On Jan. 24, 2003, a new law enforcement and investigatory agency whose duties include functions taken from as many as 22 other federal agencies came into existence. The reorganization of these operations reportedly marks the biggest government bureaucratic shake-up since the creation of the Department of Defense half a century ago.
Even before the new Department of Homeland Security opened its doors, controversies arose over not just how it would operate and exercise its powers, but what level of access to information it would allow, and how it would respond to news media requests. Will new exemptions be carved out of the FOI Act, either by law or by practice? Will officials and agents feel free to tap phones of journalists, or subpoena their records during investigations? Will the new director consider procedural safeguards, like those adopted years ago by the Department of Justice, to ensure that freedom of the press will not be denied? And will those practices be followed?

But "homeland" security is not the only concern for journalists covering anti-terrorism initiatives; military actions abroad often present a greater challenge, as questions over disclosure of information, access to troops, and restraints on reporting seem to resurface anew with each conflict.

Questions and issues like these led the Reporters Committee to launch this "weblog," so that there will be a centralized site on the Internet for journalists who want to follow these issues and pass along information they learn while covering — or worse, being covered by — the new department and other anti-terrorism actions. Please submit comments and pass along tips to make this project as useful, thorough and up-to-date as possible.

A few words about what this project will not do. We do not intend to cover many of the issues that will undoubtedly come up as the Department takes shape, even if those issues are the ones generating headlines. We will cover information access and free press issues, but will not follow debates over many civil liberties issues that, while important, are outside of our domain.

Funding for the launch of this site was provided by The Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.

Jun. 29, 2005

NAS MILK REPORT TO SEE LIGHT OF DAY. A National Academy of Sciences report on the vulnerability of the nation's milk supply to bioterrorism will be published despite concern from the Department of Health and Human Services that it will serve as a "road map for terrorists," CNN reported on its Web site today. "The consequences of publishing could be dire," HHS Assistant Secretary Stewart Simonson publicly worried. — Posted at 4:48 pm

SUSPECTED TELEVISION CODES PROMPTED 2003 U.S. TERROR ALERT, ARTICLE SAYS. Relying on the closely guarded but since disproved suspicion that terrorists were sending secret messages to one another in the scrolling text on the Al-Jazeera television news network, U.S. officials raised the terror threat level in December 2003 without explanation to the American public, the MSNBC Web site reported on Monday. Steganography is the art of "secret writing," Brooklyn Polytechnic University Professor Nasir Memon told the article's authors. — Posted at 1:15 pm

MASSACHUSSETTS STATE AUDITOR CHECKS UP ON HOMELAND SECURITY SPENDING. In the wake of press attention on states' questionable and/or confusing spending of federal homeland security funds, Massachusetts state auditor Joe DeNucci has decided to conduct a comprehensive audit of the Bay State's security expenditures, the MSNBC Web site reported. Unlike textbook purchasing programs, "there's a lack of clarity in terms of what is and what is not a homeland security application and purpose," DeNucci said. — Posted at 12:52 pm

PUBLIC MUST SHOW US A \"BONA FIDE NEED\' TO SEE RECORDS, ATTORNEY GENERAL SNIFFS. A survey of myriad recent developments in New Jersey's three-year-old public records law in yesterday's [Cherry Hill] Courier-Post included a discussion of the pending, administratively imposed expansion of critical infrastructure information exemptions. Of the exemptions, New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey said that any concern is "misplaced" because the public can always overcome the presumptive exemption by arguing that there is a "bona fide need" for access. A public hearing on the proposed freedom of information changes is slated for July 22. — Posted at 12:48 pm

PRESUMPTION THAT RECORDS ARE CLOSED A PART OF NEW JERSEY\'S PENDING FOI CHANGE. New Jersey Attorney General Peter C. Harvey's proposed changes to his state's freedom of information law would not only establish new critical infrastructure information (CII) exemptions, but would alter what would have otherwise been the government's burden to prove that the CII exemptions apply, the Asbury Park Press reported today. The new rules would presume critical infrastructure data closed, and "would also put the burden of proving a specific need for the document on the public." — Posted at 12:47 pm

CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE SAYS TIME MIGHT TALK ABOUT CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE. Editor & Publisher reports that, according to "a source close to Time Inc.," the company is considering handing over documents that will reveal who leaked undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters. New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper are facing up to 18 months in jail for refusing to reveal thier confidential sources to a grand jury investigating the leak, and Time is facing a $1000-a-day fine. Cooper and a Time representative declined to comment. Time attorney Ted Olson said that "decisions have not been made in terms of what Time will do if the judge reaffirms the order. Both Time and Matt Cooper are reserving judgment on what they will do. There is no point in making a decision before it is necessary." Miller has repeatedly said she will go to jail rather than reveal her source. — Posted at 12:45 pm

NO REVIEW OF REPORTER\'S PRIVILEGE. The U.S. Supreme Court won't hear the appeal of two reporters who have been ordered to jail for refusing to testify about their confidential sources, reports The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, BBC News, Newsday, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and a host of others. According to The New York Times , this decision is yet another indication of a new judicial hostility to an independent press. Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times were subpoenaed to testify in the grand jury investigation into who leaked undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Robert Novak, possibly in retaliation for Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticizing the Bush administration's justification for invading Iraq. Miller and Cooper refused to answer questions about their sources on the leak and were held in contempt, while Novak has remained silent about his participation in the investigation. The sentence was stayed pending appeals, but now Miller and Cooper must go back before U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, who may send them immediately to jail, the Los Angeles Times and Editor & Publisher report. According to Salon, Miller and Cooper hope to be able to convince Hogan and Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald that the subpoenas should be dropped because the release of Plame's identity to Novak was likely not a crime. They appear before Hogan today. "I am extremely disappointed. Journalists simply cannot do their jobs without being able to commit to sources that they won't be identified," Miller said in a statement. She has also launched a Website, judithmiller.org, to call attention to the case. "The government had every right to investigate whether a crime might have been committed ... But in the process, it did more harm than good when the prosecutor inexplicable switched gears and began threatening to punish Ms. Miller and Mr. Cooper for declining to reveal whom they had spoken to in confidence about the Plame case," The New York Times wrote in an editorial. Wilson blames a lack of cooperation by the White House. "That two reporters may now have to go to jail is a direct consequence of President Bush's refusal to hold his administration accountable," he told Editor & Publisher. In an editorial, The Orange County Register wrote that the court's decsion not to hear the case makes it more urgent for Congress to pass a federal reporter's shield law. The Los Angeles Times however, editorialized that reporters should not have an absolute privilege to refuse to testify, and that the solution is for Novak or the leaker to come forward, or for Fitzgerald to drop the investigation. — Posted at 12:38 pm

NAS MILK REPORT TO SEE LIGHT OF DAY. A National Academy of Sciences report called "a road map for terrorists" who would like to poison the nation's milk supply will be published despite concern from the Department of Health and Human Services, CNN reported on its Web site today. NAS had at one point indicated it might suppress the study - which also contains security suggestions for the nation's milk supply - at HHS's request. HHS Assistant Secretary Stewart Simonson disagreed with the NAS about face, the article said, because he believed "the consequences of publishing could be dire." — Posted at 10:45 am

