Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Bush Administration Ignored 9/11 Warnings
“President Bush and Vice President Cheney have publicly stated that the top-secret domestic spying program Bush authorized in 2002 could have thwarted the 9/11 attacks had the controversial, and possibly illegal, measure been in effect prior to the terrorist strike on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.” However, according to this Truthout article, “the reality is much different from what Bush and Cheney would have you believe.” Read more here.
Hearing on Surveillance Program may Spur Republicans to Move Quickly on Patriot Act
The Hill has this article discussing the negotiations on the reauthorization of the controversial USA Patriot Act and their effect on the upcoming hearings, writing, “If the White House and the GOP-led Congress do not strike a deal soon on reauthorizing the USA Patriot Act, President Bush’s influence on the controversial bill could diminish after the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the nation’s domestic surveillance program.”
Monday, January 30, 2006
Privacy Moves to Front Burner
According to this article by The Mercury News, “Privacy has sunk to a low priority for the Bush administration.” The article states, “From warrantless domestic surveillance to the pursuit of records from online search engines, the administration's actions have privacy advocates across the political spectrum wailing.”
2003 Draft Legislation Covered Eavesdropping
“Legislation drafted by Justice Department lawyers in 2003 to strengthen the USA Patriot Act,” reports The Washington Post, “would have provided legal backing for several aspects of the administration's warrantless eavesdropping program.”
Friday, January 27, 2006
New Poll Finds Mixed Support for Wiretaps
According to The New York Times, “Americans are willing to tolerate eavesdropping without warrants to fight terrorism, but are concerned that the aggressive antiterrorism programs championed by the Bush administration are encroaching on civil liberties, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.”
Bush Vouches Anew for Legality of Domestic Surveillance Program
“President George W. Bush said Thursday that Americans aren't allowed to torture anyone, anywhere in the world.” “He also said,” according to FindLaw, “he may resist any congressional move to change his controversial program of warrantless surveillance for terrorist threats, adding: ‘There's no doubt in my mind it is legal.’"
Federal Magistrate Dismisses Charges Against Md. Peace Activists
“A federal magistrate judge yesterday dismissed charges against two peace activists who were cited after a visit to the National Security Agency where they wanted to meet with the director of the secretive agency that conducts surveillance for the government,” reports The First Amendment Center.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Attorney General's Memo Raises Questions on Patriot Act
According to The Boston Globe, “A footnote in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's 42-page legal memo defending President Bush's domestic spying program appears to argue that the administration does not need Congress to extend the USA Patriot Act in order to keep using the law's investigative powers against terror suspects.”
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
ACLU Sues to Let Muslim Scholar Enter U.S.
The American Civil Liberties Union, reports The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “sued the U.S. government Wednesday for preventing a Muslim scholar from entering the country, arguing that the government was using anti-terrorism laws as ‘instruments of censorship.’ "The lawsuit asks the court to find a provision of the Patriot Act unconstitutional and seeks clearance for Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and Muslim scholar, to accept invitations to speak in the United States.”
After Subpoenas, Internet Searches Give Some Pause
The New York Times has this article discussing the Justice Department’s request to compel Google to turn over records on millions of its users’ search queries. The government claims that the information cannot be traced to their source and it is needed to protect national security and prosecute online crimes. But privacy advocates maintain that the program would allow the government to go too far in eroding privacy rights.
Patriot Act Talks Hit Roadblock On Privacy Issue
According to The Washington Post, “Efforts to resolve House and Senate differences over a revised USA Patriot Act have reached a stalemate, a key committee chairman said yesterday.” “But another senator said that the Bush administration continues to discuss possible changes, and that a resolution of the impasse is still possible.”
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Administration Starts Weeklong Blitz in Defense of Eavesdropping Program
“The White House opened a weeklong media blitz Monday,” reports The New York Times, “in defense of the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program, with President Bush saying he found it ‘amazing’ to be accused of breaking the law by ordering a secret program to intercept international calls and e-mail messages.”
Monday, January 23, 2006
Bush Says He Was Within Law to Authorize Spy Program
“President Bush on Monday rejected critics' assertion that he broke the law by authorizing domestic eavesdropping without a warrant,” reports The New York Times, “saying he was doing what Congress authorized him to do to protect Americans from terrorist attacks.” “With congressional hearings set to begin on this issue Feb. 6, Bush kicked his administration's new intensive public relations effort to win support for the program run by the National Security Agency.”
