December 30, 2005
Year End Update On the Costs of Iraq War

A running total of the U.S. taxpayer cost of the Iraq War is provided by the National Priorities Project, using data from Congressional appropriations. The war in Iraq costs, to date, are in excess of $230 billion. Iraq coalition casualties now number 2,178. Bush says 30,000 Iraqis dead since invasion began.

Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
UK Magistrates' Court Test Text Messaging To Collect Fines

The Staffordshire magistrates' court recently tested the use of a "pay up or get locked up" text message to offenders, with a surprising level of success. Evidently, the technology may be more widely embraced in future by courts as an additional mechanism to collect outstanding fines: "Everyone's got a mobile phone and as one of the most common ways to keep in touch these days, it makes sense for the courts to contact offenders that way too."

  • Related reference: UK to Implement 24 Hour Vehicle Surveillance Program
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Courts, Privacy
    White House Website Will Continue Using Web Bugs

    New information related to yesterday's posting, NSA Website Discontinues Tracking Users After Objections, and in reference to U.S. to Investigate Contractor's Use of Internet Tracking Technologies on White House Web Site. This evening, AP reported that David Almacy, White House Internet and E-Communications Director, announced that the government website is not in violation of privacy guidelines that prohibit the use of cookies. The site does use web bugs, which it claims are not matched with the use of cookies. By way of further clarification, a "bug" is a small eavesdropping device.

    Five Week Patriot Act Extension Signed By President

    Follow-up to my December 22 posting, House Approves 5 Week Extension for Patriot Act, news from AP that Bush Signs Patriot Act Extension at Ranch.

  • From the NJ Madison Eagle: Librarians sounding off on Patriot Act - 'Chilling Effect' 'Ask For Subpoena' - "As the House, the Senate and the White House wrangled last week over a reauthorization of the Patriot Act with the clock ticking toward an end-of-year deadline, local librarians were not being shushed on their concerns over the privacy of their patrons."

  • Annual Energy Outlook 2006 (Early Release)

    "The Annual Energy Outlook presents a midterm forecast and analysis of US energy supply, demand, and prices through 2030. The projections are based on results from the Energy Information Administration's National Energy Modeling System. The AEO2006 Early Release includes the reference case. The full publication, to be released in early 2006, will include complete documentation and additional cases examining energy markets." [Release date: December 2005]

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    DOJ Launches Investigation Into Leak About Domestic Surveillance Program

    As a result of the New York Times article published on December 15 of this year, as reported by CNN and AP: "The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the leak of classified information about President Bush's secret domestic spying program."

    Related references:

  • White House spokesman Trent Duffy: "The leaking of classified information is a serious issue."

  • Commentary by John W. Dean, George W. Bush as the New Richard M. Nixon: Both Wiretapped Illegally, and Impeachably; Both Claimed That a President May Violate Congress' Laws to Protect National Security

  • postings on the government's domestic surveillance program

  • Harris Poll: Many Americans Still Believe Hussein Had Links to al Qaeda

  • December 29, 2005
    Pentagon Overseas Website PR Program Under Scrutiny

    LA Times (reg. req'd), Pentagon Calls Its Pro-U.S. Websites Legal: "U.S. military websites that pay journalists to write articles and commentary supporting military activities in Europe and Africa do not violate U.S. law or Pentagon policies, a review by the Pentagon's chief investigator has concluded. But a senior Defense Department official said this week that the websites could still be shut down to avoid the appearance of impropriety."

    Related references:

  • International Public Information (IPI), Presidential Decision Directive PDD 68, 30 April 1999

  • CNN, February 5, 2005 - Pentagon sites: Journalism or propaganda?

  • Discussion on Warrantless Wiretapping of Americans Inside the U.S.

    From the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, a Domestic Surveillance Discussion, between two Federalist Society members, David B. Rivkin Jr. and Robert Levy (10 pages, PDF).

  • Title 50 > Chapter 36 > Subchapter I - Electronic Surveillance
  • National Conference of State Legislatures Identify Key Issues for 2006

    Press release: NCSL's Top Ten Legislative Issues Forecast For 2006.

    Humane Society Top 12 Animal Stories of 2005

    Press release: HSUS Top 12 Animal Stories of 2005.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Congress, Legislation
    Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006 Now Available

    Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006, 125th edition (link to table of contents, with text available in PDF).

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    Compendium of Collective OIG's Activities in Oversight of Hurricane Disaster Response and Recovery

    President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE), Executive Council on Integrity and Efficiency Compendium of OIG Hurricane Oversight in the Gulf States, published 12/12/05 (18 pages, PDF).

  • PCIE Bi-Weekly Interagency Homeland Security Roundtable Report on Hurricane Katrina Oversight, December 16, 2005. The report, and a separate Memorandum for the Record clarifying GSA's role in providing FEMA assistance...

  • US Military Personnel Using Blogs To Communicate About Iraq Conflict

    Sydney Morning Herald: US military finds soldiers' blogs too close for comfort: "In a development that is worrying US military commanders in Iraq, a growing number of US soldiers - 200 at the last count - have set up their own blogs, or internet diaries, and are updating them from the battlefield."

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Blogs
    Lack of Info Sharing Infrastructure Impedes Homeland Security

    Press release: Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) released a report today showing that more than four years after 9/11 the federal government still does not have working systems for getting law enforcement officers the information they need to identify terrorists and to thwart their plans. The report, Beyond Connecting the Dots: A VITAL Framework for Sharing Law Enforcement Intelligence Information (52 pages, PDF), finds that frontline law enforcement officers are often unable to access intelligence information that could be critical to catching terrorists at our borders, our ports, our cities, and our towns throughout America."

