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.

Mar. 31, 2005

GENERAL\'S MEMORANDUM AUTHORIZED ABUSIVE INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES. An Army memorandum authorizing 12 interrogation techniques beyond those listed in the Army's official manual, and signed by a lieutenant general, has been released to the ACLU pursuant to its detainee treatment FOI Act request, the organization's Web site reported. Some of the techniques authorized by the memorandum violate Geneva Convention standards, giving credence to allegations of institutionalized abuses. — Posted at 10:20 am

Mar. 30, 2005

PENTAGON IGNORING TROOP-JOURNALIST CLASHES, SAY INTERNATIONAL PRESS GROUPS. Not all run-ins between U.S. troops and the press garner the kind of attention from the Pentagon that was given when the military wounded an Italian journalist as she was being whisked to freedom after being held hostage, The Village Voice reported. — Posted at 5:12 pm

\'REVERSE RENDITION\' CASE SHEDS LIGHT ON SECRET ARRESTS. The case of a Yemeni businessman allegedly abducted in Cairo by Egyptian police and turned over to U.S. officials under suspicion of terrorist activities highlights the secret practice of what Human Rights Watch calls "reverse rendition," according to The Los Angeles Times. Unlike traditional renditions, in which U.S. agents transport foreign suspects from one nation to another so as to avoid international law, reverse rendition involves detention by foreign officials who then turn a suspect over to U.S. custody, without an extradition process or opportunity to challenge the detention in court. The Pentagon refuses to confirm or deny who is being held at Guantanamo Bay, but letters from Abdel Salem Hila, who disappeared in September 2002 and was held for a time in Afghanistan, indicate he is now at the Cuban military prison. — Posted at 4:21 pm

RENDITION LAWSUIT IMPLICATES NATIONAL SECURITY AND SHOULD BE DISMISSED, U.S. SAYS. A Canadian citizen is suing the U.S. government in New York over his alleged seizure there in 2002 and subsequent shipment to Syria for "a more brutal interrogation," The New York Times reported today. The Bush administration has asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit because to allow it would result in the release of national security information. — Posted at 4:20 pm

FORMER D.C. SCHOOL OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF TERROR SUPPORT. A federal criminal complaint unsealed in Miami on Monday charges a former Washington, D.C., school official with providing material support to terrorist groups, MSNBC reports. The government claims Kifa Jayyousi, the chief facilities officer for D.C. schools from the later 1990s to 2001, is a disciple of radical Shiek Omar Abdel-Rahman, whose defense lawyer Lynne Stewart was recently convicted of smuggling messages from the shiek to his terrorist disciples. — Posted at 12:26 pm

POST: PANEL IGNORED EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE ON DETAINEE. A secret military tribunal that last fall deemed a German detainee at Guantanamo Bay to be an "enemy combatant" and Al Qaeda member, appears to have ignored findings by U.S. military intelligence and German authorities that there was no evidence linking him to any terrorist activities or organizations, The Washington Post reported. Murat Kurnaz, who was seized in Pakistan in 2001, has been held in Cuba since January 2002. The three unidentified military panelists based their conclusion mostly on then-classified information, which has since been declassified and obtained by the Post. — Posted at 12:24 pm

MORE RECORDS SHOW DETAINEE ABUSE. Government records obtained by the ACLU pursuant to its FOI Act request for detainee treatment information show the U.S.'s abuse of detainees also occurred in a facility in northern Iraq, The Washington Post reported. The records pertain to Army criminal investigations and an ACLU attorney said that they highlight the "systemic nature" of the military's abuse. — Posted at 12:23 pm

BUSH INITIATES NEW APPROACH TO COUNTERINTELLIGENCE. President Bush issued a new counterintelligence strategy in a 14-page unclassified report this month, ABC News reported on Monday. Counterintelligence, or protection against foreign espionage, has largely taken place in the past as a response to national information already lost. Under Bush's new strategy, which envisions a more proactive approach, the U.S. will no longer wait until it has been harmed to "identify, assess, neutralize and exploit the intelligence activities" of countries and terrorist groups. — Posted at 12:21 pm

COURT CONSIDERS RELEASING SECRET VIDEO. A U.S. military court is expected to decide this week whether key video surveillance footage may be shown during the court-martial of an Army tank commander accused in the apparent mercy killing of a critically wounded Iraqi, The Associated Press reports. Both sides want the footage, taken by U.S. surveillance aircraft, to be shown publicly in the trial of U.S. Army Capt. Rogelio Maynulet, who is charged with assault with intent to commit murder and dereliction of duty. — Posted at 12:20 pm

ARMY SUSPECTS 27 DETAINEES WERE MURDERED. A report released Friday concludes that 27 detainees were the victims of homicide or suspected homicide while in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002, The Los Angeles Times reports. The March 23 report by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command was marked "For Immediate Release," but was not disclosed publicly until March 25. — Posted at 12:19 pm

MILITARY REFUSES TO DETAIL ALLEGATIONS AGAINST TERROR SUSPECTS. Days after journalists were first let into administrative hearings at Guantanamo Bay to review whether individual detainees still pose a threat to the U.S., the military this week stopped providing details of the allegations against each suspect, The Associated Press reports. Previously the military would release "fact summaries" of the accusations against a detainee, noting whether he had connections to Al Qaeda or the Taliban. Navy spokesman Lt. Terry Green declined to say why the change was made, and it was unclear when the military would resume providing the summaries. — Posted at 12:18 pm