Jun. 28, 2005

JUDGE GAGS LAWYERS IN FATHER-SON TERRORISM CASE. A federal judge in Sacramento, Calif., issued a gag order last week in a case involving a father and son accused of lying to FBI agents about the son's alleged attendance at a terrist training camp in Pakistan, the San Jose Mercury News reports. U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Nowinski ordered the prosecution to turn over to the defense certain statements the defendants, Umer and Hamid Hayat, suposedly made to investigators. Nowinski then prohibited attorneys from disclosing the information "to anyone not working on the case," the paper reported. — Posted at 5:38 pm

LOCAL OFFICERS OPERATE WITHOUT LOCAL OVERSIGHT THANKS TO FBI COLLABORATION. Across the country, 66 local police departments have deputized officers to work on Joint Terrorism Task Forces with the FBI, a collaboration which effectively removes those officers from historically local oversight, Counterpunch's Web site reported on Friday. Earlier this year, Portland, Ore., became the first city to pull out of its collaboration with the FBI over the agency's refusal to grant security clearances to local officials for oversight power. — Posted at 2:17 pm

COMMUNITIES WITH NO SAY IN WHERE GAS TERMINALS GO CAN\'T KNOW ABOUT THEM, EITHER. One day after the U.S. Senate voted down a proposal to give local communities more say in where liquified natural gas terminals are located, a Massachusetts state auditor's report revealed big problems with security measures at 18 to 20 plants in that state, NBC 10 News's Web site reported on Thursday. Late safety inspections and poor communication between plant owners and local emergency response teams are just two of the findings in the audit, which was heavily redacted for "sensitive security details." — Posted at 2:14 pm

\'PROGRESS REPORTS\' A WAY TO SAFELY DIVULGE SENSITIVE TRAINING INFO, GENERAL SAYS. At a Defense Department news briefing yesterday, a reporter asked Gen. George Casey whether Americans had the right to more information about the training of Iraqi security forces, particularly their numbers and preparedness ratings, a transcript on the agency's Web site revealed. "Reporting weekly or monthly on the readiness of units that are actually fighting in a combat zone" is something the military could not do, Casey said, although he pledged to work to find a way "how we can declassify it in a way that we can present periodic progress reports." — Posted at 1:22 pm

WHISTLEBLOWER TESTIFIES ON HILL ABOUT POOR CONTRACT ACCOUNTABILITY. Whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse, who has worked in government contract procurement for 20 years and was formerly the Army's top contracting officer, said in testimony before a Capitol Hill hearing that the U.S.'s no-bid reconstruction contract with Halliburton subsidiary KBR was "the most blatant and improper contract abuse" she has seen during her career, Reuters reported Monday. The hearing was held just as a new audit report revealed approximately $1 billion in "questioned" costs and nearly $425 million in undocumented costs under the contract. — Posted at 1:21 pm

SOLDIER-JOURNALIST TALKS SECRECY. The Public Relations Society of America has posted an article written by Jeffrey P. Nors, a soldier whose detail is the army Public Affairs Detachment - a print and broadcast journalism unit serving base newspapers and providing limited support to external media - in which he argues that "security is only one side of the equation" when it comes to deciding whether to suppress government information from the public. — Posted at 1:09 pm

Jun. 27, 2005

JUDGE HALTS SEARCH OF KY. HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE. Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher convinced a judge last week to suspend a previously approved search of the state's Homeland Security Office, citing the need to protect secret communciations with federal homeland security officials, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported. State Attorney General Greg Stumbo seeks records related to a special grand jury investigation into the governor's hiring practices, including an examination of why the former head of the state Homeland Security Office, Keith Hall, resigned unexpectedly on June 10, according to the paper. On Monday, the judge unsealed the governor's "hit list" of state employees to be fired or reassigned - a document that had been filed in support of the warrant to search Hall's office, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 5:35 pm

STUDY: FEDS HELD 70 \'MATERIAL WITNESSES\' SINCE 9/11. A report released yesterday by two civil rights groups claims the U.S. government has detained some 70 terror suspects as "material witnesses" to secret grand jury investigations since Sept. 11, 2001 - yet nearly half of the detainees have never been called to testify, The Washington Post reported. The study, by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, charges the feds overused the "material witness" warrants, in some cases illegally, to hold the 70 men, all but one of whom are Muslim. — Posted at 4:04 pm

TIMES OBTAINS COPIES OF SEALED ITALIAN WARRANTS. An Italian judge has ordered the arrests of 13 CIA officers and operatives in connection with the alleged seizure and rendition of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in February 2003, The New York Times reported Saturday. The arrest warrants remained sealed from public view Friday, but copies obtained by the Times revealed that 13 Americans are wanted for the alleged kidnapping of imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who relatives say was sent by the U.S. to Egypt for interrogation. Nasr is still missing, and the whereabouts of the 13 CIA suspects are unknown, the Times reported. — Posted at 11:15 am

MCCLELLAN DODGY ABOUT IRAQI SECURITY FORCES TRAINING DATA. White House spokesman Scott McClellan skirted a reporter's questions about the secrecy surrounding American training of Iraqi security forces, according to the Friday transcript of a White House press briefing. "The American people need to know this, they are paying for this war," the reporter said. Though he mentioned that 160,000 Iraqi forces have been trained, McClellan refused to discuss what percentage that figure represents of U.S. goals. — Posted at 11:14 am

MANY STATES KEEP DETAILS OF HOMELAND SECURITY SPENDING HIDDEN. States take a variety of approaches in publicizing how they spend federal homeland security money, but on the whole there is tremendous secrecy, Congressional Quarterly's Web site reported last week. "Accountability is the price we pay" to accommodate our fear a "nebulous terrorist threat," said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. — Posted at 10:31 am

Jun. 24, 2005

U.S. TROOPS KILL IRAQI REPORTER, ARREST AP CAMERAMAN IN TWO SEPARATE INCIDENTS. U.S. troops shot and killed an Iraqi reporter working for an American news organization Friday in Baghdad after he apparently did not respond to a shouted signal from a military convoy, The Associated Press reported. The military declined comment, AP said. Meanwhile, U.S. forces in Fallujah arrested an AP Television News cameraman who went to the aftermath of a suicide car bombing that killed at least two Marines, AP reported. — Posted at 4:21 pm

FROM NOW ON, PLEASE LIMIT YOUR FOIA REQUESTS TO THINGS WE WANT YOU TO SEE. In an interview with Tony Snow on Fox News - the transcript to which was published on the Defense Department's Web site Tuesday - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained about what he called the media's repetition of old Guantanamo Bay abuse allegations that had been unearthed using Freedom of Information Act requests "as though it's something brand new and different." Snow appeared to agree with Rumsfeld's criticism, adding "You know what's interesting is I haven't seen people demanding Freedom of Information requests to see photos of the people who have been tortured by the bad guys." Rumsfeld's response: "That's true. That's exactly right." — Posted at 3:03 pm

UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION CONTINUES TO PLEAD FOR GUANTANAMO ACCESS. The four members of the United Nations Human Rights Commission have complained that the U.S. has not granted them access to its detention center at Guantanamo Bay despite allegations of abuse that come from the U.S.'s own declassified documents, leading them to believe there is something being hidden, Fox News's Web site reported. The U.S. points to Gitmo visits by the International Red Cross as voluntary submission to human rights review, but the article noted that Red Cross reports are confidential and given only to the U.S. government. Any report compiled by the U.N., on the other hand, would be public. — Posted at 3:01 pm

CROWD PROTESTS \'INFORMATION LOCKOUT.\' Approximately 50 people fought the expansion of state open records exemptions by protesting outside the New Jersey attorney general's office this week, The Associated Press reported today. The outcry was stirred by recently proposed rules regulating what constitutes a security exemption to open records law. Openness advocates claim that the rule will leave too much to subjective interpretation, and further complained that there is no need for it in the first place: "terrorists have not used and do not use public records to carry out their plans." — Posted at 2:28 pm

MILITARY DOCUMENTS SHED LIGHT ON DOCTORS\' ROLE IN GUANTANAMO INTERROGATIONS. An article appearing in The New England Journal of Medicine relies on internal U.S. military documents to claim that doctors at Guantanamo Bay regularly advised interrogators about detainees' psychological vulnerabilities using their medical files, the Yahoo Web site reported today. The interrogators would then exploit those vulnerablities to gain better intelligence. — Posted at 2:26 pm

\'WIKI WIKI\' MEANS QUICK IN HAWAI\'IAN. In order to carefully process the 4,000 pages of government records it received pursuant to a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request for information on the treatment of U.S. detainees at detention centers worldwide, the ACLU has recruited volunteers to pore over the data using what is known as wiki software, the Wired News Web site reported this week. Wiki software, also used by the well-known Wikipedia Web site, employs Web pages that can be edited by anyone. — Posted at 2:24 pm

SHAYS QUESTIONS PENTAGON AUDIT SECRECY. Promising to issue a congressional subpoena for full access to Pentagon audits unless the agency changes its tune, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn) criticized the Defense Department's decision to heavily redact its own internal audits of Halliburton's alleged overcharges in Iraq before handing them over to the United Nations, Capitol Hill Blue's Web site reported. Of the Pentagon's decision to redact the documents in the face of overcharge allegations, Shays said that "[s]ometimes, lawyers can get you out of jail but can make you look guilty as hell in the process." — Posted at 2:23 pm

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO FUND PUBLIC INTEREST DECLASSIFICATION BOARD. The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would finally fund the Public Interest Declassification Board as of next fiscal year, according to the Federation of American Scientists's Web site. Although members have already been named to the board, which would provide a forum for grievances about improper classifications, it has lacked the funding necessary to operate. — Posted at 2:22 pm

COURT CLOSES HEARING FOR ACCUSED IRAQI AGENT. Counsel for a Palestinian man who allegedly tried to sell Saddam Hussein the names of U.S. spies for $3 million argued much of his client's case behind closed doors Monday in federal court in Indianapolis, The Associated Press reported. The court also kept from the public the case file of Shaaban Hafiz Ahmad Ali Shaaban, who claims he was acting on behalf of the American government at the time of the alleged crime. Attorneys refused to comment on the case outside the courtroom. — Posted at 2:21 pm

EDITORIAL TOUTS PUBLIC NATURE OF GIS MAPS. In response to the assertion that the public release of Greenwich, Connecticut's, electronic maps should be avoided because the maps could be put to harmful uses including terrorism, Eric Friedman said in a Fairfield Weekly editorial published Thursday "[w]ell that's the price of doing public business: the public gets to watch." The government uses the electronic maps in many contexts that require public oversight, he said. "Planners can see where a new rail line would best serve the most commuters. They can find areas best suited for new development, or easily calculate response times in case of disaster." The Connecticut Supreme Court recently ruled that Greenwich did not adequately prove that the records' release would compromise town security, and ordered their release. — Posted at 2:19 pm

PENTAGON AUDITS OF HALLIBURTON REDACTED TO PROTECT... HALLIBURTON? The Defense Department has been heavily redacting its internal audits of Halliburton operations in Iraq - citing the company's proprietary information - before handing them over to a United Nations monitoring board for the Development Fund for Iraq, The Washington Post reports. Of the redactions, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) commented that "[o]vercharges to the government are not trade secrets." Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn), also frustrated with the redactions, threatened to subpoena the full audits Monday if a satisfactory explanation was not forthcoming. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times quotes Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann as saying that the company was not to blame for the heavy redactions of its proprietary information from Defense Department audits of its work. Halliburton has been accused of overcharging the government for various purchases. Pentagon audit redactions have recently been criticized from many corners, but it was the government's decision to black out the data, Mann said: "Our requests for redactions were just that - requests." — Posted at 2:15 pm

SOCIAL SECURITY DOCUMENTS REVEAL PRIVACY CURTAILMENT. Documents obtained from the Social Security Administration by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through the Freedom of Information Act show that the agency regularly disclosed individuals' personal information to the FBI after 9/11 until at least May 2004, when its previous policy was to do so only under very specific circumstances, The New York Times reported. — Posted at 2:11 pm

Jun. 22, 2005

SURVEY SHOWS INVESTIGATORS CHECK OUT LIBRARY PATRONS. Law enforcement officials have asked U.S. librarians at least 268 times since 2001 for information about their patrons, according to a new survey by the American Library Association. Reuters reports it is unclear whether the requests were made by federal, state or local authorities, and whether they were made under the Patriot Act - which federal officials have denied using to probe library records. But Emily Sheketoff, the association's executive director, denounced investigators' "fishing expeditions" at public and academic libraries. "Just because I read murder mysteries, that doesn't make me a murderer ... and if someone reads a book on Osama bin Laden, that doesn't make him a member of al Qaeda," she said. — Posted at 11:33 am

IRAQI OFFICIAL ACCUSES U.S. OF BLOCKING ACCESS TO SADDAM. The United States is hindering Iraq's attempts to question Saddam Hussein, the nation's justice minister charged Tuesday. "[I]t seems there are lots of secrets they are trying to hide," Abdel Hussein Shandal told The Associated Press. An independent body known as the Iraqi Special Tribunal has yet to set a trial date for Saddam, 68, who is being held at a U.S. military detention facility near the Baghdad airport with other high-profile detainees. — Posted at 11:17 am

HALLIBURTON SUBPOENA THREAT LOOMS FOR DEFENSE DEPARTMENT. The first Congressional hearing on American management of nearly $20 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds convened this week, The New York Times reported today. Already information access disputes have arisen, with Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) saying that he would sign on to subpoena the Defense Department as early as next week for documents pertaining to a $2.5 billion no-bid Halliburton contract. — Posted at 11:15 am

