Bloomberg editors call National Security Agency secrecy policy ‘dysfunctional’

Bloomberg editors Max Berley and Tobin Harshaw were unimpressed with NSA’s declassification of 50,000 pages of historic documents and the agency’s boast that the act demonstrated the Obama administration’s commitment to openness. The editors said one of the documents released was already long in the public domain and that the release of the documents was [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

2nd Circuit: Federal court allows challenge to warrantless surveillance

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for a second time that a suit could proceed that challenged a Congressional law allowing the National Security Agency to electronically spy on citizens without a probable-cause warrant. The case may finally come to trial unless the Obama administration uses the state secrets privilege to kill the [...]

Obama admnistration cites transparency gains in report

The Obama administration released a report about their progress in increasing transparency. They cited increased grants of Freedom of Information Act requests; the declassification of sensitive data; and the use of technology to improve access to government spending and information on government agencies. The report was well-received by open government advocates, but they noted that [...]

Domestic spying pervasive since 9/11

President Barack Obama has done nothing to fulfill his promise to curtail warrantless spying and in fact wants Congress to renew powers given to the federal government to conduct the surveillance. Writing a commentary for Wired, Ryan Singel quotes Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute on the effectiveness of the spying, “We have become so [...]

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 [...]

ACLU files public records requests on cell phone tracking by law enforcement

Affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union filed 379 public records requests in 31 states to find out how local law enforcement agencies are using cell phone location to track citizens. Writing for the ACLU, Allie Bohn says that laws don’t always keep up with technology and civil liberties suffer, “…while we believe that law [...]

Federal secrecy: Complaint to fight gratuitous classification

The former head of the Security Oversight Office, J.William Leonard, has filed a complaint against two federal agencies for classifying a document that has no secrets. The complaint asked that officials be punished for overclassification. Leonard said in his 34 years in government, he often saw documents unnecessarily classified as secret, and no one was [...]

New York Times reporter ordered to testify but may protect sources

A federal judge ordered New York Times reporter James Risen to testify in the trial of former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling but may protect the identities of his sources. Risen had published a book about the CIA botches during several presidential administrations. For the Courthouse News Service, Ryan Abbott wrote, “U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema [...]

Whistleblower gets probation in espionage case

Charged with espionage for leaking classified information to a reporter concerning contracts let by the National Security Agency that he felt wasted taxpayers’ money, Thomas Drake agreed to a plea deal of one-year on probation and 240 hours of community service. The federal judge presiding over the case criticized the government for retreating on the [...]

Federal judge allows National Security Agency to dodge question about ties to Google

A federal judge is allowing the National Security Agency to avoid answering the question about a possible relationship between the agency and Google after the China hacking incident of January 2010. The judge said NSA ruled the agency only had  state it can “neither confirm nor deny” that it has a relationship with Google.-db From [...]

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 [...]

Espionage Act: Washington Post questions charges against former government employee

Justice Department prosecutors are trying Thomas Drake, a former employee of the National Security Agency, for violation of the Espionage Act after Drake talked to a Baltimore Sun reporter about a program he thought was wasting billions of taxpayer dollars. A Washington Post editorial argues that the indictment and proposed punishment are not proportionate to [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Government orders decade-high number of secrecy orders for new patents

The U.S. government has ordered 5,081 invention secrecy orders so far this year, according to stats released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office under a Freedom of Information Act request by Secrecy News. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists October 22, 2009 By Steven Aftergood The total number of invention secrecy orders that [...]

Civil liberties group gains access to telecom lobbying record over surveillance program

A federal judge ordered the Obama administration to release records of telecom lobbying to obtain immunity from suits over their role in warrantless surveillance. -DB Electronic Frontier Foundation Press Release September 24, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO – A judge ordered the government Thursday to release more records about the lobbying campaign to provide immunity to the [...]