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ARCHIVES NEWS Law News History Archives LAW ARCHIVES |
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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
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
Hackers
- 
Music
- 
Entertainment
- 
Computer
- 
Business
- 
Technology
- Consumer
- Privacy
- "Sony
BMG tentatively settles CD software suits." ... "Sony
BMG Music Entertainment has reached a tentative settlement with consumers
who filed a class action lawsuit over the music company's copy-protection
software on CDs, court papers show." ... "Consumers complained that the
technology -- known as XCP -- violated their rights by potentially leaving
computers vulnerable to hackers and allowing the company to track listening
habits." -Reuters
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
Hawaii
- 
History
- 
Museum
- "Group
hides native Hawaiian artifacts: Judge jails leader,
holds three others in contempt of court." ... "Leaders of a Hawaiian group
vowed not to divulge the location of a cache of native artifacts obtained
from a museum and then buried, despite the jailing of their director."
... "One of the four, executive director Edward Halealoha Ayau, was taken
into custody after refusing [Chief U.S. District Judge David] Ezra's order
to reveal the exact location of the 83 artifacts from the Bishop Museum."
-AP via -CNN
NY
- 
Internet
- Messaging
- Telecommunications
- 
Patent
- 
Search
Engine - Business
- "Google
Talk faces patent lawsuit." ... "A New York company
[Rates Technology (RTI)] is suing Google for patent infringement over the
voice-over-Internet portion of its Google Talk instant messaging and voice
chat program." ... "It alleges infringement on two of its patents for minimizing
the cost of long-distance calls using the Internet."" ... "RTI President
Jerry Weinberger returned a call seeking comment on Thursday and said his
firm also has sued Vonage and Cablevision over patent infringement." ...
""When a VOIP call can be transferred to the regular PSTN (telephone network),
the switching of that call infringes our patents," Weinberger said." -By
Elinor Mills -CNET
/News
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
UK
- EMail
- Business
- 
EU
- Privacy
- Telecommunications
- "Businessman
wins e-mail spam case." ... "A businessman has won
what is believed to be the first victory of its kind by claiming damages
from a company which sent him e-mail spam." ... "Three years ago the EU
passed an anti-spam law, the directive on privacy and telecommunications,
which gave individuals the right to fight the growing tide of unwanted
e-mail by allowing them to claim damages."-BBC
/News
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
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
Turkey
- Journalist
- Censorship
- Free
Speech - EU
- "Turkey
opens new case against journalist." ... "A Turkish
prosecutor has opened a new case against one of the country's leading Turkish-Armenians
for comments he made about an earlier prosecution." ... "Hrant Dink, editor
of the bilingual Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was convicted in October
of "insulting Turkishness" and received a six-month suspended sentence.
The case became one of several prominent prosecutions over speech that
prompted questions about Turkey's dedication to democracy from officials
of the European Union, which Turkey is trying to join."
-AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
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
US
- 
Egypt
- Law
- "U.S.
Protests Jailing of Egyptian Opposition Leader (Update2)."
... "The U.S. government protested the conviction of Egyptian opposition
politician Ayman Nour on forgery charges and requested he be released from
jail." ... "Nour's conviction ``calls into question Egypt's commitment
to democracy, freedom and the rule of law,'' White House press secretary
Scott McClellan said in a statement. The U.S. calls on Egypt ``to release
Mr. Nour from detention.''" -By Carlos Torres -Bloomberg
Consumer
- 
Food
- 
Health
- "Labels
on food to list allergens more plainly: New federal
law intended to help consumers find ingredients that could sicken them."
... "A federal law effective Jan. 1 requires food labels to list ingredients
made from proteins derived from any of the eight major allergenic foods:
milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, wheat, tree nuts, soybeans and peanuts.
The Food and Drug Administration says they account for 90 percent of all
food allergies." -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
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
Samuel
Alito
- 
Women's- Abortion
- Health
- History
- Law
- "Alito
abortion memo drew cautionary response: Reagan administration
official said '85 correspondence should be kept quiet." ... "A June 1985
memo by Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito arguing that the Roe v. Wade
decision legalizing abortion should be overturned set off alarms in the
Reagan administration, prompting a senior official to caution that the
correspondence should be kept quiet, a new document released Friday shows."
... "In a recommendation to the solicitor general on filing a friend-of-court
brief, Alito said the government "should make clear that we disagree with
Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether,
and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled."" ... "The
June 3, 1985 document was one of 45 released by the National Archives on
Friday. A total of 744 pages were made public."
-AP via -MSNBC
Samuel
Alito
- Women's
- Abortion
- Health
- History
- Law
- "Alito
Argued to Overturn Roe in 1985 Memo: Supreme Court
Nominee Samuel Alito Advocated Reversing Roe V. Wade in 1985 Memo." ...
"In paperwork released earlier from Alito's time in the Justice Department's
solicitor general's office, he recommended a legal strategy of dismantling
abortion rights piece by piece. And as part of an application for a job
as deputy assistant attorney general, Alito said the Constitution does
not guarantee abortion rights." -By Donna Cassata
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Italy
- EU
- US
- Egypt
-Intelligence
- "Italy
court issues EU arrest warrant for CIA team." ...
"A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected
of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003,
Prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday." ... "Milan magistrates suspect
a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew
him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured."
-Reuters
California
- WalMart
- 
Employees
- Business
- Food
- "Wal-Mart
hit with $172.3m lunch bill." ... "A jury in Oakland,
California on Thursday ordered Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, to pay
$172.3m to current and former employees, after finding that the company
had failed to respect their right to a 30-minute unpaid lunch break." ...
