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

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

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

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

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

Nov. 30, 2005

SURVEILLANCE LAW VIOLATIONS NOT UNUSUAL. The FBI released documents indicating nearly 300 potential violations of laws governing secret surveillance operations have occurred in a two-year period, the Christian Science Monitor reported. The documents, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, center on bureaucratic mistakes. An additional 113 possible surveillance violations have been reported to the Intelligence Oversight Board since last year, the report added. — Posted at 4:14 pm

FBI RESPONDS TO POST ARTICLE CRITICAL OF ITS USE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS. In a letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees yesterday, the FBI responded to criticisms raised in a Washington Post article about the FBI's use of National Security Letters, an investigative tool used to retrieve customer information from businesses without a court order. According to The Associated Press, the letter stated that the Post article erroneously reported that the FBI issues more than 30,000 NSLs each year, but did not state the precise number of NSLs issued. It also took issue with the article's claim that the FBI uses NSLs to spy on law-abiding Americans. — Posted at 3:06 pm

Nov. 29, 2005

TWO BRITS ACCUSED OF LEAKING IRAQ MEMO ON BAIL. David Keough and Leo O'Connor, charged under the Official Secrets Act over the alleged leak of a classified memo that detailed a conversation between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, appeared in court and are bailed to return in six weeks, several newspapers report. The contents of the memo were not revealed in court, but are believed to show that Bush told Blair he intended to bomb Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Qatar. — Posted at 5:42 pm

TWO MORE IRAQI JOURNALISTS KILLED. Two Iraqi journalists working for a government-controlled television station were shot to death Monday as they left a restaurant in western Baghdad, the Los Angeles Times reported. — Posted at 3:56 pm

Nov. 28, 2005

NO WONDER ABU GHRAIB ANSWERS SLOW. St. Petersburg Times correspondent Susan Taylor Martin writes that the government will not release a document that might confirm its claim to have fired former Brig. General Janice Karpinski partly because of long past shoplifting charges she vehemently denies. It first ignored Martin's Freedom of Information Act request for the shoplifting incident report, then called the request "complex," and finally refused to "confirm or deny" the existence of the document. Karpinski talked openly about the matter and the Army publicly cited the requested incident report as part o the reason she was fired from her post as head of the prison system in Iraq. Not surprising, Martin concludes, that Congress says it has never gotten answers to its questions about the prison scandals at Abu Ghraib, when she cannot get a simple document. — Posted at 5:04 pm

WHAT A DIFFERENCE THREE YEARS MAKES. National Public Radio correspondent Anne Garrels, who covers Baghdad for eight or nine weeks at a time before taking breaks, tells the Hartford Courant that her tactics for covering the war are remarkably different from three years ago. Garrels no longer goes out on her own and she relies heavily on her Iraqi staff. "Our Iraqi staff are our eyes and ears in many ways ... doing things we simply cannot do and doing things they would not do with us. There are many instances I would say, `I want to go to X,' and they'll go, `Yeah, I'm not going with you. I'll go and do it, but I'm not going with you - we'll be followed, something will happen, it's too dangerous, I can go do it discreetly.'" — Posted at 12:16 pm

SECOND TIME REPORTER TO TESTIFY. Viveca Novak, a reporter for Time Magazine, has been asked to testify by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald regarding her conversations with Robert D. Luskin, a lawyer for presidential advisor Karl Rove. The request shows that Fitzgerald, who has continued to investigate the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to the press, "has not completed his inquiry into Mr. Rove's actions and may still be considering charges against him," according to The New York Times. — Posted at 10:48 am

Nov. 23, 2005

COVERING WAR: ADVICE FROM THOSE WHO\'VE DONE IT. Thirteen journalists who have covered the war in Iraq and other conflicts met recently at Bretton Woods, N.H., to talk about the craft and challenges of combat journalism. Sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma, the gathering featured two days of off-the-record discussions, followed by an on-the-record chat about what they had learned and advice they had for other combat reporters. Former Knight Ridder Baghdad Bureau Chief Hannah Allam, had this bit of advice: "You just have to know yourself, have a good network of people around you, and know your own limits." — Posted at 2:56 pm

