Government study of leaks of classified documents calls for dialogue with media

A study of leaks of classified information says that the friction caused by interests in keeping national security secrets and in the public’s right to know can be mitigated to some extent through improved understanding and management achieved partly through dialogue between the government and media. WikiLeaks has changed the secrecy terrain, writes Steven Aftergood [...]

ACLU challenges federal government on records of drone attacks killing U.S. citizens in Yemen

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Obama administration to force them to release records related to the deaths by drone attacks of three U.S. citizens in Yemen. The administration cited national security in denying the request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, but the ACLU said the drone program should [...]

Federal agencies making scant progress in declassifying backlog

Two years after President Barack Obama ordered government agencies to come up to speed on declassifying 400 million pages of old records, there has been little progress. The failure to make more progress is a sign that the secrecy system considers itself immune from presidential orders, writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. -db From a [...]

Justice Department cites threat of violence in U.S. in keeping bin Laden photos secret

The Justice Department wants a federal judge to allow them to withhold photos of the death of Osama bin Laden on the grounds that releasing the photos could incite violence against the U.S. The DOJ disputed the arguments of Judicial Watch that making the photos public would cause harm to national security by revealing intelligence [...]

Government indicts former CIA officer for leaks of classfied information to journalists

The Justice Department  is charging a former intelligence officer with leaking classified information to a journalist. The leaks included the names of covert officers and their work in apprehending terrorist suspects. The officer is charged with divulging to a New York Times reporter the contact information and details of activities of a covert CIA operative. [...]

Appeal in the works in Twitter/WikiLeaks case

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are set to file an appeal concerning the U.S. government’s attempts to obtain Twitter records in their investigation of WikiLeaks. The ACLU and EFF are seeking to prevent the government from sealing records of their efforts to obtain private information of Internet users without a [...]

Prosecutors seeking testimony of New York Times reporter in national security trial

Prosecutors in the case of a former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling accused of leaking classified information are attempting to reverse a lower court finding that a New York Times reporter James Risen was exempt from disclosing his sources for a story on a CIA program to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program. The government prosecutors claim that [...]

Government forces clamp on Twitter demanding censorship

The U.S. government has stepped up efforts to pressure Twitter to censor posts by a militant Somali group and the Taliban according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Israeli government and U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman are also pressuring Twitter. -db From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 6, 2012, byy Jillian C. York [...]

Four cases in 2011 give boost to transparency

There were four cases over the Freedom of Information Act that promoted transparency in 2011 according to the Electronic Freedom Foundation. The cases were Milner v. Department of Navy, FCC v. AT&T, Islamic Shura Council of S. Cal. v. FBI and National Day Laborer Organizing Network v. ICE. From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier [...]

American Civil Liberties Union claims secrecy hurting democracy

The quest for national security after 9/11 has resulted in a number of secret agencies, Congressional committees, courts and even laws argues the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU claims that these practices deprive lawmakers and the public of information needed to check abuses and to make policy. -db From a commentary for the American [...]

Los Angeles Times editorial sides with Secret Service in arrest of protesting man

When the U.S. Supreme Court decides the case of a protesting man arrested for laying a hand on then-Vice President Dick Cheney in a shopping mall in 2006, it will have to balance the man’s free speech rights against the need of the Secret Service to make difficult split-second decisions to protect life, in this [...]

State Department still says cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified

The Obama administration is still insisting that cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified even though the cables were released by the State Department in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request. The classified information concerned targeted killings, detention at Guantanamo, torture and rendition. -db From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, [...]

U.S. Supreme Court accepts free speech case involving then Vice President Dick Cheney

A man who expressed his dislike of the Iraq war to then-Vice President Dick Cheney and was arrested for putting his hand on Cheney’s shoulder will have his First Amendment suit heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The man claimed his arrest came about because of his political views. The Justice Department said Secret Service [...]

WikiLeaks reveals details on ‘mass surveillance industry’

WikiLeaks released  the first documents of a massive cache of documents from contractors involved in surveillance. To make the release, WikiLeaks worked with two other nonprofits and with the media including the Washington Post. WikiLeaks said surveillance companies were invading personal computers and cell phones. -db From Mashable, December 1, 2011, by Stan Schroeder. Full [...]