"The verdict is the largest penalty of its kind imposed by a court on the
retailer in a range of lawsuits that have accused it of deliberately allowing
its employees to work unpaid overtime, or to work during legally required
breaks." ... "State law in California requires employers to grant its workers
the 30 minute unpaid break, or to compensate them if they decline to take
the time." -By Jonathan Birchall
-FT.com via
-MSNBC
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
Jack
Abramoff
- Florida
- Political
- Business
- "Talk
of Plea by Lobbyist Has Hill on Edge." ... "[Jack]
Abramoff, a once-powerful lobbyist who is the subject of a federal influence-peddling
investigation, is considering a deal to plead guilty and cooperate with
prosecutors, according to sources familiar with the probe. That could open
the prospect that Abramoff will implicate any number of lawmakers and aides
who were part of his vast network of access." ... "Abramoff's former business
associate, Michael P.S. Scanlon, last month pleaded guilty to conspiring
to bribe public officials and to defraud tribes. He promised to cooperate
with the investigation." ... "In separate federal proceedings in Florida,
Abramoff has been indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges in connection
with his purchase of the Florida-based SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.
His co-defendant, Adam R. Kidan, last week pleaded guilty and agreed to
testify against Abramoff. Abramoff's trial is set to begin Jan. 9." -By
Janet Hook and Chuck Neubauer
-LAtimes
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
Pennsylvania
- Religious
- Science
- Law
- 
Kansas
- "Advocates
of 'Intelligent Design' Vow to Continue Despite Ruling."
... "A federal judge's ruling in Pennsylvania that "intelligent design"
is religious fundamentalism dressed in the raiment of science has wounded
a politically influential movement." ... "Some politically influential
backers of intelligent design warned that U.S. District Judge John E. Jones
III, who was appointed by President Bush, so overreached that his ruling
will outrage and inflame millions of conservative and religiously observant
Americans." ... "Jones's expansively written decision incorporated the
scientific critique of intelligent design as pseudoscience in almost every
detail. Legally, that decision is not binding in other states, such as
Kansas, where the state school board is debating incorporating a critique
of Darwinian evolution into its state standards." -By
Michael Powell -WashingtonPost
US
- 
Arizona
- 
Mexico
- Drugs
- Terrorism
- Law
- Intelligence
- "Surprise
- terror war aids drug war: One Arizona border unit
sees marijuana haul triple." ... "As Congress and President Bush wrangle
over the USA Patriot Act, the Border Security bill, and other tools of
the war on terror, they may want to keep another law-enforcement group
in mind - the nation's drug-fighters." ... "That's because the war on terror
is proving to be a boon to the war on drugs. Drug seizures are up all along
the US-Mexico border. Nowhere is the trend clearer than along a desolate
118-mile patch of Arizona desert across the border from the Mexican state
of Sonora." ... "In what is rapidly becoming one of the highest drug-trafficking
and people- smuggling sectors along the border, US Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) officers there have seized 13,000 pounds of marijuana since Oct.
1, triple the amount captured in the same period last year. That year,
fiscal 2005, also set a record. The reasons for the success? Better intelligence-sharing,
increased manpower, and improved technology that border officials have
received in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks." -By
Faye Bowers -CSMonitor
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
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
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
Environment
- Animals
- Terrorism
- Civil
Righs - Law
- Politics
- 
Indiana
- "F.B.I.
Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show." ... "Counterterrorism
agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance
and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly,
groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and
poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show." ... "But the documents,
coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush
had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted
charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly
blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful
protest." ... "One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis
[Indiana] planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community
Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic
ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location
of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals." (1, 2)
-By Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
Alaska
- Gas
- Business
- Consumer
- "Alaska
sues BP, Exxon Mobil over natural gas: State claims
oil giants conspired to keep prices high." ... "An antitrust lawsuit filed
against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting
the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs."
... "The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, says
the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration,
development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S.
markets." ... ""The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is
to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic
highs," said David Boies, the attorney for the Alaska Gasline Port Authority,
which filed the lawsuit." (1, 2)
-AP via -MSNBC
Pennsylvania
- Religious
- Science
- Education
- "'Breathtaking
Inanity': How Intelligent Design Flunked Its Test Case:
A federal judge minces no words as he comes down against evolution's rival."
... "Intelligent design is a religious idea and a Pennsylvania school board
may not introduce it into the classroom, a federal judge ruled today. Judge
John E. Jones III ruled that the Dover Area School Board improperly introduced
religion into the classroom when it required science teachers to read a
brief statement during the 9th grade biology class telling students that
evolution was “Just a theory” and inviting them to consider alternatives.
The only alternative specifically mentioned was “intelligent design,” the
notion that life is so complex that it could not possibly have been the
work of natural selection alone and must have been the work of an unspecified
creative intelligence. “We find that the secular purposes claimed by the
Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote
religion in the public school classroom,” Jones wrote." (1, 2)
-By Sean Scully
-TIME.com
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
Iran
- Entertainment
- 
TV
- 
Radio- Music
- Religious
- Law
- History
- "Iran's
president bans all Western music." ... "Hard-line
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from Iran's
state radio and TV stations — an eerie reminder of the 1979 Islamic revolution
when popular music was outlawed as "un-Islamic" under Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini." ... "But as revolutionary fervor started to fade, some light
classical music was allowed on Iranian radio and television; some public
concerts reappeared in the late 1980s." ... "In the 1990s, particularly
during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami starting in 1997, authorities
began relaxing restrictions further." ... "Ahmadinejad's order means the
state broadcasting authority must execute the decree and prepare a report
on its implementation within six months, according to the IRAN Persian
daily." -AP
via -USATODAY
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