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2006 Secrets Archive:

20061108

Noteworthy - Secret - US - Iraq - Iran - Religious - Terrorism - Military - Intelligence - History - "Gates’ CIA Past Could Haunt Him in Confirmation Hearings." ... "President Bush’s pick to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld with former CIA Director Robert Gates is an odd one, considering it’s almost certain to revive festering questions about the Bush administration’s handling of pre-war intelligence on Iraq." ... "In early 1987, his role in the so-called Iran-Contra affair, a secret White House operation to sell weapons to radical Islamic Iran in exchange for the release of U.S. hostages — and cash for CIA-backed rebels in Nicaragua — came under scrutiny." ... "Then, in during his 1991 nomination hearings to run the CIA, Gates ran into a buzz saw of testimony from a former agency analyst who said that during the 1980s Gates had skewered intelligence to fit the convictions of senior Reagan administration officials that Soviet agents had concocted a plot to assassinate the pope and were arming and encouraging Marxist revolutionary groups to carry out terrorist attacks." ... "Both theories turned out to be wrong, according Carolyn McGiffert Ekedahl, who headed a team of CIA analysts assigned the task of investigating the theory." ... "Senior former CIA analyst Mel Goodman charged Gates with a number of improprieties, including “the imposition of intelligence judgments, often over the protests of the consensus in the Directorate of Intelligence, to slant intelligence . . . suppression of intelligence that didn’t support the Casey agenda . . . (and) use of the Directorate of Operations to slant intelligence of the Directorate of Intelligence.”" -By Jeff Stein -CQ.com

20061103

Secret- US - Iraq - Nuclear - Government - Military - Intelligence - Internet - Archive - History - Hoekstra - Michigan - Roberts - Kansas - Legislation - Politics - "U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer." ... "Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein." ... "But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb." ... "Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”" ... "Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures." ... "The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs." ... "The director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, had resisted setting up the Web site, which some intelligence officials felt implicitly raised questions about the competence and judgment of government analysts. But President Bush approved the site’s creation after Congressional Republicans proposed legislation to force the documents’ release." ... "The campaign for the Web site was led by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Peter Hoekstra [Republican] of Michigan. Last November, he and his Senate counterpart, Pat Roberts [Republican] of Kansas, wrote to Mr. Negroponte, asking him to post the Iraqi material." (1, 2, 3) -By William J. Broad with contributions by Scott Shane -NYTimes

20061102

Sherwood - Secret - Money - Politics - Pennsylvania - Election 2006 - "Rep. paying ex-mistress about $500K." ... "A Republican congressman [Don Sherwood of Pennsylvania] accused of abusing his ex-mistress agreed to pay her about $500,000 in a settlement last year that contained a powerful incentive for her to keep quiet until after Election Day, a person familiar with the terms of the deal told The Associated Press." ... "The settlement, reached in November 2005, called for Cynthia Ore to be paid in installments, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is confidential. She has received less than half the money so far, and will not get the rest until after the Nov. 7 election [2006], the person said Thursday." ... "A confidentiality clause requires Ore to forfeit some of the money if she talks publicly about the case, according to this person and two other people familiar with elements of the case." -By Michael Rubinkam -AP via -Yahoo

20061101

Secret - US - Iraq - Religious - Police - Politics - Intelligence - "Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos." ... "A classified briefing prepared two weeks ago by the United States Central Command portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos, in a chart that the military is using as a barometer of civil conflict." ... "A one-page slide shown at the Oct. 18 briefing provides a rare glimpse into how the military command that oversees the war is trying to track its trajectory, particularly in terms of sectarian fighting." ... "The slide includes a color-coded bar chart that is used to illustrate an “Index of Civil Conflict.” It shows a sharp escalation in sectarian violence since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, and tracks a further worsening this month despite a concerted American push to tamp down the violence in Baghdad." ... "In fashioning the index, the military is weighing factors like the ineffectual Iraqi police and the dwindling influence of moderate religious and political figures, rather than more traditional military measures such as the enemy’s fighting strength and the control of territory." ... "The conclusions the Central Command has drawn from these trends are not encouraging, according to a copy of the slide that was obtained by The New York Times. The slide shows Iraq as moving sharply away from “peace,” an ideal on the far left side of the chart, to a point much closer to the right side of the spectrum, a red zone marked “chaos.” As depicted in the command’s chart, the needle has been moving steadily toward the far right of the chart." ... "An intelligence summary at the bottom of the slide reads “urban areas experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns to consolidate control” and “violence at all-time high, spreading geographically.” According to a Central Command official, the index on civil strife has been a staple of internal command briefings for most of this year. The analysis was prepared by the command’s intelligence directorate, which is overseen by Brig. Gen. John M. Custer." -By Michael R. Gordon -NYTimes

20061022

Secret - Electronic - Voting Machines - Company - Hackers - Technology - Election 2006 - Politics - Maryland - "Electronic Voting Machines Could Skew Elections: Researchers, Candidates Have Little Confidence in Machines Designed to Make Elections Easier to Call." ... "Cheryl Kagan, a former Maryland Democratic legislator, was shocked when she opened her mail Wednesday morning." ... "Inside, she discovered three computer discs. With them was an anonymous letter saying the discs contained the secret source code for vote-counting that could be used to alter the votes cast through Maryland's new electronic voting machines." ... ""My understanding is that with these disks a malicious person could skew the outcome of an election," Kagan said." ... "Diebold, the company that makes the voting machines, told ABC News, "These discs do not alter the security of the Diebold touch-screen system in any way," because election workers can set their own passwords." ... "But ABC News has obtained an independent report commissioned by the state of Maryland and conducted by Science Applications International Corporation revealing that the original Diebold factory passwords are still being used on many voting machines." ... "The SAIC study also shows myriad other security flaws, including administrative over-ride passwords that cannot be changed by local officials but can be used by hackers or those who have seen the discs." (1, 2) -By Jake Tapper, Rebecca Abrahams, and Eduardo Sunol -ABCNEWS.com

20061017

Secret - Military - Terrorism - Torture - Prisons - Legislation - Religious - Civil Liberties - History - Politics - "Bush Signs Terror Interrogation Law." ... "President Bush signed legislation Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation of terror suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military commissions, calling it a "vital tool" in the war against terrorism." ... "Bush's plan for treatment of the terror suspects became law just six weeks after he acknowledged that the CIA had been secretly interrogating suspected terrorists overseas and pressed Congress to quickly give authority to try them in military commissions." ... "A coalition of religious groups staged a protest against the bill outside the White House, shouting "Bush is the terrorist" and "Torture is a crime." About 15 of the protesters, standing in a light rain, refused orders to move. Police arrested them one by one." ... "The law protects detainees from blatant abuses during questioning - such as rape, torture and "cruel and inhuman" treatment - but does not require that any of them be granted legal counsel. Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts." ... "Many Democrats opposed the legislation because they said it eliminated rights of defendants considered fundamental to American values, such as a person's ability to go to court to protest their detention and the use of coerced testimony as evidence." ... "The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."" ... ""The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero." ... ""Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act," he said." -By Nedra Pickler -AP

20061013

Secret - US - World - German - Syrian - Military - Terrorism - Torture - Prisons - Politics - Journalist - Book - "Inside the CIA's Secret Prisons Program: An explosive new book provides a rare glimpse into the full extent of the agency's controversial terror renditions — and the curious coalition of partners who helped the U.S. pull them off." ... "In December of 2001, U.S. agents arranged to have a German citizen flown to a Syrian jail called the Palestine Branch, renowned for its use of torture, and later offered to pass written questions to Syrian interrogators to pose to the prisoner, according to a secret German intelligence report shown to TIME on Wednesday. The report is described in the new book Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Programby British investigative journalist Stephen Grey. The complex arrangement was part of the CIA's sprawling practice of extraordinary renditions, the secret transfer of terror suspects to hidden prisons across the world — which has involved the aid of numerous foreign governments and the knowledge of key Western European allies, according to the book, which was shown to TIME by the author. After U.S. officials long refused to confirm the CIA's secret detention of terror suspects abroad, President Bush last month admitted that terror suspects had been transferred abroad to secret CIA facilities, but U.S. officials continue to deny that such prisoners have been tortured, saying that foreign governments assured them that they would be treated fairly." ... "The cooperation between an unlikely coalition of intelligence agencies did not end there. The intelligence report gives a rare glimpse into the favors exchanged between governments during the CIA renditions. One day after Germany learned that the Syrians were holding Zammar, the CIA offered the German foreign-intelligence agency BND the chance to put written questions to their prisoner. The intelligence report doesn't make clear whether CIA interrogators had direct physical access to Zammar. In June 2002, Syrian officials offered German interrogators access to Zammar in prison, according to the 263-page report by the BND, marked "Geheim" (Secret). That same day, the BND chief asked Germany's federal prosecutors to drop their charges against Syrian intelligence agents who had been arrested in Germany for allegedly collecting information on Syrian dissidents." (1, 2) -By Vivienne Walt -TIME.com

20061002

Secret - Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - History - "9/11 Commission failed to disclose 'scary' briefing also given to White House." ... "The independent Sept. 11, 2001, commission was given the same “scary” briefing about an imminent al Qaida attack on a U.S. target that was presented to the White House two months before the attacks, but failed to disclose the warning in its 428-page report." ... "Former CIA Director George Tenet presented the briefing to commission member Richard Ben Veniste and executive director Philip Zelikow in secret testimony at CIA headquarters on Jan. 28, 2004, said three former senior agency officials." ... "Tenet raised the matter himself, displayed slides from a Power Point presentation that he and other officials had given to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice on July 10, 2001, and offered to testify on the matter in public if the commission asked him to, they said." ... "Richard Clarke, who was the National Security Council's top counter-terrorism advisor, confirmed the former senior intelligence officials’ account. Clarke was present when Tenet briefed Rice, along with deputy national security adviser Steven Hadley, CIA counter-terrorism chief Cofer Black and another CIA officer whose identity remains protected." -By Jonathan S. Landay -McClatchy via -RealCities

