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

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

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

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

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

Mar. 30, 2006

WEAPONS OVERSIGHT COMING UP SHORT? Four years have passed without a publicly released assessment by a special Pentagon office created to review performance of new weapons, raising concerns as to effective weapons oversight, The Boston Globe reported. The office of Operational Test and Evaluation, which reports to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and has not had a director for more than a year, continues to prepare annual reports, but has not released them to the public since 2002; dozens of weapons reports were released between 1998 and 2002. — Posted at 6:36 pm

JUDGE SAYS SECRET ORDER NEEDED FOR NATIONAL SECURITY. U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy yesterday issued an order to keep a ruling secret, claiming that "the Government's interest in protecting the national security and preventing the dissemination of classified information outweighs the defendants' and/or the public's right of access to these materials," The Associated Press reported. On March 27, the New York Civil Liberties Union asked the federal Court of Appeals in New York to find that the judge erred in keeping secret his ruling refusing to toss out evidence that may have been gathered from illegal wiretaps. The case involves members of an Albany mosque accused of laundering money for an FBI informant. — Posted at 6:34 pm

JILL CARROLL FREE! Jill Carroll, the American journalist who spent 82 days in captivity after her January kidnapping by gunmen in Baghdad, was released Thursday morning to a Sunni Arab political party in the capital city. In an interview on Baghdad television, Carroll said he was "never hurt, never hit," and "was kept in a safe place and treated very well." Carroll's release comes one day after Carroll's twin sister, Katie Carroll, appeared on Arab TV station Al Arabiya to discuss how Jill's kidnapping has affected her family and to appeal directly to the Iraqi people for her release. Carroll is a freelancer for The Christian Science Monitor , whose editor, Richard Bergenheim, said in a statement that the "prayers of people all over the world have been answered." — Posted at 6:30 pm

Mar. 29, 2006

JOURNALISTS: ON GUARD 24-7 IN IRAQ. There's never a moment for journalists covering Iraq to let their guard down, Sherry Ricchiardi reports in the April/May issue of American Journalism Review. Moving around in Iraq requires constant vigilance and maneuvering through countless hurdles, making it difficult to cover the lives of ordinary Iraqis. — Posted at 1:30 pm

FIVE FORMER FISA JUDGES TESTIFY ON WARRANTLESS SPY PROGRAM. Four judges who served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) - Harold A. Baker, Stanley S. Brotman, John F. Keenan, and William H. Stafford Jr. - testified yesterday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, urging Congress to give the FISC oversight of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, The New York Times reported. The president is bound by the law "like everyone else," Baker said. If a law like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is duly enacted by Congress and considered constitutional, "the president ignores it at the president's peril," he said. The Committee also received written testimony from Judge James Robertson - a former FISC judge who resigned from the court days after the NSA program was disclosed reportedly out of frustration that only the presiding judge of the 11-judge court had been briefed on the program or knew of its existence. — Posted at 1:26 pm

ABU GHRAIB IMAGES WILL BE RELEASED. The Defense Department has withdrawn its appeal opposing release of images of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison and is now bound by a lower court's order to make those images available. The American Civil Liberties Union sued for release of the images under the Freedom of Information Act in 2004 and a district court agreed that they must be released last fall. The government has agreed to authenticate the 74 photos and three videos that are at issue in the suit and will provide any additional images. — Posted at 1:25 pm

CHANNEL SURFING IN IRAQ. When the Bush administration sent millions of dollars to Iraq to create Western-style news media programming, it hoped to help bring fair and balanced news to Iraqis, a goal that has largely failed, the Los Angeles Times reports. Most of the channels, the paper reports, apparently are inflaming tensions by being increasingly sectarian. Homebound because of violence and curfews, Iraqis watch their world through the kaleidoscope of satellite TV. But channel surfing Iraqi-style often offers views of the country through a sectarian lens. Click the remote, and on one channel, the anchor refers to the Sunni-led insurgency as the "honorable resistance" as images of wounded Iraqis and aggressive U.S. soldiers flash on screen. Click the remote again, and the insurgents are described as terrorists and the speakers praise crackdowns by the Shiite-led government. Click again, and the insurgency might well not exist. — Posted at 1:23 pm

Mar. 28, 2006

SECRET DETENTION EVIDENCE DISCLOSED IN MOUSSAOUI TRIAL. Defense attorneys in the trial to determine whether Zacarias Moussaoui will be killed or spend the rest of his life in jail introduced testimony yesterday from Sept. 11-plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who is held in an undisclosed location within the United States' secret and controversial detention system, The Washington Post reported today. — Posted at 5:56 pm

SEN. JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO HOLD HEARING ON BUSH CENSURE. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) scheduled a Friday hearing on Sen. Russell Feingold's resolution to censure President Bush for authorizing warrantless domestic surveillance, The Washington Post reported. Four federal judges, including former members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, are scheduled to discuss proposals to bring the eavesdropping program under the perview of FISA. — Posted at 5:25 pm

911 CALL LOGS TO BE RELEASED. Partial transcripts and recordings of the 911 calls made during the Sept. 11 terror attacks will be made available under a court order requring it, but only the operator's side of the calls will come out unless the Fire Department receives consent from the person or, if dead, his or her family members, consent to release of that portion of the calls as well. The order came in a case brought by The New York Times and nine family members of victims under New York's Freedom of Information Law. — Posted at 2:45 pm

