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.

Jan. 31, 2006

IRAQ A DISASTER FOR WHICH JOURNALISTS HAVE PAID DEARLY, AMANPOUR SAYS. Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief international correspondent, told Larry King Monday night that "Iraq has basically turned out to be a disaster and journalists have paid for it." She joined CNN"s Michael Holmes, former CNNer and veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett, former Washington Post Baghdad Bureau Chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran and other journalists who discussed injured ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt, kidnapped Christian Science Monitor freelancer Jill Carroll and the perils of reporting from Iraq. — Posted at 12:14 pm

PELOSI ASKS: WHY CAN\'T BUSH OBEY THE LAW? Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) questions the administration's failure to follow the procedures of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for its domestic monitoring program, The Associated Press reports. "If you say...this is for a narrow universe of calls, there is absolutely no issue with getting a FISA warrant for that," said Pelosi, who has been involved for the past 13 years in overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies. "The president says he is not going beyond that, so why can't he obey the law?" — Posted at 12:12 pm

INJURED ANCHOR, CAMERAMAN COMING HOME. ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, both badly wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq, will be airlifted to United States today, the network reported. Woodruff suffered multiple broken ribs, a broken shoulder and a skull fracture, a source close to the family told The New York Times. Vogt suffered head injuries in the explosion. — Posted at 12:11 pm

NEW VIDEO OF KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST AIRED. Arab television network al-Jazeera aired a 40-second video Monday of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll ,who had not been seen since a previous video shown Jan. 17. In the video, which was aired without sound, Carroll wore a white head scarf and sobbed. An al-Jazeera announcer said Carroll, kidnapped Jan. 7, called on the U.S. military and the Iraqi Interior Ministry to release all Iraqi women prisoners to help win her release. The video's time stamp is Saturday Jan. 28, two days after the U.S. released five of nine Iraqi women prisoners. Richard Bergenheim, editor of The Christian Science Monitor, for which Carroll was working, immediately released a statement again asking that she be released. — Posted at 12:08 pm

SENATORS WANT ANSWERS. Skeptical that President Bush could authorize a warrantless surveillance program before consulting the courts or Congress, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that Bush has more explaining to do about the program. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who also appeared on ABC, said he, too, doubted a president has such broad authority to order the program, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 12:06 pm

2003 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LEGISLATION COVERED EAVESDROPPING. Proposed legislation drafted by Justice Department attorneys in 2003 would have given legal support to some aspects of the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, The Washington Post reported. Critics told the Post that the draft legislation undermines President Bush's arguments that he didn't need additional legal authority for the program, while Justice Department officials said the proposals were drafted by junior attorneys and were not drafted with the NSA program in mind. — Posted at 12:05 pm

Jan. 30, 2006

ABC NEWS ANCHOR, CAMERAMAN BADLY INJURED IN IRAQ. Bob Woodruff, one of the new co-anchors of ABC's "World News Tonight," and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, are in a U.S. military hospital in Germany recovering from serious head wounds they received when a large roadside bomb exploded Sunday, striking the Iraqi military vehicle they were riding in in Taji, north of Baghdad. ABC News described the men's condition as serious but stable and is offering Web viewers a video of Woodruff taken approximately 30 minutes before the attack along with a message board for people to share their thoughts. The New York Times , The Washington Post and National Public Radio are among the media outlets reporting that Woodruff's and Vogt's injuries show that no one - civilians, aid workers and journalists - is safe from attack. >From a piece by Howard Kurtz in the Post: I've asked reporters this question again and again: Why go to places like Iraq? Why risk your life? How do you blot it out and work when danger is always lurking just around the corner? ... The answer, I think, boils down to the fact that for some correspondents, it's in their DNA. — Posted at 12:25 pm

UNDERCOVER REPORTING. Several Philiadelphia Inquirer reporters who spent time in Iraq offer tips about how they stayed safe in a piece in Monday's paper. Patrick Kerkstra writes about growing a beard, dying his sandy hair almost black and learning to respond to the Iraqi name "Bassem." Gaiutra Bahadur writes about his civilian escort: But Faisal also asked why my safety should concern him, when his own daughter wasn't safe. And he said he would have a full dossier on me in 48 hours. He intimated threat while locking on my eyes and calling me "dear." There is no way to know whom to trust in Baghdad. — Posted at 12:23 pm

Jan. 27, 2006

ARMY JAILED WIVES OF SUSPECTED IRAQI INSURGENTS. Secretive Army task forces have seized and jailed at least two wives of insurgents as "leverage," hoping their husbands would surrender, U.S. military documents received by the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show. A veteran officer involved in one case opposed the measure: The 28-year-old woman had three young children at the house, one being as young as six months and still nursing. — Posted at 5:49 pm

PENTAGON: PSYOP MESSAGES HITTING U.S. \'DON\'T MATTER.\' So long as Americans are not the "target" of psychological operations, any leakage of these activities to the American public "does not matter," Pentagon documents released to the National Security Archive said. The archive gleaned this data from inspection of the secret "roadmap" on war propaganda approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, recently obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The U.S. government cannot legally target PSYOP activity at the American public - it is intended for foreign audiences only. In a note in the document, Rumsfeld called the roadmap an attempt to "keep pace with emerging threats and exploit new opportunities." — Posted at 4:05 pm

SPINNING US RIGHT ROUND: WHITE HOUSE Q&A. "Ask the White House," a web site where citizens can "submit questions to Administration officials and friends of the White House," is propaganda, suggested WatchingTheWatchers blogger Lee Russ, and another venue for disseminating the President's justifications for warrantless eavesdropping. — Posted at 4:03 pm

PENTAGON VIOLATED ITS OWN RULES WITH PAYOLA PLAN. A 2003 Pentagon directive apparrently was violated by the secret U.S. military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish stories favorable to the U.S., the Los Angeles Times reported, citing a newly declassified document. Just last month, the top U.S. general in Iraq said a preliminary investigation into the program found it did not violate U.S. law or Pentagon regulations, the paper reported. — Posted at 4:02 pm

BRAVING THE ORDEAL. Journalists who have been kidnapped and held hostage tell The Christian Science Monitor that during their captivity, it took deliberate effort for them to preservere and conquer desperation. "I was always trying to be combative, to stand up to them [her kidnappers], not to be submissive but to be strong," recalls Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian journalist held hostage in Baghdad for a month in 2005. The Monitor 's Jill Carroll has not been heard from since she was snatched Jan. 7, but the journalists interviewed for the story said that Carroll has likely found her own way of braving her ordeal. — Posted at 4:00 pm

POLL RESULTS: SPY ON SUSPICIOUS AMERICANS. Respondents to a New York Times/CBS poll overwhelmingly support monitoring directed at "Americans that the government is suspicious of," and overwhelmingly oppose when surveillance is aimed at "ordinary Americans," the Times reports. Public opinion of the tension between national security and civil liberties is still unresolved, the story reports, explaining that responses varied significantly depending on how the questions were worded, with respondents more favorable to warrantless eavesdropping when couched in terms of fighting terrorism. — Posted at 3:58 pm