COURT SAYS IT CAN REVIEW DETAINEE TRANSFER. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the government may not transfer 13 Yemenis being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without first notifying the court and giving lawyers a chance to fight their removal, The New York Times reports. In other news, the Pentagon announced Tuesday that 38 detainees at Gitmo were wrongly classified as "enemy combatants" and will be set free, according to the Times and Reuters. Navy Secretary Gordon England refused to give the names or nationalities of the 38 detainees to be released. — Posted at 12:16 pm

FOI ACT REQUEST UNEARTHS NEW INFORMATION ABOUT POST-9/11 SAUDI EVACUATIONS. Justice Department records, uncovered by an FOI Act lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, show previously undisclosed flights shuttling Saudi families out of the U.S. in the days following September 11, The New York Times reported. Of the documents and the hastily-arranged evacuations, Judicial Watch Director of Investigations Christopher J. Farrell said "It seems as if the FBI was more interesting in achieving diplomatic success that investigative success." — Posted at 12:15 pm

PERPLEXING WATCH LIST DESIGNATION HINDERS PILOT\'S LIFE. Even though Juan Carlos Merida has already been licensed to fly small planes by the Federal Aviation Administration, he cannot learn to fly jets because he has since been inexplicably added to government terrorism watch lists, The New York Times reported. Merida believes that he was added to the lists after voluntarily divulging a cursory flight school encounter with Zacarias Moussaoui. He has actively sought to clear his name, most notably by filing a lawsuit against then Attorney General John Ashcroft last year, but the lawsuit was dismissed due to Ashcroft's immunity as a government official. "I want them to investigate me," he told the Times , and "let me get on with my life." — Posted at 12:13 pm

\'INACCURATE STATEMENTS\' SURROUND SECURE FLIGHT SCREENING PROGRAM, GOVERNMENT REPORT SAYS. An inspector general's report from the Homeland Security Department has blown the lid off of lies the Transportation Security Administration has told the public about its collection of data for Secure Flight, an experimental airline passenger screening program, The Washington Post reported. Among the falsehoods: TSA publicly denied collecting data from JetBlue Airways for one full year after its own FOI Act staff concluded that it had. — Posted at 12:12 pm

9/11 INTERVIEWS AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE DISPATCHES MUST BE RELEASED, COURT SAYS. The New York Court of Appeals ruled on March 24 that New York City employee interviews about 9/11 must be released to the public, with redactions for potentially painful and embarassing details, The New York Times reported. In the same opinion, the court ordered the disclosure of portions of the city's emergency response dispatches that day, and one-side of 911 calls-the operators' voices. — Posted at 12:09 pm

FBI GIVES CLASSIFIED MATERIALS TO TRANSLATOR UPON HIS RELEASE FROM JAIL. After serving 17 months in jail for leaving the U.S. while in possession of a CD of classified materials, Pentagon linguist Ahmed Mehalba got the same disk back when the FBI returned it with his personal effects upon release, The Boston Globe reported Sunday. In response to the event, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Ricciuti said that the FBI "was trying" to improve its agents' handling of classified information. — Posted at 12:08 pm

Mar. 25, 2005

PENTAGON WON\'T LET FAMILIES PHOTOGRAPH CASKETS. While the Pentagon usually cites respect for survivors' privacy as the reason it won't let the press photograph the caskets of slain U.S. soldiers returning from overseas, Cox News Service reports that the military refuses to allow the families of dead soldiers take pictures as well. The Department of Defense instituted the policy under then-secretary Dick Cheney in 1991. "It's dishonorable and disrespectful to the families," said Karen Meredith, who was denied permission to photograph the coffin carrying her son, 1st Lt. Kenneth Michael Ballard, at Dover Air Force Base last fall. "They say it's for privacy, but it's really because they don't want the country to see how many people are coming back in caskets." — Posted at 2:46 pm

ITALIAN JOURNALIST WOUNDED BY U.S. TROOPS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL. Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist shot by U.S. troops March 4 as she was being driven to freedom after being held held hostage in Iraq for a month, has been released from the hospital, The Associated Press reported. Italian officials have asked U.S. officials to release the Toyota Corolla Sgrena was riding in for examinaion by Italian ballistics experts. American and Italian officials, meanwhile, expect to release the results of an investigation into the shooting within several weeks, the wire service reported. — Posted at 12:14 pm

ALLEGED ABUSERS ALLEGE INVASION OF PRIVACY. Reuters reports that five Navy SEALS have sued The Associated Press for publishing photos of the men allegedly abusing prisoners in Iraq. AP obtained the photos after the wife of one of the men posted them on the Internet, mistakenly believing that they were not publicly available. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, replaces an earlier suit filed in California state court and claims invasion of privacy and copyright violations. "The pictures are of obvious public interest. AP obtained them in a completely proper way and was right to publish them," said AP's attorney Dave Tomlin. "These plaintiffs are trying to use a legal smokescreen to shift attention away from their own conduct and their own carelessness. ...I don't think they're fooling anybody." — Posted at 12:13 pm