20061001

Reynolds - Hastert - Foley - Boehner- E-Mails - Louisiana - Teen - Noteworthy - Lawmakers - Enforcement - Secrets - 2006 Election - NY - Ill - Fla - Ohio - Mich - "GOP Leader Rebuts Hastert on Foley: [New York Republican Thomas] Reynolds: Speaker Knew of E-Mails in Spring." ... "House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert ([Republican, Illnois] R-Ill.) was notified early this year of inappropriate e-mails from former representative Mark Foley ([Republican, Florida] R-Fla.) to a 16-year-old page, a top GOP House member said yesterday -- contradicting the speaker's assertions that he learned of concerns about Foley only last week." ... "Hastert did not dispute the claims of Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), and his office confirmed that some of Hastert's top aides knew last year that Foley had been ordered to cease contact with the boy and to treat all pages respectfully." ... "Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, became the second senior House Republican to say that Hastert has known of Foley's contacts for months, prompting Democratic attacks about the GOP leadership's inaction. Foley abruptly resigned his seat Friday." ... "House Majority Leader John A. Boehner ([Republican] R-Ohio) told The Washington Post on Friday that he had learned in late spring of inappropriate e-mails Foley sent to the page, a boy from Louisiana, and that he promptly told Hastert, who appeared to know already of the concerns. Hours later, Boehner contacted The Post to say he could not be sure he had spoken with Hastert." ... "Yesterday's developments revealed a rift at the highest echelons of House Republican ranks a month before the Nov. 7 [2006] elections, and they threatened to expand the scandal to a full-blown party dilemma." ... "Republicans appeared to have kept the matter under wraps. Rep. Dale E. Kildee (Mich.), the only Democrat on the House Page Board, said yesterday: "I was never informed of the allegations about Mr. Foley's inappropriate communications with a House page, and I was never involved in any inquiry into this matter."" (1, 2) -By Jonathan Weisman and Charles Babington with contributions by R. Jeffrey Smith and Magda Jean-Louis -WashingtonPost
Mark Foley - Secret - E-Mails - IMs - Lawmakers - Dennis Hastert - Thomas Reynolds - New York - Illinois - California - Florida - "Dems Slap GOP for Keeping E-Mails Secret: Democrats Slap Republicans for Keeping E-Mail Scandal a Secret, Demand Thorough Probe." ... "House Republican leaders should have kept Democrats in the loop and now must conduct a thorough investigation about the inappropriate e-mails that led to [Florida Republican] Rep. Mark Foley's resignation, a top Democrat said Sunday." ... ""This should be investigated objectively. I think the Democratic leadership should have been told 10 months ago," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. "I gather that basically nothing was done except that Foley was warned."" ... "Foley, R-Fla., quit Congress on Friday after the disclosure of the e-mails to a teenage boy who was a former congressional page and the lawmaker's sexually suggestive instant messages to other pages." ... "House Speaker [Illinois Republican] Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said at first he had learned only last week about the e-mails Foley sent to a page. Hastert later acknowledged that aides referred the matter to the authorities last fall." ... "[New York Republican] Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said Saturday he told Hastert months ago about concerns Foley sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Reynolds, R-N.Y., is under attack from Democrats who say he did too little to protect the boy." (1, 2) -By John Heilprin -AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Secret - Mark Foley - Internet - Messages - Florida - Lawmaker - "Foley's Behavior No Secret on Capitol Hill: A GOP staff member told congressional pages to watch out for former Congressman Foley." ... "It turns out Foley's obsession with 16- and 17-year-old male pages has been known to Republicans on Capitol Hill for at least five years." ... "But other than issue a warning, little else seems to have been done about the congressman." ... "A former page has come forward to tell ABC News warnings were issued about Foley to the pages in 2001." ... "ABC News has obtained Internet messages sent by Foley to three different pages after that warning." ... "Two of them were sent to pages in the 2001-2002 class, with sexually explicit messages, most too graphic to be broadcast, from Foley using the screen name Maf54." ... "Former pages tell ABC News the pages involved with Foley were afraid to offend the powerful Republican congressman." -By Brian Ross -ABCNEWS.com
Secret - Children - Crime - Politics - Mark Foley - Florida - John Boehner - Ohio - Louisiana - New York - Illinois - Alabama - 2006 Election - "G.O.P. Aides Knew in Late ’05 of E-Mail." ... "Top House Republicans knew for months about e-mail traffic between [Florida Republican] Representative Mark Foley and a former teenage page, but kept the matter secret and allowed Mr. Foley to remain head of a Congressional caucus on children’s issues, Republican lawmakers said Saturday." ... "Among those who became aware earlier this year of the fall 2005 communications between Mr. Foley and the 16-year-old page, who worked for Representative Rodney Alexander, Republican of Louisiana, were [Ohio Republican] Representative John A. Boehner, the majority leader, and [New York Republican] Representative Thomas M. Reynolds of New York, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Mr. Reynolds said in a statement Saturday that he had also personally raised the issue with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert [Illinois Republican]." ... "Democrats moved quickly to criticize Mr. Reynolds, who while overseeing House campaigns nationally is facing the potential of a serious [2006 Election] challenge from Jack Davis, a wealthy businessman who has vowed to spend at least $2 million of his own money in the contest. “Tom Reynolds had a moral obligation to protect our children,” said Curtis Ellis, a spokesman for Mr. Davis." ... "At the Justice Department, an official said that no investigation was under way but that the agency had “real interest” in examining the circumstances to see if any crimes were committed." ... "Several of Mr. Foley’s former colleagues demanded a criminal inquiry." ... "Representative Robert E. Cramer, an Alabama Democrat who was co-chairman with Mr. Foley of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, condemned Mr. Foley’s actions as “shocking and disturbing.”" ... "“Anyone, including Foley, involved in this type of behavior should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Mr. Cramer said." (1, 2) -By Carl Hulse and Raymond Hernandez with contributions by Kate Zernike, David Johnston, and Abby Goodnough -NYTimes

20060922

Torture - Secret - Noteworthy- United States - Government - International - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Prisons - Human Rights - War Crimes - Law - Politics - Ariz - SC - VA - "The Abuse Can Continue: Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either." ... "The bad news is that Mr. Bush, as he made clear yesterday, intends to continue using the CIA to secretly detain and abuse certain terrorist suspects. He will do so by issuing his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions in an executive order and by relying on questionable Justice Department opinions that authorize such practices as exposing prisoners to hypothermia and prolonged sleep deprivation. Under the compromise agreed to yesterday, Congress would recognize his authority to take these steps and prevent prisoners from appealing them to U.S. courts. The bill would also immunize CIA personnel from prosecution for all but the most serious abuses and protect those who in the past violated U.S. law against war crimes." ... "In short, it's hard to credit the statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday that "there's no doubt that the integrity and letter and spirit of the Geneva Conventions have been preserved." In effect, the agreement means that U.S. violations of international human rights law can continue as long as Mr. Bush is president, with Congress's tacit assent. If they do, America's standing in the world will continue to suffer, as will the fight against terrorism." ... "In theory, Congress could override Mr. Bush's regulations governing treatment if it judges that they are being used to authorize unacceptable practices." ... "But the senators who have fought to rein in the administration's excesses -- led by Sens. McCain, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) -- failed to break Mr. Bush's commitment to "alternative" methods that virtually every senior officer of the U.S. military regards as unreliable, counterproductive and dangerous for Americans who may be captured by hostile governments." ... "Mr. Bush will go down in history for his embrace of torture and bear responsibility for the enormous damage that has caused." -WashingtonPost

20060921

Secret - Torture - United States - World - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Prisons - Human Rights - Law - Michael Hayden - "CIA Praises Deal; Harsh Techniques Would Continue." ... "The CIA director, General Michael Hayden, praised the deal reached in Congress today that, in effect, would permit CIA interrogators to use harsh techniques critics call torture." ... "President Bush and the CIA have repeatedly maintained the procedures are not torture and have saved American lives." ... "Human rights groups maintain the procedures constitute a form of torture, and the United States military has banned its personnel from using water boarding [which may be allowed under the current Republcan congressional deal]." ... "Today's congressional deal, if signed into law, would allow the CIA to continue the six techniques and to continue to run secret prisons overseas for select terror suspects." -By Brian Ross -ABCNEWS.com

20060918

Canada - US - Syria - Secret - Torture - Intelligence - Religious - Terrorism - Politics - "Canadian was falsely accused, panel says: Muslim held by U.S. was sent to Syria for interrogation." ... "Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday." ... "The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods." ... "The inquiry, which focused on the Canadian intelligence services, found that agents who were under pressure to find terrorists after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, falsely labeled an Ottawa computer consultant, Maher Arar, as a dangerous radical. They asked U.S. authorities to put him and his wife, a university economist, on the al-Qaeda "watchlist," without justification, the report said." ... "Arar was also listed as "an Islamic extremist individual" who was in the Washington area on Sept. 11. The report concluded that he had no involvement in Islamic extremism and was on business in San Diego that day, said the head of the inquiry commission, Ontario Justice Dennis O'Connor." (1, 2) -WashingtonPost via -MSNBC

20060914

US - World - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Secret - Police - Prisoner - Human Rights - Legislation - South Carolina - Virginia - Arizona - "Senate Panel, Rebuffing Bush, Approves Terror Tribunal Measure." ... "A Senate committee, in a bipartisan rebuff to President George W. Bush, approved military tribunal legislation that would give more legal protection to suspected terrorists than the administration wants." ... "Four of the 13 Republicans on the panel joined the 11 Democrats to pass their version of the measure, rejecting Bush's proposal to bar defendants from seeing classified evidence prosecutors may want to use in court. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed the Senate approach, warning that the Bush administration is risking the safety of U.S. troops and worldwide opinion by permitting harsh treatment of detainees." ... "Today's Armed Services Committee vote would let suspected terrorists see evidence used against them and would bar statements obtained through torture or inhumane treatment. It also would authorize military judges to fashion declassified summaries of evidence and to dismiss charges if the prosecutors don't consent to the disclosures." ... "[South Carolina Republican Lindsey] Graham joined the panel's chairman, Virginia Republican John Warner, and Arizona Republican John McCain in resisting Bush's demand to redefine the terms ``cruel, inhumane and degrading'' in describing treatment barred by Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions." ... "Graham, a former Air Force lawyer, said that if the interpretation of the Geneva Conventions is changed, ``why wouldn't every other country do the same thing, have their secret police tell them to change the treaty obligations?''" -By James Rowley -Bloomberg

