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

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

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

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

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

Sep. 30, 2005

ABU GHRAIB PHOTOS MUST BE RELEASED, JUDGE ORDERS. Photos depicting detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were ordered released by a federal judge Thursday, over government arguments that they could harm U.S. troops and aid al-Qaida recruitment, The Associated Press reported. The judge noted the government's arguments, but stated that his job is "not to defer to our worst fears, but to interpret and apply the law, in this case, the Freedom of Information Act, which advances values important to our society, transparency and accountability in government." The American Civil Liberties Union first requested the images in a 2003 lawsuit seeking information on treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The ruling is expected to be appealed, the AP story said, meaning further delay in the release of the photos. — Posted at 7:05 pm

LAWMAKERS ALLEGE SECRET DEFENSE PROGRAMS. Republican legislators say they believe the Defense Department is engaging in secret intelligence activities, designed to remain under the radar of both Congress and the director of national intelligence, The New York Times reported. One lawmaker discussed an unclassified report issued by the House and Senate Intelligence Committee stating the committee's belief that Congress "does not have full visibility over some defense intelligence programs." They believe the intelligence activities may be disguised as special access programs, which are highly classified. — Posted at 7:05 pm

TWO VIEWS OF BAGHDAD. A member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board says the climate in Iraq is better than commonly portrayed in the media, but ideological bias isn't totally to blame, reports Public Eye, a CBSNews.com Web log. "The basic problem is the way news organizations assemble stories. You don't report on a dog that doesn't bite," Bret Stephens told the Web site. Time magazine correspondent Michael Ware told the Web site that it would be "dishonest and disigenuous to put a positive spin on Iraq." — Posted at 6:59 pm

FIRST CIVILIAN CHARGED UNDER PATRIOT ACT SEEKS ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS. Recently released court documents reveal that a Sept. 20 closed hearing likely concerned whether an ex-CIA contractor can have access to government secrets to defend himself in the death of an Afghan detainee, The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C., reported yesterday. U.S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle previously denied Defendant David Passaro's access to classified documents, ruling that they were irrelevant to his case, according to the story. Passaro's attorneys have asked Judge Boyle to revisit his ruling. — Posted at 6:58 pm

Sep. 28, 2005

REPORTER WHO INTERVIEWED BIN LADEN JAILED ON TERRORISM CHARGES. Four years after he interviewed Osama bin Laden in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Al Jazeera reporter and Spanish citizen Taysee Alouni was sentenced in Spanish court to seven years in jail on terrorism charges, Reuters reported. Reporters Without Borders condemned the sentence, saying it could make journalists covering terrorism more timid. "I think it sets a dangerous precedent, particularly for anyone who seeks to interview bin Laden in the future," said Jean-Francois Julliard, news editor of the Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RWF). "Journalists have always investigated terrorist groups and their activities. It's part of our job," he told Reuters. Alouni is expected to appeal, an English-language paper in Qatar reported. — Posted at 3:08 pm

REUTERS SAYS U.S. TROOP ACTIONS IN IRAQ ARE HAMPERING NEWSGATHERING. Americans are not getting full coverage of the war in Iraq because U.S. troops there are increasingly detaining and accidentially shooting journalists, Reuters said in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Reuters Global Managing Editor David Schlesinger called on Sen. John Warner, R-Va., to raise the issue with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is scheduled to testify before Warner's committee Thursday. Schlesinger referred to "a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained, and/or illegally abused by U.S. forces in Iraq." — Posted at 11:07 am

Sep. 27, 2005

NEW \'WHOLLY UNPERSUASIVE\' GOVERNMENT DETAINEE CLAIM A federal district judge in Manhattan Monday rejected a goverment argument that he was interfering with the president's constitutional authority to wage war. Judge Jed Rakoff earlier refused to accept the government's claim that it would withhold the identities of Guantanamo detainees in tribunal hearing transcripts in order to protect their "privacy," and told the government's attorneys to actually ask the detainees what they thought of that argument and report back to him by mid-October. The government challenged the court's authority to make that demand with the new waging war claim. The Associated Press brought the lawsuit when the government failed to provide the full transcripts in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Rakoff called the new argument "wholly unpersuasive." — Posted at 1:02 pm

