not simply the press's institutional interests but the public's interest in the flow of information on important public issues. Leaks can be, and in numerous instances have been, a means by which honest whistle-blowers get the truth out and senior officials disseminate information they are not yet prepared to release officially." — Posted at 3:30 pm

CIA GETS PERSONNEL OVERHAUL TO PURGE LEAKERS. CIA insiders believe that the White House is forcing many "disloyal" officials out of the agency for having talked to the media about the mishandling of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, Newsday reported on Sunday. In the past week, three top officials have tendered their resignations, provoking speculation that new CIA Director Porter Goss is drastically revamping the agency's personnel at the behest of President Bush. While a CIA spokesman told Newsday that such changes are normal when a new director arrives, a former senior CIA official had a different take: "Goss was given instructions... to get rid of those soft leakers." — Posted at 3:28 pm

Nov. 15, 2004

U.S.-LED INTERIM GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS WITH VIOLATORS OF EMBARGO. Treasury Department documents reveal that the U.S.-appointed interim Iraqi government contracted with two banks that had been fined for doing business with Saddam Hussein's regime in violation of international trade embargoes, Matt Kelley of The Associated Press wrote last Friday. In their defense, those banks--one British and one American--claimed that their dealings with Saddam-era Iraq were unintentional and only occurred because of a glitch in self-established internal controls to avoid such transactions. — Posted at 4:42 pm

NEWLY PROPOSED NEW JERSEY REGULATIONS LIMIT PUBLIC ACCESS. Environmental and public health advocates in New Jersey protest the degree to which newly proposed FOI regulations permit increased withholding of public records, The Star Ledger reported on Friday. Opponents argue that much of the newly exempt public records will adversely impact public safety more than thwart terrorists, as intended. Among other things, the regulations permit withholding of records demonstrating how emergency response teams are deployed, and where outbreaks of contagious diseases occur among animals. The regulations are slated to take effect in December, after the end of a public comment period. — Posted at 4:40 pm

Nov. 12, 2004

AUTHOR RESIGNS FROM THE CIA. Michael Scheuer, the author and former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit, announced Thursday that he had resigned from the agency so he could speak openly about terrorism and what he sees as the government's failure to understand the threat from al Qaeda. The agency allowed Scheuer to publish his book, "Imperial Hubris," anonymously, and to conduct media interviews to promote it under the ame "Mike." The book became a bestseller. But he became a critic of the war in Iraq, saying it inflamed anti-American sentiment among Muslims, and eventually his name was published. After some White House officials and pundits asserted that the CIA had allowed Scheuer to act as its surrogate critic on the war, CIA officials forbade him from speaking publicly. — Posted at 4:49 pm

TRADE CENTER COLLAPSE TO BE DISCUSSED IN SECRET. The federal agency investigating the collapse of the World Trade Center said this week that some of its deliberations would take place in secret, including discussions on possible changes to national building codes and standards. The New York Times reports today that the announcement has been sharply protested by advocates for families of the 9/11 victims, who said they were considering a lawsuit to force the agency to open the meetings to the public. — Posted at 4:44 pm

FALSE TERROR STATISTICS CAUSED BY ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR. The State Department's inspector general has found that factual errors in the agency's Patterns of Global Terrorism Report were caused only by administrative problems, Ken Guggenheim of The Associated Press reported on Wednesday. The 2003 edition of the annual terrorism report incorrectly concluded that world terrorism had declined; critics alleged that the errors were intentional political manuevers to convince 2004 voters that Bush was conducting the terror war successfully. — Posted at 1:47 pm

STATE DEPARTMENT DOCUMENTS PROMPT CALLS FOR ADDITIONAL HALLIBURTON INVESTIGATION. In the wake of newly released public records, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., has called for additional congressional hearings on Halliburton's contracts in Kuwait and Iraq, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Recently released State Department documents reveal that the politically appointed U.S. ambassador to Kuwait urged Halliburton to enter a contract with a favored Kuwaiti company. According to Waxman, such evidence "undermine[s] months of claims by Administration officials that the Halliburton contracts and subcontracts were awarded without political interference." — Posted at 11:30 am