Terror Threat Won't Deter Questions on Spy Program, Some Lawmakers Say
According to FindLaw, “Several lawmakers said Sunday they will press President George W. Bush to justify his decision to allow domestic eavesdropping, rebuffing Republican suggestions their criticism of broad executive authority puts the nation at risk.”
Delicate Dance for Bush in Depicting Spy Program as Asset
“With a campaign of high-profile national security events set for the next three days,” reports The New York Times, “the White House has effectively declared that it views its controversial secret surveillance program not as a political liability but as an asset, a way to attack Democrats and re-establish President Bush's standing after a difficult year.”
Held in 9/11 Net, Muslims Return to Accuse U.S.
“Hundreds of noncitizens were swept up on visa violations in the weeks after 9/11, held for months in a much-criticized federal detention center in Brooklyn as ‘persons of interest’ to terror investigators, and then deported.” “This week,” however, according to The New York Times, “one of them is back in New York and another is due today.”
Friday, January 20, 2006
Policy for Foreign Mail Creates New Fears
The Washington Post has this article discussing fears relating to the foreign mail policy. The article begins, “As an Army officer working in Manila during World War II, Grant Goodman sliced open soldiers' mail, looking for passages that could tip off an enemy to troop positions. He never thought the tables would turn—much less in modern-day America.”
Google Refuses Demand for Search Information
“The Justice Department said yesterday that it subpoenaed four major Internet companies for data on what people search for on the Web as part of an eight-year battle over a federal law designed to shield children from online pornography.” “Three of the companies responded to some degree, but,” according to The Washington Post, “Google Inc. said it was resisting the demand.”
Legal Rationale by Justice Dept. on Spying Effort
According to The New York Times, “The Bush administration offered its fullest defense to date Thursday of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying that authorization from Congress to deter terrorist attacks ‘places the president at the zenith of his powers in authorizing the N.S.A. activities.’"
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Report Questions Legality of Briefings on Surveillance
“A legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service,” according to The New York Times, “concludes that the Bush administration's limited briefings for Congress on the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping without warrants are ‘inconsistent with the law.’"
Feds' Cell Phone Tracking Divides the Courts
“Using cell phone records to track down kidnappers in an emergency situation is one thing. But what about allowing federal investigators to monitor a person via his or her cell phone without having to provide evidence of criminal activity?” According to Law.com, “That question has got privacy advocates on high alert as several courts in recent months have received requests from the U.S. Department of Justice to track people through their cell phones with no showing of probable cause.”
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
ID Card Planned for the Borders
According to the Los Angeles Times, “U.S. officials announced Tuesday they would start issuing a special identification card this year that would allow Americans who frequently traveled to Mexico or Canada to continue crossing the border without a passport.” According to the report officials said the card would be about half the size of a credit card, carry a picture of the holder, and be equipped with radio frequency identification.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Two Groups Planning to Sue Over Federal Eavesdropping
“Two leading civil rights groups,” according to The New York Times, “plan to file lawsuits Tuesday against the Bush administration over its domestic spying program to determine whether the operation was used to monitor 10 defense lawyers, journalists, scholars, political activists and other Americans with ties to the Middle East.”
Gore Accuses Bush of Breaking Law
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “Former Vice President Al Gore called Monday for an independent investigation of President Bush's domestic spying program, contending the president ''repeatedly and insistently'' broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.”
Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends
“In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists.” “But,” The New York Times reports, “virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.”
Monday, January 16, 2006
New Ohio Law Allows Cops to Request ID
According to Fox News, “Ohio Republican Gov. Bob Taft on Wednesday signed a bill into law passed by the state legislature with barely a word of dissent.” “But,” according to the report, “dissent is building over authority given to police officers, who can now ask, ‘What's your name?’ as a tool to fight terrorism. Failure to identify oneself could land an individual in jail.”
Specter Says No 'Blank Check' for Bush on Spying
Reuters reports, “The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee promised a thorough investigation on Sunday into President George W. Bush's secret domestic eavesdropping program and said there would be no blank check for Bush.” “Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said Bush in theory could face impeachment charges if found to have violated the law by authorizing the program, but he did not endorse that approach and had heard no serious talk of it.”
Head of Guantanamo Defense: Prosecution Team is Four Times the Size Defense Team
FindLaw reports, “There are four times as many prosecutors as defenders for the trials of terror suspects by a military commission at Guantanamo Bay and the defense team needs more staff, the chief defense counsel said Thursday.”
