 |
HavenWorks.com/secrets/archive/2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- Secrets Archive
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
ARCHIVES NEWS Secret News History Archives Secrets Archives 2003 Secret Archives 2002 Secret Archives 2001 Secret Archives |
|
 |
|
 |
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
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
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
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
Iran
- Secret
- 
Nuclear
- Military
- Politics
- 
EU
- US
- 
UN
- "The
West's patience wears thin with Iran's hard line."
... "When European nations resume talks with Iran in Vienna Wednesday over
that country's nuclear ambitions, two dangerous new factors are in play.
On the one hand, the patience of the Europeans and the United States with
Iran is running thin. On the other hand, Iran's newly elected president
has shocked a string of nations with some megalomanic pronouncements that
if supported by his people would plunge Iran back into isolation. The stage
is not set for compromise and consensus." ... "At issue is whether Iran's
suspected pursuit of nuclear technology for military purposes is purely
for peaceful purposes, as it claims. The European nations and the US doubt
that, pointing to a string of deceptive Iranian actions, including hiding
from the International Atomic Energy Agency its secret installations to
enrich uranium and produce plutonium." -By John Hughes
-CSMonitor
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
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
Secret
- Intelligence- Telecommunications
- EMail
- Privacy
- Law
- "President
Bush Defends Secret Wiretaps, Urges Patriot Act Renewal."
... "In his final news conference of the year, President Bush offered a
stern defense of his ordering of secret wiretaps within the United States
and made a spirited plea for the renewal of the Patriot Act." ... "The
president's top priority was to quell the growing outrage over the revelation
on Friday by The New York Times of a widespread, ongoing domestic
eavesdropping program by the National Security Agency that has targeted
phone conversations and e-mail exchanges within the U.S." ... "Though the
disclosure of the covert domestic spying program has caused concern among
both Democrats and Republicans, with some calling for hearings into whether
it violates the Constitution, Bush vigorously defended his right to order
the program, which he said he has renewed more than 30 times."
-MTV.com /News
Entertainment
- 
People
- Secrets
- "At
Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun: Tom
Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming
a passionate messenger for the church." ... "In his own spiritual life,
Cruise has continued to climb the "Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's
path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine,
reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels
of training, "OT VII" — for Operating Thetan VII." ... "At these higher
levels — and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars —
Scientologists learn Hubbard's secret theory of human suffering, which
he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant
named Xenu." ... "According to court documents made public by The Times
in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls,
or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them
to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced
courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects." (1,
2,
3)
-By Claire Hoffman and Kim Christensen
-LAtimes
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
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
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
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
Military
- Intelligence
- Law
- Secrets
- 
Arizona
- "New
Army Rules May Snarl Talks With McCain on Detainee Issue."
... "The Army has approved a new, classified set of interrogation methods
that may complicate negotiations over legislation proposed by [Arizona
Republican] Senator John McCain to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of
detainees in American custody, military officials said Tuesday." ... "The
techniques are included in a 10-page classified addendum to a new Army
field manual that was forwarded this week to Stephen A. Cambone, the under
secretary of defense for intelligence policy, for final approval, they
said." ... "The addendum provides dozens of examples and goes into exacting
detail on what procedures may or may not be used, and in what circumstances.
Army interrogators have never had a set of such specific guidelines that
would help teach them how to walk right up to the line between legal and
illegal interrogations." -By Eric Schmitt with contributions
by Joel Brinkley -NYTimes
Secret
- Government
- Wireless
- Telecommunications
- 
Technology
- Law
Enforcement - Law
- 
New
York
- 
Texas
- 
Maryland
- Noteworthy
- "Live
Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy."
... "Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government
agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the
handset." ... "In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to
cellular technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements
of suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance - which investigators
have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders - has now come
under tougher legal scrutiny." ... "In the last four months, three federal
judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information
from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe
that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard
applied to requests for search warrants." ... "The rulings, issued by magistrate
judges in New York, Texas and Maryland, underscore the growing debate over
privacy rights and government surveillance in the digital age." (1, 2)
-By Matt Richtel -NYTimes
Music- Entertainment- 
Business
- Secret- Privacy
- 
Computer
- 
Web
- Hacking
- "New
security flaw vexes Sony BMG piracy battle: Expert
says patch makes problem worse." ... "Sony BMG Music Entertainment has
acknowledged a new security problem affecting nearly 6 million of its CDs,
and a Princeton University computer expert said yesterday that a patch
the company designed to fix the problem may only make things worse." ...
"The problems for the company began last month, when computer programmer
Matt Russinovich found that Sony BMG was shipping many of its music discs
with a program called XCP." ... "XCP was designed to limit the number of
times a user could copy the tunes on the disc, and to ensure that these
copies could not be played on other computers. But the software also concealed
itself on users' computers and was extremely difficult to remove. In addition,
XCP secretly sent information about users' listening habits over the Internet
to Sony BMG." -By Hiawatha Bray
-Boston/Globe
US
- 
Germany
- 
Afghanistan
- Secret
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Prisons- Law
- Politics
- 
VA
- "German
citizen held in secret prison sues ex-CIA director."
... "A German citizen whom the CIA abducted from Macedonia and held in
a secret prison in Afghanistan for five months sued former CIA Director
George Tenet on Tuesday, saying he'd been tortured." ... "[Khaled] Al-Masri's
lawsuit, filed by ACLU lawyers in Alexandria, Va. [Virginia], sheds light
on the CIA's secret practice of "extraordinary renditions," using special
teams to capture suspected terrorists and transport them to countries that
practice torture or to one of the agency's reported secret prisons in Eastern
Europe or Asia." ... "In the four years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the
CIA has captured about 3,000 people, including some top al-Qaida leaders,
according to a Washington Post report. Intelligence committees in Congress
have been told that the CIA's inspector general is investigating possible
"erroneous renditions."" ... "U.S. officials refuse to confirm or deny
the existence of secret prisons." -By Frank Davies
and Warren P. Strobel -MercuryNews
US
- Iraq
- Military- GOV
- Secrets
- "U.S.
Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press:
Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to
the practice." ... "As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S.
military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written
by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission
in Iraq." ... "The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations"
troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with
the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials
and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times." ... "Many of the articles
are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and
reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S.
and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild
the country." ... "Though the articles are basically factual, they present
only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly
on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said." (1, 2,
3)
-By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi
-LAtimes
US
- EU
- Secret
- Intelligence
- Prisons
- Terrorism-
"U.S.
to Respond to EU Questions on Prisons." ... "The
European Union has formally requested answers from the Bush administration
about reports of secret U.S.-run prisons for terrorism suspects in Europe,
and the United States will reply "to the best of our ability," the State
Department said Wednesday." ... "It would be illegal for the U.S. government
to hold prisoners in isolation and difficult conditions in secret prisons
in the United States. It has long been assumed that the CIA operates overseas
sites to get around U.S. law and to keep terrorism suspects out of the
jurisdiction of U.S. courts." -By Anne Gearan
-AP via-WashingtonPost
Samuel
Alito
- New
York
- Government
- Military
- Business
- Politics
- Secrets-
"Alito dueled with
government ethics chief: As Justice Department lawyer,
court nominee fought over disclosure rules." ... "As a Justice Department
lawyer, Samuel Alito quarreled with the head of the government ethics office
over proposed requirements on personal financial disclosures, according
to documents released Monday." ... "Alito's 1987 letter was issued around
the time the ethics office said his boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese
III, had violated financial disclosure requirements over a $60,000 investment
with a businessman who was tied to Wedtech, a Bronx, N.Y. [New York], defense
contractor that was caught up in a wide-ranging federal investigation."
-AP via -MSNBC
Idaho
- 
New_Hampshire
- 
Alaska
- 
Illinois
- Wisconsin
- 
Colorado
- Secret
- GOV
- Police
- Intelligence
- Civil
Liberties - 
Library
- Business
- 
Health
- Privacy
- Politics
- "Senators
Vow To Block Patriot Act." ... "Half a dozen senators
worried about civil liberties –three Democrats and three Republicans –
said Thursday they will try to block the measure to renew the Patriot Act,
CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports." ... "The most controversial parts
of the law that vastly expanded FBI powers after 9/11 expire at the end
of the year unless renewed. An agreement on a measure to do that between
the House and Senate doesn't include some minimal new protections these
senators want, including having a judge review broad secret warrants when
the FBI seeks information from libraries, hospitals and banks." ... ""If
further changes are not made, we will work to stop this bill from becoming
law," GOP Sens. Larry Craig [Idaho], John Sununu [New Hampshire] and Lisa
Murkowski [Alaska] and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin [Illinois], Russ Feingold
[Wisconsin] and Ken Salazar [Colorado] said in a letter to the Senate Judiciary
and Intelligence committees." -AP
-CBSNews
Dick
Cheney - Secret
- Business
- Law
- Politics
- Nevada
- Alaska
- "Did
oil execs lie to Congress? Report contradicts big
oil execs testimony denying a White House meeting. Democrats seek probe."
... "Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the executives
should return to Washington and set the record straight." ... "They should
"be brought back to the Congress, sworn in, and forced to testify again
about their involvement with Vice President Cheney's secretive energy task
force and all of the issues covered in the hearing," Reid said." ... "Republican
Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who chaired last week's hearing, refused Democrats'
demands that the executives be sworn in under oath before they testified."
-Reuters via -CNN
/Money
Dick
Cheney - Secret
- 
Energy
- Law
- Politics
- Business
- 
Environment
- Alaska
- "Document
Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force." ...
"A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies met
with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long
suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry
officials testifying before Congress." ... "The document, obtained this
week by The Washington Post, shows that officials from Exxon Mobil Corp.,
Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America
Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing
a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which
are still being debated." ... "The executives were not under oath when
they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee
Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska)
not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned
for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent
statement or representation" to Congress." -By Dana
Milbank and Justin Blum with contributions by Lucy Shackelford-WashingtonPost
US
- Iraq
- Secret
- Military
- Terrorism
- Politics
- Law
- "Asterisks
Dot White House's Iraq Argument." ... "President
Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of the Iraq
war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw the same
intelligence the administration did before the war, and that independent
commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent
the intelligence." ... "But Bush and his aides had access to much more
voluminous intelligence information than did lawmakers, who were dependent
on the administration to provide the material. And the commissions cited
by officials, though concluding that the administration did not pressure
intelligence analysts to change their conclusions, were not authorized
to determine whether the administration exaggerated or distorted those
conclusions." ... [Furthermore] "... Bush does not share his most sensitive
intelligence, such as the President's Daily Brief, with lawmakers. Also,
the National Intelligence Estimate summarizing the intelligence community's
views about the threat from Iraq was given to Congress just days before
the vote to authorize the use of force in that country." ... "In addition,
there were doubts within the intelligence community not included in the
NIE. And even the doubts expressed in the NIE could not be used publicly
by members of Congress because the classified information had not been
cleared for release. For example, the NIE view that Hussein would not use
weapons of mass destruction against the United States or turn them over
to terrorists unless backed into a corner was cleared for public use only
a day before the Senate vote." -By Dana Milbank and
Walter Pincus-WashingtonPost
Bill
Frist
- Secret
- Military
- Prisons
- Law
- "Frist
concerned more about leaks than secret prisons."
... "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about
the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity
in the prisons themselves." ... "Frist told reporters Thursday that while
he believed illegal activity should not take place at detention centers,
he believes the leak itself poses a greater threat to national security
and is "not concerned about what goes on" behind the prison walls."