BUSH\'S LEGAL DEFENSE LEGLESS, BLOGGER SAYS. In 1952, the Supreme Court rejected the justifications asserted by President Bush for violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in Youngstown Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), saying that the President may not exercise his "inherent executive authority" in contravention of Congressional law, according to blogger Glenn Greenwald. "The Founders of this Nation entrusted the lawmaking power to the Congress alone in both good and bad times. It would do no good to recall the historical events, the fears of power and the hopes for freedom that lay behind their choice," the Supreme Court wrote. — Posted at 3:56 pm

LIBBY SEEKS INFORMATION ON REPORTERS. Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, asked a federal judge on Thursday to have special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald turn over "all documents in his possession related to what journalists knew from any source about the intelligence officer at the heart of the case," according to The New York Times. "The defense request strongly suggested that Mr. Libby's defesne could turn on the testimony of reporters, who are expected to be called as witnesses in the trial, including those who testified during the grand jury investigation about their conversations with confidential sources and perhaps others who have not yet been identified." — Posted at 3:54 pm

BUSH FEARS NEW SPY LAW. In a White House news conference yesterday, President Bush told reporters that drafting a law to permit the warrantless eavesdropping program is unnecessary and dangerous, The New York Times reported. "My concern has always been that in an attempt to try to pass a law on something that's already legal, we'll show the enemy what we're doing," Bush told reporters. — Posted at 3:52 pm

Jan. 26, 2006

BUSH REJECTED LESS RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE IN \'02. The Bush administration dismissed proposed legislation by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) in '02 that would have permitted the FBI to get warrants to spy on non-U.S. citizens if they had a "reasonable suspicion" they were connected to terrorism rather than a "probable cause," which is currently required by law, according to The Washington Post. The administration concluded that it would likely be unconstitutional to lower the legal standard and the system for getting surveillance warrants worked well. — Posted at 3:16 pm

CALL A SPADE A SPADE. A White House memo released Tuesday claiming that the NSA warrantless surveillance program is "international," not "domestic," is "fundamentally dishonest," chastised Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin yesterday. Before the NSA program, warrantless spying was restricted to international-to-international communication; now the administration is looking at communications that start or end domestically. — Posted at 3:13 pm

TAKING A SECOND LOOK. The Jan. 7 kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll, who was freelancing for The Christian Science Monitor, sparked the Los Angeles Times' Alissa Rubin to re-evaulate what it means to cover Baghdad. You could avoid western Baghdad, where she was abducted, only to be nabbed in the southern district. You could have two cars and the second could have its tires shot out and careen off the road. You could be in an armored car and your driver could lose his nerve. The truth is that we are working in a war zone where no rules apply. No one is safe: not Iraqis, not Westerners, not men, not women. — Posted at 3:08 pm

PRISONERS RELEASED, CARROLL STILL HELD. U.S. military officials in Iraq freed five women prisoners among more than 400 male prisoners Thursday, but both American and Iraqi officials said their release was not linked to the kidnapping of American freelance journalist Jill Carroll. Carroll's kidnappers last week said she would be killed unless there was a release of all U.S.-held women prisoners in Iraqno word on Carroll's fate. — Posted at 3:07 pm

STRANGE, SENATOR SAYS. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) criticized Pres. Bush's arguments supporting his eavesdropping program as "strange" and "far-fetched" to an audience of mayors yesterday, The Associated Press reported. The administration's "argument that it's rooted in the Constitution inherently is kind of strange because we have FISA and FISA operated very effectively and it wasn't that hard to get their permission," she said. Clinton, who told reporters she did not know whether Bush's program broke any laws, is believed to be a favorite among the 2008 presidential candidates because of her high profile and ability to raise money, the story says. — Posted at 3:06 pm

THE TOLL RISES. Fighting between Sunni rebels and U.S. forces killed an Iraqi television cameraman Tuesday in Ramadi, Reuters reported. Witnesses told the news service that Mahmous Za'al, who worked for Baghdad Satellite Channel was filming an attack on two buildings occupied by U.S. forces when he was wounded in the legs and killed moments later in a U.S. air strike. More than 70 foreign and Iraqi journalists have been reported killed since the U.S.-led invasion began in March 2003, Reuters reported. A list of those killed in the last year is here. — Posted at 3:01 pm

NSA LATEST STOP ON SPY PROGRAM SPIN TOUR. President Bush defended the National Security Agency's controversial eavesdropping program in a closed-door speech to NSA employees yesterday at the agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., The Washington Post reported. Bush told NSA employees that "the work they do is vital and necessary, and I support them 100 percent," according to the story. — Posted at 3:00 pm

THE THRILL AND THE TERROR. Jackie Spinner, former Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post, writes about the thrill and terror of covering Iraq in a new book "Tell Them I Didn't Cry: A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss and Survival in Iraq," an excerpt of which is published in Thursday's Post. Among the things she writes about is her close relationship with her twin sister, Jenny, sleeping in Abu Ghraib prison and her attempted kidnapping. Suddenly, a man ran toward me, grabbed me by the wrist and began pulling me toward an orange and white car. At first I said in Arabic, " La. La. Rajan. " No. No. Please. I pointed to the highway, where Bassam and Ghazwan were hidden from view. But he kept pulling me by the wrist. Another man came up behind me and grabbed me around the waist. Someone else grabbed the pillowcase that held my belongings and threw it aside. At first I couldn't fathom what was going on. What was happening to me? Were they trying to kidnap me? They were trying to kidnap me! My heart pounded. — Posted at 2:58 pm

Jan. 25, 2006

FEDS AGREE TO PAY $200,000 IN NO-FLY LIST SUIT. Two Bush administration critics and the ACLU settled with the FBI and TSA in their FOI Act lawsuit over documents concerning secret federal watchlists for commercial air travel. The $200,000 will pay attorney fees for the ACLU's part in representing the two San Francisco peace activists who were detained while checking in for a flight in 2003. — Posted at 4:22 pm

GEORGETOWN STUDENTS\' CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' speech defending the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program at Georgetown University's law school yesterday was poorly received, several newspapers reported, showing the public's disapproval of the administration's attempt to put a positive spin on the program. More than two dozen students turned their backs on Gonzales before live television cameras and several hooded protestors carried a banner quoting Benjamin Franklin's statement, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." Georgetown University Law Professor David Cole criticized the administration's media blitz during a panel discussion after the speech, saying, "When you're a law student, they tell you that if you can't argue the law, argue the facts [and] if you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue either, apparently the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue... to say over and over again 'it's lawful,' and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough," reported blogger Mark Kraft. — Posted at 3:10 pm

PATRIOT ACT RENEWAL AT IMPASSE. After a tortured journey through Congress, with Senators objecting to the proposed Act's lack of privacy safeguards, the Patriot Act's renewal may have permanently stalled, The Washington Post reports. "I can tell you, after talking to Chairman Sensenbrenner, that the House feels that they've gone as far as they can go on compromises on the act," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told colleagues. "And I think the reality may be that we're looking at either the current act extended [beyond Feb. 3], or the conference report," Specter said, according to the story. — Posted at 10:42 am

