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.

Aug. 31, 2006

SECRECY DOESN\'T COME CHEAP. The federal government spent $7.7 billion last year to safeguard classified information - and that did not even include what the Central Intelligence Agency spent, says a new report by the federal Information Security Oversight Office. (The CIA's costs, wouldn't you know it, are classified.) Throw in another $1.5 billion spent by contractors who have ties to the government and access to some classified information, and the total cost for protecting government secrets last year was $9.2 billion, the report said. That was $1.2 billion more than was spent in 2004, according to the Washington Post. — Posted at 5:52 pm

FOX NEWS JOURNALISTS FREED. After being forced at gunpoint to say they embraced Islam, two Fox News journalists kidnapped two weeks ago were delivered unharmed to a Gaza hotel Sunday. Palestinian officials said no demands were met in securing the release of American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36. — Posted at 5:32 pm

PROSECUTORS WANT TO KNOW WHO LEAKED VIDEO TO MIAMI TV STATION. Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to review how the media obtained confidential information in the case of seven men accused of plotting attacks against Chicago's Sears Tower and government buildings. Prosecutors want a judge to find out whether an order sealing documents in the case was violated. The request came after a Miami television station obtained and aired video last week that prosecutors said was not public. The WFOR-CBS4 report included government surveillance video and photographs and video of the Federal Justice Building taken by the men, prosecutors said in a court filing. A federal judge also denied a request for a temporary injunction which would have prevented CBS4 and CBS4.com from showing undercover surveillance video of 7 men implicated in a Liberty City terrorism scheme. — Posted at 5:27 pm

SECRET SENATOR BLOCKS SECRET BILL. In an ironic twist, legislation that would open up the murky world of government contracting to public scrutiny has been derailed by a secret parliamentary maneuver. An unidentified senator placed a "secret hold" on legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. The database would bring transparency to federal spending and be as simple to use as conducting a Google search. — Posted at 5:24 pm

FAMILIES HAVE TROUBLE LEARNING OF FRIENDLY FIRE DEATHS. At least 16 soldiers have died as a result of friendly fire during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information obtained by Army Times under the Freedom of Information Act. At least six other incidents involving the deaths of nine U.S. soldiers are still under investigation as possible fratricide. But, USA Today reports, many families of the dead soldiers said they were deeply frustrated with the casualty-notification system and months or years of depressing delays in getting answers to explain the deaths of their loved ones. — Posted at 5:19 pm

U.S. MILITARY SEEKS PUBLIC RELATIONS EXPERT TO MONITOR NEWS COVERAGE. The Washington Post reports that U.S. military leaders in Baghdad have put out for bid a two-year, $20 million public relations contract that calls for extensive monitoring of U.S. and Middle Eastern media in an effort to promote more positive coverage of news from Iraq. The contract calls for assembling a database of selected news stories and assessing their tone as part of a program to provide "public relations products" that would improve coverage of the military command's performance, according to a statement of work attached to the proposal. — Posted at 2:36 pm

Aug. 30, 2006

NSA ORDERS EMPLOYEES TO \"WATCH\" FOR UNAUTHORIZED DISCLOSURES. Secrecy News reports that it has obtained a copy of instructions from the National Security Agency to its employees to "actively" watch for unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the press and online, and to report such disclosures to the authorities. "All NSA Components shall actively monitor media for the purpose of identifying unauthorized disclosures of classified NSA information," a March 20 NSA directive states. Secrecy News, a project of the Federation of American Scientitsts, says it was denied copies of the report when it sought them through the Freedom of Information Act. It obtained the instructions from alternative sources. — Posted at 4:57 pm

TIMES\' ATTEMPT TO BLOCK UK WEB USERS FROM READING A STORY IS DOOMED. The New York Times' efforts to block internet users in Britain from reading a page on its website are unlikely to succeed - and for some UK users do not work at all, allowing them normal access to the article, according to The Guardian. On Monday, the newspaper attempted to block UK access to the story, headlined "Details emerge in British terror case", on the investigation into alleged attempts to bomb transatlantic flights. The Times cited English legal restrictions on reporting of investigations prior to a trial as its reason for the blocking. Most UK users attempting to access the article see an error page explaining this, but staff at some organizations with international computer networks may reach it without any trouble. — Posted at 4:25 pm