Nov. 11, 2004

THEY\'RE BACK. Editor & Publisher recently reported that embedded journalism is back on the rise due to the assault on Fallujah, and that insurgents in that city have also invited journalists to embed with them. — Posted at 7:37 pm

CIA OFFICIAL CRITICIZES AGENCY\'S COUNTER-TERRORISM EFFORTS In what one whistleblowing expert calls an unprecedented move, CIA official Michael Scheuer has been granting interviews to publicly discuss that agency's continuing deficiencies in addressing terrorism, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday. Scheuer was the anonymous author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror, published in July. Among Scheuer's public criticisms of the CIA's counter-terrorism measures is the allegation that the agency has fewer experienced al Qaeda experts today than it had on September 11, 2001. — Posted at 7:34 pm

U.S. ARMY NOT NEGLIGENT IN ATTACK ON HOTEL FILLED WITH JOURNALISTS. A Freedom of Information Act request has yielded Pentagon documents relating to the U.S. Army's April 2003 attack on a Baghdad hotel full of journalists, an article on the Committee to Protect Journalists Web site reports. The investigative report finds that the U.S. Army bore no fault or negligence in the April 2003 incident; the tank opened fire after mistaking cameramen working on the hotel's balconies for "spotters" directing Iraqi artillery strikes in the area at the time. CPJ also recently released an updated listing of all journalists who have been killed or injured during the war in Iraq. — Posted at 7:27 pm

FOI REQUEST YIELDS AIRPORT \'WEAPON\' TALLY. The Deseret News this week reported that 185,078 items had been seized at security checkpoints at Salt Lake City International Airport over the past three years. The Transportation Security Administration provided data on confiscated items at the airport in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. — Posted at 7:18 pm

INCREASINGLY CRITICAL. National Public Radio this week posted a transcript of its Nov. 5 "On the Media" program reviving interviews with reporters, media spokesmen and others in assessing how freedom of information will fare under "our once and future" president. Host Bob Garfield noted that "we readily admit that we can detect an increasingly critical tone." — Posted at 7:06 pm

GROUPS ARGUE FOR ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT MAPS The Reporters Committee and two other national media organizations has filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Connecticut Supreme Court in a case where the Town of Greenwich has refused public access to Geographic Information System (GIS) records in electronic format, claiming release would be a security threat. Greenwich will only release the records in paper format, and a Connecticut citizen has sued to obtain an electronic copy. The media groups argue in their brief that Connecticut law grants FOI requesters the right to access public records in whatever format they choose, including computer diskette. — Posted at 5:30 pm

Nov. 10, 2004

NO WITCH HUNT FOR AGENCY TALKERS. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general concluded there was no witch hunt for air marshals who talked to reporters about the Transportation Safety Administration's plans to cut the marshals from some flights for budgetary reasons, The New York Times reported Tuesday. But the inspector general reported claims by several air marshals that they were threatened with prosecution if it were learned they had given "sensitive" information to the news media. The report noted that the air marshals' superiors could not have prosecuted them for such offenses. Shortly after MSNBC reported TSA's plans to reduce the air marshals, the plans were abolished. — Posted at 4:38 pm

Nov. 9, 2004

FINES FOR DOING BUSINESS WITH TERRORIST NATIONS PLUMMET. The average penalty for a company doing business with a terrorist-sponsoring state has fallen threefold since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Associated Press reported on Sunday. The AP calculated its figures using public records released by the federal government in 2002 in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Although some think the declining average may point to lax enforcement of economic sanctions, others are more optimistic. "Companies are policing themselves a lot more," said Adam Pener, CEO of an organization that advises businesses on how to avoid dealing with prohibited countries. — Posted at 7:17 pm

Nov. 8, 2004

SECRET DIRECTOR. CIA Director Porter J. Goss has selected the agency's executive director, but that individual's identity is undercover for the time being, The Washington Post reported last Friday. He is referred to publicly as "Dusty." Because he has had many overseas tours in undercover roles, an insider says that Dusty's identity won't be released to the public until precautionary measures have been taken to protect those who worked with him. — Posted at 6:46 pm

