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

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

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

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

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

Nov. 29, 2006

AIPAC PROSECUTORS MUST PROVE KNOWLEDGE OF POTENTIAL DAMAGE. A federal judge has rejected prosecutors' argument that the Espionage Act does not require them to prove that two former American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists now facing espionage charges knew that disclosure of information could prove potentially harmful to the United States. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III noted that although the government had prevailed in large part when Ellis refused to dismiss the lobbyists' case on First Amendment and other grounds, "in prevailing, you have a burden that is not insubstantial," he said, according to Secrecy News. — Posted at 4:17 pm

MILITARY, AP SPAR OVER IMMOLATION STORY. The military has criticized a story by The Associated Press about Shiites burning six Sunni worshippers alive in Baghdad, saying in a letter that it has no record of the man quoted as a source for the story. The military is asking for a correction or retraction if AP did not have a "credible source" for its report. An AP editor countered that the military's attempt to "question the existence" of its source is "ludicrous and hints at a certain level of desperation to dispute or suppress the facts of the incident in question." The AP later moved a follow-up story sticking by their original report. — Posted at 1:56 pm

CIVIL LIBERTIES BOARD LEARNS DETAILS OF BANK DATA MONITORING. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board was recently briefed on the government's Swift program, which monitors international banking transactions. The five-member board was also recently cleared by the White House to receive information on the National Security Agency's domestic wiretapping program (see related blog entry below). — Posted at 11:32 am

JUDGE STRIKES PRESIDENTIAL AUTHORITY. A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague. "This law gave the president unfettered authority to create blacklists," said David Cole, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented the groups. "It was reminiscent of the McCarthy era." — Posted at 10:56 am

Nov. 28, 2006

EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS KNEW ABOUT SECRET CIA PRISONS, REPORT SAYS. According to a draft European Parliament report, eleven EU governments - including Britain, Poland and Germany - knew about secret CIA prisons operating in Europe before their existence was widely known. — Posted at 5:27 pm

OVERSIGHT BOARD RECEIVES FIRST BRIEFING ON NSA WIRETAPPING PROGRAM. Members of The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board were briefed for the first time last week by senior members of the National Security Agency on that agency's domestic warrantless wiretapping program. Though not allowed to discuss details of the secret program, which remains classified, after their briefing two of the board's five members told The Associated Press they were pleased with steps the government had taken to protect civil liberties. — Posted at 5:23 pm

ACADEMICS SHED LIGHT ON STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE. In his recently published book, "In the Name of National Security," which analyzes the history and impact of the state secrets privilege, constitutional law scholar Louis Fisher argues that the privilege should be treated as qualified, not absolute. Federal courts can present the government with a choice: either surrender a requested document to the district judge for in camera inspection or lose the case, Fisher says. In a different approach to the issue, Professor Robert Chesney asserts in a law review article that "the pattern of implementation of the state secrets privilege does not depart significantly from its past usage" in previous administrations. — Posted at 3:15 pm

Nov. 27, 2006

WHITE HOUSE OBJECTS TO USE OF 'CIVIL WAR' TO DESCRIBE IRAQ FIGHTING. NBC News is joining the Los Angeles Times and The Christian Science Monitor in labeling the violence in Iraq a "civil war," a term other media outlets have resisted or used only with qualifications. "Today" show host Matt Lauer said the White House released a statement saying that while the situation in Iraq is "very serious," it does not constitute a civil war. — Posted at 2:45 pm

DEMOCRATS PUSH FOR ACCESS TO CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. Emboldened by their November election victory, Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are renewing their demands for classified information held by the Department of Justice. — Posted at 2:03 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO CONDUCT INTERNAL INVESTIGATION CONCERNING WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM. The Justice Department's internal watchdog has opened an investigation into the agency's role in carrying out the spying program run by the National Security Agency. — Posted at 1:38 pm

Nov. 22, 2006

AUDIO RECORDINGS OF SOME GUANTANAMO DETAINEE HEARINGS RELEASED. The first audio recordings of the Combatant Status Review Tribunals have been released to the lawyers of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. National Public Radio has obtained tapes of about a half dozen CSRT proceedings and has made them available, along with other coverage, on its Web site. A recent report conducted by professors at Seaton Hall based on previously released transcripts concluded the proceedings did not provide an adequate forum for detainees to contest the basis of their confinements. — Posted at 12:04 pm

RENO FILES FRIEND-OF-THE-COURT BRIEF IN TERRORISM CASE. Former attorney general Janet Reno openly criticized the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case of alleged enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri. Reno and other former federal prosecutors assert that criminal courts are well equipped to prosecute terrorism suspects while guaranteeing the constitutional rights of defendants arrested on U.S. soil. — Posted at 11:36 am