20060908

Noteworthy - US - Iraq - Secret - Censored - Intelligence - Transportation - Government - Politics - Virginia - "[US Army Fort] Eustis chief: Iraq post-war plan muzzled: Army Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, an early planner of the war, tells about challenges of invasion and rebuilding." ... "Months before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists from developing plans for securing post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday." ... "In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said "he would fire the next person" who talked about the need for a post-war plan." ... "Rumsfeld did replace Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff in 2003, after Shinseki told Congress that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to secure post-war Iraq." ... "Scheid, who is also the commander of Fort Eustis in Newport News [Virginia], made his comments in an interview with the Daily Press. He retires in about three weeks." ... "Scheid said the planners continued to try "to write what was called Phase 4," or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like occupation." ... "Even if the troops didn't stay, "at least we have to plan for it," Scheid said." ... ""I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that," Scheid said. "We would not do planning for Phase 4 operations, which would require all those additional troops that people talk about today." ... ""He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war."" -By Stephanie Heinatz with contributions by Tracy Sorensen -DailyPress.com
Noteworthy - US - World - Military - Intelligence - Legislation - Secret - Prisons - Human Rights - War Crimes Act - "Interrogation Methods Rejected by Military Win Bush’s Support." ... "Many of the harsh interrogation techniques repudiated by the Pentagon on Wednesday would be made lawful by legislation put forward the same day by the Bush administration. And the courts would be forbidden from intervening." ... "The proposal is in the last 10 pages of an 86-page bill devoted mostly to military commissions, and it is a tangled mix of cross-references and pregnant omissions." ... "But legal experts say it adds up to an apparently unique interpretation of the Geneva Conventions, one that could allow C.I.A. operatives and others to use many of the very techniques disavowed by the Pentagon, including stress positions, sleep deprivation and extreme temperatures." ... "So-called high-value detainees held by the C.I.A. have been subjected to tough interrogation in secret prisons around the world." ... "More run-of-the-mill prisoners held by the Defense Department have, for the most part, faced milder questioning, although human rights groups say there have been widespread abuses." ... "The new bill would continue to give the C.I.A. the substantial freedom it has long enjoyed, while the revisions to the Army Field Manual announced Wednesday would further restrict military interrogators." ... "The legislation would leave open the possibility that the military could revise its own standards to allow the harsher techniques." ... "The intent of the legislation, they [anonymous senior officials] said, is to prevent the prosecution of interrogators under amendments to the War Crimes Act that were passed in the 1990’s." ... "The bill proposed by the White House would also amend the War Crimes Act, which makes violations of Common Article 3 a felony." (1, 2) -By Adam Liptak with contributions by Neil A. Lewis -NYTimes

20060907

Secret - US - Foreign - Military - Terrorism - Prisons - Human Rights - Law - War Crimes Act - Politics - UN - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - "Bush Admits the CIA Runs Secret Prisons: Bush admits CIA runs secret prisons overseas, says interrogations made terrorists reveal plots." ... "President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time that the CIA runs secret prisons overseas and said tough interrogation forced terrorist leaders to reveal plots to attack the United States and its allies." ... "Bush said 14 suspects _ including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and architects of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania _ had been turned over to the Defense Department and moved to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial." ... "Earlier this year, an anti-torture panel at the United Nations recommended the closure of Guantanamo and criticized alleged U.S. use of secret prisons and suspected delivery of prisoners to foreign countries for questioning. Some Democrats and human rights groups argued that the CIA's secret prison system did not allow monitoring for abuses and they hoped that it would be shut down." ... "The Supreme Court ruled that prisoner protections spelled out by the Geneva Conventions should extend to members of al-Qaida. In addition to torture and cruel treatment, the treaties ban "outrages against personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment."" ... "Administration officials said they were concerned the ruling left U.S. personnel vulnerable to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act because the language under the Geneva Conventions was so vague." -By Deb Riechmann with contributions by Anne Plummer Flaherty -AP via -CBSNews

20060817

Secret - US - International - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Free Speech - Telephone - E-Mail - Privacy - Politics - Michigan - "Judge strikes down the warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "In a scathing rebuke, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and should be shut down, but legal scholars said the administration has a good chance of reversing the decision on appeal." ... ""There are no hereditary kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution," U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of Detroit [Michigan] said in a 43-page opinion blasting the program." ... "Taylor said that the program, which President Bush secretly approved after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, violated the rights of free speech and privacy and went far beyond the president's authority. Administration officials say the surveillance program targets telephone calls and e-mails between the United States and suspected terrorists overseas." ... "The Justice Department immediately appealed the ruling, and all the parties agreed that the Bush administration is free to keep eavesdropping without warrants pending the Sept. 7 appeals-court hearing." ... "While the ruling was a clear victory for Bush's critics, it didn't end the legal battle over the government's secret eavesdropping. Legal scholars said the administration had a good chance of winning its appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, which handles cases from Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee." -By Ron Hutcheson and Margaret Talev -McClatchy-RealCities
Secret - US - International - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Free Speech - Privacy - Telephone - Internet - Civil Righs - Journalists - Educators - Michigan-"NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional: Justice Department says it will appeal judge's decision." ... "A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the U.S. government's domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately." ... "The Justice Department said it would appeal the ruling, saying the program was "a critical tool that ensures we have in place an early warning system to detect and prevent a terrorist attack."" ... "In a 44-page memorandum and order, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, -- who is based in Detroit, Michigan -- struck down the National Security Agency's program, which she said violates the rights to free speech and privacy. (Read the complete ruling -- PDF)" ... "The defendants "are permanently enjoined from directly or indirectly utilizing the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) in any way, including, but not limited to, conducting warrantless wiretaps of telephone and Internet communications, in contravention of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and Title III," she wrote." ... "She further declared that the program "violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III."" ... "She went on to say that "the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders."" ... "The lawsuit, filed January 17 by civil rights organizations, lawyers, journalists and educators, "challenges the constitutionality of a secret government program to intercept vast quantities of the international telephone and Internet communications of innocent Americans without court approval."" -With contributions by Bill Mears and Andrea Koppel -CNN

20060815

Secret - Reporters - Business - Sports - Drugs - San Francisco - California - "Reporters must testify over Bonds leak." ... "A federal judge told two San Francisco Chronicle [California newspaper] reporters they must comply with a subpoena and tell a grand jury who leaked them secret testimony of Barry Bonds and other elite athletes ensnared in the government's steroid probe." ... "The decision by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White means reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada must appear before a grand jury investigating the leak unless a higher court blocks the ruling. The pair have said they would not testify and would go to jail rather than reveal their source or sources." ... "The Hearst Corp., owner of the Chronicle, argued that the reporters should be immune to testifying because of a combination of factors, including the First Amendment." ... "Hearst said the leak doesn't involve national security and that a lot of good has come from the writers' reporting." -By David Kravets -AP via -USATODAY

Search the case: <United States v. Fainaru-Wada, 06-90225> via <Google-[News]>

20060810

Secret - Government - Military - Intelligence - Business - Law - Cunningham - California - "'Duke' Inquiry Cites Breakdowns: The findings could widen the [California Republican] Cunningham scandal, a Democratic memo suggests." ... "An internal congressional investigation has found that "major breakdowns" in legislative controls enabled former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham to use his position on the House Intelligence Committee to steer classified government contracts to political cronies, according to a memo distributed this week to Democrats on the panel." ... "The memo accuses Republicans of backing out of an agreement to subpoena Cunningham, and calls for the public release of a 20-page unclassified report documenting the findings of the investigation." ... "The criminal investigation of Cunningham focused largely on the military contracts he influenced as a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee." ... "But the internal House probe has found a similar pattern of abuses in contracts involving U.S. intelligence agencies — and includes language describing cases in which the disgraced congressman pressured committee aides to set aside secret funds for his associates, according to congressional sources familiar with the investigation." (1, 2) -By Greg Miller -LAtimes

20060802

Secret - Government - Law - Enforcement - Military - Intelligence - Aviation - Transportation - Terrorism - Politics - "9/11 Panel Suspected Deception by Pentagon: Allegations Brought to Inspectors General." ... "Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate." ... "Suspicion of wrongdoing ran so deep that the 10-member commission, in a secret meeting at the end of its tenure in summer 2004, debated referring the matter to the Justice Department for criminal investigation, according to several commission sources. Staff members and some commissioners thought that e-mails and other evidence provided enough probable cause to believe that military and aviation officials violated the law by making false statements to Congress and to the commission, hoping to hide the bungled response to the hijackings, these sources said." ... "In the end, the panel agreed to a compromise, turning over the allegations to the inspectors general for the Defense and Transportation departments, who can make criminal referrals if they believe they are warranted, officials said." ... ""We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied."" ... "For more than two years after the attacks, officials with NORAD and the FAA provided inaccurate information about the response to the hijackings in testimony and media appearances." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20060728

