Civil Liberties
June 30, 2009
* Report From ACLU And RWG Finds Racial Profiling Still Pervasive

News release: "Widespread racial profiling by law enforcement agents as a result of Bush-era policies remains a pervasive problem throughout the United States, according to a report out today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Rights Working Group (RWG). Government policies are a major cause of the disproportionate stopping and searching of racial minorities by law enforcement agencies, according to the report, which was submitted today to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)."

June 23, 2009
* ACLU: CIA Delays Release Of Inspector General Report On Torture

News release: "The CIA informed the American Civil Liberties Union that it would delay by one week its release of a reprocessed version of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report on the CIA's interrogation and detention program [The heavily redacted version of the report released last year is available here.] The CIA turned over a heavily redacted version of the report in May 2008 as part of an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, but on May 28, 2009, informed the court that it would review the same report with a view toward disclosing more information.In a letter to the ACLU, the government said it "will need additional time to make a final determination as to what additional information, if any, may be disclosed from the report."

June 21, 2009
* Trafficking in Persons Report 2009

"The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report [download each section or complete report] sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America’s own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking." --Secretary Clinton, June 16, 2009.

June 17, 2009
* Refugees: Forced migration - Countries with most refugees, and the burden on their populations

Economist.com chart: "At the end of 2008 10.5m refugees were in the direct care of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, down slightly from 11.4m a year earlier. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq again caused the largest numbers of refugees to flee to, or remain in, neighbouring countries. Some 2.8m of the world's refugees are from Afghanistan, most of whom are in Pakistan and Iran. Pakistan hosted almost 1.8m people last year, nearly all from Afghanistan, with Syria and Iran each receiving around 1m people. Germany was the most popular destination among rich countries. But as a share of its population Jordan has by far the highest concentration of refugees."

  • See also Guide to International Refugee Law Resources on the Web, by Elisa Mason, on LLRX.com
  • New York Times: Pakistan’s ‘Invisible Refugees’ Burden Cities
  • June 15, 2009
    * DHS - Refugees and Asylees: 2008

    DHS Office of Immigration Statistics - Refugees and Asylees: 2008, Daniel C. Martin AND Michael Hoefer

  • "The United States provides refuge to persons who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution through two programs: one for refugees (persons outside the U.S.) and one for asylees (persons in the U.S.). This Office of Immigration Statistics Annual Flow Report provides information on the number of persons admitted to the United States as refugees or granted asylum in the United States in 2008."
  • June 14, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: The Detainee Photo Issue - Is it What it Seems?

    New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: The Detainee Photo Issue - Is it What it Seems? - Scott A. Hodes comments on the Obama administrations' decision to continue to fight the release of detainee photos.

    June 13, 2009
    * ACLU Seeks Records About Laptop Searches At The Border

    News release: "United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) policy permits officials to search the laptops and other electronic devices of travelers without suspicion of wrongdoing, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed the FOIA request with CBP, a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to learn how CBP's suspicionless search policy, first made public in July 2008, is impacting the constitutional rights of international travelers."

    June 09, 2009
    * HUD and Fair Housing Partners Report Record Number of Housing Discrimination Complaints

    News release: "A record 10,552 fair housing discrimination complaints were filed in fiscal year 2008, according to a report just released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The State Of Fair Housing FY 2008, Annual Report On Fair Housing, which is produced for Congress each year, shows that a large portion of the complaints, 44 percent, were filed by persons with disabilities. Thirty-five percent, or 3,699, of the complaints alleged discrimination based on race."

    June 08, 2009
    * ACLU Releases Report On Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayo

    "The American Civil Liberties Union today released a report summarizing the civil liberties and civil rights record of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by President Obama to replace retiring Justice David Souter as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The report was prepared in accordance with ACLU policy, and will be made available to the public and members of the Senate. The ACLU does not endorse or oppose candidates for elective or appointive office."

    * TRAC: DEA Prison Rates Vary Across U.S.

    "In cases where the DEA is the lead investigative agency, there are significant geographic variations in the rates at which individuals convicted of criminal offenses get sent to prison. According to Justice Department data obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and just published on TRAC's DEA website, in the Northern District of West Virgina (Wheeling) 65.6% of convictions in such cases resulted in prison terms in 2008. In New York West (Buffalo) the rate was 71.1%. On the other hand, in nine districts fully 100% of all convictions in such cases resulted in prison terms. These were: Alabama Middle (Montgomery), Illinois South (East St. Louis), Illinois Central (Springfield), Michigan West (Grand Rapids), Nebraska (Omaha), North Dakota (Fargo), Oklahoma East (Muskogee), Rhode Island (Providence) and Wisconsin West (Madison). Nationally, the rate was 94.6%...For district-by-district DEA enforcement information go here and click on "District Enforcement." There you'll find data on DEA referrals, charges, convictions, prison sentences and much more, for specific districts and the U.S. as a whole."

    June 02, 2009
    * Federal Justice Statistics, 2006 - Statistical Tables

    Federal Justice Statistics, 2006 - Statistical Tables, 5/09: "Describes criminal case processing in the federal justice system, including arrest and booking through sentencing and corrections. These statistical tables present the number of suspects arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals Service, suspects in matters investigated and prosecuted by U.S. attorneys, defendants adjudicated and sentenced in U.S. district court, and characteristics of federal prisoners and offenders under federal supervision."

    May 31, 2009
    * Reports: The State of the World's Human Rights

    Amnesty International: The State of the World's Human Rights

    May 29, 2009
    * TRAC: Immigration still driving prosecutions upward

    "After several months of declines since reaching all-time highs in September, new immigration prosecutions in February were up 22% from the previous month. According to timely case-by-case data obtained and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), these 8,179 cases represent an increase of about 90% from a year ago, and 250% from February 2004. While immigration cases still account for more than half (53%) of all new federal prosecutions, new filings rose in nearly every other category as well, including drugs (up 49%), weapons (up 19%), white collar crime (up 24%) and government regulation (up 42%). Overall, new criminal cases are at the second-highest level recorded, up 27% from January and up 39% from a year ago."

    May 19, 2009
    * New GAO Reports: DOD Personnel Clearances, Information Security, death and Abuse at Residential Programs for Troubled Teens
    • Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands: Coordinated Federal Decisions and Additional Data Are Needed to Manage Potential Economic Impact of Applying U.S. Immigration Law, GAO-09-426T, May 19, 2009
    • DOD Personnel Clearances: Comprehensive Timeliness Reporting, Complete Clearance Documentation, and Quality Measures Are Needed to Further Improve the Clearance Process, GAO-09-400, May 19, 2009
    • Foreign Assistance: Measures to Prevent Inadvertent Payments to Terrorists under Palestinian Aid Programs Have Been Strengthened, but Some Weaknesses Remain, GAO-09-622, May 19, 2009
    • Information Security: Agencies Make Progress in Implementation of Requirements, but Significant Weaknesses Persist, GAO-09-701T, May 19, 2009
    • Seclusions and Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers, GAO-09-719T, May 19, 2009
    May 18, 2009
    * EPIC Launches Campaign to Suspend 'Whole Body Imaging' at Nation's Airports

    "EPIC announced a national campaign today to suspend the use of "Whole Body Imaging" -- devices that photograph American air travellers stripped naked in US airports. The campaign responds to a policy reversal by the TSA which would now make the the "virtual strip search" mandatory, instead of voluntary as originally announced. EPIC and others say that there are inadequate safeguards to prevent the misuse of the images. They are asking Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to suspend the program and to allow for public comment. For more information, see EPIC's Backscatter X-ray, Whole Body Imaging page."

    May 17, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: Criminal Justice Reform Resources 2008-2009

    Criminal Justice Reform Resources 2008-2009: Ken Strutin's guide focuses on select current reports, surveys, legislative proposals and scholarship regarding criminal justice reform. It is only a small sampling of the increasing volume of publications on vital matters of interest to criminal practitioners and the public. Therefore, only a few themes are covered: criminal justice, discovery, forensics, juvenile justice, prosecutorial misconduct, public defense, sentencing and wrongful conviction.

    May 14, 2009
    * New GAO Reports: Military Depot Maintenance, Aviation Security
    • Depot Maintenance: Actions Needed to Identify and Establish Core Capability at Military Depots, GAO-09-83, May 14, 2009: "DOD, through its biennial core process, has not comprehensively and accurately assessed whether it has the required core capability to support fielded systems in military depots. Although DOD internally reported that its maintenance workload of 92.7 million hours in 2007 was “well over” the minimum of 70.5 million hours needed to fulfill core requirements at military depots and that the services were complying with their core capability requirements, this assessment did not show capability shortfalls identified by the services in their core computations."
    • Aviation Security: TSA Has Completed Key Activities Associated with Implementing Secure Flight, but Additional Actions Are Needed to Mitigate Risks, GAO-09-292, May 13, 2009: "As of April 2009, TSA had generally achieved 9 of the 10 statutory conditions related to the development of the Secure Flight program and had conditionally achieved 1 condition (TSA had defined plans, but had not completed all activities for this condition). Also, TSA’s actions completed and those planned have reduced the risks associated with implementing the program."
    * Statistics on Terrorism Arrests and Outcomes Great Britain

    Home Office Statistical Bulletin: Statistics on Terrorism Arrests and Outcomes, Great Britain 13 May 2009 - 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008.

  • "For the period between the start of the data collection on 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008: There were 1,471 terrorism arrests. This excludes 38 arrests made between the introduction of the Terrorism Act 2000 on 19 February 2001 and 11 September 2001 and 119 stops at Scottish ports under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000."
  • May 13, 2009
    * National Gang Threat Assessment 2009 Released

    News release: "According to the 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment released by the National Gang Intelligence Center (NGIC) and the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), approximately one million gang members belonging to more than 20,000 gangs were criminally active in the U.S. as of September 2008. The assessment was developed through analysis of available federal, state, and local law enforcement information; 2008 NDIC National Drug Threat Survey (NDTS) data; and verified open source information."

    May 11, 2009
    * FTC Alleges That Mortgage Lender Charged Hispanics Higher Prices for Loans

    News release: "The Federal Trade Commission has charged a home mortgage lender and its owner with violating federal law by charging Hispanic consumers higher prices for mortgage loans than non-Hispanic white consumers – price disparities that cannot be explained by the applicants’ credit characteristics or underwriting risk. The FTC seeks to bar future violations and obtain redress for consumers...According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) in pricing mortgage loans. They allegedly gave loan officers and branch managers wide discretion to charge, in addition to the risk-based price, “overages” through higher interest rates and higher up-front charges. The defendants allegedly paid loan officers a percentage of the overages as a commission and failed to monitor whether Hispanic consumers were paying higher overages than non-Hispanic white borrowers."

    May 06, 2009
    * DOJ OIG Audit: FBI's Terrorist Watchlist Nomination Practices

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Watchlist Nomination Practices, Audit Report 09-25, May 2009

  • "The federal government’s consolidated terrorist watchlist was created in March 2004 by merging previously separate watchlists that were once maintained by different agencies throughout the federal government. The watchlist is managed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), through its supervision of the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC). The watchlist is used by frontline screening personnel at U.S. points of entry and by federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement officials. Since the establishment of the watchlist in 2004, the FBI has nominated or processed the nominations for more than 68,000 known or The watchlist serves as a critical tool for these screening and law enforcement personnel by notifying the user of possible encounters with known or suspected terrorists and by providing instruction on how to respond to the encounter. Each day the watchlist is updated with new or revised biographical information on known or suspected terrorists gathered by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including the FBI."
  • May 05, 2009
    * New Book Review on LLRX.com: Just and Unjust Warriors

    LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - Just and Unjust Warriors: the moral and legal status of soldiers - Heather A. Phillips describes how though a series of eleven well-written and closely reasoned original essays this book question the treatments of many of the foundations of classical just war theory, such as a non-volunteer army, the use of private contractors as soldiers, the harmlessness of those not actively engaged in combat, the symmetry of combatants, proportionality and extreme emergency.

    April 29, 2009
    * US Courts: Wiretap Applications Decline in 2008

    "A total of 1,891 applications to federal and state judges for orders authorizing the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications were reported in 2008. No applications were denied. This is a 14 percent decrease in the total of applications reported, compared to 2007. Fewer states—22 states compared to 24 in 2007—reported wiretap activity and the number of applications approved by state judges, 1,505, was down 14 percent from 2007. Federal judges approved 386 applications, down 16 percent from 2007. Orders for 28 wiretaps were approved for which no wiretaps actually were installed. Additional data on applications for wiretaps for the period January 1 through December 31, 2008, is available online in the 2008 Wiretap Report."

    * Human Rights Commitments and Pledges of the United States of America

    State Department, Washington, DC, April 27, 2009: "On March 31, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Susan Rice announced that the United States will seek a seat this year on the United Nations Human Rights Council with the goal of working to make it a more effective body to promote and protect human rights. As part of the process that will culminate in elections on May 12, each candidate country is asked to produce a pledge outlining its commitment to promoting human rights. This information is circulated among countries and posted on the UN Human Rights Council website. The United States has produced its pledge - Human Rights Commitments and Pledges of the United States of America, which can be read in its entirety here."

    April 28, 2009
    * Feingold Issues 100 Day Report on Obama's Actions to Restore the Rule of Law

    News release: "In anticipation of President Obama’s 100th day in office, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold today released a "100 Day Rule of Law Report" to examine the new administration’s efforts to reverse the Bush administration’s eight year assault on the rule of law. Feingold assessed the steps the Obama administration has taken thus far to address recommendations made by forty organizations and experts in connection with a Senate Constitution Subcommittee hearing chaired by Feingold on September 16, 2008, entitled Restoring the Rule of Law. President Obama received high marks for several actions he has taken in his first 100 days in office, including his executive orders to close the facility at Guantanamo Bay, ban torture and increase transparency. However, Feingold’s review finds the Obama administration’s invoking of the state secrets privilege “troubling.”

    April 27, 2009
    April 25, 2009
    * Sen. Specter: The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs

    New York Review of Books: The Need to Roll Back Presidential Power Grabs, By Arlen Specter, April 16, 2009

  • "In the seven and a half years since September 11, the United States has witnessed one of the greatest expansions of executive authority in its history, at the expense of the constitutionally mandated separation of powers. President Obama, as only the third sitting senator to be elected president in American history, and the first since John F. Kennedy, may be more likely to respect the separation of powers than President Bush was. But rather than put my faith in any president to restrain the executive branch, I intend to take several concrete steps, which I hope the new president will support."
  • Related postings on Presidential signing statements
  • April 21, 2009
    * Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into the Treatment Of Detainees In U.S. Custody

    Unclassified and Redacted - Inquiry Into the Treatment Of Detainees In U.S. Custody, November 20, 2008 (Released, April 22, 2009) (263 pages, PDF)

  • "The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of "a few bad apples" acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees. Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority. This report is a product of the Committee's inquiry into how those unfortunate results came about."
  • Related postings on torture
  • April 18, 2009
    * NYT: F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases

    F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases, by Solomon Moore: "Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move, intended to help solve more crimes, is raising concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent. Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will also collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants. the F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its rate of growth from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase."

    April 16, 2009
    * ACLU: Justice Department Releases Bush Administration Torture Memos
    • Statement of President Barack Obama on Release of OLC Memos: "The Department of Justice will today release certain memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005 as part of an ongoing court case. These memos speak to techniques that were used in the interrogation of terrorism suspects during that period, and their release is required by the rule of law. My judgment on the content of these memos is a matter of record. In one of my very first acts as President, I prohibited the use of these interrogation techniques by the United States because they undermine our moral authority and do not make us safer. Enlisting our values in the protection of our people makes us stronger and more secure. A democracy as resilient as ours must reject the false choice between our security and our ideals, and that is why these methods of interrogation are already a thing of the past."
    • ACLU: In response to litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Justice Department today released four secret memos used by the Bush administration to justify torture. The memos, produced by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), provided the legal framework for the CIA's use of waterboarding and other illegal interrogation methods that violate domestic and international law. The ACLU has called for the Justice Department to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate torture under the Bush administration."
    • The Torture Timeline, By Annie Lowrey, Foreign Policy
    April 14, 2009
    * DHS Reports on Rightwing and Leftwing Extremists
    * EPIC Demands Disclosure of Documents Detailing "Virtual Strip Search" Airport Scanners

    "Today, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding disclosure of records detailing airport scanners that take naked pictures of American travelers. Security experts describe the "whole body imaging" scanners as virtual strip searches. The Transportation Security Administration plans to make the scans mandatory at all airport security checkpoints, despite prior assurances that whole body imaging would be optional. EPIC's request seeks documents concerning the agency's ability to store and transmit detailed images of naked U.S. citizens. For more information, see EPIC's Whole Body Imaging page and EPIC's FOIA Litigation Manual."

    April 12, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - Internally Displaced Persons: Guide to Legal Information Resources on the Web

    Internally Displaced Persons: Guide to Legal Information Resources on the Web - Elisa Mason's guide highlights information resources focused on the arena of human rights and humanitarian law norms that are evolving to address the broadening scope of protection issues that encompass millions of internally displaced around the world.

    April 07, 2009
    * Fujimori Found Guilty of Human Rights Crimes

    News release (includes links to declassified documents): "As a special tribunal in Peru pronounced former president Alberto Fujimori guilty of human rights atrocities, the National Security Archive today posted key declassified U.S. documents that were submitted as evidence in the court proceedings. The declassified records contain intelligence gathered by U.S. officials from Peruvian sources on the secret creation of “assassination teams” as part of Fujimori’s counterterrorism operations, the role of the Peruvian security forces in human rights atrocities and Fujimori’s participation in protecting the military from investigation."

    April 06, 2009
    * April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month

    "Sexual assault takes many forms—it is any unwanted sexual contact, including rape, attempted rape, and child sexual abuse. It can affect people of any gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or ability. According to the National Violence Against Women Survey, 1 in 6 American women has been the victim of rape or attempted rape [...there were nearly 200,000 incidents of rape or sexual assault
    in the United States in 2005]. Perpetrators of sexual assault can be friends, acquaintances, family members, or strangers. Working together, we can raise awareness, change attitudes, and help prevent sexual assault. For more information, visit the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) at www.ovw.usdoj.gov."

    April 02, 2009
    * ACLU Announces New Book - Ongoing Fight for Gender Equality

    ACLU Blog of Rights: "Coinciding with the start of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the fully revised and updated fourth edition of The Rights of Women was released this week. The latest release in the ACLU Handbook Series, The Rights of Women is a comprehensive guide that explains in detail the rights that women and girls have under U.S. law, and how these laws can be used in the continuing struggle to achieve full gender equality. One chapter is dedicated to the issue of violence against women, including sexual assault."

    March 11, 2009
    * ACLU Releases Report On Patriot Act Abuses

    News release: "The American Civil Liberties Union released a comprehensive report today examining widespread abuses that have occurred under the USA Patriot Act, a law that was rushed through Congress just 45 days after September 11. In the almost eight years since the passage of the controversial national security law, the Patriot Act has led to egregious government misconduct."

  • Reclaiming Patriotism: A Call to Reconsider the Patriot Act, Published March 2009
  • March 04, 2009
    * International Women's Day 2009

    OECD: "Every year, the 8th of March marks a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women - and offers an occasion to present the work of the Development Centre in the area of gender equality."

  • "The new and improved Gender, Institutions and Development Database 2009 will offer latest statistics on social norms and traditions impacting on gender equality. Detailed country notes will provide in-depth information on the situation of women and men around the world. In addition, a composite index of gender equality will allow comparing and ranking countries in the area of social institutions, while new graphical tools will help to visualise data. International Women’s Day will also see the launch of Wikigender Version 2, offering many new features to explore and opportunities to discuss information on gender equality."
  • * New GAO Reports: Immigration Enforcement, DOE Contract Management

  • Immigration Enforcement: Better Controls Needed over Program Authorizing State and Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws, GAO-09-109, January 30, 2009
  • Department of Energy: Contract and Project Management Concerns at the National Nuclear Security Administration and Office Of Environmental Management, GAO-09-406T, March 04, 2009
  • Immigration Enforcement: Controls over Program Authorizing State and Local Enforcement of Federal Immigration Laws Should Be Strengthened, GAO-09-381T, March 04, 2009
  • March 02, 2009
    * Pew: One in 31 U.S. Adults are Behind Bars, on Parole or Probation

    News release: "Explosive growth in the number of people on probation or parole has propelled the population of the American corrections system to more than 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, according to a report released today by the Pew Center on the States. The vast majority of these offenders live in the community, yet new data in the report finds that nearly 90 percent of state corrections dollars are spent on prisons. One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections examines the scale and cost of prison, jail, probation and parole in each of the 50 states, and provides a blueprint for states to cut both crime and spending by reallocating prison expenses to fund stronger supervision of the large number of offenders in the community."

  • See related postings on sentencing
  • * CIA Documents to Court Destruction of 92 Interrogation Tapes

    News release: "According to a letter filed by the government in court today, the CIA acknowledged it destroyed 92 tapes of interrogations. The admission comes in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking records of the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad. In December 2007, the ACLU filed a motion to hold the CIA in contempt for its destruction of videotapes recording the harsh interrogation of prisoners in violation of a court order requiring the agency to produce or identify all the requested records. That motion is still pending."

  • Letter to Judge Hellerstein Acknowledging Destroyed CIA Interrogation Tapes
  • ACLU's contempt motion and related legal documents
  • Related postings on Guantanamo
  • March 01, 2009
    * New Rules Would Bar Genetic Discrimination

    Workforce Management: "Employers would be prohibited from making hiring, firing and other personnel decisions on the basis of workers’ genetic predisposition to a disease under rules to be proposed this week by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The proposals, which are open for public comment over the next two months, also would bar employers from deliberately acquiring genetic information from employees and job applicants...In addition, employers would be restricted from disclosing genetic information about workers and applicants. Violators would be subject to compensatory and punitive damages under some circumstances."

    • Meeting of February 25, 2009 - on Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Implementation of Title II of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act of 2008, Statement of Christopher J. Kuczynski, J.D., LL.M., Assistant Legal Counsel, ADA Policy Division
    • Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) - H.R.493, Became Public Law No: 110-233 on May 21, 2008

    February 28, 2009
    * Homeland Security Secretary Proposes Increase in Spending for Domestic Surveillance Programs

    EPIC: "Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano testified before the House Committees on Homeland Security, and said that DHS plans to connect governmental databases containing personal information, expand the government's employment tracking system, promote passenger screening, use e-passports, employ watchlists and utilize contactless identity verification cards. EPIC has opposed Fusion Centers, the E-Verify program and the use of Backscatter X-Ray devices. EPIC has also objected to the use of RFIDs in passports, in Air Travel and in driver's licences."

    * Upcoming Hearing: Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry

    News release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has announced three witnesses for a hearing scheduled Wednesday, March 4, on Getting to the Truth Through a Nonpartisan Commission of Inquiry. Leahy has proposed establishing a nonpartisan commission to examine past national security policies. Leahy has invited three witnesses to testify at the hearing: Thomas Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Retired Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, and attorney John Farmer."

  • "Leahy has suggested an independent panel to focus on national security and executive power as related to counterterrorism efforts. Leahy indicated that he has begun to speak with other members in Congress, outside groups and experts, and officials in the White House about the proposal."
  • February 25, 2009
    * State Department Releases Human Rights Reports

    2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, February 25, 2009: "As we publish these reports, the Department of State remains mindful of both domestic and international scrutiny of the United States' record. As President Obama recently made clear, "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." We do not consider views about our performance voiced by others in the international community--whether by other governments or nongovernmental actors--to be interference in our internal affairs, nor should other governments regard expressions about their performance as such. We and all other sovereign nations have international obligations to respect the universal human rights and freedoms of our citizens, and it is the responsibility of others to speak out when they believe those obligations are not being fulfilled."

    February 24, 2009
    * DOD Releases Report Reviewing Guantánamo Detainee Conditions of Confinement

    Follow up to Backgrounder, Database and Executive Order: Closing Guantanamo, the Department of Defense released a Review of Department Compliance With President's Executive Order on Detainee Condition of Confinement: "After considerable deliberation and a comprehensive review, it is our judgment that the conditions of confinement in Guantánamo are in conformity with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions..."

  • Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) report, Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo: Still in Violation of the Law, "covers conditions at Guantánamo in January and February 2009 and includes new eyewitness accounts from attorneys and detainees. The authors address continuing abusive conditions at the prison camp, including conditions of confinement that violate U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. Constitution and international human rights law."
  • February 21, 2009
    * February 2009: Civil Rights Digital Libraries Enhance Americans’ Understanding of Important Era

    "The Civil Rights Digital Library (CRDL), a comprehensive civil rights Web site and portal hosted by the University of Georgia, saw an enormous spike in the number of hits during the week of January 19 when the nation celebrated the inauguration of President Barack Obama and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. Among CRDL’s many video selections, users could watch a prophetic 1971 clip of civil rights activist Andrew Young predicting the election of an African American president in his lifetime, a 1962 clip of African American students turned away from the public library in Albany, Georgia, and a 1960 clip of African American first-grade girls integrating an elementary school cheered on by African Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded the University of Georgia a National Leadership Grant (NLG) to create the digital library in 2005. The project was selected in part because it provides a portal for many of the nation’s civil rights collections, resulting in much greater public access and the ability to search across many collections as if they were a single collection. It also harvests metadata from the collections, which are physically scattered throughout the country, and has contributed significantly to audio-visual metadata standards." [Institute of Museum and Library Services]

    February 19, 2009
    * LLRX Book Review - Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States

    LLRX Book Review by Heather A. Phillips - Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States - Heather A. Phillips discusses author Hiroshi Motomura's insights into changing views on this experience, including the status of immigration as contract, and that of immigration as affiliation.

    February 17, 2009
    * UN: Afghanistan - Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, 2008

    United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, Human Rights Unit: Afghanistan - Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, 2008. January 2009.

  • "The Human Rights Unit of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recorded a total of 2118 civilian casualties between 01 January and 31 December 2008. This figure represents an increase of almost 40% on the 1523 civilian deaths recorded in the year of 2007. The 2008 civilian death toll is thus the highest of any year since the end of major hostilities which resulted in the demise of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001. Of the 2118 casualties reported in 2008, 1160 (55%) were attributed to antigovernment elements (AGEs) and 828 (39%) to pro-government forces. The remaining 130 (6%) could not be attributed to any of the conflicting parties since, for example, some civilians died as a result of cross-fire or were killed by unexploded ordinance. The majority of civilian casualties, namely 41%, occurred in the south of Afghanistan, which saw heavy fighting in several provinces. High casualty figures have also been reported in the south-east
    (20%), east (13%), central (13%) and western (9%) regions."
  • February 15, 2009
    * Backgrounder, Database and Executive Order: Closing Guantanamo

    Closing Guantanamo, Greg Bruno, Staff Writer, February 12, 2009. Council on Foreign Relations

    February 10, 2009
    * President Obama Directs the National Security and Homeland Security Advisors to Conduct Immediate Cyber Security Review

    News release: "President Obama has directed the National Security and Homeland Security Advisors to conduct an immediate review of the plan, programs, and activities underway throughout the government dedicated to cyber security. This 60-day interagency review will develop a strategic framework to ensure that U.S. Government cyber security initiatives are appropriately integrated, resourced and coordinated with Congress and the private sector. "The national security and economic health of the United States depend on the security, stability, and integrity of our Nation’s cyberspace, both in the public and private sectors. The President is confident that we can protect our nation’s critical cyber infrastructure while at the same time adhering to the rule of law and safeguarding privacy rights and civil liberties," said Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan. Melissa Hathaway, who has served as Cyber coordination Executive to the Director of National Intelligence, will lead the review and will serve as Acting Senior Director for Cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils during the review period."