-AP via -CNN
California
- Virginia- Political
- Business
- Law
- Privacy
- Secret
- Intelligence
- "Secret
military spending gets little oversight." ... "A
USA TODAY analysis of MZM-related campaign contributions shows how the
company's growth and its political activities became intertwined at key
moments. In more than 30 instances, donations from MZM's political action
committee or company employees went to two members of the House Appropriations
Committee — [California Republican Randy] Cunningham and Rep. Virgil Goode,
R-Va. [Virginia] — in the days surrounding key votes or contract awards
that helped MZM grow." ... "For example, MZM's political action committee
gave Cunningham $5,000 in 2003 the day before his appointment to a congressional
panel negotiating the final version of the defense budget. Ten days later,
the day after the House passed the final Pentagon spending bill, Wade gave
Cunningham $2,000." ... "Both lawmakers sit on the subcommittee overseeing
the Pentagon's spending and have acknowledged putting language in bills
that created or expanded contracts that went to MZM." -By
Matt Kelley and Jim Drinkard -USATODAY
EU
- US
- 
Poland
- 
Romania- Military
- Terrorism
- Secrets
- "EU
Accepts Polish, Romanian Denials of Secret Jails (Update1)."
... "The European Union's executive agency said it is satisfied with Poland's
and Romania's denials that the U.S. is running secret terrorist jails on
their soil, saying there's no proof of human rights violations." ... "The
Polish and Romanian governments rebutted reports in the Washington Post
and Financial Times, citing U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, that the Central
Intelligence Agency has operated covert interrogation centers in those
countries." -By John Rega
-Bloomberg
US
- Iraq
- Military
-Secrets
- Politics
- "Democrats
Force Secret Senate Session: Democrats Force Secret
Senate Session to Highlight Differences Over How Iraq Intelligence Handled."
... "Unable to win their way with votes, outnumbered Democrats used a rarely
invoked Senate rule to force a secret session as a way to dramatize their
assertions that the Bush administration misused intelligence in the run-up
to war in Iraq." ... "Republicans angrily derided the use of Rule 21 which
dates back to 1795 as a political stunt but agreed two hours later to have
a bipartisan group check on how the Senate Intelligence Committee is coming
along in its investigation of prewar intelligence." ... "The Senate is
authorized to have secret sessions by the Constitution." (1, 2)
-By Liz Sidoti -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Dick
Cheney
- Secret
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Prisons
- "Bush
adviser says policy forbids torture." ... "President
Bush's directive banning the torture of terror suspects applies to all
prisoners -even if held in a secret prison reportedly set up by the CIA
for its most important al-Qaida captives, a senior administration official
[National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley] said Wednesday." ... "Led by
Vice President Dick Cheney, the Bush administration is floating a proposal
that would allow the president to exempt covert agents outside the Defense
Department from a Senate-approved ban on torturing detainees in U.S. custody
or weakening the prohibition." -AP
via -SeattlePI .NWsource
US
- Afghanistan
- 
Thailand
- Guantanamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- Military
- Terrorism
- Secret
- Prisons
- Law
- Noteworthy
- "CIA
Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate Is
Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set
Up After 9/11." ... "The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of
its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern
Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement."
... "The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the
CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight
countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern
Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba,
according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from
three continents." ... "The hidden global internment network is a central
element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the
cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic
information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials
and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert
actions." ... "It is illegal for the government to hold prisoners in such
isolation in secret prisons in the United States, which is why the CIA
placed them overseas, according to several former and current intelligence
officials and other U.S. government officials." (1, 2,
3, 4) -By Dana Priest with contributions by Julie
Tate -WashingtonPost
Lewis
Libby
- Dick
Cheney
- Political
- Secrecy
- "The
legal case against I. Lewis Libby: how strong? What
the judge allows the jury to hear will be critical to the outcome of the
case, say legal analysts." ... "When Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald
began his investigation in December 2003, his instructions were to identify
who leaked the name of a CIA agent to columnist Robert Novak and determine
whether that action violated any secrecy laws." ... "Nearly two years later,
the answer to that question appears to be that no secrecy laws were clearly
and intentionally violated. But along the way to attempting to discover
the truth about the original leak, Mr. Fitzgerald encountered a senior
White House official who he says attempted to obstruct his investigation."
... "Now, with the prospect of a long-drawn-out, and politically charged
trial in Washington, a new question emerges:" ... "Why would I. Lewis Libby,
who resigned Friday as Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, risk prison
to thwart a special counsel's investigation?" -By
Warren Richey -CSMonitor
Harriet
Miers - Law
- Secrets
- Privacy
- "Bush
Refuses to Give Miers Material to U.S. Senate (Update3)."
... "President George W. Bush said he won't tell the Senate what advice
he has received from U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, the White
House counsel." ... "``They've asked for paperwork about the decision-making
process, what her recommendations were,'' Bush told reporters after a Cabinet
meeting. ``That would breach very important confidentiality and it's a
red line I am not willing to cross.'' Disclosing that material ``would
make it impossible for me and other presidents to be able to make sound
decisions,'' he said." ... "The Senate Judiciary Committee last week asked
Miers to resubmit nine answers on a written questionnaire she provided
the panel." -By William Roberts
-Bloomberg
Government
- Intelligence
- Law
- Secrets
- Privacy
- "FBI
Papers Indicate Intelligence Violations: Secret Surveillance
Lacked Oversight." ... "The FBI has conducted clandestine surveillance
on some U.S. residents for as long as 18 months at a time without proper
paperwork or oversight, according to previously classified documents to
be released today." ... "Records turned over as part of a Freedom of Information
Act lawsuit also indicate that the FBI has investigated hundreds of potential
violations related to its use of secret surveillance operations, which
have been stepped up dramatically since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but
are largely hidden from public view." ... "In other cases, agents obtained
e-mails after a warrant expired, seized bank records without proper authority
and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search," according to the
documents." ... "The documents provided to EPIC focus on 13 cases from
2002 to 2004 that were referred to the Intelligence Oversight Board, an
arm of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board that is charged
with examining violations of the laws and directives governing clandestine
surveillance. Case numbers on the documents indicate that a minimum of
287 potential violations were identified by the FBI during those three
years, but the actual number is certainly higher because the records are
incomplete." (1, 2)
-By Dan Eggen-WashingtonPost
US
- Iraq
- Karl
Rove
- Government
- Law
- Media
- Military
- Politics
- Secrets
- "CIA
Leak Queries Look at Disclosure Of Classified Data."