  • Related reference from USA Today: "Many of the USA's 50,000 public-safety agencies still can't talk to each other in a crisis. The problem has plagued emergency responders in every big disaster in recent memory — from the Oklahoma City bombing to 9/11 to Katrina. The main culprit? Incompatible radio equipment."
  • NSA Website Discontinues Tracking Users After Objections

    Following up on yesterday's posting, NSA Website Uses Cookies Despite Prohibition, from today's New York Times: Spy Agency Removes Illegal Tracking Files.

  • See also U.S. to probe contractor's Web tracking
  • DHS IG Audit Identifies Major Management Problems

    Department of Homeland Security, office of Inspector General report: Major Management Challenges Facing the Department of Homeland Security, December 2005 (26 pages, PDF).

  • AP reports: Weaknesses in FEMA's response system during Hurricane Katrina were just one symptom of major management challenges at the Homeland Security Department, an internal report issued Wednesday concludes."

  • See also this recent posting: Report Details Significant DHS Security Failures
  • December 28, 2005
    Article Analyzes Semantic Structure of Wikipedia

    Analyzing and Visualizing the Semantic Coverage of Wikipedia and Its Authors, by Todd Holloway, Miran Bozicevic, Katy Börner:

  • "This paper presents a novel analysis and visualization of English Wikipedia data. Our specific interest is the analysis of basic statistics, the identification of the semantic structure and age of the categories in this free online encyclopedia, and the content coverage of its highly productive authors. The paper starts with an introduction of Wikipedia and a review of related work. We then introduce a suite of measures and approaches to analyze and map the semantic structure of Wikipedia. The results show that co-occurrences of categories within individual articles have a power-law distribution, and when mapped reveal the nicely clustered semantic structure of Wikipedia."


  • Related references:
  • Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopedia, Ponders a New Entity: Wikiversity

  • EPIC Posts Privacy Report By Alito While At Princeton

    EPIC: "As a student at Princeton University, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito put together a remarkable report on the future of privacy in America. EPIC has obtained a complete copy of the report and, in cooperation with the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University."

    Pew Internet Survey Indicates Men and Women Now Online in Equal Numbers

    Press release: "A wide-ranging look at the way American women and men use the internet shows that men continue to pursue many internet activities more intensively than women, and that men are still first out of the blocks in trying the latest technologies. At the same time, there are trends showing that women are catching up in overall use and are framing their online experience with a greater emphasis on deepening connections with people."

  • Report: How Women and Men Use the Internet (54 pages, PDF)

  • See also this Pew Research Center Commentary, What Was and Wasn't on the Public's Mind...And How Opinions Changed During 2005
  • NSA Website Uses Cookies Despite Prohibition

    AP reports that the NSA website has continued to use cookies to track user access of the site, despite strict prohibitions against such practices:

  • OMB Guidance for Implementing the Privacy Provisions of the E-Government Act of 2002, September 26, 2003 - Tracking technology prohibitions: agencies are prohibited from using persistent cookies or any other means (e.g., web beacons) to track visitors' activity on the Internet...for a compelling need."

  • Why Get A Warrant?: The President's Admission that He Authorized Warrantless Domestic Surveillance, by Sherry F. Colb

  • Recent links to news and documents related to NSA domestic surveillance
  • E-Gov Portal for Contracting Underutilized By Small Businesses

    Small Contractors Fail to Use Free Government Services: On August 15, 2005, the National Association of Government Contractors (NAGC) released the results of a survey of government contractors nationwide...One of the more surprising results of the survey revealed that more than half of those contractors responding to the survey were not registered with FedBizOpps.gov, the single government point-of entry for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. Commercial vendors may access information through this single portal free of charge. J.R. Claeys, President of NAGC, is concerned that small businesses aren’t tapping into this valuable resource. "Something must be done to reinforce the legitimacy of this resource and modify the perception that only large businesses are able to compete for contracts."

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): E-Government
    2005 DOT Report on Significant Rulemakings

    DOT Report on Significant Rulemakings, December 2005 Complete Report

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): E-Government
    December 27, 2005
    FISA Court Made Modifications to Bush Surveillance Requests

    Secret court modified wiretap requests - Intervention may have led Bush to bypass panel, by Stewart M. Powell, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Washington Bureau.

    Related commentary, references and postings:

  • Reuters: Secret surveillance up since 9/11 - "The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years, the court received a total of 3,436."

  • Washington Post Op-Ed: Eavesdropping and Evading the Law

  • New York Times: Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts

  • The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power

  • postings on domestic surveillance

  • Report Details Significant DHS Security Failures

    Press release: "A House Committee on Homeland Security investigative report prepared for Ranking Member Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) and Committee Democrats finds that the Department of Homeland Security has left 33 separate promises to strengthen aspects of homeland security unresolved ahead of the New Year."

  • Leaving the Nation at Risk: 33 Unfulfilled Promises From the Department of Homeland Security (40 pages, PDF)

  • The Relationship between Law Review Citations and Law School Rankings

    Brophy, Alfred L., The Relationship between Law Review Citations and Law School Rankings (December 2005). U of Alabama Public Law Research Paper.