Nov. 21, 2006

TSA QUESTIONS AIRPORT STAFFERS ABOUT LEAK. Agents from the Transportation Security Administration are investigating who disclosed test results showing the poor performance by airport screeners at Newark Liberty International Airport to The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. A TSA spokeswoman said the investigation was to determine if sensitive security information was disclosed. Staffers were asked to sign affidavits stating they did not disclose results to the newspaper, which reported that TSA screeners had failed to detect concealed bombs at guns in all but two of 22 tests. — Posted at 4:52 pm

DOCUMENTS SHOW EXTENT OF MILITARY MONITORING OF SOME ANTI-WAR RALLIES. Recently released documents show how much information on peace-related groups the Department of Defense maintained in an anti-terrorist database. Adccording to Eric Lichtblau and Mark Mazzetti in The New York Times, the head of the military office that maintained the database said that those operating it "misinterpreted their mandate and that what was intended as an antiterrorist database became, in some respects, a catch-all for leads on possible disruptions and threats against military installations in the United States, including protests against the military presence in Iraq." — Posted at 10:49 am

SECURITY CLEARANCE RESTORED TO HOUSE STAFFER ACCUSED OF LEAK. A House intelligence committee staffer has been cleared of leaking a classified intelligence assessment to The New York Times and has had his access to classified information restored. Walter Pincus of The Washington Post reports: "'The mid-level staffer, Larry Hanauer, had signed an affidavit that he did not discuss, disclose or cause to be discussed or disclosed' a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq to any person 'affiliated with the press.'" — Posted at 10:47 am

Nov. 20, 2006

PLAN CALLS FOR REDUCTION IN "SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED" INFORMATION CATEGORIES. A new plan for information sharing among federal, state and local governments calls for the consolidation of labels used for so-called "sensitive but unclassified" information. The plan seeks to bring clarity to a system that has allowed federal agencies to create more than 100 categories of restricted information, which creates confusion for officials at the local level. — Posted at 3:51 pm

TIMES CAN'T RELY ON CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION IN LIBEL DEFENSE. A federal magistrate has ruled The New York Times may not rely on information from columnist Nicholas Kristof's confidential sources in its defense against a libel lawsuit filed over the newspaper's coverage of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Former Army scientist Steven Hatfill, once identified by authorities as a "person of interest" in the anthrax mailings that killed five people in late 2001, is suing the Times for libel. U.S. Magistrate Judge Liam O'Grady issued the ruling Friday as a sanction against the newspaper for refusing to disclose the identities of two confidential FBI sources used by Kristof. — Posted at 11:56 am

LEAHY PUSHES FOR RELEASE OF CIA DETENTION AND INTERROGATION MEMOS. Incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has requested the Justice Department release two memos related to the interrogation and detention of terrorism suspects. The existence of these CIA memos was only recently acknowledged as part of a lawsuit between that agency and the ACLU. — Posted at 11:27 am

Nov. 17, 2006

REPORT CRITICIZES GUANTANAMO HEARINGS. A study carried out by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees and dozens of law students found that status hearings held to determine whether detainees at Guantanamo are "enemy combatants" gave the detainees little opportunity to contest allegations. — Posted at 2:40 pm

Nov. 14, 2006

DANISH JOURNALISTS ON TRIAL FOR PUBLISHING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ON IRAQ. In a major case regarding freedom of the press, an editor and two reporters in Denmark went on trial Monday for publishing classified intelligence reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons program. A former intelligence officer has previously been sentenced to prison for leaking the documents in the case. — Posted at 6:06 pm

LIBBY CAN USE CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IN DEFENSE. The judge in the I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby defense trial has ruled that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald went to far in limiting the amount of classified material that Libby may rely upon in mounting a defense. — Posted at 5:22 pm

CIA CONFIRMS EXISTENCE OF INTERROGATION DOCUMENTS. The existence of two infamous interrogation memos has been confirmed by the Central Intelligence Agency. One document apparently deals with interrogation techniques and the other with the agency's "secret prison" program. However, the agency has refused to release any portion of these documents, citing national security and attorney-client privilege. — Posted at 5:22 pm

Nov. 13, 2006

ARMY DEVELOPS NEW STANDARDS FOR CLASSIFICATION. The Army, calling the previous regulations too vague, has developed a new system for determining what type of information becomes classified. Walter Pincus described the new standards in the Washington Post: "The label 'confidential' is put on information that, if disclosed, would result in 'damage' to national security; 'secret' when disclosure would result in 'serious damage'; or 'top secret' when it would cause 'exceptionally grave damage.'" — Posted at 12:03 pm

