State Department analyst indicted for disclosing secrets about North Korea to Fox News

The Obama administration has taken an aggressive stance toward individuals leaking secret information to the media. -db
The New York Times
August 27, 2010
By Scott Shane
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal grand jury in Washington has indicted a State Department analyst suspected of disclosing top-secret information about North Korea to Fox News, the third time the Obama administration [...]

WikiLeaks unveils CIA report on U.S. as an ‘exporter of terrorism’

The CIA has downplayed WikiLeaks’ latest release, a secret CIA analysis showing the extent of U.S. presence as an exporter of terrorism. -db
Washington Post
August 26, 2010
By Ellen Nakashima
The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And if that phenomenon [...]

Blackberry dispute: Reporters Without Borders worried national security a pretext to censorship

Reporters Without Borders is concerned that in asking BlackBerry to provide access codes to governments, it will allow them to shut down free expression. -db
MediaShift
Commentary
August 26, 2010
By Clothilde Le Coz
Next week will be decisive for BlackBerry corporate users. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) could provide a solution to help security agencies in India [...]

Domestic spying: Uncle Sam developing ability to reach wide and deep on Internet

Through its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has revealed that the FBI and CIA are aggressively perfecting their ability to probe social networks and the Internet for intelligence data much of which is outside the law enforcement context. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
August 16, 2010
By Tim Wayne
In the midst of recent [...]

Wikileaks criticized for ‘clumsy disclosure’

Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News argues that WikiLeaks disclosure of the Afghan War Diary has had
the unfortunate consequence of increasing public support for the present system of document classification. -db
Secrecy News
Commentary
August 16, 2010
By Steven Aftergood
Unauthorized disclosures of classified information (“leaks”) often play an important role in the proper functioning of American democracy. They [...]

WikiLeaks makes serious rent in government secrecy

With release of the Afghan War Diary, WikiLeaks has established new ground in the struggle between the public’s right-to-know and the government’s desire for secrecy, but it is hugely ironic that WikiLeaks itself operates in secrecy, refusing to release details on its modus operandi. -db
New Scientist
Editorial
August 16, 2010
By David Cohen
“QUICK, you’ve got to come [...]

Obama administration asks allies to drop hammer on WikiLeaks

The Obama administration has asked Britain, Germany, Australia, and other countries to consider bringing criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder for providing the media with classified documents on the Afghan war. -db
The Daily Beast
August 10, 2010
By Philip Shenon
The Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening [...]

Gag order eased for man fighting FBI over warrantless investigation

A president of an Internet service provider can for the first time speak about a gag on his telling anyone he had received an national security letter demanding private customer records. The ACLU argues that without a court order the FBI should at least show individual suspicion before invading the privacy and free speech rights [...]

WikiLeaks case shows need for federal shield law for reporters

The Cincinnati Enquirer argues that the federal shield law now in Congress, while providing for national security and fair trials, will strengthen the media in its quest to hold government and other powerful entities accountability and make it less likely that sources go to “fringe entities” such as WikiLeaks to protect their anonymity. -db
Cincinnati Enquirer
Editorial
August [...]

Chemical security bills lack provisions for transparency

Two chemical facility security bills introduced in the U.S. senate are designed to reduce the consequences of accident or attack on chemical plants and drinking water facilities but fail to provide for accountability and transparency to ensure safety says OMB Watch. -db
Chemical security bills lack provisions for transparency
OMB Watch
Commentary
July 27, 2010
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has [...]

Free speech: Colombian journalist barred from the U.S. receives visa

The ACLU has called for the end to excluding visitors to the United States on ideological grounds as the State Department reversed a decision by the U.S. Columbian embassy blocking Hollman Morris from traveling to the U.S. to participate in the Nieman fellowship program at Harvard University. -db
Free speech: Columbian journalist previously barred from the [...]

WikiLeaks claims benefits to releasing classified Afghan war documents

While the Obama administration downplays the importance of the classified field reports on the Afghanistan war released by  WikiLeaks July 25, WikiLeaks founder Julian Asange says the reports will increase transparency on the war and strengthen democracy and governance. -db
WikiLeaks claims release of classified Afghan war documents beneficial
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/26wiki.html
The New York Times
July 25, 2010
By Eric Schmitt
WikiLeaks.org, [...]

Supreme Court blocks advising terrorists in non-violence

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected free speech arguments in ruling 6-3 that U.S. organizations could not provide non-violent legal training or advice to designated terrorist groups. -db

McClatchy Newspapers
June 21, 2010
By Michael Doyle
WASHINGTON, D.C.  — The Supreme Court on Monday bolstered law enforcement in national security cases, permitting prosecution of U.S. organizations that provide non-violent [...]

Obama said to be tougher than Bush in prosecuting for leaks to the media

The Obama administration is vigorously investigating and prosecuting officials leaking information to the press including a veteran intelligence official who considers himself a loyal citizen and a whistle blower but now faces  federal charges for mishandling classified information. -db

The New York Times
June 11, 2010
By Scott Shane
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hired in 2001 by the National [...]