REPS DEMAND BUSH OBEY PATRIOT ACT AS IS. Reps. Jane Harman (D-Cal.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking that President Bush withdraw his assertion that he need not follow the provisions of the USA Patriot Act regarding Congressional oversight on the FBI's expanded powers, The Boston Globe reported. "Many members who supported the final law did so based upon the guarantee of additional reporting and oversight," the letter read. "The administration cannot, after the fact, unilaterally repeal provisions of the law implementing such oversight." — Posted at 2:44 pm

BUSH SAYS HE DOESN\'T HAVE TO ABIDE BY PATRIOT ACT REQUIREMENT. Although this month's reauthorized USA Patriot Act contained provisions intending to ensure the FBI would not abuse the special terrorism-related powers it was granted, President Bush included an addendum to the Act saying he did not feel obliged to comport with requirements that he inform Congress how the FBI was using the Act's expanded police powers, The Boston Globe reported. Bush's statement said he could withhold the information if he determined that its disclosure would "impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties." — Posted at 1:19 pm

Mar. 27, 2006

DOJ SAYS NSA COULD SPY ON LAWYERS\' CALLS TO CLIENTS. The Justice Department told Congress Friday that the National Security Agency could have eavesdropped on legally privileged communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and clients under the administration's warrantless surveillance program, responding to one of nearly 100 questions posed by Republicans and Democrats about the N.S.A.'s eavesdropping program, several newspapers reported. The department said that as long as one party is outside the U.S., and there is reason to believe one party is linked to al-Qaida, the call could be monitored, the story says. — Posted at 5:03 pm

NO EASY ANSWERS FOR READER COMPLAINTS ABOUT WAR COVERAGE. Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell gets a steady stream of e-mails, letters and phone calls from readers, military and civilian, complaining that the press' coverage of the war in Iraq "is excessively negative and too focused on violence." Howell talked and corresponded with Post staffers, other journalists who have covered Iraq and experts in and out of the military, and found "no easy resolution to the complaints" but plenty of insight into how and why media coverage is the way it is. — Posted at 4:48 pm

EAVESDROPPING IN AISLE 4. Despite the dangers of reporting from Iraq, Knight Ridder Baghdad Bureau Chief Nancy A. Youssef does venture out, finding inventive ways to talk with Iraqis, Knight Ridder's Washington editor Clark Hoyt wrote in a piece on whether reporting from Iraq is a failure or an accurate account of what's happening. Nancy says, "When I go grocery shopping, I listen to people's conversations. What are they talking about? And how has their conversation changed since the week before?" Several times, her careful listening has led to stories. — Posted at 4:46 pm

Mar. 24, 2006

LIBBY SUBPOENAS JOURNALISTS. The New York Times , former Times reporter Judith Miller, Time reporter Matt Cooper, and NBC correspondent Tim Russert have been served with subpoenas from lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby for "documents concerning the disclosure of an undercover CIA agent's identity," according to the Times. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for his statements in the investigation in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. His subpoenas seek, among other things, "Miller's notes and other materials, including any other documents concerning Plame prepared by Miller and Times columnis Nicholas D. Kristof," according to the Times . — Posted at 6:15 pm

UPDATE: BATES REPLACES ROBERTSON ON FISA COURT. Chief Justice John Roberts appointed D.C. Circuit Judge John D. Bates to replace D.C. District Court Judge James Robertson on the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, becoming the eleventh member of the Court who is responsible for processing domestic intelligence-surveillance applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) reported. FAS reports that Bates "has a distinctively conservative cast to his resume," having served as Deputy Independent Counsel to "the intensely partisan Whitewater investigation." — Posted at 6:08 pm

WHO\'S WHO OF FISA JUDGES? Recently retired Southern District of New York Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr. acknowledged his membership in the secretive federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court to the Syracuse Post Standard last week, despite that his name did not previously appear on published lists of the Court's current membership, the Federation of American Scientists reported. Another indication of the Court's secrecy: while a new FISA Court judge has allegedly been appointed to replace Judge James Robertson, who resigned from the Court in December 2005 reportedly in protest of the President's warrantless eavesdropping program, the government has declined to disclose the identity of the new judge. — Posted at 6:06 pm

DOES THE PENTAGON\'S LEFT HAND KNOW WHAT ITS RIGHT HAND IS DOING? One day after The New York Times reported that a yet-to-be-public inquiry ordered by Gen. George W. Casey, the senior American commander in Iraq, found that the Lincoln Group did not violate military policy by paying Iraqi news outlets to print positive articles, another top commander, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for a formal Pentagon review of the Pentagon's policies, The Associated Press reported. A second review is needed because it's unclear whether the Pentagon should be actively paying journalists or media outlets to publish positive stories, the wire service reported. — Posted at 6:05 pm

THE TALE OF TWO REALITIES. Two media observers discussed on PBS's NewsHour coverage of the war in Iraq and whether American media consumers are getting a full picture of what's happening there. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affiars, a nonpartisan research organization that studies the news and entertainment media, said that studies of network coverage of the war indicate "there's two to one or three to one negative tilt in coverage of Bush's foreign policy." Michael Massing, a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and former executive editor of Columbia Journalism Review, says such coverage is "in the nature of the news business." — Posted at 6:03 pm