BRITISH AG ISSUES GAG OVER LEAKED BOMB PLOT MEMO. The Daily Mirror is complying with a do-not-publish order from Britian's Attorney General Lord Goldsmith who threatened an immediate High Court injunction if the Mirror and other newspapers published any further details from a top secret memo revealing that President Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera, an Arab TV station. Goldsmith warned that publication of any further details from the document would violate the Official Secrets Act. — Posted at 1:45 pm

Nov. 22, 2005

LEAKED MEMO HINTS BUSH WANTED TO BOMB AL-JAZEERA. A secret memo transcript of an April 2004 White House summit between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicates that Bush wanted to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in Qatar, but was talked out of it by Blair, a confidential British source told the Daily Mirror. Al-Jazeera has regularly been accused of fueling the Iraqi insurgency by the U.S. government. The British civil servant was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, the Associated Press reported, for illegally disclosing information. The White House is challenging the accuracy of the report. — Posted at 3:52 pm

Nov. 21, 2005

FITZGERALD BACKS DOWN FROM SEEKING BLANKET PROTECTIVE ORDER. In his latest court filing, Nov. 17, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald proposed a protective order that would grant the media greater access to the evidence against Lewis Libby than the blanket order he originally sought, media sources report. Fitzgerald's filing states that "as much of the conduct of pretiral litigation and the trial itself should be conducted in open court with publicly filed documents," according to The Associated Press. Citing that courts have "recognized that there is no First Amendment right to access to grand jury proceedings," the prosecutor's current proposal restricts the release of grand jury testimony and witnesses' personal information. — Posted at 1:54 pm

U.S. FOULS OUT RELYING ON IRAQI INFORMANT DUBBED CURVEBALL. As the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq, the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated the claims of Curveball, the code name for Iraqi informant whom officials with Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, say provided information that "was often vague, mostly secondhand and impossible to confirm," Bob Drogin and John Goetz report in the Los Angeles Times. According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball's information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball's accounts in his prewar presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said. — Posted at 11:52 am

PATRIOT ACT SEARCH STATS SUGGEST MOST ARE NOT TERROR RELATED. "Sneak and peek" searches - those authorized by a federal judge and allowed without immediate notification to the target - occur more frequently in geographic areas where the searches are not likely related to terrorism, The New York Sun noted in a recent report on the searches. The Sun 's investigation uncovered no such searches in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Illinois and California districts covering Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Districts employing the "sneak and peek" tactic most include Sacramento, Calif., Nebraska and the Eastern District of Virginia - a common district for prosecuting terrorism cases. The Sun report said that some searches were used to investigate credit card fraud, methamphetamine distribution and immigration-related violations. — Posted at 11:50 am

HOUSE INTEL CHAIR CALLS FOR DECLASSIFICATION OF IRAQ DOCUMENTS. As a way of translating the more than 35,000 boxes of Arabic documents from Iraq collected over the past decade, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra is calling for declassification of the materials because the government does not have enough Arabic linguists with security clearances, The Associated Press reported. Most of the documents are a product of the 2003 Iraq invasion and some are from the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. Hoekstra hopes that putting the documents online will allow researchers to sift through them, acknowledging that they may otherwise never reviewed, the AP reported. Hoekstra has repeatedly stressed his belief that too much government information is classified needlessly. — Posted at 11:49 am

Nov. 18, 2005

FLORIDA FEDERAL JUDGES GET SMACK-DOWN FOR SECRET DOCKETING. Last month, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reprimanded Southern District of Florida judges for completely hiding cases from the public by placing them on a separate, secret docket, the Daily Business Review reported. Even though the docketing issue was moot by the time the appellate court heard the case, the three judge panel relied on its "supervisory authority" to address the issue, to "remind the district court that it cannot employ the secret docketing procedures that we explicitly found unconstitutional." The opinion, however, fails to mention that, just two years ago, the 11th Circuit kept a case on a secret docket, and critics worry that secret docketing could still be happening - as one ACLU attorney asked, "How would you know?" — Posted at 6:20 pm