  • "Much recent scholarship has focused on the US News rankings and other ranking systems; other scholarship has focused on citations of law journals. This paper combines those two areas. It explores the connections between US News rankings (particularly the peer assessment scores) and citations of schools' main law reviews by journals and by courts."
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Legal Research
    December 26, 2005
    Blawg Review Awards 2005

    Thanks to Kevin Heller, Mike Cernovich, and Evan Schaeffer, whose Blawg Review Awards 2005 recognized beSpacific as best Legal Support Blog. Take a look at the terrific blogs that were recognized in 43 categories. Thanks also for recognizing beSpacific in Dennis Kennedy's 2005 Best of Legal Blogging Awards, in the Best Legal Blog Category - Law Librarian Blogs. Kudos to the terrific bloggers mentioned: The Law Librarian Blog, Out of the Jungle, Law Dawg Blawg, WisBlawg, Vancouver Law Library Blog, Stark County Library Blog, Library Boy, LawLibTech, Connie Crosby, BarclayBlog, and Slaw.ca

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Blogs
    Washington Post Extends Free Access to Content

    As reported by ClickZ News, the Washington Post.com will now provide access to articles for a 60 day period following publication, according to James M. Brady, Executive Editor. Prior to this, articles were archived after 14 days. Extending access to readers, via blogs and RSS, is credited as a key reason for the change.

    Google Earth To Limit Views of Sensitive Israeli Sites

    Following up on December 19, 2005 posting, Google Satellite Imagery Stirs Security Concerns Here and Abroad, Israel National News reports that the Goggle Earth satellite imagery will now offer users limited resolution of sensitive military installations in the country.

  • Please see this posting from Ogle Earth that adds facts, perspective and context to the above mentioned information.
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Internet, Search Engines
    Barron's Commentary on Domestic Surveillance Program

    From Barron's Online (subscription req'd), Unwarranted Executive Power - The pursuit of terrorism does not authorize the president to make up new laws, by Thomas G. Donlan, Editorial Page Editor.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Civil Liberties
    December 25, 2005
    NSA's Post 9/11 Domestic Data Mining and Surveillance Programs

    New York Times: The Agency That Could Be Big Brother: "...the N.S.A. has suddenly taken center stage in a political firestorm. The controversy over whether the president broke the law when he secretly ordered the N.S.A. to bypass a special court and conduct warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens has even provoked some Democrats to call for his impeachment."

    Congressional Review of Domestic Spying To Expand

    New York Times: NSA spying inquiry may be expanded, "Congressional officials said Saturday that they wanted to investigate the disclosure that the National Security Agency (NSA) had gained access to some of the country's main telephone arteries to glean data on possible terrorists."

  • Related links
  • December 24, 2005
    Powell's Former Chief of Staff Challenges Administration Policies

    Ex-Powell Aide Moves From Insider to Apostate

  • CBS/AP: Powell Supports Eavesdropping
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    Microsoft Announces Details of RSS Integration With Outlook

    RSS Aggregation - Part 1: The Partnership

    December 23, 2005
    Daschle Disputes Authorization of Domestic Surveillance

    AP: "The use of warrantless wiretaps on American citizens was never discussed when Congress authorized the White House to use force against al-Qaida after the Sept. 11 attacks, says former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle."

  • Washington Post Op Ed, Power We Didn't Grant, by Tom Daschle, Friday, December 23, 2005: "As Senate majority leader at the time, I helped negotiate that law with the White House counsel's office over two harried days. I can state categorically that the subject of warrantless wiretaps of American citizens never came up. I did not and never would have supported giving authority to the president for such wiretaps. I am also confident that the 98 senators who voted in favor of authorization of force against al Qaeda did not believe that they were also voting for warrantless domestic surveillance."

  • December 22, 2005 letter from Assistant Attorney General William E. Moschella to House and Senate Intelligence Committees
  • UK to Implement 24 Hour Vehicle Surveillance Program

    The Independent Online: "Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded. A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years."

  • The Independent Online: "If the police and security services can show that a national surveillance operation based on recording car movements can protect the public against criminals and terrorists, there will be a strong political will to do the same with street cameras designed to monitor the flow of human traffic."

    Related references:
  • Press release from the Association of Chief Police Officers, March 22, 2005: Launch of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Strategy for the Police Service – 2005/2008. [via Spy blog]

  • "Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras can tell police officers within seconds whether a vehicle has been stolen, is known to be involved in a crime, or is untaxed." [PITO website]
  • Domestic Spying Program Extends to Monitoring All Calls Abroad and Locations in 6 U.S. Cities

    Privacy advocates and legal scholars are speculating on and commenting about the ramifications of the surveillance program encompassing an even wider arena of communications than previously considered to be the case.

  • Boston Globe: Spy net may pull in all U.S. calls overseas - Many Americans' privacy is at risk, some say: "The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush's order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to al-Qaida, has probably been using computers to monitor all other Americans' international communications as well, according to specialists familiar with the workings of the NSA."

  • New York Times: Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report

  • U.S. News, Nuclear Monitoring of Muslims Done Without Search Warrants, by David E. Kaplan: "In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned."

  • U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment
  • Archives Releases Additional Documents Relating to Judge Samuel Alito

    NARA press release: "The National Archives at College Park will release 45 documents relating to Samuel Alito. These records total 744 pages from Record Group 60, Records of the Department of Justice, Files of John Bolton, Michael Carvin, Roger Clegg, Stephen Galebach, Brian Landsberg, Mark Levin, and Richard Willard....The National Archives found the documents, consisting of memoranda and other documents, in various folders in the files of these individuals during the processing of additional FOIA requests."

  • Records Pertaining to Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr

  • Previous postings on Alito


  • News related to issues raised in reviewing the latest documents:
  • AP: "Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote in a June 1985 memo that the ruling that legalized abortion should be overturned, a position certain to spur tough questioning at January's confirmation hearings."