... "Yesterday, one former administration official said Karl Rove, the
deputy White House chief of staff, had discussed former diplomat Joseph
Wilson and the role of his wife, Ms. Plame, with White House staffers in
2003. That buttresses the possibility that Mr. Fitzgerald is investigating
charges related to leaking classified information." ... "The former official
said Mr. Rove had these discussions after Mr. Wilson went public with claims
that the Bush administration had twisted intelligence to build support
for the Iraq war. Mr. Rove discussed discrediting Mr. Wilson, the former
official said, adding that Mr. Rove didn't necessarily name Ms. Plame or
make her a key talking point in conversations with other White House officials."
... "The Plame investigation, originally sought by Central Intelligence
Agency officials, began in September 2003 after her name appeared in the
media in July. Critics, including Mr. Wilson, accused the White House of
leaking her identity in an effort to undercut his claim that the administration
had manipulated intelligence to support the Iraq war." -By
John D. McKinnon, Anne Marie Squeo, and Joe Hagan -WSJ.com
US
- 
China
- Political
- Secrets
- "Rumsfeld:
China Understating Military: Rumsfeld Accuses China
of Understating the Growth of Its Military Budget, Raising Suspicion."
... "China is raising global suspicion about its military intentions by
failing to acknowledge the true size of recent increases in its defense
spending, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said." ... "In his first
scheduled event of the three-day trip a speech at a top Communist Party
top training center Rumsfeld lectured China on the lessons of democracy.
He urged more political openness and cautioned against the fast pace and
secretive nature of China's military expansion." ... "In his remarks at
the Central Party School, Rumsfeld advised vigilance against "another Great
Wall" a barrier limiting speech, information and choices." (1, 2)
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
US
- Iraq
- Karl
Rove
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Secrets
- "Cheney
May Be Entangled in CIA Leak Investigation, People Say."
... "A special counsel is focusing on whether Vice President Dick Cheney
played a role in leaking a covert CIA agent's name, according to people
familiar with the probe that already threatens top White House aides Karl
Rove and Lewis Libby." ... "The special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, has
questioned current and former officials of President George W. Bush's administration
about whether Cheney was involved in an effort to discredit the agent's
husband, Iraq war critic and former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson, according
to the people." ... "Fitzgerald has questioned Cheney's communications
adviser Catherine Martin and former spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise and
ex-White House aide Jim Wilkinson about the vice president's knowledge
of the anti-Wilson campaign and his dealings on it with Libby, his chief
of staff, the people said. The information came from multiple sources,
who requested anonymity because of the secrecy and political sensitivity
of the investigation." -By Richard Keil
-Bloomberg
Media
- Intelligence
- Politics
- Secrets
- "Inaccurate
Info May Help CIA Leak Probe: Inaccurate Information
About CIA Operative in Reporter's Notes Could Lead to Source." ... "Information
attributed to Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff in New York Times
reporter Judith Miller's interview notes is incorrect, offering prosecutors
a potential lead to tracking the bad information to its original source."
... "Miller disclosed this weekend that her notes of a conversation she
had with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on July 8, 2003 stated Cheney's top aide
told her that the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson worked
for the CIA's Weapons Intelligence, Non-Proliferation, and Arms Control
(WINPAC) unit." ... "Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, never worked for WINPAC,
an analysis unit in the overt side of the CIA, and instead worked in a
position in the CIA's secret side, known as the directorate of operations,
according to three people familiar with her work for the spy agency." (1,
2,
3)-AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
Secret
- US
- 
Philippines
- Emergency
- Leandro
Aragoncillo
- 
Dick
Cheney
- Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Police
- Politics
- 
New
Jersey - Law
- "Spy
Probe Widens to Years Suspect Was at White House:
Ex-Marine Allegedly Sent Files to Philippine Opposition." ... "The Justice
Department is investigating whether a naturalized U.S. citizen from the
Philippines stole classified documents while he worked in the office of
[Republican] Vice President Cheney and provided the information to opposition
politicians in Manila [Philippines capital], [Republican] Bush administration
officials said yesterday." ... "The possibility that Leandro Aragoncillo
was passing the material while stationed as a U.S. Marine security official
at the White House marks a dramatic expansion of the case against him and
a former Philippine police official, Michael Ray Aquino. Both were arrested
and charged in federal court in Newark [New Jersey] last month with sending
classified information obtained this year to the Philippines -- more than
two years after Aragoncillo left the White House and went to work as an
FBI intelligence analyst." ... "Officials from the White House, Justice
Department and FBI declined to comment late yesterday, other than to confirm
that Aragoncillo first went to work at the White House in 1999, when [Democratic
Vice President] Al Gore was vice president. ABC News reported last night
that Aragoncillo had admitted taking classified documents while he worked
in Cheney's office." ... "Joseph Estrada, the former Philippine president
who was forced from office four years ago by mass demonstrations, has acknowledged
receiving documents from Aragoncillo while the suspect was still in the
Marines." ... "A document from late July reportedly detailed coup discussions
at a secret conclave of about two dozen young army and naval officers in
Manila. Another account, citing a clandestine source, described Arroyo
calling an emergency meeting of her commanding generals to ensure their
backing." (1, 2,
3)
-By Dan Eggen and Alan Sipress
-WashingtonPost
Tom
DeLay - Texas
- Missouri
- Business
- Secrets
- "DeLay
and successor Blunt swapped donations between secretive groups."