FORMER EMBASSY OFFICIAL SAYS REPORTERS ARE DOING THEIR JOBS WELL IN IRAQ. Robert J. Callahan, former press attache at the American embassy in Baghdad, offers generally high marks to journalists covering Iraq and explains why the situation is so difficult for reporters and diplomats in a piece in American Journalism Review. — Posted at 6:03 pm

UNDER FIRE. What started as arguably the best-covered war in history has turned into the least-covered war, USA Today reports, thanks to media outlets reducing the number of reporters in Iraq, a fear of death or kidnapping by journalists who leave their hotels in Iraq and a barrage of high-profile critics, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush. — Posted at 6:01 pm

Mar. 22, 2006

NEWSPAPER SUES FOR WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING INFO. The company that publishes the Oregonian newspaper filed a motion in Oregon federal district court Friday to unseal documents in a case that it claims could prove the existence of a potentially illegal domestic spy program, U.S. News & World Report reported. The case concerns allegations that the administration illegally intercepted international phone calls between an Islamic charity codirector and his U.S. attorneys. — Posted at 7:29 pm

PAYING IRAQI NEWS OUTLETS FOR POSITIVE COVERAGE IS OK, PENTAGON SAYS. The Lincoln Group, an American public relations firm, did not violate military policy by paying Iraqi news outlets to print positive articles, according to an inquiry which has not yet been made public, but which The New York Times reported. The inquiry, ordered by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, leaves to the Defense Department the decision on whether new rules are needed to govern such activities, the newspaper reported. — Posted at 7:28 pm

CBS CAMERAMAN FACES TRIAL IN IRAQ. Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, an Iraqi freelance cameraman working for CBS News, was on trial in Baghdad Wednesday after being held for nearly a year by U.S. forces without charge. Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry refused to elaborate on the charges against Hussein, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported. But CBS News Senior Vice President Linda Mason told CPJ that Hussein is likely to be charged under the Iraqi penal code for terrorist and anti-coalition activity. — Posted at 7:26 pm

DUPLICATIONS HAMPER COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS. A classified Pentagon study found that bureaucratic duplication is hampering the military's counterterrorism efforts. New government centers, such as the Center for Special Operations, mirror the work of other centers, such as the National Counterterrorism Center. Both were established in the last few years. The study, to analyze the effectiveness of Special Operations forces, was commissioned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and has not been distributed widely, even among officials with necessary security clearances. — Posted at 7:24 pm

Mar. 21, 2006

SENATORS REQUEST INFO ABOUT EAVESDROPPING CASES. In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Friday, Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) requested "a list of every criminal case in which a defendant is alleging that evidence was illegally obtained through [any administration eavesdropping program] involving foreign intelligence surveillance outside of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." Leahy is the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, which has been investigating the administration's warrantless wiretapping program and expects to hold more hearings in coming months. — Posted at 9:18 pm

MURDER INC. Murder has overtaken crossfire and other acts of war as the leading cause of work-related deaths among journalists and media support workers in Iraq, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Since the U.S. invaded Iraq three years ago, 67 journalists and 24 media support workers have been killed, CPJ reports. — Posted at 9:17 pm

PRISONER IN ICONIC ABU GHRAIB PHOTO NOT WHO HE SAYS HE WAS. It was a heck of a story: In a front-page profile in The New York Times March 11, Ali Shalal Qaissi became the name behind perhaps the most haunting picture of abuse to emerge from Abu Ghraib. Qaissi claimed to be the hooded man standing on a cardboard box with wires attached to his outstretched arms. On Saturday, the Times said it did inadequate research and revealed that the man in the photograph is not Qaissi. — Posted at 9:16 pm

Mar. 20, 2006

ARMY RECORDS SHORE UP ABU GHRAIB GENERAL\'S ASSERTIONS OF INNOCENCE. A recently released Army Inspector General's 2005 report shows that the highest-ranking officer punished in the Abu Ghraib scandal was innocent of two allegations against her, The Associated Press reported. Last year, the Army said the inspector general's review upheld an allegation of dereliction of duty as well as an unrelated shoplifiting charge for Janis Karpinski, who had been demoted on those grounds. The Army later made public that the inspector general had not actually upheld those allegations, but did not release the report confirming that information until last week as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. — Posted at 8:59 pm

LIBBY BLAMES STATE DEPARTMENT FOR LEAK. According to documents filed in federal court on Friday, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby plan to show that the State Department "bears responsibility for the 'leak' that led to the public disclosure" of CIA agent Valerie Plame, according to the Washington Post . Lewis, the former chief of staff of Vice President Dick Cheney, has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI "about how her learned of Plame's employment and what he told reporters about her," according to the Post. — Posted at 8:57 pm

BILLS WOULD GIVE WHISTLEBLOWERS GREATER PROTECTION. Two Democratic bills introduced in the House and Senate would expand whistleblower protection to national security and federal contractor whistleblowers - also allowing them to bring their complaints directly to court, bypassing the agency review process. The bills, part of a bipartisan whistleblower protection clarification effort, would also make some instances of whistleblower retaliation a criminal offense. — Posted at 8:56 pm

