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2005 Government Archive:

20051231

US - International - Iraq - Secret - GOV - Terrorism - Intelligence - Telecommunications - E-Mail - Privacy - Politics - Media - Enforcement - "US investigates leak of spy program: Prosecutors focus on disclosure to New York Times." ... "The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about a controversial domestic eavesdropping program that was secretly authorized by President Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said yesterday." ... "Justice Department prosecutors will focus on whether classified information about the program was unlawfully disclosed to The New York Times, which reported two weeks ago that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of people in the United States without court-approved warrants, officials said." ... "The case is the latest in a series of clashes between the media and the Bush administration, which has aggressively enforced restrictions on classified information and has frequently complained about media disclosures related to terrorism or the war in Iraq." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost via -BostonGlobe

20051230

Secret - Government - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Politics - Media - "Justice Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Leak of Domestic Spying." ... "The Justice Department said today that it had opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a secret National Security Agency program under which President Bush authorized eavesdropping on people in the United States without a court warrant." ... "The investigation apparently began in recent days following a formal referral from the agency regarding the leak, federal officials said on condition of anonymity." ... "The program, whose existence was revealed in an article in The New York Times on Dec. 16, has provoked sharp criticism from civil liberties groups, some members of Congress and some former intelligence officials who believe it circumvents the law governing national security eavesdropping." -By Scott Shane -NYTimes
Auto - Company - Retiree - History - Government - "How Bedrock Promises Of Security Have Fractured Across America: Companies are discarding traditional pensions -- or making government foot the bill. Delphi workers struggle with the changing landscape." ... "[Oct. 8,] That's when Delphi Chief Executive Robert S. "Steve" Miller, citing global competition and crippling "legacy costs," ushered the $28.6 billion-a-year company into one of the largest industrial bankruptcies in U.S. history. In short order, Miller called for slashing workers' compensation by almost two-thirds, threatened to void the company's union contracts, and hinted broadly that he would follow the playbook he had used elsewhere of pushing responsibility for paying the firm's pensions to the federal government and dumping its retiree health benefits altogether." ... "Delphi is at the cutting edge of a crisis that's engulfing the U.S. auto industry, much as it did steel and airlines. Its actions are adding to a gathering trend, a shift of economic risks once largely borne by business and government to the backs of working families." ... "Before the trouble is over, some believe, a corporate icon such as Ford Motor Co. or GM could be swept from the American landscape. So too could much of what remains of the already frayed relationship between millions of working people and their employers." -By Peter G. Gosselin -LAtimes

20051229

People - Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Illinois - Florida - Virginia - "U.S. Defends Conduct in Padilla Case: Supreme Court Asked To Overrule 4th Circuit." ... "A federal appeals court infringed on President Bush's authority to run the war on terror when it refused to let prosecutors take custody of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, the Justice Department said yesterday, as it urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene." ... "The sharply worded Justice Department filing was the latest salvo in an increasingly contentious battle over Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago [Illinois] in 2002 and initially accused of plotting to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb." Padilla was held for more than three years by the military before he was indicted last month in Miami [Florida] on separate criminal terrorism charges." ... "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit refused last week to allow prosecutors to take custody of Padilla from the military and rebuked the Bush administration for its handling of the high-profile case. The Bush administration took strong issue yesterday with the Richmond-based [Virginia] court's decision and appealed it to the Supreme Court." -By Jerry Markon-WashingtonPost
Business - Accounting - Law - "SEC calls for clarity in executive pay." ... "Public companies in the US could have to provide investors with valuations of the pensions and stock options of senior executives as part of a far-reaching overhaul of the disclosure rules on executive pay by the Securities and Exchange Commission." ... "The chief US financial regulator is preparing the first update of its disclosure rules on executive pay in more than a decade, because of concerns that investors do not receive adequate information about compensation. An important requirement could focus on executives' pensions and options." ... "The median total pay of chief executives increased by 30 per cent in 2004, according to a survey of 1,522 chief executives by the Corporate Library, a corporate governance watchdog, published in October." -By Andrew Parker -FT.com via -MSNBC

20051228

Terrorism - Business - Politics - "Sept. 11 loan recipients weren't hurt by attacks." ... "Most companies interviewed about the government-backed Sept. 11 loans they received have told investigators they weren't hurt by the suicide attacks and didn't know they were getting terrorism assistance, an internal government investigation found." ... "The Small Business Administration's inspector general also reported Wednesday that lenders who doled out billions of dollars in such loans failed — 85% of the time — to document that recipients were actually hurt by the terrorism attacks and therefore eligible for the federal aid." -APvia -USATODAY
Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Florida - Oregon - Ohio - Virginia - "Defense Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts." ... "Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al Qaeda." ... "The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about how and why the men were singled out." ... "The expected legal challenges, in cases from Florida, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia, add another dimension to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom victories in terror cases, legal analysts say." -By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (1, 2) -NYTimes

20051227

Government - Military - Psychology - Health - "A Political Debate On Stress Disorder: As Claims Rise, VA Takes Stock." ... "The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent." ... "Experts say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the increase is largely the result of Vietnam War vets seeking treatment decades after their combat experiences." (1, 2) -By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
Secret - Government - Law Enforcement - Law - Privacy - "U.S. secret surveillance up sharply since Sept. 11." ... "Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance rose sharply after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required changes to the requests at a even greater rate, government documents show." ... "The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years, the court received a total of 3,436." -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk

20051226

Government - Military - Intelligence - Secret - Prisons - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - Media - Politics - "Fear destroys what bin Laden could not." ... "One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help." ... "If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled." ... "Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated." ... "If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them." ... "If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy." -By Robert Steinback -Miami/Herald

20051224

Government - Terrorism - Law Enforcement - Law - Telecommunications - Business - Internet - Privacy - Politics - "Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report." ... "The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials." ... "The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said." ... "As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said." ... "The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials familiar with the program." -By Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (1, 2) -NYTimes

20051223

Jerry Lewis - Randy "Duke" Cunningham - Government - Military - Money - Law - Politics - California - "Close ties make Rep. Lewis, lobbyist Lowery a potent pair." ... "From powerful positions on the House Appropriations Committee, California [Republican Representative] Rep. Jerry Lewis has greenlighted hundreds of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients of one of his closest friends, lobbyist and former [Republican Represenatative from California] state Congressman Bill Lowery." ... "Meanwhile, Lowery, the partners at his firm [Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White] and their clients have donated 37 percent of the $1.3 million that Lewis' political action committee received in the past six years." ... "One of the defense companies that received federal contracts with [convicted California Republican Representative Randy "Duke"] Cunningham's support was a Lowery client [Brent Wilkes' ADCS Inc.]. And some of the money was disbursed when Cunningham was a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee and Lewis was the committee chairman." ... "Lowery, his partners and their spouses have contributed $135,000 to Lewis' campaigns and political action committee over the past decade, routinely giving the maximum allowed by law. Lowery also organizes and hosts Lewis fundraisers. And many of Lowery's defense-contractor clients contribute to Lewis as part of their lobbying strategy." ... "Taken together, they have contributed $480,000 to Lewis' political action committee since 2000." ... "Last year Lewis used some of that money to wow the Republican leadership with checks for $650,000 in "excess campaign funds" to help maintain Republican control of the House." ... "In 1999 Lewis became chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, which oversees more discretionary spending than any other congressional body." ... "Despite that early demonstration of fiscal toughness, earmarks in the defense bills exploded on Lewis' watch." ... "Many of the earmarks went to clients of Lowery's firm, which grew even more prosperous when Lewis' principal defense-earmarks gatekeeper, Letitia White, joined the firm in 2003." -By Jerry Kammer with contributions by Denise Davidson, Erin Hobbs and Peter Uribe -CopleyNews.com via -SignOnSanDiego.com
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Privacy - History - Samuel Alito - "In 1984 memo, Alito defends domestic wiretaps." ... "As a Reagan administration lawyer, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito argued that federal officials can't be sued for damages for wiretapping Americans without warrants in national security cases, a document released Friday showed." ... "Alito's position may complicate his prospects for confirmation because its disclosure comes amid an uproar over a four-year-old Bush administration counterterrorism operation that's been eavesdropping on Americans without court approval." ... "President Bush's argument that he has the legal and constitutional authority to direct the National Security Agency to conduct the secret domestic surveillance operation is almost certain to end up before the Supreme Court." -By Jonathan S. Landay -Knight Ridder via -MercuryNews
Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Florida - "Terror case challenges White House strategy: An appeals court refused the government's request to have Jose Padilla transferred to Florida for a criminal trial." ... "Suddenly, terror suspect Jose Padilla seems a lot more dangerous to the Bush administration." ... "It has nothing to do with his suspected involvement in Al Qaeda bomb plots, analysts say. Rather, the administration worries that the US Supreme Court might agree to hear Mr. Padilla's case and decide one of the most pressing constitutional issues in the war on terrorism. And by all appearances, government lawyers think they might lose." ... "The issue: Does President Bush have the power as commander in chief to order the open-ended military detention of US citizens that he deems enemy combatants?" -By Warren Richey -CSMonitor

20051222

Government - Law - Military - Terrorism - Alaska - Oil - Environment - Health - Education - Jobs - Money - "Senate Extends Patriot Act, Kills Alaska Drilling (Update1)." ... "The U.S. Senate broke a legislative logjam and cleared the way for its holiday departure last night with a series of short-term compromises that extended the Patriot Act and blocked drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." ... "Democrats prevailed in getting Senate Republican leaders to abandon the oil-drilling plan, which was attached to the defense budget." ... "[House] Lawmakers passed a $142.5 billion budget for health, education and jobs programs that cuts funding from last year's spending plan, sending the measure to Bush for his signature. The House approved the measure 215-213 on Dec. 14." ... "The health budget reduces funding for the No Child Left Behind education initiative, special education and job training. It freezes funding for the National Institutes of Health and low- income heating assistance." -By Catherine Dodge -Bloomberg
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Telecommunications - EMail - Privacy - Politics - "Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program." ... "The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources." ... "Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court." (1, 2) -By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Karl Rove - Dick Cheney - Military - Environmental - Political - Business - "Department's Mission Was Undermined From Start." ... "[Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom] Ridge, who had won a Bronze Star as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, knew he might be stepping into another quagmire at DHS. "Part of him was excited," said then-EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. "Part of him thought it was a no-win situation."" ... "Clearly, he could not count on unlimited financial support. And working in the White House, he was already learning he could not count on absolute political support, either." ... "One stark example was the White House's blockade of a Ridge-supported plan to secure large chemical plants. After Sept. 11, Whitman had worked with Ridge on a modest effort to require high-risk plants --especially the 123 factories where a toxic release could endanger at least 1 million people -- to enhance security. But industry groups warned Bush political adviser Karl Rove that giving new regulatory power to the Environmental Protection Agency would be a disaster." ... ""We have a similar set of concerns," Rove wrote to the president of BP Amoco Chemical Co." ... "In an interagency meeting shortly before DHS's birth, White House budget official Philip J. Perry, who also happens to be Cheney's son-in-law, declared the Ridge-Whitman plan dead." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Christopher Lee with contributions by Spencer S. Hsu and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Government - Military - Terrorism - Civil Liberties - Politics - Florida - "Court Bars Transfer of Padilla To Face New Terrorism Charges." ... "A federal appeals court yesterday refused to authorize the transfer of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla to face new criminal charges, issuing a strongly worded opinion rebuking the Bush administration and its handling of the high-profile terrorism case." ... "In issuing its denial, the court cited the government's changing rationale for Padilla's detention, questioning why it used one set of arguments before federal judges deciding whether it was legal for the military to hold Padilla and another set before the Miami [Florida] grand jury." ... "In requesting the transfer to Justice Department custody, the government suggested that the 4th Circuit vacate its ruling allowing Padilla to be held as an enemy combatant. But the 4th Circuit yesterday also refused to lift the earlier decision and suggested that the Justice Department request was made to avoid further judicial scrutiny." ... "The judges said prosecutors had left "an appearance that the government may be attempting to avoid consideration of our decision by the Supreme Court." They said they welcomed Supreme Court intervention because of the "enormous implications" of the Padilla case." -By Jerry Markon -WashingtonPost

20051221

Government - Political - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - History - "Limits to power: Restrictions on domestic spying were put in place for a reason." ... "It's an old argument. Back during the Vietnam War, government photographers went to the anti-war demonstrations and took pictures of the demonstrators. Protest leaders thought, probably correctly, that their phones were tapped. Even I, a reporter covering the protests, heard some odd clicking noises when I picked up the phone to make some calls. And, of course, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who made his own laws, eavesdropped on Martin Luther King Jr., among others, though we didn't know it at the time." ... "Outside the law? John Mitchell, who was President Richard Nixon's Attorney General, argued that the government didn't need a warrant to tap the phone of any political dissenter it thought was a threat to national security, which certainly does sound like the secret police at work. But in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Mitchell was wrong. Justice Lewis Powell, a Nixon appointee, wrote for the unanimous court that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures" and that that freedom "cannot be properly guaranteed if domestic security surveillances are conducted solely at the discretion of the executive branch."" ... "President Bush obviously thinks the court was wrong, since he ordered the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2002 to begin eavesdropping on American citizens without a court-issued warrant." -By Bruce Morton -CNN
Secret - Government - Intelligence - "Surveillance-court judge quits in protest." ... "A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources." ... "U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation." ... "Two associates familiar with his decision said Tuesday that Robertson privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable." -By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer -WashingtonPost via -SeattleTimes.NWsource

