9th Circuit: Coalition asks federal court to block government efforts to hide illegal domestic spying

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 [...]

Global decline in press freedom with ‘war on terror’

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 [...]

Council of Europe criticizes U.S. ‘cult of secrecy’

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 [...]

Guradian denies it caused leak of U.S. diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks website

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 [...]

New book: Secret security bureaucracy burgeons after 9/11

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 [...]

Editorial: Feds drag heels on releasing records going back as far as World War II

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 [...]

WikiLeaks’ unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables show up online

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. [...]

CIA wants to censor book by former FBI agent about 9/11 and terrorism

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 [...]

Justice Department refuses to declassify opinion on legality of warrantless surveillance

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 [...]

ACLU sues for records of FBI’s domestic spying

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 [...]

Federal court says White House visitor logs are public information

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 [...]

California: Long Beach police detains photographer for taking shot of refinery

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. [...]

Obama to issue new order improving security in response to WikiLeaks

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 [...]

ACLU calls for limits to government secrecy practices

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 [...]

Government secrets: How many and for how long?

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 [...]

Blogger files lawsuit to discover if government maintains file on him

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 [...]

Obama administration presses to stop leaks

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 [...]

Whistleblower gets plea deal, dodges espionage conviction

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 [...]

United Nations report calls for states to safeguard online freedom of expression

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 [...]

Opinion: PBS special puts WikiLeaks journalistic legitimacy in question

Jason Mick says the Public Broadcasting Service special “WikiSecrets” has raised serious questions about the WikiLeaks‘ whistleblowing credentials as many of the leaked documents revealed secret details about U.S. operations rather than exposed wrongdoing. Mick also cited the resistance put up by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to redacting the names of Afghanistan tribal leaders and [...]

Defense Department puts heat on employees to report suspicious information flows

A new directive requires Department of Defense personnel to report suspicious activities and behavior. Personnel could be punished for failing to report the specified activities. Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News writes, “The directive lists numerous actions that are subject to mandatory reporting including ‘attempts to obtain classified or sensitive information by an individual not authorized [...]

Uncertain outcome in fight over release of photos of the dead Osama bin Laden

In a fight over free press rights and national security, it is far from clear which side will prevail in the dispute over releasing photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body. Reuters reporter Andrew Longstreth wrote that secrecy expert Steven Aftergood doesn’t think the courts will see a substantial  national security issue over the photos, [...]

U.S. House of Representatives wants Pentagon lockout of WikiLeaks

The House Armed Services Committee wants to require the Defense Department to employ and “insider-detection” system to block leaks of information. The system would require centralized monitoring and detection of unauthorized activities especially cross-domain transfers of information. The committee did voice concerns that increased  scrutiny and would block the flow of information and negatively affect [...]

WikiLeaks investigation part of broader campaign against leakers

As a federal grand jury is preparing to look into the WikiLeaks release of classified U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan war documents, the Justice Department is aggressively pursuing others accused of leaking government secrets. Says Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy News, “For people who are concerned about freedom of the press, access [...]

Mix of traditional and conservative interests request Osama bin Laden photos

A number of the media and advocacy groups are requesting the photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The government has 20 days to respond to the requests. If the Army has the photos, unlike the White House they are subject to the FOIA although they would stall [...]

Twitter scoops traditional media in reporting bin Laden raid

Twitter carried reports of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound and his death before it was reported by cable news and print media. A Pakistani who says he is an IT professional and coffee shop owner tweeted the attack live. The Twitter phenomenon has prompted concerns that sensitive information such as the plans for [...]

Court rejects national security exemption in FOIA requests

In a rare show of skepticism, a federal district judge found the argument of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) unpersuasive in claiming a national security reason for refusing to disclose records. The judge said the USTR “has not shown it likely that disclosing document 1 would discourage foreign officials from providing [...]

WikiLeaks publishes secret Guantanamo memos from 2002 to 2008

WikiLeaks has released a number of reports from its trove of 779 classified files on Guantanamo prisoners. The Obama administration criticized the news agencies who picked up the reports. Out of favor with WikiLeaks, The New York Times obtained the reports from a source other than WikiLeaks and passed them on to The Guardian and [...]