CLASSIFIED CIA REPORT MAKES POOR PREDICTIONS FOR IRAQ. An article published in the June 27 issue of Newsweek magazine discusses a CIA report on the future of Iraq so secret its very title is classified. The report compares the al-Qaeda terrorist training camps of Afghanistan with the terrorism training provided by the insurgency in Iraq to surmise that America faces long-term difficulties in and from Iraq. — Posted at 11:13 am

BRIDGE SAFETY REPORTS WITHHELD, TERRORISTS TO BLAME. New York authorities responded to The Journal News's freedom of information request for bridge safety reports with near-total redactions, and a complete refusal to produce a 10-volume inspection report, the newspaper reported today. The federal Homeland Security Department instructed that the data be suppressed, according to a spokesman for the New York Thruway Authority who said that terrorists might be able to use the information to carry out an attack. — Posted at 11:11 am

CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION INVESTIGATES HIGHWAY CHECKPOINTS WITH RECORDS REQUEST. The Maine Civil Liberties Union is using open records law to try to unearth information about the state's use of checkpoints to search cars randomly on Interstate 95 last year, the Bangor Daily News reported. The organization has asked for policies and practices relating to the checkpoints, which the state has said were necessary to address potential terrorist threats. — Posted at 11:10 am

BOOK HIGHLIGHTS DISCREPENCIES IN GENERAL\'S STATEMENTS. An excerpt of author David Rose's new book, Guantanamo: America's War on Human Rights, on its promotional Web site cites the minutes of an October 2003 meeting between Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and a Red Cross delegation as revealing that Miller denied ever removing detainees' privileges when they failed to respond to interrogations - a violation of international law. Only a few days later, Rose said, he had a personal interview with Miller in which he "made no secret of his belief that subjecting the unco-operative to harsher conditions had boosted the yield of intelligence." — Posted at 11:05 am

DETAILS OF DEFENSE DEPARTMENT\'S RED CROSS MEMOS REVEALED. Defense Department memos concerning the Red Cross's visits to Guantanamo Bay have been obtained by The Washington Post and are detailed in an article published Sunday. The international humanitarian organization's main areas of concern included the continuing use of open-air steel cages and the excessive use of isolation, and the memos reveal the continuing dialogue between the military and the Red Cross about those issues. — Posted at 11:04 am

Jun. 21, 2005

NEW BILL PROPOSES OVERSIGHT BOARD OVERHAUL. The structure of the newly staffed Privacy and Civil Liberties Review Board, meant to provide oversight of government operations for infringement of citizens' privacy concerns and civil liberties, undermines the board's very purpose as it operates under the control of the executive branch, the Watching Justice Web site reported on Friday. The Protection of Civil Liberties Act, a new bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Tom Udall (D-NM) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), would make the board independent of the executive branch and make its investigations subject to public reporting requirements. — Posted at 09:27 am

SECRET DETAILS BEHIND GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION OF TEEN UNKNOWN. In a matter that federal officials will not discuss, 16-year-old Tashnuba Hayder, who has lived in the U.S. since kindergarten, was detained for seven weeks and then finally released in May on the condition that she leave the country, The New York Times reported Friday. Due to government's unwillingness to talk about the case, it is unknown why Hayder must leave, but she told the paper that she visited - out of casual interest - a Web site run by a Muslim cleric accused of advocating suicide bombings, and that she was shortly thereafter visited by an FBI agent asking about her views on jihad. — Posted at 09:24 am

CITIZENS WATCH GOVERNMENT LESS AS GOVERNMENT WATCHES THEM MORE. A guest column in last Tuesday's Boston Globe chided the Boston police chief for his recent move to install 24/7 surveillance cameras around the city while keeping secret whether the gathered intelligence would be fed into Boston's new Commonwealth Fusion Center, an information warehouse for federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. "While the government is increasing its power to watch you," authors Carol Rose and Chip Berlet said, through its secrecy "it is diminishing your power to watch" it. — Posted at 09:19 am

SOLDIERS\' STORIES OFFER WINDOW INTO SADDAM\'S WORLD. American soldiers who served as Saddam Hussein's guards could not tell their families about the detail, it was so secret, The Associated Press reported Monday, but some of the soldiers did speak to a reporter about their interactions with Hussein after their nine-month assignment expired. The deposed leader told one soldier that he would like to make friends with President Bush, who he claimed would not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Hussein also contradicted some of the public statements U.S. officials have made, such as how they discovered his hideout in December 2003. — Posted at 09:14 am

Jun. 20, 2005

THOUSANDS ASK BUSH FOR ANSWERS ON DOWNING STREET MEMO. Nearly 560,000 Americans and 122 members of Congress have endorsed a letter from Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) asking President Bush to explain why the Downing Street memorandum - dated July 2002 and named after British Prime Minister Tony Blair's residence - quotes Blair and his associates saying that the U.S. had already committed going to war with Iraq when the White House maintains that that choice was not made until early 2003, The New York Timesreported Friday. When asked about the letter, White House spokesman Scott McClellan replied that the administration's "focus is not on the past." — Posted at 4:12 pm

IF YOU COULD ONLY SEE THIS, YOU\'D UNDERSTAND WHERE WE\'RE COMING FROM. Navy Capt. Eric Kaniut, who oversees the super-secret administrative hearings at Guantanamo Bay on whether individual prisoners should continue to be detained, said that although a lot of the detainees "seem nice," once you read their classified files you think "Oh, my Gosh," Newsday reported today. The public does not have the right to read those classified files to understand what he is talking about, the newspaper noted. Neither do the detainees themselves have access to classified evidence. — Posted at 4:10 pm

GUANTANAMO BAY IS A-OK. An article written by Donald Rumsfeld in Thursday's USA Today asserted that "arguably, no detention facility in the history of warfare has been more transparent and received more scrutiny than Guantanamo." He cited Red Cross visits, the administration's declassifications of documents pertaining to interrogation techniques, detainee abuse investigations, and more as examples of the detention center's openness. "The real problem is not Guantanamo Bay," he concluded, citing the "unconventional and complex struggle against extremism" as evidence of the U.S.'s continuing need for the prison as an intelligence-gathering operation. — Posted at 4:08 pm

Jun. 17, 2005

ACLU FILES SUIT TO ACCESS PROTESTER INVESTIGATION FILES. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed anopen records lawsuit against the Denver police department for information pertaining to its investigations of peaceful protesters, The Associated Press reported Thursday. Denver has refused to release the records, claiming that to do so would compromise officers' privacy interests. — Posted at 4:23 pm

GROUPS MAKE FOI ACT REQUEST FOR FATHER-SON INVESTIGATION DATA. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union have jointly filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FBI for information pertaining to the agency's investigation techniques pertaining to a father and son recently arrested in California and charged with lying to the FBI, the Lodi News-Sentinel reported Thursday. — Posted at 4:04 pm

Jun. 16, 2005

CHARGE SHEETS REVEAL ALLEGATIONS OF USING DOGS TO SCARE DETAINEES. The Los Angeles Times has obtained criminal charge sheets indicating that an Abu Ghraib dog handler, Sgt. Michael J. Smith, is about to have a preliminary hearing at Ft. Myer on allegations that he harassed three Iraqi prisoners and two juvenile detainees with dogs to scare them into urinating on themselves, the newspaper reported Wednesday. — Posted at 5:02 pm