Opinion: China’s censorship regimen spreading around the world

Totalitarian regimes around the world are successfully using the Chinese model of censorship against their citizens, reports David Rohde in a commentary for Reuters. Rohde says the Stop Online Piracy Act would seriously erode the ability of the United States to fight the new tide of international Internet censorship. -db From a commentary for Reuters, [...]

Opinion: WikiLeaks made significant contributions to the right to know

WikiLeaks has changed the face of journalism and contributed more scoops this year than any other media outlet, reports Trevor Timm in a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In using the Espionage Act to prosecute WikiLeaks, the federal government poses a real threat to the mainsream media and the First Amendment, argues Timm. -db [...]

Federal court sanctions federal government for lying about existence of records on surveillance of Muslim groups

A federal district court in California objected to the FBI’s practice of withholding information from the court whenever it thinks it serves the interest of national security. While the court said national security interests could justify withholding the information about targeting Muslim organizations from the Islamic Shura Council and its attorneys, it could not block [...]

Defense Department makes it easier to obtain court filings in Guantanamo trials

As trials of accused terrorists begin at Guantanamo Bay, the Defense Department released new regulations designed to create better access to court filings. Journalists have objected to the long review processes for obtaining court filings without which they were lost when covering the trials. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, November [...]

Justice Department refuses request for legal opinion concerning FBI surveillance

The Justice Department has refused a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for an important legal opinon on the use of “exigent letters,” a method of requesting information that includes telephone company records. In refusing to disclose the legal opinion, the DOJ cited national security concerns. -db From Politico, November 11, 2011, by Josh Gerstein. [...]

Justice Department gains right to WikiLeaks associates’ Twitter info

A federal judge upheld a lower court decision that the Justice Department may obtain records of twitter accounts of three current and former WikiLeaks associates. Under the ruling by the lower court, the order includes records showing the times messages were sent to one another and the Internet IP addresses but does not include the [...]

Federal judge rules against New York Times in withholding of records of FBI terrorism investigations

A federal judge ruled that the FBI could withhold data from its terrorism investigations from a New York Times investigative reporter. The judge said The New York Times had not rebutted the FBI’s statement that they had fulfilled requests made under the Freedom of Information Act except for that under FOIA exemption. -db From the [...]

Homeland Security sued for mashing whistleblowers

A former Customs officer sued in federal court claiming that the Department of Homeland Security operates a “Cat’s Paw” program that fosters action against whistleblowers that can’t be traced back to the supervisor that initiates the retaliation. The officer claimed that the retaliations were often inappropriate and that federal whistleblower laws were ineffective in protecting [...]

Justice Department withdraws rule change on FOIA requests

Reacting to pressure from legislators and open government advocates, the Department of Justice withdrew a proposal to allow government agencies to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests with false denials. The proposal would have allowed them to deny that records exist when they actually did. -db From a press release from the American Civil [...]

WikiLeaks founder loses round in attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden to face alleged rape charge

Britain’s High Court found that the sex charges were sufficiently serious to warrant extradition of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange to Sweden. Assange’s attorneys contend  that the sex changes were politically motivated, part of a plot to extradite Assange to the United States for prosecution over the WikiLeaks release of thousands of cables on the Afghanistan [...]

Commission unveils war fraud, seals records for 20 years

After uncovering $60 billion in contractor waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Commission on Wartime Contracting buried its internal records for 20 years. The Commission did release 8 reports and publish recommendations to avoid waste and fraud, but the decision to block access to the internal records and source material prevents the public [...]

ACLU publishes article outlining rights of photographers

The American Civil Liberties Union outlines the rights of photographers to help them resist attempts of law enforcement to prevent them from taking photos in public places. -db From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, October 31, 2011. Full story

ACLU suing Los Angeles sheriff for limiting photography in public places

The American Civil Liberties Union is invoking the First Amendment in suing the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department for labeling photography in key public places as “suspicious activity.” In three separate incidents, sheriff deputies detained photographers, at a Los Angeles Metro, industrial buildings, and the Long Beach courthouse. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of [...]