JUDGE RULES GITMO TRIALS ILLEGAL. A federal judge today ruled that the military commissions set up to try and sentence Guantanamo detainees are illegal, dealing "a major setback to the Bush administration," The Washington Post reports. U.S. District Judge James Robertson in Washington, D.C. determined that commission rules -- denying "enemy combatants" access to evidence, and even excluding them from some commission sessions -- violate military law. He also said the detainees should be granted a hearing to find out whether they qualify for protection as prisoners of war. Salim Ahmed Hamdan, an accused Al Qaeda member being held at Gitmo, had challenged in federal court the military's plan to try him before the military commission rather than a court-martial. — Posted at 5:44 pm

NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENT AT HOMELAND SECURITY. A Department of Homeland Security non-disclosure agreement for employees viewing information that is not classifed "represents a new high water mark in the rising tide of official secrecy, according to Secrecy News editor Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. DHS is requiring employees and persons outside the department to sign the binding agreements before they can see information marked by "For Official Use Only (FOUO)," or by any other identifier that might indicate the information is "Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU)." Aftergood notes that while the rules for accessing classified information are structured and predictible, the rules for accessing these other categories of information are not. Aftergood presents a copy of the the agreement which was apparently distributed in August. — Posted at 5:44 pm

GUANTANAMO DETAINEES MISTREATED, DOD DOCUMENTS SHOW The Department of Defense has responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Associated Press for documents relating to detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last week. The documents discuss eight cases of detainee mistreatment at Guantanamo and corresponding corrective actions taken by government officials. — Posted at 4:34 pm

INTELLIGENCE BUDGET TOTAL STAYS SECRET. Congressional Quarterly reported this afternoon that Senate negotiators on the Intelligence Bill have dropped their recommendation that the total figure for the intelligence budget be public, in spite of the recommendations of the 911 Commission. Both the President and the House have opposed the measure. — Posted at 4:22 pm

Nov. 5, 2004

FEDERAL COURT PONDERS NO-FLY SUIT The ACLU's lawsuit on behalf of airline passengers whose name resemble those on the government's secret no-fly list has been met with a series of roadblocks, the most serious of which is that the Transportation Security Administration refuses to provide any information about the list, leaving the courts nothing to review. "We feel like the government is trying to put us in a Catch-22, where there's never going to be a court that can hear our argument," an ACLU attorney said. — Posted at 5:39 pm

Nov. 4, 2004

SILENCE ENFORCED ON AUTHOR FROM \'AXIS OF EVIL.\' A Nobel Peace Prize recipient from Iran cannot negotiate with American publishing houses to publish her memoirs because she is from Iran, an "axis of evil" country with whom no U.S. companies can do business under fear of penalty imposed by U.S. Treasury Department regulations, The Washington Post reported today. Shirin Ebadi won the 2003 prize, as well as praise from President Bush, for her pro-democracy work but she is suing the U.S. in federal district court in New York City for permission to publish a new book she hopes will reach an U.S. audience, according to the news report. Ebadi has not sought publication in Iran because she would need to submit it to the government for official approval, she told the Post. — Posted at 7:24 pm

GITMO DETAINEES CLAIM TO BE HELD ILLEGALLY. The U.S. government relies heavily on secret evidence in justifying the continued detention of three so-called enemy combatants who were captured, not on the battlefields of Afghanistan, but as the result of misunderstandings, according to a story in USA Today. Tactics used by the Bush administration in handling these cases cause legal analysts to wonder whether the spirit of the U.S. Supreme Court decision - allowing detainees to challenge their detention in federal court - is being violated. Review panels conducted by the Pentgaon to evaluate each detainee's situation are split into public and secret sessions. The detainee's own testimony before the military panel is often outweighed by undisclosed information that only the panel possesses. "The problem is the secret (evidence)," one Kuwaiti detainee is quoted as saying. "I can't defend myself." — Posted at 1:37 pm