... "Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties
at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to
longtime ally [Missouri Republican] Roy Blunt through a series of donations
that benefited both men's causes." ... "When the financial carousel stopped,
DeLay's private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife
and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son [Missouri's governor] all ended
up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated
Press." ... "The government's former chief election enforcement lawyer
said the Blunt and DeLay transactions are similar to the Texas case and
raise questions that should be investigated regarding whether donors were
deceived or the true destination of their money was concealed." -By
John Solomon and Sharon Theimer with contributions by David Lieb
-AP via -MercuryNews
Harriet
Miers - Terrorism
- Law
- Privacy
- Secrets
- "Miers
has backed wide executive role: Was on team that
developed Patriot Act." ... "As President Bush's counsel, Harriet E. Miers
continued the expansive interpretation of presidential powers favored by
her predecessor, Alberto Gonzales, who backed Bush's authority to hold
terrorist suspects without trial, as well as the White House's right to
withhold more administration documents from public disclosure than in the
past." ... "Miers has also been outspoken in her support of reauthorizing
the Patriot Act, which gave the executive branch new powers of surveillance
over US citizens." ... "Now, Miers is Bush's choice to join the Supreme
Court, to replace Sandra Day O'Connor." ... "That selection determines
how much power a president can wield under the Constitution." -By
Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe
Harriet
Miers - Karl
Rove
- Law
- Secrets
- "Conservatives
Are Wary Over President's Selection." ... "The White
House scrambled on Monday to prevent conservative opposition to the president's
choice of the White House counsel Harriet E. Miers as his next Supreme
Court nominee." ... "Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser,
started calling influential social conservatives to reassure them about
the pick even before it was announced. He called James C. Dobson, founder
of Focus on the Family, over the weekend, and Richard Land, a top public
policy official of the Southern Baptist Convention on Monday morning, said
several people briefed on the calls." ... "By day's end, Mr. Dobson, one
of the most influential evangelical conservatives, welcomed the nomination.
"Some of what I know I am not at liberty to talk about," he said in an
interview, explaining his decision to speak out in support of Ms. Miers.
He declined to discuss his conversations with the White House." -By
David D. Kirkpatrick -NYTimes
John
Roberts
- Sandra
Day O'Connor
- GOV
- Politics
- Secrets
- "For
Roberts, path to high court splits candor, caution:
Democratic senators have struggled to glean Chief Justice nominee John
Roberts's personal views." ... "As one of the most respected advocates
practicing before the US Supreme Court, John Roberts held that a good lawyer
should be able to argue either side of a case." ... "Now he's using a variation
of that same strategy and all the skills he honed under intense High Court
questioning to try to win Senate confirmation as the 17th chief justice
of the United States." ... "His plan: reveal just enough information about
his approach to judging to convince the senators of his integrity and constitutional
expertise - but not enough to permit someone to forecast how he might vote
once on the high court." ... "Roberts isn't just fighting for himself.
If he is successful in holding that line he will help set the stage for
the president's next high court nominee - the pick that will replace centrist
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and potentially swing the court to the right."
-By Warren Richey -CSMonitor
CA
-
- Archives
- John
Roberts
-
- Secrets
-
- "Roberts
Showed Conservative Stripes Early." ... ""While some
of the tales of woe emanating from the Court are enough to bring tears
to the eyes, it is true that only Supreme Court justices and schoolchildren
are expected to and do take the entire summer off," Roberts wrote on April
19, 1983, in a memo to Fielding, his boss at the time." ... "He went on
to say: "The generally accepted notion that the Court can only hear roughly
150 cases a year gives the same sense of reassurance as the adjournment
of the court in July, when we know the Constitution is safe for the summer.""
... "The memo and other materials made public Thursday by the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and the National Archives
completed the disclosure of more than 50,000 pages that cover Roberts'
tenure as a lawyer in the White House counsel's office from 1982-86." ...
"Nearly 2,000 more pages from the same period have been withheld on national
security or privacy grounds." (1, 2)
-By Jesse J. Holland with contributions by Jesse J.
Holland and Andrew Taylor -AP
via -WashingtonPost
-
- Secrets
- "9/11
Panel Members Ask Congress to Learn if Pentagon Withheld Files on Hijackers
in 2000." ... "Members of the independent commission
that investigated the Sept. 11 terror attacks called on Congress to determine
whether the Pentagon withheld intelligence information showing that a secret
American military unit had identified Mohammed Atta and three other hijackers
as potential threats more than a year before the attacks." ... "In a final
report released last summer called the authoritative history of the attacks,
the commission of five Democrats and five Republicans made no mention of
the secret program or the possibility that a government agency had detected
Mr. Atta's terrorist activities before Sept. 11." ... "Mr. Weldon went
public with his information after having talked with members of the unit
in his research for a new book on terrorism. He said in a telephone interview
on Tuesday that he had spoken with three team members, all still working
in the government, including two in the military, and that they were consistent
in asserting that Mr. Atta's affiliation with a Qaeda terrorism cell in
the United States was known in the Defense Department by mid-2000 and was
not acted on." (1, 2)
-By Philip Shenon and Douglas Jehl
-NYTimes
-
- 
PA
- Secrets
- "Hijackers
'identified pre-9/11': A year before the 9/11 attacks
a secret US intelligence unit had identified four of the hijackers as likely
linked to al-Qaeda, a US congressman says.PennsylvaniaBut the unit's request
for the FBI to be informed was turned down, according to [Pennsylvania]
Representative Curt Weldon." ... "He spoke publicly about the issue on
27 June in a little-noticed speech on the house floor, and to a local paper
in his Pennsylvania constituency." ... "He says the unit prepared a chart
that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to Special
Operations Command that the FBI be informed." ... "The course of action
was said to have been rejected in part because the men were in the US on
valid entry visas."-BBC
/News
- Karl
Rove - Dick
Cheney -
-
-
- Secrets
- "Rove,
Libby Accounts in CIA Case Differ With Those of Reporters."
