Friday, September 29, 2006
'Idiot' Barb Gets Passenger Detained
CNN reports, “A Wisconsin man who wrote ‘Kip Hawley is an Idiot’ on a plastic bag containing toiletries said he was detained at an airport security checkpoint for about 25 minutes before authorities concluded the statement was not a threat.” The report describes how 31-year-old Ryan Bird’s political comment about Hawley—head of the Transportation Security Administration—turned into a drawn out detention of the traveler in which government officials told Bird he had a right to say such things “out there”—pointing outside the screening area—but did not have the right “in here.”
House Approves Power for Warrantless Wiretaps
The New York Times reports, “The House voted on Thursday to give the president the formal power to order wiretaps on Americans without a court order for 90 days, even as a federal judge in Detroit once again declared the administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants to be illegal.” According to the report, although the House approved the surveillance measure, 232-191, after rejecting efforts by Democrats and a few Republicans to impose greater restrictions on the wiretapping authority, it appears all but certain that Congress will not reach an agreement on a final surveillance bill before its pre-election recess this week.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
G.O.P. Reaches Tentative Deal on Domestic Spying Legislation
The New York Times reports, “Republican leaders said Monday that they had reached a tentative agreement to garner political support for legislation on domestic surveillance, in part by sidestepping the question of whether the president has the constitutional authority to order wiretapping without a court order.” As supporters billed the most recent version as a way of requiring a court order for most domestic wiretaps, the report notes that civil rights advocates and even some administration officials suggested that it would maintain the status quo in allowing the continuation of wiretapping without warrants under a program approved by President Bush.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Canadian Was Falsely Accused, Panel Says
“Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.” According to The Washington Post, “The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods.”
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Hidden Depths to U.S. Monitoring
The Los Angeles Times has this article about post-9/11 government surveillance, which begins: “As Americans consider whether they are more safe or less five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, one thing is certain: They are being monitored by their own government in ways unforeseen before terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.”
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Republican Rift Over Wiretapping Widens
The Washington Post reports, “Deepening Republican divisions over the future of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program may jeopardize GOP leaders' hopes of making terrorism surveillance legislation a centerpiece of their final legislative push this month.” Topping their to-do list is passing legislation officially sanctioning the National Security Agency's secret wiretapping of suspected terrorist communications, which has been carried out without warrants since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Education Dept. Shared Student Data With F.B.I.
The New York Times reports, “The Federal Education Department shared personal information on hundreds of student loan applicants with the Federal Bureau of Investigation across a five-year period that began after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.” “Under the program, called Project Strikeback,” reports the Times, “the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information.”