  • Alito Said Attorney General Immune From Wiretap Suits

  • Sen. Leahy Statement on Documents Released by National Archives Relating to Alito Nomination re warrantless wiretaps: "DESCRIPTION OF THE JUNE 12, 1985, MEMO from Samuel Alito to the Solicitor General re: Forsyth v. Kleindienst (i.e. Mitchell v. Forsyth) (DOJ3-00285-DOJ3-00291) -- Mr. Alito later wrote the brief in Mitchell v. Forsyth arguing that the Attorney General should have qualified and absolute immunity for civil damages stemming from the warrantless authorization of wiretaps. Ultimately, the court ruled that the Attorney General was qualifiedly immune (because the decision was made before the Supreme Court clarified that such warrantless taps were unconstitutional), but rejected the arguments for absolute immunity. In this memo, Samuel Alito takes an approach mirroring what he did in Thornburgh by embracing the principle of absolute immunity and suggesting tactical reasons for avoiding taking it head on. He argues that the Administration should seek cert only on the appealability of the qualified immunity claim, not on absolute immunity, but for tactical reasons: "I do not question that the Attorney General should have this immunity, but for tactical reasons I would not raise the issue here." He lays out why this is not a good case for absolute immunity, including the fact that they would not have Justice Rehnquist's vote and that it involves a controversial official from a controversial era. In this memo Mr. Alito makes clear his own personal view in this matter, declaring that he, himself, has no doubt the Attorney General should have the immunity."

  • New York Times, Alito Memo in '84 Favored Immunity for Top Officials

  • December 22, 2005
    Consumer Reports Compares and Contrasts 11 Travel Websites

    Do Travel Search Engines Deliver? An Examination of the Leading Sites, December 21, 2005.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): E-Commerce, Internet
    Quick and Useful Guide on Creating Effective Passwords

    How to Write Better Passwords, by Sarah D. Scalet

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): PC Security
    TSA's New List of Permitted and Prohibited Items

    Permitted & Prohibited Items, Prepare for Takeoff, December 2005.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    GAO Audit Highlights Continued FBI Case Management Architecture Problems

    Following up on previous postings on the FBI's virtual case file system, see Information Technology: Responses to Subcommittee Post-Hearing Questions Regarding the FBI's Management Practices and Acquisition of a New Investigative Case Management System, GAO-06-302R, December 21, 2005.

  • "The absence of performance-based contracting and effective contractor tracking and oversight has constrained the FBI's ability to effectively manage and oversee its EA contractor. More specifically, it has inhibited the bureau's ability to adequately define product quality expectations, which in turn increases the chances that delivered products will require rework. Such rework puts the bureau at risk of spending more time and money than necessary to produce an architecture. Consistent and stable management leadership is a human capital best practice and as such, should be an ongoing and sustained focus of the Director within all FBI organizational components, including IT."
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    Debate Escalates on Domestic Spying Program

    Following up on news that Judge Robinson resigned from the FISA court in protest over the administration's warrantless surveillance program, related commentary and articles:

  • Warrantless Wiretapping: Why It Seriously Imperils the Separation of Powers, And Continues the Executive's Sapping of Power From Congress and the Courts, by Edward Lazarus.

  • Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program: "One judge, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also said members could suggest disbanding the court in light of the president's suggestion that he has the power to bypass the court."

  • Experts Say Wiretap Fight May Taint Cases

  • Salon (reg. req'd, but readers can access it after viewing an advert first): Bush's impeachable offense - Yes, the president committed a federal crime by wiretapping Americans, say constitutional scholars, former intelligence officers and politicians. What's missing is the political will to impeach him.

  • Washington Times, Commentary by Bruce Fine: "President Bush presents a clear and present danger to the rule of law. He cannot be trusted to conduct the war against global terrorism with a decent respect for civil liberties and checks against executive abuses. Congress should swiftly enact a code that would require Mr. Bush to obtain legislative consent for every counterterrorism measure that would materially impair individual freedoms."

  • Senator Byrd on Monday expressed his strong concerns about possible violations of the Constitution in the Bush Administration's admitted practice of spying on American citizens.

  • ACLU Letter to Attorney General Gonzales Requesting the Appointment of Outside Special Counsel for the Investigation and Prosecution of Violations, or Conspiracy to Violate, Criminal Laws Against Warrantless Wiretapping of American Persons


  • Court Refuses U.S. Bid to Shift Terror Suspect
  • ruling and order in Padilla v. Hanft (14 pages, PDF)

  • Junior Aide Laid the Legal Basis For White House Terror Policies

  • Boxer Asks Specter to Hold Hearings on Bush's Surveillance Program Before Hearings on Judge Alito
  • House Approves 5 Week Extension for Patriot Act

    AP: "The House passed a five-week extension of the Patriot Act on Thursday and sent it to the Senate as Congress scrambled to prevent expiration of anti-terror law enforcement provisions on Dec. 31."

  • From Pelosi Statement on One-Month Extension of Patriot Act: "Mr. Speaker, there is a very crucial debate in this country today about the rights of American citizens to privacy, and about the proper role of the Congress and the courts in assuring that no one – not even the President – tramples on those basic private rights without complying with the law. In this atmosphere, it is appropriate to give additional time to examine the implications of these controversial provisions of the Patriot Act."
  • Sensenbrenner Statement on House Passage of PATRIOT Act Extension Until February 3, 2006
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Patriot Act
    December 21, 2005
    FISA Court Judge Resigns In Response to Domestic Surveillance Program

    Via FAS: "The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was created by section 103(a) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803(a)). It was originally comprised of seven district judges from seven circuits named by the Chief Justice of the United States to serve a maximum of 7 years. In 2001, the U.S.A. Patriot Act (section 208) amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to increase the number of FIS Court judges from seven to eleven, "of whom no fewer than 3 shall reside within 20 miles of the District of Columbia."