DUE PROCESS STILL DENIED IRAQI JOURNALIST. American Military and Iraqi authorities continue to deny due process to a CBS cameraman detained in Iraq for over five months, Arianna Huffington reports. The journalist will be imprisoned with no review of his case for another 6 months, according to Huffington's Blog. Although a hearing was set for September 22, on September 12, CBS News was informed that the hearing had already been held, without the reporter, his lawyer, or anyone from CBS News in attendance, says Huffington. — Posted at 11:40 am

MASSACHUSETTS STARTS SECRETIVE TERRORIST-FIGHTING GROUP. A secretive anti-terrorist operation in Massachusetts that provides both the public and private sectors with terrorism intelligence is raising concerns that it will be used to gather information on private citizens, The Boston Globe reported. The Fusion Center, which began operating in May using state funds, is one of about six such operations in existence in the U.S. The American Civil Liberties Union requested records on the center's policies under the Freedom of Information Act in May, citing concerns over transparency. — Posted at 10:57 am

Sep. 26, 2005

N.C. DISASTER PLANS DISPLAYED ONLINE. Two versions of a North Carolina county's disaster relief plans remain available online although the state's open records laws protect them against public view, according to the Greensboro News-Record. The newspaper notified county commissioners of the plans' availability, and emergency management officials responded by asking the Internet search engine Google for help in removing the plans. — Posted at 6:44 pm

TSA ANTI-TERROR SCREENING TO CHANGE. The Transportation Security Administration will no longer use commercial data to screen passengers in its anti-terrorism efforts, after a litany of complaints by persons mistakenly detained including Sen. Edward Kennedy and well-known nun Sister Glenn Anne McPhee. The Electronic Privacy Information Center plans to release details regarding the airport screening system failures, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Wired News reported. — Posted at 6:35 pm

ARMY OFFICERS DETAIL PRISONER ABUSE. After months of reporting prisoner abuse to superiors without recognition, Army Capt. Ian Fishback and two sergeants detailed their allegations to the Human Rights Watch, which released them in a 30-page report. The soldiers reported widespread beating and inhumane treatment of Iraqi detainees in 2003 and 2004, according to an article by Human Rights Watch. "Trends were accepted. Leadership failed to provide clear guidance so we just developed it. They wanted intel [intelligence]. As long as no PUCs [persons under control] came up dead it happened...We kept it to broken arms and legs...." stated one of the sergeants in the report. — Posted at 6:20 pm

HOUSE INVESTIGATES WAYS TO FIGHT LEAKS. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is looking for better ways to find and prosecute leakers, according to a story in Saturday's Washington Post. The committee began the hearings on Sept. 14, behind closed doors, as it looked for a way to "protect the public's right to know and at the same time protect the intelligence community that needs to be more secure," said Michigan representative and committee chair Peter Hoekstra. Shield laws, he said, "could have serious implications if passed without exceptions for those occasions when our national security is at risk. The time has come for a comprehensive law that will make it easer for the government to prosecute wrongdoers and increase the penalties which hopefully will act as a deterrent for people thinking about disclosing information." — Posted at 6:19 pm

THE WORLD OF IRAQI STRINGERS NOT BLACK AND WHITE. A01: New York Times reporter James Glanz offers a look into the use of Iraqi stringers by Western news organizations in an essay decribing a "menacing, half-lit world inhabited by the network of Iraqi stringers ...." As important as they are for people around the globe who want to know what is happening in Iraq, the stringers cut only a shadowy profile outside the newsrooms where they send their reports - by choice, because their lives are continually under threat. Who the stringers are, how and why they do their work comes into much sharper focus for the Western journalists who work with them. And, sooner or later, the Western journalist gains a vivid appreciation of the risks the Iraqis run in helping to collect the news. But even with us, there are limits; we aren't seen much together outside of work; we do not share their family celebrations. — Posted at 6:17 pm

FEAR AND ANARCHY IN IRAQ CRIPPLE A FREE MEDIA, SAYS FRIEND OF SLAIN JOURNALIST. Journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad writes in The Guardian of London that last week's killing of his friend, journalist Fakher Haidar al-Tamimi, is symptomatic of a climate of fear and anarchy that is crippling the very foundation of democracy: a free media. The only way for Westerners to get the story in Iraq, Abdul-Ahad writes, is to rely on Iraqis like Haidar, who reported for The New York Times. As reporting from Iraq is becoming almost impossible, new ground rules have been set for most of the foreign media. Apart from a handful of journalists, everyone goes out in armed convoys, if they go out at all. If you are six feet tall, fair-haired and stupid enough to come to Baghdad, then you might as well stick to the hotel swimming pool or your agency fortress, and the occasional trip embedded with the U.S. Army. Instead you can count on your Iraqi employees to go out and get you the story. — Posted at 6:16 pm