JOURNALIST\'S FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF BAGHDAD HOTEL BOMBING. Leila Fadel, a staff writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on special assignment in Baghdad for Knight Ridder Newspapers, describes in a memo to colleagues in Texas the horror of Friday's bombing of Baghdad's Hamra Hotel, home to many international journalists. A piece of the bomber's body flew into the air and landed next to the downstairs pool. His foot and an unmentionable body part lay in front of the front entrance; other pieces of burnt flesh were scattered around the hotel complex. About 50 meters from the hotel, on the other side of the destroyed blast walls, the walls of people's home[s] were ripped from the building and lay in a pile of rubble. — Posted at 5:08 pm

NEW GRAND JURY FOR FITZGERALD. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald stated in court filings that his investigation "will involve proceedings before a different grand jury than the grand jury which returned the indictment" against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on Oct. 28, according to The Washington Post . The new grand jury could mean Fitzgerald is considering filing additional charges in his investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. So far, he has only charged Libby with perjury. — Posted at 4:24 pm

JOURNALISTS IN PERIL. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in 2003, as many as 13 journalists have been killed by American military forces, who are currently detaining five journalists who have not been charged, international press freedom groups said Thursday. The Boston Globe reported that the detained journalists are in legal limbo, with no charges filed against them and no access to lawyers. — Posted at 3:56 pm

JOURNALISTS\' HOTEL IN BAGHDAD ATTACKED. Two car bombs shattered the blast wall protecting Baghdad's Hamra Hotel where journalists for The Associated Press, Fox News and other media organizations live and work, AP reported. Eight Iraqis were killed in Friday's blast, the second against the hotel housing international journalists. — Posted at 3:54 pm

U.N. INVESTIGATORS DECLINE INVITATION TO INSPECT GUANTANAMO. Because they were denied their request to interview detainees, U.N. human rights investigators turned down an invitation to visit the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, Reuters reported. The five inspectors said in a statement, "We deeply regret that the United States government did not accept the standard terms of reference for a credible, objective and fair assessment of the situation of the detainees," according to the story. — Posted at 3:53 pm

Nov. 17, 2005

HOUSE AND SENATE REACH AGREEMENT ON PATRIOT ACT. Congress yesterday tentatively agreed on revisions to the Patriot Act that limit government power and require greater accounting of requests for information about citizens, The Washington Post reported. The deal would make permanent 14 provisions of the Act set to expire this year and extends three other provisions for seven years, one of which is the controversial measure that allows government access to bookstore and library records and is currently the subject of two law suits in New York and Connecticut federal courts. According to the story, the deal could go to final votes before the end of the week. — Posted at 2:47 pm

Nov. 16, 2005

BIOTERRORISM SECRECY BILL EXAMINED. The politics section of the about.com web directory examines the bill to grant Freedom of Information Act immunity to a federal agency. The bill would create a new agency to address bioterrorism and would cut out public oversight of its activities. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced the 89-page measure, which has five Republican co-sponsors. — Posted at 2:22 pm

LIBBY TO SEEK TESTIMONY FROM JOURNALISTS. Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicated yesterday that they intend to "seek testimony from journalists beyond those cited in the indictment and will probably challenge government agreements limiting their grand jury testimony," according to The New York Times . Libby, who was indicted in late October on charges of perjury regarding Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, looks to "pursue aggressively access to reporters' notes," according to the Times article. — Posted at 2:21 pm

