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 for Secrecy News, with the government’s increased focus on leaks and use of new surveillance tools. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, February 8, 2012, by Steven Aftergood.

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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 not be allowed to operate without transparency and accountability. -db

From The Washington Post, February 1, 2012, by Karen DeYoung.

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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 methods or equipment. -db

From The Blog of Legal Times, January 26, 2012, by Mike Scarcella.

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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. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 23, 20112, by Andrea Papagianis.

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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 there is no right for reporters to withhold identities of sources in criminal cases. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, January 17, 2012, by Steven Aftergood.

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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 Foundation, December 31, 2011, by Jennifer Lynch and Mark Rumold.

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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, December 7, 2011, by Nathan Freed Wessler and Anna Estevao.

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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

From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 28, 2011, by Trevor Timm.

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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 the court from seeing the records. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, November 21, 2011, by Jennifer Lynch.

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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 22, 2011, by Kirsten Berg.

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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.

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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 the Press, October 28, 2011, by J.C. Derrick.

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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 the Patriot Act to investigate citizens without their knowledge. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 27, 2011, by Maria Dinzeo.

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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 none of the information was classified or even held by the government. -db

From Secrecy News, October 13, 2011, by Steven Aftergood.

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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 explanation, that establishing a review process would do more to achieve greater transparency. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, October 6, 2011, by Steven Aftergood.

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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 in the future. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, October 6, 2011, by Adam Klasfeld.

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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 execution of an American citizen without due process. -db

From a commentary in The New York Times, October 4, 2011, by Scott Shane.

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the government for records of who is on the Intelligence Oversight Board, the civilian board responsible for reviewing misconduct reports for federal intelligence agencies.

The suit  is part of EFF’s ongoing investigation of intelligence violations as Congress considers changes to current oversight laws. -db

From a press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, September 27, 2011.

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The Justice Department filed a motion in federal court claiming that the death photos and videos of Osama bin Laden should be exempted from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

The CIA said that releasing the graphic images of bin Laden would “cause harm to the national security of the United States” by provoking acts of revenge against the U.S. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, September 27, 2011, by You-Jin Han.

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Two Democratic senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the Justice Department of misleading the public on legal justification of domestic spying under the Patriot Act. The DOJ denied that they provided any misleading information.

The senators  are concerned about Section 215 of the Patriot Act that allows a secret national security court to enable the F.B.I. to obtain “any tangible things” in a national security investigation including  customer information like hotel or credit card records. The senators say with a go ahead from the secret security court, the government has also interpreted the provision as allowing the government to obtain private information about people with no link to terrorism or espionage. -db

From The New York Times, September 21, 2011, by Charlie Savage.

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All requests for CIA reports on the impact of global warming have been denied on national security grounds prompting skepticism from Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News.

“The CIA response indicates a fundamental lack of discernment that calls into question the integrity of the Center on Climate Change, if not the Agency as a whole. If the CIA really thinks (or pretends to think) that every document produced by the Center constitutes a potential threat to national security, who can expect the Center to say anything intelligent or useful about climate change?” writes Aftergood. -db

From a commentary for Secrecy News, September 22, 2011,  by Steven Aftergood.

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A coalition including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a brief asking a federal appeals court to prevent the government from using the “state secrets” argument to dismiss a lawsuit challenging warrantless surveillance.

In a press release, EFF described the lawsuit brought by a Muslim group,  “The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation alleges in its lawsuit that federal agents illegally wiretapped calls between the charity and its lawyers. The government has refused to confirm or deny any court order authorizing surveillance, arguing only that the state secrets privilege protects the government from any litigation.” -db

From a press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, September 22, 2011.

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Since 9/11 the free press has been under attack in the U.S., providing inspiration and cover for governments around the world  to limit press freedom in the name of the “war on terror,” writes Joel Simon in a commentary for CNN.

Among the most repressive countries are Pakistan, Ethiopia, Columbia, Mexico, Yemen, Syria and Sri Lanka. -db

From a commentary for CNN, September 9, 2011, by Joel Simon.

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The inter-parliamentary  Council of Europe has issued a draft resolution blasting the U.S. for its “cult of secrecy” and said whistleblowers played a vital tole in challenging government secrecy.

The resolution pointed up the ill effects of secrecy, “In some countries, in particular the United States, the notion of state secrecy is used to shield agents of the executive from prosecution for serious criminal offenses such as abduction and torture, or to stop victims from suing for compensation.”

From the Secrecy News, September 8, 2011 by Steven Aftergood.

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The Guardian said it had no role in the release of thousands of unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks claimed that the newspaper had caused the security breach.

A Guardian News & Media spokeswoman said their story about WikiLeaks in February contained a password but nothing about the location of the files and that WikiLeaks had told them the password was only temporary and would expire in a matter of hours. -db

From  the Press Gazette, September 1, 2011, by PA Media Lawyer.

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Since 9/11, “Top Secret America” has grown to gargantuan proportions according to a new book by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, writes Steven Aftergood in a review of the book for Secrecy News.

Office buildings devoted to secret intelligence have grown to the equivalence of almost three Pentagons with more than 250,000 contractors working on secret projects. The authors are skeptical about the effectiveness of the devoting so many resources on secret enterprises without public debate. -db

From a review in Secrecy News, September 1, 2011, by Steven Aftergood.

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While the Obama administration is making some progress in breaking the backlog of Freedom of Information Act requests, the National Security Archive says that there are still requests that go back over a decade and even to World War II.

There are reasons for the slow pace but none that make much sense or could justify a delay of over 60 years. -db

From an editorial in The New York Times, August 27, 2011.