  • News from several sources, including AP, and the Washington Post, on continued repercussions from the disclosure of domestic spying: U.S. District Judge James Robertson, in a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., delivered the evening of December 20, resigned from the FISA Court (he was appointed on 5/19/02). Although he provided no details in his resignation letter, reports indicate that his action was prompted by opposition to the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the President. and documented in previous postings.

    Related news:
  • New York Times: Spying Program Snared U.S. Calls: "A surveillance program approved by President Bush to conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are purely domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the White House that one end of the intercepted conversations take place on foreign soil, officials say."

  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    Opposing Views on Patriot Act Reauthorization Presented in DOJ and Advocacy Group Statements

  • DOJ Fact Sheet, December 20, 2005 - Civil Liberties Safeguards in the USA PATRIOT Act Conference Report: "After months of debate—including 23 Congressional hearings with over 60 witnesses—the Senate must act to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act before these key provisions expire. Last week, the House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the bill with strong bipartisan support. Now, four years after voting 98-1 to approve the USA PATRIOT Act, it is time for the Senate finish the job and allow law enforcement to maintain the vital tools it needs to keep America safe."

  • CDT memo, "What If PATRIOT Sunsets?" (5 pages, PDF) December 21, 2005: "CDT has issued a short analysis of the sunsetting provisions of the PATRIOT Act, showing that the "wall" between intelligence and law enforcement agencies would not be re-erected if the sunsets took effect and that the government would still retain broad surveillance powers to combat terrorism."


  • Related documents and postings:
  • Remarks Of Sen. Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member, Judiciary Committee, News Conference On Bipartisan Call To Extend The PATRIOT Act, Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2005

  • "U.S. Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), John Sununu (R-NH), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) released a letter today signed by a majority of the U.S. Senate urging Majority Leader Bill Frist to extend PATRIOT Act by three months. A majority of Senators, 52 at press time, have signed the letter in support of a three-month extension in order to provide more time for the Senate to agree on a conference report to reauthorize the Act." [Link includes text of letter and names of signatories]

  • postings on Patriot Act

  • Pelosi Requests Declassification of Her Letter on NSA Activities

    Press release: "House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on her request to the Director of National Intelligence to declassify a letter she wrote several years ago to the Bush Administration expressing concerns about the activities of the National Security Agency."

  • "When I learned several years ago that the National Security Agency had been authorized to conduct the activities that President Bush referred to in his December 17 radio address, I expressed my strong concerns in a classified letter to the Administration and later verbally. Today, in an effort to shed light on my concerns, I requested that the Director of National Intelligence quickly declassify my letter and the Administration's response to it and make them both available to the public."
  • Advocacy Group on Free Expression Issues Report Calling for Strengthening Fair Use

    Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control (76 pages, PDF), by Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, Free Expression Policy Project, December 2005.

  • "The report recommends: creating a clearinghouse for information, including sample replies to cease and desist and "take down" letters; outreach to Internet service providers who are instructed by companies to take down sites with material they claim as copyright-protected; changes in the law to reduce the penalty for guessing wrong about fair use; and the creation of a national pro bono legal support network."
  • Bipartisan Group of Senators Call For Joint Inquiry into Domestic Surveillance

    Press release, December 20, 2005: "U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and a bipartisan group of Senate Intelligence Committee members today called for a joint inquiry by the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees into the President's authorization of domestic electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens."

    Related reference:

  • Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union today submitted records requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the National Security Agency (NSA), the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency for information about the NSA's program of warrantless spying on Americans, which was authorized by President Bush."

  • December 20, 2005
    Report Highlights 3rd Anniversary of the E-Government Act

    Office of Management and Budget report, Expanding E-Government: Improved Service Delivery for the American People Using Information Technology, December 2005.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): E-Government
    U.S. Congress of Mayors Issues Hunger and Homelessness Survey

    A Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness in America's Cities - A 24-City Survey, December 2005 (105 pages, PDF)

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    House Judiciary Cmte. Democratic Staff Report Confronts Iraq War Issues

    Report prepared by the Minority Staff of the House Judiciary Committee, The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War (273 pages, HTML link to Table of Contents)

  • Press release by Rep. John Conyers, Jr. "...the report examines the Bush Administration's actions in taking us to war from A to Z. The report finds there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration. The Report concludes that a number of these actions amount to prima facie evidence that federal criminal laws have been violated. Legal violations span from false statements to Congress to whistleblower laws."

  • "In response to the Report, I have already taken a number of actions. First, I have introduced a resolution (H. Res. 635) creating a Select Committee with subpoena authority to investigate the misconduct of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq war and report on possible impeachable offenses. Second, I have introduced Resolutions regarding both President Bush (H. Res. 636) and Vice-President Cheney (H. Res. 637) proposing that they be censured by Congress based on the uncontroverted evidence already on the record and their failure to respond to Congressional and public inquiries about these matters and have never accounted for their many specific misstatements in the run up to War."