Mar. 24, 2005

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN\'T HAVE ITS CAKE AND EAT IT TOO, JUDGE SAYS. A federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Washington D.C. law has put the federal government on the hot seat over its refusal to release information about what steps it has taken to prevent terrorist attacks on rail shipments, The Washington Post reported today. The D.C. law requires that hazardous rail shipments be rerouted around the city, which the Bush administration argued violates constitutional limitations on interfering with interstate commerce. Noting that the federal government refused to share rail terrorism information with D.C., and then complained about the law D.C. Council members passed in an informational vacuum, presiding U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Wednesday ordered the Bush administration to disclose "what measures have been taken to prevent a terrorist attack on rail shipments." — Posted at 4:26 pm

NEXT STEP IN PLAME CASE. Editor & Publisher reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. has been asked to re-consider its decision to force two reporters to reveal their confidential sources in the Valerie Plame investigation. A three-judge panel of the court ruled Feb. 15 that the reporters must disclose to a federal grand jury who leaked Plame's identity as an undercover CIA agent. "We are arguing that the three-judge panel erred in [saying] there was no First Amendment protection for these journalists," Floyd Abrams, attorney for New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper, said. "They also erred in concluding that there was no federal common law protection. Since 49 states provide protection, the federal courts should adopt a similar rule." Thirty-six major news organizations and press groups, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the re-hearing, arguing that there is "ample evidence . . . to doubt that a crime has been committed" in revealing Plame's identity, The Washington Post reported. — Posted at 11:26 am

PENTAGON DOCUMENTS STATE THAT BIN LADEN WAS IN TORA BORA. A document released in response to The Associated Press's Freedom of Information Act request is the first official confirmation that Osama bin Laden escaped from Tora Bora, the AP reported Wednesday. The document, which references a detainee at Guantanamo Bay, says that he "assisted in the escape of Osama bin Laden from Tora Bora." During last year's election, Bush administration officials (including retired Gen. Tommy R. Franks), claimed that no one knew for sure whether bin Laden was in Tora Bora. — Posted at 11:24 am

Mar. 23, 2005

FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY INSPECTOR GENERAL SPEAKS OUT ON WATCHDOG ROLE. The Project on Government Oversight's Web site published an interview with former Homeland Security Department Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin yesterday, in which he noted how accountability was low-priority at the agency: "There has been a mindset at the senior level that has ignored problems or excused them." He also suggested that Congress should remove a provision of the Inspector General Act that threatens inspector generals' independence. "The Inspector General Act gives us a lot of power to do what I did, but there needs to be an amendment for Homeland Security, Justice, Treasury, and CIA. Those IGs can be prevented from inspecting, auditing, or investigating matters if, in the judgment of the Cabinet Secretary, the IG's doing so might compromise national security." — Posted at 12:12 pm

GOVERNMENT MAINTAINS GRIP ON GITMO VIDEOTAPES. The U.S. government is refusing to release videotaped prisoner control operations at Guantanamo Bay because of "privacy concerns," Stephen Kenny, a detainee's lawyer, told The Australian. "I believe that these videos, if they are ever released, will be as explosive as anything from Abu Ghraib," he said. Fox News's Web site also reported on the videotapes in June 2004, when an Army spokesperson said that a tape of a detainee control drill - during which a soldier posing as a detainee had suffered permanent brain damage - had likely been erased. — Posted at 12:05 pm

PRIVATE GULFSTREAM\'S FLIGHT LOG SHOWS 51 TRIPS TO GITMO. Federal Aviation Adminstration records show that a private, chartered Gulfstream N85VM has been to Guantanamo Bay 51 times between June 2002 and January 2005, the Chicago Tribune reported yesterday. "Assuming the Gulfstream has been flying to Guantanamo on government business - a relatively safe assumption, because Guantanamo is a military reservation closed to tourists and sightseers - at standard rates those trips alone would have cost taxpayers about $13.7 million, enough to buy a less grand executive jet," the article said. In addition to Guantanamo Bay, the Gulfstream's flight log shows it has been to many countries where the U.S. has been known to "render" terrorism suspects for interrogation, such as Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan. — Posted at 12:03 pm

SHARING AIRLINE SAFETY TEST RESULTS WOULD BE \'INAPPROPRIATE,\' TSA SAYS. Despite recent reports by the Homeland Security Department and the FBI that the nation's airlines are still vulnerable to terrorist attack, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration said that "it would not be appropriate" for the government to share the results of its airport security tests, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. One woman interviewed for the article, however, believed that there would be more confidence in security if the government "made those findings public." — Posted at 12:02 pm

Mar. 22, 2005

MARKEY CALLS FOR PROBE OF NRC SECRECY PLANS. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called on the Nuclear Regulatory Agency's Inspector General for an investigation into the NRC's plans to further restrict dissemination of information, plans that could prevent the public from obtaining information needed to effectively participate in the Commission's regulatory activities. He voiced concern that NRC bars to access to information would affect environmental, health, security or safety concerns over nuclear industry activities. — Posted at 5:17 pm

SHAPING WAR COVERAGE. Self-censorship by media outlets reporting on the war in Iraq is practiced to shield readers and viewers from graphic content, according to a survey of 210 reporters, editors, managers, producers and photographers both in Iraq and in stateside newsrooms. The survey, conducted by American University's School of Communication last fall, looks at coverage of the first 15 months of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. — Posted at 5:16 pm

CASE CLOSED ON ABUSE ALLEGATIONS BY REUTERS STAFF. Allegations of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of U.S. troops by three Iraqis working for Reuters will not be further investigated by the Pentagon, the news service reported. Pentagon officials say a previous investigation into the allegations was sufficient. "I'm very disappointed that the Department of Defense has chosen not to reopen a clearly flawed investigation into a very troubling incident," Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger said on Tuesday. — Posted at 5:14 pm