Aug. 29, 2006

NAVY LAWYER CHARGED WITH LEAKING INFORMATION. A Navy lawyer has been charged with copying and transmitting secret information about Guantanamo Bay detainees to an unauthorized person. Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, who was stationed at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay for six months, could face more than 36 years in prison if convicted at a military trial of the three charges he faces. A charge sheet released today says Diaz, 40, printed out secret information related to national defense ''with intent or reason to believe that the said information was to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation.'' — Posted at 1:57 pm

MAN CHARGED WITH CRIME FOR PROVIDING HEZBOLLAH TV BROADCASTS. Federal prosecutors last week charged charged a Staten Island man with providing Hezbollah television access in New York, making unusual use of a law more often employed to bar financial contributions to terrorist groups, legal experts said. The broadly defined statute, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, is also used frequently to block the importation of goods and services that would directly support terrorist operations. The man, Javed Iqbal, was released on bail Monday. The indictment says Mr. Iqbal sought to provide customers services that included satellite broadcasts of the television station, Al Manar. That is a violation of federal law, since the station - which is controlled by the Lebanese group Hezbollah - was designated a global terrorist entity by the United States Treasury Department in March. — Posted at 12:10 pm

TIMES HOLDS WEB ARTICLE IN BRITAIN. Monday's New York Times published "an in-depth description of 'a trove of evidence' that British police have collected against the suspects arrested earlier this month for allegedly plotting to bomb airliners with liquid explosives." But the story did not appear on the Times website Monday morning. "On advice of legal counsel, this article is unavailable to readers of nytimes.com in Britain," is the message Web readers saw. "This arises from the requirement in British law that prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial." — Posted at 11:56 am

EX-COLLEAGUE SAYS ARMITAGE WAS SOURCE OF CIA LEAK. The Washington Post reporters today that the leak of information about an undercover CIA employee that provoked a special prosecutor's investigation of senior White House officials came from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage. Armitage told newspaper columnist Robert D. Novak in the summer of 2003 that Valerie Plame, the wife of a prominent critic of the Iraq war, worked for the CIA, according to a former colleague ata the State Department. — Posted at 11:16 am

Aug. 28, 2006

HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP HAUNTED BY \'GHOST DETAINEES.\' Amnesty International is appealing the government's refusal to disclose information regarding individuals detained by U.S. government with no public record of their imprisonment. Along with the New York University School of Law, the human rights group is decrying the Bush administration's secrecy on the so-called "ghost detainees." — Posted at 5:02 pm

Aug. 24, 2006

SUIT FILED TO BLOCK DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION. Federal prosecutors have filed suit against Maine utility regulators and Verizon in order to prevent them from disclosing information about the National Security Agency's warrentless eavesdropping program, according to The Portsmouth Herald. The suit arose following an "Aug. 9 order by the Public Utilities Commission that Verizon attest in a sworn statement to its previous public comments" about the NSA's program as the PUC is investigating "alleged privacy law violations," according to the Herald. — Posted at 10:52 am

Aug. 23, 2006

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS LEAK INVESTIGATION. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria, Va., has ordered the Justice Department to conduct "an investigation into how reporters learned that two pro-Isreal lobbyist were under federal investigation before they were formally charged," according to the Washington Post. Ellis is presiding over the case against Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, Isreali lobbyists who have been charged under the 1917 Espionage Act "with receiving and disseminating national defense information," the Post reported. The government's investigation into the leak will focus on a CBS News report. — Posted at 3:10 pm

STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL MET WITH WOODWARD AROUND TIME OF LEAKS. Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, met with Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward on June 13, 2003 around the same time that Woodward said he learned the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, according to The New York Times. The document, a 2003 appointment calendar obtained by the Associated Press in a Freedom of Information Act request, shows the date of Armitage's meeting with Woodward and is "likely to renew suspicion that he was the first official to tell a reporter about the identity of the covert C.I.A. officer at the center of a politically important leak investigation," according to the Times. Upon hearing of this news, Plame is "considering" adding Armitage to her lawsuit "accusing members of the Bush administration of conspiring to leak her identity to the media," according to the AP. — Posted at 11:37 am

Aug. 21, 2006

STUDY SHOWS EMBEDDING INFLUENCES WAR COVERAGE, A Penn State University study shows that the use of embedded reporters by major newspapers affected the number and the type of stories published, resulting in more articles about the U.S. soldiers' personal lives and fewer articles about the impact of the war on Iraqi civilians. "The majority of war coverage in the study heavily emphasized the soldier's experiences, of the war while downplaying the effects of the invasion on the Iraqi people," said Andrew M. Lindner, a graduate student in sociology at Penn State. The university said the study provides the first systematic documentation of the substantive content of the war coverage. — Posted at 6:06 pm

LEGAL ANALYSTS DEBATE NSA RULING. Reaction to federal judge Anna Diggs Taylor's decision on Thursday, which ruled that the National Security Agency's warrantless, secret survelliance program was unlawful, has been mixed. According to The New York Times , even legal scholars who agreed with the conclusion thought "the opinion overlooked important precedents, failed to engage the government's arguments, used circular reasoning, substituted passion for analysis and did not even offer the best reasons for its own conclusion." Others, such as Harvard professor Lawrence Tribe, feel that "although I certainly agree with the many who predict that, while her reasoning is bound not to be embraced, her bottom line is very likely to survive appellate review." A Chicago Tribune editorial stated that while the administration believes the survelliance was legal, "few experts outside of the Bush administration support the program." Law professors Eugene Volokh and Orin Kerr have written extensively about it on their blog expressing concerns about the NSA program as well as Taylor's decision. Former litigator Glenn Greenwald on his blog has defended the Taylor's decision and argued strongly against the NSA program. Strong opinions against the Taylor's ruling can be found as well. A National Review editorial found that the decision's reasoning was "ludicrous." — Posted at 12:01 pm

Aug. 18, 2006

GOVERNMENT APPEALS SURVEILLANCE INJUNCTION. Hours after U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs ordered the NSA to stop its warrantless surveillance program, the Justice Department filed an appeal and asked for a stay of the injunction during the appeals process, The Associated Press reports. The ACLU, which brought the suit, agreed to postpone enforcing the injunction until Diggs hears arguments Sept. 7. — Posted at 11:11 am

Aug. 17, 2006

FISA SHOULD BE UPDATED, GONZALES SAYS. In the government's continued fight against terrorism, "we need to update FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]" and pass "Sen. Specter's legislation addressing that issue, as well as the terrorist surveillance program," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told members of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh yesterday, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. FISA, a 1978 law concerning the use of electronic surveillance to gather foreign intelligence, is a valuable tool that must account for today's new technologies, Gonzales said. — Posted at 3:21 pm

POLL SAYS MOST AMERICANS WANT MORE SPYING. Most Americans approve of increasing surveillance of suspected terrorists by camera, bank records, and cell phones, according to a recent Harris Interactive telephone poll of 1,000 adults, The Wall Street Journal Online reports. Seventy percent of Americans said in July that they favor "expanded camera surveillance on streets and in pulic places," up from 59% in June 2005 and 64% after Sept. 11, 2001, the same story says. Support of government monitoring of cellphones and email rose to 52% from 37% in June 2005. Nearly six in 10, however, said that such spying should be done only with Congressional authorization. The poll was administered before news of a terrorist plot to blow up flights from London. — Posted at 2:47 pm