Noteworthy - Secret - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism- Detainee - Civil Righs - Politics - "Bush Submits New Terror Detainee Bill." ... "U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill." ... "According to the draft, the military would be allowed to detain all "enemy combatants" until hostilities cease. The bill defines enemy combatants as anyone "engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners who has committed an act that violates the law of war and this statute."" ... "Legal experts said Friday that such language is dangerously broad and could authorize the military to detain indefinitely U.S. citizens who had only tenuous ties to terror networks like al Qaeda." ... "Scott L. Silliman, a retired Air Force Judge Advocate, said the broad definition of enemy combatants is alarming because a U.S. citizen loosely suspected of terror ties would lose access to a civilian court — and all the rights that come with it. Administration officials have said they want to establish a secret court to try enemy combatants that factor in realities of the battlefield and would protect classified information." ... "The administration's proposal, as considered at one point during discussions, would toss out several legal rights common in civilian and military courts, including barring hearsay evidence, guaranteeing "speedy trials" and granting a defendant access to evidence. The proposal also would allow defendants to be barred from their own trial and likely allow the submission of coerced testimony." -By Anne Plummer Flaherty -AP via -SFGate.com

20060723

Randy Cunningham- Secret - Government - Political - Business - Legislation - California - "Study: Ex-Rep. Made Use of 'Black' Budgets: Study: Cunningham Slipped Items Into Classified Bills That Benefited Him, His Associates." ... "An independent investigation has found that imprisoned former [California Republican] Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham took advantage of secrecy and badgered congressional aides to help slip items into classified bills that would benefit him and his associates." ... "The finding comes from Michael Stern, an outside investigator hired by the House Intelligence Committee to look into how Cunningham was able to carry out the scheme. Stern is working with the committee to fix vulnerabilities in the way top-secret legislation is written, said congressional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the committee still is being briefed on Stern's findings." ... "Cunningham's case has put a stark spotlight on the oversight of classified or "black" budgets. Unlike legislation dealing with social and economic issues, intelligence bills and parts of defense bills are written in private, in the name of national security." ... "Federal prosecutors found that Cunningham accepted $2.4 million in bribes, including payments for a mansion, a Rolls-Royce and a 65-foot yacht, in return for steering defense and intelligence contracts to certain companies. Cunningham pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison." (1, 2, 3) -By Katherine Shrader -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20060721

Dick Cheney - Secret- Government - Intelligence - Law - Privacy - PA - "Surveillance Bill Meets Resistance in Senate." ... "A Senate surveillance bill personally negotiated by President Bush and Vice President Cheney ran into immediate trouble this week, as Democrats and other critics attacked the proposal while key GOP leaders in the House endorsed a different bill on the same topic." ... "The Senate legislation, drafted during negotiations between the White House and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), would allow the administration to submit the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program to a secret intelligence court for review of its legality." ... "The proposal was billed as a rare and noteworthy compromise by the administration when unveiled last week. But the legislation quickly came under attack from Democrats and many national security experts, who said it would actually give the government greater powers to spy on Americans without court oversight." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20060720

Secrets - Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Telecommunications - Privacy - Politics- "Judge rules against Bush in spying lawsuit: Administration argues defending case threatens to reveal state secrets." ... "A federal judge Thursday refused to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's domestic spying program, rejecting government claims that allowing the case to go forward could expose state secrets and jeopardize the war on terror." ... "U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the warrantless eavesdropping has been so widely reported that there appears to be no danger of spilling secrets." ... "Dozens of lawsuits alleging that telecommunications companies and the government are illegally intercepting Americans' communications without warrants have been filed. This is the first time a judge has ruled on the government's claim of a "state secrets privilege."" ... "Walker also wrote that he did not see how allowing the lawsuit to continue could threaten national security." ... ""The compromise between liberty and security remains a difficult one," Walker said. "But dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security."" -AP via -MSNBC

20060714

Secret - Government - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - History - Politics - Pennsylvania - "What will Democrats do in the wake of the Specter cave-in?" ... "Following up on yesterday's post regarding [Pennsylvania Republican Senator] Arlen Specter's complete (and hardly unexpected) cave-in to the administration on the NSA scandal, it is now clear that the bill does not have an express amnesty provision in it (see Update II). But every other possible bad thing can and should be said about this bill. Marty Lederman has an excellent and very thorough statutory analysis of the whole travesty, explaining that Specter "introduces a bill, with Administration blessing, that gives the Administration everything it ever wanted, and much, much more."" ... "Jack Balkin's post is also very much worth reading, in which he concludes: "Barely two weeks after Hamdan, which appeared to be the most important separation of powers decision in our generation, the Executive is about to get back everything it lost in that decision, and more."" ... "In essence, Specter's bill repeals each and every restriction on the President's ability to eavesdrop, all but forecloses judicial challenges, and endorses the very theory of unlimited executive power which Hamdan just days ago rejected (and in the process, rendered the administration's FISA-prohibited eavesdropping on Americans a clear violation of the criminal law). With this bill, Specter -- the self-proclaimed defender of Congressional power -- did more to bolster the administration's radical executive power theories than anything the administration could have dreamed of doing on their own, especially in the wake of Hamdan (permit me here to apologize for all of those times I tepidly defended Specter by characterizing as unduly pessimistic and cynical predictions that he could cave completely; the humiliations he is willing, even eager, to publicly endure are without limits)." ... "The question now is what Democrats (who, by the way, still have filibuster power) are willing to do about this. Here is Lederman's suggestion:"

"I hope this bill is the non-starter that it deserves to be. If so, allow me to make one more plea here: Everyone behind the Schumer bill, please! Let's get the question of NSA legality before the Supreme Court right now, and after that we can worry about how to amend FISA in a responsible manner sensitive to changing needs, such as perhaps along the lines of the models suggested by David Kris or in Jane Harman's bill."

"More important than the legislative question, in my view, is what the Democrats are willing to do about this politically. It should not be hard, even for them, to make the case that everyone is in favor of eavesdropping. The only question is whether (a) George Bush should be able to eavesdrop on Americans in secret and with no oversight, or (b) George Bush can eavesdrop on Americans, but only with a requirement of judicial oversight - a requirement which every President, without complaint, has complied with for the last 30 years, including Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War."

Glenn Greenwald

20060707

Secret - Abramoff - Reed - Mark Zachares - Rove - Political - Money - Government - Mississippi - Alabama- Labor - Northern Mariana Islands - "Reed In The Rough." ... "Just days before [Republican President] George W. Bush took office in 2001, lobbyist Jack Abramoff was busily working with Ralph Reed, his longtime friend, political sidekick, and business associate, to place a key ally in the Interior Department." ... "Reed, an elite "Pioneer" fundraiser for the Bush campaign and a campaign adviser, had already helped Abramoff land his own plum slot on Bush's Interior transition team. Abramoff coveted the slot because Interior was overseeing the lobbyist's two biggest clients at the time -- the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians." ... "Now Abramoff, who had hired Reed in 1999 and 2000 to run anti-gambling drives in Alabama to fend off threats to the Choctaws' casino profits, was looking for more help. This time, Abramoff was trying to secure a job at Interior for Mark Zachares, a former secretary of labor in the Marianas government." ... "On January 11, 2001, Abramoff e-mailed Reed. "I was thinking about this appointment" to the Office of Insular Affairs at Interior, Abramoff wrote. "I know it is perhaps a bizarre request, but considering how quickly I was named to the transition advisory team thanks to your request, perhaps it would be possible to ask Karl [Rove, the president's chief political adviser]... that they should appoint Mark Zachares to head the Office of Insular Affairs.... Do you think we could get this favor from Karl? It would be my big ask for sure."" ... "Reed replied quickly: "It never hurts to ask. What's the next move?" Later that day, Reed sounded even more eager. "Just let me know who to call, when to call, and what to say. And while you're at it get me another client! NOW!"" ... "On March 6, Abramoff met with Rove for about half an hour and pushed for Zachares, according to Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues at the firm Greenberg Traurig and to Secret Service logs released earlier this year." -By Peter H. Stone -NationalJournal

20060626

Noteworthy - Secret - US - Belgium - International - Financial - Consumer - Civil Liberties - Free Speech - Media - Government - Terrorism - Law Enforcement - Intelligence - Politics - "What the Government Knows: While an overseas program to track bank records has unleashed a political storm, the domestic Patriot Act has already made a wealth of financial data available to U.S. law enforcement agencies." ... "Over the last four years, U.S. law enforcement agencies have gained access to over 28,000 financial records inside the United States under a little known provision of the USA Patriot Act that parallels the secret international bank data program disclosed by news organizations last week, Treasury Department records show." ... "The disclosure of the overseas program-under which Treasury Department officials have tapped into the records of a vast Belgian-based international financial database called Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications)-has kicked up a storm of controversy. Some critics have decried the program as another example of the administration's invasion of privacy in the name of the war on terror. At the same time, President Bush today condemned as "disgraceful" the disclosure of the operation, which intended to help the government track overseas money movements of suspected terrorists. "For people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America," Bush told reporters in Washington." ... "But the international program is only one part of a much broader, if little publicized, Treasury Department effort to probe suspect financial records-including thousands of bank accounts, wire transfers and other transactions involving individuals, companies and nonprofit organizations inside the United States." ... "Although it has received little attention, the Patriot Act program has produced a wealth of previously unavailable financial data that has been shared with U.S. law enforcement agencies-without any notice to the account holders who are being investigated. Since the fall of 2002, when the program began, U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN)-an arm of the Treasury Department-has directed searches of 4,397 "subjects of interest" and received reports back on 28,463 accounts and financial transactions, according to recent Treasury records." (1, 2) -By Michael Isikoff -MSNBC/Newsweek