... "Two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor
about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent that are
at odds with what the reporters have said, according to people familiar
with the case." ... "Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's
chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first
learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence
Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush
administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified
before a federal grand jury that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity,
the person said." ... "White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told
Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated
columnist Robert Novak, according a person familiar with the matter. Novak,
who was first to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given
a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor, the person said."
-By Richard Keil -Bloomberg
- Karl
Rove -
-
- Secrets
- "Plame's
Identity Marked As Secret: Memo Central to Probe
Of Leak Was Written By State Dept. Analyst." ... "A classified State Department
memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information
about CIA officer Valerie Plame [a.k.a. Valerie Wilson] in a paragraph
marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration
official who read it should have been aware the information was classified,
according to current and former government officials." ... "The paragraph
identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was
clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret"
level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers
whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials."
... "Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that
he learned Plame's name from [journalist Robert] Novak a few days before
telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her
husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account."
(1, 2)
-By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei -WashingtonPost
Mitchell
Wade - 
Randy
"Duke" Cunningham
- 
Virgil
H Goode Jr
- Money
- Government
- Politics
- MZM
- 
Workers
- Secret
- Military
- Intelligence
- California
- 
Nevada
- Va
- 
Fla
- "Workers
say MZM founder pressed them to give to PAC." ...
"Mitchell Wade, founder of the defense contracting firm MZM Inc., pressured
employees to donate to a political fund that benefited [California Republican
Representative] Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and other members of Congress,
according to three former employees of the company." ... "Wade, who took
a $700,000 loss on the purchase of Cunningham's Del Mar home and allows
the congressman to stay on his yacht while in Washington, demanded employees
make donations to the company's political action committee, MZM PAC, they
said." ... "Many companies have PACs, but campaign finance laws prohibit
employers from pressuring workers to contribute to the PAC. They may encourage
contributions, but not compel them." ... "In the past week, Wade resigned
the posts of president and chief executive officer of the company, turning
over those duties to Chief Operating Officer Frank Bragg, company sources
said. Wade remains the primary shareholder of the privately held, Nevada-licensed
company, sources added." ... "The resignations came after the Union-Tribune
reported that Wade had purchased and then sold Cunningham's Del Mar house
at a loss of $700,000 and has allowed the Rancho Santa Fe Republican to
stay aboard his yacht, called the Duke-Stir, while in the nation's capital.
The FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating the matter." ... "Little
public information exists on what MZM – a name based on the first names
of Wade's children Matthew, Zachary and Morgan – does for the government.
Former employees, however, say much of its work is with three defense intelligence
operations:" ... "Counter Intelligence Field Activity, a highly secretive
program created in 2002 by a Pentagon directive that focuses on gathering
intelligence to avert attacks like the ones on Sept. 11, 2001." ... "The
Army National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, [Virginia]
Va., whose mission is to provide soldiers with battlefield intelligence."
... "The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command at Ft. Belvoir, [Virginia]
Va., just outside Washington, which also provides battlefield intelligence."
... "MZM has been seeking to increase its contracts with the Central Command,
which oversees military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Special
Operations Command, both based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, [Florida]
Fla., according to former employees." ... "They and other former MZM employees
questioned the way Wade solicited contracts from Defense Department intelligence
agencies during the time they worked for the company." ... "They also expressed
concerns about Wade's dealings with three House members who received a
large portion of the money disbursed by MZM's PAC. The three – all Republicans
– are Cunningham and Reps. Virgil Goode of Virginia and Katherine Harris
of Florida." ... "One of the former MZM employees quoted Wade as describing
his congressional strategy this way: "The only people I want to work with
are people I give checks to. I own them."" -By Marcus
Stern with contributions by Jerry Kammer -SignOnSanDiego.com
-
-
- Secrets
- Civil
Liberties - "Bush
pushes for Patriot Act." ... "Portions of the Patriot
Act -- signed into law six weeks after the September 11, 2001, attacks
to catch other terrorists -- are set to expire at the end of the year.
The law bolstered FBI surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror
cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado
for months and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases." ... "Civil
liberties groups and privacy advocates say the law undermines freedom.
But Bush has said the act has been vital to tracking terrorists and disrupting
their plans." -AP
via -CNN
-
-
-
-
-
-
- - Secrets
- Kansas
- "Panel
to weigh beefed-up Patriot Act: Move would broaden
FBI wiretap powers." ... "The Senate Intelligence Committee will meet behind
closed doors this week to consider legislation that could dramatically
expand the government's police powers under the USA Patriot Act, including
a little-discussed provision to enlarge the FBI's ability to wiretap people
who it suspects are national security threats." ... "The proposal, in a
draft bill sponsored by committee chairman Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas,
would lift one of the last restrictions on special warrants the FBI can
obtain through a secret court originally set up to monitor foreign spies:
that the information the bureau wants must be related to international
terrorism or foreign intelligence." ... "Instead, the FBI could use the
warrants, which bypass normal constitutional safeguards, to look for evidence
of unrelated crimes that it could use to get suspects off the street. The
wiretap provision is one of three major additions in the draft bill, which
would reauthorize the Patriot Act, the package of enhanced law enforcement
powers enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." ... "If the bill became
law, it also would give FBI agents the power to write their own subpoenas
without permission from a judge, allowing them to seize records from hotels,
banks, and Internet service providers." -By Charlie
Savage -Boston/Globe
-
-
- - Secrets
- "Former
FBI agents debate Felt's ethics: Some see betrayal
-- others say that he acted heroically." ... "Those who disagree with what
[former FBI deputy director W. Mark] Felt did question his motives, and
believe he betrayed his government and violated the FBI tradition of not
revealing investigative findings to the public until the case has been
resolved." ... "It was 1972, and then-President Richard Nixon was mired
in a scandal his administration was desperately trying to cover up. The
head of the FBI was L. Patrick Gray, an outsider Nixon had picked after
Hoover's death. Gray would be implicated in the Watergate scandal." ...