Sep. 23, 2005

SECRET TRANSIT PROTECTION PLANS TO BE SHARED. The government will unveil the Transportation Safety Administration's secret plans to protect the nation's transportation systems, according to The Associated Press. "Key partners in transportation security, namely state, local and tribal governments and system owners and operators, are unable to access the document outlining their responsibilities and roles," wrote Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff last week. The TSA said it will disclose its classified version of the plans with owners and operators of transportation systems and plans to make available an unclassified version as well. — Posted at 12:04 pm

TALLY OF MEDIA WORKER KILLINGS IN IRAQ SWELLS -- AGAIN. Two media workers -- a journalist for the Iraqi daily newspaper al-Safir and an engineer working for Iraq's state-run television - were shot to death in separate attacks in Mosul, The Associated Press reported. Assailants gunned down newspaper journalist Firas al-Maadhidi Tuesday night. On Wednesday, gunmen killed Ahlam Youssef of al-Iraqiya television and her husband. Their child, who was in their car at the time of the shootings, was seriously wounded. The deaths bring the total number of journalists and media assistants killed since the start of the U.S.-led war to 71 --22 so far this year, according to Reporters Without Borders. — Posted at 12:02 pm

LAWYERS PETITION COURT TO REVIEW MILITARY MANAGEMENT OF DETAINEE HUNGER STRIKE. In a petition unsealed by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly Sept. 21, lawyers sought federal judicial oversight of the military's management of a hunger strike by Guantanamo Bay detainees, The New York Times reports. The lawyers claim that some detainees' condition is worse than the military acknowledges, according to the Times story. — Posted at 12:00 pm

Sep. 22, 2005

GOVERNMENT MUST SHARE SECRET PLAN FOR PROTECTING RAIL SYSTEM FROM CHEMICAL ATTACK. Over a Justice Department attorney's objections, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the government to produce its secret plans to protect the Washington area's rails from a chemical attack, The Washington Post reports. "The government doesn't want me to see the plan, says they don't have to give it to me, which I quite frankly find offensive," Judge Sullivan said, according to the Post "I want to see the plan with my own eyes, and I'm not going to rely upon the assertions of government lawyers." For Judge Sullivan, identifying what steps have been taken to make the nation's capital safe from a terrorist attack on the rail lines is a central issue in a suit to overturn a D.C. law prohibiting rail shipment of hazardous materials through the city, the Post reports. — Posted at 5:38 pm

WHAT MIGHT THE WAR COST? The Pentagon does not know the cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued yesterday. The agency found inaccuracies in Pentagon reporting totaling billions of dollars and said that neither the Department of Defense nor the Congress has any idea what the war is costing or how appropriated funds are being spent. The Army lacked any reliable process to identify costs and so plugged in numbers to match the available budget,"reporting back to Congress exactly what it had appropriated," GAO said. — Posted at 4:59 pm

GOVERNMENT WITHHOLDS THOUSANDS OF DOCUMENTS UNDER CONTROVERSIAL STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Sept. 9 that the government may use the state secrets privilege to withhold 26,000 documents in a trade secret case, Wired News reports, despite that some documents were unclassified and had already been entered into the public record. This is the latest in a growing number of civil lawsuits in which the government has claimed the controversial privilege to withhold information from the public. According to public information coalition, Openthegovernment.org, the government claimed the state secrets privilege in only four cases between 1953 and 1977, but has claimed it 23 times since 2001. — Posted at 4:35 pm

ABU GHRAIB PHOTOS SEALED IN LYNNDIE ENGLAND TRIAL. The military judge presiding over the trial of Lynndie England barred the release of photos Sept. 20, the day before trial began, Reuters reports. The bar will have limited impact, according to the Reuters story, because many of the Abu Ghraib photos showing the military's abuse of Iraqi detainees have already been published worldwide. The order, however, could affect what is released in a separate lawsuit seeking to obtain information on the treatment of U.S.-held detainees. — Posted at 11:43 am

PUBLIC VERSION OF CIA 911 REPORT SOUGHT. House Intelligence Committee leaders have asked the CIA to release a public version of its report on failures that contributed to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an Associated Press report. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) asked director Porter Goss to reveal as much of the agency's Inspector General's report as possible. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) wrote seeking declassification of the report. An agency spokesman said that many changes had been made at the agency since the IG report. — Posted at 11:37 am