GONZALES REVEALS TERRORIST RELAPSES. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that 12 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay were subsequently recaptured or killed by the U.S. when discovered fighting against America, Reuters reported yesterday. — Posted at 3:38 pm

GIS MAPS ARE PUBLIC INFORMATION, COURT RULES. The Connecticut Supreme Court has issued a ruling that the Town of Greenwich, Conn., must release electronic Geographic Information System (GIS) maps to open records requester Stephen Whitaker despite its claim that the information could compromise public safety, The Stamford Advocate reported yesterday. The Reporters Committee filed an amicus brief in the case in November with the help of the Society of Environmental Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. — Posted at 2:38 pm

TSA FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICE DOES NOT JIBE WITH AGENCY PRACTICE. In November the Transportation Security Administration said in a Federal Register notice that it would not tap commercial databases to test airplane passenger screening programs, a public assertion it has since contradicted, The Associated Press reported yesterday. For example, a government investigation in March found that the TSA used 12 million airline passenger names in a screening test. — Posted at 1:49 pm

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE TERRORISTS. The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security has issued a report in which it alleged Washington, D.C. spent federal homeland security grant money on registration for a Dale Carnegie public speaking seminar, Omaha.com reported Wednesday. The article explained how in Nebraska, on the other hand, authorities have tried to spend such grants more sensibly. Big city critics still complain that rural homeland security spending is wasteful because it is less likely that terrorists would target such areas. — Posted at 11:57 am

ONE YEAR AFTER HIGH COURT RULING, STILL NO HEARINGS FOR DETAINEES. Detainees at Guantanamo Bay have yet to receive a court hearing to contest their detention, nearly one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that they have a right to be heard, Newsday reports. As the June 28 anniversary of the Rasul v. Bush decision approaches, detainees continue to face a "labyrinth of legal delays and a pattern of government resistance" that borders on obstruction of the high court's mandate, according to the newspaper. — Posted at 11:56 am

FORMER SEN. GRAHAM\'S BOOK LIFTS LID ON FBI\'S PRE-9/11 LINK TO TERRORISTS. Two of the terrorists who hijacked airplanes on September 11, 2001 rented rooms from an FBI informant in San Diego in 2000, and former Sen. Bob Graham's (D-Fla.) book Intelligence Matters - published in September 2004 - tells the story that the government did not want you to hear, the Village Voice reported Tuesday. Graham explains in his book how he learned that the White House ordered that the informant's story be kept from the public. — Posted at 11:54 am

NEWSPAPER PUBLISHES MILK SAFETY INFORMATION AFTER GOVERNMENT REFUSES. After the National Academy of Sciences recently cancelled its intended publication of a report on the vulnerability of the nation's milk supply to bioterrorism out of concern for public safety, one of the report's authors simply wrote an op-ed piece divulging the same information for The New York Times. — Posted at 11:52 am

Jun. 15, 2005

NRC STARTS RE-POSTING YANKED INFORMATION. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently begun to restore 70,000 documents to its on-line reading room after removing them along with hundreds of thousands more in October for security reviews, the agency reported in a press release last week. — Posted at 4:58 pm

Jun. 14, 2005

AUDIT REVEALS INEFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION OF LOCAL HOMELAND SECURITY MEASURES. An email sent by Fredericksburg, Texas, City Manager Gary Neffendorf to the city's grants coordinator Ron Derrick - obtained through a Texas Public Information Act request - placed him on administrative leave after a recent audit revealed "significant deficiencies" in recent homeland security spending, the San Antonio Express News reported Friday. Nearly $20,000 of security equipment had been recently purchased for the city and its surrounding county, but the audit unveiled "substandard record-keeping, misuse of grant funds and equipment, and numerous items improperly stored." — Posted at 4:37 pm

POOR ACCOUNTING OF HOMELAND SECURITY SPENDING CREATES PROBLEMS FOR INDIANA. Approximately $83 million of federal homeland security grants have been doled out to local governments in Indiana since 2001, but due to poor oversight, it remains unclear how some of that money was spent, The Indianapolis Star reported on Friday. The poor accounting has created a problem for Gov. Mitch Daniels because grants were advanced to local governments out of state coffers that anticipated later federal reimbursement. Now, the federal government wants to see receipts before it sends the promised homeland security payments. — Posted at 4:36 pm

NO PATRIOT ACT RENEWAL WITHOUT REVIEWAL A Washington Post op-ed calls for more transparency before expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act are renewed. While little evidence of abuse of the expanded government surveillance powers has been found, the concern is more about abuses that might happen because the act does not have provisions that require regular public reporting. "Before reauthorizing the Patriot Act, Congress needs to demand and release sufficient information. And in revising the law, Congress should make it more transparent, so the public is not at the mercy of the administration's sense of openness." — Posted at 4:34 pm

U.S. PRACTICE OF \'TORTURE LITE\' ANYBODY\'S GUESS. An article on whether the U.S. secretly practices torture in its detention centers worldwide is the subject of an article by Joseph Lelyveld in The New York Times 's Monday edition. What interrogation techniques the U.S. does allow remain classified information. As the article noted, how widely so-called "torture lite is practiced now and who authorizes it is a matter of pure guesswork for anyone who doesn't happen to be an official with a high security clearance or a ranking member of a Congressional intelligence committee." — Posted at 4:33 pm

SUSPECT\'S APPEARANCE ON SECRET WATCH LIST DOES NOT CONSTITUTE PROBABLE CAUSE. A secret government watch list bearing the names of 32,000 terror suspects only authorizes law enforcement officers to approach them with the lowest level of security handling, according to a report issued by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, The New York Times reported today. "Just because we have an individual involved in a hijacking in a foreign country doesn't mean they violated any laws here in the United States," commented the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center's Director Donna A. Bucella. "There has to be probable cause to arrest somebody," she told the newspaper. — Posted at 4:32 pm

Jun. 13, 2005

PENTAGON PRESS RELEASE DISCUSSES INTERROGATION LOG. After the recent leak of the controversial Guantanamo Bay interrogation log pertaining to Mohamed al Khatani, the Defense Department released a press release Sunday listing various facts about Khatani, including that he was allegedly meant to be the fifth terrorist hijacker of United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. The release goes on to defend the humaneness of Khatani's treatment: "The very fact that an interrogation log exists is evidence his interrogation proceeded according to a very detailed plan, which was conducted by trained professionals in a controlled environment, with active supervision and oversight." — Posted at 3:31 pm

CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ENCOURAGES IMMIGRATION PROSECUTIONS, NOT TERRORISM ONES. Heretofore unreleased government statistics reveal that the U.S. at times detains individuals implicated in national security investigations for violations of immigration law because "terrorism charges can be difficult to prosecute," The Washington Post reported today. According to the article, "authorities say they sometimes turn to immigration charges rather than terrorism charges because a case might be based on classified information that they cannot reveal in court without damaging other investigations." After being cleared of terrorism, most are still deported. — Posted at 3:30 pm

