"The Bush administration," according to The Washington Post, "plans to screen thousands of people who work with charities and nonprofit organizations that receive U.S. Agency for International Development funds to ensure they are not connected with individuals or groups associated with terrorism." According to the report, "The plan would require the organizations to give the government detailed information about key personnel, including phone numbers, birth dates and e-mail addresses. But the government plans to shroud its use of that information in secrecy and does not intend to tell groups deemed unacceptable why they are rejected."

"The Pentagon said Tuesday that it would shut down a database that had been criticized for including information on antiwar protesters and others whose actions posed no threat to military facilities and personnel," reports The New York Times. According to the report, "A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Gary Keck of the Army, said the database was being shut down Sept. 17 because 'the analytical value had declined,' but not because of public criticism."

The New York Times reports "Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include--without court approval--certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans' business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said." According to the report, "The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought."