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As noted, this week marked a dramatic shift in Senate support for Patriot Act reauthorization without substantive reforms to the White House backed bill. Today a bipartisan group of Senators blocked the the bill’s approval (the vote was 52-47), noting other recent revelations about secret government surveillance as having an impact on their decision. WSJ …
Press release: Senator Feinstein Releases Nonpartisan CRS Report that Concludes Congress Did Not Have Access to Full Scope of Prewar Intelligence. CRS Report, Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information, December 14, 2005: Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National Intelligence – By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive …
In the Kingdom of the Half-Blind, by Bill Moyers. “This is the prepared text of the address delivered on December 9, 2005, by Bill Moyers for the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library at The George Washington University, in Washington D.C.” “It has to be said: there has …
Federal Government Scores, December 15, 2005, American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), Commentary by Professor Claes Fornell: “Since 2003, the ACSI has also measured satisfaction with Federal government websites. This year, the ACSI e-Government index rose 2.5% from 72.1 a year ago, up to a score of 73.9. Much like offline government services, there is a …
New York Times: Bush Secretly Lifted Some Limits on Spying in U.S. After 9/11, Officials Say, by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau: “Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the …
AP: Feingold Now Has Numbers on His Side – As the only Senator voting against the Patriot Act in 2001, Feingold’s consistent efforts to reform the bill have resulted in a bipartisan group now comprising over 24 Senators who are demanding reforms before reauthorizing the legislation. Statement by Sen. Russ Feingold: “The Senate is scheduled …
Following up on a series of postings included in Authority of Vast Collaborative Online Encyclopedia Questioned, please see this related article, Nature 438, 900-901 (15 December 2005), Special Report, Internet encyclopaedias go head to head, by Jim Giles: “Jimmy Wales’ Wikipedia comes close to Britannica in terms of the accuracy of its science entries, a …
Follow-up on NBC Reports on DOD Surveillance of American Anti-War Activists, from William M. Arkin’s Early Warning blog today: “The Pentagon now says that it has ordered a “review” of the collection of information about U.S. citizens, particularly those who pose no plausible terrorist threat..”
“Our new and improved Access to Archival Databases (AAD) System is here! It will feature global free-text searching across all series and files, in addition to our standard fielded search, and easier and faster ways to find the series and files you want.” Users may browse by categories that include: Genealogy/Personal History; Private Sector; Places; …
Yesterday, I posted a series of links detailing Congressional and advocacy groups’ opposition to the reauthorization of H.R. 3199, the PATRIOT Act. Today, the House voted 251 to 174 in favor of the bill. It moves to the Senate for a floor vote on Friday. However, strong opposition promises this will be a contentious battle. …
AP reports Bush to Ease Public Access to Information, via an Executive Order signed this afternoon. According to White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s statements at the briefing today: “The order requires agencies to designate a senior official as the chief officer for Freedom of Information Act requests. They’ll be responsible for agency-wide implementation of …
As a follow-up to Administration Presents Strategy For Victory in Iraq, today the President Discusses Iraqi Elections, Victory in the War on Terror, The Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C.: “When we made the decision to go into Iraq, many intelligence agencies around the world judged that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. This judgment was …