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. [...]

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 [...]

Reporter sues Obama over law he claims threatens free press

A reporter has sued President Barack Obama saying that under the Homeland Battlefield Bill reporters simply doing their job could be thrown in jail without due process. Signed into law last December 31, the bill authorizes the military to indefinitely detain without charge or trial anyone accused of supporting terrorists anywhere in the world. -db [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Mexican citizens held for ‘Twitter terrorism’

Two Mexican citizens were arrested in Veracruz for  reporting on Twitter something they heard,  that a drug gang had attacked a primary school and conducted a kidnapping. It turns out that the report was untrue and caused a panic and over twenty car accidents as parents rushed to get their kids out of class. The [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Opinion: Federal judge said to weaken protection for anonymous speech

A Lebonese conglomerate with ties to Hezbollah won a judgment in federal court allowing a supoena to ISP Skybeam a host of anonymous postings that the conglomerate claim defamed them. The conglomerate is seeking to identify those responsible for the posts that alleged that to buy from the fashion company owned by the conglomerate provided [...]

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 [...]

Open government group plans to sue for photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body

Judicial Watch is filing a request under the Freedom of Information act to obtain photos of Osama bin Laden after he was shot dead in a CIA raid in Pakistan. Judical Watch president Tom Fitton says the public’s right to know outweighs President Barack Obama’s reasons for withholding the photos, “We are prepared to sue [...]

Texas: Journalist covering terrorism case seeks to suspend gag order

In a case of a man from Saudi Arabia alleged to have attempted to bomb targets in the U.S. including the house of ex-President George W. Bush, a journalist from Texas is asking for the federal appeals court to reverse a gag order issued by a trial court. The reporter’s petition reads, “Any restriction on [...]

Brooklyn brothers sue Fox TV for defamation after labeled as terrorists

Two Brooklyn brothers are filing suit against Fox TV for a report last year on a third brother indicted for traveling to Yemen to support Al Qaeda. The brothers said the report implied that they were involved in terrorism and transferring money to terrorists. For the Courthouse News Service, Adam Klasfeld writes, “In the broadcast [...]

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 [...]

Federal court administration justifies banning smart phones from courts

Smartphones could be used to provide instantaneous online updates of court proceedings but the federal court administration sees dangers in allowing smartphones in court buildings. The Administrative Office of the Courts want to ban smartphones not just because they could conceal non-metallic bombs but also for the potential harm to court proceedings through secret recording. [...]

Federal district court rejects libel suit against ’60 Minutes’

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. dismissed a lawsuit claiming libel of a chicken processing company on CBS “60 Minutes”. Mar-Jac Poultry Inc. claimed that CBS had implied that it conducted money laundering to support terrorists. The court wrote, “Looking at the Broadcast as a whole, any defamatory implication that money flowed through Mar-Jac to [...]

U.S. Supreme Court rules for transparency in Navy records case

The Supreme Court gave open government a significant victory by reversing decades of practice in discrediting a prominent interpretation used by government agencies to reject Freedom of Information Act requests. The Navy had tried to use an FOIA exemption for records “related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency” to reject [...]

Punjab Times fights libel over statement about terrorists

Courthouse News Service January 14, 2011 By Jeff D. Gorman A Californai appeals court ruled that a member of a Bay Area Sikh temple can sue the Punjab Times for defamation after the newspaper quoted the man saying the temple was training terrorists. -db

Supreme Court: Safety issues debated in Navy freedom of information case

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case pitting the public’s right to know against national security concerns over potential terrorist acts. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press December 1, 2010 By Stephen Miller The delicate act of balancing the public’s right to know with national security in a time of terrorism [...]

Federal appeals court rules Homeland Security could withhold information on plans to prevent terrorist activity

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could withhold information requested under the Freedom of Information Act concerning a government program to prevent terrorism during the 2004 elections and the ensuing inauguration. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press November 24, 2010 By Rosemary [...]

National Archives challenges CIA on destruction of tapes of brutal interrogations

The National Archives and Records Administration said they plan to investigate whether the CIA’s destruction of tapes showing brutal interrogations of terror suspects constituted improper destruction of federal records. -db NBC News November 10, 2010 By Michael Isikoff The legal inquiries into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the brutal interrogation of terror suspects may [...]

Free speech: United States web site taken down for advocating violence

Google has removed a site, RevolutionMuslim.com, after British authorities complained that the site ran a post that included a list of British lawmakers who voted for the Iraq war and called for Muslims to “raise the knife of Jihad” against them -db The New York Times November 5, 2010 By Ravi Somaiya LONDON — A [...]

WikiLeaks unveils CIA report on U.S. as an ‘exporter of terrorism’

The CIA has downplayed WikiLeaks’ latest release, a secret CIA analysis showing the extent of U.S. presence as an exporter of terrorism. -db Washington Post August 26, 2010 By Ellen Nakashima The United States has long been an exporter of terrorism, according to a secret CIA analysis released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks. And [...]

Blackberry dispute: Reporters Without Borders worried national security a pretext to censorship

Reporters Without Borders is concerned that in asking BlackBerry to provide access codes to governments, it will allow them to shut down free expression. -db MediaShift Commentary August 26, 2010 By Clothilde Le Coz Next week will be decisive for BlackBerry corporate users. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) could provide a solution to help [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Obama continues Bush procedures on warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens

The EFF legal director says the Obama administration has embraced the Bush policies on surveillance and more disturbingly the Bush principle that the executive branch is above the law. -DB ACS Blog Commentary August 17, 2009 By Cindy Cohn Both former NSA Director Michael Hayden and former Justice Department attorney John Yoo have taken to the [...]

Federal government: New ‘sharing’ agency no guarantee to transparency

Secrecy News’ Steven Atergood says that the newly appointed Senior Director for Information Sharing Policy does not have a mandate for transparency. Rather, Aftergood asserts, “information sharing” does not include the public. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists Analysis August 17, 2009 By Steven Aftergood The Obama Administration is giving increased attention to the [...]

Federal court reverses ruling that upheld government exclusion of leading Muslim world scholar

The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of U.S. organizations when the government excludes foreign scholars, artists, politicians from the U.S. holding that the organizations have a First Amendment right to hear and speak with those individuals. -DB American Civil Liberties Union Press Release July 17, 2009 NEW YORK – A federal appeals court [...]