    February 08, 2009
    * Civil Liberties and National Security After 9/11: A CFR Working Paper

    War About Terror - Civil Liberties and National Security After 9/11: A Council on Foreign Relations Working Paper, by Daniel B. Prieto, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Counterterrorism and National Security, February 2009

  • "President Barack Obama, in one of his first moves in office, reversed some of the most controversial detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration. His three executive orders mandated the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility within a year, and suspended both military commission proceedings and the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program. But the interagency task force established by the executive orders has a difficult task ahead: it must not only determine the future of the remaining detainees at Guantánamo, but also shed light on how to detain and interrogate future terrorist suspects in a manner consistent with American law and American values."
  • White House documents related to Closure Of Guantanamo Detention Facilities
  • Related postings on 9/11
  • February 06, 2009
    * Notice Concerning the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

    EEOC: "On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (“Act”), which supersedes the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., 550 U.S. 618 (2007). Ledbetter had required a compensation discrimination charge to be filed within 180 days of a discriminatory pay-setting decision (or 300 days in jurisdictions that have a local or state law prohibiting the same form of compensation discrimination). The Act restores the pre-Ledbetter position of the EEOC that each paycheck that delivers discriminatory compensation is a wrong actionable under the federal EEO statutes, regardless of when the discrimination began. As noted in the Act, it recognizes the “reality of wage discrimination” and restores “bedrock principles of American law.”

    January 27, 2009
    * Recent CRS Reports: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information
    January 22, 2009
    * New Executive Orders on Guantanamo Detention Facilities, Detention Policy, Lawful Interrogations
    • Review and Disposition of Individuals Detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and Closure of Detention Facilities: "By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (Guantánamo) and promptly to close detention facilities at Guantánamo, consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.."
    • Review of Detention Policy Options: "By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to develop policies for the detention, trial, transfer, release, or other disposition of individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations that are consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice..."
    • Ensuring Lawful Interrogations: "By the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to improve the effectiveness of human intelligence gathering, to promote the safe, lawful, and humane treatment of individuals in United States custody and of United States personnel who are detained in armed conflicts, to ensure compliance with the treaty obligations of the United States, including the Geneva Conventions, and to take care that the laws of the United States are faithfully executed..."
    January 18, 2009
    * UNICEF The State of the World's Children 2009

    The State of the World's Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health

  • "The divide between industrialized countries and developing regions – particularly the least developed countries – is perhaps greater on maternal mortality than on almost any other issue. This claim is borne out by the numbers: Based on 2005 data, the average lifetime risk of a woman in a least developed country dying from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth is more than 300 times greater than for a woman living in an industrialized country. No other mortality rate is so unequal. [Afghanistan (has) one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.]"
  • * Bureau of Justice Statistics: Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2007-08

    News release: "In the first 21 months of operation, the Human Trafficking Reporting System (HTRS) recorded information on more than 1,200 alleged incidents of human trafficking, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced. The HTRS contains data collected by 38 federally funded human trafficking task forces on alleged incidents of human trafficking that occurred between January 1, 2007, and September 30, 2008."

  • Characteristics of Suspected Human Trafficking Incidents, 2007-08 (NCJ 224526), was written by BJS statisticians Tracey Kyckelhahn, Allen J. Beck, and Thomas H. Cohen.
  • January 14, 2009
    January 12, 2009
    * Freedom in the World 2009 Survey Release

    "On January 12, Freedom House released the findings from the latest edition of Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties. According to the survey’s findings, 2008 marked the third consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline. This setback was most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Baltic former Soviet Union, although it affected most other regions of the world. Furthermore, the decline in freedom coincided with the onset of a forceful reaction against democracy by a number of powerful authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China.

  • Freedom in the World 2009 examines the state of freedom in all 193 countries and 16 strategic territories. The survey analyzes developments that occurred in 2008 and assigns each country a freedom status — either Free, Partly Free or Not Free based on a scoring of performance in key freedoms."
  • January 06, 2009
    * January Is Stalking Awareness Month

    "Each year, more than 1 million women and nearly 400,000 men in the United States are victims of stalking. Stalking Awareness Month (January 2009) provides an opportunity to learn about this serious and often violent crime. For more information, visit the Office for Violence Against Women Web site."

    January 04, 2009
    * UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights Website

    Universal Declaration of Human Rights Website - "This site provides access to United Nations documentation related to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. From 1946-1948 delegates to the United Nations discussed and drafted an international declaration on the subject of human rights that has become a standard of principles for human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by General Assembly resolution 217A at its 3rd session in Paris on 10 December 1948. This website presents documents in chronological order, arranged according to the various bodies that met to discuss, draft and re-draft the Declaration. There are also brief biographic notes for the members of the Drafting Committee formed by the UN Commission on Human Rights." [via UN Pulse]

    December 13, 2008
    * Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation

    "For the past two decades the United States has been transforming distressed public housing communities, with three ambitious goals: replace distressed developments with healthy mixed-income communities; help residents relocate to affordable housing, often in the private market; and empower former public housing families toward economic self-sufficiency. The transformation has focused on deconcentrating poverty, but not on the underlying role of racial segregation in creating these distressed communities. In Public Housing and the Legacy of Segregation, scholars and public housing officials assess whether—and how—public housing policies can simultaneously address the problems of poverty and racial discrimination."

    * 2007 Data Added to Cingranelli-Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset

    "The Cingranelli-Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset contains standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 15 internationally recognized human rights for 195 countries, annually from 1981-2007. It is designed for use by scholars and students who seek to test theories about the causes and consequences of human rights violations, as well as policy makers and analysts who seek to estimate the human rights effects of a wide variety of institutional changes and public policies including democratization, economic aid, military aid, structural adjustment, and humanitarian intervention."

  • "2007 CIRI Data will be available on December 10th. There are many upgrades in this version of the dataset other than just the addition of 2007 data. If you are a previous user, it is very important that you read about these changes before using the new dataset."
  • * Genocide Prevention Task Force Delivers Blueprint for U.S. Government to Prevent Genocide and Mass Atrocities

    "The Genocide Prevention Task Force was launched on November 13, 2007 and released its report to the public on December 8, 2008. It was jointly convened by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, The American Academy of Diplomacy, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. It was funded by private foundations. Its goals were: (1) To spotlight genocide prevention as a national priority; and; (2) To develop practical policy recommendations to enhance the capacity of the U.S. government to respond to emerging threats of genocide and mass atrocities."

  • Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policymakers, December 2008
  • December 11, 2008
    * Prisoners in 2007 and Probation and Parole in the United States, 2007 - Statistical Tables

    News release: "More than 7.3 million men and women were under correctional supervision in the nation’s prisons or jails or on probation or parole at yearend 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. About 3.2 percent of the U.S. adult population, or one in every 31 adults, was incarcerated or under community supervision at the end of 2007. This percentage has remained stable since reaching more than 3 percent in 1999."

  • The report, Prisoners in 2007 (NCJ-224280), was written by BJS statisticians Heather C. West and William J. Sabol, Ph.D., and Probation and Parole in the United States, 2007 – Statistical Tables (NCJ-224707) was prepared by BJS statisticians Lauren E. Glaze and Thomas P. Bonczar.
  • * Human Trafficking Resources Released By American Bar Association

    "An estimated 27 million people are victims of human trafficking in the world today, and between 14,500 and 17,000 are trafficked into the United States each year. In order to help lawyers understand the complex issues human trafficking victims face, the American Bar Association has released three new resources for lawyers who have previously represented victims of domestic violence, children and other victims of crime.

    December 09, 2008
    * CDT Releases Transition Papers on Internet Policies

    "The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) today released a series of papers [Transition Materials for President Obama] that outline Internet policy proposals for President-elect Obama's Transition Team in the areas of security and civil liberties; preserving free speech on the Internet; keeping the Internet an open platform; protection of consumer privacy; and promoting open government. The 2-3 page memos provide a concise overview of the issues and recommend practical, achievable actions the new administration can take to keep the Internet open, innovative and free. The Internet played an integral part in this election, making it the most participatory in history. CDT believes the Internet can play an equally critical role in other areas, including health care, economic development and education, given the right government policies."

    * Fact Sheet: Transforming Our Armed Forces To Face The Threats Of Today And Tomorrow

    White House Fact Sheet: Transforming Our Armed Forces To Face The Threats Of Today And Tomorrow - Following the attacks of 9/11, President Bush strengthened and reshaped our approach to national security. To harden our defense, President Bush: Created the Department of Homeland Security; Provided national security professionals with vital new tools like the Patriot Act and a program to monitor terrorist communications; Reorganized the intelligence community to better meet the needs of the war on terror; Deployed aggressive financial measures to freeze terrorist assets; and Launched diplomatic initiatives to pressure adversaries and attract new partners to our cause."

    December 07, 2008
    * State Responses to Immigration: A Database of All State Legislation

    "State Responses to Immigration: A Database of All State Legislation is a free, searchable data tool designed to generate information about all immigration-related bills and resolutions introduced in state legislatures. Classified by state, region, subject area, legislative type, and bill status, this is the only database that allows users to find out, for example, the status of enforcement initiatives introduced in their state, compare the number of bills regulating employment, or evaluate the passage rate of health-related bills across the nation.

    State Responses to Immigration is a joint project of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and a research team at the New York University School of Law (NYU). We encourage you to read about the methodology we employed to gather and classify immigration-related legislation before using the tool.

    We have posted the 2007 legislation and will add data for 2008, in addition to 2001-2006 data, in the coming months. Note: The database assigns a bill's status based on its status as of December 31 of the given year."

    November 30, 2008
    * Article Evaluates Censorship of YouTube Around the World

    Google's gatekeepers, by Jeffrey Rosen, IHT: "For the past two years, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, along with other international Internet companies, have been meeting regularly with human rights and civil-liberties advocacy groups to agree on voluntary standards for resisting worldwide censorship requests. At the end of October, the Internet companies and the advocacy groups announced the Global Network Initiative, a series of principles for protecting global free expression and privacy.

    Voluntary self-regulation means that, for the foreseeable future, Wong [Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google] and her colleagues will continue to exercise extraordinary power over global speech online. Which raises a perennial but increasingly urgent question: Can we trust a corporation to be good - even a corporation whose informal motto is "Don't be evil"?"

    November 28, 2008
    * Human Rights Watch Report: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey - Entrance to the EU

    Stuck in a Revolving Door, Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greece/Turkey - Entrance to the European Union, November 2008.

  • "Iraqis are currently the largest nationality group of asylum seekers lodging new claims in the European Union (EU), and Greece has become their favored entry point. But Greece does not want this role, nor do Iraqis appear to want to stay in Greece, but would prefer to seek asylum in countries to the west and north. However, Iraqi asylum seekers find themselves stuck in Greece. First, they can’t move onward because EU asylum law, via the Dublin II regulation, normally requires asylum seekers to lodge their claims for protection in the first EU country in which they set foot and they also can’t move back home because of fear of war and persecution. They are almost never provided asylum in Greece."
  • November 27, 2008
    * The Council of Europe adopts its 2009 budgets

    News release: "The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers has just adopted the organisation’s budgets for the year 2009. The ordinary budget amounts to € 205 million, based on a zero real growth of member States’ contributions. As the Council of Europe enters its seventh decade in 2009, the Ordinary budget is characterised by three watchwords: focus, consolidation and efficiency, to finance increases in expenditure by the European Court of Human Rights and the Commissioner for Human Rights and adequate funding for priorities in the Programme of Activities."

    November 25, 2008
    * DOJ Data on Federal Prosecutions for August 2008

    TRAC news release: "The latest available data from the Justice Department show that in August 2008 the government reported 13,566 new prosecutions. While down slightly (2.3%) from the previous month, this number is still 43% higher than a year ago. The overall growth in federal prosecutions is largely driven by continuing increases in immigration matters, which accounted for 54% of all new cases filed in August in U.S. Federal Court."

    November 17, 2008
    * More than 36.2 Million Americans Struggled Against Hunger in 2007

    News release: "The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) announced today that the hunger and food insecurity rates in the United States increased in 2007, according to official data. More than 36.2 million people lived in households struggling against hunger in 2007, compared to 35.5 million in 2006 and 33.2 million in 2000. The number of people in the worst-off category – the hungriest Americans – has risen by nearly one third since 2000, from 8.5 million to 11.9 million."

    November 16, 2008
    * Guantánamo and Its Aftermath: U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices and Their Impact on Detainees

    News release: "Detainees released from U.S. detention in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and Afghanistan live shattered lives as a result of U.S. policies in the “war on terror,” according to a new report by human rights experts at the University of California, Berkeley done in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The report, Guantánamo and Its Aftermath: U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices and Their Impact on Detainees, based on a two-year study, reveals in graphic detail the cumulative effect of Bush Administration policies on the lives of 62 released detainees. Many of the prisoners were sold into captivity and subjected to brutal treatment in U.S. prison camps. Once in Guantánamo, prisoners were denied access to civilian courts to challenge the legality of their detention. Almost two-thirds of the former detainees interviewed reported having psychological problems since leaving Guantánamo."

    October 28, 2008
    * Global Network Initiative Launched

    "Today a diverse coalition of leading Internet companies, major human rights and free press organizations, investors and academics launched the Global Network Initiative to protect and advance freedom of expression and privacy in information and communications technologies. CDT and Business for Social Responsibility co-facilitated an 18-month effort by these groups to craft the key documents underlying this effort. The documents provide guidance for companies, NGOs, investors, academics and others working together to resist efforts by governments that seek to enlist companies in acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards. The documents also provide specific implementation commitments and outline a framework for accountability and learning."

    October 27, 2008
    * FBI Releases 2007 Hate Crime Statistics

    News release: "Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released statistics which indicated that 7,624 criminal incidents involving 9,006 offenses were reported in 2007 as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability. Hate Crime Statistics, 2007, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program, includes data from hate crime reports submitted by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation."

    October 25, 2008
    * ACLU Guide on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone"

    ACLU: Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders. The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This Constitution-Free Zone includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas."

    October 24, 2008
    * DHS Announces Issuance of No-Match Supplemental Final Rule

    DHS Issues Supplemental Final Rule with Guidance For Employers Who Receive Social Security 'No-Match' Letters: "Secretary Chertoff announced the issuance of the No-Match Supplemental Final Rule, which provides guidance to help businesses comply with legal requirements intended to reduce illegal employment of unauthorized workers, in his quarterly State of the Border address. The Secretary also outlined comprehensive efforts to secure the border, enforce national immigration laws, improve temporary worker programs, and legal migration."

    October 23, 2008
    * Biometrics in Government POST - 9/11

    Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President, Biometrics in Government POST - 9/11, released September 2008: This report summarizes the research, applications and operation of the U.S. government's biometric systems since 2001.

    October 22, 2008
    * TSA to Assume Watch List Vetting with Secure Flight Program

    News release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced the issuance of the Secure Flight Final Rule, which shifts pre-departure watch list matching responsibilities from individual aircraft operators to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and carries out a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. By bringing watch list matching responsibilities in-house, TSA can better remedy possible misidentifications when a traveler's name is similar to one found on a watch list."

  • Secure Flight Final Rule (PDF, 195 pages): "This final rule allows TSA to begin implementation of the Secure Flight program, under which TSA will receive passenger and certain non-traveler information, conduct watch list matching against the No Fly and Selectee portions of the Federal government's consolidated terrorist watch list, and transmit a boarding pass printing result back to aircraft operators. TSA will do so in a consistent and accurate manner while minimizing false matches and protecting personally identifiable information."
  • Privacy Impact Assessment for the Secure Flight Program, October 21, 2008
  • * Sen. Leahy Issues Subpoena For Office of Legal Counsel Documents

    News release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) issued a subpoena Tuesday compelling Attorney General Michael Mukasey to provide testimony and related documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee about legal analysis and advice from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) related to the Bush administration’s terrorism policies, including detention and interrogation policies and practices."

    October 09, 2008
    * Protections for America’s Disabled Workers Expanded Under New Law

    Follow up to September 17, 2008 posting, Congress Passes ADA Amendments Act, this America.gov article, Protections for America’s Disabled Workers Expanded Under New Law: "A new law restores workplace protections for the disabled that had eroded as a result of several Supreme Court decisions issued since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed in 1990. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008, passed by Congress and signed by President Bush on September 25, clarifies and broadens the definition of disability and expands the population eligible for protection under the ADA. The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with physical and mental disabilities in such areas as employment, public accommodations and transportation. It mandates that employers make "reasonable accommodations" for disabled individuals unless those accommodations impose an "undue hardship" on the employer."

    * Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Program Assessment

    News release: "All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or "mine" personal data -- such as phone, medical, and travel records or Web sites visited -- should be required to systematically evaluate the programs' effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy, says a new report from the National Research Council. Both classified and unclassified programs should be evaluated before they are set in motion and regularly thereafter for as long as they are in use, says the report. It offers a framework agencies can use to assess programs, including existing ones. The report also says that Congress should re-examine existing law to assess how privacy can be protected in such programs, and should consider restricting how personal data are used. And it recommends that any individuals harmed by violations of privacy be given a meaningful form of redress."

  • Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Program Assessment, Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals, National Research Council.
  • October 04, 2008
    * Issuance of the Attorney General Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations

    "Joint Statement of Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller on the Issuance of the Attorney General Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations: "Since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI and the Department of Justice more broadly have set priorities for and reorganized their activities to prevent future terrorist acts against the American people. In furtherance of those efforts, the Department has taken steps to provide the FBI with the authority and the flexibility it needs to protect the Nation from terrorist threats, including revising the Attorney General guidelines that govern the domestic operations of the FBI. To provide enhanced support and guidance for the FBI in its core missions, the Attorney General is issuing a new, consolidated set of guidelines for domestic FBI operations. These guidelines provide more uniform, clearer, and simpler rules for the FBI's operations. The guidelines are designed to allow the FBI to become, among other things, a more flexible and adept collector of intelligence, as recommended by major national advisory bodies and studies, including the 9/11 Commission, the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, and the Congressional Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities. Among other improvements, the guidelines move us forward in protecting national security through enhanced intelligence collection and analysis."

    October 01, 2008
    * Reports Show Widespread Confusion About The Voting Rights Of People With Criminal Records

    Follow up to September 14, 2008 posting, Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States, this news today from the ACLU: "A report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law reveals widespread misunderstanding among state elections officials of laws governing the right to vote of citizens with felony convictions. A second ACLU report, also released today, finds that voter registration forms in states across the country fail to clearly explain the eligibility of voters with criminal records. Both reports highlight widespread problems that endanger the voting rights of hundreds of thousands of eligible voters nationally in a presidential election year."

    September 30, 2008
    * Federal Justice Statistics, 2005 - Federal immigration arrests surpass drug arrests

    Federal Justice Statistics, 2005, 9/30/08: "Immigration and drug arrests comprised more than half of the 140,200 federal suspects arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals in 2005, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. Material witness (20 percent), immigration (15 percent) and weapons (11 percent) arrests increased at the fastest annual rate from 1995 to 2005. In 2005, immigration (27 percent) was the most prevalent arrest offense followed by drug (24 percent) and supervision violations (17 percent). Forty percent of all suspects arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service were arrested in 1 of 5 federal judicial districts along the U.S.-Mexico border, including Arizona, New Mexico, the Southern and Western Districts of Texas, and the Southern District of California. Nearly 1 in 4 (23 percent) of all suspects arrested in 2005 were arrested in the Southern and Western Districts of Texas."

  • Federal Justice Statistics, 2005 (NCJ 220383), by BJS statistician Mark Motivans
  • September 18, 2008
    * EFF Sues NSA, President Bush, and Vice President Cheney Over Domestic Surveillance Program

    Follow up to previous postings on the government's domestic surveillance program, today news that "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit [full complaint in Jewel v. NSA] against the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies today on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their communications and communications records. The five individual plaintiffs are also suing President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's chief of staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and other individuals who ordered or participated in the warrantless domestic surveillance."

    September 16, 2008
    * Oversight Hearing on The Federal Bureau of Investigation

    House Committee on the Judiciary - Oversight Hearing on: The Federal Bureau of Investigation, September 16, 2008

  • Statement of Robert Mueller, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington, DC
  • Related: See Commentary: New FBI Anti-Terror Guidelines, LLRX.com
  • September 15, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com: Commentary on New FBI Anti-Terror Guidelines

    Commentary: New FBI Anti-Terror Guidelines - Beth Wellington's commentary focuses on congressional and public response to the guidelines, related public surveillance actions, and on ramifications to civil liberties now and in future.

    September 14, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com - Guide to DNA Post-Conviction Resources

    Criminal Law Resources: DNA Post-Conviction Resources - Ken Strutin's article includes a collection of recent and representative web-based materials concerning DNA technology developments and legal research on the impact of wrongful convictions and DNA exonerations on the justice system.

    * Legal Guide to Student Voting

    Brennan Center for Justice: "Tailored for college students, the Legal Guide to Student Voting is an easy-to-use clickable map designed to arm students with the correct information necessary to cut through confusing and misleading registration and voting laws. The Guide also dispells common myths about the registration process that can discourage student voters—particularly those living away from home—from participating, as recently chronicled in the NY Times."

  • New York Times: V.A. to Allow Voter Signup for Veterans at Facilities
  • * Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States

    The Sentencing Project, Felony Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States: "Since the founding of the country, most states in the U.S. have enacted laws disenfranchising convicted felons and ex-felons. In the last 30 years, due to the dramatic expansion of the criminal justice system, these laws have significantly affected the political voice of many American communities. The momentum toward reform of these policies has been based on a reconsideration of their wisdom in meeting legitimate correctional objectives and the interests of full democratic participation."

    September 12, 2008 - Disenfranchisement News - New York: Voting Rights Education Hits the Road - Nevada: Automatically Eligible, but You Have to Know the Rules - North Carolina: Campaigning off the Beaten Path- Tennessee: NAACP Offers Restoration

    New York Times: States Restore Voting Rights for Ex-Convicts: "Felony disenfranchisement — often a holdover from exclusionary Jim Crow-era laws like poll taxes and ballot box literacy tests — affects about 5.3 million former and current felons in the United States, according to voting rights groups. But voter registration and advocacy groups say that recent overhauls of these Reconstruction-era laws have loosened enough in some states to make it worth the time to lobby statehouses for more liberal voting restoration processes, and to try to track down former felons in indigent neighborhoods."

    "The American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Mississippi filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the state's denial of voting rights to citizens with felony convictions. Although the Mississippi Constitution permits people who have been convicted of a crime to vote for president and vice president, election administrators are denying that right in practice. In today's filings, the ACLU asked the court to allow these citizens to register to vote in time to cast ballots for president and vice president this November."

    September 13, 2008
    * ACLU Voices Concerns About New New FBI Guidelines To Prevent Terror
    • New York Times: "The Justice Department made public on Friday a plan to expand the tools the Federal Bureau of Investigation can use to investigate suspicions of terrorism inside the United States, even without any direct evidence of wrongdoing. Justice Department officials said the plan, which is likely to be completed by the end of the month despite criticism from civil rights advocates, is intended to allow F.B.I. agents to be more aggressive and pre-emptive in assessing possible threats to national security."
    • Transcript of Background Briefing with Department of Justice Officials on Consolidated Attorney General Guidelines
    • ACLU: "Following a briefing today at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the American Civil Liberties Union reiterated its deep concern over new guidelines that would govern FBI investigations. The new guidelines would lower standards for beginning "assessments" (precursors to investigations), conducting surveillance and gathering evidence, and would replace existing guidelines for five types of existing guidelines: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations.

      The rewritten guidelines have been drafted in a way to give the FBI the ability to begin surveillance without factual evidence, stating that a generalized "threat" is enough to use certain techniques. Also under the new guidelines, a person's race or ethnic background could be used as a factor in opening an investigation, a move the ACLU believes will institute racial profiling as a matter of policy. The guidelines would also give the FBI the ability to use intrusive investigative techniques in advance of public demonstrations. These techniques would allow agents to conduct pre-textual (undercover) interviews, use informants and conduct physical surveillance in connection with First Amendment protected activities.

    September 12, 2008
    * Fact Sheet: Justice Department Counter-Terrorism Efforts Since 9/11

    DOJ Fact Sheet: Justice Department Counter-Terrorism Efforts Since 9/11, September 11, 2008

  • "Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the highest priority of the Justice Department has been to protect America against acts of terrorism. Despite repeated and sustained efforts by terrorists, there has not been another terrorist attack on American soil in the past seven years. During this time, the Justice Department has significantly improved its ability to identify, penetrate, and dismantle terrorist plots as a result of a series of structural reforms, the development of new intelligence and law enforcement tools, and a new mindset that values information sharing, communication and prevention. Working with its federal, state, and local partners as well as international counterparts, the Justice Department has not rested in its efforts to safeguard America."
  • September 08, 2008
    * Justice Department to Monitor Primary Elections in New York City

    News release: "The Justice Department today announced that on Sept. 9, 2008, it will monitor the primary elections in New York (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), and Queens Counties, N.Y., to ensure compliance with federal voting rights statutes, and specifically the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act."

  • More information about the Voting Rights Act and other federal voting laws is available on the Department of Justice Web site, here
  • .

    * Justice Department Meets with Civil Rights Groups to Discuss Plans for Protecting Ballot Access

    News release: "Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker, and other senior officials of the Department of Justice (DOJ) met today with leaders of dozens of civil rights groups, as well as national organizations representing state and local officials, secretaries of state and attorneys general offices from across the country, to review plans to protect voting rights in the upcoming federal election."

  • Fact Sheet: Protecting Voting Rights and Preventing Election Fraud
  • September 02, 2008
    * Federal Judge Orders DOJ To Turn Over Memos Authorizing Torture Or Justify Withholding Them

    ACLU news release: "A federal judge [U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York] has ordered the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to turn over three memos that authorized the extremely harsh treatment of prisoners in CIA custody or explain by October 3 why these memos can lawfully be withheld. The American Civil Liberties Union called for the immediate release of the May 2005 OLC memos as part of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit requesting information on the treatment and interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody overseas...In another development in the same case, the ACLU obtained Department of Defense (DOD) documents about the treatment of detainees in Iraq. The documents, from the military's Criminal Investigation Division, are from two investigations."