Nov. 15, 2005

SENATE UNANIMOUSLY VOTES FOR DEFENSE BILL THAT PROTECTS DETAINEES\' LEGAL RIGHTS. By unanimous vote, the Senate passed a bill that includes a provision providing Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to appeal a final decision by a military tribunal in federal court, The Washington Post reported. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) worked out the compromise that the Senate approved 84-14 before the entire bill was put to vote. The bill also requires regular reports to Congress detailing the military's progress towards removing troops from Iraq and establishes strict guidelines on interrogation methods used on suspected terrorists. — Posted at 4:11 pm

CHALABI: NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME, PENTAGON SAYS. The Pentagon barred television cameras from recording any part of Monday's visit between Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Reuters reported. Vice President Dick Cheney's office also declined to release details about the meeting between Cheney and Chalabi, the news service reported. — Posted at 4:09 pm

GRAHAM CORRECTS \"A FLAW\" IN HIS DETAINEE RIGHTS LEGISLATION. Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Carl Levin worked out a compromise Nov. 14 that Graham explains corrects "a flaw" in his original legislation by providing Guantanamo Bay detainees the right to appeal a final decision by a military tribunal in federal court, Reuters reported. The Senate will vote today on the deal, which would also restore federal court jurisdiction over pending cases and allow review of whether military tribunals violate the Constitution. — Posted at 4:04 pm

Nov. 14, 2005

PARTISAN FINGERS POINT AT DELAYED INTELLIGENCE PROBE. Partisan bickering over an intelligence probe continues on the Senate Intelligence Committee according to the current Newsweek. It cites Democrats' accusations that the committee's probe of unorthodox spying is stalled by a GOP referral of the question to the Pentagon's Inspector General. And it quotes Republicans as saying they called in the inspector general after Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) suggested that Pentagon aide's might have engaged in "unlawful" activity and Pentagon officials refused further cooperation. — Posted at 4:18 pm

SENATE STRIPS DETAINEES\' RIGHT TO CONTEST IMPRISONMENT. Voting 49-42, the Senate agreed Nov. 10 to deprive detainees of the statutory right to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts. If the House passes the law, it would nullify a 2004 Supreme Court decision that gave detainees the right to challenge their detention in court and would strip all courts, including the Supreme Court, of jurisdiction to consider any action challenging any aspect of the detention of foreign detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, except for the narrow question of whether status review boards follow their own rules. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) proposed the measure, saying it was necessary to eliminate a flury of prisoner legal claims that are sapping Department of Justice resources and slowing the ability of federal interrogators to glean information from detainees. Despite being one of the co-sponsors of the McCain Amendment, which would bar U.S. officials from inflicting "cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment" on detainees in the war on terror, Graham convinced the Senate to undercut the amendment by making it unenforceable - at least for the hundreds of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. — Posted at 4:15 pm

ARTICLE EXAMINES \"MOSAIC THEORY\" CIRCUMVENTION OF FOIA. Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, release of information under the Freedom of Information Act has taken a hit due to increasing use of the "mosaic theory" - the idea that while individual documents may not necessarily disclose sensitive information, taken in the aggregate, a collection of documents might, and should thus be classified. The FAS Project on Government Secrecy reported that David E. Pozen discusses the government's use of the theory "more aggressively" after Sept. 11, noting its susceptibility to abuse. The forthcoming Yale Law Journal article calls for an increase in judicial scrutiny of mosaic theory claims, the FAS report said. — Posted at 4:14 pm

TOP REUTERS EDITOR SEEKS MEDIA SUPPORT ON JOURNALIST SECURITY IN IRAQ. News organizations need to pressure the U.S. government about the number of journalists being arrested and killed in Iraq, the global managing editor of Reuters said today. U.S. military sniper fire killed Reuters soundman Waleed Khaled in Baghdad earlier this year and three journalists who have worked in Iraq for Reuters are currently being held without charge by the U.S. authorities in Abu Ghraib prison. — Posted at 4:12 pm