  • Losing the war against terrorism, Op-Ed by Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Published in The Hill (9/21/05)

  • Report on Internet Usage and Global Demographics

    Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 19, 2005: "The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs...According to Morgan Stanley estimates, 36% of Internet users are now in Asia and 24% are in Europe. Only 23% of users are in North America, where it all started in 1969 when two computers -- one in Los Angeles, the other in Palo Alto -- were networked together.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Internet
    Yahoo Introduces Time Saving Search Shortcuts

    From the Yahoo Search Blog: Open Shortcuts (beta) are custom keywords that take you directly to a site, a search, or start a task right from the search box...To use an Open Shortcut, you type !(exclamation point) followed by the name of the shortcut in the Yahoo! Search box. For example, type: !ebay lamps. This takes you directly to www.ebay.com and searches for lamps.

  • For more details, see the Yahoo! Open Shortcuts Help
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Search Engines
    FTC Reports on CAN-SPAM Act Effectiveness and Enforcement

    Effectiveness and Enforcement of the CAN-SPAM Act: A Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress, December 2005 (116 pages, PDF):

  • "In addition to the analysis of effectiveness and enforcement, the report proposes three steps that could improve the efficacy of the CAN-SPAM Act. First, Congress should enact the US SAFE WEB Act, to improve the FTC's ability to trace spammers and sellers who operate outside of the United States. Second, we should continue education efforts to ensure that consumers are aware of the various ways they can protect themselves from spam, spyware, and sexually-explicit material. Third, we need continued improvement of anti-spam technology, and in particular, tools that prevent spammers from operating anonymously."
  • Federal Judge Issues Decision Against Teaching "Intelligent Design"

    U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III (M.D. PA), Kitzmiller v. Dover (139 pages, PDF)

  • Kitzmiller, et al v. Dover School District, et al - docket and link to decision

  • AP article, 'Religious alternative' to evolution barred from public-school science classes

  • Federal Judge Rules Intelligent Design Unconstitutional
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Courts, Legal Research
    AG, VP Issue Statements on Legal Underpinnings of Electronic Surveillance Program

    In following postings on the revelations on the Domestic Surveillance Program, see the text of this Press Briefing by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and General Michael Hayden, Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence, December 19, 2005.

  • "The President confirmed the existence of a highly classified program on Saturday. The program remains highly classified; there are many operational aspects of the program that have still not been disclosed and we want to protect that because those aspects of the program are very, very important to protect the national security of this country. So I'm only going to be talking about the legal underpinnings for what has been disclosed by the President. The President has authorized a program to engage in electronic surveillance of a particular kind, and this would be the intercepts of contents of communications where one of the -- one party to the communication is outside the United States. And this is a very important point -- people are running around saying that the United States is somehow spying on American citizens calling their neighbors. Very, very important to understand that one party to the communication has to be outside the United States."

  • ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: This is not a backdoor approach. We believe Congress has authorized this kind of surveillance. We have had discussions with Congress in the past -- certain members of Congress -- as to whether or not FISA could be amended to allow us to adequately deal with this kind of threat, and we were advised that that would be difficult, if not impossible. [emphasis added]


  • Related government documents and news:
  • Press release, December 17, 2005: "All nine Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee today introduced legislation to strengthen accountability and oversight of National Security Letters (NSLs), which are requests for personal data and records issued directly by government agencies without the approval of a judge."

  • statements made by Vice President Cheney, December 20, 2005: "I would argue that the actions that we've taken there are totally appropriate and consistent with the constitutional authority of the president."

  • Dec. 20, 2005 Press Briefing by Scott McClellan: "...Well, the NSA authorization that has been talked about over the past couple of days is vital to our efforts to prevent attacks...And remember, there are important safeguards and oversight measures that are in place for this program...Every 45 days or so it is carefully reviewed; it must have the approval of top legal officials from the Attorney General to the White House Counsel. The activities that are conducted under this authorization are thoroughly reviewed by the Department of Justice and by the National Security Agency legal officials, including the General Counsel and the Inspector General. There is intense oversight of it, as General Hayden, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, talked about. And the decisions that are made under this authorization, which is very limited, again, are made by career intelligence officials at NSA."

  • December 19, 2005: Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, comments on the National Security Agency (NSA) program for intercepting communications within the United States. "The record needs to be set clear that the Administration never afforded members briefed on the program an opportunity to either approve or disapprove the NSA program. The limited members who were told of the program were prohibited by the Administration from sharing any information about it with our colleagues, including other members of the Intelligence Committees...Additionally, Senator Rockefeller released his correspondence to the White House on July 17, 2003 – the day he first learned of the program -- expressing serious concerns about the nature of the program as well as Congress' inability to provide oversight given the limited nature of the briefings."

  • Washington Post: White House Elaborates on Authority for Eavesdropping

  • LA Times: Legal Test Was Seen as Hurdle to Spying - Some say the court's tougher standard of 'probable cause' led to the surveillance order.

  • Washington Post: Bush Addresses Uproar Over Spying - 'This Is a Different Era, a Different War,' He Says as Some Lawmakers Seek Probe

  • Domestic Spying Targeted Animal Rights and Environmental Activitists

    Press release: "According to new documents released today by the American Civil Liberties Union, the FBI is using counterterrorism resources to monitor and infiltrate domestic political organizations that criticize business interests and government policies, despite a lack of evidence that the groups are engaging in or supporting violent action."

  • The ACLU has posted the FOIA requests/releases (in PDF, comprising over 2,300 pages of redacted documents) as follows: By Theme; By Client; By State.

  • New York Times: F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show

  • December 19, 2005
    Congressional Calls for Investigation of Domestic Surveillance Program Intensify

  • Press release: "U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today asked four presidential scholars for their opinion on former White House Counsel John Dean's statement that President Bush admitted to an 'impeachable offense' when he said he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without getting a warrant from a judge."