    * Civil Rights Complaints in U.S. District Courts, 1990-2006

    Bureau of Justice Statistics: Civil Rights Complaints in U.S. District Courts, 1990 - 2006

  • "Examines civil rights claims based on race, age, sex, or national origin involving employment, welfare, housing, voting, or other civil rights discrimination issues. It covers civil rights claims litigated in federal district courts from 1990 to 2006. Information is presented on trends in types of civil rights cases filed in federal district courts, the basis of federal court jurisdiction, case processing time, disposition of civil rights cases, and the types of trials that occur in the federal courts. In addition, this report examines who wins in civil rights trials and the estimated median monetary amount awarded to litigants."
  • August 25, 2008
    * CDT: Limits Needed On DHS Border Crossing and Driver Information Databases

    CDT: "In comments filed with the Department of Homeland Security today, CDT highlighted privacy concerns implicated by DHS' new system of databases to record personal information and border crossing history. CDT called on DHS to reduce the 15-year period for retaining records of the date, time and place an American re-enters the United States at the land borders, and to limit the vast array of "routine uses" for which that data can be shared with other government agencies, foreign governments, and the public. In related comments, CDT urged DHS to work with states and other issuers of new "enhanced drivers licenses" to provide the department with access only to personal information about drivers crossing the border rather than information about all those holding EDLs, and to ensure that states do not create their own records of drivers' border crossing activities."

    August 24, 2008
    * UK Government Plans Massive Personal Data Collection Effort

    Surveillance made easy, NewScientist.com news service, Laura Margottini: "This data allows investigators to identify suspects, examine their contacts, establish relationships between conspirators and place them in a specific location at a certain time."

    So said the UK Home Office last week as it announced plans to give law-enforcement agencies, local councils and other public bodies access to the details of people's text messages, emails and internet activity. The move followed its announcement in May that it was considering creating a massive central database to store all this data, as a tool to help the security services tackle crime and terrorism."

      Related links:
    • UK House of Commons, Communications Data Bill: "The purpose of the Bill is to: allow communications data capabilities for the prevention and detection of crime and protection of national security to keep up with changing technology through providing for the collection and retention of such data, including data not required for the business purposes of communications service providers; and to ensure strict safeguards continue to strike the proper balance between privacy and protecting the public.
    • Siemens - Lawful Interception (Monitoring Center, Intelligence Platform) - "Authorized groups need to have direct access to communications between suspects, whether it is individuals, groups or organizations. Only then can they take appropriate action, detect, prevent and anticipate crimes and guarantee peace and security."
    August 20, 2008
    * CDT's Dempsey to Be Nominated to Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

    "President Bush...announced his intention to nominate CDT Vice President for Public Policy James X. Dempsey to serve a five year term on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency within the executive branch that will review the civil liberties impact of anti-terrorism policies and programs, providing advice on policy development and implementation and oversight of government actions relating to terrorism. In legislation adopted last year, Congress reconstituted the Board and made it independent of the White House. The position, which is subject to Senate confirmation, is part-time, so Dempsey, if confirmed, will continue in his position with CDT."

    August 18, 2008
    * Greater London Area Metropolitan Police Launch Crime Mapping Site

    Met's Crime Mapping Test Website: "The purpose of this site is to help show where crime is occurring at a local neighbourhood level. It has been developed by the MPS in conjunction with the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Mayor of London. This is a live test site (known technically within the industry as a 'beta'). It is intended to test the functionality of crime mapping, with a view to adding further features in the near future, based on your feedback. Please note, that whilst every effort is made to record the details of crime and its location as accurately as possible, there are occasions when victims are unable to provide the actual location of a crime. In these instances, the site will not be able to display all the crime reported to the police."

    August 17, 2008
    * Election Day Voter Protection Initiative Launched

    News release: "The Campaign Legal Center today launched the Voters' Rights Protection Project, to provide generic drafts of potential court filings to individuals, organizations, and political parties who must resort to the courts to protect the fundamental rights of citizens to vote. In a letter today to both major parties and copies to the respective presidential campaigns (full text below), the Legal Center announced the project and said it would make the legal templates publicly available. Information announcing the project is also being sent to national, state, and local party committees, as well as third party organizations and numerous community and grassroots organizations from coast to coast."

    August 10, 2008
    * Courting History: The Landmark International Criminal Court’s First Years

    Human Rights Watch - Courting History - The Landmark International Criminal Court’s First Years, July 2008: "This 244-page report examines the ICC’s accomplishments and shortcomings since it began operations in 2003. The court was created to bring justice to the victims of gross human rights violations; so far the court has issued arrest warrants against suspects in four countries, though none have yet been tried."

    August 07, 2008
    * Advocacy Groups Argue Constitution Protects Cell Phone Location Information

    "In a July 31 amicus brief filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, joined by CDT, ACLU and the ACLU of Pennsylvania, argued that cell phone location information is protected by the Fourth Amendment. The brief argues that a court should require the government to obtain a warrant based on probable cause in order to gain access to cell site location information stored by a cell phone company."

  • Amicus brief in In Re Application of United States [PDF] July 31, 2008
  • : "...the Court can and must require the government to meet the requirements to obtain a Rule 41 warrant before issuing an order compelling the disclosure of stored CSLI [cell site location information]."

    * Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act, August 2008

    DOJ: Special Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act, August 2008: "Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Patriot Act), Public Law 107-56, directs the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ or Department) to undertake a series of actions related to claims of civil rights or civil liberties violations allegedly committed by DOJ employees. It also requires the OIG to provide semiannual reports to Congress on the implementation of the OIG’s responsibilities under Section 1001. This report – the thirteenth since enactment of the legislation in October 2001 – summarizes the OIG’s Section 1001-related activities from January 1, 2008, through June 30, 2008."

    August 05, 2008
    * Major Internet Companies Agree To Governance Code in Countries Restricting Access

    News release: "U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced that a number of the largest American internet companies [Microsoft, Google, Yahoo], human rights organizations and other stakeholders have reached agreement on a voluntary code of conduct that would govern internet companies operating in countries where internet freedom is restricted, like China."

  • See also Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law - hearing, Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law, May 20, 2008
  • August 04, 2008
    * Executive Order: Further Amendments to Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities
    * Global Internet Freedom Consortium Offers China-Based Reporters Software to Break Through Internet Blockade

    News release: "The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) announced today that their anti-censorship software tools are ready to help journalists and tourists during the Olympics, to circumvent China's Internet blockade. The software, which is available free of charge, can be downloaded onto a hard drive or USB drive to safely and effectively overcome the Internet censorship in China.

    In the run-up to Olympics, Beijing tightened control over media and Internet. Overseas web sites that have keywords on Beijing's blacklist are blocked and cannot be visited from China without any "anti-censorship" tools. The decision to block access to these websites is in contravention to Beijing's earlier promises to grant unrestricted Internet access to foreign reporters during the Games, and will seriously impede reporters' ability to do their work in Beijing. Although web restrictions were relaxed to some degree on Friday, it is unclear how long these conditions will last.

    In order to overcome these Internet restrictions and gain free access to the Internet in China, the GIFC recommends that journalists and tourists download the free software packages by its partners. All Internet traffic through the tools is encrypted and can successfully bypass the Internet blockades in repressive nations around the world."

    August 01, 2008
    * DOJ OIG: Management of the Office of Justice Programs’ Grant Programs for Trafficking Victims

    Management of the Office of Justice Programs’ Grant Programs for Trafficking Victims, Audit Report 08-26, July 2008 (144 pages, PDF)

    July 30, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com - Commentary: Congress and Immunity for Telecom Eavesdropping

    Commentary: Immunity for Telecom Eavesdropping - Beth Wellington's commentary tracks the legislative path of retroactive immunity for telecom eavesdropping. Published July 30, 2008.

    July 29, 2008
    * New GAO Reports: DOD Financial Management, Human Rights, Medicare Part D, Bankruptcy Reform
    • DOD Financial Management: Adjudication of Butterbaugh Claims for the Restoration of Annual Leave or Pay, GAO-08-948R, July 28, 2008
    • Financial Management: DOD's Ability to Prevent, Identify, Investigate, and Report on Antideficiency Act Violations, GAO-08-941R, July 28, 2008
    • Human Rights: U.S. Government's Efforts to Address Alleged Abuse of Household Workers by Foreign Diplomats with Immunity Could Be Strengthened, GAO-08-892, July 29, 2008
    • Information Security: Federal Agency Efforts to Encrypt Sensitive Information Are Under Way, but Work Remains, GAO-08-525, June 27, 2008
    • Medicare Part D: Complaint Rates Are Declining, but Operational and Oversight Challenges Remain, GAO-08-719, June 27, 2008
    • Surface Transportation Programs: Proposals Highlight Key Issues and Challenges in Restructuring the Programs, GAO-08-843R, July 29, 2008
    • Tax Compliance: Businesses Owe Billions in Federal Payroll Taxes, GAO-08-617, July 25, 2008
    • Tax Compliance: Businesses Owe Billions in Federal Payroll Taxes, GAO-08-1034T, July 29, 2008
    • Bankruptcy Reform: Dollar Costs Associated with the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, GAO-08-697, June 27, 2008
    July 28, 2008
    * The Necessity of Knowing and Heeding What Jurors Tell Us About Mitigation

    Blume, John H., Johnson, Sheri Lynn and Sundby, Scott E.,Competent Capital Representation: The Necessity of Knowing and Heeding What Jurors Tell Us About Mitigation. Hofstra Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 3, 2008

    "This article appears in the Hofstra Law Review symposium issue on the Supplementary Guidelines for the Mitigation Function of Defense Teams in Death Penalty cases. The complete text of the issue, which also contains the Guidelines themselves, is available online at www.law.hofstra.edu/DeathPenalty

    Capital defense counsel have a duty at every stage of the case to take advantage of all appropriate opportunities to argue why death is not a suitable punishment for their particular client. But that duty can hardly be discharged effectively if the arguments are made in ignorance of available information concerning how persuasive they are likely to be to their audience.

    Heeding that simple proposition we present lessons from the work of the Capital Jury Project, an ongoing empirical research effort built upon extended interviews with people who have actually sat on capital juries. We find that the standards for mitigation investigations contained in the ABA's Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases reprinted in 31 Hofstra L. Rev. 913 (2003) and in the Supplementary Guidelines that are the subject of this issue are on firm empirical ground, both in their specific aspects and in their overall approach of encouraging counsel to be creative in building a coherent mitigation theory that is advanced consistently throughout the proceedings.

    We then describe particular defense themes and approaches that Project data show are likely to resonate favorably with jurors as well as the most potent prosecution arguments for death and how they might be most effectively rebutted. We conclude by describing the current research findings on the demographic and attitudinal characteristics of those jurors most likely to vote for life, and offering pointers on how to best ameliorate the scandalous but well-documented reality that many jurors simply do not understand the task they are being called upon to perform."

    July 22, 2008
    * DHS Immigration Statistics Reports on Refugees and Asylees
    • Refugees and Asylees: 2007 (PDF, 6 pages): "This report presents information on the number and characteristics of persons admitted as refugees or granted asylum to the United States in fiscal year 2007.
    • Data on Refugees and Asylees: "Access data on persons admitted as refugees or granted asylum in fiscal year 2007 by several characteristics."
    * CDT Applauds Appeals Court Ruling In COPA Case

    "The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court ruling striking down the controversial Child Online Protection Act (COPA) that required Web operators to restrict access to large amounts of constitutionally protected speech. COPA placed severe restrictions on a wide range of legal, socially valuable speech, including content relating to sexual identity, health and art. CDT, which has filed friend-of-the-court briefs opposing COPA and supporting parental empowerment technology, applauds the ruling. July 22, 2008.

    July 20, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com: Sex Offender Residency Restrictions, Lessons From An E-Discovery Disaster
    • Criminal Justice Resources: Sex Offender Residency Restrictions - Ken Strutin's guide collects recent court decisions, research papers and reports that have addressed the efficacy of exclusionary zoning laws and the impact of these restrictions on sex offenders reentering their communities. Published July 20, 2008
    • E-Discovery Update: Lessons From An E-Discovery Disaster - Conrad J. Jacoby examines the recent case of Southern New England Telephone Company (“SNET”) v. Global NAPS, Inc. as an example of how stonewalling and committing perjury, especially with respect to electronic discovery matters that can be independently validated, remains a poor litigation strategy. Published July 20, 2008
    July 09, 2008
    * FISA Amendments Act of 2008 Passed by Senate

    On June 20, 2008 the House passed H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. Today the Senate passed the bill. Related commentary and articles as follows:

    • ACLU: Senate Passes Unconstitutional Spying Bill And Grants Sweeping Immunity To Phone Companies
    • New York Times: Senate Approves Bill to Broaden Wiretap Powers
    • WSJ Law Blog: "As the WSJ reports, the bill renews the legal backing for the federal government’s warrantless surveillance program, allowing the National Security Agency to listen in to Americans’ phone calls to people abroad and read emails sent to people overseas. It would also provide effective legal immunity for the telephone companies who agreed to government requests to access their customers’ phones and emails."
    • Closing Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On Senate Consideration Of The FISA Amendments: "The bill, if adopted without amendment, seems intended to result in the dismissal of ongoing cases against the telecommunications carriers that participated in the warrantless wiretapping program, without allowing a court ever to review whether the program itself was legal. "

    July 07, 2008
    * DHS OIG: ICE Policies Related to Detainee Deaths and the Oversight of Immigration Detention Facilities

    DHS OIG: ICE Policies Related to Detainee Deaths and the Oversight of Immigration Detention Facilities, June 2008: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement houses a daily average of 28,700 detainees in 353 facilities nationwide. Various types of detention facilities, such as service processing centers, contract detention facilities, and state and local jails, are used to house these individuals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention standards are used to inform facilities on expectations regarding medical care, detainee access to legal materials, and other areas related to facility management. Between January 1, 2005, and May 31, 2007, 33 immigration detainees died."

    July 06, 2008
    * DHS 2008 Data Mining Letter Report

    2008 Data Mining Letter Report (PDF, 46 pages): "This is the third report by the Privacy Office to Congress on data mining. This letter report identifies the data mining activities deployed or under development within DHS, as defined by the Data Mining Reporting Act, and describes the framework the Department will use to report on such activities in the future pursuant to Section 804 of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007, entitled, The Federal Agency Data Mining Reporting Act of 2007 (Data Mining Reporting Act)."

    July 05, 2008
    * International Holocaust Archive Expands Scope of Historical Research

    Follow up to previous postings on the Arolsen Holocaust Archives in Germany, this report from AP: Scholars make finds in Nazi archive: "...15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository of millions of Nazi records, and hailed it as a rich vein of raw material that will deepen the study of the Holocaust."

    June 30, 2008
    * Biometric Palm-reading system implemented to secure patient records

    Bryn Nelson, MSNBC, Giving biometrics a hand: "An electronic palm reader is helping one of the largest healthcare systems in the U.S. and several banks in Japan divine the true identities of their patients and customers. The key? A near-infrared camera that captures each person’s unique palm vein pattern, or template."

    June 26, 2008
    * Hearing: Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel

    Laptop Searches and Other Violations of Privacy Faced by Americans Returning from Overseas Travel, Senate Judiciary Committee
    Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, June 25, 2008.

  • From the Statement of Senator Russ Feingold: "So the constitutional question we face today is this: When the government looks through the contents of your laptop, is that just like looking through the contents of a suitcase, car trunk, or purse? Or does it raise dignity and privacy interests that are more akin to an invasive search of the person, such that some individualized suspicion should be required before the search is conducted?"
  • June 22, 2008
    June 19, 2008
    * Bipartisan FISA Compromise Reached

    News release: "Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John “Jay” Rockefeller (WV), Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chair Kit Bond (MO), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (MD), and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (MO) announced today that a bipartisan compromise has been agreed to that will modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The FISA Amendments Act, H.R. 6304 (114 pages, PDF), will increase the nation’s security by strengthening the ability of the intelligence community to conduct lawful surveillance of terrorists, as well as protect constitutional rights by requiring warrants before the government can surveil any American."

  • Computerworld: "The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that would continue a controversial surveillance program at the U.S. National Security Agency with limited court oversight, while likely ending lawsuits against telecommunications carriers that participated in the program. The House on Friday voted 293 to 129 to approve a bill that was a compromise between congressional Democrats and President George Bush."
  • June 17, 2008
    * World Information Access 2008 Report

    "The World Information Access 2008 Report presents important trends in the distribution of information and communication technologies around the world. The 2008 WIA Report explores information access by looking at trends in the blogger arrests worldwide, diversity in the ownership of media assets in the 15 largest media markets in the Muslim world, and the ideological diversity of political content online in 74 countries with large Muslim populations." Howard, Philip N, and World Information Access Project. World Information Access Report - 2008. 3. Seattle: University of Washington, 2008.

  • Complete 2008 Briefing Booklet: "Unfortunately, one way to assess the political importance of blogging around the world is through the growing number of blogger arrests. Since 2003, 64 citizens unaffiliated with news organizations have been arrested for their blogging activities. The topics of these blog posts vary, as do the kind of criminal charges and punishments handed down. Altogether 940 months of jail time has been served by
    bloggers around the world. China, Egypt and Iran account for more than half of all the arrests since 2003."
  • June 12, 2008
    * Opinion of the Court by Justice Anthony Kennedy Grants Certain Habeas Corpus Rights to Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

    SCOTUSblog: "The opinion by Justice Kennedy in Boumediene v. Bush (06-1195) and Al-Odah v. United States (06-1196) is available here. Justice Souter issued a concurring opinion joined by Justices Ginsburg and Breyer. The Chief Justice wrote a dissent joined by Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito. Justice Scalia filed a dissent, joined by the Chief Justice and Justics Thomas and Alito."

    June 11, 2008
    * Crime Victims' Rights Act Key Provisions Explained

    The Crime Victims’ Rights Act of 2004 and the Federal Courts, Jefri Wood
    Federal Judicial Center, June 2, 2008. "A newly published paper available on the Federal Judicial Center's web site provides an overview of key provisions of the Crime Victims' Rights Act."

    * Report on the "Surveillance Society" by the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee

    UK House of Commons, Home Affairs Committee, A Surveillance Society? Fifth Report of Session 2007–08 Volume I Report, together with formal minutes Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 20 May 2008.

    House of Commons Home Affairs Committee - A Surveillance Society? Fifth Report of Session 2007–08, Volume II, Oral and written evidence, Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 20 May 2008.

  • "We call on the Government to give proper consideration to the risks associated with excessive surveillance. Loss of privacy through excessive surveillance erodes trust between the individual and the Government and can change the nature of the relationship between citizen and state. The decision to use surveillance should always involve a publicly-documented process of weighing up the benefits against the risks, including security breaches and the consequences of unnecessary intrusion into individuals’ private lives. Our Report sets out a series of ground rules for Government and its agencies to build and preserve trust. Unless trust in the Government’s intentions in relation to data collection, retention and sharing is carefully preserved, there is a danger that our society could become a surveillance society. The potential for surveillance of citizens in public spaces and private communications has increased dramatically over the last decade, making it possible for what the Information Commissioner calls “the electronic footprint” we leave in our daily lives to be built up into a detailed picture of our activities. This has prompted growing concern about a wide range of issues relating to the collection and retention of information about individuals."
  • June 10, 2008
    * Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Coercive Interrogation Techniques

    Statement of Glenn A. Fine Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary concerning hearing on Coercive Interrogation Techniques: Do They Work, Are They Reliable, and What Did the FBI Know About Them?, June 10, 2008.

  • "The FBI deployed agents to military zones after the September 11 attacks in large part because of its expertise in conducting custodial interviews and in furtherance of its expanded counterterrorism mission. The FBI has had a long history of success in custodial interrogations using non-coercive, rapport-based interview techniques developed for the law enforcement context. Some FBI agents experienced disputes with the DOD, which used more aggressive interrogation techniques. These disputes placed FBI agents in difficult situations in the military zones. However, apart from raising concerns about the DOD’s techniques, the FBI had little leverage to change DOD policy."
  • * Homeland Security Expands Requirements Over Workers, Travelers

    EPIC: "President Bush has signed Executive Order 12989 which gives the Department of Homeland Security authority to review employment eligibility for all federal employees and federal contractors. The decision to expand E-Verify comes after Congress rejected the President's verification proposal and a federal court struck down the agency's attempt to establish similar authority by regulation. EPIC testified in Congress in 2007 against the "Employment Eligibility Verification System." Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration, a division of Homeland Security, will now require travelers to present identity documents or to be "cooperative."

    * Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women

    "Violence against women, including domestic violence, is the result of an imbalance of power in society. It is a human rights violation and a major obstacle to overcoming inequality between women and men. Despite positive developments in law, policies and practices, it still occurs in every Council of Europe member state at all levels of society. To find a way out of this situation, the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe member states decided to launch a Campaign to Combat Violence against Women, including Domestic Violence."

    June 09, 2008
    * FBI's Security Check Procedures for Immigration Applications and Petitions

    DOJ OIG: The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Security Check Procedures for Immigration Applications and Petitions (Redacted for Public Release), Audit Report 08-24, June 2008.

  • "According to the FBI, IAFIS [the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification Solution] maintains the largest biometric database in the world, containing the fingerprints and corresponding criminal history for more than 50 million subjects."
  • June 08, 2008
    * Biometrics for Identification and Screening to Enhance National Security

    White House: National Security Presidential Directive 59 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 24, June 5, 2008

  • "This directive establishes a framework to ensure that Federal executive departments and agencies (agencies) use mutually compatible methods and procedures in the collection, storage, use, analysis, and sharing of biometric and associated biographic and contextual information of individuals in a lawful and appropriate manner, while respecting their information privacy and other legal rights under United States law."
  • June 04, 2008
    * DOJ OIG Testimony: The Role of the FBI at Guantanamo Bay

    OIG Testimony - Statement of Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight concerning “The Role of the FBI at Guantanamo Bay,” June 4, 2008.

    "FBI agents in Guantanamo and other military zones were faced with interrogators from other agencies who used more aggressive interrogation techniques. The FBI ultimately decided that it would not participate in joint interrogations of detainees with other agencies in which techniques not allowed by the FBI were used. Our investigation found that the vast majority of the FBI agents deployed in Guantanamo and the other military zones continued to adhere to FBI policies and separated themselves from other agencies’ interrogators who were using non-FBI-approved techniques. In only a few instances did FBI agents use techniques that would not normally be permitted in the United States or participate in interrogations during which such techniques were used by others."

    * State Department - Trafficking in Persons Report

    "The 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report on 170 countries is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons. Its findings will raise global awareness and spur countries to take effective actions to counter trafficking in persons. The annual Trafficking in Persons Report serves as the primary diplomatic tool through which the U.S. Government encourages partnership and increased determination in the fight against forced labor, sexual exploitation, and modern-day slavery."

    Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons Fact Sheets

    June 03, 2008
    * DHS Announces Pre-Travel Authorization Program for U.S.-Bound Travelers from Visa Waiver Countries

    News release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the Interim Final Rule for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), a new online system that is part of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and is required by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007."

    May 27, 2008
    * Amnesty International Report 2008

    "Amnesty International's Report 2008, shows that sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations, people are still tortured or ill-treated in at least 81 countries, face unfair trials in at least 54 countries and are not allowed to speak freely in at least 77 countries."

    May 21, 2008
    * "Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law"

    Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT): Global Internet Freedom Should Be Top Human Rights and Foreign Policy Priority - "The Congress and Administration should make global Internet freedom a top human rights and foreign policy priority, CDT said today in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The government should closely monitor and report on global Internet freedom and factor progress in this area into criteria for development assistance and conditions for trade agreements. CDT also called for greater cooperation between the U.S. government and the technology industry to better manage human rights risks associated with offering Internet services in repressive countries."

    May 20, 2008
    * Review of the FBI's Involvement In and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq

    DOJ OIG, Unclassified: Review of the FBI's Involvement In and Observations of Detainee Interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, and Iraq

  • "This Executive Summary summarizes the results of the review conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) involvement in and observations of detainee interrogations in Guantanamo Bay (GTMO), Afghanistan, and Iraq. The focus of our review was whether FBI agents witnessed incidents of detainee abuse in the military zones, whether FBI employees reported any such abuse to their superiors or others, and how those reports were handled. The OIG also examined whether FBI employees participated in any detainee abuse.
  • May 18, 2008
    * EPIC, Technical Experts, Legal Scholars, and Civil Liberties Organizations Urge Accuracy In Police Databases

    "EPIC filed a "friend of the court" brief (pdf) in the United States Supreme Court, urging the Justices to ensure the accuracy of police databases. The brief was filed on behalf of 27 legal scholars and technical experts and 13 privacy and civil liberty groups. In Herring v. US, the Court will be asked to determine whether an arrest based on inaccurate information in a criminal justice database should be upheld. EPIC explained how government databases are becoming increasingly unreliable, according to the government's own studies and urged the Court to “ensure an accuracy obligation on law enforcement agents who rely on criminal justice information systems.” The amici warned that, “to permit a good faith reliance on data that is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date will actually exacerbate the problem and increase the likelihood of unfair treatment in the criminal justice system.” See EPIC page on Herring v. US

    May 15, 2008
    * Life After Lockup: Improving Reentry From Jail to the Community

    Life After Lockup: Improving Reentry From Jail to the Community: "This Bureau of Justice Assistance monograph presents an overview of U.S. jails and the people who cycle through them, examines ways that jurisdictions can address jail reentry, and profiles numerous and diverse reentry efforts from around the country. (NCJ 220095)"

    May 14, 2008
    * EPIC Report: - REAL ID Implementation Review: Few Benefits, Staggering Costs

    "At a REAL ID Workshop at the Berkman Center, EPIC today released a new report on the Department of Homeland Security’s national identification proposal, the REAL ID system. "May 11, 2008 is the statutory deadline for implementation of the REAL ID system. Yet on this date, not one State is in compliance with the federal law creating a national identification system. In fact, 19 States have passed resolutions or laws rejecting the national ID program. The Department of Homeland Security has faced so many obstacles with the REAL ID system that the agency now plans an implementation deadline of 2017." See EPIC page on National ID Cards and the REAL ID Act, and EPIC Comments on the Draft Regulations."

    * CDT: Legislation Needed to Correct Widespread Errors in use of National Security Letters

    CDT Policy Post 14.5: National Security Letters: "Widespread errors in the use of National Security Letters requires legislative action, says a Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) paper released today. The documents are used by the FBI when seeking records containing sensitive personal information. Successive Inspector General reports have uncovered abuses and mistakes by the FBI in issuing the NSLs. The CDT Policy Post says that FBI self-policing doesn't work. CDT believes there should be a more exacting standard for issuing NSLs and that prior judicial authorization should be required when sensitive personal information is sought."

    May 07, 2008
    * FBI Withdraws National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge

    News release: "The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand...The NSL was served on the Archive -- a digital library recognized by the state of California -- and its attorneys in November of 2007. The letter asked for personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. Kahle, who is also a member of EFF's Board of Directors, decided to fight the NSL because it exceeded the FBI's limited authority to issue such demands to libraries."

    May 06, 2008
    * FY 2007 Costs Calculated For Incarceration, Supervision

    US Courts news release: "In fiscal year 2007, it cost $24,922 to keep someone incarcerated in a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility for 12 months, and $22,871 to keep an inmate incarcerated in a community correction center.

    For the same 12-month period ending September 30, 2007, it cost $3,621.64 for a federal offender to be supervised by probation officers.

    Those figures translate in daily costs of $68.28 for a Bureau of Prisons facility, $62.66 for a community correction center, and $9.92 for supervised release.

    For criminal defendants who had not yet been tried, the daily cost of pretrial detention services was $64.40 and the cost of supervision by pretrial services officers was $5.85."

    May 04, 2008
    * Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol Entered into Force 3 May 2008

    News release: "The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has warmly welcomed the news that Ecuador on Thursday became the 20th country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, with the result that the Convention and its Optional Protocol will now come into force one month later, on 3 May...The 50-article Convention fights discrimination in relation to a wide range of rights that are often not accorded to persons with disabilities, either deliberately or through neglect. These include the rights to education, health, work, adequate living conditions, freedom of movement, freedom from exploitation and equal recognition before the law. The Convention also addresses the need for persons with disabilities to have access to public transport, buildings and other facilities and recognizes their capacity to make decisions for themselves. Its Optional Protocol allows them to petition an international expert body."

    May 01, 2008
    * 2007 Wiretap Report (For the Period January 1 Through December 31, 2007)

    US Courts: "The number of intercepted wire, oral or electronic communications — also known as wiretaps — authorized by federal and state courts in 2007 was 20 percent higher than in 2006. Courts issued 2,208 such orders in 2007, compared to 1,839 in 2006, according to The 2007 Wiretap Report.

    The complete report contains information on interceptions concluded between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007. A summary of the authorized intercepts reported for calendar years 1997-2007 is available in Table 7."

    * FISA Orders Up, Government Reporting on National Security Letters Begins

    EPIC: "According to the 2007 FISA report, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved 2,370 application to conduct electronic surveillance and physical searches in the United States in 2007, up from 2,176 applications approved in 2006. For the first time, the report includes information regarding the total number of requests made by the Department of Justice with National Security Letter authority for information concerning U.S. persons. in 2006, the government made approximately 12,583 NSL requests for information concerning 4,790 U.S. persons. The 2007 NSL statistics are expected later this year."

    April 28, 2008
    * Control, Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyers in China

    News release: "Chinese lawyers who take cases seen by the government as politically sensitive or potentially embarrassing face severe abuses ranging from harassment to disbarment and physical assaults, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today...The 142-page report, Walking on Thin Ice: Control, Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyers in China, details consistent patterns of abuses against legal practitioners. These include intimidation, harassment, suspension of professional licenses, disbarment, physical assaults, and even arrest and prosecution when lawyers take politically sensitive cases, seek redress for abuses of power and wrongdoings by party or government agents, or challenge local power-holders."

    April 27, 2008
    * UK Phasing In Facial Recognition System for Border Entry

    UK Guardian: "Airline passengers are to be screened with facial recognition technology rather than checks by passport officers, in an attempt to improve security and ease congestion..From summer, unmanned clearance gates will be phased in to scan passengers' faces and match the image to the record on the computer chip in their biometric passports. Border security officials believe the machines can do a better job than humans of screening passports and preventing identity fraud. The pilot project will be open to UK and EU citizens holding new biometric passports."

    April 22, 2008
    * DHS Proposes Biometric Airport, Seaport Exit Procedures

    News release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today a notice of proposed rulemaking that will establish biometric exit procedures at all U.S air and sea ports of departure. The majority of non-U.S. citizens are already required to submit digital fingerprints and a digital photograph for admission into the country. The US-VISIT Exit proposal would require non-U.S. citizens who provide biometric identifiers for admission to also provide digital fingerprints when departing the country from any air or sea ports of departure."

  • Collection of Alien Biometric Data upon Exit from the United States at Air and Sea Points of Departure; US-VISIT Program (PDF, 91 pages)
  • April 15, 2008
    * DOJ OIG Testimony on FBI's Use of National Security Letters and Section 215 Orders for Business Records

    Statement of Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice before the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties concerning “The FBI’s Use of National Security Letters and Section 215 Orders for Business Records”, April 15, 2008.

    April 07, 2008
    * Universal Periodic Review Working Group of the Human Rights Council

    "The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group of the Human Rights Council has begun its first session, which runs from 7 to 18 April. At the end of the session, the UPR Working Group will issue reports on each of the 16 countries reviewed, containing, inter alia, an objective and transparent assessment of the human rights situation of the country, including positive developments and challenges; recommendations on best practices; provision of technical assistance, in consultation with, and with the consent of the State under review; and voluntary commitments and pledges made by the country concerned."

    April 02, 2008
    * DOJ Memorandum Re: Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States

    March 14, 2003 Memorandum for William J. Haynes IT, General Counsel of the Department of Defense Re: Military Interrogation of Alien Unlawful Combatants Held Outside the United States, Declassified under authority of Executive Order 1958 By Acting General Counsel, Department of Defense By Daniel Dell J.'Orto UNCLASSIFIED 31 March 2008. (81 pages, PDF)

  • "You have asked our Office to' examine the legal standards governing military interrogations of alien unlawful combatants held outside the United States. You have requested that we examine both domestic and international law that might be applicable to the conduct of those interrogations. In Part I, we conclude that the Fifth and Eighth Amendments, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, do not extend to alien enemy combatants held abroad. In Part II, we examine federal criminal law. We explain that several canons of construction apply here. Those canons of construction indicate that federal criminal laws of general applicability do not apply to properly authorized interrogations of enemy combatants, undertaken by military personnel in the course of an armed conflict. Such criminal statutes, if they were misconstrued to apply to the interrogation of enemy combatants, would conflict with the Constitution's grant of the Commander in Chief 's power solely to the President."
  • April 01, 2008
    * GAO Testimony: Perspectives on Four Programs for Individuals Injured by Exposure to Harmful Substances

    Federal Compensation Programs: Perspectives on Four Programs for Individuals Injured by Exposure to Harmful Substances, by Anne-Marie F. Lasowski, acting director, education, workforce, and income security issues, before a joint hearing of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, and the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, House Committee on the Judiciary. GAO-08-628T, April 1, 2008.

    * New Book Examines Global State Sponsored Internet Filtering Practices

    BBC News: How the open net closed its doors - "Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering challenges the long-standing assumption that the internet is an unfettered space where citizens from around the world can freely communicate and mobilise. In fact, the book makes it clear that the scope, scale and sophistication of net censorship are growing."

    March 22, 2008
    * CRS Report - Border Searches of Laptops and Other Electronic Storage Devices

    RL34404 - Border Searches of Laptops and Other Electronic Storage Devices, March 05, 2008

  • Summary: "The Fourth Amendment generally requires a warrant to support most searches and seizures conducted by the government. Federal courts have long recognized that there are many exceptions to this general presumption, one of which is the border search exception. The border search exception permits government officials, in most "routine" circumstances, to conduct searches with no suspicion of wrongdoing whatsoever. On the other hand, in some "non-routine" and particularly invasive situations, customs officials are required to have "reasonable suspicion" in order to conduct a search. Several federal courts have recently applied the border search exception to situations in which customs officials conducted searches of laptops and other electronic storage devices at the border. Though the federal courts have universally held that the border search exception applies to laptop searches conducted at the border, the degree of cause required to support the search has not been established. Though some federal appellate courts do not appear to require any degree of suspicion to justify a search, one federal district court stated categorically that all laptop searches conducted at the border require at least reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing."
  • March 17, 2008
    * Supreme Court to Hear DC Gun Case

    PR Newswire: "Just two days after a new Washington Post national poll found that 59 percent of the American public supports restrictions identical to Washington, DC's gun laws -- which ban handgun possession and require that legally possessed rifles and shotguns be either disassembled or secured with a trigger lock -- the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled tomorrow to hear oral arguments in a case challenging DC's handgun ban, District of Columbia v. Heller. Reiterating the findings contained in its amicus brief filed in the case, the Violence Policy Center (VPC) warned that increasingly lethal handguns being marketed by the gun industry -- ranging from high-capacity semiautomatic handguns to next-generation assault pistols based on AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles -- make the handgun ban today even more of a necessity to protect first responders and citizens in the nation's capital than when it was first enacted in 1976."

    March 13, 2008
    * DOJ OIG: A Review of the FBI’s Use of National Security Letters

    Department of Justice Office of Inspector General: A Review of the FBI’s Use of National Security Letters: Assessment of Corrective Actions and Examination of NSL Usage in 2006, March 2008, Unclassified, (187 pages, PDF)

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • * DOJ OIG: A Review of the FBI’s Use of Section 215 Orders for Business Records

    Department of Justice Office of Inspector General: A Review of the FBI’s Use of Section 215 Orders for Business Records in 2006, March 2008, Unclassified (99 pages, PDF)

  • Related postings on Section 215 of the Patriot Act
  • * UN Report: The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security

    News release: "The political transition in strife-torn Afghanistan continues to face a number of serious challenges, including terrorism and a booming drug industry, according to a new United Nations report, which urges an integrated approach among all international partners to stabilize the fledgling democracy...The report notes that 36 out of the country’s 376 districts, including most districts in the east, southeast and south, remain largely inaccessible to Afghan officials and aid workers."

  • UN General Assembly Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General: The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security, March 6, 2008.
  • March 12, 2008
    * WSJ Reports on NSA's Expanding Domestic Surveillance Program and ACLU Files FOIA Request

    Follow up to previous postings on TSA's Total Information Awareness surveillance program, this news release today from the ACLU: "...According to the new Wall Street Journal report [subscription req'd], the NSA was engaging in broad domestic spying operations that involve collecting and analyzing the personal information of Americans in ways that are "essentially the same" as TIA. The elements that reportedly make up the new spying encompass a variety of mass surveillance and data mining programs about which the ACLU has previously warned..."

  • The ACLU FOIA Request regarding the NSA's Total Information Awareness program (3/12/2008) quoting the WSJ article, "According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records of domestic emails and Internet searches as well as bank transfers, credit-card transactions, travel and telephone records. The NSA receives this so-called "transactional" data from other agencies or private companies, and its sophisticated software programs analyze the various transactions for suspicious patterns. Then they spit out leads to be explored by counterterrorism programs across the U.S. government, such as the NSA's own Terrorist Surveillance Program, formed to intercept phone calls and emails between the U.S. and overseas without a judge's approval when a link to al Qaeda is suspected."
  • * First Online Free Expression Day Launched on Reporters Without Borders Website

    "Reporters Without Borders calls on Internet users to come and protest in virtual versions of countries that are Internet enemies...There are 15 countries in this year’s Reporters Without Borders list of “Internet Enemies” - Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. There were only 13 in 2007. The two new additions to the traditional censors are both to be found in sub-Saharan Africa: Zimbabwe and Ethiopia...There is also a supplementary list of 11 “countries under watch.” They are Bahrain, Eritrea, Gambia, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen."

  • "Reporters Without Borders is making a new version of its Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents available to bloggers today to mark Online Free Expression Day. The handbook offers practical advice and techniques on how to create a blog, make entries and get the blog to show up in search engine results. It gives clear explanations about blogging for all those whose online freedom of expression is subject to restrictions, and it shows how to sidestep the censorship measures imposed by certain governments, with a practical example that demonstrates the use of the censorship circumvention software Tor."
  • March 11, 2008
    * 2007 Annual Report on Human Rights

    News release, Secretary Rice, March 11, 2008: "I am pleased today [to announce] the publication of the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007. In every region of the world, men and women are working peacefully, and often at great risk to themselves and their families, to secure human rights and fundamental freedoms, to follow their consciences and speak their minds without fear, to choose those who would govern them and to hold their leaders accountable and to achieve equal justice under the law."

    * House Democrats Reject Telecom Immunity

    House Democratic Majority Leader/AP: "Locked in a standoff with the White House, House Democrats on Tuesday maintained their refusal to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on their customers without a secret court's permission. But they offered the companies an olive branch: the chance to use classified government documents to defend themselves in court. House Democratic leaders unveiled a bill that they hoped would bridge the gap between the electronic surveillance bill passed by the Senate last month and a rival version the House approved last fall. Both bills are attempts to update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law that dictates when the government needs court permission to conduct electronic eavesdropping inside the United States. The law has taken on particular importance in the global effort to thwart terrorists since the 2001 attacks on the United States.

    • Director of National Intelligence, March 11, 2008: "We understand that the leadership of the House of Representatives intends to introduce a new bill related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). Based on initial summaries of what the proposal contains, we are concerned that the proposal would not provide the Intelligence Community the critical tools needed to protect the country. The Senate already has passed a bipartisan bill that would give our intelligence professionals the tools they need to keep America safe. The bipartisan bill was carefully crafted to ensure important intelligence operations were not harmed by new legislation."

    • ACLU - New FISA Compromise Is an Improvement, Still Raises Concerns: "While we still have concerns about aspects of the new House FISA bill, the American Civil Liberties Union is encouraged by the new draft – particularly the language on state secrets, which would allow the cases to go forward while allowing the telecommunications companies to assert any defenses. We commend House leadership for keeping the courthouse door open. And in particular, we applaud the House for refusing to adopt the overreaching FISA Amendments Act, which would give the executive branch carte blanche to wiretap on US soil and grant complete retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated years of illegal surveillance. We are also heartened by the role retained by the FISA court in overseeing the program as well as the two-year sunset on the legislation."

    March 01, 2008
    * Celebrate Women's History: 2008

    "Women have made great strides in the fight for equality, but gender bias continues to create huge barriers for many—especially immigrants, women of color, women with low incomes, and victims of domestic violence. Women's History Month draws attention to the women who have fought for the rights we have today, and at the same time highlights the ongoing struggles for women's equality, such as ensuring economic and educational opportunities for all women, ending violence against women, and addressing the harms to women and girls caught up in the criminal justice system. Since 1972 the ACLU Women's Rights Project has been working to systematically end discrimination against women and girls and to challenge the obstacles that prevent women and girls from participating fully in all aspects of society."

  • March 8, 2008 is International Women's Day
  • February 27, 2008
    * UN: Good Practices for the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime

    United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: Good Practices for the Protection of Witnesses in Criminal Proceedings Involving Organized Crime, January 2008.

  • "The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols call upon State Parties to introduce appropriate measures to prevent witness intimidation, coercion, corruption or bodily injury, and to strengthen international cooperation in this regard. Often though, even where such measures have been legislated, implementation remains less than satisfactory and further progress is needed particularly with regard to cross-border cooperation especially regarding the change of identity and relocation of at-risk witnesses. Experience has shown that in witness protection there are no easy solutions. However this publication, developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime following a series of regional meetings with expert representatives from law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial authorities, has been designed to assist and support Member States in the establishment and operation of effective witness protection programs. It provides a useful account of available measures and offers practical options suitable for adaptation and incorporation in the legal system, operational procedures and particular social, political and economic circumstances of Member States."

  • February 25, 2008
    February 24, 2008
    * National Summits Help Federal Courts Prepare for Sentence Reduction Requests

    Follow up to December 11, 2007 posting Retroactivity Approved for Crack Cocaine Guideline, from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts : "As of March 3, 2008, more than 21,000 inmates serving time for federal crimes involving crack cocaine will be eligible to have their sentences reduced. Federal courts already are preparing to rule on requests from inmates, some imprisoned since 1992...The USSC, an independent agency within the federal Judiciary, amended the Guidelines to lower the base offense level for crack cocaine by two levels. For example, the penalty for a first-time offender found with 10 grams of crack would be reduced by two levels, from a range of 63—78 months in prison to a range of 51—63 months."

    * Unclassified DNI Data Mining Report Released By Secrecy News

    Secrecy News: "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence provided an overview of U.S. intelligence data mining development programs in...Data Mining Report,” ODNI Report to Congress, February 15, 2008. Data mining is used by intelligence agencies to search through databases in order to discern patterns of activity that could indicate a threat to national security."

    February 17, 2008
    * Registry of USG Recommended Biometric Standards

    "This Registry of USG Recommended Biometric Standards (Registry) supplements the NSTC Policy for Enabling the Development, Adoption and Use of Biometric Standards. This Registry is based upon interagency consensus on biometric standards required to enable the interoperability of various Federal biometric applications, and to guide Federal agencies as they develop and implement related biometric programs. Version 1.0 of this Registry document is being presented to the public for review, with comments due by March 10, 2008. The Subcommittee will review all comments received, make necessary adjustments, and finalize the Registry through normal NSTC approval processes. The Subcommittee will continuously review the content of this document, and release updated versions as required to assist agencies in the implementation and reinforcement process of biometric standards to meet agency-specific mission needs."

    February 12, 2008
    * DHS Begins Collecting 10 Fingerprints From International Visitors at O'Hare,

    DHS press releases, February 1, 2008: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today that it has begun collecting additional fingerprints from international visitors arriving at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (O'Hare), Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (Hartsfield), and George Bush Houston Intercontinental Airport (Bush Intercontinental). The change is part of the department's upgrade from two- to 10-fingerprint collection to enhance security and facilitate legitimate travel by more accurately and efficiently establishing and verifying visitors' identities."

    February 11, 2008
    * U.S. v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al.

    FindLaw: U.S. v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Feb. 11, 2008) - "The U.S. Department of Defense announced that six high-value detainees held in Guantanamo Bay were charged, under the Military Commissions Act, with planning and executing the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Specific charges include violations of the laws of war, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, intentionally causing serious bodily injury, destroying of property in violation of the laws of war, terrorism, and material support to terrorism."

    February 07, 2008
    * Senators Leahy, Whitehouse Urge AG Mukasey To Clarify Testimony About Destruction of CIA Tapes

    Press release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who also sits on the panel, sent a letter Thursday urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to clarify testimony given to the Committee during last week’s Department of Justice oversight hearing. In the letter, they ask the Attorney General to explain the scope of the Department’s investigation into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing the use of harsh interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, of al Qaeda terrorist suspects."

    February 06, 2008
    * Joint CDT, PFF Project Tracks Online Child Protection and Free Speech Legislation

    "A joint project of the Center for Democracy & Technology and the Progress & Freedom Foundation tracks more than 30 pieces of federal legislation that seek to protect children online, some of which pose serious threats to free speech. The reports released today summarize and categorize child online safety bills introduced in the 110th Congress, analyze free speech implications of key bills, and provide recommendations to Congress on how it can promote child online safety without impinging on First Amendment rights. February 06, 2008."

  • Bill Tracking Report [PDF] February 06, 2008

  • CDT Analysis [PDF] February 06, 2008

  • PFF Analysis [PDF] February 06, 2008
  • * Survey on State Compliance With Real ID Act

    News.com: "Real ID's scope is surprisingly broad. Jurors could potentially be denied entrance to federal courthouses. So could prospective students visiting the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis or the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Tours of federal buildings such as the Pentagon and the Treasury Department could be affected, as could public hearings, conferences, and even concerts. And some Americans could be denied entrance to the U.S. Capitol building, the iconic heart of the nation's democracy...Starting May 11, unless your home state agrees to comply with the federal Real ID Act or unless it asks for an extension, you might have trouble getting into federal buildings. Click a state [interactive map include in this article] to see what that state has told us about whether or not its ID cards will meet Real ID requirements."

    * UK Prime Minister - Intercept evidence may be permissable

    In a statement to the House of Commons, the PM said that the Government would look at ways of using intercept evidence as advised by the Chilcot Report. Guidelines would be drawn up to ensure that the interests of national security were never compromised, he said. The PM said:

    "The use of intercept in evidence characterises a centraldilemma we face as a free society - that of preserving our liberties and the rule of law, while at the same time keeping our nation safe and secure. [The Chilcot Report - see text below] concludes that it should be possible to find a way to use some intercept material as evidence, provided - and only provided - that certain key conditions can be met. These conditions relate to the most vital imperative of all - that of safeguarding our national security. The Government accepts this recommendation - and takes the accompanying conditions very seriously."
  • Privy Council Review of intercept as evidence: report to the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary, Cm 7324, 4 February 2008 (67 pages, PDF)
  • February 05, 2008
    * What are Human Rights? Human Rights as Membership Rights in the Global Order

    What are Human Rights? Human Rights as Membership Rights in the Global Order, By Mathias Risse, Working Paper Number: RWP08-006. Submitted: 02/01/2008. Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.

  • "Why do we have human rights? What ought to be the function of such rights in the global order, and to what extent does this help define what they are? Who needs to do what to realize these rights? In response to such questions this paper develops a conception of human rights that thinks of them as membership rights in the global order. Human rights are derived from contingent but relatively abiding political and economic arrangements. This conception has some intuitive disadvantages, but makes clear how human rights can be of genuinely global relevance; can explain why the language of rights (rather than goals or values) is appropriate here in the first place; derives human rights from relatively simple foundations; and can account of the range of disagreement that persists about precisely what should count as a human right."
  • February 04, 2008
    * CDT Analysis of REAL ID: What Should Congress Do Now?

    REAL ID: What Should Congress Do Now? - CDT Analysis of the REAL ID Act and the Department of Homeland Security’s Final Regulations, February 1, 2008.

  • Related postings on REAL ID Act

  • CNN: "The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists...The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information -- from palm prints to eye scans."
  • * Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board - Second Annual Report to Congress

    Second Annual Report to Congress, January 30, 2008 (36 pages, PDF): "As the efforts of the current Board come to a close, the Members wish to acknowledge and thank the many thousands of dedicated men and women in the Federal government whose responsibility it is to protect the homeland against terrorism consistent with the Constitution. We have been privileged to observe their training on the importance of privacy and civil liberties and witness their work first hand. The development of a privacy and civil liberties oversight infrastructure within the Federal government, as envisioned by IRTPA, is important. But nothing can substitute for the uncompromising daily commitment these individuals make to their jobs and Constitutional principles."

    January 30, 2008
    * Security Experts Warn that Pending Surveillance Law Will Weaken US National Security

    EPIC: "In a report that will appear in IEEE Security & Privacy, leading experts in computer security warn that legislation now under consideration in the Senate could make the United States vulnerable to attack. The paper Risking Communications security: Potential hazards of the Protect America Act warns that warrantless wiretapping creates creates serious security risks, including "danger of exploitation of the system by unauthorized users, danger of criminal misuse by trusted insiders, and danger of misuse by government agents."

  • Previous postings on domestic surveillance program and the Protect America Act
  • January 27, 2008
    * UK Counter-Terrorism Bill 2007-08

  • Bill 63 07-08 (90 pages, PDF), and Summary of the Bill: "A Bill to Confer further powers to gather and share information for counter-terrorism and other purposes; to make further provision about the detention and questioning of terrorist suspects and the prosecution and punishment of terrorist offences; to impose notification requirements on persons convicted of such offences; to amend the law relating to asset freezing proceedings under United Nations terrorism orders; to amend the law relating to inquests and inquiries; to amend the definition of “terrorism”; to amend the enactments relating to terrorist offences, control orders and the forfeiture of terrorist cash; to provide for recovering the costs of policing at certain gas facilities; to amend provisions about the appointment of special advocates in Northern Ireland; and for connected purposes."

  • January 20, 2008
    * National Crime Victims' Rights Week 2008 Resource Guide

    "The Office for Victims of Crime has released the 2008 Resource Guide for National Crime Victims' Rights Week, April 13–19, 2008. Developed to help communities promote awareness of victim issues, this online guide includes camera-ready art files, public awareness posters, the 2008 theme DVD and screensaver, and more. The 2008 theme is "Justice for Victims. Justice for All." (NCJ 220102)

    * CDT Comments to DHS on Developing Closed Circuit Television Best Practices

    CDT Comments to DHS on Developing CCTV Best Practices, January 18, 2008: "As the December 17-18, 2007 workshop on Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) made clear, there are many good CCTV “best practices” that have been developed by organizations such as The Constitution Project, ACLU, the American Bar Association, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom, and even the U.S. Park Police. CDT supports these efforts but believes an equally important question is, how can the public be assured that video surveillance “best practices” are being implemented in localities where federal homeland security funds are spent?"

    January 17, 2008
    * EPIC Proposes Privacy Conditions for Video Surveillance

    "In comments filed [January 15, 2008]with the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC detailed its "Framework for Protecting Privacy & Civil Liberties If CCTV Systems Are Contemplated." EPIC explained that it "does not support the creation nor the expansion of video surveillance systems, because their limited benefits do not outweigh their enormous monetary and social costs." EPIC's guidelines explain that (1) alternatives to CCTV are preferred; (2) there must be a demonstrated need for the system; (3) the public and privacy and security experts must be consulted before the system is created; (4) Fair Information Practices Privacy Act of 1974, the 1980 OECD Privacy Guidelines and the Video Voyeurism Act. See EPIC's page on Video Surveillance."

    January 14, 2008
    * U.S. Office of Special Counsel: No Fear Act, FY07

    U.S. Office of Special Counsel - No FEAR Act Report: Equal Employment Opportunity Data Fiscal Year 2007

    * Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a Press Conference on REAL ID

    Press release, January 11, 2009: "One of the biggest concerns we’ve had for the last several years, one we continue to have at the Department of Homeland Security, is how do we promote a secure form of identification across America? And Congress has spoken to this by passing the REAL ID Act several years ago, which provides that we have the obligation to set uniform security standards for the issuance of state driver’s licenses. When we went back and investigated the 9/11 attacks, one of the things which we found, and which the 9/11 Commission found, was that all but one of the hijackers carried a government-issued identification form – mostly driver’s licenses. And this government-issued ID helped the hijackers board airplanes, or remain in the country illegally. That’s why the 9/11 Commission recommended that we enhance the security of our driver’s licenses as a counterterrorism measure. And that’s why Congress set higher standards for driver’s licenses in the REAL ID Act. That’s also why the American people overwhelmingly support more security for driver’s licenses."

  • Related postings on Real ID
  • January 10, 2008
    * DOJ OIG Audit: FBI's Management of Confidential Case Funds and Telecommunication Costs

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Management of Confidential Case Funds and Telecommunication Costs, Audit Report 08-03, January 2008, For Public Release.

  • "Summary of Findings: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducts undercover activities as part of its mission to detect and deter terrorist attacks and foreign intelligence threats and to enforce the laws of the United States. The FBI uses confidential funds to support its undercover activities. By using these funds, the FBI is able to conceal its role and identity from criminals, vendors, or the public. However, the way FBI field divisions currently handle confidential funds presents special challenges and creates potential vulnerabilities for theft. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently concluded a criminal investigation into allegations that an FBI employee stole FBI confidential case funds...As part of our audit, we analyzed 990 telecommunication surveillance payments made by 5 field divisions and found that over half of these payments were not made on time. We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence including an instance where delivery of intercept information required by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order was halted due to untimely payment. The FBI’s Financial Management System (FMS) lacks the controls necessary to prevent theft and, as such, is not an effective financial system for FBI employees to use to account for and approve confidential case funds."