Jan. 24, 2006

DITCHING A DOUBLE STANDARD? The president of Military Reporters and Editors (MRE) is calling for news outlets to agree to hold off on reporting on overseas kidnappings until 48 hours have passed, eliminating what he says is a double standard for abducted journalists, Editor & Publisher reported. MRE President Sig Christenson, a military affairs writer for the San Antonio Express-News, had previously criticized a two-day U.S. news blackout on reporting the Jan. 7 abduction of Jill Carroll, a Christian Science Monitor freelancer. — Posted at 1:50 pm

LIBBY TO ASK FOR SECRET EVIDENCE. Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby filed a request on Monday to use classified evidence at his trial, according to MSNBC.com. Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for his actions during special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of the covert identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. — Posted at 1:50 pm

Jan. 23, 2006

SPY PROGRAM NO DRIFT NET, HAYDEN SAYS. The National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program "isn't a drift net out there where we're soaking up everyone's communications," former NSA director Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told various papers at a Q-and-A at the National Press Club. Criticized by many as a sweeping intrusion on Americans, Hayden defended Bush's controversial program as "targeted and focused" on al-Qaeda associates. Although Hayden acknowledged that the spy program requires a lower standard of evidence than the FISA court, he said he believed that "we would have detected some of the 9/11 al Qaeda operatives in the United States" if the system had been in place before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. — Posted at 5:33 pm

CBS COMPLIES WITH FBI REQUEST. The CBS Evening News complied with an FBI request not to report specific findings in a story about how FBI technicians use forensics to tracks the origins of homemade bombs, called IEDs or Improvised Explosive Devices, CBS News' Public Eye reported. Here's what was said during the story's broadcast: "At the request of the FBI, CBS News has agreed not to report specific findings about the reconstructed devices. The FBI expressed concerns to CBS that revealing such details might compromise ongoing operations and jeopardize the safety of US personnel in Iraq." — Posted at 4:32 pm

READERS RESPOND TO CARROLL KIDNAPPING. The Christian Science Monitor has created a Web site asking readers for their responses to the kidnapping of Jill Carroll. Hundreds of heartfelt responses have poured in, many of which are posted here. — Posted at 4:31 pm

ALLOW JILL CARROLL TO FINISH STORY, FATHER PLEAS. Christian Science Monitor Washington Bureau Chief David Cook told The New York Times Sunday that decisions about whether to use guards or a chase car while reporting in Iraq were left up to Jill Carroll, the 28-year-old American journalist who was kidnapped Jan. 7 and remains missing. Urging her release are the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Yasser al-Sirri, director of the London-based Islamic Observation Centre. Carroll's father issued a plea for his daugther's release. Jill started to tell your story, please, allow her to finish it. — Posted at 4:30 pm

STAYING ALIVE. Journalists covering Iraq have more to worry about than feeding the beast and making deadline, of course, given that the two most pressing worries are staying alive and avoiding kidnapping, USA Today reports. The paper quoted Wall Street Journal reporter Farnaz Fassihi, who wrote in a September 2004 e-mail that in Baghdad she is "a security personnel first, a reporter second." — Posted at 4:29 pm

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO PUSH BUSH ON SPYING. On several talk shows Sunday, lawmakers said they will pressure President Bush to justify his decision to authorize the NSA to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance, The Associated Press reports. They also said the President should have asked Congress to change the law if the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not give Bush the tools needed to fight terrorism, Reuters reports. — Posted at 4:23 pm

U.S. CHARGES AFGHAN MAN WITH 2002 ATTACK ON JOURNALISTS. The U.S. on Friday formally charged an Afghan man in connection with a March 2002 grenade attack in Afghanistan that wounded three journalists, The Associated Press reported. Abdul Zahir, an Afghan man suspected of being an al-Qaeda terrorist, is the 10th detainee at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be charged with crimes that are expected to lead to military trial. — Posted at 4:22 pm

PENTAGON RELEASES MEMO ORDERING NEW INTEL TRAINING. Defense Department intelligence and counterintelligence personnel will undergo "refresher training" on collection and use of domestic intelligence information, according to a recently released Pentagon memo, WashingtonPost.com reported. Also, the department's TALON terrorist-threat database will be reviewed to identify reports that should not be in the database, the memo directed. — Posted at 4:20 pm

THIRD REUTERS JOURNALIST FREED. An Iraqi journalist who works for Reuters and was held for nearly eight months without charge was freed Sunday by the U.S. military, the news service reported. Samir Mohammed Noor's release from military custody comes one week after two other Reuters journalists were released. The U.S. military is holding at least two other journalists from other international media outlets. [Reuters Global Managing Editor David] Schlesinger said: "Nothing we have heard so far from either the U.S. military or our colleagues indicates that suspicions were raised against them for any other reason than their courageous and honest pursuit of professional journalism." — Posted at 4:18 pm

TWELVE-YEAR SENTENCE FOR FRANKLIN. Lawrence A. Franklin, a former Defense Department analyst, was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison on Friday by a federal judge after Franklin "admitted passing classified military information to two pro-Isreal lobbyists and an Isreali diplomat," according to The New York Times. Franklin was charged under the Espionage Act. — Posted at 4:17 pm

LIBBY TO SUBPOENA JOURNALISTS. The lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, announced to a federal judge on Friday that they plan to subpoena journalists "for documents they may have related to the leak of a CIA operative's name," according to the Washington Post . Libby was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald in connection with Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. — Posted at 4:16 pm

Jan. 20, 2006

DOJ REBUTS CRS. The Department of Justice issued a 42-page report yesterday, presenting legal authority for President Bush's decision to order the NSA's domestic surveillance program, CNN reports. As in previous statements issued by the administration, the report roots Bush's authority in the Constitution and Congress's post-9/11 authorization to use military force. Click here to review the report. — Posted at 5:57 pm

NO STORY IS WORTH YOUR LIFE. In an online chat on washingtonpost.com, Jackie Spinner, former Washington Post Baghdad bureau chief and friend of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll says Iraq is likely one of "the most dangerous environments the press has ever known," forcing media outlets to think carefully about the risks their employees face. When I left for Iraq, I was advised from the highest levels at the newspaper that "no story is worth your life." I never felt pressured to take an "unnecessary" risk just to keep up with the competition. — Posted at 5:56 pm

DATELINE BAGHDAD. Columbia Journalism Review 's Paul McLeary is in Iraq reporting on the job the press is doing and the life of an embedded journalist in Iraq. He spent the first three days in the Middle East just trying to get to Baghdad, where he'll be credentialed and assigned a unit. Flying over a darkened, nighttime Baghdad was a humbling experience. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I have to admit that I had a kind of "Yossarian moment" - I couldn't help but take very personally the fact that there were probably people down there who would very much like to see me, and everyone in my helicopter, dead. While we sped over the empty streets, glowing a dull orange under streetlights, I became acutely aware that the entire ride was designed to avoid just that. — Posted at 5:55 pm