  • Press release: "Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today demanded that Attorney General Gonzales appoint a special counsel to investigate the President's apparent violation of law in asking the National Security Agency to eavesdrop, without warrants, on Americans’ international phone calls."

  • Related reference: Web exclusive commentary by Jonathan Alter, in Newsweek, titled, Bush's Snoopgate
  • National Security Agency Declassified Electronic Briefing Book

    Press release: "In the wake of revelations that the Bush administration authorized the warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens in 2002, the National Security Archive reposted its National Security Agency Declassified electronic briefing book, first published in January 2000 and updated as recently as this year. President Bush's recent admission that he authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on U.S. persons without obtaining a warrant has focused the nation's attention on the authorities and regulations governing this sensitive issue. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) specifically prohibits domestic surveillance by the NSA, the nation's largest intelligence agency, unless it gets permission to do so from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."

    Wikipedia Continues to Confront Controversy

  • WSJ free feature today: Wikipedia's Woes - Tumultuous Weeks for Internet Encyclopedia Bring Furor Over Anonymity, Accountability
  • Financial Times: Wikipedia to restrict access to encyclopaedia: "Wikipedia, the online user-written encyclopaedia that has come under fire for inaccuracies, is to introduce a more traditional fixed version of its contents in an effort to increase its reliability."

  • Previous related postings
  • The Global E-government Readiness Index 2005

    UN Global E-government Readiness Report 2005 (PDF): "The UN Global E-government Survey 2005 presents a comparative ranking of the countries of the world according to two primary indicators: i) the state of e-government readiness; and ii) the extent of e-participation. Constructing a model for the measurement of digitized services, the Survey assesses the 191 member states of the UN according to a quantitative composite index of e-government readiness based on website assessment; telecommunication infrastructure and human resource endowment....According to the global e-government readiness rankings in 2005, the United States is the world leader followed by Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in that order. Among the developing countries the Republic of Korea leads with Singapore, Estonia, Malta and Chile close behind."

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): E-Government
    Administration Responds to Concerns About Domestic Surveillance Citing Exemption

    Following up on related postings in the past several days, see the following references, resources, statements and news:

  • Electronic Surveillance: 50 USC 1801 - 50 USC 1811.

  • Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

  • Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Orders 1979-2004

  • Congressional Record: December 16, 2005 (Senate)[Page S13736-S13749]. Statement of Sen. Feinstein: "...Let me be clear. Domestic intelligence collection is governed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. This law sets out a careful set of checks and balances that are designed to ensure that domestic intelligence collection is conducted in accordance with the Constitution, under the supervision of judges and with accountability to the Congress of the United States. Specifically, FISA allows the Government to wiretap phones or to open packages, but only with a showing to a special court--the FISA court--and after meeting a legal standard that requires that the effort is based on probable cause to believe the target is an agent of a foreign power..."

  • AP: Gonzales: Congress authorized domestic spying: "Responding to a congressional uproar, the Bush administration said Monday that a secret domestic surveillance program had yielded intelligence results that would not have been available otherwise in the war on terror."

  • Gonzales: War powers authorized eavesdropping

  • Press Conference of the President, The East Room, 10:32 A.M. EST, December 19, 2005: "...consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, I authorized the interception of international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. This program is carefully reviewed approximately every 45 days to ensure it is being used properly. Leaders in the United States Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this program. And it has been effective in disrupting the enemy, while safeguarding our civil liberties."

  • Lawmakers Call for Domestic Spying Probe
  • New Resource for CRS Reports on Agriculture and Food Issues

    Today the The National Agricultural Law Center at the University of Arkansas School of Law announced the availability of a website which currently provides access to over 200 CRS reports on agriculture and food law policy related issues. The site's content will continue to expand, and currently provides users with a subject index comprising 22 listings.

    December 18, 2005
    Pentagon Data Mining and Surveillance Programs In the Spotlight

    Following-up on Proposals for Expanded Domestic Surveillance to Obtain Actionable Data, today's Washington Post article, Pushing the Limits Of Wartime Powers, sheds further light on the existence and operations of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, and the use of its Talon antiterrorism database.

    December 17, 2005
    Bush Radio Address Today; Feingold's Response and Related Commentary

  • Radio Address by the President to the Nation, December 17, 2005: "This authorization is a vital tool in our war against the terrorists. It is critical to saving American lives. The American people expect me to do everything in my power, under our laws and Constitution, to protect them and their civil liberties and that is exactly what I will continue to do as long as I am president of the United States..."

  • Bloomberg: Bush Defends U.S. Wiretaps, Urges Patriot Act Renewal

  • In following my previous posting, News of Classified Domestic Surveillance Operation Sparks Outrage, today Senator Russ Feingold Responds to the President's Radio Address: "The President's shocking admission that he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens, without going to a court and in violation of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress, further demonstrates the urgent need for these protections. The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king."

  • Washington Post, President Acknowledges Approving Secretive Eavesdropping
  • : "Hundreds and perhaps thousands of people have been subjected to the surveillance, according to government officials."