  • Response to Inspector General Audit of FBI Management of Confidential Case Funds and Telecommunications Costs, January 10, 2008: FBI Assistant Director John Miller..."While in a few instances, late payment of telephone bills resulted in interruptions of the timely delivery of surveillance results, these interruptions were temporary, and in our assessment, none of those cases were significantly affected."

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program

  • Additional articles via Wired - Point, Click...Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates and FBI E-Mail Shows Rift Over Warrantless Phone Records Grab
  • January 08, 2008
    * Human Rights Watch: Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism

    "Individuals from an ever widening range of groups in Iran are subject to arrest on security grounds for political activism and peaceful dissent against the government. Those arrested are frequently detained in facilities operating outside the regular prison administration, most notoriously in Section 209 of Tehran’s Evin Prison, where they may be subjected to torture and abusive interrogation. After weeks or months the authorities frequently release those held on conditional bail or a suspended prison sentence, using the ever-present threat of a return to jail to intimidate them against further activism or open dissent."

  • “You Can Detain Anyone for Anything” - Iran’s Broadening Clampdown on Independent Activism, January 2008 (54 pages, PDF)
  • * United States and Libya Sign Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement

    Fact Sheet: U.S.-Libya Science and Technology Cooperation: Bilateral Framework Science and Technology Cooperation Agreements

  • State Department Media Note: "The United States and the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya [January 3, 2008] signed a bilateral Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement during a ceremony at the U.S. Department of State. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky signed on behalf of the United States, and Ahmed S. Fituri, Secretary of Americas Affairs at the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, signed on behalf of Libya. The U.S.-Libya Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement is the first official bilateral agreement signed between the two countries since re-establishment of relations in 2004."

  • State Department Guide to Libya

  • Washington Post: Libya Officially Welcomed Back To the U.S. Fold

  • "Human Rights Watch welcomes improved EU-Libya ties, but not at the expense of human rights. The “new era” should include a framework to address Libya’s dismal human rights record and to encourage desperately needed reform. In particular, EU–Libya agreements should establish clear human rights benchmarks to promote Libya’s compliance with international standards of free expression, free association, judicial independence, and other human rights norms. This memorandum presents the most pressing human rights concerns in Libya today, as well as recommendations for human rights benchmarks the EU should establish."
  • January 06, 2008
    * Universal Declaration of Human Rights

    "On 10 December, Human Rights Day, the Secretary-General launched a year-long campaign in which all parts of the United Nations family take part in the lead up to the 60th birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on Human Rights Day 2008. The UDHR continues to hold the world record as the most translated document. With more than 360 language versions to help them, UN organizations around the globe will use the year to focus on helping people everywhere to learn about their human rights. The UDHR was the first international recognition that all human beings have fundamental rights and freedoms and it continues to be a living and relevant document today."

    January 02, 2008
    * Dept. of State Issues Final Rule on choice of "vicinity read" radio frequency identification technology for passport card

    "...the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) provides that United States citizens and nonimmigrant aliens may enter the United States only with passports or such alternative documents as the Secretary of Homeland Security may designate as satisfactorily establishing identity and citizenship... The vicinity RFID electronic chip contains only one item of information--a unique identifying number that has meaning only inside the secure CBP computer system. No other form of personally identifiable information, such as name, date of birth, SSN, place of birth etc., will be electronically stored on the passport card or transmitted through RFID. All personal information will be contained in DHS systems and will only be accessible by authorized personnel through secure networks. Upon receipt of the passport card number, the border crosser's personal information will be downloaded from the CBP system and provided to the CBP officer. The CBP officer will then interview the individual, verify their identities, and determine the appropriate action to take. The WHTI passport card approach was not designed to be an automated system, and the use of vicinity RFID technology in this final rule reflects this reality. Rather, the RFID-based approach allows the CBP officers to do their jobs better and faster." [Federal Register: December 31, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 249)][Rules and Regulations][Page 74169-74173]

    December 30, 2007
    * The 2007 International Privacy Ranking

    "Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have undertaken what has now become the most comprehensive survey of global privacy ever published. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection. The most recent report published in 2007 is probably the most comprehensive single volume report published in the human rights field. The report runs over 1,100 pages and includes 6,000 footnotes. More than 200 experts from around the world have provided materials and commentary. The participants range from eminent privacy scholars to high-level officials charged with safeguarding constitutional freedoms in their countries. Academics, human rights advocates, journalists and researchers provided reports, insight, documents and advice. In 2006 Privacy International took the decision to use this annual report as the basis for a ranking assessment of the state of privacy in all EU countries together with eleven non-EU benchmark countries."

  • The 2007 International Privacy Ranking
  • December 25, 2007
    * New CRS Reports on The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

  • The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: A Brief Overview of Selected Issues, Updated December 14, 2007: "The current legislative and oversight activity with respect to electronic surveillance under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has drawn national attention to several overarching issues. This report briefly outlines three such issues and touches upon some of the perspectives reflected in the ongoing debate. These issues include the inherent and often dynamic tension between national security and civil liberties, particularly rights of privacy and free speech; the need identified by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Admiral Mike McConnell, for the Intelligence Community to be able to efficiently and effectively collect foreign intelligence information from the communications of foreign persons located outside the United States in a changing, fast paced, and technologically sophisticated international environment, and the differing approaches suggested to meet this need; and limitations of liability for those electronic communication service providers who furnish aid to the federal government in its foreign intelligence collection. Two constitutional provisions, in particular, are implicated in this debate — the Fourth and First Amendments."

  • The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: Comparison of House-Passed H.R. 3773, S. 2248 as Reported By the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and S. 2248 as Reported Out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, updated December 14, 2007 [both reports via FAS]
  • * DHS releases REAL ID grant guidance and application kits

    "The Department of Homeland Security released grant guidance and application kits for two grant programs totaling more than $35 million to help states prepare to implement REAL ID provisions that require a standard format for state-issued driver's licenses. The REAL ID Demonstration Grant Program will provide $31.3 million in grants to the states to check motor vehicle records in other states to ensure drivers don't have multiple licenses, and to verify immigration status against federal records. It will help standardize methods by which states may seamlessly verify an applicant's information with another state and deploy verification capabilities that can be used by all states, while protecting personal identification information."

  • The Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 REAL ID Vital Events Verification State Project Grant Verification
  • December 23, 2007
    * UN Report - The State of the World's Children 2007

    "The State of the World's Children 2007 (160 pages, PDF) examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives - and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls. It looks at the status of women today, discusses how gender equality will move all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) forward, and shows how investment in women's rights will ultimately produce a double dividend: advancing the rights of both women and children."

  • "This pocked-sized Executive Summary provides an overview of the report, and includes summary indicators that provide economic and social data on all of the world's regions."
  • * President Signs Genocide Accountability Act of 2007

    White House: "S. 888, the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007, which expands criminal liability for participation in acts of genocide committed outside of the United States to persons not covered by current criminal law..."

  • Genocide Accountability Act of 2007, Signed by President December 21, 2007 - Public Law No: 110-151: "Amends the federal criminal code allow the prosecution of acts constituting genocide committed by an alleged offender who is: (1) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States; (2) a stateless person whose habitual residence is in the United States; or (3) brought into, or found in, the United States, even if the offense occurred outside the United States."

  • Open Society Institute: "The new legislation fills a critical gap in the law by permitting the U.S. government to prosecute people in the United States who are believed to have committed genocide abroad...Prior to enactment of this law, a non-U.S. national accused of committing genocide abroad could only be tried for a lesser crimes—such a visa fraud—or be deported to their country of citizenship, where prosecution might be unlikely or impossible."
  • December 22, 2007
    * Declassified Hoover Plan on Suspending Habeas Corpus

    New York Times, Hoover Planned Mass Jailings in 1950: "A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.” The F.B.I would “apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous” to national security, Hoover’s proposal said. The arrests would be carried out under “a master warrant attached to a list of names” provided by the bureau."

  • Text: Hoover’s Letter to Truman’s Special Consultant (December 22, 2007)

  • Department of State: The Intelligence Community, 1950–1955 - Organization of U.S. Intelligence (789 pages, PDF)
  • * FBI Building Next Generation Identification Database

    Washington Post: "The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law."

    December 18, 2007
    * House Judiciary Chair Demands Testimony From DOJ Officials on CIA Tape Destruction

    Press release: "[December 17, 2007] House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey reiterating the Chairman's request to have a Department of Justice representative testify at Thursday's hearing on the Applicability of Federal Criminal Laws to the Interrogation of Detainees. Congressional leaders have already criticized the Department's refusal to provide any information about the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes and attempts to delay legislative inquiries into the matter. As Chairman Conyers' letter points out, the pending Justice Department investigation "should not be used as a shield against proper and necessary oversight."

    December 11, 2007
    * EFF Obtains Government Documents on Congressional Intelligence Briefings

    "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has received a second set of records from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) detailing behind-the-scenes briefings for lawmakers working to make substantial changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). EFF requested release of the records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) earlier this year...Last month, a federal judge ordered ODNI to release all documents by December 10. The first batch of records, made public on November 30, detailed contentious negotiations between Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and members of Congress that resulted in the passage of the Protect America Act...The second set of records contains more correspondence between McConnell and members of Congress, as well as heavily redacted versions of classified testimony delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and an FAQ detailing how the National Security Agency performs electronic surveillance. Withheld records include ODNI presentation slides used to brief Congress on foreign intelligence issues, and other classified documents."

  • Part one of the ODNI documents

  • Part two of the ODNI documents

  • ODNI declaration explaining withholdings

  • more on EFF v. ODNI

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • December 09, 2007
    * EU Study - Trafficking in human beings: Internet recruitment

    Trafficking in human beings: Internet recruitment. Misuse of the Internet for the recruitment of victims of trafficking in human beings, prepared by Athanassia P. Sykiotou, Lecturer in Criminology, Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace (Greece). Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs Council of Europe 2007. (150 pages, PDF)

  • The Campaign: Human being – not for sale: "The Council of Europe Campaign to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings was launched in 2006 under the slogan Human being – not for sale. The Campaign aims to raise awareness, among governments, parliamentarians, local and regional authorities, NGOs and civil society, of the extent of the problem of trafficking in human beings in Europe today. It highlights the different measures which can be taken to prevent this new form of slavery, as well as measures to protect the human rights of victims and to prosecute the traffickers."

  • Handbook for Parliamentarians: The Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings
  • December 08, 2007
    * Joint DOJ and CIA Investigation into Destruction of Interrogation Videotapes

    Follow up to Conyers, House Judiciary Members Question CIA, DOJ on Destroyed Interrogation Tapes, from the New York Times: Inquiry Begins Into Tapes’ Destruction: "The Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency’s internal watchdog on Saturday began a joint preliminary inquiry into the spy agency’s destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes showing interrogations of top operatives of Al Qaeda. The announcement comes amid new questions about which officials inside the C.I.A. were involved in the decision to destroy the videotapes, which showed severe interrogation methods used on two Qaeda suspects, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The agency operative who ordered the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then the chief of the C.I.A.’s national clandestine service, known as the Directorate of Operations until 2005. On Saturday, a government official who had spoken recently with Mr. Rodriguez on the matter said that Mr. Rodriguez told him that he had received approval from lawyers inside the clandestine service to destroy the tapes."

    December 07, 2007
    * Conyers, House Judiciary Members Question CIA, DOJ on Destroyed Interrogation Tapes

    Follow up to December 6, 2007 posting, Report: CIA Destroyed Videos of Interrogations, this press release: "Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Reps. Robert Scott, William Delahunt and Jerrold Nadler sent letters to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Gen. Michael Hayden and Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting details about today's reports that the CIA destroyed videotapes of interrogation activities. In particular, the members ask whether the Justice Department knew about the tapes and their destruction and whether Justice will now investigate the matter. The letters are linked...below."

  • Letter to AG Re: Alleged Improper Destruction of CIA Interrogation Videotapes

  • Letter to CIA Director Re: Alleged Improper Destruction of CIA Interrogation Videotapes

  • Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, General Mike Hayden on the Taping of Early Detainee Interrogations, Posted: 2007-12-07 09:12, Last Updated: 2007-12-07 09:46, Last Reviewed: 2007-12-07 09:12: "The press has learned that back in 2002, during the initial stage of our terrorist detention program, CIA videotaped interrogations, and destroyed the tapes in 2005. I understand that the Agency did so only after it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries—including the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. The decision to destroy the tapes was made within CIA itself. The leaders of our oversight committees in Congress were informed of the videos years ago and of the Agency’s intention to dispose of the material. Our oversight committees also have been told that the videos were, in fact, destroyed."
  • * New report on human trafficking in California

    A Report of the California Alliance to Combat Trafficking and Slavery (CA ACTS) Task Force

  • Download Human Trafficking in California, Full Report. [Member Roster]

  • "Read Sacramento's Channel 10's interview with CVPC Director Nancy Matson regarding this important issue or watch the video."

  • The CA ACTS Task Force released its Final Report on December 4, 2007, at the State Capitol. A copy of the press release with highlights of key issues and findings is now available. A fact sheet is also available."
  • December 06, 2007
    * Report: CIA Destroyed Videos of Interrogations

    New York Times: "The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about its secret detention program, according to current and former government officials...The destruction of the tapes raises questions about whether agency officials withheld information from Congress, the courts and the Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program."

  • Letter From U.S. Attorney on Existence of Tapes

  • Related postings on the 9/11 Commission

  • AP: Dems Call for Inquiry in CIA Tape Case
  • December 04, 2007
    * Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Substitution Act of 2007

    Legislative Text of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Substitution Act of 2007, S. 2402, introduced by Arlen Specter, December 3, 2007.

  • Related postings on FISA
  • November 25, 2007
    * Judge Grants Stay to DHS Pending Revised Rule on Immigrant Workers

    U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, filed November 23. 2007, ACLU v DHS: Proposed Order Granting Defendants’ Motion to Stay Proceeding Pending New Rulemaking.

  • ACLU press release: "The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and labor groups to block the proposed "no match" rule which would require employers to penalize or fire U.S. citizens and legal workers whose social security numbers don't match up with the Social Security Administration (SSA) database. The lawsuit charges that the SSA database is fundamentally flawed and error-prone, and that the rule would result in the firing of countless legal workers as well as discrimination against those who look or sound "foreign."

  • Employment Verification: Challenges Exist in Implementing a Mandatory Electronic Verification System, GAO-07-924T, June 7, 2007: " The opportunity for employment is one of the most powerful magnets attracting illegal immigration to the United States. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 established an employment eligibility verification process, but immigration experts state that a more reliable verification system is needed. In 1996, the former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, now within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) began operating a voluntary pilot program, called the Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV) program, to provide participating employers with a means for electronically verifying employees' work eligibility. Congress is considering various immigration reform proposals, some of which would require all employers to electronically verify the work authorization status of their employees at the time of hire. In this testimony GAO provides observations on the EEV system's capacity, data reliability, ability to detect fraudulent documents and identity theft, and vulnerability to employer fraud as well as challenges to making the program mandatory for all employers. This testimony is based on our previous work regarding the employment eligibility verification process and updated information obtained from DHS and SSA."
  • November 20, 2007
    * Bureau of Justice Statistics: Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants in State Courts

    Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants in State Courts, November 2007: "Presents findings on the pretrial release phase of the criminal justice process using data collected from a representative sample of felony cases filed in the 75 largest U.S. counties in May during even-numbered years from 1990 to 2004. It includes trends on pretrial release rates and the types of release used. Pretrial release rates are compared by arrest offense, demographic characteristics, and criminal history. Characteristics of released and detained defendants are also presented. Rates of pretrial misconduct including failure to appear and rearrest are presented by type of release, demographic characteristics, and criminal history."

    November 18, 2007
    * Liberty: Terrorism pre-charge detention - Comparative law study

    "Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties) is one of the UK’s leading civil liberties and human rights organisations. Liberty works to promote human rights and protect civil liberties through a combination of test case litigation, lobbying, campaigning and research."

  • Liberty: Terrorism pre-charge detention - Comparative law study, Jago Russell, Editor, November 2007 (65 pages, PDF): "Pre-charge detention refers to the period of time that an individual can be held and questioned by police, prior to being charged with an offence. For individuals suspected of terrorism, the maximum period is currently 28 days – seven times the pre-charge detention limit for someone suspected of murder."
  • * Joint 60 Minutes-Washington Post Report on Discredited Comparative Bullet-Lead Analysis

    "Hundreds of defendants sitting in prisons nationwide have been convicted with the help of an FBI forensic tool that was discarded more than two years ago. But the FBI lab has yet to take steps to alert the affected defendants or courts, even as the window for appealing convictions is closing, a joint investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes" has found."

  • FBI Bullet Lead Analysis Response: "Expanding on a series of efforts that were first initiated in 2002, the FBI Laboratory announced [November 17, 2007] that it has undertaken an additional round of outreach, analysis, and review efforts concerning a discontinued forensic test known as Bullet Lead Analysis, or BLA. Previously, in September 2005, the FBI Laboratory announced that, after extensive study and consideration, it would permanently discontinue the examination of bullet lead."

  • Washington Post, Lawyer Groups to Flag Cases Needing Review: "Two umbrella groups for criminal defense lawyers announced yesterday that they will independently review cases nationwide where the FBI used a discredited bullet-matching science and will try to assist defendants who might have been wrongly convicted. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Innocence Network said they were creating a task force of lawyers in response to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and "60 Minutes." That investigation, published yesterday and today, found that the FBI has not taken steps to alert hundreds of defendants that they may have been convicted through the use of comparative bullet-lead analysis, a forensic tool that was discarded two years ago."

  • Press release: "The Innocence Network and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers announced today that they are forming a Joint Comparative Bullet Lead Analysis Task Force to ensure that convictions resulting from discredited FBI bullet analysis are properly reviewed."
  • November 11, 2007
    * Speech by Deputy Director of National Intelligence Calls for New View of Privacy

    AP: "Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information...Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation...said Kerr ignores the distinction between sacrificing protection from an intrusive government and voluntarily disclosing information in exchange for a service."

  • October 23, 2007: Remarks by Dr. Kerr (PDDNI) at the 2007 GEOINT [United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation] Symposium
  • November 08, 2007
    * New GAO Reports on Military Personnel and Terrorist Watch List Screening
    • Military Personnel: Federal Agencies Have Taken Actions to Address Servicemembers' Employment Rights, but a Single Entity Needs to Maintain Visibility to Improve Focus on Overall Program Results, GAO-08-254T, November 08, 2007
    • Terrorist Watch List Screening: Recommendations to Promote a Comprehensive and Coordinated Approach to Terrorist-Related Screening, GAO-08-253T, November 08, 2007.
    * Judiciary Committee Chairman Renews Request For White House Legal Documents On Torture

    Press release: "In a letter sent Wednesday to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) again requested legal memoranda outlining the White House’s justifications and policies on torture and interrogation. Such documents have long been requested but not provided. The New York Times recently reported on two secret 2005 memoranda that reversed government policy to allow combinations of extreme techniques, and this week in a court filing the Government conceded there were three such memoranda."

    October 31, 2007
    * Senate Hearing: The Role of Local Law Enforcement in Countering Violent Islamist Extremism

    Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing, The Role of Local Law Enforcement in Countering Violent Islamist Extremism, October 30, 2007.

  • Link to Member Statements and witness testimony

  • All Things Considered, November 9, 2007: "The Los Angeles Police Department is defending a plan to map Muslim communities in the city. Some critics are calling it racial profiling."
  • October 29, 2007
    October 28, 2007
    * Report to Accompany FISA Amendments Act of 2007

    Senate Intelligence Committee, S. Rpt. 110-209, Report to Accompany FISA Amendments Act of 2007.

    October 26, 2007
    * Judiciary Committee Releases Questions To AG Nominee Mukasey

    Follow up to previous postings on the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be Attorney General, today's press release provides additional documents: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Friday released written questions and correspondence submitted for the record to Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey. Consistent with standard committee practice, Senators were given a week to submit written follow-up questions to the nominee. The written queries focus on topics addressed in the two days of Judge Mukasey’s confirmation hearings -- including torture policy and the warrantless wiretapping program – as well as other subjects."

  • See also this related press release and letter today from Sen. Leahy: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday sent a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding renewing requests for full disclosure of the Administration’s policies on torture and interrogation techniques for detainees. Earlier this week, the White House provided Leahy with four previously undisclosed documents, including one classified document, relevant to the Administration’s policies on torture prior to the tenure of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Leahy has sought documents from the White House and Department of Justice in order to define the Administration’s legal policy on torture and interrogation."

  • October 21, 2007
    * Senate Intelligence Committee Passed Legislation to Modernize FISA

    Press release, October 18, 2007: "Senator Jay Rockefeller and Senator Kit Bond, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee...announced that the Senate Intelligence Committee passed legislation to modernize FISA. The bill, which passed by a strong bipartisan vote, will improve the recently enacted Protect America Act that aimed to fix collection problems related to foreign intelligence surveillance."

  • Key Highlights of the FISA bill

  • Full text of the bill - FISA Amendments Act of 2007.
  • October 15, 2007
    * Telecommunications Companies Respond to Committee Inquiry into NSA Wiretapping Program Participation

    Press release: "Three telecommunications companies have provided responses to inquiries by the Committee on Energy and Commerce about their involvement with the National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping program. On October 2, Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent letters to AT&T, Verizon and Qwest, requesting that the telecommunications companies provide details on the reported efforts by government agencies to obtain information about customers’ telephone and Internet use."

  • AT&T response

  • Verizon response

  • Qwest response

  • Electronic Frontier Foundation response

  • Computer and Communications Industry Association response


  • Related links and documents:
  • Via FAS, Comcast Cable Law Enforcement Handbook, September 2007

  • and beSpacific postings on domestic surveillance program

  • October 14, 2007
    * ACLU: Hundreds of New Documents Reveal Expanded Military Role in Domestic Surveillance

    Press release: "New documents uncovered as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit reveal that the Department of Defense secretly issued hundreds of national security letters (NSLs) to obtain private and sensitive records of people within the United States without court approval. A comprehensive analysis of 455 NSLs issued after 9/11 shows that the Defense Department seems to have collaborated with the FBI to circumvent the law, may have overstepped its legal authority to obtain financial and credit records, provided misleading information to Congress, and silenced NSL recipients from speaking out about the records requests, according to the ACLU...All of the Defense Department documents obtained by the ACLU are available here."

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • October 11, 2007
    * Report: Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate

    Press release: "Project Vote releases a report today, Representational Bias in the 2006 Electorate, by Douglas Hess that finds a continuing problem with the U.S. electorate: those who are registered and vote are not representative of the overall U.S. population eligible to vote. The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that does vote is highly skewed towards Whites, the educated and the wealthy. Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate."

    October 10, 2007
    * House Intelligence Cmte. Approves Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Overhaul Opposed by White House

    Follow up to October 9, 2007 posting, Conyers, Reyes Introduce FISA Revision Legislation, today's press release: "The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted 12-7 today to send the RESTORE Act (H.R. 3773) to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration."

    October 09, 2007
    * Conyers, Reyes Introduce FISA Revision Legislation

    Press release: "Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) introduced The Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007 – the RESTORE Act,in an effort to address concerns about civil liberty protections in the hastily-enacted Protect America Act that was signed into law in early August. The RESTORE ACT restores court oversight of intelligence gathering by requiring that electronic surveillance programs be approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, mandating that FISA warrants be obtained when the government wants to undertake surveillance of persons in the US, and authorizing continued oversight of programs by the Court, Congress, and independent auditors."

  • H.R. 3773, The Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007 (RESTORE), Bill text

  • RESTORE Act Summary - Summary of H.R. 3773, the "Responsible Electronic Surveillance that is Overseen, Reviewed, and Effective Act of 2007"

  • A Comparison between the RESTORE Act to the Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA)
  • October 04, 2007
    * Judiciary Expresses Concerns About Proposed Regulations Regarding Capital Cases

    US Courts: "The Judicial Conference has expressed concerns about proposed regulations issued by the Department of Justice for states seeking to qualify for expedited federal habeas corpus review procedures in capital cases. Concerns about the certification-implementation regulations proposed June 6, 2007, were aired in an August 1 letter from the Conference to DOJ. In 1996, Congress enacted Chapter 154 of the U.S. Code’s Title 28 as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA). Chapter 154 provides for expedited procedures in federal capital habeas corpus cases when a state is able to establish that it has provided qualified, competent, adequately resourced, and adequately compensated counsel in state post-conviction proceedings to inmates facing a capital sentence...In its letter, the Conference urged DOJ to revise the proposed regulations to provide definitions of “standards of competency,” “competent counsel,” “compensation of appointed counsel,” and “reasonable litigation expenses.” The Conference noted that “[s]uch definitions are needed to provide guidance, criteria, or other notice of what a state must do to satisfy the statutory or regulatory requirements."

    October 01, 2007
    * Declassifying the "Fact of" Satellite Reconnaissance

    Press release: "Today the National Security Archive publishes a collection [links to 41 documents accompany this release] of documents concerning U.S. policy with regard to acknowledging the "fact of" U.S. satellite reconnaissance operations – particularly satellite photoreconnaissance. It was 29 years ago today that President Jimmy Carter, in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center, acknowledged that the U.S. was operating photoreconnaissance satellites...The documents published include memos stating the positions of various individuals and institutions on the issue in both the Nixon and Carter administrations, assessments of the risks and benefits of declassification, an assessment of the reactions to President Carter’s disclosure, and presidential directives from the Carter, Reagan and Clinton administrations specifying the classification associated with the "fact of" different types of satellite reconnaissance."

  • See also this press release today: "After several requests from the Homeland Security Committee calling for a moratorium on the controversial use of spy satellite imagery for domestic purposes, the Department has heeded the call and delayed its planned October 1st launch of its new National Applications Office (NAO). The Department has cited the need to address unanswered privacy and civil liberties questions from Congress – as addressed in the Committee’s September 6th hearing on the matter and also in letters from August 22nd and September 6th from Committee Members."
  • September 28, 2007
    * The Mexico Freedom of Information Program

    Press release: "In celebration of International Right to Know Day the National Security Archive's Mexico Project is launching a new Web site dedicated to its Transparency and Freedom of Information Program. The Web site features a new publication on the week-long media initiative Mexico Abierto, which launched its first edition during the week of March 11-17 of this year. With our partners at the Consejo Ciudadano del Premio Nacional de Periodismo, we are now preparing for the second edition that will be celebrated in March 2008. The Web site also includes a multi-media section with pictures, news publications and video clips of forums and delegations in Mexico. The Archive's Mexico Project has been actively involved in the movement for freedom of information rights in Mexico since 2001--a struggle which achieved its first success with the enactment of a landmark freedom of information statute in June 2002. The project supports the work of citizens' groups promoting greater transparency, openness and accountability in government. To this end, the Archive works closely with scholars, lawyers, freedom of information activists, NGOs, human rights groups and the press to design strategies for advancing the people's right to know in Mexico."