FEDS WON\'T SAY WHETHER PLAINTIFFS WERE SPIED ON WITHOUT A WARRANT. Government lawyers on Friday refused Magistrate Judge Steven M. Gold's order to guarantee that neither the litigation team nor its potential witnesses were aware of any warrantless eavesdropping on plaintiffs' communications with their lawyers in a federal class-action lawsuit against former Attorney General John Ashcroft and other top officials, The New York Times reported. Stephen E. Handler of the Justice Department explained in a filing that denying warrantless eavesdropping in one case "could itself tend to reveal classified information" in another case where the government refuses to confirm or deny such activity. Attorney Rachel Meeropol of the Center for Constitutional Rights told the Times that the government's refusal to acknowledge such eavesdropping jeopardizes the plaintiffs' case, since it means that the U.S. "could have access to the confidential communication between their opponents and their oppenents' clients." — Posted at 8:54 pm

GOVERNMENT OPPOSES DETAINEES\' CONFINEMENT APPEALS. The Justice Department argued Friday that the Detainee Treatment Act signed into law on Dec. 30 limits court review of detainees' confinement to the question of whether they have been properly categorized as enemy combatants, which means that hundreds of pending court cases brought by Guantanamo Bay prisoners should be thrown out, the Baltimore Sun reported. The Supreme Court said in 2004 that detainees had the right to file federal court petitions, leading to more than 200 cases covering 300 detainees, the story says. At issue is whether the Detainee Treatment Act, a compromise reached by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), covers pending cases. — Posted at 8:52 pm

Mar. 17, 2006

CASE POSSIBLY BASED ON WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING CONTINUES. U.S. District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy refused to dismiss a counterterrorism case against two defendants on the grounds it may have originated from the Bush administration's controversial domestic spy program, the Albany Times Union reported Monday. In a rare move, McAvoy issued his March 10 decision under seal, barring even the defense attorneys from learning the reasons for his order - "Frankly, I'm taken aback," attorney Terence L. Kindlon told The New York Times. — Posted at 3:59 pm

GOP BILL WOULD PERMIT WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING. Legislation introduced by four Republican senators - Mike DeWine (Ohio), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Olympia Snowe (Maine) - yesterday would authorize the Bush administration to continue spying on Americans without the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but only if it justifies the action to a group of lawmakers, The Washington Post reported. It is unclear whether the bill can succeed - Sen. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) strongly objects to letting the government "do whatever the hell it wants" for 45 days without seeking judicial or congressional approval, while Snowe and Hagel have been criticized for endorsing the bill after originally calling for stricter oversight of the spy program. — Posted at 3:38 pm

KURDS TRY TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHER\'S CAMERAS. Militia members of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, based in the mountainous corner of nothern Iraq, tried twice Thursday to confiscate the cameras of a New York Times photographer who was leaving Halabja Thursday evening, the paper reported. High-ranking party officials stopped the raid, the paper said. — Posted at 3:37 pm

DRIVING INTO HURRICANES. Washington Post reporter Jackie Spinner, in an interview with Editor & Publisher about her new book, "Tell Them I Didn't Cry," says it's difficult to "find a story as compelling as Iraq" here in the U.S. "Newspapers are trying to figure out what to do with people like me, looking at ways to make re-entry successful." Asked if she would ever return to Iraq, she acknowledged that it would be difficult on her family. "But I'm still a journalist. I drive into hurricanes, and the biggest hurricane of my generation is Iraq." — Posted at 3:36 pm

CAN THE ADMINISTRATION DO THE SAME FOR U.S. DOCUMENTS? The Bush administration has begun declassifying and releasing Iraqi documents collected by U.S. intelligence during the Iraq war, The Associated Press reported. The first documents of thousands expected to be declassified in the coming months. — Posted at 3:35 pm

REPORTER\'S TIP LEADS TO MILITARY INVESTIGATION. A tip from a reporter in mid-February has resulted in the military investigation of about a dozen Marines for possible war crimes in connecttion with the deaths of 15 Iraqi civilians initially reported killed by a roadside bomb, Editor & Publisher reported. — Posted at 3:33 pm

JOURNALIST INJURED IN IRAQ LEAVES HOSPITAL. Bob Woodruff, the ABC News co-anchor injured in Iraq six weeks ago, left National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Thursday and will continue recovering at a private hospital in the New York area. No word on when he might return to the airwaves, but ABC News President David Westin said in a statement that Woodruff will need several more months of recuperation. — Posted at 3:33 pm

Mar. 16, 2006

TRANSCRIPT OF OPEN HEARING YANKED FROM WEB. The head of the North American air defense comand - NORAD - has ordered the transcript of an open hearing on aviation restrictions to be removed from a government Web site, according to the online news cite CNET News.com. The Jan. 18 public hearing in Virginia focused on public opinion of airspace security restrictions near Washington, D.C., which resulted in lost revenue and staff. — Posted at 6:54 pm

U.S. OFFICIALS RUBBED ELBOWS WITH SUSPECTED TERRORISTS 6,000 TIMES SINCE 2004. Encounters with more than 6,000 suspected terrorists has yielded fewer than 60 arrests in the last 28 months, according to the federal Terrorist Screening Center which compiled its list of 200,000 suspects after September 11, 2001. — Posted at 6:54 pm

YES, BUT MR. PRESIDENT, IT WASN\'T NEW AND IT WASN\'T A SECRET. In a speech at George Washington University, President Bush called out a Los Angeles Times article and reporter for publishing information about technology to combat roadside bombs as hampering military efforts. But the Times article was hardly the first mention of the technology in American media, and the newspaper says it intentionally printed few details and that no one in the Defense Department expressed concern over release of this information prior to publication. Additionally, the devices - Ionatron's Joint IED Neutralizer - have not been shipped to the field, according to another reporter covering the issue. The Defense Department is now considering a policy to limit disclosure of information about IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. — Posted at 6:51 pm