    White House Issues Guidelines and Requirements in Support of the Information Sharing Environment

    From the White House, December 16, 2005: "Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. Guidelines and Requirements in Support of the Information Sharing Environment:

  • Ensuring the appropriate access to, and the sharing, integration, and use of, information by Federal, State, local, and tribal agencies with counterterrorism responsibilities, and, as appropriate, private sector entities, while protecting the information privacy and other legal rights of Americans, remains a high priority for the United States and a necessity for winning the war on terror. Consistent with section 1016 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108 458) (IRTPA), my Administration is working to create an Information Sharing Environment (ISE) to facilitate the sharing of terrorism information (as defined in Executive Order 13388 of October 25, 2005)."
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Government Documents
    December 16, 2005
    ARL Publishes Law Library Statistics for 2003–04

    "The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) announces the availability of the ARL Academic Law Library Statistics 2003–04. This publication presents compilations and rankings of data that describe collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 77 law libraries at ARL member institutions throughout North America."

  • download the data files or a PDF of the publication
  • Google Music Search Feature

    Music Search: Use Google to get quick access to a wide range of music information. For details, see the Official Google Blog posting.

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Search Engines
    News of Classified Domestic Surveillance Operation Sparks Outrage

    The revelation of previously undisclosed domestic surveillance operations, documented in by the New York Times in the December 15 article which apparently had been withheld from publication for a year, has generated considerable controversy and bipartisan reaction calling for a Congressional probe.

  • Civil Liberties Become a Casualty of War
  • Digital Age Communications Act

    Press release: "...Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the Digital Age Communications Act (DACA), S. 2113, 50 pages, PDF. The bill creates a communications regulation system that is market-oriented, competition-based and grounded in sound economic principles."

    Permanent Link       Topic(s): Congress, Legislation
    Complete Pentagon FOI Request Logs for 2000 to Present Now Online

    Following-up on this November 24 posting, FOI Requests Made By Media Outpaced By Non Partisan Research Archive, additional details and the availability of complete FOI logs from 2000-2004 (in either Excel of zipped PDF), and the logs from 2004 to present (in either Excel or zipped PDF).

    Patriot Act Reauthorization Blocked By Senate

    As noted, this week marked a dramatic shift in Senate support for Patriot Act reauthorization without substantive reforms to the White House backed bill. Today a bipartisan group of Senators blocked the the bill's approval (the vote was 52-47), noting other recent revelations about secret government surveillance as having an impact on their decision.

  • WSJ free feature: Senate Blocks Patriot Act Renewals, Vote Deals Setback to Bush As Antiterrorist Law Spurs Privacy Concerns in U.S.

  • Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold - Remarks as the Senate Considers Ending Debate on Reauthorization of the USA PATRTIOT Act As Prepared, December 16, 2005
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): Patriot Act
    December 15, 2005
    New CRS Report Clearly Documents Differences in Congressional and Presidential Access to Intelligence Data

    Press release: Senator Feinstein Releases Nonpartisan CRS Report that Concludes Congress Did Not Have Access to Full Scope of Prewar Intelligence.

    CRS Report, Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information, December 14, 2005:

  • Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National Intelligence - By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President's position also affords him the authority - which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President - in contrast to Members of Congress - have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community's intelligence more accurately than is Congress. In addition to their greater access to intelligence, the President and his senior advisors also are better equipped than is Congress to assess intelligence information by virtue of the primacy of their roles in formulating U.S. foreign policy..."

  • Commentary by Bill Moyers on Government Secrecy

    In the Kingdom of the Half-Blind, by Bill Moyers. "This is the prepared text of the address delivered on December 9, 2005, by Bill Moyers for the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library at The George Washington University, in Washington D.C."

  • "It has to be said: there has been nothing in our time like the Bush Administration's obsession with secrecy...I am only one of legions who have reached this conclusion. See the recent pair of articles by the independent journalist, Michael Massing, in The New York Review of Books. He concludes, "The Bush Administration has restricted access to public documents as no other before it." And he backs this up with evidence. For example, a recent report on government secrecy by the watchdog group, OpenTheGovernment.org, says the Feds classified a record 15.6 million new documents in fiscal year 2004, an increase of 81% over the year before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. What's more, 64% of Federal Advisory Committee meetings in 2004 were completely closed to the public. No wonder the public knows so little about how this administration has deliberately ignored or distorted reputable scientific research to advance its political agenda and the wishes of its corporate patrons. I'm talking about the suppression of that EPA report questioning aspects of the White House Clear Skies Act; research censorship at the departments of health and human services, interior and agriculture; the elimination of qualified scientists from advisory committees on kids and lead poisoning, reproductive health, and drug abuse; the distortion of scientific knowledge on emergency contraception; the manipulation of the scientific process involving the Endangered Species Act; and the internal sabotage of government scientific reports on global warming..."
  • Non Partisan Report Notes Slight Upturn in Satisfaction With E-Gov Sites

    Federal Government Scores, December 15, 2005, American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Commentary by Professor Claes Fornell: "Since 2003, the ACSI has also measured satisfaction with Federal government websites. This year, the ACSI e-Government index rose 2.5% from 72.1 a year ago, up to a score of 73.9. Much like offline government services, there is a wide gap between the best performing government websites (two websites score 88) and the worst performing (two score 54). Furthermore, while an impressive 18% of the measured websites score 80 or better, 21% score below 70. In other words, although government websites are generally satisfying, some individual websites still have work to do to provide a satisfying experience."

  • Released today by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), the current Scores for U.S. Federal Government.
  • Permanent Link       Topic(s): E-Government
    Report Reveals Post 9/11 Gov't Surveillance of Americans

    New York Times: Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials Say, by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau: "Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials."

  • Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union today expressed shock about revelations reported in the New York Times that President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on conversations of Americans and others in the United States. According to the report, this spying occurred without any court order and was focused on telephone and e-mail communications of "hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States" with persons a