    September 27, 2007
    * New First Amendment Center Report - The FCC's Regulation of Indecency

    Press release: "A new First Report from the First Amendment Center examines the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to regulate indecency on the air. The FCC's Regulation of Indecency (115 pages, PDF), by Lili Levi, a law professor at the University of Miami School of Law, analyzes crucial cases involving broadcasts of speech or images deemed offensive enough to draw regulatory attention."

    September 26, 2007
    * Court Rules Unconstitutional Two Provisions of FISA

    EFF: "Today, Judge Ann Aiken of the Oregon Federal District Court ruled that two provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), "50 U.S.C. §§ 1804 and 1823, as amended by the Patriot Act, are unconstitutional because they violate the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution."

    September 25, 2007
    * Senate Judiciary Hearing: Strengthening FISA: Does the Protect America Act Protect Americans' Civil Liberties and Enhance Security?

    Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on “Strengthening FISA: Does the Protect America Act Protect Americans' Civil Liberties and Enhance Security?” Tuesday, September 25, 2007. [Link to witness statements]

  • September 25, 2007: DNI Statement for the Record - Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing on FISA

  • Related postings on FISA and Protect America Act
  • September 22, 2007
    * Pillars of the First Amendment: Foundation of the Constitution

    U.S. Courts: "This package of First Amendment cases provides examples of the six pillars of the First Amendment considered the foundation of the Constitution. Each freedom – religion, speech, press, assembly, petition, and association – is illustrated by a high-profile case that has an impact on today's teens. These cases are presented in a way that prepares students to explore the issues in a variety of formats in a courtroom – as a civil discussion, an Oxford style debate, a Supreme Court oral argument, or a Supreme Court case conference after oral arguments."

    September 20, 2007
    * Newsweek: Telecoms Seeking Bill Limiting Lawsuits for Surveillance Cooperation

    Newsweek, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Sept. 20, 2007 - "The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs. The campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed. If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant."

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • September 18, 2007
    * Hearing on Warrantless Surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

    House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Warrantless Surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: The Role of Checks and Balances in Protecting Americans’ Privacy Rights (Part II). Statements of Mike McConnell, Director of National Intelligence and Kenneth Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, United States Department of Justice.

  • LLRX.com: The Protect America Act and Legislation Related to the Domestic Surveillance Program

  • AP: "No Americans' telephones have been tapped without a court order since at least February, the top U.S. intelligence official told Congress Tuesday. But National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell could not say how many Americans' phone conversations have been overheard because of U.S. wiretaps on foreign phone lines."

  • ABC News: "Director of National Intelligence Says U.S. Didn't Connect Available Information: "Six years after the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, the head of U.S. spy operations admitted to lawmakers that "9/11 should have and could have been prevented." Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, told members of the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that "it was an issue of connecting information that was available." McConnell, explaining that the intelligence community was, at the time, very focused on foreign threats, said the community allowed itself "to be separated from anything that was potentially domestic," and that domestic threats were "not something we [were] supposed to be concerned with."
  • September 17, 2007
    * National Security Archive Publishes Documents Describing Controversial Agency and Database

    "Today the National Security Archive publishes a collection of documents concerning the organization and operations of the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity and the TALON/CORNERSTONE database it has maintained. As the Defense Department announced on August 21, today that database will be terminated while work on new procedures for reporting of threats to the Defense Department and its facilities continues. In the interim, threat reports will be transmitted to the FBI. The declassified documents published today include the key Department of Defense directive on the collection of information about Americans, as well as documents on the organization and missions of CIFA, an evaluation of charges of mismanagement by CIFA executives, and examples of data collected about protest activities as part of the Threat And Local Observation Notice (TALON) system. Central to the collection are the documents that show the internal and public response by the Defense Department to questions raised about the propriety of the data base - specifically, its collection and retention of data on political protests. Also, included is a DoD Inspector General report on the operation of the TALON system, identifying a number of problems in operation of the system."

    * United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

    "The General Assembly [September 13, 2007] adopted a landmark declaration outlining the rights of the world’s estimated 370 million indigenous people and outlawing discrimination against them – a move that followed more than two decades of debate. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been approved after 143 Member States voted in favour, 11 abstained and four – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States – voted against the text. A non-binding text, the Declaration sets out the individual and collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other issues."

    September 13, 2007
    * New Video on NSL Privacy Violations and the Constitution

    Via EFF - "How National Security Letters Violate Our Privacy: The 26-minute video, also available on DVD, explores the repercussions of the FBI's power to demand hundreds of thousands of Americans' private records without any oversight by a court or Congress. Two former Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, Lisa Graves [bio] and Bruce Fein [bio], share their views on how the expanded, unchecked power threatens Americans' privacy and diverts resources from genuine threats. George Christian of Library Connection gives his unique perspective as an NSL recipient who challenged the letter he received and the accompanying, permanent gag order. Christian and three of his colleagues are the only people, out of thousands of NSL recipients, who can legally talk about that experience. The video opens a window onto one of several controversial post-9/11 expansions of executive branch powers. BORDC hopes local showings of the video will open a dialogue nationwide about whether the power needs to be curbed to protect U.S. residents' constitutional rights."

  • Via YouTube: FBI Unbound (Part 1/2)

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • September 10, 2007
    * Senate Hearing: Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland: Six Years After 9/11

    Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Confronting the Terrorist Threat to the Homeland: Six Years After 9/11, September 10, 2007.

    Witnesses Testimony

  • Michael Chertoff [View PDF], Secretary of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

  • J. Michael McConnell [View PDF], Director of National Intelligence: "If we lose FISA, we will lose, in my estimate, 50 percent of our ability to track, understand and know about these terrorists, what they're doing to train, what they're doing to recruit, and what they're doing to try to get into this country..."

  • John Scott Redd [View PDF], Director, National Counterterrorism Center, Office of the Director of National Intelligence

  • Robert S. Mueller III [View PDF], Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice

  • Related postings on Protect America Act of 2007 and FISA

  • Wired Blogs - David Kravets - "A top Justice Department official clarified Monday that the new national security electronic eavesdropping rules under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act demand warrants when the "target" of spying is inside the United States. The [announcement by Kenneth L. Wainstein], assistant attorney general for national security, came three weeks after another Justice Department official muddied up the definition of the so-called Protect America Act enacted last month -- suggesting warrants were not required to peer into the electronic communications of foreigners on U.S. soil."

  • September 09, 2007
    * Thompson, Harman, Carney Call for Moratorium on Spy Satellite Program

    House Committee on Homeland Security, Turning Spy Satellites on the Homeland: the Privacy and Civil Liberties Implications of the National Applications Office [Links to Witness Statements] Thursday, September 06, 2007

  • Press release, September 6, 2007: "Committee on Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment Chair Jane Harman (D-CA), and Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and Oversight Chairman Christopher P. Carney (D-PA) sent the following letter to Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Charles Allen, Assistant Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis, Department of Homeland Security regarding the Department’s new spy satellite program...Today’s testimony made clear that there is effectively no legal framework governing the domestic use of satellite imagery for the various purposes envisioned by the Department. Without this legal framework, the Department runs the risk of creating a program that – while well-intended – could be misused and violate Americans’ Constitutional rights. The Department’s failure to include its Privacy Officer and the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer before this July, almost two years after planning for the NAO began, only heightens our sense of concern. Privacy and civil liberties simply cannot remain an afterthought at the Department."

    Related news:
  • New York Times, September 9, 2007 - F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets: "...documents indicate that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used secret demands for records to obtain data not only on individuals it saw as targets but also details on their “community of interest” — the network of people that the target was in contact with. The bureau stopped the practice early this year in part because of broader questions raised about its aggressive use of the records demands, which are known as national security letters, officials said."
  • September 07, 2007
    * Congressional Anti-Semitism Task Force Launched

    Press release: "The Congressional Anti-Semitism Task Force will provide insights into the depth and effects of anti-Semitism worldwide..."The Task Force's primary role is to bring to light specific cases of anti-Semitism and educate Members of Congress, world leaders and citizens about the horrors that these cases pose on society. The task force, the initiative of Human Rights Caucus co-chairman Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), will be chaired by U.S. Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Ron Klein (D-Fla.)."

    September 06, 2007
    * DOJ OIG Follow-Up Audit of the Terrorist Screening Center

    Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division: Follow-Up Audit of the Terrorist Screening Center, Audit Report 07-41, September 2007, Redacated for Public Release, (106 pages, PDF)

  • Washington Post: "The government's terrorist screening database, the master watch list used to scrutinize 270 million people each month, continues to be marred by errors and inconsistencies that can result in the detention of innocent people and increase the chances a terrorist could slip through, according to a Justice Department report released today."
  • * Federal Court Strikes Down National Security Letter Provision of Patriot Act

    ACLU press release: "A federal court today struck down the amended Patriot Act's National Security Letter (NSL) provision. The law has permitted the FBI to issue NSLs demanding private information about people within the United States without court approval, and to gag those who receive NSLs from discussing them. The court found that the gag power was unconstitutional and that because the statute prevented courts from engaging in meaningful judicial review of gags, it violated the First Amendment and the principle of separation of powers."

  • Doe v. Gonzales - Opinion Decision and Order (9/6/2007)

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • September 05, 2007
    * National Security Archive Announces Decisions in Two FOIA Cases

  • Court Permits CIA to Withhold Historic President's Daily Briefs, But Denies Categorical Exemption for PDBs: "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week held that the disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of two Presidential Daily Briefs written for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s could “reveal protected intelligence sources and methods.” The Court rejected, however, the Central Intelligence Agency’s “attempt to create a per se status exemption for PDBs.”

  • Court Rejects Wiretapping Secrecy Claims, Orders New Index of Documents and More Detailed Reasons for Withholding: "The United States District Court for the District of Columbia today largely rejected the government’s attempt to withhold without explanation all records concerning its warrantless wiretapping surveillance program. In a Freedom of Information Act law suit brought by the National Security Archive, along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Court rejected the summary explanations and declarations of the government."
  • August 27, 2007
    * Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales Announces His Resignation

    Remarks of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales Announcing His Resignation, Washington, DC - August 27, 2007

  • Letter of Resignation

  • President Bush Discusses Resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

  • AP: "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation Monday after months of draining controversy drew expressions of relief from Republicans and a vow from Democrats to pursue their investigation into fired federal prosecutors."

  • New York Times: Gonzales Career Timeline and Testimony

  • Comment Of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On Reports Of The Resignation Of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, August 27, 2007: "“Under this Attorney General and this President, the Department of Justice suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence. It is a shame, and it is the Justice Department, the American people and the dedicated professionals of our law enforcement community who have suffered most from it."

  • TPMmuckracker.com: Justice Department Resignation Roll Call

  • "The American Civil Liberties Union today said U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ resignation requires further congressional investigation into the Bush administration’s systematic abuse of power."

  • Related postings on Alberto Gonzales
  • August 26, 2007
    * Government Maintained Terrorist Screening Database Privacy Controversy

    Washington Post: Terror Suspect List Yields Few Arrests - 20,000 Detentions in '06 Rile Critics: "The government's terrorist screening database flagged Americans and foreigners as suspected terrorists almost 20,000 times last year. But only a small fraction of those questioned were arrested or denied entry into the United States, raising concerns among critics about privacy and the list's effectiveness...The database is maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, a joint operation between the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. Rick Kopel, the TSC's deputy director, called it "one of the best things the government has been able to accomplish since 9/11."

    August 23, 2007
    * DHS Satellite Surveillance Plan Under Close Scrutiny by House Homeland Security Cmte.

    The Wall Street Journal today reported that House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stating the intention to conduct careful oversight over the fall 2007 launch of the National Applications Office (NAO). This program's use of "spy satellites for domestic homeland security and law enforcement purposes" has raised civil liberties and privacy issues.

    August 22, 2007
    * Transcript of Q&A With National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell

    Transcript: Debate on the foreign intelligence surveillance act, by Chris Roberts, El Paso Times: The following is the transcript of a question and answer session with National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, published August 22, 2007.

  • On participation by telecommunications companies in the domestic surveillance program: "...Now the second part of the issue was under the president's program, the terrorist surveillance program, the private sector had assisted us. Because if you're going to get access you've got to have a partner and they were being sued."

  • AP: "National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled the curtain back on previously classified details of government surveillance and of a secretive court whose recent rulings created new hurdles for the Bush administration as it tries to prevent terrorism."
  • * Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, Constitution Week, 2007

    Proclamation by the President: Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, Constitution Week, 2007 - "On Constitution Day and Citizenship Day and during Constitution Week, we celebrate the anniversary of our Nation's Constitution and honor the Framers who created the landmark document that continues to guide our Nation.

    In the summer of 1787, delegates convened in Philadelphia to create "a more perfect Union" and craft the document that is the foundation of our country. With great diligence, they worked to develop a framework that would balance authority and inherent freedoms, Federal interests and State powers, individual rights and national unity. On September 17th of the same year, the delegates signed the Constitution of the United States.

    Today, every American shares in this legacy of liberty, and we are grateful for the courage, conviction, and sacrifice of all those who have helped preserve and uphold the principles of a free society. As we remember the enduring importance of the Constitution, we also recognize our responsibility as citizens to respect and defend the values of our founding and participate in the unfolding story of freedom."

    * DoD to Implement Interim Threat Reporting Procedures

    Press release: "DoD’s Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) will close the TALON Reporting System effective Sept. 17, 2007, and maintain a record copy of the collected data in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements. To ensure there is a mechanism in place to document and assess potential threats to DoD resources, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs will propose a system to streamline such threat reporting and better meet the Defense department’s needs."

  • AP: "Pentagon said Tuesday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that has been criticized for improperly storing information on peace activists and others whose actions posed no threat."
  • August 20, 2007
    * White House Fails to Comply With Subpoenas on Domestic Surveillance Program

    Follow up to previous posting on the government's domestic surveillance program, today's Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On The Bush Administration’s Failure To Comply With Subpoenas For Warrantless Wiretapping Documents, August 20, 2007: "Today was the deadline for the Administration to comply with the Judiciary Committee’s subpoenas for documents related to the legal justifications for and President’s authorization of the warrantless wiretapping program. The Administration failed to adequately comply, despite our granting an extension of more than a month past the original return date. The Administration has produced no documents, no adequate basis for noncompliance, no privilege claims, and no complete privilege log."

    Related news and government documents:

  • ACLU: "In an unprecedented order, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has required the U.S. government to respond to a request it received last week by the American Civil Liberties Union for orders and legal papers discussing the scope of the government's authority to engage in the secret wiretapping of Americans. According to the FISC's order, the ACLU's request "warrants further briefing," and the government must respond to it by August 31. The court has said that any reply by the ACLU must be filed by September 14...A copy of the FISA court order, the ACLU's motion to the FISC, as well as information about the ACLU's lawsuit against the NSA and other related materials are available here."

  • Press release: "Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Chairman of the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee and a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee... wrote [August 16, 2007] to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff seeking answers in response to reports that the Bush Administration will undertake an unprecedented expansion in the use of advanced spy satellites for surveillance of Americans."

  • WSJ: U.S. to Expand Domestic Use Of Spy Satellites

  • FAS: Unclassified study on intelligence capabilites for domestic surveillance programs: Civil Applications Committee (CAC) Blue Ribbon Study, Independent Study Group Final Report, September 2005

  • Internet Archive: Judicial Proceeding, Domestice Surveillance Program, U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, California, ID: 200464 - 08/15/2007 (Recorded and Copied from C-SPAN and Uploaded to the Internet Archive): "U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard oral arguments in two cases on the government's warrantless wiretapping program. The Court will decide whether or not to dismiss the two cases under the "state secrets" privilege, which bars the presentation of evidence in court that could threaten national security. Lower court judges in both cases rejected the government's attempts to get the cases dismissed.

    The plaintiffs in Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc. v. Bush are an Oregon branch of a Saudi charity that has been investigated for alleged terrorist ties. They argue that they have a top-secret document proving they were a direct target of National Security Agency surveillance.

    Hepting v. AT&T is a class action on behalf of a group of AT&T customers who allege that the company intercepted their phone calls and electronic mail, then disclosed the information to the NSA."


  • August 17, 2007
    * DOD Concerned About Iraq Biometric Database

    EPIC: "The biometrics program manager in Iraq this week expressed concern that the database containing biometrics and secret files on thousand of Iraqis could "become a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands." According to Lt. Col. Velliquette, the Iraqi system has approximately 750,000 records in its database. Earlier, EPIC, Privacy International, and Human Rights Watch wrote to the US Defense Secretary to warn that the system will lead to reprisals and further killings. For more information, see Transcript of "The Role of Biometrics in Counterinsurgency," blogs at Harpers and Wired, and the EPIC Iraq Biometric Identification System page."

    August 15, 2007
    * DHS Announces Plans for National Applications Office

    Press release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Applications Office (NAO) is the executive agent to facilitate the use of intelligence community technological assets for civil, homeland security and law enforcement purposes within the United States. The office will begin initial operation by fall 2007 and will build on the long-standing work of the Civil Applications Committee, which was created in 1974 to facilitate the use of the capabilities of the intelligence community for civil, non-defense uses in the United States...As a principal interface between the Intelligence Community and the Civil Applications, Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Domains, the National Applications Office will provide more robust access to needed remote sensing information to appropriate customers.."

    * WSJ Reports on DHS Plan to Expand Domestic Surveillance

    WSJ: "The U.S.'s top intelligence official has greatly expanded the range of federal and local authorities who can get access to information from the nation's vast network of spy satellites in the U.S. The decision, made three months ago by Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell, places for the first time some of the U.S.'s most powerful intelligence-gathering tools at the disposal of domestic security officials. The move was authorized in a May 25 memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asking his department to facilitate access to the spy network on behalf of civilian agencies and law enforcement."

    August 14, 2007
    * DOJ Poised to Implement New Rules Shortening Dealth Penalty Appeals

    LA Times: "The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts. The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year's reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges."

  • See also U.S. Department of Justice - Office of Justice Programs
    Bureau of Justice Statistics - Capital Punishment Statistics
  • August 12, 2007
    * Library of Congress Webcast Available on Torture, Detainees and the U.S. Military

    The Law Library of Congress is pleased to announce the following new resource: Webcast: A Panel Discussion - "Torture, Detainees, & the U.S. Military" [via Emily Carr/Law Library of Congress]
    TITLE: A Panel Discussion: "Torture, Detainees, and the U.S. Military"
    SPEAKERS: Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, United States Army; Brigadier General James C. Walker, United States Marine Corps; Ms. Jacki Northam, National Public Radio Correspondent; Professor Gary Solis, Law Library Scholar in Residence; Mr. Lee A. Casey, Baker Hostetler
    EVENT DATE: July 11, 2007
    RUNNING TIME: 1:31:03
    DESCRIPTION: On July 11, 2007, The Law Library of Congress hosted its first program in its new multimedia room. Law Library Scholar in Residence, Gary Solis, moderated the panel discussion touching upon several current topics of national interest and concern: Guantanamo; "high value" detainees; military commissions; fair trials; and allegations of torture by agents of the U.S., including military personnel. With their extensive personal involvement in combatant operations, expertise in legal issues relating to prisoner torture and mistreatment, and their association with legislative concerns, the panelists provided tremendous insight to these timely subjects. The discussion was followed by a questions and answer session with the audience."

    * Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Addresses ABA Annual Meeting

    Explain Independence of the Judiciary in Words that People Can Understand - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer tells ABA opening assembly, August 11, 2007 - Video / Audio

  • AP: Justice Breyer Unhappy With Outcomes - Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Says Despite Difficult Term, He Still Believes In Rule of Law
  • * Commentary on Understanding Privacy -- and the Real Threats to It

    Understanding Privacy -- and the Real Threats to It, August 4, 2007 (20 pages, PDF), by Jim Harper, the editor of Privacilla.org and director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute.

  • Executive Summary: "Properly defined, privacy is the subjective condition people experience when they have power to control information about themselves. Because privacy is subjective, government regulation in the name of privacy can only create confidentiality or secrecy rules based on politicians' and bureaucrats' guesses about what "privacy" should look like. The most important, but elusive, part of true privacy protection is consumers' exercise of power over information about themselves. Ultimately, privacy is a product of personal responsibility and autonomy.

    Law has dual, conflicting effects on privacy. Law is essential for protecting privacy because it backs individuals' privacy-protecting decisions, but much legislation plays a significant role in undermining privacy. Indeed, the principal threats to privacy come from governments.

    These threats fall into three classes. The first, government surveillance, is a profound and well-recognized threat to privacy. Governments also undermine privacy by collecting, cataloging, and sharing personal information about citizens for administrative purposes. Less acknowledged -- but no less important -- is the wide variety of laws and regulations that degrade citizens' power to protect privacy as they see fit."

  • August 08, 2007
    * Report Tracks and Compares Competition for Search Privacy

    Press release: "In a trend that could substantially benefit Internet users, the largest Internet search companies are beginning to aggressively compete with one another to offer stronger privacy protections, according to a report published today by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). Until recently, most of the major Internet search engines kept detailed -- and potentially personally identifiable -- records of their customers' searches for as long as they deemed them useful, which generally meant indefinitely. In a string of recent announcements, the companies announced steps they were taking to delete old user data, strip the personally identifiable information out of stored search records, and, in one case, give users the option to have all of their search records deleted. CDT's Search Privacy Practices report details and compares the revamped privacy policies of the five largest search providers and offers recommendations for both the industry and lawmakers for how to strengthen privacy protections even further."

    August 07, 2007
    * Civil Liberties Issues and Amendments to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

    Follow-up to August 6, 2007 posting - Questions and Answers on the Protect America Act of 2007 - today's related press release on the bill President Bush signed into law on August 5, 2007: "U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) yesterday asked for and received a letter from Admiral Mike McConnell [text of which is included in this release], Director of National Intelligence, detailing assurances he made to Senators on Friday evening that temporary modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will not infringe on the rights of Americans."

  • ACLU Fact Sheet on the “Police America Act"
  • August 06, 2007
    * Questions and Answers on the Protect America Act of 2007

    Follow-up to August 5, 2007 posting - Bill to Amend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Ready for President's Signature - today's FAQ: How far does the new wiretap law go? by Declan McCullagh - "Over strong objections from civil liberties groups and many Democrats, legislators voted over the weekend to temporarily rewrite a 1978 wiretapping law that the Bush administration claimed was hindering antiterrorism investigations."

    Related government documents:

  • President Bush Commends Congress on Passage of Intelligence Legislation, August 5, 2007

  • Fact Sheet: The Protect America Act of 2007, August 6, 2007

  • Fact Sheet: Combating Terrorism Worldwide, August 6, 2007

  • VNUnet.com: The US National Security Agency (NSA) now has the legal right to monitor over a third of the world's telecoms traffic.

  • * DOJ OIG Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act, August 2007

    Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act (as required by Section 1001(3) of Public Law 107-56), Special Report, August 3, 2007- Office of the Inspector General [PDF or HTML]

    August 05, 2007
    * Bill to Amend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Ready for President's Signature

  • S. 1927 - A bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to provide additional procedures for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence information and for other purposes.

  • AP: "The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States."

  • New York Times: House Passes Changes in Eavesdropping Program
  • August 01, 2007
    * Hearing on Access to Information in the People's Republic of China

    U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on Access to Information in the People's Republic of China, July 31, 2007.

  • Read the Panelists’ Prepared Statements

  • Read the FINAL Press Release

  • Read the Federal Register Notice

  • Read the FINAL Agenda
  • July 31, 2007
    * Oversight Hearing on Privacy in the Hands of the Government

    House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law - Oversight Hearing on Privacy in the Hands of the Government: The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board and the Privacy Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, July 27, 2007. [links to witness statements]

    July 26, 2007
    * New GAO Reports on Human Trafficking

  • Human Trafficking: Monitoring and Evaluation of International Projects Are Limited, but Experts Suggest Improvements. GAO-07-1034, July 26, 2007: "Human trafficking--a worldwide crime involving the exploitation of men, women, and children for others' financial gain--is a violation of human rights. Victims are often lured or abducted and forced to work in involuntary servitude. Since 2001, the U.S. government has provided about $447 million to combat global human trafficking."

  • Human Trafficking: A Strategic Framework Could Help Enhance the Interagency Collaboration Needed to Effectively Combat Trafficking Crimes. GAO-07-915, July 26, 2007: "Human trafficking is a transnational crime whose victims include men, women, and children and may involve violations of labor, immigration, antislavery, and other criminal laws. To ensure punishment of traffickers and protection of victims, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA), which is subject to reauthorization in 2007."
  • * CTC Report. An Assessment of 516 Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) Unclassified Summaries

    Combating Terrorism Center (CTC) at West Point Report: An Assessment of 516 Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) Unclassified Summaries, July 25, 2007

  • New York Times: Study Paints a Threatening Portrait of Detainees


  • Related documents:
  • A Response to the Seton Hall Study, July 25, 2007
  • Report on Guantanamo Detainees - A Profile of 517 Detainees through Analysis of Department of Defense Data, By Mark Denbeaux Professor, Seton Hall University School of Law and Counsel to two Guantanamo detainees; Joshua Denbeaux, Esq. Denbeaux & Denbeaux David Gratz, John Gregorek, Matthew Darby, Shana Edwards, Shane Hartman, Daniel Mann and Helen Skinner Students, Seton Hall University School of Law

  • July 24, 2007
    * Senate Committee on Commerce Hearing: Protecting Children on the Internet

    Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing, Protecting Children on the Internet, July 24, 2007.

  • Links to witness statements

  • "As the Senate Commerce Committee debates how best to protect children on the Internet, lawmakers must take special care to avoid overly simple solutions that would do more harm than good. In its zeal to protect kids from predators and potentially inappropriate content, Congress must not trample the First Amendment rights of Internet users, Center for Democracy and Technology said in a statement submitted to the Committee."
  • July 22, 2007
    * Phillipines' Human Security Act of 2007 Now in Effect

  • "Human Security Act of 2007 - [This Act which is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 2137 and House Bill No. 4839 was finally passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on February 8, 2007 and February 19, 2007, respectively.] SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is declared a policy of the State to protect life, liberty, and property from acts of terrorism, to condemn terrorism as inimical and dangerous to the national security of the country and to the welfare of the people, and to make terrorism a crime against the Filipino people, against humanity, and against the law of nations...the Act shall take effect two months after the elections are held in May 2007."

  • July 21, 2007
    * Surveillance Equipment Provider "Chipping" Employees

    AP: "CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself - until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms. The "chipping" of two workers with RFIDs - radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick - was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said."

  • RFID Journal, AMA Issues Ethics Code for RFID Chip Implants: "The American Medical Association (AMA) has officially established a code of ethics designed to protect patients receiving RFID implants. The recommendations focus on safeguarding a patient's privacy and health, and are the result of an evaluation by the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) regarding the medical and ethical implications of RFID chips in humans, as well as a follow-up report recently released. The latter discusses the possible advantages and specific privacy and ethical issues of using RFID-enabled implantations for clinical purposes. Entitled Radio Frequency ID Devices in Humans, the report is presented by Robert M. Sade, M.D., who chairs the CEJA."
  • July 20, 2007
    * Executive Order: Interpretation of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 as Applied to a Program of Detention and Interrogation Operated by the CIA

    Executive Order: Interpretation of the Geneva Conventions Common Article 3 as Applied to a Program of Detention and Interrogation Operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, July 20, 2007.