20060622

Dennis Hastert - Secret - Lawmaker- Financial - Government - Transportation - Real Estate - Illinois - "Speaker Hastert's Land Deal Questioned: Group Says Lawmaker Pushed For Highway Funding To Boost His Profits." ... "House Speaker Dennis Hastert [Illinois Republican] denied Thursday that he pushed for federal funding for a proposed highway in northeastern Illinois so he and his wife could reap about $1.8 million from land deals near their home in Kendall County." ... "The Sunlight Foundation, a newly created group whose declared aim is to inform the public about what members of Congress do, has accused Hastert of not divulging connections between the $207 million earmark he won for a highway, the Prairie Parkway [in Illinois], and an investment he and his wife made in nearby land." ... "The Foundation says Hastert used an Illinois trust to invest in real estate near the proposed route of the Prairie Parkway, and notes that Hastert's 2005 financial disclosure form, released Thursday, makes no mention of the trust. Hastert lists several real estate transactions in the disclosure, all of which were done by the trust. Kendall County public records show no record of Hastert making the real estate sales he made public today; rather, they were all executed by the trust, the Foundation says." ... "However, Hastert disclosed the transactions on the annual personal financial statements members of Congress are required to file, the Chicago Sun Times reports. But Hastert did not take the extra steps called for in the House Ethics Manual and volunteer that he held land in a secret land trust called "Little Rock Trust," the newspaper says." (1, 2) -AP via -CBSNews

20060616

Dennis Hastert - Secret - Financial - Government - Transportation - Illinois - "Land Deal Gives Hastert 300% Profit." ... "Speaker of the House [Illinois Republican] Dennis Hastert (R-IL) realized an estimated $2 million dollar profit last year on an Illinois land deal that included acreage near a future interstate highway Hastert pushed to build." ... "The land was sold just five months after Hastert inserted a $207 million appropriation bill for the Prairie Parkway highway [in Illinois] during a closed-door Congressional budget conference." ... "The deal, representing a 300 per cent return on investment, was reported in Hastert's financial disclosure form filed this week, although the role of a secret trust set up by Hastert to sell the land was not disclosed." -By Rhonda Schwartz -ABCNEWS.com

20060614

US - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - Military - Terrorism - Prison - Law - Secrecy - "UPDATE: Pentagon Orders U.S. Reporters to Exit Guantanamo." ... "In the aftermath of the three suicides at the controversial Guantanamo prison facility in Cuba last Saturday, reporters with the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald were ordered by the office of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to leave the island today." ... "A third reporter and a photographer with the Charlotte Observer were given the option of staying until Saturday but, E&P has learned, were told that their access to the prison camp was now denied. An E&P "Pressing Issues" column on Tuesday covered an eye-opening dispatch by the Observer's Michael Gordon carried widely in other papers. He had listened in, with permission, as the camp commander gave frank instructions to staff on how to respond to the suicides." ... "The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which was representing the three men who committed suicide, released a statement today: "At a time when the administration must be transparent about the deaths at Guantanamo, they are pulling down a wall of secrecy and avoiding public accountability. This crackdown on the free press makes everyone ask what else they are hiding down there. This press crackdown is the administration's latest betrayal of fundamental American values. The Bush Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys and afraid of American laws."" -By Greg Mitchell and Joe Strupp -EditorAndPublisher.com

20060613

Secret - Military - Prisoner - Human Rights - "Interrogation Tactics Won't Be Secret: Pressured By Congress, Pentagon Drops Bid To Classify Techniques." ... "Under pressure from Congress, the Pentagon has dropped plans to keep some interrogation techniques secret by putting them in a classified section of a military manual, defense officials said Tuesday." ... "Two senior officials said there will not be a classified section in the long-awaited revision of the Army Field Manual. One of the officials said descriptions of interrogation techniques initially planned for the classified section are either being made public or are being eliminated as tactics that can be used against prisoners. The officials requested anonymity because the manual has not been completed." ... "One human rights group hailed the decision." ... "Military leaders have argued that disclosing all the interrogation techniques public would make it easier for enemy prisoners to resist questioning." -AP via -CBSNews

20060612

Secret - US - Government - Military - Terrorism- Intelligence - International - Communications - Journalists - Privacy - "U.S. Asks Judge to Drop Suit on N.S.A. Spying." ... "A National Security Agency program that listens in on international communications involving people in the United States is both vital to national security and permitted by the Constitution, a government lawyer told a judge here today in the first major court argument on the program." ... "But, the lawyer went on, addressing Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the Federal District Court, "the evidence we need to demonstrate to you that it lawful cannot be disclosed without that process itself causing grave harm to United States national security."" ... "The only solution to this impasse, the lawyer, Anthony J. Coppolino, said, was for Judge Taylor to dismiss the lawsuit before her, an American Civil Liberties Union challenge to the eavesdropping program, under the state secrets privilege. The privilege can limit and even extinguish cases that would reveal national security information, and it is fast becoming one of the Justice Department's favorite tools in defending court challenges to its efforts to combat terrorism." ... "The Detroit case was filed in January on behalf of journalists, scholars, lawyers and nonprofit organizations who contended that the possibility of government eavesdropping interfered with their work. In remarks to reporters after the 90-minute argument, Anthony D. Romero, the A.C.L.U.'s executive director, called the government's invocation of the state secrets privilege "Orwellian doublespeak."" ... ""They argued essentially that the N.S.A. program was off-limits to judicial review," Mr. Romero said." -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes

20060524

Michael Hayden - Secret - Military - Intelligence - E-Mail- Phone - Privacy - Law - "Senate committee endorses general as new CIA chief: Full confirmation is expected soon." ... "The Senate Intelligence Committee voted yesterday to approve General Michael V. Hayden as director of the CIA, endorsing a veteran intelligence officer who has pledged to push the troubled agency to take more risks and work more closely with other US spy services." ... "But Hayden's standing among some lawmakers has eroded in recent months amid disclosures of domestic spy operations mounted by the National Security Agency, which Hayden led from 1999 to 2005." ... "During his confirmation hearing last week, Hayden acknowledged that he was a leading architect of a surveillance program launched shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which the NSA intercepted international phone calls and e-mails of US residents without prior court approval." ... "Some lawmakers have called the program illegal and said that it was kept secret from all but a handful of members of Congress for four years before it was exposed in news reports last year." ... "More recently, Hayden has had to fend off questions about whether the NSA also assembled phone records on tens of millions of Americans in an effort to identify suspicious calling patterns." -By Greg Miller -LAtimes via -BostonGlobe

20060522

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Journalists - Politics - "Prosecution of Journalists Is Possible in NSA Leaks." ... "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales raised the possibility yesterday that New York Times journalists could be prosecuted for publishing classified information based on the outcome of the criminal investigation underway into leaks to the Times of data about the National Security Agency's surveillance of terrorist-related calls between the United States and abroad." -By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost

20060519

Michael Hayden - Intelligence - Terrorism - Secrets - Law- Privacy - Porter Goss - Maine - Russ Feingold - Wisconsin - Oregon - "Senators Use Hayden Hearing to Criticize Bush Surveillance Plan." ... "Senators reviewing General Michael Hayden's nomination to lead the CIA used his confirmation hearing to criticize the Bush administration's failure to tell them about warrantless eavesdropping of suspected terrorists." ... "``The Congress was really never consulted or informed in a manner that we could truly perform our oversight role,'' Maine Republican Olympia Snowe told Hayden. The failure to brief all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees until the day before the confirmation hearing ``breeds corrosive mistrust,'' she said." ... "Democrats Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Ron Wyden of Oregon accused Hayden of misleading Congress in 2002 when he said the government was obtaining warrants to conduct surveillance." ... "President George W. Bush nominated Hayden to succeed Porter Goss, himself a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Goss resigned from the CIA post earlier this month. Hayden is currently deputy director in the Office of National Intelligence, which was created last year to coordinate all U.S. intelligence-gathering operations." -By James Rowley and Jeff St.Onge -Bloomberg

20060518

Michael Hayden - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Secrecy - Civil Righs - Privacy - "Lawmakers Reexamine Hayden: CIA Pick's Involvement in Wiretap Program Raises Questions." ... "In hearings today on President Bush's choice to head the CIA, senators will face an array of questions, loose ends and seeming contradictions about the administration's domestic surveillance techniques. The first mystery they must unravel, however, is the nominee himself, Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who pitched the eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and has become its most forceful defender." ... "Bush and Hayden have defended the program as legal -- the White House has said eavesdropping involved only international communications by people with known links to al-Qaeda and its allies -- and said the attorney general reauthorizes it every 90 days. But twice since its inception, the program was stopped after the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and a senior Justice Department lawyer raised concerns about its legality." ... "An internal Justice Department investigation tried to determine whether lawyers who authorized the program may have acted improperly. But Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested yesterday that secrecy concerns shut down the inquiry. The department's Office of Professional Responsibility notified lawmakers last week that it was forced to end its investigation because the office was denied security clearances to access information on the NSA program." ... "Gonzales defended that decision yesterday and suggested that the probe was unnecessary because Justice issued a legal analysis supporting the effort." -By Dafna Linzer and Charles Babington with contributions by Thomas E. Ricks, Dan Eggen and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

20060514

Secret - Military - Government - Intelligence - Phone- Database- Privacy - Law - Civil Liberties - Terrorism - Politics - "Poll: 51% oppose NSA database." ... "A majority of Americans disapprove of a massive Pentagon database containing the records of billions of phone calls made by ordinary citizens, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. About two-thirds are concerned that the program may signal other, not-yet-disclosed efforts to gather information on the general public." ... "POLL RESULTS: NSA database reaction" ... "The survey of 809 adults Friday and Saturday shows a nation wrestling with the balance between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberties." ... "By 51%-43%, those polled disapprove of the program, disclosed Thursday in USA TODAY. The National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from three of the nation's largest telecommunication companies since soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." -By Susan Page -USATODAY