SECRET MILITARY UNIT CAN\'T TESTIFY ABOUT PRE-9/11 INTELLIGENCE. The Pentagon blocked testimony Wednesday from witnesses in a secret military unit who claimed their investigations had identified future hijackers, including Mohamed Atta, as a threat prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The New York Times reported. Amid criticism from both parties in the Senate, the Defense Department cited concerns of discussing classified information in the public hearing as a rationale for refusing to allow the testimony from members of the classified Able Danger intelligence program. Instead, a senior Defense Department official testified that he did not know whether the witnesses' claims were true. Sen. Charles E. Grassley, (R-Iowa), said he thought the Pentagon's real concern was "that they'll just have egg on their face," according to the Times . The Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for an investigation as to whether the Pentagon's act constitutes obstruction. — Posted at 11:35 am

ACLU\'S FOI LAWSUIT YIELDS ARMY ABUSE RECORDS. Military documents containing admissions of prisoner abuse - sometimes using techniques they "remembered from movies" - were released to the American Civil Liberties Union last week as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The records show reports of deaths that Army officers later said could have been prevented with better training, the Los Angeles Times reported. In October 2003, the ACLU filed a FOI Act request for information on detainees held overseas by the U.S. More than 70,000 pages of documents have been released under court order. — Posted at 11:09 am

FITZGERALD: DOCUMENT RELEASE WOULD INTERFERE WITH INVESTIGATION. Patrick Fitzgerald, special counsel investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, warned the Justice Department that producing documents and holding hearings would impede his investigation, according to a September 14 letter the Justice Department sent to House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan. The letter, according to Reuters, advised the Comittee to block legislation to compel the administration to turn over documents relating to the case. Last week, House Republicans on the House Intelligene Committee rejected the proposed legislation, following party-line rejections of similiar bills in the House Judiciary and International Relations Committees. — Posted at 11:07 am

CPJ CALLS FOR FULL U.S. MILITARY INVESTIGATION OF MEDIA DEATHS. U.S. troops have killed 13 journalists and two media support staff since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, but has not fully investigated the media deaths, according to a study by the Committee to Protect Journalists. A Defense Department spokesman in Washington, D.C., told The Associated Press that he had not seen the report and could not comment on it. The report said that in most of the deaths, the U.S. military has either failed to investigate or has shrouded the investigative findings in secrecy. — Posted at 11:06 am

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE. On the same day that the U.S. military press office in Iraq ferried journalists to a school and other "good news" reconstruction sites, dozens of bombs exploded in Baghdad killing 150 and injuring hundreds more, Newsweek reported on its Web site. A question for the internal news editor in us all: how best to lead your report of the day? Before answering, it should be understood that "good" news is often a relative notion here. While it may look like one part of the country has taken a tentative step forward, another takes two steps back. — Posted at 11:04 am

ACLU CLIENT REMAINS GAGGED PENDING GOVERNMENT\'S APPEAL. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted a stay Sept. 20 of U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall's decision enjoining the enforcement of an FBI imposed gag while government lawyers appeal the district court's decision. The gag bars a member of the American Library Association from speaking out about the FBI's demands for its records under the Patriot Act. "Absent a stay, this appeal is moot," Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor commented, according to the New York Times. The same Times article suggests that the ACLU's client, who has remained anonymous throughout the proceedings under the Patriot Act's gag provisions, may be Library Connection in Windsor, Conn. because a court-operated website identifies a case with the same docket number as "Library Connection Inc. v. Attorney General." — Posted at 11:02 am

ANTHRAX INVESTIGATION GROWS COLD, LOSES AGENTS. Nearly four years after the anthrax attacks which killed five people, one of the largest investigations in FBI history still has little to show for its effort. Reflecting the lack of success, the number of agents assigned to the case has dropped from 31 to 21 during the past year, according to the Washington Post. Investigators working on the case have been working on other cases, since there have been no breaks in the case and nothing for them to do, according to The New York Times. In fact, the only trial coming out of the investigation has been brought by Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, a scientist who then-attorney general John Ashcroft labeled a person of interest. Hatfill has since filed suit against Ashcroft, the Department of Justice, The New York Times, and Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, claiming media leaks have defamed his reputation. F.B.I. and Department of Justice officials engaged in a campaign of smears against Dr. Hatfill," Mr. Connelly [Hatfill's lawyer] said. "The big question is who in the government is going to stand up and make this right by publicly exonerating him and condemning those who smeared him. — Posted at 11:00 am