Translator's Conviction Raises Legal Concerns
“For three years federal agents trailed Mohammed Yousry, a chubby 50-year-old translator and U.S. citizen who worked for radical lawyer Lynne Stewart. Prosecutors wiretapped his phone, and FBI agents shadowed and interviewed him. They read his books and notepads and every file on his computer.” But, according to the Washington Post, Yousry was convicted despite the prosecutor’s concessions that he is not a fundamentalist and does not advocate violence.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Listening In
PBS’s NOW examines the domestic spying controversy and reasons why the President might need to authorize surveillance without a warrant. You can preview the information here.
Senator Questions Pentagon Surveillance
“Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday,” reports Forbes, “asked for answers on an obscure Pentagon agency that included reports on student anti-war protests and other peaceful civilian demonstrations in a database meant to detect terrorist activities.”
Soldiers, Surveillance Part of Italy's Olympic Security Plan
According to Canada’s National Post, “Less than a month before the start of the Feb. 10-26 Winter Olympics, Italian authorities are rolling out a massive security operation to protect the 2,500 athletes, 5,000 officials and one million spectators expected to attend the Turin Games.” The report states, “Paramilitary police in battle fatigues patrol narrow mountain roads and guard entrances to venues in Turin and in the nearby Alps. Out of sight, intelligence experts keep tabs on possible terrorists and other potential troublemakers.”
FBI Checking Prints in Death Row Cases
According to USA Today, “The FBI is reviewing the cases of all state and federal prisoners scheduled for execution to determine whether bureau fingerprint examiners made errors that led to death sentences.”
Thursday, January 12, 2006
AP Exclusive: National ID, State Nightmare
According to the Associated Press, “An anti-terrorism law creating a national standard for all driver's licenses by 2008 isn't just upsetting civil libertarians and immigration rights activists.”
F.B.I. Tries to Dispel Surveillance Concerns
“F.B.I. officials met with Muslim and Arab-American leaders on Wednesday in an effort to dispel anger and concern over the bureau's secret monitoring of radiation levels at Muslim sites around the country.” The New York Times reports, “John Pistole, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and John Miller, the bureau's assistant director of public affairs, tried to reassure those at the session that the surveillance of mosques and Muslim businesses and homes had been based on intelligence leads.”
Watchdog Says He Can't Probe Spy Plan
“The Justice Department's independent watchdog says it does not have jurisdiction to open an investigation into the legality of the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program,” reports the Associated Press.
Bush to Visit Hurricane-Ravaged Gulf Coast
Despite his initial opposition, The New York Times reports, “President Bush said Wednesday that congressional hearings to investigate his domestic eavesdropping program will be good for democracy as long as they don't give secrets away to the enemy.”
NYC Sued Over Right to Shoot Video, Pictures in Public
According to The First Amendment Center, “The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the city yesterday, challenging restrictions on people's right to photograph public places after an award-winning filmmaker from India was blocked from videotaping near the MetLife building.”
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Young Adults Have Healthy Attitude Toward Privacy
“Many of America's young adults were too young to remember the former Soviet Union's dreaded KGB. A knock on the door in the middle of the night, a neighbor making an unfounded accusation, or a tapped telephone conversation meant people disappeared.” “Too young to remember,” this The Decatur Daily editorial reports, “yet this group between ages 18 and 29 voted overwhelmingly in an Associated Press- Ipsos poll against our government's involvement in an electronic monitoring program that is but a step or two behind what the KGB did.”
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Presidential Power Has Limits, Alito Tells Senators
“Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. said today that he agreed with the principle that a president does not have ‘a blank check’ in terms of power, especially during wartime.” According to The New York Times, the Supreme Court nominee believes that “The Constitution applies in times of peace and war,” and “The Bill of Rights applies at all times.”
Judges and Justice Dept. Meet Over Eavesdropping Program
The New York Times reports, “The Justice Department held an unusual closed-door briefing Monday for judges on a secret foreign-intelligence court in response to concerns about President Bush's decision to allow domestic eavesdropping without warrants.”
Monday, January 09, 2006
Sloppy FBI Work Led to Wrong Man
“A Justice Department report faulted the FBI for sloppy work but cleared the agency of more serious allegations in the botched fingerprint investigation of Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield.” But according to CNN, “The report concluded that errors in fingerprint analysis did not result from misconduct, Mayfield's Muslim religion, or abuse of the Patriot Act.”
Specter Seeks AG's Testimony on Spying
“The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he has asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to testify during open hearings on the legality of the Bush administration's domestic spying program.” According to ABC News, “A prominent conservative on the committee said he is troubled by the legal arguments the administration has presented for establishing the National Security Agency program.”