Opinion: Classification reform of national security information stalls

Writing in Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood says that an initiative to reduce overclassification of national security information has produced no significant results. Obama announced the initiative in December of 2009. The Department of Defense (DOD) with the greatest portfolio of classified documents did not met its December 31, 2010 deadline for producing regulations for implementing [...]

WikiLeaks: Defense Department admits responsibility for leaks of classified documents

The Defense Department admitted it made errors that enabled the WikiLeaks release of classified Afghanistan and Iraq war documents but so far there was been no call for an investigation of how the government screwed up. The Defense Department’s Chief Information Officer Teri Taki proposed that classified documents could only be stored in encrypted form [...]

Obama administration hostile to whistleblowers

Jesselyn Radack writes in the Daily Kos that the Obama administration has initiated a number of prosecutions of whistleblowers with the Espionage Act as its “weapon of choice.” “The Obama administration has been consistently escalating its war on whistleblowers despite non-stop criticism from the whistleblowing community, First Amendment advocates, and journalists,” writes Radack. -db From [...]

Public interest group sues CIA for violating FOIA

National Security Counselors of Virginia has filed three lawsuits against the Central Intelligence Agency for its failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. The violations include failing to provide unclassified information and treating all training materials, guidelines and reference materials provided by CIA FOIA analysts as exempt regardless of content. -db From a [...]

A first: Size of budget for National Intelligence Program revealed

For the first time, the Director of National Intelligence disclosed the budget request for the coming year’s budget. For 2012, the amount requested is $55 billion. The call for  transparency has had a long history of contentious debate and litigation with the government arguing that revealing the budget could  hurt national security and compromise intelligence [...]

Two civil liberties groups file motion to challenge WikiLeaks probe

The Electronic Freedom Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion to challenge the Justice Department’s  attempt to obtain the Twitter records of a former WikiLeaks associate. Among others, the U.S. government is is targeting Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of Iceland’s parliament. Jonsdottir was one of two people who helped Wikileaks prepare a [...]

Fighting extradition to Sweden, WikiLeaks founder voices fears of harsh U.S punishment

The Guardian January 11, 2011 By Esther Addley The defense team of WikiLeaks Julian Assange claims it is likely Assange will end up in the United States if he is extradited to Sweden and there subject to the death penalty or an extended incarceration in Guantanamo Bay. -db

Wired magazine commentator commends Twitter for First Amendment stand in WikiLeaks subpoena case

Wired Analysis January 11, 2011 By Ryan Singel Writing in Wired, Ryan Singel said Twitter made a wise move that upheld the First Amendment after receiving a federal government subpoena for records of a number of people connected to WikiLeaks. Twitter went to court to get the gag order lifted then informed the people their [...]

Security tightening under WikiLeaks pressure

In response to recent breaches in security and WikiLeak’s release of classified documents, the Obama administration has issued a memorandum calling for government agencies to assess their information policies and tighten security. -db Secrecy News Commentary January 4, 2011 By Steven Aftergood The Obama Administration is moving to increase the security of classified information in [...]

WikiLeaks stumbles over arrangements with The Guardian for publication of classified documents

Vanity Fair February 2011 By Sarah Ellison In Vanity Fair’s February issue, Sarah Ellison reports that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange recently found himself in a cauldron of irony as he threatened The Guardian with a lawsuit if it published U.S. military classified documents leaked from WikiLeaks without his approval. The Guardian claimed that their agreement [...]

Call for federal government to shrink classification system

Secrecy News’ Steve Aftergood argues that with the release of a deluge of classified records by WikiLeaks in recent months, it is time for the federal government to reexamine its policies on classification and release records that never should have been classified. -db Secrecy News Opinion December 16, 2010 By Steven Aftergood Faced with release of [...]

WikiLeaks learning to enlist press to interpret documents

WikiLeaks has learned the importance of strategically releasing documents to selected news outlets to obtain the maximum exposure through the outlets’ ability to report on the significance of the documents. -db The New York Times Commentary December 12, 2010 By David Carr Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever? Perhaps. Or maybe it was the other way around. [...]

« Previous Page — Next Page »