Sep. 21, 2005

NEW YORK TIMES LOOKING INTO LINK BETWEEN HAIDER\'S REPORTING AND HIS DEATH. The New York Times is investigating whether the murder of reporter Fakher Haider, an Iraqi stringer for the paper, is connected to his reporting, Times Foreign Editor Susan Chira told The New York Observer. "To be completely honest with you, we're still trying to understand completely what the circumstances are," Ms. Chira said. The paper, she said, would "be making inquiries." Haider was remembered in the same article as a reporter who tapped "an elaborate network of friends, relatives, and friends and relatives of friends and relatives," and if that failed, tapping his sense of humor. — Posted at 5:31 pm

IRAQI JOURNALIST WORKING FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES KILLED. Fakher Haider, a 38-year-old Iraqi journalist and photographer working for The New York Times was snatched from his home by masked men and found dead early Monday near Basra in southern Iraq. Haider recently reported on rising tension among rival Shiite militias for The Times , where he had worked since April 2003. Chicago Tribune 's Africa correspondent, Laurie Goering, remembers working with Haider in the early days of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. "Fakher became my interpreter, my unlikely bodyguard, my dear friend and my chief source of insight into Iraqi society. We slept in the dirt beside my four-wheel-drive as rocket-propelled grenades shook the ground. He found fuel and food when both were scarce; he translated verses of the Koran to help me understand his fervent faith. More than once, he saved my life." — Posted at 5:05 pm

Sep. 16, 2005

NEW DETAILS ON PRE-9/11 TERRORIST THREATS RELEASED. Previously secret details of known terrorist threats - including repeated warnings about al-Qaida - were released Tuesday in a new version of the Sept. 11 commission's report on the terrorist attacks. The Associated Press reported that a section of the report now available shows that the Federal Aviation Administration's intelligence unit received "nearly 200 pieces of threat-related information daily from U.S. intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI, CIA, and State Department." — Posted at 3:09 pm

Sep. 15, 2005

U.S. MILITARY DEPRIVES DETAINED IRAQI JOURNALISTS OF DUE PROCESS. Western news organizations report that Iraqi journalists hired to supplement their own reporting staff are being detained by the U.S. military under suspicions of insurgency, then denied due process. The detainees are held for weeks to months at a time, the media reports, but when challenged to provide evidence of the detainees' wrongdoing, the U.S. military offers nothing. — Posted at 6:14 pm

CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS OPPOSE OPENING RECORDS IN PLAME CASE. House Republicans rejected two resolutions that would have ordered the State and Justice Departments to reveal all documents relating to outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, according to Reuters. Through straight party-line voting, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and International Relations Committee defeated separate Democrat-backed proposals to turn over the documents. Democrats decried the voting as politically motivated while Republicans felt Congress should wait until the outcome of the federal investigation, which "could be wrapped up within weeks," according to the Reuters story. — Posted at 6:01 pm

Sep. 13, 2005

GOVERNMENT MAY NOT SILENCE ORGANIZATION ABOUT FBI\'S RECORDS DEMANDS. The USA Patriot Act does not bar a member of the American Library Association from speaking about the FBI's demands for its records, a federal district judge ruled Sept. 9. U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall found that the government failed to show that its interest in barring the organization's speech outweighed the organization's First Amendment rights. Gagging organizations subject to the Patriot Act, Judge Hall explained, "has the practical effect of silencing those who have the most intimate knowledge of the statute's effect." — Posted at 3:52 pm

Sep. 12, 2005

KATRINA FOLLOWS TREND OF GOVERNMENT FOI INATTENTION. Government FOIA responses continue to decline following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, while new requests relating to dangerous chemical leaks caused by Hurricane Katrina go unanswered. The report, released by the Society of Environmental Journalists, notes that some documents previously freely released must now be requested through FOIA, and that even when documents are released, some information remains secret. It has been more than a week since reporters filed FOI requests with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as to locations of chemical leaks in New Orleans. These requests should have received "expedited review" under the circumstances, but have gone largely unaddressed, according to a release by the Charleston Gazette . — Posted at 4:45 pm