20060513

Secret - Michael Hayden - Government - Phone - Intelligence - Terrorism - Privacy - Law - Opinion - "Newsweek Poll: Americans Wary of NSA Spying: Bush's approval ratings hit new lows as controversy rages." ... "Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans, following this week's revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone records of U.S. citizens since the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the latest NEWSWEEK poll, 53 percent of Americans think the NSA's surveillance program "goes too far in invading people's privacy," while 41 percent see it as a necessary tool to combat terrorism." ... "President Bush tried to reassure the public this week that its privacy is "fiercely protected," and that "we're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans." Nonetheless, Americans think the White House has overstepped its bounds: 57 percent said that in light of the NSA data-mining news and other executive actions, the Bush-Cheney Administration has "gone too far in expanding presidential power." That compares to 38 percent who think the Administration's actions are appropriate." ... "News of the NSA's secret phone-records program comes at an especially awkward time for the president. His nominee for the top job at the CIA-former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden-heads into confirmation hearings on the Hill next week. With Democrats expressing outrage over the surveillance program, and several Republicans voicing concern as well, the hearings could turn into something of a Congressional probe into the NSA's collection of phone data." ... "According to the Newsweek poll, 73 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans think the NSA's program is overly intrusive." (1, 2) - By David Jefferson -MSNBC/Newsweek

20060512

Privacy - Opinion - Secret - Military - Government - Intelligence - Phone - Database - Civil Liberties - San Francisco - California - "Breaking the Law? A privacy advocate explains why Americans should care about the NSA's database of phone records." ... "Domestic spying or national security? The debate over whether the government is poking too closely into Americans' lives was inflamed this week following reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) is creating a massive database of millions of phone records-and that three major telecom companies have cooperated in the effort. For privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a [California] San Francisco-based nonprofit, the answer is clear: the NSA is spying on Americans. And, according to EFF, it is illegal for telecom companies to supply customer calling details to the NSA unless they follow established legal procedures to obtain a warrant." ... "If the EFF has its way, the onus may soon be on the federal government to prove that its requests to the telecom companies were legal. In January of this year, the group filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T for "allowing and assisting" the NSA's "illegal wiretapping and data-mining." The Department of Justice has already stepped in, indicating April 28 that it intends to seek dismissal of the case by asserting the "military and state secrets privilege." With recent allegations in USA Today that Verizon and BellSouth also covertly provided information about domestic phone calls to the federal government, the progress of EFF's suit will be scrutinized by civil libertarians and other privacy advocates. A hearing to determine the court schedule for this case will be held May 17." (1, 2) -By Susanna Schrobsdorff -MSNBC/Newsweek

EFF.org - "Electronic Frontier Foundation."

20060511

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Telephone - Database - Intelligence - Law - Civil Liberties - Politics - California - Russ Feingold - Wisconsin - "Bush Says U.S. Spying Is Not Widespread." ... "President Bush today denied that the government is "mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans," as Democrats expressed outrage over a news report describing a National Security Agency program that has collected vast amounts of telephone records." ... "He [Bush] said all intelligence work was conducted "within the law" and that domestic conversations were not listened to without a court warrant." ... ""The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," he said. "Our efforts are focused on Al Qaeda and their known associates."" ... "But Democrats reacted angrily to the USA Today article and its description of the program's vast size, including an assertion by one unnamed source that its goal was the creation of a database of every phone call ever made within the United States' borders." ... "Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is a member of the Intelligence Committee as well as the Judiciary Committee, appeared to confirm at least the gist of the article, while stressing that what was under discussion was not wiretapping. "It's fair to say that what is in the news this morning is not content collection," she said." ... "Even so, she warned, "I happen to believe that we are on our way to a major Constitutional confrontation on the Fourth Amendment guarantees over unreasonable search and seizure."" ... "Senator Russell D. Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat who is also on both the judiciary and intelligence panels, expressed dismay over what he termed the administration's "arrogance and abuse of power." He said the United States can fight terrorism and still protect privacy, "but only if we have a president who believes in these principles."" (1, 2) -By John O'Neil -NYTimes
Privacy - Law - Terrorism - Politics - Secret - Military - Government - Intelligence - Phone - Database - VT - Ariz.- "NSA Program Revealed: An article in Thursday's USA Today reported that three of the largest U.S. phone companies [AT&T, Bell South and Verizon] have been providing the National Security Agency with phone records from millions of Americans since 9/11."

- SEN. PATRICK LEAHY, D-Vt.: "Look at this headline."

- KWAME HOLMAN: "Only hours after it appeared in print, the story that the National Security Agency secretly has been gathering a giant database of phone records set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill. Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy was visibly angry about it and lashed out at the Bush administration at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting scheduled to discuss judicial nominations."

- SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: "Only through the press, we begin to learn the truth. The secret collection of phone call records tens of millions of Americans. Now, are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaida? If that's the case, we've really failed in any kind of a war on terror."

- KWAME HOLMAN: "Arizona Republican Jon Kyl responded."

- SEN. JON KYL, R-Ariz.: "This is nuts. We are in a war, and we've got to collect intelligence on enemy, and you can't tell the enemy in advance how you're going to do it."

- KWAME HOLMAN: "Emblazoned across the front page of USA Today, the lengthy report said the code-breaking National Security Agency contracted three of the nation's largest phone companies to provide records of home and business telephone calls made by their customers." ... "The NSA earlier was revealed to have been monitoring, without warrants, international phone calls and e-mails thought to be linked to terrorists." ... "USA Today telecommunications reporter Leslie Cauley spent the last several months preparing today's story."

- LESLIE CAULEY, USA Today: "The NSA is collecting the call detail records of millions of ordinary Americans."

- KWAME HOLMAN: "The companies reportedly contracted by the spy agency are AT&T, Bell South and Verizon."

- LESLIE CAULEY: "The pitch to the phone companies was: We feel this information can be very helpful in smoking out, you know, and tracking suspected terrorists. And, again, three out of the four agreed."

- KWAME HOLMAN: "But Qwest, a telecommunications company that provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 western and northwestern states, reportedly refused to participate."

-PBS /NewsHour

Secret - Government - Terrorism -Telephone Business - Consumer- Privacy - Law - Politics - Massachusetts - Illinois - "NSA Collected Phone Records in U.S., Lott Says (Update1)." ... "The U.S. National Security Agency has obtained the phone records of millions of Americans in an effort to stop terrorists, a Senate Intelligence Committee member confirmed." ... "When the program began, AT&T, whose chief executive officer was C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to provide the information, as did BellSouth, run by Duane Ackerman, and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg. SBC Communications Inc., whose CEO was Edward Whitacre, also complied with the request, USA Today said." ... "SBC has acquired AT&T and taken its name. Whitacre is the CEO of the company, which also has agreed to buy BellSouth." ... "Also in Congress, Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts questioned whether intelligence officials are hindering passage of a bill requiring telephone companies to do more to protect their customers' privacy. House Republican leaders canceled a vote last week on the measure, which seeks to prevent the fraudulent acquisition and sale of consumers' phone records." ... "``I am concerned about reports that some intelligence agency or interest had a hand in the bill's disappearance,'' Markey, senior Democrat on the House Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, said today in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican." -By Robert Schmidt in Nicholas Johnston -Bloomberg
Michael Hayden - Secret - Government - Terrorism - Telecommunications - Intelligence - Database - People - Business - Law - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Politics - "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls." ... "The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY." ... "The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews." ... ""It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added." ... "For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others." ... "The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said." ... "The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret." ... "Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated Monday by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic call-tracking program. Hayden declined to comment about the program." ... "The NSA's domestic program, as described by sources, is far more expansive than what the White House has acknowledged. Last year, Bush said he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and international e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA. Warrants have also not been used in the NSA's efforts to create a national call database." -By Leslie Cauley with contributions by John Diamond -USATODAY

20060508

Secret - Health - Consumer - Drug- Industry - Legislation - E-Mail - Bill Frist - Tennessee - "Vaccine makers helped write Frist-backed shield law: E-mails reveal private meetings." ... "Vaccine industry officials helped shape legislation behind the scenes that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist secretly amended into a bill to shield them from lawsuits, according to e-mails obtained by a public advocacy group." ... "E-mails and documents written by a trade group for the vaccine-makers show the organization met privately with Frist's staff and the White House about measures that would give the industry protection from lawsuits filed by people hurt by the vaccines." ... "The communications were made public in a report released this week by the group Public Citizen. Its study follows a February story in The Tennessean that Frist, along with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., ordered the vaccine liability language inserted in a defense spending bill in December without debate and in violation of usual Senate practice." ... "The group, called the Biotechnology Industry Organization, wanted such language in the bill, the e-mails reflect." -By Bill Theobald -Tennessean

20060507

Michael Hayden - Noteworthy - Secret - Government - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Telecom - Privacy - Law - Pennsylvania - "House Panel Chairman Opposes Hayden as Next CIA Chief (Update1)." ... "The Republican chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee urged the White House not to nominate Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Hayden to head the civilian Central Intelligence Agency." ... "The appointment may spark a political confrontation over Hayden's role in the government's warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists, a secret operation that alarmed civil liberties groups and angered Democrats. Lawmakers from both parties said his confirmation hearings in the Senate may provide an opportunity to examine a program the White House refuses to discuss in detail." ... "The Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the confirmation process and the budget are the only tools Congress has to extract information from the White House on the wiretapping." ... "``If the Senate has a mind to assert its constitutional prerogatives here, then we could use this for leverage to find out,'' he told ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``I think people do want to know what's going on to protect civil liberties.''" -By Avram Goldstein with contributions by Catherine Larkin and Viola Gienger -Bloomberg

20060506

Military - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Secret- Terrorism - Prisons - "Goss Forced Out as CIA Director; Gen. Hayden Is Likely Successor." ... "Porter J. Goss was forced to step down yesterday as CIA director, ending a turbulent 18-month tenure marked by an exodus of some of the agency's top talent and growing White House dissatisfaction with his leadership during a time of war." ... "The likely successor to Goss is Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency and now deputy to Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte, senior administration officials said. He could be named as soon as Monday." ... "Members of Congress privately predicted that Hayden, who once enjoyed tremendous support on the Hill, would face a contentious confirmation process over the Bush administration's domestic spying program. Other sensitive issues, such as the existence of secret prisons abroad for terrorism suspects, also are likely to arise." (1, 2) -By Dafna Linzer and Walter Pincus with contributions by Dana Priest, Peter Baker, Jim VandeHei, and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