SECRECY AFFECTS SOMALI\'S IMMIGRATION CASE. A Somali man went on trial in San Diego yesterday for allegedly lying in his naturalization interview about funds his charity received from the Saudi government and two organizations linked to terrorism. The judge has ruled that the U.S. government need not reveal classified information during Omar Abdi Mohamed's trial, and that Mohamed's lawyers may not cross-examine the government's case agent about national security matters, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. If convicted of making false statements during immigration proceedings, Mohamed, a father of six who founded the Western Somali Relief Foundation, faces up to five years in prison for each of nine counts, plus deportation. — Posted at 5:10 pm

Mar. 21, 2005

INTERROGATION OF \'CAPTURED TERRORISTS.\' The CIA's public affairs director said Friday that federal laws permitted all approved interrogation techniques by the agency past and present, but Jennifer Millerwise's statement did not say whether anti-torture laws would have permitted techniques actually used by CIA employees in questioning suspected terrorists, New York Times writer Douglas Jehl reported Saturday. The statement followed testimony by CIA chief Porter Goss who said all agency interrogation techniques used "at this time" were legal but would not make the same assertion about practices over the past few years. Millerwise said that reporting on Goss's testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee left the false impression that CIA past policy had violated the laws. Millerwise defended what she said was "lawful interrogation of captured terrorists." — Posted at 4:47 pm

FOI ACT RESPONSE UNCOVERS THOUSANDS OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT PUBLIC-RELATIONS CONTRACTS. An FOI Act request made by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has revealed that the Defense Department has 2,953 public-relations contracts, Broadcasting & Cable's Web site reported yesterday. CREW plans to make more specific inquiries to find out the precise contents of those contracts. In the meantime, Democratic legislators are still waiting for the White House's response to their Jan. 28 letter inquiring for similar government contract information. The letter and CREW's FOI Act request were both inspired by the recent discovery that the Bush administration paid reporter Armstrong Williams $240,000 to plug its No Child Left Behind Act. — Posted at 2:56 pm

PRELIMINARY HEARING IN DETAINEE-ABUSE CASE SET TO BEGIN. A preliminary hearing for an unidentified Navy SEAL accused of abusing an Iraqi prisoner is set to begin Monday at a San Diego naval station, The Los Angeles Times reports. The SEAL, a lieutenant whose name is kept secret by the Navy, is charged with assault, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer for allegedly punching the detainee on the arm and allowing his men to abuse him. The prisoner later died during CIA interrogation at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. The lieutenant and all other SEAL personnel in the courtroom will be referred to by only the first letter of their last names - a precaution the Times reports is "virtually unprecedented." — Posted at 2:01 pm

SUPREME COURT WON\'T HEAR MOUSSAOUI CASE. The Supreme Court said Monday it won't hear an appeal by terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, letting stand a lower court ruling that both permits the government to seek the death penalty and limits Moussaoui's direct access to three al Qaeda terror captives, The Associated Press reports. The case will now shift back to U.S. District Court, where a trial date for Moussaoui - a French citizen who is the only person charged in an al Qaeda conspiracy that includes the Sept. 11 attacks - could be set for September. — Posted at 11:44 am

Mar. 18, 2005

ACLU WANTS RECORDS RELATING TO IMPLEMENTATION OF PATRIOT PROVISION. The ACLU has made a Freedom of Information Act request for records relating to the invocation of Section 411 of the USA PATRIOT Act, which permits the government to deny access to foreign scholars who "endorse or espouse terrorist activity or ... persuade others to support terrorist activity," the organization's Web site reported this week. The request, addressed to the CIA and State, Justice, and Homeland Security Departments, referenced several recent, high-profile cases of Section 411's suspected use. Tariq Ramadan, for instance, was named one of Time Magazine's Top 100 Innovators of the 21st Century, but had to abandon his professorship at the University of Notre Dame after difficulties obtaining a visa. — Posted at 2:38 pm

CONTRADICTORY STATE DEPARTMENT STATEMENTS QUESTIONED. The Village Voice reported on Tuesday that Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has accused the State Department of covering up the involvement of John Bolton, President Bush's U.N. Ambassador designate, in the willful presentation of false intelligence to the United Nations in making a case for the Iraq war. Waxman first asked the State Department in 2003 about Bolton's involvement, and was told he "did not play a role," but a later inspector general report came to light that indicated the opposite. The inspector general report was marked "sensitive but unclassified," and was accompanied by a letter that said "contains sensitive information, which may be protected from public release under the Freedom of Information Act." — Posted at 2:27 pm

PUBLIC CAN\'T HAVE UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION EITHER. Although much has been written about overclassification during the Bush administration, an article posted on Slate's Web site Thursday catalogued the simultaneous burst of government restrictions on unclassified information. For example, "a largely inarticulate concern about 'security'" has resulted in the "bureaucratic reflex" of stamping documents, without reference to statutory or regulatory standards, "sensitive but unclassified" or "for official use only," the article said. In addition, the government has begun to undertake massive efforts to reclassify previously declassified documents. Historians doing research at the National Archives regularly find files peppered with withdrawal cards, which stand in for previously available records that have now been pulled from public view. — Posted at 2:25 pm