Report Questions Legal Basis for Bush's Spying Program
“President Bush's rationale for authorizing eavesdropping on American citizens without warrants rests on questionable legal ground and ‘may represent an exercise of presidential power at its lowest ebb,’ according to a formal Congressional analysis released today,” reports The New York Times.
Friday, January 06, 2006
4-Year-Old Boy on Government 'No-Fly' List
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has this article about a four year old boy who was delayed from boarding an airplane to visit his grandmother because he was on the government’s “no-fly” list which is intended to prevent terrorists from boarding airplanes.
Republican Senator Defends Briefings on Domestic Spying
“In a sign of growing partisan division over domestic eavesdropping,” reports The New York Times, “the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday defended the Bush administration's limited briefings for Congress on the secret program and accused the committee's top Democrat of changing her position on the issue.”
Thursday, January 05, 2006
3 GOP Senators Blast Bush Bid to Bypass Torture Ban
“Three key Republican senators yesterday condemned President Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in chief give him the authority to bypass a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees,” The Boston Globe reports.
Surveillance Court Is Seeking Answers
According to The Washington Post, “Several judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said they want to hear directly from administration officials why President Bush believed he had the authority to order, without the court's permission, wiretapping of some phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.”
Bush Could Bypass New Torture Ban
“After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a '’signing statement’ -- an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law -- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security.” According to the White House and legal specialists, The Boston Globe reports, “This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions.”
Cheney Strongly Defends Eavesdropping
In this article Reuters discusses Vice President Dick Cheney’s strong defense of the secret domestic eavesdropping operation in use since the September 11, 2001, attacks, claiming it does not violate American civil liberties.
Key Democrat Says Spying Violated Law
The New York Times reports that the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday that the limited Congressional Briefings the Bush administration has provided on a National Security Agency eavesdropping program violated the law because it did not comply with the National Security Act of 1947 which requires the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to be “kept fully and currently informed” about the spy agencies’ activities.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Government Renews Padilla Plea
Scotusblog has this post: “The Justice Department on Tuesday renewed its plea to the Supreme Court to order the prompt release of terrorism suspect Jose Padilla from military custody, and once more argued that his appeal to the Supreme Court is a dead issue, legally.”
U.S. to Seek Dismissal of Guantánamo Suits
“The Bush administration notified federal trial judges in Washington that it would soon ask them to dismiss all lawsuits brought by prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, challenging their detentions, Justice Department officials said Tuesday.” According to The New York Times, the action means that the administration is moving swiftly to take advantage of an amendment to the military bill that President Bush signed into law last Friday, which strips federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions from Guantánamo detainees.
Court Upholds Random Searches
Wyoming’s Casper Star Tribune reports, “The Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that probation orders allowing defendants to be searched at the whim of law enforcement officers are permissible under the U.S. Constitution.”
Bush Pushes for Patriot Act Renewal
“As the clock runs on Congress' short-term extension of the Patriot Act, President Bush met with federal prosecutors Tuesday and contended that the domestic anti-terror law is vital to keeping Americans safe,” reports The New York Times.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
NSA Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance
The Washington Post reports that according to current and former administration officials, information captured by the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping on communications between the United States and overseas has been passed on to other government agencies, which cross-check the information with tips and information collected in other databases.
Mass. Lawmakers Want Wider Buffer Zones at Abortion Clinics
“Massachusetts lawmakers are pushing for expanded, protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics, saying the state's existing law, passed after the 1994 fatal shooting of two abortion clinic workers, is too vague to enforce.” The First Amendment Center reports, “The bill, backed by lawmakers and organizations who support abortion rights, would create a fixed 35-foot buffer zone around a clinic's entrances and driveways.”
Move to Scuttle Hamdan, Al Odah Cases?
Scotusblog has this report: “The Bush Administration appears to be preparing to try to scuttle the two most significant pending cases on the legal rights of foreign nationals now being held at the terrorism prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” According to the report, “President Bush himself signaled this strategy of challenge in a statement last Friday that got little mention in the media, during the holiday lull.”
New Rules Set for Giving Out Antiterror Aid
The New York Times reports that according to government officials, in order to plan for budget cuts in antiterrorism financing, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it will evaluate new requests for money from an $80 million aid program for cities based less on politics and more on assessments of where terrorists are likely to strike and potentially cause the greatest damage.