20060504

Secret - US - Philippines- Dick Cheney - Leandro Aragoncillo - Government - Military- Intelligence - Politics - New Jersey - Death Penalty - "Ex-VP aide, FBI analyst admits spying: Former Marine pleads guilty to taking part in Philippine coup plot." ... "A former [Republican Dick Cheney] vice presidential military aide and FBI analyst pleaded guilty Thursday to supplying documents to unnamed individuals in the Philippines on how to orchestrate a coup attempt against Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo." ... "In a federal court hearing in Newark, New Jersey, Leandro Aragoncillo entered into a plea agreement that would keep the death penalty off the table for him." ... "Aragoncillo, a former U.S. Marine, acknowledged to prosecutors that he supplied top secret U.S. defense information -- which he wasn't authorized to obtain -- to officials in the Philippines." -By Julian Cummings -CNN

20060430

Noteworthy- Secret - Government - Intelligence - Privacy - Terrorism - Politics - "Examples of the president's signing statements." ... "The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws." ... "March 9: Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers." ... "Bush's signing statement: The president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations." ... "Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment." ... "Bush's signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks." -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe

20060425

US - Iraq - Noteworthy - Government - Military - Intelligence - Secrets - Law - Pat Roberts - Kansas - "Is There A Double Standard On Leak Probes?" ... "When the CIA announced on Friday that it had fired an employee who the agency claims "knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence" with a newspaper reporter, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, immediately praised the agency's action, saying that "unauthorized disclosures of classified information can significantly harm our ability to protect the American people."" ... "Roberts, one of the staunchest defenders of the Bush administration's effort to stop the flow of sensitive information to the press, said in a statement that "[t]hose who leak classified information not only risk the disclosure of intelligence sources and methods, but also expose the brave men and women of the intelligence community to greater danger. Clearly, those guilty of improperly disclosing classified information should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."" ... "But three years ago on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Roberts himself was involved in disclosing sensitive intelligence information that, according to four former senior intelligence officers, impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein and potentially threatened the lives of Iraqis who were spying for the United States." ... "On March 20, 2003, at the onset of military hostilities between U.S. and Iraqi forces, Roberts said in a speech to the National Newspaper Association that he had "been in touch with our intelligence community" and that the CIA had informed President Bush and the National Security Council "of intelligence information from what we call human intelligence that indicated the location of Saddam Hussein and his leadership in a bunker in the suburbs of Baghdad."" ... "The former intelligence officials said in interviews that Roberts was never held accountable for his comments, which bore directly on the issue of intelligence-gathering sources and methods, and revealed that Iraqis close to Hussein were probably talking to the United States." ... "After opening his speech with the information about human intelligence and Saddam Hussein's location in a Baghdad bunker, the senator said that President Bush had conferred with his top military advisers and had "authorized a pre-emptive surgical strike with 40 Tomahawk Missiles launched by ship and submarines and so called bunker bombs by F-117 stealth aircraft. I do not have a damage assessment. The Iraqi's report 14 killed and one wounded and are reporting damage in residential areas."" ... "At the time, it was one of the most sensitive secrets in government that the CIA had recruited Iraqi nationals who claimed to have infiltrated Hussein's inner circle to be able to follow his movements at the onset of war. But after the bombs and missiles hit an Iraqi governmental complex known as Dora Park, located on the Tigris River south of Baghdad, Hussein either was not there, or escaped unharmed." ... "Whether or not Roberts' comments were inadvertent, former intelligence officials said, they almost certainly tipped off the Iraqi dictator that there were spies close to him. "He [Roberts] had given up that we had a penetration of [Saddam's] inner circle," says a former senior intelligence official. "It was the worst thing you could ever do."" -By Murray Waas with contributions by Brian Beutler -NationalJournal
Secret - Government - Terrorism - Prisons - Law - Media- Politics - "Dismissed CIA Officer Denies Leak Role: Official Says Agency Is Not Asserting She Told of Secret Prisons." ... "A lawyer representing fired CIA officer Mary O. McCarthy said yesterday that his client did not leak any classified information and did not disclose to Washington Post reporter Dana Priest the existence of secret CIA-run prisons in Eastern Europe for suspected terrorists." ... "The statement by Ty Cobb, a lawyer in the Washington office of Hogan & Hartson who said he was speaking for McCarthy, came on the same day that a senior intelligence official said the agency is not asserting that McCarthy was a key source of Priest's award-winning articles last year disclosing the agency's secret prisons." ... "McCarthy was fired because the CIA concluded that she had undisclosed contacts with journalists, including Priest, in violation of a security agreement. That does not mean she revealed the existence of the prisons to Priest, Cobb said." ... "Having unreported media contacts is not unheard of at the CIA but is a violation of the agency's rules." (1, 2) -By R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer with contributions by Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost

20060424

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Prisons - Law - Media - Politics - Arizona - Pat Roberts - Kansas - Michigan - "CIA Cracks Down On Leaks: Central Intelligence Agency employee Mary McCarthy was fired for leaking information about CIA secret prison camps to the Washington Post. Two former CIA intelligence experts discuss the implications of the firing and the future of security at the CIA."

- JIM LEHRER: "..." ... "Some perspective on this now from two career CIA employees. Richard Kerr spent 32 years at the agency. His last position was deputy director of central intelligence under the first President Bush." ... "Ray McGovern was an analyst for 27 years. He retired in 1990. He is now a member of the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which has criticized the current administration for politicizing intelligence." ... "Mr. Kerr, should Mary McCarthy have been fired for what she did?"

- RICHARD KERR, Former Deputy Director of Central Intelligence: "Yes, I believe so."

- JIM LEHRER: "Do you agree, Mr. McGovern?"

- RAY MCGOVERN, Former CIA Analyst: "Yes, but that's only part of the story."

- JIM LEHRER: "What's the other part?"

- RAY MCGOVERN: "Well, we need to create a context here."

- JIM LEHRER: "OK. All right."

- RAY MCGOVERN: "We're not talking about petty crimes or misdemeanors; we're talking about war crimes. She was cognizant of war crimes. She needed to do something about that, from a moral and a legal perspective. And she chose this way to do it, because the other ways were blocked for her."

...

- RAY MCGOVERN: "I think, Jim, this was an exceptional case."

- JIM LEHRER: "An exceptional case?"

- RAY MCGOVERN: "Yes, really an exceptional case. Never before, in my experience for 27 years in the agency, was I aware of war crimes. Now, we're talking about serious things here, and her..."

- JIM LEHRER: "And you're talking about, in her case..."

- RAY MCGOVERN: "I'm talking about torture..."

- JIM LEHRER: "... the allegation that she gave the Washington Post information about these so-called prison camps in Eastern Europe?"

- RAY MCGOVERN: "Correct."

- JIM LEHRER: "And if she knew that, and she wanted to do something about it as a CIA professional, her only avenue was, in your..."

- RAY MCGOVERN: "No..."

- JIM LEHRER: "No?"

- RAY MCGOVERN: "... I assume that she went through the proper channels. She was working for the inspector general, but the inspector general, however..."

- JIM LEHRER: "The agency's inspector general, right."

- RAY MCGOVERN: "Yes, he's supposed to be independent, but he's really a creature of the director. And the director marches down with the vice president to try to persuade [Arizona] Senator McCain to create an exception so that the CIA can torture people." ... "And so she's faced with a situation that's real. The director is in favor of torture. And their only other recourse is Congress. And Congress, the oversight committees -- I hate to say this, but it's a joke." ... "She can't get any redress from [Kansas Senator] Pat Roberts. I call him Patsy Roberts, because he's a patsy for the administration. [Michigan Representative] Pete Hoekstra, he criticized..."

- JIM LEHRER: "The House Intelligence Committee chairman."

- RAY MCGOVERN: "... in the House side, yes, he criticized her yesterday. But, you know, that was the height of cynicism, because if he were doing his job it wouldn't be necessary for Mary McCarthy to do these things."

- JIM LEHRER: "So she had no other option then, from your..."

- RAY MCGOVERN: "That's the way I see it. I knew Mary pretty well. She's got a lot of integrity. And, you know, you can argue that she has a moral responsibility and a legal responsibility." ... "In other words, if she's in the chain of command and she sees these kinds of crimes being perpetrated, under Nuremberg and other international law, she is required..."

- JIM LEHRER: "She had to do this?"

- RAY MCGOVERN: "... to do something."