NEW IMAGES OF CARROLL AIRED. Al-Jazeera broadcast new images Thursday of kidnapped American journalist Jill Carroll that were part of the same video tape the Arab television channel aired earlier this week, Reuters reported. Thursday's broadcast came as Carroll's mother pleaded for her release, urging her daughter's kidnappers to contact the Carroll family. A Baltimore Sun story reports on the dangers journalists like Carroll face covering Iraq. — Posted at 5:53 pm

2002 STATE DEPARTMENT INTEL DOUBTS A NIGER URANIUM SALE TO IRAQ. Recently declassified documents obtained by the public interest group Judicial Watch show that while the Department of State noted the possibility that Niger could sell uranium to Iraq, officials determined it unlikely because of France's role in the uranium industry as well as the difficulty in secretly transporting such materials. — Posted at 5:52 pm

EPIC SUES FOR RELEASE OF JUSTICE DEPARTMENT\'S EAVESDROPPING DOCUMENTS. Citing a great public interest, the Electronic Privacy Information Center wants the Justice Department to give up its materials analyzing the legality of the NSA's secret eavesdropping program before Senate hearings on the issue convene in early February. The Justice Department said it would comply, but that it would take more than 30 business days to fulfill EPIC's request - with the release occurring after the much-anticipated testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. — Posted at 5:50 pm

BUSH\'S SECRECY VIOLATED LAW, CRS SAYS. President Bush's failure to keep all members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees "fully and currently informed" of the warrantless domestic surveillance program violated the National Security Act, according to a report issued by Congress's research agency, The Washington Post reported. The White House claims it briefed congressional leaders about the NSA program repeatedly, but has not provided details, according to the story. — Posted at 5:49 pm

Jan. 19, 2006

COALITION FORCES RELEASE SIX FEMALE IRAQI PRISONERS, BBC REPORTS. Six of eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq have been freed, Iraq's ministry of justice told the BBC. It is not clear whether the release, which U.S. forces have refused to confirm, satisfies the demands of the group who is holding U.S. journalist Jill Carroll, kidnapped Jan. 7. The group released a videotape of an exhausted Carroll Tuesday, saying she will be killed in unless all female Iraqi prisoners are freed. — Posted at 07:21 am

Jan. 17, 2006

CNN BAN LIFTED IN IRAN. Iran lifted its ban on CNN Tuesday, a day after the country barred the network over mistranslating the president as speaking of developing "nuclear weapons" rather than "nuclear technology," which he actually referred to in an interview, The Associated Press reported, citing state television. — Posted at 5:08 pm

AL-JAZEERA AIRS THREATENING TAPE OF KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST. A silent 20-second videotape of kidnapped freelance journalist Jill Carroll was aired Tuesday evening by Al-Jazeera, and an accompanying message threatened to kill her unless the U.S. frees female prisoners in Iraq within 72 hours, The Associated Press reported. Carroll's father is making a plea for her freedom, according to the Christian Science Monitor Web site devoted to the missing reporter. — Posted at 5:07 pm

AL-JAZEERA SEEKS RECORD OF BUSH-BLAIR TALK. A memo of a conversation between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush does not reference a suggestion of bombing Al-Jazeera headquarters, a spokesman for Blair said Tuesday, Reuters reported. Blair's office has received a request from the Arabic broadcaster to see a record of a conversation between the two leaders, which a British lawmaker said described a suggestion by Bush to bomb the television station. — Posted at 3:17 pm

MILITARY INVESTIGATORS FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF TORTURE AT GUANTANAMO. Although at times "degrading and abusive," detainee suspects in the war on terror held at Guantanamo Bay were not subject to "torture" or "inhumane" treatment, Pentagon investigators said. In the three-year period where more than 24,000 interrogations occurred, "only three interrogation acts" violated the Army Field Manual regulations and Defense guidelines on interrogations, Army officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee, but none constituted torture, they said. — Posted at 2:36 pm

BOTH SIDES OF GORE\'S MOUTH? The Clinton-Gore administration allowed warrantless physical searches, so Al Gore is hypocritical to criticize President Bush, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, ABC News reports. — Posted at 1:29 pm

ACLU SUES NSA. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the National Security Agency, claiming its warrantless domestic wiretapping program is unconstitutional and that President Bush exceeded his constitutional authority when he authorized it, CNN reports. "[W]e intend to put a stop to it," ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero told CNN. Other plaintiffs include journalists James Bamford, Christopher Hitchens, and Tara McKelvey. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the program before a "Larry King Live" audience Monday, saying that "from its inception [it] has been carefully reviewed by lawyers from throughout the administration." Get the interview transcript here. — Posted at 1:27 pm

HIGHWAY TO THE DANGER ZONE. Western journalists reporting on the war on terror from Pakistan face all sorts of hurdles, including having little access to the restive tribal belt, where much of the country's news occurs, ABC News reports. Often, the work we do here is like putting together a puzzle when you don't know what the final picture looks like. We get a few bits of information interviewing the local villagers who witnessed something. Local intelligence officials offer a shred of information. We try to glean some insight from flight logs at Bagram Airbase. Sometimes months pass before we get the detail that gives us real insight. Often, we never know for sure. — Posted at 12:57 pm

GITMO GENERAL PLEADS THE FIFTH. Invoking the military's equivalent of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander at Guantanamo in 2002, will avoid a cross-examination on his role in the prisoner-abuse scandal that occurred under his watch. Miller's sworn testimony to Congress and Army investigators has been contradicted by at least four other witnesses, The Washington Post reported. — Posted at 11:26 am

GOODBYE, ALAN ENWIYAH. GOODBYE. The Iraqi blogger dubbed Riverbend pays tribute on her blog, Baghdad Burning, to Alan Enwiyah, the Iraqi translator who was killed during the abduction of American journalist Jill Carroll last week, Editor & Publisher reported. Riverbend reports that Enwiyah especially liked music, including Pink Floyd, whose lyrics include: Did you hear the falling bombs?/The flames are all long gone, but the pain lingers on./Goodbye, blue sky./ Goodbye, blue sky./Goodbye. Goodbye. — Posted at 11:10 am

ELLSBERG\'S ADVICE. Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg told an American Bar Association audience that government secrets are worth revealing in an effort to save people's lives, even if it means going to jail, The Associated Press reported. He waited nearly two years before giving The New York Times the top secret study of the Vietnam War in 1971. "I wasted 22 months," he said, advising others planning to leak materials to "take your risks and go to prison if it means saving lives." — Posted at 11:08 am