HOUSE COMMITTEE TACKLES INCONSISTENCIES IN GOVERNMENT CLASSIFICATION. A Congressional subcommitte heard testimony from both government and nongovernment representatives on overclassification - focusing on the government's seven-year reclassification of materials at the National Archives and on the inconsistencies in marking materials "sensitive but unclassified." An audit by the National Security Archive at George Washington University found that agencies have 28 different policies for denoting records to be "sensitive but unclassified" and that no agency monitors those policies. The Congressional Research Service also released a study outlining similar findings. — Posted at 6:50 pm

Mar. 15, 2006

HUSSEIN TRIAL CLOSED TO PUBLIC. After more than half an hour of listening to Saddam Hussein make rambling political statements urging Iraqis to continue resisting American forces, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman today ordered the live broadcast of the trial be cut off, saying, "Don't involve the court in the struggle between you and the Americans," The New York Times reported. Before the closure, the chief judge had repeatedly interrupted Hussein's discourse, telling him to stick to the charges against him. — Posted at 6:29 pm

JUDGE REJECTS PATRIOT ACT WARRANTS IN NON-TERRORISM CASES. U.S. Magistrate James Glazebrook has twice rejected requests for Patriot Act search warrants in child-pornography cases, saying that Congress did not authorize him to issue warrants for Internet records in cases that did not involve terrorism or domestic security, the Orlando Sentinel reported. In both cases, higher courts overrruled Glazebrook's rulings, permitting federal authorities to seek records from Yahoo Inc. and ArcSoft Inc., leading ultimately to the arrest of an Orlando citizen for running a child pornography web server. The judges' opinions had remained sealed until a prosecutor recently requested that the records be made public, the story says. — Posted at 6:28 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT STILL LOOKING FOR THOSE EAVESDROPPING RECORDS. As the deadline passed for the Justice Department to release records related to the government's warrantless wiretapping surveillance program, the agency failed to produce a single record relating to any of the more than 30 reauthorizations of the program that President Bush has said took place between 2002 and 2005. The Justice Department had been ordered to release the records under a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The agency said it had only searched its unclassified files thus far - the least likely place for these records to be, according to Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. — Posted at 6:27 pm

INTERNET REVEALS HUNDREDS OF COVERT CIA IDENTITIES. An investigation by the Chicago Tribune reveals that identities of more than 2,600 CIA employees - some of them covert - can easily be found on the Internet by virtually any member of the public. The Tribune reported that the CIA was apparently unaware of this statistic. The newspaper did not publish the names of the CIA employees at the request of the agency. — Posted at 6:25 pm

CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS ASK COURTS TO HALT DOMESTIC SPYING. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights asked federal courts March 9 to order the Bush administration to cease its controversial domestic eavesdropping program, arguing that it violates U.S. citizens' privacy and free speech, Reuters reported. The groups' requests were prompted by Republican senators' effort to draft a law that would make the spy program lawful. "The president's allies in Congress are preparing to cover up his illegal program, while others in Congress are standing on the sidelines," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement. "When the president breaks the law, Congress should not be giving him a get-out-of-jail free card." — Posted at 6:25 pm

REPORTERS EXEMPT FROM EAVESDROPPING BILL? Reporters who write about government surveillance could be prosecuted under proposed legislation to authorize the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, the Associated Press reported Friday. But an aide to Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), the bill's chief author, says the bill is not meant apply to reporters, and "a technical fix" will be made, if needed, to clarify this. — Posted at 6:24 pm

PATRIOT ACT POWERS USED IN MAYFIELD INVESTIGATION. A 273-page report by the Justice Department's Inspector General released March 10 revealed that the FBI used the expanded powers bestowed by the Patriot Act to demand information from banks and other companies in its investigation of Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield who was wrongfully arrested in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings, The Washington Post reported. The report shows that the FBI issued numerous national security letters in Mayfield's case, and that several of them did not directly pertain to Mayfield, which would not have been permitted before the Patriot Act was enacted. It also reveals that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant was used to conduct covert searches of Mayfield's home and office. — Posted at 6:23 pm

NEW VERSION OF PATRIOT ACT AUTHORIZED. President Bush signed into law the new version of the USA Patriot Act March 9, reauthorizing a law that expanded the FBI's powers after the 9/11 attacks, but with changes that provide greater civil liberties protections. Patriot Act supporters say that the law has helped the fight against terrorism, but detractors worry the law still violates Americans' civil liberties. A March 8 Washington Post article disclosed a Justice Department report revealing more than 100 possible violations of the Act during the past two years, including cases in which agents tapped the wrong phone, intercepted the wrong e-mails, or listened to conversations after a warrant had expired. — Posted at 6:21 pm

LOOKING FOR TERRORISTS IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES. The Defense Department admitted to NBC that peaceful demonstraters were wrongly added to a database it keeps on possible domestic terror threats and have now been erased. The Threat and Local Observation Notice - or TALON - database had improperly added 43 names, including Quaker meeting attendees, and about 40 peaceful antiwar meetings or protests, one of which the databased referred to as "U.S. group exercising constitutional rights." The reports related to these activities "have been purged," according to a Defense Department letter sent to NBC. — Posted at 6:20 pm