CIA RETROACTIVELY CLASSIFIES COURT PAPERS. Citing national security interests, the CIA has asked defense lawyers who represent Navy SEALS charged with abusing Abu Ghraib prisoners to return certain formerly unclassified documents the agency handed over to the Navy last year as part of the case, according to the Associated Press. The papers, which identify CIA operatives and intelligence methods, are now considered classified, and must be delivered to a vault at the San Diego navy base, where the attorneys will be allowed to view them. "Why are they classifying this stuff so far down the road?" asked defense lawyer Jay Sullivan. "Either to keep certain information from being disclosed to the defense or make it very arduous to the defense to access certain information." — Posted at 2:23 pm

FAKE CABLE ACCUSES NEWSMAN OF SPYING. A fake cable purporting to be from the Defense Intelligence Agency claims NBC news military analyst William Arkin spied for Saddam Hussein, The Washington Post reports. Arkin, who learned of the hoax when a Washington Times reporter called to ask him about it, cited his recent book on deciphering U.S. military operations as one of the reasons why someone would be out to get him. — Posted at 12:09 pm

ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS SECRET TRANSFERS. Officials from the White House and the CIA yesterday defended the agency's practice of secretly transferring terror suspects to nations with poor human-rights records, The Washington Post reports. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said they cannot render detainees to a country "if we believe they're going to be tortured." But experts say verbal assurances from the other country that a detainee won't be tortured are "ineffective and virtually impossible to monitor," the Post reports. In the meantime, CIA director Porter J. Goss refused yesterday to say that interrogation tactics employed by the agency in the past did not constitute torture, according to The New York Times. Goss told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he might be able to disclose more once the committee went into secret session. — Posted at 12:08 pm

CHERTOFF PLANS TO BE CIRCUMSPECT. Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff told reporters Wednesday that he plans a "disciplined" approach to sharing threat-related information with the public, balancing the need to inform people and keep them vigilant with avoiding creation of too much anxiety or alarm, according to reporter Mimi Hall of USA Today. Chertoff made his first public appearance before reporters since his appointment last month, a day after some television networks with conflicting information from local and federal authorities reported inaccurately that some Washington area anthrax tests were positive. — Posted at 09:42 am

Mar. 17, 2005

ABU GHRAIB DISCLOSURES CUT ABUSES. Washington Post staff writer Josh White reported today that the number of reported abuse cases declined 75 percent after revelations of the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison last spring and the numbers of new investigations into deaths have also declined. He quotes Army officials as saying that although there never was a policy in place to abuse detainees, the reported scandal of Abu Ghraib has led to tightened operations at U.S.-run prisons. — Posted at 5:10 pm

TERRORIST THREAT REPORT MAKES BRIEF INTERNET APPEARANCE... THEN DISAPPEARS. In what Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff called a "mistake," Hawaii posted a federal report on terrorism threats on the Internet, Yahoo reported on its Web site Wednesday. It has since been erased. The report listed ways that terrorists might attack the U.S. - among them chlorine tank explosions and infecting cattle with foot-and-mouth disease - and estimated the number of likely casualties. In explaining why the report should have been, and from now on will be, confidential, Chertoff said, "What I want to resist is ... a temptation to feed the desire for information by putting something out that we are not in a position to speak about definitively." — Posted at 1:49 pm

Mar. 16, 2005

LOUISIANA LAW A recently enacted exemption to Louisiana's open records law contains such vague language, open government advocates are worried that its abuse is imminent, The [Baton Rouge] Advocate reported yesterday. In 2003, the Louisiana legislature passed an exemption that justifies the withholding of government records when related to "prevention of terrorist-related activity." When the legislation was being debated on the House floor, Rep. Taylor Townsend, D-Natchitoches, warned that "it's a carte blanche card to infringe upon the constitutional rights of the citizens of this great state." — Posted at 5:58 pm

Mar. 15, 2005

CORNYN CHAIRS SENATE FOI HEARING. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chairing a hearing today on "OPEN the Government" legislation he and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) have introduced, said the government protects more information than it should. There are different ways to draw the line between classified and unclassified information but it is important to remember that classification and security "are not the same thing," he said. The Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security heard testimony from Katherine M. "Missy" Cary, Assistant Attorney General of Texas; Walter Mears, former Washington bureau chief and executive editor, Associated Press; Mark Tapscott, Heritage Foundation; Lisa Graves, American Civil Liberties Union; Meredith Fuchs, National Security Archive; and Thomas M. Susman, Ropes & Gray LLP. — Posted at 6:19 pm

Mar. 14, 2005

FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL REVEALS HIS BATTLES WITH HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT. Tom Ridge's appointment calendar, recently released pursuant to an FOI Act request, shows that the former Homeland Security Department head called former-Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin to his office twice in 2004, The New York Times reported today. When asked what transpired at those meetings, Ervin told The Associated Press that the first meeting "was two hours of... 'Why are you being negative to the department? Why are you releasing reports?'" Ridge called the second meeting, Ervin said, to suggest that he make his reports a bit less critical as election day neared, to which Ervin replied that IG offices "don't coordinate our messages with the department." Ervin's experience is further discussed in this article from the most recent issue of Mother Jones magazine. — Posted at 7:12 pm