CONGRESS DISCUSSES EXPIRING PATRIOT ACT. Representatives and Senators met Nov. 10 to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the Patriot Act, a sweeping anti-terrorism law, of which 16 provisions will expire at the end of this year. A final agreement may come as early as next week. The same day, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), launched a new effort to expand the FBI's subpoena power in terrorism cases while five senators - Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), Ken Salazar (D-Col.), Larry Craig (R-Idaho), John Sununu (R-N.H.) - sent letters to the Attorney General and Justice Department Inspector General asking for a review of National Security Letters and to declassify the number issued every year. National security letters are devices authorized by the Patriot Act that the FBI uses to gain access to people's phone and email records, financial data, and visited internet sites. The Patriot Act, passed shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to give the Administration greater investigative power, has been much criticized by privacy advocates, but lauded by those who see it as a successful tool in the Administration's war on terrorism. — Posted at 4:10 pm

DELAY SOUGHT IN NEW LEAK PROBE. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, asked last week that a bicameral investigation into the disclosure of classified information to the Washington Post be postponed until after the Justice Department completes its own investigation into the leak, according to the Post. On Nov. 2, Dana Priest, using classified information, wrote an article for the Post detailing CIA-run secret prisons in Eastern Europe used to detain terrorists. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) responded to the article by writing a "strongly worded letter" demanding a joint House-Senate investigation into the leak of classified information to the Post. Frist then stated, on Nov. 10, that the leak of classified information is a "legitimate concern" and that he is "not concerned about what goes on" at the secret prisons, according to CNN. — Posted at 4:08 pm

TERROR-FIGHTING ARM FACES SPENDING QUESTIONS. The U.S. Special Operations Command, a military unit directing the front lines in the war on terror, is facing three separate probes into its spending amid allegations of financial misconduct, USA Today reported. The Pentagon's Inspector General's office is looking into allegations of cronyism in military contracting involving top officials. Federal prosecutors are also investigating alleged bribes in military weapons and equipment purchases. Also, the Senate Armed Services Committee has called on the Pentagon to explain why $20 million has been allocated to the command for programs that remain secret. — Posted at 4:06 pm

DOD TRANSPARENCY? Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said his department does "very little that doesn't ultimately become public." In an interview with WORD-FM, a Christian radio station in Pittsburgh, Pa., Rumsfeld said: "We do things that need to be confidential for a period and then ultimately it's known because because that's the Department of Defense. The other intelligence organizations do things that are covert, that are quite different." — Posted at 4:05 pm

DEFENSE POLICY BANS TORTURE BUT ALLOWS EXCEPTIONS. The Pentagon released a directive mandating "humane" treatment for detainees in U.S. military custody and banning "acts of physical or mental torture," The Washington Post reported. But, the policy contains a loophole granting the secretary of defense the authority to override the humane treatment requirement, AFP reported. This directive, reported in the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, would apply to all non-military U.S. government agencies, including the CIA which has recently come under fire for allegedly engaging in secret detainee abuse. — Posted at 4:04 pm

SENATE DEMANDS SECRET PRISON REPORT. Following a Washington Post report that the U.S. is holding al Qaeda operatives in secret prisons abroad, the Senate voted 82-9 Thursday for a "full accounting" to Congress' intelligence committees of any U.S.-run secret facilities holding terrorism suspects. The administration has not publicly confirmed or denied the newspaper's account. — Posted at 4:03 pm

SENATOR CLEARED IN 9/11 PROBE LEAK. The Senate Ethics Committee dropped its investigation into Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), according to Reuters. The investigation looked into allegations that Shelby leaked to the media information about how the National Security Agency handled messages prior to September 11, 2001. "Throughout the life of this investigation, I have taken the position that I never knowingly disclosed any classified information. My position has not changed," Shelby said. — Posted at 4:01 pm

