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 [...]

Police agencies admit to saving body scan images

Despite claims by the TSA that electronic body scan images “cannot be stored or recorded,” some federal police agencies are in fact saving tens of thousands of images, according to a report by CNET News.
MSNBC
August 4, 2010
By Wilson Rothman

The body scanners, increasingly found in airports, courthouses and other places where security is [...]

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 [...]

Army arrests intelligence analyst for feeding Wikileaks videos of attacks killing civilians

Army investigators have arrested a 22-year-old intelligence analyst based in Iraq for providing Wikileaks with classified combat video and thousands of classified State Department diplomatic cables. -db
Wired
June 6, 2010
By Kevin Poulsen and Kim Zetter

Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Irag video research edges Wikileaks into investigative reporting role

Wikileaks has adopted the tools of investigative and advocacy journalism–including sending two people to Baghdad to research the story behind the Iraq video–to get leaked information out to the public.

Iraq Video Brings Notice to a Web Site
The New York Times
By NOAM COHEN and BRIAN STELTER
“Have encrypted videos of U.S. bomb strikes on [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

Records show FBI illegally obtained telephone call records

The FBI trampled the civil liberties of United States citizens by gathering up over 2,000 phone records between 2002 and 2006 by faking terrorism emergencies or simply strong-arming phone companies. -DB
The Washington Post
January 19, 2010
By John Solomon and Carrie Johnson

The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 [...]

Government worker fired for expressing political views loses round in court

An analyst working for the Library of Congress lost a first round in court when the judge refused to issue an order restoring the man to his job. The judge said however that his case was well-founded and that he was likely to prevail. -DB

Politico
January 20, 2010
A Congressional Research Service analyst who was fired from [...]

Obama administration begins roll back of ideological exclusion of international scholars

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed orders lifting the ban of two foreign scholars denied the opportunity to address audiences in the United States. The two are prominent scholars from England and South Africa and were denied visas to the U.S. by the Bush administration. -DB

American Civil Liberties Union
Press Release
January 20, 2010

WASHINGTON. D.C. – [...]

U.S. looking at issues of internet freedom after alleged Chinese cyberattack on Google accounts

After Google announced this week that hackers had tried to penetrate Gmail accounts in China including those of U.S. financial institutions and defense contractors, the Obama administration is considering their options in maintaining internet freedom. -DB
NextGov
January 13, 2010
By Aliya Sternstein
An alleged cyberattack by the Chinese government into systems operated by Google and other U.S. [...]

TSA backs off of subpoena to blogger publishing new airport security directive

After a blogger refused to surrender records of his posting of the new government airport security directive, the Transportation Security Administration changed course and withdrew the subpoena for the records. The blogger had objected to the lack of time to comply and that as a journalist he would be required to reveal his sources. -DB

Electronic [...]

Federal court upholds secrecy on surveillance records

A federal appeals court ruled that the government could refuse to confirm or deny the existence of electronic surveillance records as an exception under the Freedom of Information Act. Former Guantanamo Bay detainees had requested records of the warrantless surveillance. -DB

JURIST
January 01, 2010
By Christian Ehret
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official [...]

Obama administration releases September White House visitor logs

In a move that signals a change in practice from a year ago, the Obama administration released its log of White House visitors for September 16-30 along with 2,000 records from before September 16. -DB

Sunlight Foundation
Commentary
December 30, 2009
By Daniel Schuman
Today the White House released its log of White House visitors for the period of September [...]

TSA puts heat on blogger posting new screening procedures

Armed agents from the Transportation Security Administration visited two bloggers in their homes with subpoenas, seeking the identity of the source who provided a document revising screening procedures for airports after the recent aborted bombing attempt by a Nigerian man. -DB

Wired
Threat Level
December 30, 2009
By Kim Zetter

Two bloggers received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents [...]

Justice Department wants to close trial of Blackwater guards

Citing national security issues, the Justice Department has asked a judge to close the Jan. 7 trial of five security guards who allegedly killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians. -DB
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
December 21, 2009
By Rory Eastburg

The Justice Department has asked a judge to close a Jan. 7 hearing in the prosecution [...]

Federal judge orders release of government evidence pertaining to ‘no-fly list’

A federal judge in San Francisco ordered the Transportation Security Administration to disclose evidence showing that a Malaysian Muslim studying at Stanford University belonged on the federal government’s no-fly list. She was denied entry to the U.S. and lost her student visa. -DB

Courthouse News Service
December 21, 2009
By Annie Youderian

A federal judge in San Francisco ordered [...]

Freedom of Information Act request garners oversight report of alleged illegal intelligence activities

In response to its FOIA lawsuit in July, the Electronic Frontier Foundation saw the government release an intelligence oversight report that reveals intelligence activities some believe are illegal. -DB

Electronic Frontier Foundation
December 16, 2009
By Nate Cardozo
Today the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National [...]

Government lawyer argues torture suit too sensitive for public court

Citing national security and state secrets, a Justice Department lawyer argued that the suit involving the CIA and a San Jose company over extraordinary rendition and torture of suspected terrorists cannot proceed in open court. -DB
San Francisco Chronicle
December 16, 2009
By Bob Egelko
SAN FRANCISCO — A lawsuit accusing a Bay Area flight-planning company of aiding [...]

CIA fears new open government initiative could allow anyone to glean classified information from unclassified documents

Faced with the new open government directive, the Central Intelligence Agency is trying to decide to release online declassified documents and noncopyrighted analyses of foreign news. They fear that information online could be extracted more easily and combined to reveal classified information. -DB
NextGov

December 11, 2009
By Alicia Sternstein
The release of the open government directive could change intelligence [...]

Watchdog group seeks access to long sought White House visitor logs

Judicial Watch is suing the Secret Service for access to unreleased visitor legs requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The government cited national security concerns for some of the logs. -DB

Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
December 10, 2009
By Miranda Fleschert

Mere weeks after the White House began publishing select visitor logs online, the conservative [...]

Federal shield bill for reporters passes major hurdle

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the federal media shield bill to the full Senate after months of debate and amendments. The contentious issue of whether bloggers and other citizen journalists will be covered by the bill has yet to be determined. -DB
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
December 10, 2009
By Cristina Abello

The Senate [...]

Law professor argues public interest not served by Defense Secretary discretion on FOIA requests

Cornell Law School’s Michael Dorf says public interest may be not receive its just due now that Congress has removed judicial review for classifying material on national security grounds especially when that material may concern illegal activity. -DB

FindLaw
Analysis
December 2, 2009
By Michael C. Dorf

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the ruling of the U.S. [...]

EFF sues to force government to provide records of spying on social networks

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, working with the UC Berkeley law school, has filed suit against a number of federal agencies who have not responded to Freedom of Information Act requests for information about their surveillance of social networking sites. -DB

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Press Release
December 1, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), working with the [...]

ACLU argues hiding torture photos weakens democracy

ACLU Blog Manager Suzanne Ito says that in keeping the torture photos secret, the Obama administration is setting a dangerous precedent by preventing public scrutiny of government misconduct and stifling ideas that could make government operations more just and effective. -DB

American Civil Liberties Union
Opinion
December 1, 2009
By Suzanne Ito

Yesterday, the Supreme Court sent back to an [...]

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