REPORTERS SHOULD TAKE CARE NOT TO BUY INTO DOJ SPIN, ARTICLE SAYS. In an article published by Columbia Journalism Review on Friday, reporter Paul McLeary said that journalists acted as unquestioning stenographers in reporting, as President George W. Bush told them in a recent Ohio stump speech for the Patriot Act's renewal, that the law has led to more than 400 people being charged with terrorism-related crimes. Journalists should be more careful not to buy into such Justice Department spin, McLeary wrote, alluding to Bert Dalmer's recent article in the Des Moines Register exposing Justice Department manipulations of terror war figures. — Posted at 3:29 pm

GOVERNMENT INFLATES TERROR NUMBERS TO GET POLITICAL LEVERAGE. A Justice Department memorandum obtained by the Des Moines Register through a Freedom of Information Act request indicates that the federal government has expanded its definition of what constitutes a terrorism investigation in order to make a stronger case for increased counterterrorism appropriations, the newspaper reported recently. "The higher numbers have since been cited in budget requests and in defense of the expansion of police powers," reporter Bert Dalmer wrote, pointing out that now, a terrorist incident might include "college entrance-exam cheaters, check forgers, sham husbands, and those who overstay visas." — Posted at 3:27 pm

BUSH CREATES OVERSIGHT BOARD FOR COUNTERTERRORISM PROGRAM. In the midst of a promotional tour for the renewal of soon-to-expire provisions of the USA Patriot Act, President Bush has appointed an oversight board to analyze the effects of U.S.'s counterterrorism efforts, The Sacramento Bee reported Friday. Called the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the body will examine the effects of counterterrorism investigations and arrests on civil liberties and privacy. — Posted at 3:26 pm

AIR MARSHALS FIGHT GAG ORDER. The Federal Air Marshals Association is suing the head marshall, Thomas Quinn, and Department of Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff over rules that prevent the marshals from speaking about anything that has to do with the Department of Transportation, the Transportation Security Administration or the Federal Air Marshal Service, The National Ledger reports. In another example of prior restraint on publication, the National Academy of Sciences, at the behest of the Department of Health and Human Services, delayed publication of a research paper about the vulnerability of the dairy industry to bioterror attacks. DHHS called the paper "a road map for terrorists," The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 3:24 pm

HEARING AGITATES, IS ADJOURNED EARLY. A congressional hearing on the USA Patriot Act devolved into a shouting match last week and terminated before public testimony was completed, The New York Times reported on Friday. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of complaining about issues that had nothing to do with the Patriot Act, and pounded the gavel to adjourn even as a witness, Dr. James J. Zogby of the Arab-American Institute, continued to testify. — Posted at 3:23 pm

SPEEDY CONSTRUCTION GAVE RISE TO SHODDY ANTI-MISSILE SYSTEM, REPORT SAYS. A three-person panel of rocketry experts has issued a classified report criticizing the quality of the Bush administration's hastily assembled anti-missile system, built in response to recent threats from North Korea, The Washington Post reported Friday. According to the article, which was based on an abbreviated version of the report made available to the Post by an administration official, "Pentagon officials put schedule before performance." — Posted at 3:21 pm

NO MILITARY COVER UP OF SOLDIER DEATH DETAILS, ARMY REPORT SAYS. An Army report released last week denies that the military covered up the truth despite the fact that it knew U.S. soldier Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in April 2004 and yet said otherwise at first, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Soldiers and commanders did not intentionally deceive anyone, the report concludes, but rather they simply thought that they were not permitted to talk about the incident until formal reviews took place. — Posted at 3:20 pm

IRAQI INFORMANTS SEND MILITARY ASTRAY. A senior U.S. military official told reporters on condition of anonymity that the U.S. has incorrectly raided two Sunni Arab political organizations thinking they had ties to insurgent activities, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. The mistakes were made by relying on misinformation supplied to the military by Iraqis, whose motivations are often unknown given the country's charged political and cultural rifts. — Posted at 3:18 pm

Jun. 10, 2005

ATTACK ON GOVERNMENT WHISTLEBLOWER WAS NOT RETALIATION, POLICE SAY. New Mexico law enforcement authorities say that Tommy Lee Hook, who claims he was beaten up in a topless bar's parking lot on Sunday for having blown the whistle on government accounting fudges at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2003, was actually involved in a fight that started after he hit a pedestrian with his car, The Washington Post reported today. Hook's wife, on the other hand, said at a Tuesday news conference that her husband told her that he was "lured" to the topless bar by his assailants via "a late-night phone call from an unidentified man requesting a meeting." — Posted at 2:29 pm

INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT OUTLINES FBI\'S ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE OF AIRLINE TERROR THREAT. Even though the FBI claimed immediately after September 11 that it had no advance information warning of the attacks, the Justice Department inspector general has released a one-year-old report for the first time revealing that the agency did, in fact, have advance data relating to the hijacking of airplanes by the al Qaeda terrorists, USAToday reported today. The issues raised in the report have since been addressed because today, "no terrorism lead goes unaddressed," according to an FBI statement. — Posted at 10:40 am

REID ASKS SENATORS NOT TO VOTE UNTIL WHITE HOUSE PROVIDES REQUESTED INFORMATION. U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has asked his fellow Democrats not to vote on President Bush's nomination of John Bolton as American ambassador to the United Nations due to the White House's refusal to give Congress information about the nominee, CNN reported on its Web site today. In weighing Bolton's nomination in the Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) and Christopher Dodd (D- Conn.) asked the White House for communications intercepts that Bolton had requested from the National Security Agency, but the information request has been denied. White House Communications Director Nicole Devenish said that "the request for additional information is clearly a stalling tactic." Reid, on the other hand, insisted that "we have asked for simple information that Congresses over many decades... have been given." — Posted at 10:22 am

CLOSER EYE SHOULD BE KEPT ON HOMELAND SECURITY MONEY, TEXAS GOVERNOR SAYS. A negative January Texas state auditor's report has prompted Gov. Rick Perry to shift responsibility for administering federal homeland security grants from Texas A&M University to the state Division of Emergency Management, the Austin-American Statesman reported Thursday. The Division of Emergency Management has much more experience with federal grant programs, according to Steve McCraw, Texas director of homeland security, which will make it better equipped to avoid the questionable allocations of homeland security money that dogged the university. — Posted at 10:21 am

Jun. 9, 2005

U.S. SPENDS $10 MORE PER DAY ON AVERAGE GITMO DETAINEE THAN AVERAGE U.S. PRISONER. According to recently unveiled government records, U.S. spending on food for its Guantanamo Bay detainees indicate American sensitivity to the dietary needs of practicing Muslims, Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau reported yesterday. Feeding the average prisoner at Gitmo costs $12.68 per day, compared to the $2.78 average cost of feeding other federal prison inmates. The extra $10 is needed not only to cover the added cost of shipping provisions to Gitmo's remote location, but also to cover the expense of providing Muslims with a no-pork halal diet. — Posted at 6:09 pm