ACLU sues over access to surveillance documents

The American Civil Liberties filed suit in federal district court to obtain documents concerning the federal government’s surveillance of U.S. citizens using the electronic media to communicate with people overseas. -db

FierceGovernment
June 7 2010
By David Perera
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit June 3 in a New York federal district court to receive documents pertaining to [...]

Defense Department clarifies policy on opening fundamental research

To discourage endemic secrecy for military research, the Defense Department reaffirmed a Reagan administration policy that the products of fundamental research should be presumed open unless nation security required them to be classified. -db
Secrecy News
June 3, 2010
By Steven Aftergood

In a move that may help to discourage habitual secrecy in military-funded research, the Department of Defense [...]

Civil liberties groups tell Congress Internet censorship no solution to curbing terrorism

Civil liberties advocates testified to a House committee on terrorism that the government should use the Internet to track terrorist threats but that to censor websites would be counterproductive. -db

NextGov
May 26, 2010
By Jill R. Aitoro

Federal authorities should rely on the Internet to identify and track terrorist threats and to launch counterterrorism campaigns, but not [...]

Former FBI employee gets prison term for leaking classified document to blogger

A former FBI linguist was sentenced to twenty months in jail for leaking classified documents to an unidentified blogger. The linguist admitted using poor judgment but said he was not motivated by selfish interests but felt he acted in the best interests of the American people. -db

Secrecy News
May 25, 2010
By Steven Aftergood
Shamai Leibowitz, a former [...]

Newspapers appeal ban on four reporters covering Guantanamo military trials

Newspapers appealed the Pentagon order that banned four journalists from covering trials of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. The newspapers claimed that it was wrong to apply the sanction when contrary to Pentagon guidelines the journalists printed the name of a witness. The newspapers said the identity of the witness was made public years ago [...]

Pentagon bans reporters from covering Guantanamo hearings

The Pentagon banned four reports from covering military commissions at Guantanamo on the grounds that they violated prohibitions on publishing the name of a former Army interrogator who was a witness at a hearing. -db
McClatchy Newspapers
May 6, 2010
By Nancy A. Youssef

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Pentagon Thursday banned four reporters, including one from McClatchy Newspapers, from [...]

Attorney General subpoenas New York Times reporter over book on C.I.A.

A lawyer for New York Times reporter James Risen says he will honor his commitment to keep his sources confidential in resisting a subpoena to provide documents about his 2006 book about the Central Intelligency Agency.  -db
The New York Times
April 28 2010
By Charlie Savage
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration is seeking to compel a [...]

Free speech: Federal judge challenges prosecution to prove Michigan militia did more than just talk

A federal district judge said that federal prosecutors must show that the Michigan militiamen arrested for “seditious conspiracy” were about to launch an attack on government targets. -db

Deroit Free Press
April 29, 2010
By Ben Schmitt

Federal prosecutors today argued in a court document that their office has met the threshold for the detention of nine members of [...]

CIA admits destroying tapes of abusive interrogations

The Central Intelligence Agency admitted that the agency’s top officials destroyed hundreds of tapes depicting abusive interrogations of suspects. -db
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
April 16,2010
By Miranda Fleschert
The Central Intelligence Agency released email messages on Thursday that reveal the former director of the agency approved of — and joked about — the decision [...]

Former National Security Agency official indicted for providing classified information on agency’s flawed modernization program

A federal grand jury indicted a former National Security Agency official for leaking government records to a reporter relating to the agency’s failings to upgrade its systems to more efficiently sort the huge amount of data gathered from e-mails, phone calls and other electronic communications. First Amendment advocates fear the indictment will have a chilling [...]

Federal judge dismisses secrets privilege in ruling wiretapping of Islamic charity illegal

A federal judge ruled that the Bush administration’s wiretapping of an Islamic charity in Oregon was illegal and should have been subjected to independent court review. -db

Metropolitan News-Enterprise
April 1, 2010
From Staff and Wire Service Reports
In a repudiation of the Bush administration’s now-defunct Terrorist Surveillance Program, a federal judge ruled yesterday that government investigators illegally wiretapped [...]

Federal judge says leak classified info, pay the penalty

A federal judge says in certain circumstances individuals might choose to leak classified information when  the public should know what the government is doing, but the leaker should be willing to take the consequences of breaking the law. -db

Secrecy News
Federation of American Scientists
March 22, 2010
By Steven Aftergood
Leaking classified information to an unauthorized person may be [...]

Story of government spying gets no play in media

A telecommunications technician in San Francisco discovers that the government is operating a covert  center in his own building that monitors the phone calls and internet traffic of millions of random citizens. When the story goes to the Los Angeles Times and 60 Minutes, the government successfully kills it. -db

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
March 17, 2010
By Tim Jones
Here’s [...]