20051220

Government - Military - Intelligence - Total Information Awareness - Secrecy - Consumer - Telecommunications -Databases - Privacy - Law -West-Virginia - Dick Cheney - Terrorism - "Bush, Democrats swap charges over his approval of wiretaps." ... "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, released a letter he wrote to Vice President Dick Cheney on July 17, 2003, the day he learned of the surveillance in a meeting with Cheney, three other lawmakers and the heads of the CIA and NSA. Rockefeller expressed deep misgivings and said the program reminded him of Total Information Awareness, a controversial Pentagon effort to mine credit-card data, cellphone calls and even bank withdrawals to spot terrorist activity." ... ""These concerns were never addressed, and I was prohibited from sharing my views with my colleagues" by secrecy laws, Rockefeller said Monday. He accused the president and his aides of "repeatedly misrepresenting the facts" in recent days and demanded a "full investigation into the legal and operational aspects of the program" now that the program has come to light." -By Todd J. Gillman -DallasNews.com via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Government - Telecommunications- EMail - Intelligence - Law - West-Virginia - Cheney, Dick - "Democrats: Briefings weren't approvals for wiretapping." ... "Some Democrats say they never approved a domestic wiretapping program, undermining suggestions by President Bush and his senior advisers that the plan was fully vetted in a series of congressional briefings." ... ""I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse, these activities," West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said in a handwritten letter to Vice President Dick Cheney in July 2003. "As you know, I am neither a technician nor an attorney."" ... "Rockefeller is among a small group of congressional leaders who have received briefings on the administration's four-year-old program to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaeda." -AP via -USATODAY

20051219

Government - Military - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Politics - "Bush's Snoopgate: The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security." ... "The problem was not that the disclosures would compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference. His comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics, is fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists-in fact, all American Muslims, period-have long since suspected that the U.S. government might be listening in to their conversations. Bush claimed that "the fact that we are discussing this program is helping the enemy." But there is simply no evidence, or even reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather than the leaking being a "shameful act," it was the work of a patriot inside the government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab." ... "No, Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story-which the paper had already inexplicably held for a year-because he knew that it would reveal him as a law-breaker." -By Jonathan Alter -MSNBC/Newsweek
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - "Bush strongly defends eavesdropping program." ... "President Bush on Monday forcefully defended his administration's eavesdropping program for terror suspects living in the United States as an essential element of protecting Americans from a new enemy, and he said whoever unmasked the secret plan had committed a "shameful act."" ... "As Republicans joined Democrats in calling for a congressional inquiry into the domestic spying program, the president insisted he had the legal and constitutional authority to order surveillance. He said he was concerned about citizens' civil liberties but denied suggestions that he had abused the power of the presidency, and he vowed not to abandon the plan he approved after the 2001 terror attacks." ... ""To say `unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject," Bush said. "I am doing what you expect me to do, and at the same time, safeguarding the civil liberties of the country."" -ChicagoTribune via -MercuryNews

20051218

Secret- Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Wisconsin - "Bush, under fire, defends spy program: President says eavesdropping policy is 'vital'." ... "President Bush acknowledged yesterday that he has repeatedly authorized secret eavesdropping within the United States without obtaining warrants, a policy that some critics called illegal. The admission came one day after the president refused to address the issue." ... "Bush yesterday said he reauthorized the program more than 30 times since the Sept. 11 attacks and vowed to continue it despite criticism by some members of both political parties." ... "But Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, urged the president to suspend the program immediately. Feingold said the program violates a law that requires a court order for such surveillance." -By Michael Kranish -Boston/Globe

20051217

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Privacy - Politics - Civil Liberties - Law - "Update 3: Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping." ... "President Bush said Saturday he has no intention of stopping his personal authorizations of a post-Sept. 11 secret eavesdropping program in the U.S., lashing out at those involved in revealing it while defending it as crucial to preventing future attacks." ... "Angry members of Congress have demanded an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday's New York Times and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency without obtaining warrants from a court violates civil liberties." -AP via -Forbes