GOVERNMENT\'S FOI ACT COMPLIANCE IN 2003 FAR WORSE THAN IN 1998. In observance of Government Sunshine Week, The New York Times published The Associated Press's in-depth review of the government's response to 130 different FOI Act requests today. The study revealed that the Justice Department, CIA and FBI gave far more full responses to FOI Act requests in 1998 than they did in 2003. For the same period, agencies' classification of documents and use of the "no records exist" response has exploded. — Posted at 6:16 pm

TERRORISM-RELATED INFORMATION SHARING WITH FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS WORK, STATES SAY. An article on the FindLaw Web site discusses the state of information sharing between the federal Homeland Security department and its state counterparts. One recent example of the poor quality of information sharing occurred when a handful of state homeland security directors received information about a terrorist threat well after local law enforcement officials within their jurisdiction had already been briefed. Frustration also stems from a daily barrage of information from "a variety of federal sources," whereas many states prefer that information come from a "single pipeline." — Posted at 5:49 pm

NON-PROFIT FILES LAWSUIT OVER INFORMATION ON GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA. Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in an attempt to access information on government-funded "strategic influence" through media consultants, the non-profit organization announced on its Web site March 4. Federal law prohibits the government from disseminating government-authored "'official news' deliberately designed to influence public opinion or policy." Despite the fact that Judicial Watch made its original FOI Act request in March 2004, it still has not received what it views to be an adequate response. — Posted at 5:47 pm

Mar. 11, 2005

ACLU POSTS NEWLY RECEIVED ABU GHRAIB ANNEXES. The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday released previously classified annexes on Abu Ghraib it received as a result of its court case against several federal agencies for information on detainee abuse on foreign soil. The annexes supplement the report of August 2004 by Major General George Fay blaming top Pentagon officials for creating conditions leading to "acts of brutality and purposeless sadism" at Abu Ghraib. The report referenced some incidents described in the annexes, but the annexes were not released until yesterday. — Posted at 6:21 pm

JOURNALIST\'S SHOOTING LINKED TO AMBASSADOR\'S VISIT. A U.S. Embassy spokesman in Baghdad told reporters that U.S. troops who fired on a car carrying an Italian journalist a week ago were part of a beefed-up security team for U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, The Washington Post reported. Reuters reported that the ambassador, who usually travels by helicopter, was in a motorcade on his way to dinner with a general and expected to pass through the area where gunfire injured freed Italian hostage and journalist Giuliana Sgrena. — Posted at 3:48 pm

SECRECY FOR SECURITY\'S SAKE DOESN\'T PROTECT, IT JUST DILUTES GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY. In a column written for The Orlando Sentinel Thursday, Myriam Marquez questioned the contribution government secrecy makes to public security. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft's October 2001 memo encouraging the use of FOIA exemptions "was in the works even before the terrorist attack," she noted, "which should give all Americans pause." In addressing the post-September 11 yank of critical infrastructure information from public view, Marquez said "It used to be that the Environmental Protection Agency Web site contained environmental reports filed by chemical plants so that the public could know what types of potentially poisonous materials were near their homes, businesses or schools... Now people are more vulnerable, not less, because they haven't a clue what risks they face" or how their government addresses them. — Posted at 3:46 pm

OKLAHOMA SENATE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES HOMELAND SECURITY EXEMPTION TO OPEN RECORDS LAW The Oklahoma Senate has unanimously approved a broad exemption to open records law for the state Office of Homeland Security, ChannelOklahoma.com reported Thursday. If passed, the exemption will protect information received, maintained, or generated by the Office of Homeland Security with some exceptions. The executive vice president of Oklahoma's press association said he would meet with the House chief of staff next week to encourage amendments to the bill. — Posted at 3:43 pm

Mar. 10, 2005

PENNSYLVANIA PARTIALLY UNVEILS EMERGENCY-PREPAREDNESS EXPENDITURES. Pennsylvania has released records pertaining to the state's expenditure of federal emergency preparedness grants, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday. More than 4,000 invoices revealed purchases that include explosive-sniffing dogs, night-vision goggles, black body bags, decontamination trailers, and a bomb robot. Director Adrian R. King, Jr. of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency refused, however, to release any geographical details, leaving citizens to wonder if certain areas of the state were getting more attention than others. King also "suggested that members of the public who want to see the purchase orders could be subject to background checks." — Posted at 4:21 pm

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL EXAGGERATES ESTIMATED COST OF OPENNESS. Yesterday, the Rocky Mountain News openly questioned a government official's claim that repealing a broad open records exemption in Colorado would generate 826 new records requests and cost the state $250,000 next year. The News alleged that the estimate of 826 new requests seemed fishy and designed to undermine the repeal bill's chances, considering only 12 requests were made last year for records covered by the secrecy law. — Posted at 3:41 pm

LETTING THE SUN SHINE. A coalition of journalism groups and news organizations, including The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is pushing an initiative for accessible, accountable and open government, and to seek to educate the public about First Amendment issues. The initiative -- announced before next week's weeklong campaign for government openness spearheaded by more than 50 news outlets, journalism groups, universities and the American Library Association -- comes as Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduce a bill to speed Freedom of Information Act requests. ``Right now, it's all in favor of secrecy and hunkering down,'' Cornyn told members of the National Newspaper Association. ``I believe the default position should be: it's open.' — Posted at 3:40 pm

