Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Govt. Must Reveal Some Eavesdropping Info
According to The Houston Chronicle, “Justice Department employees involved in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Sept. 11 detainees must disclose whether they know of any government monitoring of conversations between the detainees and their attorneys, a judge ruled Tuesday.”
Conn. Librarians Bitterly Decry Gag Order in Patriot Act Case
“Four otherwise mild-mannered librarians from Connecticut spoke out bitterly for the first time Tuesday after being subjected to a months-long gag order when the FBI demanded records about library patrons under the Patriot Act.” According to The Boston Globe, although a federal judge ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted because it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in debates regarding the Patriot Act, it wasn’t until April that prosecutors dropped an appeal of that order permitting the librarians to talk.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
European Court Bars Passing Passenger Data to U.S.
“The European Union's highest court ruled today that an agreement providing for the transfer of extensive personal data on air passengers to the authorities in the United States was illegal.” According to The New York Times, “The decision forces the two sides back to the negotiating table at a time when privacy safeguards are increasingly being debated.”
Friday, May 26, 2006
Gonzales's Rationale on Phone Data Disputed
“Civil liberties lawyers yesterday,” reports The Washington Times, “questioned the legal basis that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales used Tuesday to justify the constitutionality of collecting domestic telephone records as part of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism program.”
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
FCC Chief Says Won't Probe NSA Call Program
“The Federal Communications Commission will not pursue complaints about a U.S. spy agency's access to millions of telephone records because it cannot obtain classified material, the FCC chairman said in a letter released on Tuesday,” according to Reuters. “Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, had asked communications regulators to investigate a newspaper report that AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications and BellSouth Corp. gave access to and turned over call records to help the National Security Agency fight terrorists.”
New York to Put Cameras on Buses as Part of Security Upgrade
FindLaw reports that hundreds of New York City buses will be outfitted with surveillance cameras as part of a security upgrade prompted by bombings on public transit systems in London and Madrid. According to the report, “While terrorism is a concern, the cameras also are intended for crimes like graffiti and thieves who snatch iPods and run.”
Verizon Refuses to Come Clean about Wire-Tapping
According to The New Standard, “Telecom giant Verizon is refusing to confirm or deny participation in the illegal National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapping program, as citizens in Maine urge the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to investigate whether the company handed over its phone records.” “In a tight-lipped 44-page response to the PUC last Friday, Verizon argued that the Commission lacks the authority to investigate a complaint that the telephone company was involved in the NSA program.”
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Studs Terkel Sues Over Phone Records
“A lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of author Studs Terkel and others seeks to stop AT&T from giving customer phone records to the National Security Agency without a court order.” CNN reports, “The plaintiffs, who also include a doctor and a state lawmaker, said they rely on confidentiality in their work and are worried their clients will be less likely to phone them if they think the government collects lists of the numbers they are calling.”
Monday, May 22, 2006
Government Keeps Info from Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases
USA Today reports, “Government lawyers are refusing to allow defense attorneys in terrorism-related cases to see court filings on whether warrantless surveillance was used to obtain information against their clients, defense attorneys said.” According to the report, “The legal disputes represent a new obstacle for defense attorneys in terrorism cases as the legality of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs is challenged in U.S. courtrooms.”
Gonzales: U.S. could Track Reporters' Phone Calls
“Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.” According to CNN, “The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.”
Friday, May 19, 2006
Hayden Insists Warrantless Telephone Surveillance Program Legal
FindLaw reports, “CIA nominee Gen. Michael Hayden insisted on Thursday that the Bush administration's warrantless telephone surveillance program was legal and that it was designed to ensnare terrorists - not spy on ordinary people.” According to the report, “Senators grilled him on the NSA's eavesdropping without warrants on conversations and e-mails believed by the government to involve terrorism suspects, and reports of the tracking of millions of phone calls made and received by ordinary Americans.”
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Verizon Denies Giving NSA Phone Records
“Verizon Communications Inc. says it did not give the government records of millions of phone calls, joining fellow phone company BellSouth in disputing key assertions in a USA Today article,” reports The Associated Press. “The denials leave open the possibility that the National Security Agency requested customer calling data from long-distance companies like AT&T, Sprint and MCI in 2001, but not from companies that were mainly local phone companies, such as Verizon.”
FBI Checking Reporters' Phone Records
According to The Christian Science Monitor, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation may be using National Security Letters, which where introduced in the USA Patriot Act, to gain access to phone records of reporters for ABC News, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.”
Monday, May 15, 2006
Court Challenges Internet Wiretap Rules
“A U.S. appeals panel challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls.” According to Lexis, “One judge told the government its courtroom arguments were ‘gobbledygook’ and invited its lawyer to return to his office and ‘have a big chuckle.’”
Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space
The Associated Press reports, “A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.”
Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping
“In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks,” reports The New York Times, “Vice President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants in the hunt for terrorists, according to two senior intelligence officials.” “But N.S.A. lawyers, trained in the agency's strict rules against domestic spying and reluctant to approve any eavesdropping without warrants, insisted that it should be limited to communications into and out of the country, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the debate inside the Bush administration late in 2001.”
Ex-Qwest CEO Balked at NSA Records Sweep
According to FindLaw, “Qwest Communications was the lone holdout in the telecommunications industry when it came to sharing telephone records with the National Security Agency - but going it alone was nothing new for former CEO Joseph Nacchio.”
Domestic Spying Inquiry Killed
CNN reports, “The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers security clearance.” “The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax Wednesday to Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey of New York saying it was closing its inquiry because without clearance it could not examine department lawyers' role in the program.”
NSA has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls
“The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.” According to USA Today, “The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime.”
Potential Evidence Surfaces of Bush's Illegal Spying
Alternet.org reports, “Five months after news of the NSA's warrantless spying program broke, and after we've learned numerous details of the program's extent, a Portland, Ore., attorney may have finally obtained hard evidence of illegal wiretaps by the government.” Thomas Nelson, who has been practicing administrative law for most of his professional life, now finds himself leading a little-discussed case that may contain the first documented evidence of an illegal wiretap and believes that, as a result, he himself has been subjected to warrantless -- and therefore illegal -- wiretaps and physical searches, the kind of clandestine operation that Nixon referred to as “black bag jobs.”
Radio ID Technology Spreads; Privacy Activists Dig In
“As radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology continues to spread through the marketplace, privacy and consumer advocates are continuing their campaign for regulation of this controversial tracking technology.” The New Standard reports, “Critics are primarily concerned that the tiny transmitters inserted into products could infringe on privacy by monitoring consumer habits, or that the tracking devices will become common in state ID cards, driver's licenses and passports.”
Spies Among Us
US News & World Report has this article discussing the growing trend of American law enforcement officials to engage in domestic spying, noting, “Despite a troubled history, police across the nation are keeping tabs on ordinary Americans.”
Top C.I.A. Pick Has Credentials and Skeptics
“Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who senior administration officials said Friday was the likely choice of President Bush to head the Central Intelligence Agency, has a stellar résumé for a spy and has long been admired at the White House and on Capitol Hill.” But The New York Times reports, “General Hayden, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, would also face serious questions about the controversy over the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, which he oversaw and has vigorously defended.”
Real ID Battle Takes on New Face in Senate
“The New Hampshire Senate yesterday turned aside an effort to bar the state from taking part in the national Real ID program.” “Instead,” according to New Hampshire’s Union Leader, “it voted 14-9 for an amendment to House Bill 1582 that lets the state proceed with a Real ID compliance program and sets up a commission to study the national bill.”
Friday, May 12, 2006
NSA has Massive Database of Americans' Phone Calls
“The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.” According to USA Today, “The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime.”
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Spies Among Us
US News & World Report has this article discussing the growing trend of American law enforcement officials to engage in domestic spying, noting, “Despite a troubled history, police across the nation are keeping tabs on ordinary Americans.”
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
FBI and the USA Patriot Act in the Spotlight as Congress Considers How to Fight Terror
“FBI Director Robert Mueller faced a battery of tough questions from both sides of the aisle on issues in a fast-paced Senate oversight hearing on Tuesday.” According to The Christian Science Monitor, “The issues ranged from why the FBI has been so slow in implementing terrorist watch lists and computer upgrades after 9/11 to questions about its investigations of US peace groups.”
Court Approved Wiretaps Rise in 2005
The Associated Press reports, “State judges approved a growing number of secret wiretaps in criminal investigations in 2005, while federal criminal wiretaps dropped 14 percent, according to court data released Monday.” According to the report, “Nationwide, court-approved wiretaps increased 4 percent to 1,773 in both state and federal investigations.”
Monday, May 01, 2006
Feds Try to Dismiss Domestic Spying Suit
“The Justice Department said Friday it was moving to dismiss a federal lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's secretive domestic wiretapping program.” The Associated Press reports, “The government, in a filing here late Friday, said the lawsuit threatens to expose government and military secrets and therefore should be tossed.”
Data Show How Patriot Act Used
“The FBI issued thousands of subpoenas to banks, phone companies and Internet providers last year, aggressively using a power enhanced under the Patriot Act to monitor the activities of U.S. citizens, Justice Department data released late Friday showed.” According to The Los Angeles Times, “The report given to members of Congress was the first to detail the government's use of a controversial form of administrative subpoena that has drawn fire because it can be issued by investigators without court oversight.”
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