JOURNALISTS FREED, OTHERS REMAIN HELD. Two Ramadi-based Reuters journalists - Ali al-Mashhandi, a television cameraman detained since August, and Majed Hameed, a correspondent jailed since September, were among 500 prisoners released from U.S. military custody Sunday after they were cleared of ties with the Iraqi insurgency. At least three other Iraqi journalists for international media, including a freelance cameraman working for Reuters in the northern town of Tal Afar, remain in custody, Reuters reported. A third journalist, British freelancer Phil Sands, detailed for the San Francisco Chronicle his previously unreported capture Dec. 26 and release five days later during a chance raid by U.S. forces. About 10 men in ski-masks and AK-47 rifles piled out and swarmed around his car. Sands' translator and driver got out. The masked men pushed them to the ground and handcuffed them. When Sands got out of the car, the men pulled his wool hat down onto his eyes, handcuffed him, stuffed him into the trunk of one of the cars, and sped off. Sands recalled thinking, "I'm dead. From this moment on, I'm dead." The Christian Science Monitor , meanwhile, reports no news in last week's abduction of reporter Jill Carroll, but released a statement Saturday: "We continue to pursue every possible avenue in Baghdad to locate Jill and secure her release as soon as possible." — Posted at 11:06 am

GONZALES WILL TESTIFY ON EAVESDROPPING. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Friday he will testify to the legal authority for the warrantless domestic spy program, but not about the program's operation, The Associate Press reports. Gonzales was White House counsel when Bush initiated the program. The hearing is expected in early February. — Posted at 11:05 am

SPECTER DOUBTS SPY PROGRAM\'S LEGALITY; LAURA BUSH BACKS IT. President Bush was not authorized to order the warrantless domestic spy program Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said on ABC's "News Week," The Associated Press reported Sunday. "We're not going to give him a blank check, and just because we're of the same party doesn't mean we're not going to look at this very closely," said Specter. Meanwhile, Laura Bush told the AP that the government is right to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists, and that "the American people expect the United States government and the president to do what they can to make sure there's not an attack by foreign terrorists." — Posted at 11:04 am

BUSH BROKE THE LAW, GORE SAYS. President Bush broke the law when he authorized warentless domestic surveillance, former Vice President Al Gore alleged during a speech at D.C.'s Constitution Hall Monday, The Washington Post reported. Gore noted the use of incorrect intelligence to invade Iraq and the prisoner torture scandal, saying: "The disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the Constitution that is deeply troubling to Americans in both political parties." — Posted at 11:03 am

Jan. 13, 2006

EAVESDROPPING PROGRAM REVIEWED FOR YEARS. The National Security Agency's independent watchdog has been reviewing its domestic surveillance program for several years to ensure it complied with President Bush's orders, The Washington Post reports. — Posted at 3:36 pm

CSM CREATES CARROLL WEB SITE. The Christian Science Monitor has created a Web page for the latest information about kidnapped reporter Jill Carroll, who was abducted Jan. 7 in Baghdad while on assisngment for the Monitor. — Posted at 3:35 pm

REVISING SPY LAWS. History shows that, to fit the NSA domestic surveillance program within the law, Congress and the courts must determine "whether a different privacy standard should apply to the meta-data that overlay the communication itself," writes David Ignatius in a Washington Post op-ed. In the 1970s, the Supreme Court found that a surveillance device called a "pen register," which records phone numbers dialed, did not require a warrant because it did not constitute a "search" under the Fourth Amendment. Congress responded by setting a higher standard to protect the privacy of pen registers. — Posted at 3:34 pm

MILITARY TASK FORCE OPPOSED HARSH INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES. Aggressive interrogation strategies intended for the "battlefield environment" and approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for use at Guantanamo in 2002 were at first objected to and later instructed against by the leader of the Criminal Investigation Task force, newly declassified documents show. The leader told his subordinates to object if they saw inappropriate behavior, according to a December 2002 memo, The Washington Post reported. — Posted at 3:32 pm

NY TIMES OP-ED FEARS UNCHECKED EXECUTIVE. When an executive branch agency "engaged in domestic spying free from any oversight by other government institutions" in the 1950s, it resulted in hundreds of illegal wiretaps, criminal acquitals due to improperly acquired evidence, resignations of senior officials, and conspiracies to evade responsibility for the unlawful program, Morgan Cloud, Emory University law professor, reminds readers. Unregulated "by either the courts or Congress, the FBI was free to expand a grant of authority to combat our cold war enemies into a license to spy on ordinary citizens. With an unchecked executive branch, we should fear that similar abuses may be occurring today, in our war on terrorism," he writes. — Posted at 3:31 pm

DEFENSE TELLS SENATOR IT REMOVED NON-TERROR FILES FROM SECRET DATABASE. The classified intelligence database intended to monitor potential terrorist activity that was found compiling information on peaceful protestors and demonstrators has removed the inappropriate information, the Pentagon told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.) in response to her inquiry. — Posted at 3:29 pm

SECRET ARMY TACTICS MAY BE LINKED TO ABUSE. A secret Army "Special Access Program" has been shown to link a special operations unit with Iraqi detainee abuse, according to documents recently released to the ACLU. "These documents confirm that the torture of detainees and its subsequent cover-up was part of a larger clandestine operation, in all likelihood, authorized by senior government officials," an ACLU attorney said. The abuse continued even after initial reports of such activity raised concern with Defense Department officials, The Smoking Gun reported, but four soldiers within the secret unit were punished and reassigned for their part in the abuse scandal. The government reports also show that secret harsh investigation techniques may have been authorized to members of the military at Guantanamo, and that the Army began receiving reports of brutal beatings to detainees in Afghanistan as early as January 2002. — Posted at 3:27 pm

Jan. 12, 2006

BUSH OKAY WITH EAVESDROPPING HEARINGS. President Bush said Wednesday that he does not oppose congressional hearings about his authorization of domestic eavesdropping as long as they do not provide information to the enemy, Reuters reports. — Posted at 12:48 pm

POLITICS PREDICTS AMERICANS\' TAKE ON EAVESDROPPING. Citizens' views on the legality of President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program divide sharply along party lines according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Seventy-five percent of Republicans said the Bush program is acceptable, while 61 percent of Democrats said it is unacceptable, the poll reveals. Meanwhile, nearly two in three Americans surveyed said they believe that federal agencies involved in anti-terrorism activities are intruding on the personal privacy of their fellow citizens, but fewer than a third said such intrusions are unjustified. — Posted at 12:47 pm

SWISS NOT NEUTRAL ON FINDING LEAKERS. Switzerland has begun criminal investigations of Christoph Grenacher, the editor-in-chief of SonntagsBlick, and two of the paper's reporters to determine whether the newspaper disclosed military secrets and discover who leaked a secret document "citing clandestine CIA prisons in Eastern Europe," according to The New York Times . — Posted at 12:45 pm

PENTAGON TO RETOOL COMMUNICATIONS POLICY. The Pentagon is working on retooling how it communicates in the wake of news over secret U.S. payments to Iraqi media outlets that print pro-American articles, Reuters reported. — Posted at 12:44 pm

Jan. 11, 2006

NON-INVESTIGATIONS INTO NSA SPY PROGRAM. The NSA's inspector general has been reviewing the agency's domestic surveillance program, but the goal of the review is not to assess the legal justification of the program, but whether it follows rules set by the agency and a Presidential executive order, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine, the Department's watchdog, does not have jurisdiction to probe the NSA's domestic surveillance program, Deputy Inspector General Paul Martin told The Associated Press. Instead, Fine has forwarded a Democratic request for a review to the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, the story reports. — Posted at 4:26 pm