JUDGE LETS GUILTY PLEA STAND DESPITE WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE. A federal judge in Alexandria, Va., has refused to throw out the guilty plea of a convicted al-Qaeda supporter who argued that he was illegally spied on under President Bush's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program. The judge's reasoning is unclear because her order is under seal. — Posted at 11:10 am

CDC REFUSES TO RELEASE KATRINA PERFORMANCE REPORT. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is withholding a report on the agency's response to Hurricane Katrina. "Our performance was excellent, but it was not perfect," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The agency will only generally describe the problems identified by the report, which the agency refuses to release in full by saying it is merely a draft and its release would "interfere with the agency's deliberative process." — Posted at 11:08 am

Nov. 7, 2006

JOURNALISM ORGANIZATIONS URGE RELEASE OF JAILED PHOTOGRAPHER. Several journalism groups have written letters to the Defense Department, urging it to release or press charges against Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi native who has been in the U.S. military's custody for seven months. — Posted at 4:57 pm

Nov. 6, 2006

BUSH ASKS COURT TO BAR DETAINEES FROM TALKING ABOUT INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES. Citing national security risks, the Bush administration told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should be barred from talking about the interrogations. — Posted at 1:23 pm

WOULD DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED CONGRESS LEAD TO MORE REPORTERS BEHIND BARS? An article in The New Republic's Full Court Press section this week hypothesizes what might happen if the Democrats become the majority party in Congress after this week's elections and the Bush administration goes after reporters. Jeffrey Rosen suggests that reporters who write about national security issues might find themselves behind bars more easily, even if a federal shield law is passed. — Posted at 1:19 pm

Nov. 2, 2006

U.S. JOURNALISTS INJURED IN AFGHANISTAN. Three crew members for National Geographic TV were injured last week in southern Afghanistan when a roadside bomb went off, killing an American soldier and injuring eight. The journalists injuries' were not life-threatening. TMZ.com said the crew was embedded with the Army Special Forces for an upcoming special. — Posted at 4:23 pm

GITMO DETAINEES ASK APPEALS COURT TO OVERTURN MILITARY TRIBUNALS LAW. Lawyers for dozens of Gitmo detainees asked a federal appeals court to declare unconstitutional the part of Bush's new military trials law that would allow the government to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without allowing them to use the U.S. courts to contest their detention. "Persons imprisoned without charge must retain the right to obtain a court inquiry into the factual and legal bases for their imprisonment," the attorneys for the detainees wrote. — Posted at 4:12 pm

PENTAGON INVESTIGATING LEAK OF CLASSIFIED SLIDE. The Defense Department is looking into how The New York Times received a slide showing an increase in civil conflict that was printed as part of a recent front-page story. The Pentagon is not ruling out an investigation that could lead to criminal charges, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command told FOX News. — Posted at 11:17 am

ARE SEEMINGLY RANDOM CLASSIFICATION POLICIES A TOOL TO KEEP REQUESTERS OFF-BALANCE? A Washington Post story uses the redaction and subsequent release of a Department of Homeland Security document as an example of when classificaiton policies are so irrational requesters are kept off balance. "So many of these secrecy stamps look like Nixon's madman theory in operation," said Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. — Posted at 11:15 am

APPEALS COURT BLOCKS ANY CHANCE FOR QUICK DISCLOSURE OF CHENEY VISITOR LOGS. A federal appeals court has blocked a lower court ruling that might have resulted in the disclosure of lists of visitors to Vice President Dick Cheney's home and office. The lower court had accepted the newspaper's argument that its Freedom of Information request should be expedited in light of the upcoming election. — Posted at 11:14 am

TV STATION'S "DAMAGING" TAPES LEAD TO BUG DISCOVERY IN HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICE FBI agents discovered four listening devices in the ceiling of a Memphis, Tenn. Homeland Security office in October. The devices were found after WHBQ-TV, a local station, said that they had recieved audiotapes with "damaging and embarassing" information. WHBQ-TV has not yet reported on or aired the tapes, but a news director at the station has indicated that a story will be run "when it's ready." — Posted at 11:13 am

Nov. 1, 2006

HALLIBURTON IMPROPERLY SHIELDING INFORMATION ON ITS EXECUTION OF IRAQ WAR CONTRACT. A Halliburton subsidiary has "routinely" misused government regulations to block oversight of its activities related to a government contract in Iraq, according to a government report. The company routinely marked "proprietary" information that did not qualify, thus blocking its dissemination. — Posted at 5:30 pm