LEAKS MORE OF A THREAT THAN SECRET PRISONS, FRIST SAYS. Information being leaked regarding secret detention centers poses a greater threat to national security than what occurs at those prisons, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told reporters, including The Associated Press. Frist said he is "not concerned about what goes on" in the prisons and that his "concern is with leaks of information that jeopardize your safety and security," the AP reported. The comments came following a lengthy investigation and report by Washington Post reporter Dana Priest on the existence of a covert CIA prison system with sites in Eastern Europe. — Posted at 3:37 pm

Nov. 9, 2005

REPUBLICANS ASK FOR LEAK INQUIRY. Congressional Republicans, led by Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn,) and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), have asked for an investigation into the leak to the Washington Post of information about the CIA's secret prisons in Eastern Europe, according to the Los Angeles Times . Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.), however, said Republicans may have given the information to the Post, saying that a Republican policy luncheon discussed the prisons. "Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper. I don't know where else it came from ... . It looked to me that at least one of those reports came right out of that room." — Posted at 10:53 am

Nov. 8, 2005

POST REPORTING TRIGGERS LEAK INVESTIGATION. WorldNetDaily reported today that Republicn leaders in the House and Senate will conduct a bicameral investigation of an alleged leak of classified information to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest. Priest reported Wednesday that the CIA is holding high-value terrorist subjects in a secret Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, part of a covert system that has included prisons in Thailand, Afghanistan, several Eastern European sites and a small operation in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Priest attributed the information to "current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents." Priest's story said, "The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al-Qaida captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement." The secret facility, Priest reported, "is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents." — Posted at 3:28 pm

ANOTHER JOURNALIST SHOT DEAD IN IRAQ. Gunmen in Mosul, Iraq, shot and killed an Iraqi journalist Monday, bringing the tally of foreign and Iraqi journalists' deaths to more than 70 since the war began in March 2003, Reuters reports. That number doesn't include translators, drivers and other news assistants killed in the U.S.-led invasion. — Posted at 10:44 am

Nov. 7, 2005

PROPOSED SECRET BIOTERRORISM AGENCY \'AN INSULT.\' Jeff Nesmith of Cox Newspapers has written an analysis of the bill to create a secretive national research center not subject to the Freedom of Information Act to respond to bioterrorism threats and natural disease outbreaks. Freshman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) introduced the bill co-sponsored by the Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) that has already moved out of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In addition to providing a blanket waiver from the FOI Act, the bill waives liability for drug companies who try to develop bioterrorism countermeasures. Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Official Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists, called the bill "an insult to the public." — Posted at 4:55 pm

FBI\'S USE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS RAISES QUESTIONS OF PATRIOT ACT ABUSE. The FBI's aggressive use of the USA Patriot Act to retrieve private phone and financial records of ordinary people threatens the precarious balance between national security and individual rights, Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said in an appearance on ABC's "This Week." National security letters are devices used by the FBI to gain access to people's phone and email records, financial data, and visited internet sites. The FBI's use of the letters has increased a hundred-fold, primarily because the 2001 Patriot Act removed the requirement that the records sought be those of someone under suspicion, The Washington Post reports. The letters are issued by FBI field supervisors and are not reviewed beforehand by a court, or after-the-fact by the Justice Department or Congress. n addition, data collected by the letters is deposited into government data banks and shared with federal, state and local goverments and "appropriate private sector entities." Before policy changes made by the Bush administration, FBI data collected on innocent Americans was destroyed. — Posted at 4:32 pm

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR MILITARY TRIBUNAL CASE. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden, that questions the legality of trying detainees in military tribunals, The New York Times reports. A federal district judge had halted Mr. Hamdan's military trial, ruling that military commissions violated the Geneva Conventions and the United States Constitution. The Court of Appeals, however, unanimously overturned the district court's decision, holding that trying some detainees before military commissions did not violate the Constitution, international law or American military law, according to the Times story. Chief Justice John G. Roberts was on the appellate panel that ruled against Hamdan. — Posted at 4:30 pm