U.S. diplomat suspended for publishing book criticizing Iraq war policy

The Obama administration suspended Foreign Services Officer Peter Van Buren for his book critical of the State Department operations in Iraq. Van Buren also installed a link to WikiLeaks on his blog. “No one was particularly concerned about what we were doing, how much money we were spending, and the results of our endeavors,”  Van [...]

Sources in peril as journalists fail to keep pace in cybersecurity

A robust free press often relies on anonymous sources with reporters going to prison to protect these sources, but with the advances in electronic surveillance, journalists are ill-equipped to protect these sources, writes Christopher Soghoian, an expert in cybersecurity, in an op-ed for The New York Times. Soghoian says that news organizations need to invest [...]

Digital freedom watchdog sues Justice Department over Patriot Act

The Electronic Freedom Foundation sued the Department of Justice for its failure to release documents detailing its interpretation and use of Section 215 of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. The section allows the FBI to obtain a court order for “any tangible thing” related to a terrorism investigation. The EFF claims the government has been misusing [...]

Justice Department proposes change to Freedom of Information Act that facilitates hiding records

The Justice Department has proposed a rule change for the FOIA to allow government agencies to deny that records do not exist when they do. As it stands now the government can withhold information and issue a Glomar denial that says they neither confirm nor deny the records exist. Open government advocates say that the [...]

Obama administration bids to keep White House visitor logs from public

The Obama administration is appealing a judge’s ruling that Secret Service records of White House visitors come under the Freedom of Information Act and must be disclosed to the public. The Justice Department claims the records are presidential records not agency records so not subject to the FOIA. -db From Politico, October 14, 2011, by [...]

Opinion: Air Force covers up 2010 fatal crash of Osprey in Afghanistan

With the black box destroyed and top Air Force brass denying that engine failure was responsible, it is difficult to determine a cause for the crash of Osprey 06-0031 in Afghanistan in 2010. The lead investigator of the accident had earlier concluded that the likely cause was engine failure. David Axe for Wired writes that [...]

Challenge to federal appeals court’s extending Espionage Act to unclassified info

An effort is underway to challenge a federal court ruling that extended the application of the Espionage Act to unclassified, non-governmental information. An attorney for a man convicted on charges of economic espionage filed a petition with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals claiming the conviction for “gathering national defense information” was unjust in that [...]

Obama releases executive order to tighten security in WikiLeaks era

The Obama administration has taken steps to safeguard classified secrets and to insure that with safeguards agencies still share critical intelligence. The president’s executive order will establish internal auditing systems to assess information security and sharing throughout the federal government. The order also sets up a study to determine whether agencies can identify people who [...]

Secrecy News laments lack of accountability in denying information

Some argue that if government classifiers were required to justify their classifications with clear, precise written explanation, there would be less information consigned to secrecy, writes Steven Aftergood for Secrecy News. As of now, officials get away with saying “it is secret because it’s secret,” but Aftergood thinks that it is not enough to require [...]

Diplomat shares perspective on reading diplomatic cables released by WikiLeak

A former diplomat provides a practical guide for reading diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks with perspectives for working journalists and others on the value of the information. -db From Wired, October 7, 2011, by Daniel Serwer. Full story

Federal judge rules for CIA in destruction of interrogation videotapes

The American Civil Liberties Union and allies lost a bid in federal court to find out who was responsible for destroying nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations in 2001 of al Qaeda leaders. The judge noted that the CIA had erred in destroying the videotapes but had since made changes to prevent the destruction of videos [...]

Drone strikes out in open but still classified and not subject to discussion

When a U.S. drone strike killed a U.S. citizen in Yemen who was a prominent al Qaeda terrorist, President Barack Obama would not acknowledge the obvious – that a drone had done the task or that the C.I.A. was involved. Nor would the Obama administration provide the public with details on the policy behind an [...]

Study suggests way to reduce government overclassification

A report by the Brennan Center for Justice proposes a pilot program for the government to insure employees are accountable for improper classification decisions. The report calls for better training for employees on what should be classified. The report also suggests building in incentives for declassifying documents. -db From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of [...]

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