  • President Bush Signs Executive Order: "This afternoon, the President signed an Executive Order that interprets for the United States "Common Article 3" of the Geneva Conventions, as authorized in the Military Commissions Act. The Order interprets the meaning and application of Common Article 3 with respect to certain detentions and interrogations. Specifically, the interpretation of Common Article 3 set forth in this Order is applied to the Central Intelligence Agency's detention and interrogation program whose purpose is to question captured Al Qaeda terrorists who have information on attack plans or the whereabouts of the group's senior leaders.

    The Order requires that any CIA interrogation program that might go forward comply with all relevant federal statutes, including the prohibition on "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment" in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, the federal prohibition on torture, and the War Crimes Act, all of which protect against violations of Common Article 3. The Order imposes other explicit limitations on interrogation techniques and conditions of confinement in a CIA program. It bars, "acts of violence serious enough to be considered comparable to murder, torture, mutilation, and cruel and inhuman treatment." It also prohibits "willful and outrageous acts of personal abuse done for the purpose of humiliating or degrading the individual in a manner so serious that any reasonable person, considering the circumstances, would deem the acts beyond the bounds of human decency." And the Order forbids acts intended to denigrate detainees' religion, religious practices, or religious objects."

  • July 13, 2007
    * Justice Department and FBI Unveil Measures to Enhance National Security Oversight

    Press release: "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth L. Wainstein and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III today announced a series of comprehensive measures to significantly enhance national security oversight and compliance at the Justice Department and FBI. Among the primary components of this oversight effort, which has been in the works for months, are the proposed launch of two offices to conduct reviews, compliance activities, and training. The first is a dedicated Oversight Section within the Justice Department’s National Security Division. The second is a proposed Office of Integrity and Compliance at the FBI. The oversight and compliance programs run by these offices will be at the forefront of the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts to ensure that national security investigations are conducted in a manner consistent with the nation’s laws, regulations, and policies, including those designed to protect the privacy interests and civil liberties of U.S. citizens."

  • Letter to the Honorable Richard B. Cheney

  • Letter to the Honorable Nancy Pelosi
  • * Pew Research Report on China's Online Population Explosion

    Press release: "The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a new report on China's internet user population. There are now an estimated 137 million internet users in China, second in number only to the United States, where estimates of the current internet population range from 165 million to 210 million. The growth rate of China's internet user population has been outpacing that of the U.S., and China is projected to overtake the U.S. in the total number of users within a few years. The influx of tens of millions of new online participants each year can be expected to have far-reaching consequences for the Chinese population, for China itself and for the larger world. At the very least, the internet will offer ever greater numbers of Chinese a much more sophisticated information and communications world than the one they currently inhabit. And because the Chinese share a single written language, despite the multiplicity of spoken tongues, it could have a unifying effect on the country's widely dispersed citizenry. An expanding internet population might also increase domestic tensions that could spill over into China's relations with the U.S. and other countries while the difference between Chinese and Western approaches to the internet could create additional sore points over human rights and problems with restrictions on non-Chinese companies."

  • China's Online Population Explosion
  • * The governance of Britain - the Government's draft legislative programme

    The governance of Britain - the Government's draft legislative programme, July 11, 2007 (67 pages, PDF)

    * Report: Government Secrecy on the Rise

    Press release: "The United States has faced an unprecedented rise in government secrecy over the last six years, according to a report released today by OpenTheGovernment.org and People For the American Way Foundation. Government Secrecy: Decisions Without Democracy 2007 (52 pages, PDF) documents how executive power has dramatically expanded while executive accountability has diminished."

    July 09, 2007
    * NYC "Ring Of Steel" Surveillance Plan Raises Major Privacy Concerns

    Press release: "The New York Civil Liberties Union today called on the City of New York to ensure that any new surveillance plan for New York City is subject to public input and external oversight mechanisms and includes significant privacy protections to prevent abuse. The NYCLU's call came in response to today's disclosure that the NYPD will be implementing a multi-million dollar web of cameras and roadblocks that will be modeled on London's "Ring of Steel" system and will track the movements of the thousands of cars and people who enter Lower Manhattan every day."

  • See also Ring of Steel II - New York City gets set to replicate London's high-security zone: "One major challenge for surveillance officials is handling the data the London cameras produce. The system consists of over 200 cameras, each sending a 3.8‑megabit-per-second MPEG video feed to the control room of a police station in the heart of the City. Processing this data in real time requires 122 IBM xSeries servers with a total storage capacity of 200 terabytes."
  • * New Think Tank Report Questions Government Calls for Less Regulation of RFID Technology

    Press release: "Imposing new regulations on RFID technology is premature, according to Playing Tag: An RFID Primer, a new report released today by the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a California-based free-market think tank. “A relatively new technology like RFID tends to spark fear in people, but fear should not drive government regulation,” said K. Lloyd Billingsley, editorial director at PRI and author of Playing Tag. “Lawmakers should weigh the pros and cons of this technology, before imposing a regulatory regime that would inhibit the positive benefits of RFID.” Radio frequency identification tags track inventory for retail businesses and the military. Future benefits of RFID extend into medicine, agriculture, and security. An RFID tag can act as the modern equivalent of a medical bracelet for patients, monitor the body temperature of animals to alert farmers of disease, or detect fraudulent passports."

    July 06, 2007
    * Federal Appeals Court Dismisses Challenge to Domestic Surveillance Program

    Follow up to previous postings on domestic surveillance programs, news today that 6th Circuit found none of the plaintiff's had standing against the NSA with regard to the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP). See the ACLU press release: "In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today dismissed a legal challenge to the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. The challenge was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations who say that the unchecked surveillance program is disrupting their ability to communicate effectively with sources and clients."

    July 05, 2007
    * Habeus Corpus Restoration Act of 2007

    Follow up to June 24, 2007 posting, Skelton/Conyers Introduce Habeas Reform Legislation, see these additional related government documents:

  • S.185 - A bill to restore habeas corpus for those detained by the United States. Sponsor: Sen Specter, Arlen [PA] (introduced 1/4/2007) - Senate Report 110-90, June 26, 2007: "This legislation repeals those provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) that eliminated the jurisdiction of any court to hear or consider applications for a writ of habeas corpus filed by aliens who have been determined by the United States to be properly detained as enemy combatants, or are awaiting such determination. The legislation would therefore permit detainees held by the United States Government as enemy combatants, or as potential enemy combatants, to file writs of habeas corpus and other related actions in the United States District Courts, subject to limitations on habeas that pre-dated the DTA. It also allows courts to consider legal challenges to military commissions only as provided by the Uniform Code of Military Justice or by a habeas corpus proceeding."

  • CRS Report RL33180 - Enemy Combatant Detainees: Habeas Corpus Challenges in Federal Court, June 26, 2007, (45 pages, PDF)

  • June 29, 2007: Supreme Court reverses and agrees to hear appeals in Guantanamo Bay detainee cases.
  • June 27, 2007
    * Judiciary Committee Subpoenas DOJ, White House, VP and National Security Council for Domestic Surveillance Info

    Press release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in consultation with Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), issued subpoenas Wednesday for documents relating to the authorization and legal justification for the Administration's warrantless wiretapping program. Chairman Leahy issued subpoenas to the Department of Justice, the Office of the White House, the Office of the Vice President and the National Security Council for documents relating to the Committee’s inquiry into the warrantless electronic surveillance program. The subpoenas seek documents related to authorization and reauthorization of the program or programs; the legal analysis or opinions about the surveillance; orders, decisions, or opinions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) concerning the surveillance; agreements between the Executive Branch and telecommunications or other companies regarding liability for assisting with or participating in the surveillance; and documents concerning the shutting down of an investigation of the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) relating to the surveillance."

  • Subpoena packet for documents from the White House, sent via Fred Fielding, Esq.

  • Subpoena packet for documents from the Office of the Vice President, sent via Shannen Coffin, Esq.

  • Subpoena packet for documents from the Department of Justice, sent via A.G. Alberto Gonzales

  • Subpoena packet for documents from the National Security Council, sent via Richard Klingler, Esq.

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • June 25, 2007
    * Reverberations in Case Involving FBI NSLs and Connecticut Librarians

    Follow up to previous postings on Connecticut librarians and FBI NSL gag order, via Wired Blog, Librarians Describe Life Under An FBI Gag Order: "Two Connecticut librarians on Sunday [at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC] described what it was like to be slapped with an FBI national security letter and accompanying gag order."

  • From the conference program: Lifting the Gag: Patron Privacy and the Patriot Act: "When a federal lifetime gag order prevented our speakers from revealing that the FBI had demanded library records, they refused to comply. Represented by the ACLU, they successfully sued the government. Of the thousands who have received National Security Letters, Mr. Chase, Ms. Bailey and two colleagues are the only ones free to discuss the experience. They will discuss their personal and professional roles in defending patron privacy. Speakers: Peter Chase, Library Director, Plainville Public Library; Barbara Bailey, Director, Wells Turner Public Library"
  • June 24, 2007
    * Washington Post Launches Blog Series on "Most Influential and Power Man Ever to Hold Office of Vice President"

    WashingtonPost.com: "Over the past six years, Cheney has shaped his times as no vice president has before. This...four-part series...explores his methods and impact, drawing on interviews with more than 200 men and women who worked for, with or in opposition to Cheney's office. Many of those interviewed recounted events that have not been made public until now, sharing notes,e-mails, personal calendars and other records of their interaction with Cheney and his senior staff. The vice president declined to be interviewed."

  • Sunday, Part 1: Part 1 - Working in the Background: A master of bureaucracy and detail, Cheney exerts most of his influence out of public view."

  • Monday, Part 2: Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power

  • Cast of Characters - Read about the important people in and out of government who have had an impact on Vice President Dick Cheney's career.

  • Narrated Photo Gallery - Cheney's Life & Career - Starting as a junior aide on Capitol Hill, Dick Cheney built unmatched Washington resume as White House chief of staff, House minority whip and secretary of defense.

  • Narrated Photo Gallery - Cheney as Vice President: Vice President Dick Cheney usually wields his considerable power behind the scenes and is often the last person to talk to the president before important decisions are made.
  • * Skelton/Conyers Introduce Habeas Reform Legislation

    Press release, June 22, 2007: "House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) introduced legislation today which would uphold the principle of habeas corpus by amending existing law to allow individuals detained, often for many years without formal charges, to have their day in court...H.R. 2826 accomplishes two main goals. It upholds the principle of habeas corpus as applied to detainees, allowing them to challenge their indefinite detention without trial. Detainees who are being detained in active combat zones, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, will continue to not be allowed to file habeas petitions. The bill also permits habeas courts to review the actions of a Military Commission established under the Military Commissions Act."

    June 21, 2007
    * Declassified CIA Documents Posted on Web by National Security Archive

    Press release: "The Central Intelligence Agency violated its charter for 25 years until revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation led to official investigations and reforms in the 1970s, according to declassified documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden announced today that the Agency is declassifying the full 693-page file amassed on CIA's illegal activities by order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger in 1973--the so-called "family jewels." Only a few dozen heavily-censored pages of this file have previously been declassified, although multiple Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed over the years for the documents. Gen. Hayden called today's release "a glimpse of a very different time and a very different Agency." Hayden also announced the declassification of some 11,000 pages of the so-called CAESAR, POLO and ESAU papers--hard-target analyses of Soviet and Chinese leadership internal politics and Sino-Soviet relations from 1953-1973, a collection of intelligence on Warsaw Pact military programs, and hundreds of pages on the A-12 spy plane."

  • Document 1: Summary of the Family Jewels

  • Document 2: Colby Briefs President Ford on the Family Jewels

  • Document 3: Kissinger’s Reaction

  • Document 4: Investigations Continue
  • June 19, 2007
    * UNHCR Report Says Refugee Population Rises to Almost 10 Million

    Press release: "The UN refugee agency announced on Tuesday that the number of refugees in the world has increased for the first time since 2002, largely as a result of the crisis in Iraq. UNHCR's "2006 Global Trends" report, released today, shows the number of refugees under the agency's mandate rising last year by 14 percent to almost 10 million, the highest level since 2002. At the same time, the share of other categories of people under the agency's different mandates also grew sharply, in most cases as a result of improved registration systems and more accurate statistics."

  • 2006 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons (108 pages, PDF)

  • UNHCR Field Information and Coordination Support Section - statistics pages

  • UNHCR Statistical Online Population Database, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

  • Refworld - "Refworld is the leading source of information necessary for taking quality decisions on refugee status. Refworld contains a vast collection of reports relating to situations in countries of origin, policy documents and positions, and documents relating to international and national legal frameworks. The information has been carefully selected and compiled from UNHCR's global network of field offices, Governments, international, regional and non-governmental organizations, academic institutions and judicial bodies."
  • June 18, 2007
    * Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches

    EFF press release: "The government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers, according to a landmark ruling Monday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their telephone calls -- the first circuit court ever to make that finding."

  • the full ruling in Warshak v. United States. The decision is also available from court, here.

  • EFF's resources on the case, including its amicus brief
  • June 13, 2007
    * Secret Surveillance Evidence Unsealed in Telecom Domestic Surveillance Case

    Follow up to previous postings on the domestic surveillance program and AT&T's alleged participation, this press release today: "More documents detailing secret government surveillance of AT&T's Internet traffic have been released to the public as part of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) class-action lawsuit against the telecom giant. Some of the unsealed information was previously made public in redacted form. But after negotiations with AT&T, EFF has filed newly unredacted documents describing a secret, secure room in AT&T's facilities that gave the National Security Agency (NSA) direct access to customers' emails and other Internet communications. These include several internal AT&T documents that have long been available on media websites, EFF's legal arguments to the 9th Circuit, and the full declarations of whistleblower Mark Klein and of J. Scott Marcus, the former Senior Advisor for Internet Technology to the Federal Communications Commission, who bolsters and explains EFF's evidence. Oral arguments in the 9th Circuit appeal are set for the week of August 13."

  • the unredacted Klein declaration

  • the internal documents

  • the unredacted Marcus declaration

  • EFF's 9th Circuit brief

  • more on the class-action lawsuit against AT&T
  • June 12, 2007
    * Subcommittee Asks GAO to Investigate New FBI Center Designed to Amass Records on Citizens

    Press release: "The leaders of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) [copy of the letter] to investigate the proposed creation of a new federal facility aimed at identifying terrorists. The Subcommittee is concerned that, without the proper safeguards in place, billions of personal records that will be stored there may be vulnerable to theft or abuse. The FBI is currently seeking $12 million to develop a new, mammoth, data-mining center that will collect billions of records on individuals suspected of terrorist connections over the next few years. The new National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) proposed in the Department of Justice’s FY2008 budget justification document, will include 90,000 square feet of office space and a total of 59 staff, including 23 contractors and five FBI agents. "Documents predict the NASC will include six billion records by FY2012. This amounts to 20 separate 'records' for each man, woman and child in the United States," wrote the Subcommittee leaders."

    * 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report Released

    "The purpose of this Report is to call the world's attention to the existence of modern-day slavery, and the desperate need to eliminate it the same way the world ended the African slave trade more than a century ago. Human trafficking plagues every country including the United States. The Report covers 164 countries and territories, together comprising 85 percent of the world. It ranks 151 countries and territories where some 100 cases of human trafficking or more have been identified. It spells out what countries are doing on prosecution, protection, and prevention, and what more we can do together on all three fronts."

  • Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000: Trafficking in Persons Report 2007 [HTML version and PDF version]
  • June 08, 2007
    * Global Corruption Report 2007

    "The Global Corruption Report offers an annual, systematic analysis of corruption, reporting on the state of corruption around the globe. The Global Corruption Report 2007 focuses on corruption in judicial systems and includes recommendations for practitioners, actors in the judiciary and civil society, on how to fight corruption in the sector." By Transparency International, English, 372 pages. [thanks Peggy Garvin]

  • Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State: "Systemic corruption of judicial systems not only denies citizens their basic human rights, but hinders economic development and sometimes pushes aggrieved populations to violence, according to a recent report. Global Corruption Report 2007: Corruption in Judicial Systems says that despite international efforts, different forms of judicial corruption continue to afflict many parts of the world. The report was issued in late May by Transparency International, an international anti-corruption nongovernmental organization."
  • June 04, 2007
    * Appeals Court Rejects FCC's Expansive Regulation of "Indecency"

    CDT: "...a federal appeals court today limited the Federal Communications Commission's ongoing effort to expand its authority to regulate speech over broadcast media. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that the FCC did not adequately explain its decision to reverse thirty years of policy of allowing "fleeting expletives " on broadcast television. Following its main decision, the Court also addressed an issue raised by CDT and others in a friend-of-the-court brief. Echoing the arguments in the brief, the court said that as communications technologies converge and "user empowerment" tools become more available, the very foundation of the FCC's authority over broadcast is diminishing. June 4, 2007.

  • 2nd Circuit Decision [PDF] June 04, 2007

  • Statement of Chairman Kevin Martin on 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Indecency Decision, June 4, 2007
  • * Justice Department to Monitor Elections in New Jersey and South Carolina

    Press release: "The Justice Department today announced that on June 5, 2007, it will monitor local elections in Bergen County, Edison, and Penns Grove, N.J., and in Hollywood, S.C., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Justice Department personnel will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling places in these locations, and Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials. Bergen County and Edison, N.J., are obligated to provide all election information, ballots, and voting assistance information in Spanish as well as in English pursuant to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. The monitors will gather information concerning compliance."

    May 29, 2007
    * Report on The Dangers of Domestic Spying by Federal Law Enforcement

    ACLU: History Repeated: The Dangers of Domestic Spying by Federal Law Enforcement, (63 pages, PDF).

  • See also related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • May 23, 2007
    * AG's Annual Report to Congress on U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons for FY 2006

    Attorney General's Annual Report to Congress on U.S. Government Activities to Combat Trafficking in Persons for Fiscal Year 2006, May 2007

    May 07, 2007
    * DNA Forensics: Expanding Uses and Information Sharing

    DNA Forensics: Expanding Uses and Information Sharing, September 2006 - "This report explores the history of DNA use by forensic investigators, considers the economics of DNA use as it relates to public safety, and reviews privacy concerns regarding the release of an individual's genetic information. The report also explores issues associated with combining criminal history information with DNA data. It recommends implementing procedures for a more efficient justice system while effectively addressing privacy concerns. The report was prepared by SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, as part of a project funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)."

    May 06, 2007
    * Boucher Introduces Free Flow of Information Act

    Press release: "The bill provides a privilege in federal court proceedings for reporters to refrain from revealing their confidential sources of information. The privilege is similar in nature to that currently offered by 32 states and the District of Columbia. The ability to assure confidentiality to people who provide information is essential to effective news gathering and reporting on highly sensitive and important issues. Typically, the best information about corruption in government or misdeeds in a private organization will come from someone on the inside who feels a responsibility to bring the information to light. But that person has a lot to lose if his or her identity becomes known. In many cases, the person responsible for the corruption or the misdeeds can punish the source through dismissal or more subtle forms of punitive action if the source’s identity becomes known. And so it is only by assuring anonymity to the source that a reporter can gain access to the information in order to bring it to public scrutiny."

  • Statement of Congressman Boucher

  • Copy of the Bill - Free Flow Information Act of 2007

  • Section by Section Overview

  • News.com: Bills propose reporter's shield for bloggers
  • May 04, 2007
    * DNI Senate Intel Committee Testimony on FISA Modernization

    Follow up to April 16, 2007 posting, Fact Sheet: Proposed FISA Modernization Legislation, the following documents from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI):

  • May 01, 2007, Transcript: Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - FISA Modernization

  • Unclassified, May 01, 2007, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - Statement for the Record on FISA Modernization: Statement for the Record by Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - FISA Modernization. "Good morning Chairman Rockefeller, Vice Chairman Bond, and Members of the Committee. I am pleased to be here today in my role as the head of the Intelligence Community (IC) to express my strong support for the legislation that will modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA)."
  • * Presentation on Policy Issues for Science and Technology in a "Surveillance Society"

    Kim Taipale presented Policy Issues for Science and Technology in a "Surveillance Society" at the 32nd Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Forum on Science and Technology Policy, Washington, DC, May 3-4, 2007.

    May 03, 2007
    * Group Urge Court to Hear Warrantless Wiretap Case

    "EPIC, in cooperation with the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief (42 pages, PDF) in Hepting v. AT&T. This lawsuit alleges that AT&T allowed the government to wiretap calls and e-mails without judicial authority. The U.S. government and AT&T seek to dismiss this case. The EPIC brief states, "The statutes and constitutional provisions relied upon in the complaint are designed to interpose the courts between citizens and the government when government conducts surveillance that it naturally would prefer to conduct in secret and wholly at its own discretion...This litigation should thus proceed, lest the privacy claims here be made effectively unreviewable."

  • Related postings on the AT&T surveillance case
  • April 30, 2007
    * New GAO Reports Cover Defense Acquisitions, Immigration Benefits, ID Theft and More

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics: Quality Guidelines Generally Followed for Police-Public Contact Surveys, but Opportunities Exist to Help Assure Agency Independence GAO-07-340, March 30, 2007

  • Defense Acquisitions: Missile Defense Agency's Flexibility Reduces Transparency of Program Cost GAO-07-799T, April 30, 2007

  • Defense Management: High-Level Leadership Commitment and Actions Are Needed to Address Corrosion Issues GAO-07-618, April 30, 2007

  • DOD and VA Outpatient Pharmacy Data: Computable Data Are Exchanged for Some Shared Patients, but Additional Steps Could Facilitate Exchanging These Data for All Shared Patients GAO-07-554R, April 30, 2007

  • Employer-Sponsored Health and Retirement Benefits: Efforts to Control Employer Costs and the Implications for Workers GAO-07-355, March 30, 2007

  • Immigration Benefits: Sixteenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 GAO-07-796R, April 27, 2007

  • Information Technology: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Needs to Fully Address Significant Infrastructure Modernization Program Management Weaknesses GAO-07-565, April 27, 2007

  • Medicaid Financing: Federal Oversight Initiative Is Consistent with Medicaid Payment Principles but Needs Greater Transparency GAO-07-214, March 30, 2007

  • Medicare: Focus on Physician Practice Patterns Can Lead to Greater Program Efficiency GAO-07-307, April 30, 2007

  • Nursing Workforce: HHS Needs Methodology to Identify Facilities with a Critical Shortage of Nurses GAO-07-492R, April 30, 2007

  • Privacy: Lessons Learned about Data Breach Notification GAO-07-657, April 30, 2007

  • Transportation Security: DHS Efforts to Eliminate Redundant Background Check Investigations GAO-07-756, April 26, 2007
  • * Wiretaps Up Slightly in 2006

    Federal Judiciary News Release: "A total of 1,839 orders were issued by federal and state courts in 2006 authorizing or approving the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications, also known as wiretaps. This is a 4 percent increase over the 1,773 orders issued in 2005, according to The 2006 Wiretap Report. The complete report contains information on interceptions concluded between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006. A summary of the authorized intercepts reported for calendar years 1996-2006 is availabe in Table 7."

    April 25, 2007
    * The State of Homeland Security 2007

    The State of Homeland Security 2007: An Annual Report Card on the Department of Homeland Security (78 pages, PDF) - "This report summarizes annual homeland security performance using a report card grading system. The report includes these categories -- Border Security, Emergency Preparedness/FEMA, Emergency Communications, Aviation Security Port Security, Surface Transportation Security, Critical Infrastructure, Information Sharing, Science and Technology, Biosecurity, Chemical Plant Security, Nuclear Security, Employee Morale and Civil Liberties." [via Government Technology]

    April 24, 2007
    * Privacy and Civil Liberties Board Delivers First Report to Congress

    Press release: "The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA), which created the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (Board), requires that "[n]ot less frequently than annually, the Board shall prepare a report to Congress, unclassified to the greatest extent possible...on the Board's major activities during the preceding period." This report discusses the Board’s activities from its first meeting on March 14, 2006, at which the Members were sworn in and an Executive Director was appointed, through March 1, 2007. This report contains no classified information."

  • Privacy and Civil Liberties Board First Annual Report to Congress, March 2006 - March 2007 (49 pages, PDF).

  • The report is also available in HTML, section by section, via this Table of Contents page.
  • April 20, 2007
    * PBS Reports on Security versus Liberty: America at a Crossroads

    "Following 9/11, the U.S. government adopted some controversial new tactics intended to prevent future terrorist attacks, including warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' phone calls, secret demands for records under the Patriot Act, and FBI sting operations against people thought to be potential terrorists. The Bush Administration contends these tactics have helped to save American lives, but critics say they have severely damaged our individual liberties. Three stories illustrate the issues of security and liberty: In a Public Library / At the National Security Agency / An FBI sting operation. SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY explores this urgent national debate by talking with leading critics and advocates of the new policies, and telling the stories of people whose lives have been directly affected. If the war against terror is truly the long struggle our leaders say it will be, then so too will be the struggle to set the right balance between security and liberty. This program provides valuable information that will help Americans come to grips with the difficult choices we face."

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • April 16, 2007
    * Law Review Article on First Amendment as Criminal Procedure

    Solove, Daniel J., The First Amendment as Criminal Procedure. New York University Law Review, Vol. 82, p. 112, 2007.

  • "This Article explores the relationship between the First Amendment and criminal procedure. These two domains of constitutional law have long existed as separate worlds, rarely interacting with each other despite the fact that many instances of government information gathering can implicate First Amendment freedoms of speech, association, and religion. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments used to provide considerable protection for First Amendment interests, as in the famous 1886 case Boyd v. United States, in which the Supreme Court held that the government was prohibited from seizing a person's private papers. Over time, however, Fourth and Fifth Amendment protection has shifted, and countless searches and seizures involving people's private papers, the books they read, the websites they surf, and the pen names they use when writing anonymously now fall completely outside the protection of constitutional criminal procedure. Professor Solove argues that the First Amendment should protect against government information gathering that implicates First Amendment interests. He contends that there are doctrinal, historical, and normative justifications for developing what he calls "First Amendment criminal procedure." Solove sets forth an approach for determining when certain instances of government information gathering fall within the regulatory domain of the First Amendment and what level of protection the First Amendment should provide."
  • * Fact Sheet: Proposed FISA Modernization Legislation

    Office of the Director of National Intelligence, April 13, 2007, Fact Sheet: Proposed FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)Modernization Legislation

    "Key Provisions of this Bill Are:

  • Updating the definition of electronic surveillance to account for the sweeping changes in telecommunications technology that have taken place. The proposed legislation is technology neutral. In contrast to the 1978 statute, which contains central provisions that are tied to specific communications technologies, this proposal is not tied to specific technology we have today. That way, as telecommunications technology develops over time - - which it surely will do - - FISA will not run the risk of becoming out of date.
  • Protecting civil liberties and privacy interests and improving our intelligence capabilities by focusing FISA on people located in the United States.