TOP OFFICIALS KNEW OF PREWAR INTELLIGENCE DOUBTS. A recently declassified February 2002 report shows that Bush administration officials were warned that defense experts questioned the reliability of allegations from a captured al-Qaida operative that Iraq had provided the terror group with chemical and biological weapons training, The Washington Post reported. Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) released the material that clearly showed the Defense Intelligence Agency questioning these claims, although he said he could only presume that someone with the National Security Council saw the report, the Post article said. — Posted at 4:29 pm

CORRUPT IRAQI SPENDER HAND-PICKED BY U.S. Hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraq's military-spending budget went to secret, no-bid contracts, awarded by a former used-car salesman whom U.S. officials propelled into the chief procurement position for the Iraqi Defense Ministry, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ziad Cattan, along with several other former ministry officials, is now facing corruption charges from the Iraqi Justice Ministry. The Times reported that Cattan's friends were the recipients of many of these contracts, collecting a percentage of the proceeds, and speculated that one may have earned up to $10 million in fees. — Posted at 3:54 pm

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL LINKS DETAINEES TO CIA SECRET PRISONS. Three Yemeni detainees that Amnesty International officials believe could have been held in CIA secret prisons overseas never had access to lawyers, were never visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and had no contact with their families or the outside world during their detention, the Washington Post reports. — Posted at 11:10 am

Nov. 5, 2005

LIBBY TO RAISE FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, indicted last week on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice charges, pled not guilty to those charges on Thursday. Libby's lawyers suggested that they plan to raise First Amendment issues in his defense, according to The New York Times. Libby was indicted by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in his investigation into the leak of the identity of C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame. "The lawyers would not expand on their strategy, but legal analysts said the defense might be planning to seek access to reporters' notes regarding the leaking of a C.I.A. officer's identity, setting the stage for another round of confrontations with journalists who have proved central to the investigation," the Times reported. — Posted at 12:22 pm

Nov. 4, 2005

MILITARY CORRESPONDENT TELLS RUMSFELD HE INTENDS TO \'KEEP KICKING YOUR BUTT.\' Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld invited Joseph L. Galloway, the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers, and four of the Pentagon's upper echelon, including three generals, to a private lunch in which Rumsfeld told Galloway: "I'm not hearing anything like the things you are writing about." Among the topics covered were the military health of the U.S. Army and enemy body counts in Iraq. Galloway departed Rumsfeld's company by telling him he intends to "keep kicking your butt regularly to make sure you stay focused on" the welfare and safety of troops in Iraq. Editor&Publisher offers a few tidbits from the meeting after interviewing Galloway. — Posted at 12:25 pm

Nov. 3, 2005

REPORT OF U.S. SECRET PRISONS SPARKS WORLD-WIDE RESPONSE. A Washington Post story reporting that the CIA uses secret prisons in Eastern Europe to interrogate terrorists has provoked outcries from humanitarian agencies and countries allegedly hosting the prisons, according to several news stories. The International Committee of the Red Cross called for access to all terrorism suspects held by the U.S. in the secret CIA prisons, Reuters reports. The EU's European Commission will investigate claims that two Eastern European countries -- Poland and Romania -- house facilities; the secret prisons could violate EU human rights laws, according to the Reuters story. The Associated Press reports that at least ten nations, including Romania, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, and Armenia, have denied that secret prisons are in their territory. Meanwhile, the U.S. government has not confirmed or denied the existence of the covert prison system, according to CBS and The Associated Press. — Posted at 8:38 pm

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT REFUSES TO CLOSE COURT FOR PATRIOT ACT ARGUMENTS. The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in two combined cases concerning a Patriot Act provision that authorizes the FBI to demand records from third parties who have not been charged with wrong-doing and imposes a permanent gag on the recipient of the record-demand, the Associated Press reported. The lower court's ruling in the first case, from New York, found the provision to be an unconstitutional search and seizure. In the second case, from Connecticut, the lower court struck down a gag order imposed against a library, finding that the provision prevented subjects of FBI record demands from joining the debate about how the Patriot Act should be rewritten. The appeals court rejected the government's request to close part of the hearing. — Posted at 8:37 pm