EAVESDROPPING ERRORS BROUGHT TO LIGHT. The FBI reported several hundred possible wiretapping violations from 2002 to 2004 - including listening in on the wrong person's calls and eavesdropping after warrants expired - according to heavily censored information released to the Electronic Privacy Information Center as it filed a lawsuit for more information on the secret surveillance activities. — Posted at 3:43 pm

ALITO QUESTIONED ON EAVESDROPPING. When asked by Sen. Specter whether the U.S. Constitution permits the president to order domestic wiretapping without specific authorizing legislation, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito resisted answering because he expects to hear cases like that before the Supreme Court, reported The Hotline blog of The National Journal Tuesday. Alito cited Justice Jackson's concurring opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube to explain executive power: "When the President takes measures incompatible with the expressed or implied will of Congress, his power is at its lowest ebb, for then he can rely only upon his own constitutional powers minus any constitutional powers of Congress over the matter." — Posted at 3:41 pm

U.S. & IRAQI FORCES RAID MOSQUE IN SEARCH OF ABDUCTED JOURNALIST. A raid on a Baghdad mosque Saturday by U.S. and Iraqi military forces looking for kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll sparked a protest by several hundred Sunni Arabs Tuesday, The Christian Science Monitor reported. The U.S. military told Agence France Press that the raid was a "direct result of a tip by an Iraqi civilian that activities related to the kidnapping were being carried out inside the mosque," which is in Baghdad's Adel neighborhood where Carroll was kidnapped, The Monitor reported. — Posted at 2:58 pm

MRE PROTESTS NEWS BLACKOUT ON CARROLL KIDNAPPING. Sig Christenson, president of Military Reporters and Editors, on Tuesday criticized U.S. media outlets that held off for two days reporting news that American freelancer Jill Carroll had been kidnapped in Iraq, Editor & Publisher reported. Christenson, who covers the military for the San Antonio Express-News and has covered Iraq as both an embedded and independent reporter, questioned the ethics of the news blackout, which was requested by The Christian Science Monitor for which Carroll was working. — Posted at 2:56 pm

CONFIDENTIAL NO MORE. Russell Tice, an insider at the National Security Agency, admitted on "Nightline" that he was a source for The New York Times article which exposed President Bush's secret domestic wiretapping, according to an Editor and Publisher story. According to Tice, if the NSA used its "full range" of survelliance programs the NSA could have eavesdropped on millions of Americans. — Posted at 11:31 am

Jan. 10, 2006

CSM EDITOR \'HEARTENED\' BY REPONSE TO BLACKOUT REQUEST. Marshall Ingwerson, managing editor of The Christian Science Monitor is "surprised and very heartened" that U.S. news outlets respected the paper's request for a weekend news blackout of the kidnapping of journalist Jill Carroll in western Baghdad, Editor & Publisher reports. — Posted at 4:44 pm

SCHOLARS SCORN WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING. Fourteen legal scholars questioned the legality of the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program in a letter to congressional leaders Monday. The Justice Department "fails to identify any plausible legal authority for such surveillance," the law professors and former government officials assert. "Accordingly the program appears on its face to violate existing law." — Posted at 4:42 pm

WIRETAPPING EVIDENCE CHALLENGED. Attorneys for terrorism defendants are challenging the government's evidence, concerned that it has been gathered through the warrantless eavesdropping program, The Washington Post reports. For instance, attorneys for Ali Al-Timimi, a U.S. citizen convicted on terrorism charges, seek to determine whether the their client was wiretapped without a warrant, which would violate his constitutional rights. If evidence "was gathered illegally in violation of the law, that taints everything that was built upon it and therefore there would be legal grounds for a court to review it," a former CIA assistant general counsel told the Post. — Posted at 4:41 pm

FISA COURT BRIEFED ON WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING. The federal judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court attended a classified briefing about President Bush's authorization of warrantless domestic eavesdropping at the Justice Department yesterday, several newspapers report. Sources told The Washington Post that Gen. Michael Hayden, the principal director of national intelligence who served as NSA director when the eavesdropping program was launched, was among administration officials who attended the briefing. Neither Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who leads the FISA court, nor Justice Department spokesmen would comment to the Post or New York Times about the briefing. — Posted at 4:39 pm

\"MEET THE PRESS\" HOST RESISTED TESTIFYING. NBC News reporter Tim Russert, the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and host of "Meet the Press," tried to avoid testifying against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, according to a Washington Post story about court papers released yesterday. However, the judge rejected his argument and his testimony became "important evidence" used by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to indict Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. — Posted at 4:38 pm

BRITISH ORDER TRIAL OF SUSPECTED LEAKERS. David Keogh, a civil servant, and Leo O'Connor, a former legislator's researcher, were ordered on Tuesday to stand trial later in January on charges of leaking a secret government memo to The Daily Mirror, according to a story from Editor and Publisher . The document, which claimed that President George W. Bush "reportedly discussed bombing the headquarters of the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera" during a conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004, allegedly passed from Keogh to O'Connor to The Mirror . "Keoghy, a former communications officer at the cabinet Office, was charged under Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act with making a 'damaging disclosure of a document relating to interational relations' without lawful authority," according to the story. O'Connor has been charged with "receiving the document." — Posted at 4:36 pm

CSM CALLS FOR REPORTER\'S RELEASE. The Christian Science Monitor has issued a statement praising Jill Carroll's "professionalism, energy, and fair reporting" and calling for her release. She remains missing after being abducted in western Baghdad. Her Iraqi interpreter was killed and her Iraqi driver escaped unharmed. "Jill's ability to help others understand the issues facing all groups in Iraq has been invaluable. We are urgently seeking information about Ms. Carroll and are pursuing every avenue to secure her release," says Monitor Editor Richard Bergenheim. — Posted at 4:34 pm

MEDIA SIT ON STORY. Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll's abduction in Iraq was not reported by U.S. media outlets for nearly 48 hours after the Monitor requested that the story be withheld, Editor & Publisher reported. "I am doing everything I possibly can not to endanger a reporter's life and we are trying to gauge what to do," said David Hoffman, assistant managing editor for foreign at the Washington Post, who declined to comment specifically on the requested blackout. "We are trying not to endanger a reporter." — Posted at 4:32 pm

MISTAKEN IDENTITY? National Public Radio's Steve Inskeep interviewed an Iraqi journalist whose home was raided in the middle of the night by U.S. forces. Ali Fadhil, who is working for British media on a story about allegations of misuse of Iraqi reconstruction money, was released after a night of detention. The incident is believed to be a case of mistaken identity. — Posted at 4:31 pm