20051216

Secret - Government - Military - Terrorism - EMail - Telecommunications - Law - Politics - History - "Bush Authorized Domestic Spying: Post-9/11 Order Bypassed Special Court." ... "President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night." ... "For more than four years, the NSA tasked other military intelligence agencies to assist its broad-based surveillance effort directed at people inside the country suspected of having terrorist connections, even before Bush signed the 2002 order that authorized the NSA program, according to an informed U.S. official." ... "The effort, which began within days after the attacks, has consisted partly of monitoring domestic telephone conversations, e-mail and even fax communications of individuals identified by the NSA as having some connection to al Qaeda events or figures, or to potential terrorism-related activities in the United States, the official said." ... "It has also involved teams of Defense Intelligence Agency personnel stationed in major U.S. cities conducting the type of surveillance typically performed by the FBI: monitoring the movements and activities -- through high-tech equipment -- of individuals and vehicles, the official said." -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Dafna Linzer and Peter Baker -WashingtonPost
Government - Secrets - Civil Liberties - Privacy - "Official: Bush authorized spying multiple times: Senior intelligence officer says President personally gave NSA permission." ... "President Bush has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior intelligence official said Friday night." ... "The disclosure follows angry demands by lawmakers earlier in the day for a congressional inquiry into whether the monitoring by the highly secretive National Security Agency violated civil liberties." (1, 2) -AP via -MSNBC
Secrecy - Politics- "Bush Issues Order to Ease Access to Government Information." ... "President Bush has issued an executive order directing federal agencies to improve public access to government information." ... "The order, signed by the president late Wednesday, follows five years of often bipartisan criticism of his administration on grounds of excessive secrecy, particularly since the 2001 terrorist attacks. It mandates some of the changes that have been proposed by members of Congress from both parties to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act." -By Scott Shane -NYTimes
Government - Terrorism - Law - Civil Liberties - Wisconsin- Idaho - "Senate may decide fate of Patriot Act's expiring provisions." ... "The Senate was still weighing a proposed accord with the House to extend the expiring 16 provisions of the law enacted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. But that compromise appeared to lack the necessary votes to succeed." ... "The White House and its congressional allies prefer to let the provisions expire and hold Democrats responsible in next year's midterm elections rather than let opponents whittle away at the law." ... "But the critics, who include senators with such wide-ranging views as Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Republican Larry Craig of Idaho, say they don't want the Patriot Act to expire — they just want enough time to improve the bill to the point where it doesn't infringe on American liberties." -USATODAY
US - World - Government - Secret - Telecommunications - Intelligence - Privacy - Terrorism - Law - "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." ... "Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials." ... "Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications." ... "The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches." (1, 2, 3,4, 5) -By James Risen and Eric Lichtblau with contributions by Barclay Walsh -NYTimes

20051215

Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Prisons - Law - Arizona - "Bush backs down on proposed torture ban." ... "President Bush on Thursday abandoned his opposition to an anti-torture amendment by Sen. John McCain in the face of overwhelming support for the measure in Congress." ... "Bush backed down from a veto threat after being unable to muster support from one-third of either the House or Senate, even though his own Republican Party controls both chambers. The measure by McCain, R-Ariz., is attached to the annual defense spending bill that funds the war on terrorism." ... "The amendment says no one in U.S. government custody, whether prisoner of war or terrorist," shall be subject to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," regardless of where the prisoner is being held." -By John Diamond with contributions by David Jackson -USATODAY

20051213

Hurricane Katrina - Disaster - Government - Politics - "Battle brews over a bigger military role: The Pentagon tilts toward taking more authority in major disasters - worrying governors, lawmakers." ... "The lessons learned from hurricane Katrina appear to be putting the Pentagon on a collision course with governors and lawmakers worried about the expanding role of the military in disaster response." ... "Gaining currency at the highest levels of the Pentagon is the idea that during a catastrophic event - either natural or terrorist - the Department of Defense should replace the Department of Homeland Security as the agency in charge of the federal response." ... "In many ways, the notion is limited, affecting only how the federal government deploys its own resources. Yet in a nation founded on a distrust of military control, any suggestion of giving the armed forces greater authority on American soil faces centuries-old skepticism. Moreover, it comes at a time when governors are already feeling besieged by an administration that, they feel, is too eager to wrest power from them." -By Mark Sappenfield -CSMonitor

20051212

Wireless - Telecommunications - Business - Law - "Cellphone rulings could mean billions in tax refunds." ... "Phone customers are due $9 billion in tax refunds and a 3% cut in wireless phone and long-distance bills, according to a series of federal court decisions." ... "But the federal government continues to collect the tax and requires so much paperwork for refunds that only big corporations are likely to benefit." ... "The Bush administration has not said whether it will appeal to the Supreme Court." -By Dennis Cauchon -USATODAY

20051210