"Felt, a career agent and the FBI's No. 2 official, was in charge of running
the investigation -- a probe that Nixon had secretly ordered the CIA to
thwart." ... ""If Felt looked around and said, 'There is nowhere else to
turn,' then I would like to think that history would judge him as a conflicted
individual determined to do the right thing," [Retired FBI Agent George]
Grotz said of Felt's decision to leak aspects of his investigation to the
[Washington] Post." -By Stacy Finz
-SFGate.com
-
-
-
-
- Secrets
- "FBI's
No. 2 Was 'Deep Throat': Mark Felt Ends 30-Year Mystery
of The Post's Watergate Source." ... "Deep Throat, the secret source whose
insider guidance was vital to The Washington Post's groundbreaking coverage
of the Watergate scandal, was a pillar of the FBI named W. Mark Felt, The
Post confirmed yesterday." ... "As the bureau's second- and third-ranking
official during a period when the FBI was battling for its independence
against the administration of President Richard M. Nixon, Felt had the
means and the motive to help uncover the web of internal spies, secret
surveillance, dirty tricks and coverups that led to Nixon's unprecedented
resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and to prison sentences for some of Nixon's
highest-ranking aides." ... "Felt's identity as Washington's most celebrated
secret source had been an object of speculation for more than 30 years
until yesterday, when his role was revealed by his family in a Vanity Fair
magazine article. Even Nixon was caught on tape speculating that Felt was
"an informer" as early as February 1973, at a time when Deep Throat was
supplying confirmation and context for some of The Post's most explosive
Watergate stories." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By David Von Drehle-WashingtonPost
-
- 
-
- Secrets
- "Pentagon
analyst charged with disclosing secrets." ... "A
Defense Department analyst was arrested on Wednesday on charges of disclosing
top-secret information on potential attacks on American forces in Iraq
to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group." ... "Lawrence Franklin
surrendered to the FBI and faces charges of disclosing classified national
defense information in 2003 to two individuals who sources said worked
at the time at the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee
[AIPAC]." (1,
2)
-Reuters
- 
-
-
-
- Secrets
- "Priest
at Vatican Is Called a Spy: Polish Cleric Said to
Aid Communists as Pope Urged Resistance." ... "A Polish priest at the Vatican
was accused Wednesday of collaborating with his country's communist secret
police during the 1980s, a time when Pope John Paul II was inspiring his
countrymen to resist the Soviet-backed government." ... "The Rev. Konrad
Stanislaw Hejmo, a Dominican, acknowledged late Wednesday that he had shared
reports he wrote for Polish church officials with an acquaintance, a Pole
who lived in Germany, but said he did not suspect the man might have been
a spy." ... "The accusations originated with Leon Kieres, head of the National
Remembrance Institute, which guards communist-era police files. At a news
conference Wednesday, he said Hejmo "was a secret collaborator of the Polish
secret services under the names Hejnal and Dominik."" -By
Monika Scislowska -WashingtonPost
-
-
-
- "Panel
Says Reporters Need Shield Law." ... "A new federal
shield law must be enacted to defend reporters' right to protect their
confidential sources, a panel of journalists said Tuesday." ... "The presentation
at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America came as one
of the panelists, New York Times Senior Writer Judith Miller, lost a key
court battle over her refusal to testify about conversations she had had
with government officials about the identity of an undercover CIA agent."
... "``What's at stake here is the public's right to know,'' Miller said.
``I can't work in the area of national security and intelligence, covering
terrorism, unless people who are not authorized to speak to me feel that
they can come to me and tell me things. ... It's at the heart of investigative
reporting, it's at the heart of national security reporting, and it's at
the heart of what we do as journalists.''" -By Beth
Fouhy -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- Hacking
- Secrets
- - Telecom
- "U.S.
Military's Elite Hacker Crew." ... "The U.S. military
has assembled the world's most formidable hacker posse: a super-secret,
multimillion-dollar weapons program that may be ready to launch bloodless
cyberwar against enemy networks -- from electric grids to telephone nets."
... "The group's existence was revealed during a U.S. Senate Armed Services
Committee hearing last month. Military leaders from U.S. Strategic Command,
or Stratcom, disclosed the existence
of a unit called the Joint Functional Component Command for Network Warfare,
or JFCCNW." ... "In simple terms and sans any military jargon, the unit
could best be described as the world's most formidable hacker posse. Ever."
(1,
2)
-By John Lasker -Wired
- 
- 
-
- Languages
- Secrets-
"Decoded
at last: the 'classical holy grail' that may rewrite the history of the
world: Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of
papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece
and Rome." ... "For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration
in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it
could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible."
... "Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding
the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology
to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the
prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems
will soon be revealed." ... "In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists
have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing
by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient
world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost
Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time
of the earliest books of the New Testament." -By David
Keys and Nicholas Pyke -Independent.co.uk
- 
- Secrets
- "Art
Exhibit Featuring Bush Stamp Probed: Secret Service
Probes Chicago College Art Exhibit Featuring Stamp of Bush With Gun to
Head." ... "The Secret Service sent agents to investigate a college art
gallery exhibit of mock postage stamps, one depicting President Bush with
a gun pointed at his head." ... "The exhibit, called "Axis of Evil: The
Secret History of Sin," opened last week at Columbia College in Chicago
[Illinois]. It features stamps designed by 47 artists addressing issues
such as the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal, racism and the war in Iraq."
-AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- Civil
Liberties News - "Patriot
Act: What's not known feeds debate: Bush officials
say that controversial law-enforcement powers are working, and should be
extended." ... "Time isn't easing concerns over the enhanced law-enforcement
powers of the USA Patriot Act, judging by the debate that's firing up on
Capitol Hill over the renewal of its expiring provisions." ... "President
Bush calls the Patriot Act an invaluable tool in the war on terror, but,
until this week, little was known about where, why, or how often the law
has been applied." ... "Last week, Montana became the fifth state to pass
a resolution critical of the Act. Since 2001, more than 375 local governments
have passed resolutions criticizing the law or declaring "civil liberties
safe zones" in a bid to discourage cooperation with the law." -By
Gail Russell Chaddock -CSMonitor
-
-
- 
-
- Archives
- Secrets
- "Guarding
the Past: The Archivist's Mild Manner Belies the
Uproar Over His New Job." ... "They're: Sniping at Allen Weinstein from
ivory towers." ... "Suggesting he could become an accomplice in presidential
coverups." ... "Many historians are wondering if Weinstein will make sure
that the [National] Archives' documents of great historical value -- especially
supersensitive presidential papers -- are open and available to all scholars
or if he will engage in some sort of politically motivated subterfuge."
... "A host of historians are also disturbed by the way that Weinstein
got his job in the first place. In a surprising move, Weinstein was chosen
last spring while John Carlin -- a Clinton appointee and a former governor
of Kansas -- was still in office. Nearly two dozen professional organizations,
including the American Historical Association, cried foul. The groups worried
about "the politicization of the office," [history professor Jon] Wiener
says." ... ""My concern was about the process being subverted," says Bruce
Craig of the National Coalition for History, an advocacy group for the
profession. "There is a law." The 1984 law, which created the National
Archives and Records Administration, stipulated that the archivist will
serve an indefinite term and can be removed only if the president gives
a reason to Congress." ... "So far, President Bush has not given any reason
for Carlin's dismissal and Weinstein's appointment." ... "Some historians
suggest the ouster occured because Bush believed he might lose the 2004
election and was concerned that his father's presidential papers -- and
his own -- could fall into unfriendly hands. "All presidents want their
secrets protected," Wiener says. "It's the archivist who is in the middle.""
(1,
2,
3,
4)
-By Linton Weeks -WashingtonPost
- 
-
-
- -
- Secrets
- "New
EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data: Study Called
Stricter Limits Cost-Effective." ... "When the Environmental Protection
Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power
plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive
because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff."
... "What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for
by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed two other
EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion." ... "That analysis
estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency
officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff
member who helped develop the rule. Acknowledging the Harvard study would
have forced the agency to consider more stringent controls, said environmentalists
and the study's author." (1, 2)
-By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
- Secrets
- "Secret
FBI Report Questions Al Qaeda Capabilities: No 'True'
Al Qaeda Sleeper Agents Have Been Found in U.S." ... "A secret FBI report
obtained by ABC News concludes that while there is no doubt al Qaeda wants
to hit the United States, its capability to do so is unclear." ... ""Al-Qa'ida
leadership's intention to attack the United States is not in question,"
the report reads. (All spellings are as rendered in the original report.)
"However, their capability to do so is unclear, particularly in regard
to 'spectacular' operations. We believe al-Qa'ida's capability to launch
attacks within the United States is dependent on its ability to infiltrate
and maintain operatives in the United States."" ... "And for all the worry
about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a
secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none." (1, 2,
3)
-By Brian Ross with David Scott
-ABCNEWS.com
- "CIA
Jets Fly the War on Terror: Rendition Program Ships
Suspects Abroad." ... "It is supposed to be top secret, but ABC News found
plenty of people who said they knew the true purpose of the airplane hangars
at the end of a private two-lane road in rural North Carolina." ... ""That's
the CIA hangar," said one airport maintenance worker, pointing out one
of the two operating bases in North Carolina for the executive jets used
by the CIA to move dozens of suspected terrorists over the last few years
to countries well-known for using brutality and torture." ... "The two
jets, one a Gulfstream V and the other a Boeing 737, have been spotted
at airports around the world, and flight logs shown to ABC News show trips
to Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and
Uzbekistan." ... "The CIA would not officially comment on its operation,
known as "extraordinary rendition." The program began under an executive
order signed by President George H.W. Bush in December 1992. Former senior
government officials say the program initially involved only a select few
terror suspects, but was vastly expanded after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks."
(1, 2)
-By Brian Ross with contributions by David Scott,
Vic Walter and Hoda Osman
-ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Rule
Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails."
... "The Bush administration's secret program to transfer suspected terrorists
to foreign countries for interrogation has been carried out by the Central
Intelligence Agency under broad authority that has allowed it to act without
case-by-case approval from the White House or the State or Justice Departments,
according to current and former government officials." ... "The unusually
expansive authority for the C.I.A. to operate independently was provided
by the White House under a still-classified directive signed by President
Bush within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon, the officials said." ... "The process, known as rendition,
has been central in the government's efforts to disrupt terrorism, but
has been bitterly criticized by human rights groups on grounds that the
practice has violated the Bush administration's public pledge to provide
safeguards against torture." ... "In providing a detailed description of
the program, a senior United States official said that it had been aimed
only at those suspected of knowing about terrorist operations, and emphasized
that the C.I.A. had gone to great lengths to ensure that they were detained
under humane conditions and not tortured." (1, 2)
-By Douglas Jehl and David Johnston
-NYTimes
