Monday, January 29, 2007
Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program
The New York Times reports, “The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits.” According to the report, plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see its secret filings, judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies, and judges have even been instructed to use computers provided by the Justice Department to compose their decisions.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Canadian to Remain on U.S. Terrorist Watch List
The New York Times reports, “Despite a Canadian inquiry that cleared a Syrian-born Canadian citizen of any terrorist ties, the Bush administration has formally refused a Canadian government request that it remove the man, Maher Arar, from the terrorist watch list, saying that the United States has secret information justifying his inclusion.”
Friday, January 19, 2007
Spy Court's Orders Stir Debate on Hill
“The Bush administration quickly locked horns with Democratic lawmakers yesterday over its revised domestic wiretap program, signaling that the government will probably oppose efforts to release new court orders from a clandestine court that now governs the spying.” According to The Washington Post, “The head of the secret court that approved the program said she has no objection to releasing the documents, but Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte indicated that the administration is likely to resist.”
Court to Oversee U.S. Wiretapping in Terror Cases
“The Bush administration, in a surprise reversal, said on Wednesday that it had agreed to give a secret court jurisdiction over the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program and would end its practice of eavesdropping without warrants on Americans suspected of ties to terrorists,” reports The New York Times. According to the report, “The Justice Department said it had worked out an ‘innovative’ arrangement with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that provided the ‘necessary speed and agility’ to provide court approval to monitor international communications of people inside the United States without jeopardizing national security.”
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
The Legal Tangles Of Data Collection
The Washington Post has this article discussing technology’s toll on American civil liberties. The article opens: “When it comes to data collection, federal laws often have been outpaced by technology, critics say. And sometimes, the executive branch carves out its own exception.”
Monday, January 15, 2007
Deletions in Army Manual Raise Wiretapping Concerns
“Deep into an updated Army manual,” reports The New York Times, “the deletion of 10 words has left some national security experts wondering whether government lawyers are again asserting the executive branch’s right to wiretap Americans without a court warrant.” The original guidelines from 1984 said the Army could seek to wiretap people inside the United States on an emergency basis by going to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or by obtaining certification from the attorney general “issued under the authority of section 102(a) of the Act.” But according to the report, “That last phrase is missing from the latest manual, which says simply that the Army can seek emergency wiretapping authority pursuant to an order issued by the FISA court ‘or upon attorney general authorization.’”
Politicizing Prosecutors
“The Bush administration has appointed an extreme political partisan as the new United States attorney for Arkansas,” reports The New York Times. According to the report, while the Senate normally would have vetted him, and quite possibly blocked his appointment, the White House took advantage of a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, which allows it to do an end run around the Senate.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Court Challenge of ID Requirement Fails
“The Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed a challenge to the federal government's policy of requiring airline passengers to show identification before they board flights, spurning arguments that the well-known but unpublished policy would lead to more secret laws,” reports USA Today. According to the report, “The question before the justices was whether travelers have sufficient notice of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) ID policy to satisfy constitutional due process of law, which typically requires a law to be published so people know how to comply with it.”
Monday, January 08, 2007
Feds Pushing for Internet Records
“The federal government wants your Internet provider to keep track of every Web site you visit,” reports The McClatchy Newspapers. According to the report, “For more than a year, the U.S. Justice Department has been in discussions with Internet companies and privacy rights advocates, trying to come up with a plan that would make it easier for investigators to check records of Web traffic.”
Bush Warned About Mail-Opening Authority
“President Bush signed a little-noticed statement last month asserting the authority to open U.S. mail without judicial warrants in emergencies or foreign intelligence cases,” reports The Washington Post, “prompting warnings yesterday from Democrats and privacy advocates that the administration is attempting to circumvent legal restrictions on its powers.” According to the report, “A ‘signing statement’ attached to a postal reform bill on Dec. 20 says the Bush administration ‘shall construe’ a section of that law to allow the opening of sealed mail to protect life, guard against hazardous materials or conduct ‘physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.’”