NSA WIRETAPPING PROGRAM ILLEGAL. U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled today that the National Security Agency warrantless domestic surveillance program is unconstitutional and has ordered an injunction barring the government from using it, the Associated Press reports. "It was never the intent of the [Constitutional] framers to give the President such unfettered control, particularly when his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights," Taylor wrote. Ann Beeson, ACLU associate legal director, told AP that she expects the government to appeal the ruling. — Posted at 1:38 pm

CIA CONTRACTOR\'S CASE LARGELY PUBLIC, DESPITE CALLS FOR SECRECY. In a CIA assault case tried in North Carolina, CIA agents testified in disguises and under fictitious names, novel solutions ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle to protect CIA agents' secrecy while preserving the public's first amendment right to access criminal trials, the Associated Press reported. After charging former civilian CIA contractor David Passaro with beating an Afghan detainee who later died, prosecutors called for secrecy and have sealed dozens of motions and arguments in the court file, the same story says. Today, the federal jury delivered a guilty verdict for Passaro, the first American Civilian charged with mistreating a detainee during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Provisions of the USA Patriot Act enabled him to be tried in his home state rather than where the alleged abuse occurred. — Posted at 12:41 pm

SEARCH CONTINUES FOR KIDNAPPED FOX CREW. Palestinian security forces searched Tuesday for two abducted Fox News journalists, who were snatched Monday by masked gunmen in Gaza. Gaza militant groups deny kidnapping the journalists - cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand and reporter Steve Centanni, a U.S. citizen. Centanni's brother says he has not heard from the kidnappers, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Wiig's wife appealed for their release Wednesday, Reuters reported. — Posted at 11:58 am

SEMPER FI. Jill Carroll, the Christian Science Monitor reporter kidnapped and held in Iraq for 82 days earlier this year, recalls in part 3 of an 11-part series that when her captors forced her to make a video, she knew they had a "special enmity" for the U.S. Marines. What they didn't know - and I hoped they would never find out - was that I had been embedded with the Marines for five weeks in November and December. Back then, the lieutenant of the platoon I was with had said that if anyone ever kidnapped me, a platoon of Marines would come to my rescue. So, in the retake of the video I made a point of emphasizing the word "Marines." I said, "Their government isn't of the Iraqi people. It is a government brought by the American government and by the MARINES..."I wanted them to know I was thinking of them. Come get me, guys. Please, come save me. — Posted at 11:56 am

LETTING HER HAIR DOWN. In the second of an 11-part series chronicling her 82 days in captivity, Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll writes about her captors suspecting that she was a spy implanted with devices. "You don't have a mobile phone?" he said. "Maybe in your hair? "I ripped off my head scarf and shook my hair loose. This was completely inappropriate behavior that would normally have deeply offended a Muslim man as apparently devout as he, but I was desperate. His hands went through my hair, checking my scalp for whatever he imagined I might have hidden there. Finally, he was satisfied. Jill's mother, Mary Beth Carroll, said in an interview with The Ann Arbor News that she hopes once the 11-part series ends, people will leave Jill alone. "And let her find her way,'' she said. "Let her deal with this experience. Writing the articles was one way to reach a catharsis on this experience. And now she needs to put it behind her and go forward. And that's difficult when people keep reminding her of it. She just wants to be Jill Carroll, correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. She just wants to not be famous.'' — Posted at 11:55 am

Aug. 14, 2006

JOURNALISTS KIDNAPPED IN GAZA. A FOX News reporter and a cameraman were snatched by Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City Monday. The Committee to Protect Journalists called for the journalists' release. — Posted at 4:58 pm

WARRANTLESS EAVESDROPPING AND THE GRAY LADY. New York Times Ombudsman Byron Calame, writes that he has learned from Executive Editor Bill Keller that before the 2004 election, the Times delayed publication of drafts of the story that disclosed the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program. The revelation, Calame notes, confirms what anonymous sources told other publications such as the Los Angeles Times and The New York Observer. — Posted at 4:37 pm