NOW, WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER HALF? The Associated Press sued the Defense Department for release of information on the remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay - their initial court victory yielded records on only about half of the 750 detainees held at one time or another at the prison camp since 2002. The Defense Department released copies of hearing transcripts and other records identifying about 317 of the detainees in early March; it maintained that no transcripts exist of hearings for another 241 detainees, the AP reported. — Posted at 6:19 pm

AP SUES FOR ACCESS TO JOHN WALKER LINDH RECORDS. The Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to compel the Justice Department to release American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh's petitions to shorten his 20-year federal prison sentence. The Justice Department has refused to release the records, citing an unwarranted invasion of Lindh's privacy. The AP argues that because Lindh is a "high-profile public figure," his "privacy interest in his petition is low to nonexistent." — Posted at 6:18 pm

Mar. 13, 2006

CARROLL KIDNAPPING RAISES MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS. Boston Globe columnist James Carroll asks some difficult questions about the Jan. 7 kidnapping of Christian Science Monitor freelancer Jill Carroll. In a column full of questions about the journalist's fate, James Carroll says all the questions come down to two. HOW LONG is 10 weeks? How long is 65 days? How long is 1,560 hours? For Jill Carroll, the American journalist who was kidnapped in Iraq on Jan. 7, the passage of time must be excruciating. What can her life have been like? What is it like today? Who is holding her? Where is she being held? How are they treating her? Is she witness to the brutalization of other captives? Does she live in a stupor of exhausted fear? Or are her senses alive with perception, alert to every moment's possibility for ill or good? Has anyone been kind to her? Do her captors argue with one another about what to do now? Is she alive, despite earlier threats, because someone took her side? — Posted at 6:24 pm

LIBBY TO RECEIVE REDACTED CIA REPORTS. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled Friday that the government "must provide edited versions of intelligence material" viewed by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby "during highly classified morning intelligence briefings" held when Libby was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, according to the Washington Post. Libby, who is facing charges of perjury in the CIA leak case, has said the CIA documents are necessary to show that he was "preoccupied with other pressing issues" and forgot conversations he had involving CIA agent Valerie Plame, according to the Post. — Posted at 6:23 pm

TELEVISION EXECUTIVE KILLED IN BAGHDAD. The director of Iraq's state television channel and his driver were shot dead Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported. Former cameraman Amjad Hameed, a programming executive who had run Al Iraqiya television since July, was shot after gunmen cut off his car has he drove to work in central Baghdad, the newspaper reported. — Posted at 11:17 am

Mar. 10, 2006

UPDATE ON JILL CARROLL. A Washington, D.C., writer, who like kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll, freelanced for The Christian Science Monitor, writes in The American Prospect that Carroll didn't follow the usual safety precautions. Christina Asquith thinks, however, that Carroll will be released "for the simple reason that she's no good to her kidnappers dead." The Monitor,meanwhile, has reinvigorated its Iraqi media campaign to free Carroll, who was kidnapped Jan. 7. Public service announcements, including this one, are airing on Iraqi TV. The video is in Arabic, but an English transcript is here — Posted at 5:06 pm

Mar. 9, 2006

SENTATORS CALL FOR HALT TO RETIREMENT OF ABU GHRAIB MAJOR GENERAL. Geoffrey Miller, the major general in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, announced his retirement in January, but has pleaded the military equivalent of the Fifth Amendment in regard to the court-martial proceedings of two dog handlers scheduled in the next two months. Salon reports that two senators on the Armed Services Committee are calling for Miller's retirement to "be held in aneyance" pending completion of the proceedings. — Posted at 5:26 pm

FORMER JUSTICE DEPT. ATTORNEY CRITICIZES EAVESDROPPING JUSTIFICATIONS. Former associated deputy attorney general David S. Kris called the Bush administration's contention that Congress had approved the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program by authorizing use of force against al-Qaida a "weak justification" that courts would not likely support, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. EPIC has sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for records related to the NSA's eavesdropping program. — Posted at 5:15 pm

U.S. TO LEAVE ABU GHRAIB PRISON. Within three months, the U.S. will turn the Abu Ghraib prison facility over to Iraqi authorities citing safety concerns as well as "more emotional" associations, the Chicago Tribune reported. The prisoners currently held in military custody at Abu Ghraib will be transported to a new prison at Camp Cropper and to other facilities. — Posted at 5:14 pm

SPECTER STANDS UP TO THE TIMES. In a letter to the editor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told The New York Times that he takes issue with its editorial "Kabuki Congress" that characterized Specter's bill as "grant[ing] legal cover, retroactively, to the one spying program that Mr. Bush has acknowledged" and as "cover[ing] any other illegal wiretapping we don't know about." On the contrary, Specter retorted, his public statements emphasize that "the wiretapping flatly violates the Foreign INtelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court approval," and his bill "specifically does not grant 'legal cover' to the wiretapping and leaves that judgment to the FISA Court." — Posted at 3:03 pm

Mar. 8, 2006

EAVESDROPPING INQUIRY REJECTED. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday rejected a Democratic proposal to investigate the Bush administration's domestic warrantless eavesdropping program, The Washington Post reported. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) criticized the committee, saying it "is, to put it blutly, basically under the control of the White House through its chairman." Chairman Pat Robers (R-Kan.) told reporters he had asked the committee "to reject confrontation in favor of accommodation." — Posted at 3:30 pm