  • Improving the way the United States does business with communications providers. The country’s communications providers are important partners in the ability of the United States Government to protect our national security. The proposed legislation includes needed authority both to protect those carriers when they do comply with lawful requests under FISA, and to enable providers to cooperate with authorized intelligence activities.

  • Streamlining the FISA process. Numerous Congressional and Executive Branch reviews of the FISA process have recommended that the FISA process be made more efficient, and the Department of Justice has made major strides in recent years in improving its practices and procedures. The proposal would make several changes to improve further the efficiency of the FISA process, including extending the period of authorization for non-United States persons, which will allow the Department and the FISA Court to concentrate more scarce resources to the cases that concern United States persons.

  • Reflecting today’s national security threats. The Bill seeks to update FISA to reflect today’s national security threats. One of those threats is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. This legislation will allow the Intelligence Community to obtain FISA authority to better protect the nation against proliferators.

  • Adding an additional definition of an agent of a foreign power for non-U.S. persons whom the Government believes possess significant intelligence information, but whose relationship to a foreign power is unclear."


  • Via FAS, the text of the proposed legislative changes to FISA, including a section by section analysis (66 pages, PDF).



  • April 16, 2007 press release: "Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) today re-introduced legislation reaffirming that the federal government must follow the requirements of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) when conducting electronic surveillance of American citizens in the United States for foreign intelligence purposes. The Feinstein-Specter bill also would prevent delays in intelligence agency anti-terrorist surveillance, while ensuring that these activities do not violate the civil liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and federal law."

  • CDT Analysis: Administration Proposal [PDF] April 19, 2007
  • April 11, 2007
    * Senate Hearing on Use of NSLs Includes Testimony From Former Library Connection "John Doe"

    Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, hearing - Responding to The Inspector General's Findings of Improper Use of National Security Letters by the FBI, April 11, 2007.

    Via American Library Association Washington Office Newsline:

    "George Christian, Executive Director of the Library Connection and former plaintiff in John Doe v. Gonzales, testified today (April 11, 2007) before a Senate Subcommittee on the harmful effects of receiving a National Security Letter (NSL), a component of the USA PATRIOT Act, from the FBI. Library Connection is a non-profit cooperative of 27 libraries in Connecticut. In 2005, the group received an NSL from the FBI, along with its accompanying perpetual gag order, demanding library records...Library Connection challenged the constitutionality of the NSL and its perpetual gag and eventually the FBI withdrew its appeal to keep their identities hidden after Federal District Court Judge Janet C. Hall declared the gag order unconstitutional. Christian, spoke on behalf of himself and three others...“Ours is a cautionary story that we hope will provoke serious thought. Though our gag order was lifted, several hundred thousand other recipients of National Security Letters must carry the secret of their experience with NSLs to their graves,” Christian remarked in his opening statement and further added, “When the USA PATRIOT Act was signed into law, our Connecticut library community, like the American Library Association and many other librarians, were concerned about the lack of judicial oversight as well as the secrecy associated with a number of the Act’s provisions and the NSLs in particular.” Christian asked Congress “to take special note of the uses and abuses of NSLs, in libraries and bookstores and other places where higher First Amendment standards should be considered,” and “to reconsider parts of the USA PATRIOT Act and in particular, the NSL powers that can needlessly subject innocent people to fishing expeditions of their personal information with no judicial review. Because of the gag order, you, our Senators and elected representatives and the American public, are denied access to the stories and information about these abuses. This is information you need to conduct oversight, work for appropriate changes to current law and seek to protect our constitutional rights.”

  • See also Library Journal, Critics Say FBI's NSL Powers Should be Curbed
  • April 10, 2007
    * EFF Sues Justice Department for Immediate Release of NSL

    Follow up to postings on investigations into FBI use of National Security Letters, this press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked a judge to issue an emergency order requiring the FBI to immediately release agency records about its abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect Americans' personal information. The Department of Justice has already agreed that the records should be disclosed quickly due to the exceptional media attention and the questions the NSL report has raised about the government's integrity. However, despite this recognition, the Bureau has failed to meet the 20-day time limit that Congress set for requests that do not merit fast processing...EFF's FOIA request asks for all FBI records discussing or reporting violations of current law, guidelines, or policies, as well as any communications discussing various potential interpretations of current federal investigative power. EFF also demands copies of the contracts between the FBI and three telephone companies, which were intended to allow the FBI to get rapid access to telephone records."

  • EFF FOIA complaint

  • EFF motion for a preliminary injunction
  • April 04, 2007
    * Commentary on Politicizing National Security

    Politicizing National Security, by Aziz Huq, April 4, 2007: "Aziz Huq directs the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice. He is co-author of Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in Times of Terror, and recipient of a 2006 Carnegie Scholars Fellowship." Mr. Huq focuses on three recent issues to highlight his thesis: the firings of U.S. Attorneys, the misuse of National Security Letters, and DOJ OIG Fine's recent audit of terrorism prosecutions.

  • Related article from Newsweek: "The Justice Department called David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, an 'absentee landlord'—a key reason listed for his firing last December. Just one problem: Iglesias, a captain in the Navy Reserve, was off teaching classes as part of the war on terror. Now Iglesias is striking back, arguing he was improperly dismissed."
  • March 28, 2007
    * House Intelligence Committee Hearing - National Security Letters

    National Security Letters Hearing, March 28, 2007.

  • Panel 1: Witnesses - The Honorable Glen A. Fine, Inspector General, Department of Justice - Mr. John Pistole, Deputy Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation - The Honorable Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, Department of Justice

  • Panel 2: Witnesses - Prof. Viet Dinh, Georgetown University Law Center - Mr. Jim Dempsey, Policy Director, Center for Democracy and Technology - Ms. Lisa Graves, Deputy Director, Center for National Security Studies

  • Additional Statements for the Record

  • Statement of Glenn A. Fine, Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence U.S. House of Representatives concerning "The FBI's Use of National Security Letters and Section 215 Requests for Business Records," March 28, 2007.

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • March 27, 2007
    * Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

    Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, March 28, 2007

  • Statement of Robert S. Mueller, III Director Federal Bureau of Investigation: "Last week, the Committee heard testimony from Glenn Fine, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice regarding a recent report issued by his office on the FBI's use of national security letters, or NSLs..As you heard from the Inspector General, he did not find any deliberate or intentional misuse of the national security letter authorities, Attorney General Guidelines or FBI policy. Nevertheless, the review by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified several areas of inadequate auditing and oversight of these vital investigative tools, as well as processes that were inappropriate. Although not intentionally, we fell short in our obligations to report to Congress on the frequency with which we use this tool and in the internal controls we put into place to make sure that it was used only in accordance with the letter of the law. I take responsibility for those shortcomings and for taking the steps to ensure that they do not happen again."
  • * Release of the National Counterintelligence Strategy

    The National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States, March 27, 2007.

  • "The National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States elaborates the fundamental responsibility for US intelligence to warn of and help prevent terrorist attacks the homeland, engage other asymmetric threats, and provide reliable intelligence on traditional and enduring strategic issues."
  • March 22, 2007
    * Oversight Hearing on DOJ Civil Rights Division

    Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties
    Oversight Hearing on the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, “Changing Tides: Exploring the Current State of Civil Rights Enforcement within the Department of Justice” By Direction of the Chairman.

    Documents and Links:

  • Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights - The Erosion of Rights: Declining Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Bush Administration (Chapters 1 and 2), March 21, 2007 - by William Taylor, Dianne Piché, Crystal Rosario and Joe Rich eds.

  • Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights - The Erosion of Rights: Declining Civil Rights Enforcement Under the Bush Administration (Chapters 3-7), March 21, 2007 - by William Taylor, Dianne Piché, Crystal Rosario and Joe Rich eds.

  • Links to witness statements
  • * ACLU v Gonzales COPA Decision

    ACLU v Gonzales [originally ACLU v. Reno, then ACLU v. Ashcroft], Final Adjudication on the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, March 22, 2007 (84 pages, PDF)

  • Alternate link to the PDF decision, ACLU v. Gonzales, 22 March 2007, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Final Order, 98-5591, 22 March 2007
  • March 19, 2007
    * Report from NYU's Brennan Center Finds Ohio Campaign Finance Laws among the Worst in the Midwest

    Report from NYU’s Brennan Center Finds Ohio Campaign Finance Laws among the Worst in the Midwest, March 19, 2007: "Today, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law joined with Ohio Citizen Action to release a new report finding that Ohio’s campaign finance system is broken and badly in need of reform. The report, Campaign Finance in Ohio, is the fourth of five studies of campaign finance systems in the Midwest by the Brennan Center. The study finds that sky-high contribution limits - in a system riddled with loopholes - create massive opportunities for special interests to corrupt Ohio’s political process."

    March 15, 2007
    * Conyers Demands More Answers from AG Gonzales on Firings of U.S. Attorneys

    Press release: "Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales demanding he answer allegations that he may have advised the President to shut down an Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) inquiry into the Administration's domestic wiretapping surveillance program because of his role in the program. An article posted in today's online version of the National Journal alleges that Gonzales anticipated the inquiry would focus on his role in the wire-tapping project so he advised the President to end it by denying necessary security clearances to investigators."

  • Related posting from House Speaker Pelosi's The Gavel blog:
  • [Conyer's] letter comes as ABC News breaks the following story: E-Mails Show Rove’s Role in U.S. Attorney Firings, Jan Crawford Greenburg, ABC News - March 15, 2007: "New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show that the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than the White House previously acknowledged."

  • Related press release from Sen. Leahy: "The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday authorized Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), in consultation with the Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), to issue subpoenas to 11 current and former Department of Justice officials as part of the panel’s ongoing investigation into the unprecedented firings of eight prosecutors last year."

  • Related postings on firings of U.S. attorneys
  • March 11, 2007
    * Privacy’s Other Path: Recovering the Law of Confidentiality

    Neil M. Richards & Daniel J. Solove, Privacy’s Other Path: Recovering the Law of Confidentiality, 96 Georgetown Law Journal __ (forthcoming 2007)

  • "The article examines a puzzling and fascinating issue in the development of privacy law. According to the conventional wisdom, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis created the right to privacy in their 1890 article. While in America, several privacy torts arose in nearly all jurisdictions in response to the article, in England, the Warren and Brandeis "right to privacy" was staunchly rejected. Instead, a law of confidentiality arose in England, which protects privacy in a very different manner than the Warren and Brandeis approach. Ironically, the law in American and England arose from the very same sources. How could such different bodies of law emerge from the same foundation? This piece is designed to be an accessible historical and comparative discussion of American and English privacy law. This topic has been relatively unexplored in America, and there are some profound implications."
  • March 09, 2007
    * ACLU Refutes FBI’s Claims of “Unintentional” Patriot Act Abuses

    Follow-up to March 8, 2007 posting, DOJ OIG Report Documents FBI Underreporting Use of National Security Letter, this from the ACLU: "Claims that the FBI’s reported Patriot Act abuses were the "unintentional" result of outmoded computer systems and human error are not credible, the American Civil Liberties Union said today, citing evidence that agents contracted with phone companies to obtain customer records and later sought to cover up the illegal requests."

  • ACLU Analysis and Recommendations: Justice Department OIG Report on Misuse of National Security Letters (3/9/2007)

  • Full-size graphic of how the FBI uses National Security Letters- ACLU
  • March 08, 2007
    * DOJ OIG Report Documents FBI Underreporting Use of National Security Letter

    The Blotter (ABC News): "The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department's Inspector General."

  • A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of National Security Letters (Unclassified), March 2007

  • Statement of the Attorney General: "The Attorney General commends the work of the Inspector General in uncovering serious problems in the FBI's use of NSLs. He has told the Director that these past mistakes will not be tolerated and has ordered the FBI and the Department to restore accountability and to put in place safeguards to ensure greater oversight and controls over the use of national security letters."
  • Department of Justice Statement on Inspector General's Report on National Security Letters: "...the OIG found no deliberate or intentional misuse of authorities, whether NSL statutes or Attorney General Guidelines. Nevertheless, the OIG review identified several areas of inadequate auditing and oversight of these vital investigative tools, as well as inappropriate processes, and these are findings of significant concern. As a result, Director Mueller is implementing reforms to the process designed to correct those deficiencies identified – with accountability. Those steps include strengthening internal controls, changing policies and procedures to improve oversight of the NSL approval process, barring certain practices identified in the Inspector General’s report, and ordering an expedited inspection."

  • A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Use of Section 215 Order for Business Records (Unclassified), March 2007

  • See related postings on National Security Letters (NSLs)
  • * Restoring the Constitution Act and the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act

    Press release: "Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Venice), Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, today announced the introduction of two bills that would address and reverse problematic parts of the Military Commissions Act. Both the “Restoring the Constitution Act” and the “Habeas Corpus Restoration Act” will bring credibility to the process of detaining terrorist suspects by placing it within a legal framework. This includes: restoring habeas corpus, narrowing the definition of “unlawful enemy combatant” as defined in the Military Commissions Act, prohibiting evidence obtained under coercion, and affirming the Geneva Conventions."

  • Related postings on the Military Commissions Act of 2006
  • March 07, 2007
    * Final Rule on Office of the Attorney General; National Security Division

    "This rule amends part 0 of title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations to reflect the establishment of the National Security Division at the Department of Justice. The National Security Division was created by section 506 of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005 ("the Act"). This rule, which sets forth the Division's organization, mission and functions, amends the Code of Federal Regulations in order to conform the Department's regulations to the Act and to reflect accurately the Department's internal management structure." [Federal Register: March 7, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 44)][Rules and Regulations][Page 10064-10070]

    * House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Hearing: Protecting the Right to Vote

    House Judiciary, Full Committee Hearing: “Protecting the Right to Vote: Election Deception and Irregularities in Recent Federal Elections” March 6, 2007. "Election intimidation and deception have become an unfortuante aspect of recent federal elections, threatening to undermine Americans' confidence in a democratic government," Conyers said. "This hearing will expose some of the problems that voters have experienced, the causes of those problems, and offer leadership in developing meaningful solutions. Our goal is to protect every citizen's constitutional right to vote, and to thwart any future attempts to disenfranchise eligible voters through fraud, deception and intimidation."

  • Chairman's Conyers Opening Statement

  • Conyers, Emanuel, Holt, Becerra, Honda, Ellison Fight to End Vote Suppression

  • Link to prepared witness statements

  • See also the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2007 (S. 453) introduced on January 31, 2007, by Sen. Barack Obam D-IL) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Referred to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

  • "EPIC, in a statement to the House Committee on the Judiciary, cautioned against new proof of citizenship requirements for federal elections. Absent evidence of an actual problem, EPIC warned that the requirement could discourage legal voters. EPIC noted that Congress has already provided for provisional ballots for instances when there are doubts about the status of voters seeking to cast ballots in public elections."
  • March 04, 2007
    * DOJ Seeking Industry Cooperation in Tracking File Uploading Activity

    News.com: "The Bush administration has accelerated its Internet surveillance push by proposing that Web sites must keep records of who uploads photographs or videos in case police determine the content is illegal and choose to investigate, CNET News.com has learned. That proposal surfaced Wednesday in a private meeting during which U.S. Department of Justice officials, including Assistant Attorney General Rachel Brand, tried to convince industry representatives such as AOL and Comcast that data retention would be valuable in investigating terrorism...and other crimes...At the very least, the companies would be required to keep logs for police of which customer is assigned a specific Internet address. Only universities and libraries would be excluded, one participant said. "There's a PR concern with including the libraries, so we're not going to include them," the participant quoted the Justice Department as saying. "We know we're going to get a pushback, so we're not going to do that."

    March 02, 2007
    * DHS OIG Review of Customs and Border Protection's Agriculture Inspection Activities

    Review of Customs and Border Protection's Agriculture Inspection Activities, OIG-07-32 (PDF, 58 pages) February 2007.

  • February 28, 2007 – Secretary Michael Chertoff, testified [text of his testimony] before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "With Congress’s help, DHS has made measurable progress in achieving effective control of the border and improving the enforcement of our immigration laws in the interior."
  • * Upcoming GAO Report Details Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE) Program

  • Washington Post, February 28, 2007: New Profiling Program Raises Privacy Concerns: "The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations."

  • Christian Science Monitor, February 9, 2006: US plans massive data sweep - Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far?


  • Related government documents:
    House Report 109-699 - Making Appropriations for The Department of Homeland Security for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2007: "The ADVISE program is designed to extract relationships and correlations from large amounts of data to produce actionable intelligence on terrorists. A prototype is currently available to analysts in Intelligence and Analysis using departmental and other data, including some on U.S. citizens. The conferees understand up to $40,000,000 has been obligated for ADVISE. The ADVISE program plan, total costs and privacy impacts are unclear and therefore the conferees direct the Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive program review and report within nine months of enactment of this Act."

    March 01, 2007
    * REAL ID Proposed Guidelines Issued

    Press release: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced draft regulations in the form of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish minimum standards for state-issued driver’s licenses and identification cards in accordance with the REAL ID Act of 2005. These proposed regulations set standards for states to meet the requirements of the REAL ID Act, including: security features that must be incorporated into each card; verification of information provided by applicants to establish their identity and lawful status in the United States; and physical security standards for locations where licenses and identification cards are issued."

  • Notice of Proposed Rulemaking - Minimum Standards for Driver’s licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes (PDF, 162 pages)

  • Questions & Answers on REAL ID Proposed Guidelines

  • Related postings on REAL ID
  • * National War Powers Commission Convened by Miller Center for Public Research

    Press release: "In keeping with its tradition of assembling national commissions of major stature, the Miller Center has convened the National War Powers Commission, a private bipartisan panel led by former Secretaries of State James A. Baker, III and Warren Christopher. The Commission will examine how the Constitution allocates the powers of beginning, conducting, and ending war."

  • Commission at a Glance | Commissioner Biographies | United States Constitution
  • February 23, 2007
    * Oversight Committee Requests Information on TSA Traveler Identity Verification Website

    Follow up to February 21, 2007 posting, DHS Announces Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, today Rep. Henry Waxman, Chair of Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter to TSA requesting "explain why a TSA website that collected Social Security numbers and personal information from the public operated for several days without basic security measures."

    February 21, 2007
    * DHS Announces Traveler Redress Inquiry Program

    Press release: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the launch of the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP). Travelers can now seek redress and resolve possible watch list misidentification issues with any of the department’s component agencies at an easy to use and easy to access online location...DHS TRIP provides a way for legitimate travelers to address situations where individuals believe they have been incorrectly delayed, denied boarding, identified for additional screening, or have otherwise experienced difficulties when seeking entry into the country. The program also facilitates redress information sharing among the department’s component agencies and creates internal performance measures to monitor progress."

    February 20, 2007
    * DHS OIG Audits of Technical Security at Dulles Airport and Implementation of Protective Measures for Personnally Identifiable Information

  • Technical Security Evaluation of DHS Activities at Dulles International Airport, Unclassified Summary, OIG-07-25 (PDF, 3 pages), February 20, 2007

  • Letter Report: DHS's Implementation of Protective Measures for Personnally Identifiable Information (Redacted) OIG-07-24 (PDF, 26 pages), February 2, 2007
  • * Federal Appeals Court Rules Denies Detainees' Use of Habeas Corpus

    On February 20, 2007, a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled 2-1 that detainees held at Guantánamo Bay could not challenge their detention, thereby upholding provisions of the Military Commissions Act denying "enemy combatants" the right to file habeas corpus claims in U.S. Court.

  • Related postings on Military Commissions Act
  • * DOJ Launches First Freedom Project Website

    "On February 20, 2007 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced a new Department of Justice initiative to protect religious liberty: The First Freedom Project. As detailed in a report issued at the same time as the announcement, Report on Enforcement of Laws Protecting Religious Freedom: Fiscal Years 2001-2006, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice enforces a wide range of laws protecting religious liberty: laws barring discrimination based on religion in employment, public education, housing, credit, and access to public facilities and public accommodations; laws barring zoning authorities from discriminating against houses of worship and religious schools; laws protecting the religious rights of institutionalized persons; and criminal statutes such as the Church Arson Prevention Act making it a federal crime to attack persons or institutions based on their religion, or otherwise interfere with religious exercise."

    February 15, 2007
    * PBS NOW Reports on Alleged Domestic E-Mail Surveillance Program

    Via PBS: Airing on Friday, February 16, 2007 (check for time in your area), "NOW reports on new evidence suggesting the existence of a secret government program that intercepts millions of private e-mails each day in the name of terrorist surveillance. News about the alleged program came to light when a former AT&T employee, Mark Klein, blew the whistle on what he believes to be a large-scale installation of secret Internet monitoring equipment deep inside AT&T's San Francisco office. The equipment, he contends, was created at the request of the U.S. government to spy on e-mail traffic across the entire Internet. Though the government and AT&T refuse to address the issue directly, Klein backs up his charges with internal company documents and personal photos."

  • Related postings on the alleged AT&T domestic surveillance program
  • * Executive Order: Trial of Alien Unlawful Enemy Combatants by Military Commission

    White House: Executive Order - Trial of Alien Unlawful Enemy Combatants by Military Commission

  • By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-336), the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40), and section 948b(b) of title 10, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Establishment of Military Commissions. There are hereby established military commissions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants for offenses triable by military commission as provided in chapter 47A of title 10..."
  • Related postings on the Military Commissions Act
  • February 13, 2007
    * Hearing Examining the Executive Branch Reform Act of 2007 and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007

    H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007, was introduced by Reps. Waxman, Platts, Van Hollen, and T. Davis on February 12, 2007.

  • Bill Summary: Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007

  • Full Text: Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007

  • Written Testimony of Nick Schwellenbach, Investigator, Project On Government Oversight (POGO) before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee “Examining the Executive Branch Reform Act of 2007 and the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007”, February 13, 2007.
  • * PBS Four-Part Series on the Future of News

    PBS.org intro: "Drawing on more than 80 interviews with key figures in the print, broadcast and electronic media, and with unequaled, behind-the-scenes access to some of today's most important news organizations, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman examines the challenges facing the mainstream news media, and the media's reaction, in "News War," a special four-part series."

  • 50+ Interviews - Search by name or topic to access FRONTLINE's extended interviews with major players in the debate.

  • Readings and Links: Reporter's Privilege The Plame Investigation Weapons of Mass Destruction

  • "A teacher's guide for "News War," focusing on freedom and the press and the Constitution, will be available beginning in March 2007."
  • February 07, 2007
    * House Judiciary Committee Oversight Plan 110th Congress

    House Judiciary Committee Oversight Plan 110th Congress, February 7, 2007.

    * Hearing on The Hazards of Electronic Voting: Focus on the Machinery of Democracy

    House Rules Committee Hearing on The Hazards of Electronic Voting: Focus on the Machinery of Democracy, February 7, 2007.

  • Opening Statement - The Honorable Dianne Feinstein - Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Administration: "Just last week, Florida Governor Charlie Christ announced plans to abandon the electronic touch-screen voting systems used in many of Florida's counties and adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines. Other states are considering similar plans. And I believe it is time that Congress also considers necessary safeguards for all federal elections."

  • Witness statements

  • Related postings on e-voting

  • CNet: Politicians call for e-voting paper trails by '08 election
  • February 06, 2007
    * TRAC Expands Data Available on convictions for Six Secialized Subjects

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse announcement: "For several months, TRAC has offered on its public website very timely month-by-month reports and data tracking changes in the government's enforcement activities against white collar criminals, illegal drug peddlers, immigration violators and unlawful gun users and dealers...TRAC has greatly expanded the offerings [Link]. For the latest available month, there are now twelve new reports containing information about both the recorded filings (prosecutions) and convictions for six specialized and revealing subjects: civil rights, environment, official corruption, organized crime, child
    pornography and government regulation. These free summary reports in ten subject areas -- whether in broad categories like immigration or more focused groupings like official corruption -- are processed and updated by TRAC shortly after new data are received from the Justice Department."

    February 05, 2007
    * Privacy Forum Seeks Controls Over Gov't Use of Patient Genetic Data

    "The World Privacy Forum filed public comments with the Department of Health and Human Services in response to an HHS request for information regarding the use of patients' genetic data for research, health care, and for use in electronic health records. The World Privacy Forum is requesting that HHS use all Fair Information Principles in any personalized health care projects, and is requesting that a formal ELSI (ethical, legal, and social implications) committee be set up to oversee any projects, among other requests."

  • Related: HHS Request for Information (RFI): Improving Health and Accelerating Personalized Health Care Through Health Information Technology and Genomic Information in Population-and Community-based Health Care Delivery Systems, October 30, 2006
  • February 03, 2007
    * DOJ Pushes for Federal Application of Capital Punishment

    WSJ free feature: Federal Prosecutors Widen Pursuit Of Death Penalty as States Ease Off: "The growth in federal capital cases, many observers say, results from a heightened effort by the Justice Department to centralize the process for deciding whether prosecutors should push for capital punishment."

    January 30, 2007
    * State Department Hosts First Conference on Global Internet Freedom

    Press release: "The Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT), which is jointly chaired by Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs, and Josette Sheeran, Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, will host its first conference on Global Internet Freedom on January 30, 2007 in Washington, D.C. This event is a follow-up to the State Department's unveiling of the GIFT global strategy to monitor and respond to threats to Internet freedom held December 20, 2006. The presenters and attendees will include U.S. government officials and representatives of corporations, socially responsible investment (SRI) firms, and non-governmental organizations."

  • CNet: Web giants ask for feds' help on censorship
  • January 22, 2007
    * Inter-American Court Decision on Access to Info Posted on Court Website

    "The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has announced that the English translation of its decision in the case Claude Reyes et al v. Chile is already available at the Court's website: (link to the word document version)...in this case the Inter-American Court upheld that the right to access to information is a human right under the American Convention. [Eduardo Bertoni, Executive Director, Due Process of Law Foundation]

    * Groups Request Records on Warrantless Mail Surveillance

    Follow up to January 7, 2007 posting, Presidential Signing Statement for Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act Includes Power to Open Mail, see this press release today: "The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for National Security Studies today filed three Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the immediate release of records related to President Bush's asserted authority to search Americans’ mail without a warrant. The president claimed this unprecedented authority in a "signing statement" attached to a statute that expressly prohibits opening First Class mail without a warrant."

  • Related postings on Presidential signing statements
  • * CDT Releases 2007 Legislative Agenda

    "Center for Democracy and Technology today urged lawmakers to adopt an approach to Internet-related policymaking that protects fundamental civil liberties, reestablishes meaningful privacy protections and paves the way for the United States' continued leadership in technological innovation. In its Congressional Agenda for the 110th Congress, CDT offers both a broad overview of the challenges associated with policymaking in the Internet space, as well as granular, issue-by-issue recommendations for lawmakers."

    January 21, 2007
    * Remarks by DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to American Society of Newspaper Editors

    Remarks by Secretary Michael Chertoff to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., Release Date: January 18, 2007.

  • "I think we owe you clarity about who is an authoritative source. I think we ourselves have realized, in part, as part of our after-action on Katrina and some other things that have happened, that we have to be very straight on what is authoritative. And I think we need to build thos