PENTAGON REPORT BLAMES INCOMPETENCE AND CONFUSION FOR DETAINEE ABUSE. A Pentagon report released today ascribes abuse of detainees in U.S. custody to incompetent low-level managers and confusion as to changes in the rules of interrogation, according to The Washington Post. An inquiry by Vice Adm. Albert T. Church III concludes "there was no deliberate high-level policy that led numerous cases of mistreatment," the paper reports. — Posted at 2:39 pm

Mar. 9, 2005

RECORDS RELATING TO FBI TERROR SUSPECTS\' GUN PURCHASES ROUTINELY DESTROYED WITHIN 24 HOURS. A recently completed Congressional investigation highlights how federal gun laws impact terrorism investigations, The New York Times reported Tuesday. When the name on a gun application matches a name on the FBI's terror watch list, nothing can be done to stop the gun purchase unless the prospective buyer is, in addition to being flagged, a felon, an illegal immigrant or deemed "mentally defective." Then, the records of terrorism suspects' gun purchases are destroyed within 24 hours, "eliminating the paper trail on gun purchases." Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., plans to introduce a bill that would require such records to be retained for 10 years instead of 24 hours. "Destroying these records in 24 hours is senseless and will only help terrorists to cover their tracks," Lautenberg said. — Posted at 2:28 pm

KEEPING ABUSE FILM UNDER WRAPS WAS ARMY PRIORITY, ARTICLE SAYS Army files reveal that military police investigated the alleged detainee abuse depicted in a soldier-made DVD for six months last year before determining that there had been no abuse, The Palm Beach Post reported today. Throughout their investigation into the events filmed, the military police repeatedly asked soldiers if they intended to distribute material to the media - a violation of military law. "Keeping 'Ramadi Madness' under wraps was a recurring theme." On Sunday, the Post also excerpted portions of the film - previously believed to have been destroyed - and catalogued its contents scene-by-scene. — Posted at 2:26 pm

BUSH CIA DIRECTIVE ENDORSES DETAINEE RENDITION. President Bush signed a still-classified directive just after Sept. 11, 2001 authorizing the CIA to ship terrorism suspects overseas for interrogation, The New York Times reported. A senior U.S. official told the Times that the detainees were transferred contingent on promises they would not be tortured. "He did not dispute there had been mistreatment on some occasions, but said no one died," the article reported. — Posted at 1:05 pm

Mar. 7, 2005

THREE GITMO MILITARY OFFICERS SUSPENDED FOR UNIDENTIFIED REASON. The Miami Herald reported on Saturday that three high level military officials have been suspended from duty at Guantanamo Bay for alleged, ill-defined "personal misconduct." A prison spokesperson said that the suspensions had nothing to do with prisoner abuse, but refused to release any details. Army Brigadier General Jay Hood has asked the Southern Command in Miami to investigate the secret charges. — Posted at 4:38 pm

RAILROAD CAR TOXIN PLACARDS... INDISPENSABLE SAFETY TOOL OR INTOLERABLE TERRORIST THREAT? Emergency response personnel oppose a federal proposal to remove toxin warning placards from the side of railroad cars, an article in Saturday's New York Times reported. Although some government officials fear terrorists will use the placards to zero in on highly toxic railroad cars for attacks, emergency-response teams read placards with binoculars as they approach train wrecks "to see what dangerous chemicals might be leaking." A lawyer for the American Chemistry Council summed up the conflict: "if you take [the placards] off, you know that people will be killed in accidents... And you're basically balancing that against the theoretical prospect that terrorists might be lurking on that corner." — Posted at 4:12 pm

CONGRESSWOMAN WANTS OVERSIGHT BOARDS FOR DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION. On Wednesday, the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations held a hearing on the Bush administration's abuse of its national security classification authority, The New York Times reported last week. FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, who was fired for reporting internal espionage and inefficiencies to her agency superiors, testified before Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., about the government's invocation of the "state secrets privilege" to have her subsequent whistleblower retaliation lawsuit thrown out of court. Maloney pledged to write a bill named after Edmonds to create increased oversight for the federal government's security classifications. — Posted at 3:37 pm

GOVERNMENT ARGUES THAT WRONGFUL TERMINATION LAWSUIT IMPLICATES NATIONAL SECURITY, CANNOT BE HEARD. The Justice Department has filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in response to former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds' appeal of its invocation of the "state secrets privilege" to preclude her whistleblower retaliation lawsuit, The New York Times reported. The lawsuit was dismissed by a trial court in July when the government claimed that the case could not be litigated without disclosing information that would be damaging to national security. Oral argument will take place April 21. — Posted at 3:35 pm

WAXMAN ASKS TO SEE MILITARY DEFENSE CONTRACTS AWARDED TO FIRM WITH BUSH CONNECTION Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has asked the Defense Department for copies of no-bid military contracts awarded to Engineered Support Systems Inc., the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. President Bush's uncle has served on the corporation's board since 2000. Waxman's concern, he said, stemmed from a Feb. 23 Times article disclosing that William H.T. "Bucky" Bush recently traded in $450,000 in stock options. — Posted at 3:33 pm

NEW ARMY DOCUMENTS RELEASED TO ACLU REVEAL MORE ABUSE ALLEGATIONS. Pursuant to an ACLU FOI Act request, the U.S. Army has released records detailing the contents of a now-destroyed American-made DVD of soldiers beating a bound Iraqi prisoner, and positioning a detainee's corpse to wave hello at the camera, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. An internal military investigation concluded that the footage documented "innapropriate," but not criminal, behavior. In other records released by the U.S. Army, it was revealed that an intelligence sergeant was ordered to a psychiatric evaluation and then evacuated from Iraq in restraints after complaining about military violence against detainees, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. Although the sergeant claimed that the evacuation amounted to a coverup, his fellow soldiers denied that the unit committed any abuse. — Posted at 3:17 pm