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WikiLeaks has once again fueled criticism that it is irresponsible in handling its cache of U.S. diplomatic cables. The cables have surfaced online, unredacted with names of informants and intelligence agents.

WikiLeaks denied they leaked the cables, putting the blame elsewhere. “The issue relates to a mainstream media partner and a malicious individual,”  they wrote. -db

From Wired, August 29, 2011, by Kim Zetter and Kevin Poulsen.

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The Central Intelligence Agency is demanding that a memoir of a former FBI agent be heavily cut before publication. The agent was at the forefront of the fight against Al Qaeda and terrorism and makes some pointed criticisms of CIA errors including the harsh interrogation of the first important captive after 9/11.

People close to the controversy say that much of the information the CIA wants redacted has already been aired in Congressional hearings and other venues. -db

From The New York Times, August 25, 2011, by Scott Shane.

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The Justice Department has refused to declassify a 2001 opinion written by John C. Yoo on the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

Critics of the program want to obtain the entire 21-page opinion to make sure misguided legal opinions do not live on to guide government policy. -db

From Secrecy News, August 26, 2011. by Steven Aftergood.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the FBI and the National Security Agency for withholding information about the eGuardian monitoring system that collects information on “suspicious activity” that may include taking photos of important buildings. The ACLU has been unsuccessful in its attempts to acquire the information through the Freedom of Information Act.

The ACLU writes in their court filing, “these records will significantly contribute to the public’s understanding of how local, state and federal authorities have interpreted the broad mandate of the eGuardian program, how they have used the potentially invasive ‘suspicious activity’ reporting system, and whether effective safeguards are in place to protect Americans against unwarranted privacy invasions or discriminatory surveillance based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or protected beliefs or activities.” -db

From the Courthouse News Service, August 28, 2011, by Iulia Filip.

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A federal district court in Washington, D.C. ruled that White House visitor logs are a part of the public record and subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The Secret Service had argued that the logs were not agency records under the FOIA but White House records so under the Presidential Records Act. It also cited national security issues in denying requests for the log.

The court ordered the Secret Service to review the logs for possible FOIA  exemptions and then to release all non-exempt  logs. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, August 18, 2011, by Christine Beckett.

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The Long Beach police chief said the department policy is to detain photographers taking shots of subjects with no aesthetic value such as a refinery and not acting like a “regular” tourist.

A police officer had detailed a Long Beach resident and contributor to the Long Beach Post for taking a photo of a refinery. The city attorney said the officer was within his rights to detain the photographer if he had “reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.” -db

From the Long Beach Post, August 15, 2011, by Greggory Moore.

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The Obama administration will issue an executive order in a matter of weeks to tighten security of classified information. New procedures will meet the challenge of groups like WikiLeaks who  got ahold of thousands of classified documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The procedures will fill in gaps in policy for information systems security and facilitate the detection of insider threats to information security. -db

From Secrecy News, August 12, 2011 by Steven Aftergood.

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In a report released on July 28, the American Civil Liberties Union says that since 9/11, the government has created secret agencies, committees, court and laws to keep their activities from public scrutiny.

Michael German, ACLU national security policy counsel and former FBI agent warns of the damage too much secrecy can do, “By undermining our constitutional system of checks and balances, secrecy harms our democracy and makes our government less effective. Not only that, increasingly allowing our government to operate in the shadows lets errors and abuses stand unchecked and makes us less safe.” -db

From a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union , July 28, 2011.

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In a memorandum just made public this week, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in 2005 tht the government secrecy system was a failure, that the government was incapable of keeping a secret and policies need to be crafted to deal with that reality.

One current government official said Rumsfeld’s initial premise was wrong. The government could keep secrets but that trying to keep too many secrets for a long time would bring failure. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, July 15, 2011 by Steven Aftergood.

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A University of Michigan professor, Juan Cole, who suspects he was under investigation by the federal government for his blogs on Mideast issues, is filing a lawsuit to force the government to release any files on him.

The lawsuit came about after a former CIA official said his superiors asked what he knew about Cole and what he could find that would discredit him. ACLU attorney Zachary Katznelson says the lawsuit is to determine “whether or not [the government] in fact investigated an American citizen merely for speaking out and voicing his opinion. If they did, that’s completely illegal.” -db

From Wired, July 13, 2011, by Spencer Ackerman.

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The Obama Administration is unrelenting in its campaign against leaks of classified information, despite its failure to uphold its case against a former National Security Agency official who allegedly fed secrets to the Baltimore Sun.

Now, the New York Times says, the government is pursuing an arms expert who provided information to Fox News.

The administration has prosecuted five criminal cases, compared to a total of three under all previous administrations, the Times said.

A secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists accuses the government of “leaping to the most extreme response, felony charges” instead of exploring its many other options.”

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A former employee of the National Security Agency, Thomas A. Drake, charged with espionage for leaking classified information, struck a deal with the Justice Department admitting to a misdemeanor of using NSA’s computers to to provide information to a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. It is expected that Drake will not have to serve any jail time.

Drake claimed he leaked information to the reporter out of concern that the agency was wasting taxpayer money by rejecting a $3 million in-house program for a contracted program costing more than $3 billion. The Obama administration indicted Drake, charging him with violating the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information to the press. -db

From The New York Times, June 9, 2011, by Scott Shane.

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The United Nations will begin discussion this week about online freedom of expression after hearing a special report that advocates protecting privacy and anonymous speech online.

The UN report questions the use of surveillance under the guise of national security or counter-terrorism. The report’s author, Frank La Rue, said surveillance measures “often [take] place for political, rather than security reasons in an arbitrary and covert manner.” -db

From a commentary from the Electronic Freedom Foundation, May 31, 2011, by Katitza Rodriguez.

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