Nov. 3, 2004

GOSS ASKS FOR CHANGES IN CIA REPORT. New CIA chief Porter Goss has asked the agency's inspector general to modify a draft 800-page report it has prepared on Sept. 11, 2001, in order to avoid conclusions as to whether individual officers should be accountable according to a New York Times report. The joint Congressional committee that looked into the attacks asked the CIA in 2002 to look into "whether and to what extent personnel at all levels should be held accountable," according to the news account.The Times quotes Congressional officials as critical of the request, which could pressure the IG, who must report both to the Congress and to the CIA head. — Posted at 6:23 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WHISTLEBLOWER PROFILED. Department of Justice whistleblower Jesselyn Radack was profiled in-depth in Mother Jones magazine's January/February issue. Radack, a former Justice Department lawyer, recently filed a lawsuit claiming she was forced out of her job after questioning the legality of the government's interrogation of John Walker Lindh. Radack was then effectively fired from a subsequent job with a private D.C. law firm, after her whistleblowing at DOJ became known to the partners there. The article quotes extensively from C. Fred Alford, author of Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power, who says, "The most striking thing about Radack's story was the way the law firm behaved. It begins to look like there really is something called the System, and if you violate the rules in one part, there's no safe haven." — Posted at 11:28 am

MINNESOTANS\' RIGHT TO KNOW IMPERILED. Minnesota may be poised to lose its reputation for open government, Chris Ison reports in the Star Tribune. During the last legislative session, for instance, a law was passed that restricts media access to polling places, requiring them to get a prior letter of approval and to stay for just 15 minutes. Additionally, the Star Tribune has been the firsthand recipient of some suspicious FOI request responses. In response to its FOI request for information relating to homeland security funding, the Star Tribune received a redacted response. The government cited security concerns. As it turns out, though, the withheld information was readily available from multiple alternative sources. For Ison, this raises questions about "whether it was being withheld to protect national security or simply to obscure state funding decisions that might be criticized." — Posted at 10:18 am

Nov. 2, 2004

MORE JOURNALISTS KILLED IN IRAQ. The U.S. military said Tuesday a cameraman killed in the Iraqi city of Ramadi while on assignment for Reuters had died in a gunbattle between Marines and insurgents. Video footage of the incident showed no apparent fighting and no sounds of shooting in the vicinity before Dhia Najim was killed by a single bullet. He filmed heavy clashes between Marines and insurgents earlier in the day but that fighting had subsided. Najim's colleagues and family said they believed he had been shot by a U.S. sniper. Najim's killing, a devastating attack on an Arab news channel in Iraq and a threat by Islamic militants to slaughter journalists have raised fears that reporters have become direct targets in a country already rife with peril, Reuters reports. — Posted at 5:34 pm

COLUMNIST BEMOANS KERRY\'S FAILURE TO HONE IN ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION SECRECY. Columnist Dorothy Samuels writes in The New York Times that she is disappointed over Senator John Kerry's failure to home in hard on one of the more worrisome domestic policy developments of the past four years - namely the Bush administration's drastic expansion of needless government secrecy. Samuels says, "President Bush's antipathy to open government continues to garner only a trivial level of attention compared with the pressing matters that seem to be engaging the country at the moment." — Posted at 5:30 pm

SEPT. 11 INVESTIGATION SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT DELAYED. One last chapter of the investigation by the Sept. 11 commission, a supplement completed more than two months ago, has not yet been made public by the Justice Department, and officials told The New York Times it was unlikely to be released before the presidential election, even though that had been a major goal of deadlines set for the panel. — Posted at 5:25 pm

Nov. 1, 2004

SUBPOENAS STARTLE, SILENCE SOURCES. Journalist subpoenas in the Plame investigation and other cases raise fears that sources of government information could be silenced, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times said, "What is at stake here is the ability of reporters to have confidential conversations with people inside big institutions about what goes on in those institutions." Judith Miller of the Times, one of the two reporters held in contempt in the Plame investigation, said, "I don't want to go to jail. The strain on my family is very difficult. ... But it is pretty clear to me that you have to be willing to do this." — Posted at 3:06 pm