AL QAEDA TRAINING CAMP EXISTS IN PAKISTAN, ARRESTEE SAYS. In an FBI affidavit released last week, Umer Hayat, who with his father Hamid has been arrested in California for his involvement with an Islamic jihad group, alleged that an al-Qaeda training camp is currently operating within the borders of U.S.-ally Pakistan, the MSNBC Web site reported today. The camp trains attendees "on how to kill Americans," according to the younger Hayat's testimony. Although it is unclear whether the FBI knows anything more about the camp because of its refusal to release any additional details, the article noted that last year the Department of Homeland Security ordered customs agents and inspectors to be on the lookout for any travelers coming into the U.S. from Pakistan with unusual bruises or scars that might indicate that they had been at a training camp. — Posted at 6:08 pm

GOVERNMENT WHISTLEBLOWER CLAIMS HE WAS LURED TO BAR AND ATTACKED. Government whistleblower Tommy Ray Hook, who in 2003 revealed major accounting discrepancies at the U.S.'s Los Alamos National Laboratory - where nuclear weapons programs are conducted - claims that his activism earned him a beating in the parking lot of a topless dance bar on Sunday in New Mexico, The New York Times reported today. According to the paper, Hooks says that "he was lured to the bar by people intent on punishing him for whistleblowing." — Posted at 5:28 pm

FOI ACT REQUEST YIELDS NO DOCS WHERE DOCS OUGHT TO BE. A Freedom of Information Act request yielded no documents pertaining to a March 2003 incident in Iraq where American soldiers fired on a family of five civilians traveling in their car, killing three children, CNN reported on its Web site today. The absence of documentation was blamed on "the hectic pace of war," even as a Marine Corps spokesman revealed that "an incident reported up the chain of command... appears similar" to what the family's father, now living in suburban St. Louis, Mo., told reporter Sasha Johnson for his story. There is no reliable tally of Iraqi civilians killed in the war, although the Iraq Body County Web site estimates that 25,000 have lost their lives. — Posted at 5:08 pm

HHS TALKS NAS OUT OF OPENNESS The National Academy of Sciences cancelled plans to publish a report on the dairy industry's terrorism vulnerabilities at the urging of the Department of Health and Human Services, ABC News reported Tuesday. "We are advocates of scientific openness, but don't want to do anything to endanger homeland security," NAS spokesperson William Kearney said after NAS bowed to HHS's concerns. — Posted at 4:53 pm

Jun. 8, 2005

WARRANTS WITHOUT JUDICIAL APPROVAL MOVE FORWARD. The Senate Intelligence Committee approved legislation that would expand FBI powers under the USA PATRIOT Act, allowing the FBI to obtain warrants for business records in national security investigations without a judge's approval, The New York Times reports. The legislation will be reviewed by at least one more committee before being put up to a vote by the full Senate. The House of Representatives would have to approve the legislation as well. — Posted at 5:10 pm

PRIVATE CONTRACTORS DETAINED, ACTIONS QUESTIONED. For the first time, private American contractors have been detained by the U.S. military for a recent incident in which they allegedly opened fire on U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians, the Los Angeles Times reported today. The newspaper quoted Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution as saying that the detention highlights an ongoing debate as to contractors' accountability while in Iraq. Upon their release, the employees from North Carolina-company Zapata Engineering complained that they had been treated inhumanely while in custody. — Posted at 5:09 pm

YOUNGEST GUANTANAMO DETAINEES WERE ABDUCTED FROM THEIR HOMES BY THE TALIBAN. The stories of some of Guantanamo Bay's youngest detainees are reported in a Tuesday article from The Associated Press that was written using 3,900 pages of military tribunal transcripts. Many detainees' stories follow the same general narrative, which is that the Taliban snatched them from their families and forced them into the military training camps from which they were later taken into American custody. — Posted at 5:08 pm

BUSH AND BLAIR JOINTLY DENY CONTENTS OF GOVERNMENT MEMO. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President George W. Bush presented a united front during a White House news conference yesterday in denying the assertions of what is commonly called the "Downing Street memo," The New York Times reported today. The 2002 British government memo's claims that intelligence was developed with an eye to justify the U.S.-U.K. plan to go to war in Iraq could not be "farther from the truth," Bush said. — Posted at 12:31 pm

PROMISE YOU\'LL NEVER BREATHE A WORD OF THIS TO ANYONE. A records requester's right to view Iowa's list of "critical assets" -- sites vulnerable to terrorism -- is conditioned on his willingness to sign a statement that he won't discuss its contents, the Des Moines Register reported Sunday. The Register is one of only two requesters to have gained access to the list, and government officials say that future requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. — Posted at 12:24 pm

Jun. 7, 2005

\'CRITICAL ASSET\' LIST PERPLEXING, NEWSPAPER REPORTS. Unlike its classified federal counterpart, Iowa's official list of assets critical to its citizens' safety and livelihood has been opened to the public and its contents reported by Sunday's Des Moines Register. The Danish Windmill Museum is one of the more obscure entries of 11,600 sites listed. It is an odd choice, reporter Bert Dalmer believed, considering the fact that the list determines where federal emergency preparedness dollars are channeled, and "some of Iowa's biggest and busiest buildings" are noticeably absent. — Posted at 4:41 pm

SECRET MILITARY INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS WOULD BE WATCHED BY CIA, BILL SAYS In response to allegations that military intelligence operations overseas were, until recently, kept secret from the CIA, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence's 2006 Intelligence Authorization bill would explicitly give the agency supervisory authority over such Pentagon programs, The Washington Post reported today. — Posted at 3:58 pm

JOURNALISM EXPERT TALKS ACCESS. Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. posted the transcript of a conversation with its executive director Brant Houston on its Web site Friday, in which Houston spoke as to the informational roadblocks reporters face from the current administration on issues such as the daily death toll of the war in Iraq and gaining access to former Guantanamo Bay detainees for interviews. — Posted at 3:37 pm

RAMP UP LEAK PROSECUTIONS, HOUSE COMMITTEE SAYS. The Justice Department has been urged to be more active in prosecuting illegal leaks of classified information by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Federation of American Scientists reported Monday. The recommendation was made in a report HPSCI drafted for the 2006 Intelligence Authorization Act and said in relevant part, "hundreds of 'leaks' have been reported to the Department over the past ten years, without a single indictment or prosecution." — Posted at 3:36 pm

MILITARY REPORT DEBUNKS KORAN ALLEGATION. Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood has completed his inquiry into allegations of Koran abuse at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, concluding that there was never an incident where the holy book was flushed down the toilet by an American guard, a Defense Department press release reported. After the review of 31,000 documents, the report stated that there were only 19 instances where U.S. guards handled a detainee's Koran at all, and only 9 of those instances constituted a intentional or unintentional mishandling of the book. Hood believed the number of documented mishandlings very low relative to the "many thousands of times detainees have been moved and cells have been searched," which indicated to him that there was a culture of respect for religion at Guantanamo. — Posted at 3:35 pm