9/11 FLIGHT INFORMATION RELEASED. The government released full transcripts from all four flights hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as flight path studies for three of the flights in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, according to Raw Story. This is the first disclosure of the transcripts, provided by the National Transportation Safety Board to the Archive. — Posted at 11:15 am

CHANNEL SURFING WITH THE MUJAHIDEEN. In the first of an 11-part series detailing her 82 days in captivity, Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Caroll writes about her first days as a hostage in Iraq after watching the murder of her interpreter, Alan Enwiya. She writes of falling asleep at night to "be free in my dreams," only to wake up to the horror of her situation, and of begging her captors to use a gun, not a knife, if they killed her. (Monitor taff writer Peter Grier fills in story with contextual narrative.) In one scene, Carroll writes about one of her captors handing her a remote to watch "whatever you want" on TV. How do you channel surf with the mujahideen? I asked myself that question as I flipped from one show to another, trying to act casual. Politics was out. News was out. Anything that might show even a flash of skin was out. Finally, I found Channel 1 from Dubai, and Oprah was on. OK, good, Oprah, I thought. No naked women, no whatever, she's not in hijab, but it's OK. — Posted at 10:39 am

Aug. 11, 2006

CHENEY\'S DAILY CIA BRIEFINGS GIVEN TO LIBBY. Following a federal court order, the CIA has given "short summaries of Vice President Dick Cheney's daily security briefings" to lawyers for Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, according to The New York Times. Libby, who is accused of perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI in regards to an investigation into who leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, had asked for the briefings to show Libby's that "overwhelming workload" may have caused him to forget his coversations about Plame, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. — Posted at 4:27 pm

Aug. 10, 2006

MORE INFO IN CARROLL KIDNAPPING ARESTS. Four unidentified Iraqi men have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll, who was held for 82 days earlier this year. U.S. Marines arrested three of the men in May in an area west of Baghdad. The fourth was arrested later. Three of the arrest sites were confirmed as places where Carroll had been held. Carroll, who was freed March 30 and returned to the United States April 2, has written an 11-part series about her kidnapping, scheduled to run in the Monitor beginning Monday. Click here and follow the link to watch a video trailer for the series. — Posted at 5:02 pm

FOUR IRAQIS ARRESTED IN JILL CARROLL KIDNAPPING. Four unidentified Iraqi men were arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll, who was held for 82 days earlier this year, The Associated Press reported. U.S. Marines arrested the men in Anbar province west of Baghdad. Carroll, who was freed March 30 and returned to the United States April 2, has written an 11-part series about her kidnapping, scheduled to run in the Monitor beginning Monday, Editor & Publisher reported. "I would describe it as a comprehensive and compelling report on Jill's 82 days in captivity and the lessons learned by her," said Dave Cook, the Monitor's Washington, D.C. bureau chief who has acted as a spokesman for Carroll. "She has a phenomenal memory, it is a detail-rich story." — Posted at 4:59 pm

REPORTERS KEPT OUT OF PARTS OF U.S. MILITARY HEARING. Journalists were barred from portions of the first day of a U.S. military hearing to decide whether to court martial four soldiers accused of murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family, Reuters reported. The identity of an Iraqi army doctor who testified about finding the dead teen-ager was not released, but a recording of his testimony was made available. Two other Iraqis also testifed but the media was not allowed to listen, Reuters reported. — Posted at 4:58 pm

TWO IRAQI JOURNALISTS SLAIN. Two Iraqi journalists - one who wrote for the Shiite-owned newspaper Al-Bayinnah Al-Jadida and the other a freelancer - were killed in separate incidents in Baghdad, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 4:57 pm

HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS THREATEN MEDIA. Hezbollah fighters have threatened reporters who have tried to cover fighting in southern Lebanon, NBC News Correspondent Richard Engel told CNN "Reliable Sources." Noting that Hezbollah has been very difficult to cover, Engel said the fighters have threatened reporters in Tyre, south Lebanon. "From the location where we're standing now, we've been able to see, today and on other days, outgoing Katyusha rockets," Engel said. "And on more than one occasion people from Hezbollah have come and said, 'Do not film the locations of these rockets when they're being launched. At one time when we were talking and having a conversation with this Hezbollah representative, he said, 'Look, we're serious, we will kill you if you film these outgoing rockets.' So it is a threat, but when we've been out in the field, we've not had situations where they told us to stop filming." — Posted at 4:56 pm