Federal Court rules for First Amendment in restoring news racks at airport

A federal appeals court ruled unconstitutional a ban on airport news racks at the Raleight-Durham Airport. The airport authority had banned the racks as a security threat and traffic impediment. -db
Editor & Publisher
March 15, 2010
By E&P Staff

CHICAGO – Public airport authorities that ban newspaper racks are violating the First Amendment, a federal appeals court has [...]

Secret report says Wikileaks a security threat to army

A classified intelligence report published on Wikileaks calls the site a “threat to the U.S. Army” and says it publishes information gained from leakers in the Defense Department or government that could be used to target military personnel. The report recommends identifying the leakers to end the threat to U.S. forces. -db
Wired
March 15, 2010
By David [...]

Newspapers win First Amendment victory in overturning ban on airport news racks

A panel of a federal appeal court ruled that a North Carolina airport is violating the First Amendment in banning newspaper vending racks. -db
McClatchy Washington Bureau
March 12, 2010
By Bruce Siceloff

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority is violating the First Amendment with its ban on newspaper coin vending racks at the airport, a federal appellate [...]

International internet freedom gets boost in latest regulations proposed by Obama administration

The U.S. Treasury Department announced changes in its sanctions against Cuba, Iran and the Sudan which allows internet service to these countries even when they are under U.S. sanctions. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
March 10, 2010
By Danny O’Brien
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Monday key amendments to the regulation of United States sanctions [...]

Federal judge rules that Department of Justice must release memos for terrorist trial

In the case of the first Guantanamo detainee to be moved from military commission system to Article III court for trial on terrorism charges, a federal judge ruled that the Department of Justice must release their memos pertaining to the transfer of the accused terrorist. -db
New York Law Journal
February 25, 2010
By Mark Hamblett

Prosecutors must produce [...]

Vague standards challenge Supreme Court in decisions on cases involving “material support” to terrorists

In deciding cases challenging the law forbidding support for terrorist organizations, the Supreme Court must consider that laws should provide clarity about which acts are illegal. -db

The New York Times
Commentary
February 23, 2010
By John Farmer Jr.
Notwithstanding the finger-pointing (and judicial head-shaking) since the Supreme Court’s decision last month on corporate speech, that ruling may not [...]

Supreme Court hears First Amendment case over right to talk with terrorist groups

The Supreme Court heard arguments over a challenge to laws fobidding “training,” “service” or “expert advice or assistance” to terrorist groups. A retired lawyer is seeking the right to provide support for the nonviolent activities of a Kurdish party and a Tamil group both classified as terrorist organizations. -db

The New York Times
February 23, 2010
By Adam Liptak [...]

Federal archivist calls for reform on declassification policy and procedure

According to Michael J. Kurtz, Assistant Archivist at the National Archives, the backlog of records awaiting declassification will continue to grow until classification policies are changed. -db
Secrecy News
American Federation of Scientists
Opinion
February 22, 2010
By Steven Aftergood

Executive branch agencies have spent more than a billion dollars on declassification of government records in recent years, but [...]

Pennsyvania court fires on local agency for withholding names of Homeland Security contractors

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review will have access to the identities of contractors who supplied first responder equipment to local agencies. In making the records public, the commonwealth court said it found no reasonable public safety argument in favor of withholding the names. -db

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
February 11, 2010
By Cristina Abello

A Pennsylvania agency [...]

Free speech: Patriot Act prevents civil rights lawyer from helping Kurdish group abandon terrorism

A civil rights lawyer is challenging a provision in the Patriot Act over his First Amendment rights to engage a Kurdish group he wants to advise about ways to resolve issues peacefully. The provision forbids him from engaing the group including offering “expert advice or assistance.” -db

The New York Times
February 11, 2010
By Adam Liptak
WASHINGTON, [...]

Courts and Congress avoid addressing legality of warrantless eavesdropping

A Wire Magazine commentary says that even after lawsuits have been filed alleging warrantless eavesdropping, the practice is continuing abetted by Congress and a passive court system. -db

Wired
Commentary
January 29, 2010
By David Kravets

The National Security Agency allegedly siphoned Americans’ communications without warrants from behind this door at an AT&T office in San Francisco.
Heads spun four years [...]

ACLU sounds warning on role of fusion centers in domestic spying

The American Civil Liberties Union warns that the 70 fusion centers set up to collect and share information after 9/11 are operating with little oversight, even book-marking law-abiding citizens for using “threatening words” one of which is “protest.” -db

American Civil Liberties Union
Opinion
January 29, 2010
By Amanda Simon

For years now, the ACLU has been sounding the alarm [...]

Obama favors disclosing contacts between lobbyists with administration or Congress

The Electronic Frontier Foundation hails President Barack Obama’s statement in the State of the Union address about disclosing lobbyist contacts. The Obama administration has been fighting FOIA requests seeking identities of lobbyists working the Department of Justice and Director of National Intelligence. -db

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
January 28, 2010
By Kurt Opsahl

In yesterday’s State of the Union address, [...]

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