PHOTOJOURNALIST SHOT IN IRAQ. Zuma Press contract photographer Toby Morris was shot twice last week by snipers in Ramadi, Iraq, the press revealed this week. Morris, on patrol with U.S. Army battalion, sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries to the leg and ankle, and is being flown home via a military hospital in Germany. Even after he was shot, Morris continued taking photos of the medics tending to his injuries, Zuma director Scott McKiernan said. — Posted at 3:29 pm

SENATE REPUBLICANS PROPOSE EAVESDROPPING BILL. Senators Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a bill late yesterday that would provide "very rigorous oversight" of President Bush's warantless domestic surveillance program while also making it lawful, CNN reported. The bill would create terrorist surveillance subcommittees under both the Senate and House intelligence committees to oversee the surveillance program and require program review every 45 days. At that time, the administration would have to either apply to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court for a warrant, stop the surveillance, or explain why officials cannot apply to the court for a warrant, but surveillance is in the national security interest, the story says. — Posted at 3:27 pm

HOUSE VOTES TO RENEW PATRIOT ACT. The House of Representatives voted 280-138 yesterday to renew controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act that were set to expire March 10, sending the bill to President Bush for his signature, CNN reported. Three of the 16 provisions of the Act would be reviewed in four years, while the others are permanent. — Posted at 3:27 pm

Mar. 7, 2006

CIA TO FIGHT AGAINST RELEASE OF PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFINGS. A CIA officer told a federal judge that the disclosure of highly classified intelligence presidential briefings to the defense team of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney who is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to investigators about whether he told reporters the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame - would "damage national security," according to MSNBC. Libby's lawyers requested the documents as a part of their defense strategy to show that Libby was too concerned about national security events to remember if he had told reporters about Plame. Marilyn Dorn, a CIA information review officer, responded to Libby's lawyers request for the documents in a sworn statement filed Friday but released publicly on Tuesday. She indicated that the CIA could not compromise with Libby's attorneys. "Any disclosure," she said, "beyond its intended narrow audience - the president and his most senior advisors - increases the possibility of damage to the national security," MSNBC reported. — Posted at 5:43 pm

NEW BIPARTISAN LEGISLATION WOULD STRENGTHEN PATRIOT ACT. New legislation, jointly sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), was introduced yesterday to amend the reauthorized Patriot Act, the Federation of American Scientists reported. The legislation would "require a more reasonable period for delayed-notice search warrants, provide enhanced judicial review of FISA orders and national security letters, require an enhanced factual basis for a FISA order, and create national security letter sunset provisions," reinstating provisions of the original Senate-passed bill that were rejected by the House, the story reports. Read the new bill here. — Posted at 5:30 pm

SENATE MAY RECALL GONZALES ON NSA SPY PROGRAM. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told reporters yesterday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may be recalled to testify before the Judiciary Committee about the Bush administration's eavesdropping program because "there is a suggestion in his letter there are other classified intelligence programs that are currently under way," the Associated Press reported. Gonzales wrote a letter to Specter last week, clarifying his testimony in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Feb. 6. — Posted at 4:42 pm

Mar. 6, 2006

REVISED PATRIOT ACT LOOSENS PRIOR RESTRAINT ON SUBPOENA RECIPIENTS. Among the most important changes made to the Patriot Act, up for final reauthorization by Congress this week, is that it loosens a blanket gag on entities subpoenaed for information about terrorists, The Christian Science Monitor reported Friday. Under the revised law, subpoenaed entities will have the right to challenge the requirement that they not say anything about the subpoena, the story reports. While most Patriot Act provisions would be made permanent under the new bill, this provision - Section 215 - and a few others - Section 206 and the 'lone wolf' provision - would be reviewed for reauthorization in four years. Together, these permit roving wiretaps, secret warrants for books and records from businesses, hospitals and some libraries, and the power to wiretap terrorists who may work alone. — Posted at 2:35 pm

WRITER SUES CIA FOR SPY BOOK REDACTIONS. T.J. Waters, a member of the CIA's first post-9/11 class, sued the CIA for infringing his First Amendment rights by ordering deletions in his book about CIA spy training after initially approving it, the Associated Press reported. Under the CIA's pre-publication review process, books by former CIA employees must first be cleared by a special review board to ensure they don't contain classified information, the story says. The agency blocked only four words from publication upon its first review of Waters' book in September 2004, but ordered dozens of deletions of previously cleared material in its final review. — Posted at 12:06 pm

WHITE HOUSE LOOKS TO FIX LEAKS. The Bush administration has stepped up its attempts to limit the leaking of classified information, according to the Washington Post. "The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws," the Post reported. — Posted at 11:20 am

PENTAGON PROPAGANDA-PLANTING PROGRAM TO CONTINUE. The U.S. military plans to continue paying Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the United States after an inquiry found no fault with the controversial practice, the top U.S. general in Iraq said Friday. A Pentagon inquiry into the military practice of planting pro-American articles in Iraqi media does not violate U.S. law or Pentagon guidelines, and will continue and possibly be expanded, Army Gen. George W. Casey said during a videoconference with Pentagon reporters, the Los Angeles Times reports. — Posted at 11:02 am

20TH HIJACKER\'S SECRET GUANTANAMO INTERROGATION PUBLISHED. TIME.com published in full Mohammed al-Qahtani's previously secret 83-page interrogation record Friday, citing the importance of the document as increasing numbers of Guantanamo detainees have brought legal challenges to their imprisonment, TIME.com reported. The Pentagon claimed in June 2005 that al-Qahtani provided vital intelligence concerning key al-Qaeda leaders and identifying many fellow prisoners as bin Laden bodyguards, but al-Qahtani now repudiates all his previous statements, saying they were extracted under torture, the story states. Find the full interrogation record here. — Posted at 10:59 am

Mar. 4, 2006

PENTAGON GIVES UP GITMO INMATE IDENTITIES. In response to an order from a federal judge, the Department of Defense released documents containing the names and identities of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay accused of having ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban. The names were revealed in hearing transcripts for 317 of the detainees; transcripts have not been released for detainees who did not appear at their hearings. The Associated Press sued the Pentagon for this information under the Freedom of Information Act in 2005 after it had not responded to requests for several months. — Posted at 1:43 pm

Mar. 3, 2006

HOUSE SEEKS MORE OVERSIGHT OF SPY PROGRAM. The House Intelligence Committee announced yesterday it plans to seek detailed briefings on the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program and to study whether domestic espionage laws should be revised to reflect technology changes and evolving terrorist threats, The Los Angeles Times reported. — Posted at 5:44 pm

MORE REPORTING TO DO. Last fall, Tom Lasseter, Knight Ridder's longtime Baghdad correspondent, was planning to leave Iraq and report for KR's Washington, D.C., bureau. He's still in Baghdad, and has no immediate plans to leave, he told Editor & Publisher. "I was supposed to leave late last year, but in looking at the year ahead I realized that I am not done reporting here," he wrote E&P 's Greg Mitchell. "I would like to devote some time to embedding with U.S. units as the debate continues about troop drawdown in Iraq. This has been true the whole time I've been here, but it really does feel like a critical moment in the American experience in Iraq." — Posted at 12:00 pm

Mar. 2, 2006

PENTAGON DEFENDS RESTRICTING UN ACCESS TO DETAINEES. A Department of Defense official at a Wednesday event sponsored by the conservative Heritage Foundation defended the government's refusal to grant United Nations investigators access to Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying that, "Human rights rapporteurs do not have a legal right to have access," CNS News reported. — Posted at 5:09 pm

SENATE VOTES TO RENEW PATRIOT ACT. The Senate voted 89-10 today to approve a long-term renewal of the USA Patriot Act, a day after it approved amendments to the bill that create additional civil liberties protections, The Washington Post reported. The renewal legislation, which is expected to pass in the House, will make 14 provisions permanent and extend two provisions until 2009. — Posted at 5:09 pm

SENATE APPROVES PATRIOT ACT SAFEGUARDS. The Senate voted 95-4 yesterday to pass a bill that improves civil liberties protections in the USA Patriot Act, sending the bill to the House for concurrence, Reuters reported. Revisions the bill makes include clarifying that traditional libraries would not be subjected to National Security Letters (NSLs), and that NSL recipients would not have to identify their lawyer for the FBI. — Posted at 11:03 am

EMBEDDING PROGRAM A SUCCESS, PENTAGON-BACKED REPORT SAYS. The media and the military agree that embedding journalists with U.S. troops during the invasion of Iraq was successful, says a Department of Defense-backed study released in January. The study, by the Institute of Defense Analysis, was completed in September 2004 and draws its conclusion from interviews with 240 military personnel and journalists. The 300-plus-page report offers details on how the program worked, highlights its objectives and accomplishments, and discusses possibilities for its future. — Posted at 11:02 am

SECRET EVIDENCE USED IN GUANTANAMO TRIALS. Two Guantanamo war crimes tribunal cases begin pretrial hearings Wednesday, marking the continuation of heavily disputed proceedings many believe to be funamentally unfair because they involve secret evidence that defendants are not permitted to see and evidence obtained through torture, Reuters reported. — Posted at 11:01 am

OREGON CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEYS SUE OVER WIRETAPPING PROGRAM. Arguing that the National Security Agency illegally eavesdropped on electronic communications between two Washington, D.C. attorneys and an Islamic organization's Oregon chapter, the attorneys filed a lawsuit in an Oregon federal court asking that the surveillance program be shut down, The Chicago Tribune reported. The suit is similar to other lawsuits recently filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. — Posted at 11:01 am

BUSH ADMINISTRATION MAY HAVE OTHER SURVEILLANCE PROGRAMS, ATTORNEY ALLEGES. A former government lawyer is interpreting comments recently made by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to indicate that the National Security Agency is conducting additional surveillance programs beyond the warrantless wiretapping program recently uncovered in the media. Gonzales recently wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee asking to clarify his Feb. 6, 2006 testimony on the program. — Posted at 11:00 am

Mar. 1, 2006

VETERAN REPORTER TALKS ABOUT THREE YEARS IN IRAQ. Journalist Farnaz Fassihi, who recently returned to the U.S. after three years of covering the war in Iraq, says relying on Iraqi journalists to do the legwork is not the most gratifying way of reporting, but it's essential. Fassihi talked to National Public Radio's Bob Garfield, host of "On the Media," about her three years in Iraq. Bob, we're the only independent observers of this war. If it weren't for us, the world would rely on the governments to give them information of how things are going, or the military. I think it's certainly not the most gratifying way of doing our job, but I still think it's hugely important that we maintain as independent observers and try to tell the story of what's happening there, in our best ability. — Posted at 11:30 am