TEN SECONDS OF TERROR. Jill Carroll, the American freelancer kidnapped Saturday in Iraq, was doing what she most wanted to do when she and her driver, who escaped unharmed, were snatched from a west Baghdad neighborhood. "All I ever wanted to be was a foreign correspondent," Carroll wrote last year in American Journalism Review, The Associated Press reported. The kidnapping "all together ...didn't take 10 seconds" Carroll's driver told The Washington Post. "I always talked to her, told her Iraq is a place where reporters don't feel comfortable now," the driver said. "She always said, 'No, if there's a place I'm comfortable in, it's Iraq." CNN also reported on the ambush and AP reported that Iraqi police are searching for the abductors. Listen here to National Public Radio's account. — Posted at 4:29 pm

Jan. 9, 2006

PROFESSOR DEMANDS THE FACTS. Patriot Act Section 505 should be revised to require the government to cite specific facts showing a link between the information sought and a terrorism investigation when it requests business records, argued Anita Ramasastry in a commentary posted on online at FindLaw. The Act's current very low standard could lead to needless fishing expeditions that invade consumer privacy, she writes. — Posted at 5:48 pm

FISA ARCHITECT DECRIES NSA PROGRAM. "The warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance program is an illegal and unnecessary intrusion into the privacy of all Americans," concludes Morton Halperin in an analysis published by the Center for American Progress. Halperin played an influential role in the enactment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, the Federation of American Scientists reports. — Posted at 5:43 pm

WHITE HOUSE TRIES TO STRAIGHTEN A CROOKED RECORD. In a Jan. 4 press release titled "Setting the Record Straight," the White House tries to rebuff four Democratic critics of its domestic eavesdropping program: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), and Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE). — Posted at 5:41 pm

U.S. TROOPS CAPTURE AND QUESTION IRAQI JOURNALIST. U.S. troops on Sunday forced their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist working for Britain's The Guardian and Channel 4, shooting into the bedroom where Ali Fadhil slept with his wife and children and capturing him before questioning him and releasing him hours later, The Guardian reported. — Posted at 2:38 pm

LISTENING IN? GET A WARRANT, AMERICANS SAY. Most Americans want the government to get a warrant before eavesdropping on U.S. citizens believed to be communicating with suspected terrorists, a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows. — Posted at 2:37 pm

GONZALES ASKED TO TESTIFY ON SPY PROGRAM. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told the Associated Press Sunday that he has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to testify about the legality of warrantless domestic eavesdropping. Because Gonzales was White House counsel when President Bush authorized the spy program, his testimony may raise attorney-client privilege issues, the story reports. Public hearings are scheduled for early February. — Posted at 2:35 pm

JOURNALIST KIDNAPPED, TRANSLATOR KILLED. An American journalist - a freelancer believed to be in her mid-twenties - was kidnapped and her Iraqi translator killed Saturday in western Baghdad, several wire services reported. An Iraqi Interior Minister official, Maj. Falah Mohamadawi, said the translator told police before he died that he and the journalist, whose name was not released, were on their way to meet Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front, Editor & Publisher reported. — Posted at 2:34 pm

CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH REPORT QUESTIONS SPY PROGRAM. The Bush administration's assertion of legal authority to launch a warrantless domestic spy program "does not seem to be . . . well-grounded," concluded the Congressional Research Service in a report published Friday, according to the The Washington Post. Congress created a special Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 1978 with the expectation that the government would seek warrants from it before conducting such surveillance, the 44-page report says. — Posted at 2:33 pm

SECRET STUDY REVEALS IMPACT OF BODY ARMOR IN IRAQ. As many as 80 percent of the marines killed in Iraq by upper body wounds could have survived with extra body armor, a secret Pentagon study showed. The New York Times obtained the secret study, which was conducted by the military's medical examiner. — Posted at 2:31 pm

CONGRESSIONAL LAWYERS SAY EAVESDROPPING JUSTIFICATION IS LACKING. The Congressional Research Service's review of arguments defending the secret NSA surveillance activity finds that the White House's legal justification in a Dec. 22, 2005 letter from the Office of Legislative Affairs "does not seem to be as well-grounded as the tenor of the letter suggests." In its report for Congress, the research service noted that specific facts involved in the case would need to be made available before they could make a final determination. — Posted at 2:29 pm

AMANPOUR ADDENDUM. In response to the disappearance in a transcript of a reference to whether CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour was a target of government eavesdropping, CNN issued a statement saying the network is unable to confirm the story and will continue investigating. "Neither CNN nor Christiane Amanpour is aware of alleged eavesdropping by the government on Ms. Amanpour and we are unable to confirm this story. We are looking into it." — Posted at 2:28 pm

Jan. 6, 2006

REPORTERS TO RUMSFELD: HELP US REVIEW EMBED RULES. The president of Military Reporters and Editors sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday informing him that the journalists' organization has formed a committee to review current policies for embedded reporters, Editor & Publisher reported. MRE President Sig Christenson, who covers the military for the San Antonio Express-News, also asked that Pentagon officials assist the organization in its review. — Posted at 12:05 pm

BUSH, ARABIC TELEVISION & CREDIBILITY. Viewers of Arabic television are given a false impression of the United States, which needs to step up efforts at communicating U.S. ideals, including spreading democracy, President George Bush said Thursday, according to a Reuters report. — Posted at 12:04 pm

GROUND RULES FOR GUANTANAMO. Journalists wishing to cover the American war crimes tribunal of teen-ager Omar Khadr, whose father was a close associate of Osama bin Laden, must agree to abide by nine pages of ground rules, including an agreement not to publish some information, reports Canadian Press. As in previous tribunals, the Pentagon is flying journalists to Guantanamo Bay to cover Khadr's pre-trial hearing and another for Ali Hamza Bahlul. — Posted at 11:52 am

NSA WHISTLEBLOWER WANTS TO TESTIFY. A former National Security Agency official who was dismissed from the agency last year told Congress that he is prepared to testify about secret Special Access Programs improperly carried out by the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Russ Tice said the eavesdropping programs involved officials other than himself, including the NSA director and the secretary of defense. — Posted at 11:05 am

SHHHHH. THEY MIGHT HEAR US EAVESDROPPING. Just after The New York Times reported on the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping program, the agency's director warned NSA and FBI employees not to discuss it, assuring them that it was "conducted within the law and in the best interest of our nation." — Posted at 11:04 am

Jan. 5, 2006

THE DISAPPERANCE OF CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR. During an interview, NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell asked New York Times reporter James Risen, who along with Eric Lichtblau broke the domestic spying story, whether CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour was a target of the eavesdropping. The Amanpour reference, which made it into an original transcript of the interview, was subsequently removed. NBC is investigating. — Posted at 5:08 pm

2005 ENDS WITH AT LEAST 63 JOURNALISTS KILLED WORLDWIDE. The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said at least 63 journalists were killed around the world last year, 24 of them in Iraq. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, 76 journalists and media assistants have been killed, more than in the 20-year Vietnam War, which spanned from 1955 to 1975, according to RSF's annual report. — Posted at 2:23 pm

DEFENSE GETS TWO YEARS TO FILE ITS SECRETS. Congress has granted the Defense Intelligence Agency a blanket exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for its "operational files" for the next two years. Under the provision that will sunset in December 2007, the agency will be able to withhold files "that document the conduct of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence operations." — Posted at 2:22 pm