Nov. 2, 2005

CIA SECRET PRISONS REVEALED; MORALITY QUESTIONED. The government is detaining al Qaeda captives in overseas secret prisons --so called "black sites" - conceived after the September 11th attacks, The Washington Post reported. Little is known about the secret prison program - who is detained, how captives are interrogated, the scope of their detention, and the conditions under which they are held - despite reports of severe abuse, according to the story. — Posted at 11:20 pm

NATIONAL SECURITY PATENTS BLOCKED FOR TERROR REASONS. The Pentagon's blockage of some patent applications by the National Security Agency - the government's eavesdropping and code-breaking arm - further indicates its proclivity toward secrecy, even over an agency that has already-secret tendencies, the New Scientist reported. The rationale seems to be that blocking the patents helps prevent sensitive information from disclosure to the public as well as potential terrorists. — Posted at 11:17 pm

NO MORE KNOCKING ON DOORS TO INTERVEIW IRAQIS. In a profile of Tom Lasseter, Baghdad correspondent for Knight Ridder, Editor & Publisher reports that he is believed to be the first American journalist to embed with an Iraqi unit on a mission wholly independent of the U.S. military. Lasseter also tells E&P that security in Iraq has so deteriorated that the days of knocking on doors for interviews with Iraqis are over for him. The spontaneous, man-in-the-street interviews are primarily done by Knight Ridder's Iraqi reporters. "You lose that firsthand perspective," he says, "but that's just the way it is. To push it too far is foolish and dangerous." — Posted at 11:16 pm

WHITE HOUSE KEPT INTELLIGENCE INFO SECRET FROM SENATE. When the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 asked to review White House documents on pre-war intelligence - information that had wrongly concluded that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction - administration officials withheld intelligence data against the advice of some political staffers and lawyers, the National Journal reported. Passages to be used in a speech to the U.N. in support of the Iraq war, authoried by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, as well as contents of the president's daily intelligence briefings were withheld form both Republican and Democrat senators whose report strongly criticized the administration for its failure to investigate Iraq's weapons programs, the report said. — Posted at 11:13 pm

BUSH ORDERS STRONGER SHARING OF TERROR THREATS. President Bush directed agencies to be stronger in sharing information on terrorist threats in an updated executive order in response to intelligence reform legislation enacted last year, the FAS Project on Government Secrecy reported. Under Executive Order 13388, the president note that federal agencies shall "give the highest priority to ... the interchange of terrorism information among agencies [and] between agencies...." — Posted at 11:12 pm

SENATE DEMOCRATS CLOSE SESSION. Democrats forced a closed Senate session concerning a delayed inquiry into prewar intelligence in Iraq, The Washington Post reported, the first time in over 25 years that a party has insisted on closure without consulting the other party. Though angered by the alleged "hijacking," within two hours Republicans had appointed a bipartisan panel to report on the progress of a Senate intelligence committee report on prewar intelligence. — Posted at 11:09 pm

Nov. 1, 2005

NEWS COVERAGE OF IRAQ HAMPERED BY CRUMBLING SECURITY. Several journalists told an Associated Press Managing Editors conference that deteriorating security in Iraq is hampering news coverage of the war, The Associated Press reports. Journalists are under pressure to cover "good news" such as the U.S.-led reconstruction of schools and hospitals, which are frequently off limits to reporters. — Posted at 5:19 pm

U.N. INVESTIGATORS REQUIRE PRIVATE INTERVIEWS WITH DETAINEES. Three U.N. investigators have accepted the government's invitation to the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities on the condition that they may conduct interviews with the prisoners, Reuters reports. The three envoys reportedly released a statement saying: "We cannot accept the exclusion of private interviews with detainees ... this would not only contravene the terms of reference for fact-finding missions ... but also undermine the purpose of an objective and fair assessment." — Posted at 10:23 am