GOD WITHIN EASY REACH. Three Time magazine staff members - who are brothers and Sunni - were detained at a police checkpoint in Baghdad for five hours Time correspondent Aparisim Ghosh reports in a cover piece, "Life In Hell: A Baghdad Diary." The Time workers were accused of being American spies when they showed their U.S. military-issued media badges. The men talked their way out of captivity, Ghosh reports, but not before one of the cops told them: "You may be released or jailed, or maybe somebody will use the electric drill on you." In the piece, Ghosh describes conditions in the war-torn Iraq as so horrible that "you want to have God - anybody's God - within easy reach." — Posted at 4:55 pm

PROPOSED OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT MET WITH SUPPORT, OPPOSITION. Missouri Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond's proposed legislation that would outlaw unauthorized disclosures of classified information, or "leaks," is receiving support from at least two Republican senators but being lambasted in the press. Introduced last week, the bill is similar to one vetoed by President Clinton in 2000 and to Great Britain's "Official Secrets Act." It would criminalize a government worker's disclosure of misconduct in classified operations and stifle the media's ability to report on such misconduct. — Posted at 4:53 pm

MARINE FILES LIBEL SUIT AGAINST MURTHA. Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich filed a libel lawsuit against Rep. John Murtha, (D-Pa.) alleging that Murtha "tarnished the Marine's reputation when he spoke publicly" about the killing of civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and claimed the Marines killed them "in cold blood," according to the Washington Post. The lawsuit claims that Murtha "made defamatory statements after receiving inaccurrate and false information from Pentagon officials," the Post said. Wuterich's attorneys have also sent a letter to Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) asking him to apologize for his similar comments or else be joined in the lawsuit, Rueters reported. — Posted at 4:46 pm

Aug. 4, 2006

LIBBY REQUESTS MEMORY EXPERT. Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney who is facing charges on perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to the FBI in regard to his role in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, asked the judge to allow testimony from Dr. Robert Bjork to "demonstrate that any false statements Mr. Libby made during an investigation could have been the result of flaws in his memory," according to The New York Times. "The memory expert, the lawyers said, could also explain why the three principal witnesses for the prosecution, all journalists, may have had faulty recollections." — Posted at 11:24 am

GUANTANAMO GUARDS RELEASE REPORTS OF HUNDREDS OF \"INCIDENTS\" WITH DETAINEES. Guards at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay prison facility have been attacked hundreds of times by detainees, the Associated Press reported, citing reports recently released under the Freedom of Information Act. The reports, with guard and prisoner names redacted, showed more than 440 incidents between guards and detainees that resulted in recommendations of discipline - information that was was redacted as well. — Posted at 11:23 am

FEDS BUILDING TOP-SECRET BIO-RESEARCH FACILITY. When completed, the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center under construction outside Washington, D.C. will be a 160,000-square-foot "Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility" - where all activity and conversation is presumed restricted from public disclosure - in which Department of Homeland Security officials research biological weapons, the Washington Post reported. Critics fear the excessive secrecy could actually increase the risk of bioterrorism. — Posted at 11:21 am

INTELLIGENCE BUDGET DOCUMENTS MUST BE RELEASED, JUDGE SAYS. Unclassified portions of budget requests for the National Reconaissance Agency - which develops U.S. intelligence satellites - must be released to the Federation of American Scientists, a federal judge in the District of Columbia has ruled. The agency argued that the records were exempt from the Freedom of Information Act as "operational files," but district court Judge Reggie B. Walton said routine administrative documents such as budget records were not protected from release by the Act. The Federation of American Scientists publishes Secrecy News, which reports on government access issues. — Posted at 11:18 am