Jun. 3, 2005

U.S. SOLDIERS TO FACE TRIAL IN IRAQI GENERAL\'S DEATH. Three soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo. will face trial in the suffocation death of an Iraqi general, The Associated Press reported. Previously secret court testimony, revealed after The Denver Post successfully challenged closure of the soldiers' Article 32 hearing, indicated Maj. Gen. Abed Mowhoush's body was bruised and that he may have been beaten before his death in November 2003. No date has been set for the court-martial. — Posted at 5:11 pm

ABUSE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS MUST BE REDACTED AND RELEASED. The ACLU Web site reported Thursday that a federal judge in New York has ordered the federal government to release videos and images of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib in response to the organization's Freedom of Information Act request. The government had argued that Geneva Convention privacy concerns exempted the records from release, but the court agreed with the ACLU that individual detainees' identities could be redacted. The government has until June 30 to release redacted photographs, and until June 10 to present the court with a schedule as to when redacted video can be expected. — Posted at 4:58 pm

WHISTLEBLOWER SPARKS CONGRESSIONAL ATTENTION. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's negative evaluation of security at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant, released by a government whistleblower, has galvanized Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and John F. Tierney (D-Mass.) to demand the NRC take steps to improve security immediately, according to a news release on Markey's Web site. "The fence is broken, the security cameras don't work... It seems the plant motto is 'see no evil, hear no evil, maybe no evil exists,'" Markey said. — Posted at 4:54 pm

ABU GHRAIB INVESTIGATORS ASKED WRONG QUESTIONS, HERSH SAYS. An editorial by Seymour Hersh, the author of the series of New Yorker articles on the Abu Ghraib abuses last year, was published on The Nation's Web site on Wednesday. Hersh questions the findings of the 10 government investigations of the scandal, all of which found that the only responsible parties were the reservists working in the prison that appeared in the photos. — Posted at 4:52 pm

MILITARY INVESTIGATES KORAN ABUSE, RESULTS TO BE RELEASED SOON. Army Brig. Gen. Jay Hood said yesterday that the results of a military probe into Koran abuse allegations would be released within days, and that although the report would discuss five occurrences of Koran mishandling, none of them involved toilet-flushing, The Washington Times reported today. Hood's comments came the same week that Amnesty International's characterization of the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay as "the gulag of our time" drew fire from the White House. President Bush said that the charge was "absurd" and founded on allegations made by people "who hate America, people... that have been trained not to tell the truth." — Posted at 4:50 pm

RECRUITMENT NUMBERS NOT ON SCHEDULE. The Pentagon has failed to publish its recruitment numbers for the month of May because, according to a spokesperson, the numbers will need to be "explained to the public," Salon.com reported yesterday. Reporter Tim Grieve noted that the explanation will likely center around the difficulties the Bush administration is facing in getting "warm bodies" to sign up for the war effort. It's hardly the first time the White House has put the kibosh on publishing documents that make it look bad, Grieve said, listing a string of government reports that have been similarly pulled for political reasons. — Posted at 12:37 pm

NRO GETS CREATIVE WITH WHAT CONSTITUTES AN \'OPERATIONAL FILE.\' The National Reconnaissance Office has recently begun to expand its interpretation of what constitutes an exempt "operational file" for the purposes of Freedom of Information Act requests made to the office, the Federation of American Scientists reported on its Web site yesterday. In 2002, Congress extended the operational files exemption, which protects data on intelligence collection techniques, to the NRO. Now, according to FAS, the NRO has begun to claim that "routine administrative records such as budget justification documents" are operational files exempt from public disclosure requirements. — Posted at 12:23 pm

WHISTLEBLOWERS\' EXPANDING IMPORTANCE. Increasingly, the only way the public can expect to have access to security information that impacts their neighborhoods - such as the recent security breach at the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant in New Hampshire - is through government whistleblowers, the Portsmouth Herald said in an editorial Wednesday. When the newspaper asked nuclear plant officials for comment on the pending story, they were threatened with federal fines and punishments if they printed the whistleblower's allegations. — Posted at 12:21 pm

CLASSIFIED TERRORISM DRILL INFO LEAKED. Details of a top-secret government simulation of cyberterrorism were recently divulged by anonymous sources, TopTechNews.com reported last week. Although the government remains most concerned about "explosions, radiation and biological threats," the article said, the cyberterrorism drills indicate an increasing worry about the dangers of digital disruption. — Posted at 12:19 pm

Jun. 2, 2005

NAVY WIFE SEEKS PRIOR RESTRAINT AGAINST AP. A Navy SEAL's wife, who posted photos of bloodied Iraqi prisoners on the internet, has asked a federal judge to order The Associated Press not to publish the photos, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The woman, who along with four Navy SEALS is suing the AP for unspecified money damages over the publication of some of the photos, is identified in court papers as "Jane Doe." The judge heard arguments in the case Wednesday but has not yet ruled. — Posted at 11:40 am

Jun. 1, 2005

ENORMOUS SECRECY BILL CONTINUES TO GROW. More than $8 billion dollars was spent in 2004 to secure classified information, according to a report recently published by the Information Security Oversight Office, the Federation of American Scientists reported yesterday. The report did not include the CIA's costs, because those costs are themselves classified. — Posted at 5:26 pm

OPEN PATRIOT ACT HEARINGS TO PUBLIC, NEWSPAPER SAYS. A New York Times editorial today urged the Senate Intelligence Committee to open its hearings on the USA Patriot Act to the public. The sunset provisions of the Act - which was passed quickly in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks - were meant to permit "cooler heads of the future" to take a closer look. The newspaper worried that that "closer look" won't be close enough if the secret committee meetings continue. — Posted at 5:25 pm

IRAQI SECURITY FORCES ACCUSED OF ABUSES, TOO. Iraqi security services are the subject of numerous prisoner abuse allegations, according to previously unreleased U.S. military records, The Washington Post reported on May 20. In one six month period ending in February, approximately 100 abuse allegations were logged. Army Gen. George Casey stressed that what Iraqis do with their own detainees is not just their own business. The article noted that several thousand U.S. military advisers embedded with Iraqi units just this year. — Posted at 5:24 pm

NEWSPAPER\'S REPORT LEADS TO RELEASE OF DETAINEES. Today the New York Times reported that 53 Afghan prisoners were released from U.S. custody in response to President Hamid Karzai's plea last week that U.S. detainees be transferred to Afghan custody. Karzai's request came nearly one month after a New York Times report discussed government records on the abuse of detainees in U.S.-run prisons in that country. — Posted at 5:23 pm

OUTSOURCED TORTURE DETAILS GUARDED CLOSELY. The U.S. has invoked the state secrets privilege in the face of a lawsuit filed against it in New York City by a Maher Arar, a Canadian man who was sent from a New York airport to Syria for interrogations in what human rights advocates have called "outsourced torture," The New York Times reported. The Bush administration has also refused to participate in Canadian inquiry into the incident, called the Arar Commission. — Posted at 5:12 pm