BLOOMBERG KEPT 9/11 FIRE DEPARTMENT RECORDS SECRET. Thousands of pages of previously secret documentation of firefighters' last 29 minutes in the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 show they were "clueless" and knew "absolutely nothing" about the building's impending collapse, according to The New York Times. After the south tower's collapse, very few could hear warnings or see what had occurred, the article said. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg refused to release the fire department oral histories for three and a half years, until a court order entered last month. — Posted at 4:41 pm

NEW JERSEY TO WITHDRAW PROPOSED OPEN RECORD LIMITS. An eight-month campaign to stop proposed restrictions to New Jersey's open records laws will result in their withdrawal, according to the state attorney general's office. The rules would have given low-level government workers broad discretion over national-security secrets in public records, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 4:38 pm

ARMY SHROUDED DETAILS OF SOLDIER DEATH FOR MORE THAN A YEAR. The family of 1st Lt. Kenneth Ballard, shot dead in May 2004 in Iraq, did not learn until Friday that he was killed from an accidential discharge of a machine gun on his tank, a fact the Army knew but hid for more than a year, The Associated Press reported. Ballard's mother, Karen Meredith, of Mountain View, Calif., told the wire service she blames Army incompetance on the error, not an intent to cover up the truth. — Posted at 4:32 pm

PROBE FOR CIA LEAK MAY BE NEARING END. The investigation looking into the source who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity may be coming to an end, according to a Reuters story. Sources involved in the investigation say that the "inquiry could be wrapped up within weeks." In this investigation, Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller for refusing to reveal her source. Miller's sentence will continue until she testifies or until the end of the grand jury's term, which should last into October. In addition, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, a Justice Department prosecutor, could threaten Miller with a longer sentence under criminal contempt charges. — Posted at 4:29 pm

Sep. 7, 2005

WHAT THE MSM ISN\'T COVERING. The Bush administration's assault on open government tops the list of 10 stories the mainstream media ignored or underreported in the last year, according to Project Censored, a media watchdog group based at California's Sonoma State University. No. 7 on the list is the detention and killing of journalists by the U.S. military in Iraq, The San Francisco Bay Guardian reported. Every year project researchers scour the media looking for news that never really made the news, publishing the results in a book, this year titled Censored 2006. Of course, as Project Censored staffers painstakingly explain every year, their "censored" stories aren't literally censored, per se. Most can be found on the Internet, if you know where to look. And some have even received some ink in the mainstream press. More can be found at Project Censored's Web site. — Posted at 4:02 pm

Sep. 6, 2005

JUROR IN TERROR-RELATED TRIAL SAID SHE FEARED FOR HER LIFE. One of the anonymous jurors in the trial of Lynne F. Stewart, the defense lawyer convicted in February of aiding terrorism, wrote to the judge six weeks after the verdict to say she cast her guilty vote "only as a result of the fear and intimidation I was made to feel for my life" during deliberations. Stewart was convicted in Federal District Court in Manhattan of providing material aid to terrorism and lying to the government, for releasing a statement by an imprisoned terrorist client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, in defiance of federal prison rules silencing him. The general nature of the juror's concerns had been public since Aug. 12, when the judge unsealed papers that defense lawyers and prosecutors had filed about her complaint. But the letter's full text, discussed yesterday, shows that Juror 39 told the judge shortly after the verdict that she had feared for her life in the jury room and felt she had rendered her guilty verdict involuntarily, according to a report in the New York Times. — Posted at 6:11 pm

COALITION ISSUES ANNUAL GOVERNMENT SECRECY REPORT. The government is withholding more information than ever from the public and expanding ways of shrouding data. Last year, federal agencies spent a record $148 creating and storing new secrets for each $1 spent declassifying old secrets, a coalition of watchdog groups reported Saturday. The entire report is posted here. — Posted at 5:49 pm

ANOTHER JOURNALIST\'S AIDE KILLED IN IRAQ. The shooting death last week of a Reuters Television soundman in Iraq, apparently by U.S. troops, brings to 66 the number of journalists and their aides killed since the start of the U.S.-led invasion, The New York Times reported. The shooting, which also injured a cameraman who was detained by U.S. forces, is being investigated by the Pentagon. Reuters quoted from the Iraqi police report on the incident: "A team from Reuters news agency was on assignment to cover the killing of two policemen in Hay al-Adil; U.S. forces opened fire on the team from Reuters and killed Waleed Khaled, who was shot in the head, and wounded Haider Kadhem," an Interior Ministry official quoted the police incident report as saying. — Posted at 10:51 am