CHENEY DEFENDS SPY PROGRAM TO CONSERVATIVES. The White House has launched an offensive to defend the domestic surveillance program, The Washington Post reports. As part of the initiative, Vice President Cheney gave a speech to conservatives at the Heritage Foundation yesterday saying that, if the NSA spy program were active "before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon," the story says. Cheney did not, however, mention that Congressional investigators found that the pre-9/11 security lapse primarily resulted from bereaucratic problems, not a lack of information, according to the story. — Posted at 2:20 pm

SURVEILLANCE COURT TO BE BRIEFED MONDAY. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court members are scheduled to meet with senior Justice Department officials Monday to learn about a domestic surveillance program that bypasses the FISA surveillance warrant process, The Washington Post reports. FISA Court judges told the Post they want to hear directly from the administration why Bush believed he had the authority to order such surveillance. — Posted at 2:19 pm

HARMAN TELLS BUSH HE BROKE THE LAW. Rep. Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to the President Wednesday saying the White House broke the law when it failed to fully apprise Senate and House Intelligence Committee members of the NSA domestic spy program, The Associated Press reports. — Posted at 2:18 pm

SECRET SLIDE SHOWS UP IN WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING. Widely disputed information placing terrorist Mohamed Atta in Prague for an April 2001 meeting with an Iraqi spy was reportedly presented as fact in a White House briefing in September 2002, as shown in a recently declassified copy of the slide made for the briefing. This slide did not appear in similar briefings to the Defense secretary and the CIA director, and says that the Iraqi spy ordered an Iraqi intelligence officer to "issue funds to Atta" and that Prague airport personnel identified Atta - information that was not confirmed by intelligence officials. — Posted at 10:48 am

FBI EAVESDROPPED ON NIXON SPEECH WRITER. William Safire, a fomer columnist for The New York Times and former speech writer for President Nixon, gives a personal reason for being suspicious of President Bush's secret domestic eavesdropping program, according to Editor and Publisher. According to the article, on the Jan. 1 Meet the Press, Safire explained how the FBI illegally tapped his phone calls during the early 1970s and how that experience has shaped his response to Bush's surveillance. He said his experience "told me how easy it was to just take somebody who is not really suspected of anything for any good reason and listen to every conversation in his home, you know, my wife talking to her doctor, my ... everything. . . So I have thing this about personal privacy." — Posted at 10:46 am

RISEN DEFENDS SOURCES. James Risen, author of State of War and reporter for The New York Times , defended the anonymous sources he used to uncover President Bush's domestic spying program, according to a Time Magazine article. "I got to these people at a good time," he said. "The frustration over the way things have been going in the Bush Administration had built up within the government. There were a lot of people who were increasingly uncomfortable with what was going on." — Posted at 10:45 am

Jan. 4, 2006

THE GAME CALLED POLITICS. President Bush charged Dems with stalling the Patriot Act reauthorization for their own political ends, The Washington Post reports, while stepping up his own campaign to defend his terrorism-fighting authority. The President has faced heated criticism for recent revelations that he authorized a secret domestic spy program and secret prisons abroad. The Patriot Act, which was extended to early Februrary, is expected to dominate the debate when Congress resumes at the end of January. — Posted at 3:46 pm

PELOSI QUESTIONED NSA EAVESDROPPING FOUR YEARS AGO. In October 2001, upon learning of expanded electronic surveillance authorized by President Bush, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi expressed concern over the National Security Agency's authority to conduct such action. In the recently declassified letter, Pelosi asked the agency's director a series of questions, calling the agency's interpretation of Bush's order "overly broad." — Posted at 12:12 pm

Jan. 3, 2006

IS BOLTON A SOURCE? John Bolton told Congress in his confirmation hearings that he'd asked the NSA for the identities of American ctitizens generated in NSA intelligence reports in an apparently routine circumvention of domestic spying rules, according to Jason Leopold, truthout contributor. The NSA redacts Americans' names when it distributes reports to various government agencies because it is not supposed to collect data on U.S. citizens, Leopold reports. — Posted at 6:09 pm

SECRET COURT ORDERS UP SHARPLY. Applications for FISA Court surveillance orders rose dramatically after Sept. 11, 2001, Justice Department reports show. The Bush Administration made 5,645 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches from 2001 through 2004, and only 3,436 in the previous four years, Reuters reports. — Posted at 5:48 pm

TOP JUSTICE OFFICIAL BALKED AT SPY PROGRAM. James B. Comey, top deputy to Attorney General John Ashcroft, was unwilling to certify central aspects of the NSA's domestic surveillance program amid concerns about its legality and oversight, The New York Times reports. Comey's resistence led White House senior aides to visit Ashcroft in the hospital where he was being treated for pancreatitis to urge him to certify the program. The Times did not report whether Ashcroft gave his approval. — Posted at 5:42 pm

DOJ PROBES LEAK OF SECRET SPY PROGRAM. The Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation into who unlawfully disclosed classified information about President George W. Bush's secret domestic spying program, The Washington Post reports. Earlier this year, a grand jury investigation into the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity led to the jailing of reporter Judith Miller. It is unknown whether the Department has also launched a criminal investigation into the disclosure of secret "black site" prisons overseas. The probe should determine the leak's motive, Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told the AP, since "there are differences between felons and whistleblowers." — Posted at 2:47 pm

SPY PROGRAM NECESSARY, BUSH CLAIMS. President George Bush told reporters Monday that his order authorizing warrantless domestic surveillance was "vital and necessary" to protect the country, according to The Washington Post. Government officials have said that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people have been under the surveillance, the story reports. — Posted at 2:46 pm

PENTAGON PAYOLA REDUX. Most Americans think the Pentagon was wrong to pay Iraqi newspapers to publish favorable stories about U.S. efforts in Iraq, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll. Seventy-two percent of 1,003 people surveyed in mid-December said they don't approve of the practice. The Defense Department has said it will stop paying Iraqi journalists, a move applauded by former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke in the Dallas Morning News. Clarke says the revelations have undermined the goal of the overall mission: to create a free Iraq and free Iraqis. That can't happen if burgeoning Iraqi newspapers are seen as tools of the United States or anyone else. — Posted at 2:12 pm

FEDS BEGIN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OF WIRETAP LEAK. The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into who disclosed classified information to The New York Times about President Bush's secret domestic eavesdropping program, according to the Washington Post. If the federal prosecutors cannot find the source of the leak through interviews with NSA employees, it is possible they will want the Times reporters to reveal who gave them their information - once again setting up a conflict between a criminal investigation and a reporter's duty to keep confidential sources. — Posted at 2:11 pm

GROUP REQUESTS WIRETAP RECORDS UNDER FOI ACT. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, has asked the government to make available under the federal Freedom of Information Act records related to the secret electronic surveillance authorized by President Bush following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The council has requested records from the CIA and the Defense and Justice Departments. — Posted at 2:10 pm