FREED JOURNALIST SHOWERED BY \'RAIN OF FIRE AND BULLETS;\' WHITE HOUSE CALLS ACCOUNT \'ABSURD.\' Giuliana Sgrena, the Italian journalist wounded by U.S. troops in Iraq after a month in captivity, said U.S. officials did not provide an accurate picture of the attack, which she called "unjustified," The Washington Post and The New York Times reported. "We thought that the danger was finished after my handover. Instead, suddenly, this shooting. A rain of fire came," Sgrena told a television station by telephone, The Post reported. "Nicola folded himself on me probably to defend me and then he collapsed. I saw that he was dead. The shooting continued and the driver did not even have the opportunity to explain that we were Italian." The Times reported that the White House called the shooting a "horrific accident" and promised a full investigation. On Monday, however, the White House called it "absurd" that U.S. troops deliberately targeted the car carrying Sgrena, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 12:26 pm

Mar. 3, 2005

\'HE JUST DISAPPEARED FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH.\' The case of an Afghan detainee who froze to death in CIA custody - an incident that remained secret for two years - illustrates how little is known about how the agency treats detainees and investigates abuse allegations, The Washington Post reports in its lead story today. The death occurred at a secret CIA prison outside Kabul known as "the Salt Pit." According to anonymous sources, the "uncooperative" young man was stipped bare, chained to a concrete floor and left to die in his cell by Afghan guards under orders of a CIA case officer, who has since been promoted. The man, buried in an unmarked grave, was never identified, and his family was never notified of his death. "He just disappeared from the face of the earth," one U.S. official said. — Posted at 10:34 am

Mar. 2, 2005

RANKING INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS PLEAD FOR CIA INTERROGATION INVESTIGATIONS. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va, have asked the chairmen of their respective intelligence committees to investigate the legal authorities used by the CIA to carry out interrogations and secret renditions, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. A congressional aide has said that Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Pat Roberts, R-Kan., does not believe that any such investigation is warranted. The CIA inspector general's office is currently conducting its own investigation into the same issue. — Posted at 5:43 pm

MILITARY OFFICIALS SUED IN FEDERAL COURTS FOR DETAINEE ABUSES. Two public interest organizations have sued Donald Rumsfeld and three Army commanders for the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First have filed the claims in various federal courts under the Alien Tort Claims Act. An international law professor said that while he did not think the lawsuit was frivolous, "it is unlikely to prove successful in the long run." The article cited official immunity and standing as two major obstacles to the lawsuits. In response to the lawsuit, the Defense Department has issued a news release stating "We vigorously dispute any assertion or implication that the Department of Defense approved of, sanctioned or condoned as a matter of policy detainee abuse." — Posted at 5:41 pm

STATE DEPARTMENT LOOKS AT INTERIM IRAQI GOVERNMENT\'S HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD. The U.S. State Department has published a report detailing human rights abuses around the world, with a chapter on the U.S.-installed Iraqi interim government, The New York Times reported this week. Although the report, officially named the "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," does not address incidents in which Americans were involved such as Abu Ghraib, its description of the Iraqi police force suggests similar allegations: The "torture and ill treatment of detainees by police was commonplace," and allegedly included "beatings with cables and hosepipes, electric shocks to their earlobes and genitals, food and water deprivation." — Posted at 5:39 pm

Mar. 1, 2005

TRAVELERS MUST COMPLY WITH LAW THAT THEY ARE PROHIBITED FROM READING. An article in Sunday's edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiled John Gilmore, a crusader against the government's classification of transportation security laws. The public's inability to see these laws also prevents their ability to effectively challenge them, he says. Gilmore, who co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has sued the Transportation Safety Administration over its secret regulation requiring airline passengers to show identification cards as a precondition to domestic travel. The government asked a judge to hold a secret hearing in the case to prevent Gilmore's lawyers from ever seeing the law. — Posted at 6:11 pm

WAXMAN, SHAYS ADDRESS SECRECY DESIGNATIONS, CLASSIFICATION. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) today sent a 12-page letter to Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security, detailing how proliferating information designations block the release of important government records. Waxman explores the damage to open government from the widespread use of labels such as "sensitive but unclassified," "for official use only," "sensitive homeland security information" and "sensitive security information." Shays' subcommittee is holding a hearing on overclassification and pseudo classification tomorrow — Posted at 6:10 pm

FBI RESPONDS TO AUDIT DETAILING ITS TRANSLATION FAILURES. FBI Director Robert Mueller has announced that the agency has improved its terror war-related translation activities since a 2004 Justice Department audit revealed a huge backlog, The Washington Post reported. The extent of the incremental improvement was not discussed. According to Mueller, the FBI has also halted its practice of periodically deleting untranslated audio recordings to accommodate computer storage limitations. — Posted at 5:47 pm

REPORTERS BARRED FROM IRAQI HOSPITAL. Journalists who tried to interview Iraqis injured by a bomb outside a clinic Monday were barred from the hospital by Iraqi police, who also beat several cameramen, The Washington Post reported. — Posted at 5:46 pm