-PBS /NewsHour

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Prisons - Law - Reporter - Politics - "Secrets of the CIA: A former colleague says the fired Mary McCarthy 'categorically denies' being the source of the leak on agency renditions." ... "A former CIA officer who was sacked last week after allegedly confessing to leaking secrets has denied she was the source of a controversial Washington Post story about alleged CIA secret detention operations in Eastern Europe, a friend of the operative told NEWSWEEK." ... "The fired official, Mary O. McCarthy, "categorically denies being the source of the leak," one of McCarthy's friends and former colleagues, Rand Beers, said Monday after speaking to McCarthy." ... "McCarthy's lawyer, Ty Cobb, told NEWSWEEK this afternooon that contrary to public statements by the CIA late last week, McCarthy never confessed to agency interrogators that she had divulged classified information and "didn't even have access to the information" in The Washington Post story in question." ... "A counter-terrorism official acknowledged to NEWSWEEK today that in firing McCarthy, the CIA was not necessarily accusing her of being the principal, original, or sole leaker of any particular story. Intelligence officials privately acknowledge that key news stories about secret agency prison and "rendition" operations have been based, at least in part, upon information available from unclassified sources." (1, 2, 3) -By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff -MSNBC/Newsweek
US - World - Secret - Government - Terrorism - Prisons - Reporter - Politics - "CIA agent fired for 'pattern of behavior': Investigation 'not over yet,' officials say." ... "A U.S. official told CNN on Monday that the CIA officer fired for leaking classified information was accused of a "pattern of behavior," including multiple contacts with more than one reporter." ... "Sources also confirmed to CNN that the officer fired last Thursday is Mary O. McCarthy, who last worked in the CIA inspector general's office." ... "A senior government official said the dismissal was related to a story in The Washington Post about the United States holding terror suspects in secret prisons overseas." ... "Priest spearheaded the reporting on the "black site" prisons and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize earlier this month for beat reporting." -By David Ensor with contributions by Pam Benson -CNN
Secret - Government - Intelligence - Noteworthy - Reporters - Calif. - Massachusetts - "Democrats Suggest Double Standard on Leaks: White House Aides' Actions Are Cited." ... "Key Democratic legislators yesterday joined Republicans in saying they do not condone the alleged leaking of classified information that led to last week's firing of a veteran CIA officer. But they questioned whether a double standard exists that lets the White House give reporters secretly declassified information for political purposes." ... ""I don't know this woman, and I do not condone leaks of classified information," said Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, referring to the firing of Mary McCarthy." ... "Harman added that "while leaks are wrong, I think it is totally wrong for our president in secret to selectively declassify certain information and empower people in his White House to leak it to favored reporters so that they can discredit political enemies," she said on Fox News Sunday." ... "Then drawing a parallel to the Plame case, [on ABC's "This Week," Massachusettes Senator John] Kerry said that with McCarthy, "you have somebody being fired from the CIA for allegedly telling the truth, and you have no one fired from the White House for revealing a CIA agent in order to support a lie. That underscores what's really wrong in Washington, D.C."" -By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost
Government - Secrecy - Politics - Media - Books - History- "Moves Signal Tighter Secrecy Within C.I.A.." ... "The crackdown on leaks at the Central Intelligence Agency that led to the dismissal of a veteran intelligence officer last week included a highly unusual polygraph examination for the agency's independent watchdog, Inspector General John L. Helgerson, intelligence officials with knowledge of the investigation said Sunday." ... "The special polygraphs, which have been given to dozens of employees since January, are part of a broader effort by Porter J. Goss, the director of the C.I.A., to re-emphasize a culture of secrecy that has included a marked tightening of the review process for books and articles by former agency employees." ... "Authors say the agency's Publications Review Board has been removing material that would easily have been approved before. While the board in the past has generally worked with retirees to make manuscripts publishable, it now more often appears to be trying to block publication, the authors say. And reprimands for violations have become more stern, including letters warning of possible Justice Department investigations." (1, 2) -By Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes

20060423

Secret- Government - Military - Terrorism - Prisons - Politics - History - Journalist- "CIA Officer's Job Made Any Leaks More Delicate." ... "The rare firing last week of a CIA officer accused of leaking information to the news media stems both from the sensitivity of the subjects she allegedly discussed and the Bush administration's forceful efforts to block national security disclosures that have proved embarrassing or caused operational problems, according to current and former intelligence officials." ... "The use of polygraphs to force out the CIA officer, a historian and Africa specialist named Mary McCarthy who lately has been working for the agency's internal inspector, comes amid long-standing administration suspicions that employees of the spy agency have not sufficiently toed the policy line set by the White House on matters such as the fight against terrorism and the war in Iraq." ... "The CIA said in a statement last week that omitted McCarthy's name that the officer was fired for discussing operational intelligence matters with journalists. Officials have said the journalists included Washington Post correspondent Dana Priest, who last week was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for national security reporting that included the revelation of secret, CIA-run prisons for suspected terrorists in Eastern Europe and elsewhere." (1, 2) -By R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer -WashingtonPost

20060422

Secret - Government - Military - Intelligence - Terrorism - Prisons - "C.I.A. Fires Senior Officer Over Leaks." ... "The Central Intelligence Agency has dismissed a senior career officer for disclosing classified information to reporters, including material for Pulitzer Prize-winning articles in The Washington Post about the agency's secret overseas prisons for terror suspects, intelligence officials said Friday." ... "The C.I.A. would not identify the officer, but several government officials said it was Mary O. McCarthy, a veteran intelligence analyst who until 2001 was senior director for intelligence programs at the National Security Council, where she served under President Bill Clinton and into the Bush administration." ... "The dismissal of Ms. McCarthy provided fresh evidence of the Bush administration's determined efforts to stanch leaks of classified information. The Justice Department has separately opened preliminary investigations into the disclosure of information to The Post, for its articles about secret prisons, as well as to The New York Times, for articles last fall that disclosed the existence of a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants supervised by the National Security Agency. Those articles were also recognized this week with a Pulitzer Prize." (1, 2) -By David Johnston and Scott Shane -NYTimes

20060420

US - World - Government - Secrets - "Intel Chief Says Personnel Number 100,000: Intelligence Chief Negroponte Says U.S. Intelligence Personnel Total 100,000." ... "Nearly 100,000 Americans are working in intelligence in the U.S. and around the world, the nation's spy chief says, revealing the number for the first time." ... "In a speech at the National Press Club marking his first year on the job, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte indicated his willingness to make some normally classified information public." ... "Secrecy expert Steven Aftergood of the Washington-based Federation of American Scientists welcomed the disclosure and said the government had no reason to keep the figure secret." ... "The government has long protected details about the size and budget of its spy agencies, which include the CIA, National Security Agency, parts of the FBI and other lesser-known outfits, such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency." (1, 2, 3,) -By Katherine Shrader -AP via -ABCNEWS.com

20060412

Secret - Government - Archives - History - Politics - Connecticut - "Archives OK'd removing records, kept quiet." ... "Previously public intelligence documents, some more than 50 years old, have been sealed under a secret agreement between the National Archives and three federal agencies, according to records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act." ... "The 2002 agreement, obtained by The Associated Press and released by archivists this week, shows the agency agreed to keep quiet about U.S. intelligence's role in the deal that shut off access to thousands of previously unclassified CIA and Pentagon documents." ... "Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican who has led hearings into the resealing of records, described the deal as "the culture of secrecy as tragicomic opera. One government agency has to sneak into the files of another ... to reclassify material that may have been on the public record for a decade or more."" -By Randy Herschaft and Frank Bass -AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
US - Iraq - Noteworthy - Secret - Military - Technology - Intelligence - "Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War: Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary." ... "On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."" ... "The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true." ... "A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement." ... "The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories." ... "The contents of the final report, "Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers," remain classified. But interviews reveal that the technical team was unequivocal in its conclusion that the trailers were not intended to manufacture biological weapons." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Joby Warrick with contributions by Alice Crites -WashingtonPost

20060407

Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Secrets - Aviation - Transportation - Politics - "Judge blasts government secrecy: Moussaoui judge grants 9/11 families access to documents." ... "The judge in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial ruled Friday that families of September 11 attack victims are entitled to the same unclassified aviation security documents the government turned over to the al Qaeda conspirator's defense team." ... ""I've always been troubled to the extent which our government keeps things secret from the American people," U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said, granting the families' request after a hearing." ... ""It is amazing what some agencies think is secret," Brinkema added. "As a culture, we need to be careful not to be so wrapped up in secrecy that we lose track of our core values and laws."" ... "Her order, issued over the objection of government lawyers, allows attorneys for 9/11 families to obtain copies of documents related to pre-September 11 aviation security once the Moussaoui trial ends." -By Phil Hirschkorn -CNN
US - Iraq- Government - Political - Secrets - Lewis Libby - Dick Cheney - Telecom - Privacy - Military - Prisons - UN - Media - "Libby testimony shows a White House pattern of intelligence leaks." ... "The revelation that President Bush authorized former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to divulge classified information about Iraq fits a pattern of selective leaks of secret intelligence to further the administration's political agenda." ... "Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials have reacted angrily at unauthorized leaks, such as the exposure of a domestic wiretapping program and a network of secret CIA prisons, both of which are now the subject of far-reaching investigations." ... "But secret information that supports their policies, particularly about the Iraq war, has surfaced everywhere from the U.N. Security Council to major newspapers and magazines. Much of the information that the administration leaked or declassified, however, has proved to be incomplete, exaggerated, incorrect or fabricated." -By Warren P. Strobel and Ron Hutcheson with contributions by James Kuhnhenn -KnightRidder via -MercuryNews
US - Iraq - Niger - Military - Nuclear - Intelligence - Secrets - Politics - Dick Cheney - Lewis Libby - Kansas- "Playing Hardball With Secrets." ... "For more than two years, Senate Republicans have dragged out an investigation into how the Bush administration came to use bogus intelligence on Iraq to justify a war. A year ago, [Kansas Republican] Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called it "a monumental waste of time" to consider whether the White House manipulated intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein." ... "Meanwhile, the evidence has steadily mounted that President Bush and his team not only did that before the war, but kept right on doing it after the invasion. The most recent additions to this pile came yesterday, in reports by The New York Sun, The National Journal and other news organizations on documents from the case against Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney who is charged with lying about the unmasking of Valerie Wilson, a covert C.I.A. agent." ... "According to these papers, Mr. Libby testified that President Bush authorized him to tell reporters about classified intelligence on Iraq as part of an effort to discredit Mrs. Wilson's husband, Joseph Wilson, a retired diplomat who had cast doubt on the claim that Iraq tried to acquire uranium for nuclear bombs from Niger. The National Journal reported that Mr. Libby has also said that Mr. Cheney authorized him to leak classified information before the invasion to make the case for war." -NYTimes
US - Iraq - Niger - Government - Military - Nuclear - Intelligence - Secrets - Dick Cheney - Lewis Libby - Media - "Bush Authorized Secrets' Release, Libby Testified: Prosecutor Says Disclosures on Iraq Were Aimed at War Critic." ... "President Bush authorized White House official I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to disclose highly sensitive intelligence information to the news media in an attempt to discredit a CIA adviser whose views undermined the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, according to a federal prosecutor's account of Libby's testimony to a grand jury." ... "The court filing by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time places Bush and Vice President Cheney at the heart of what Libby testified was an exceptional and deliberate leak of material designed to buttress the administration's claim that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear weapons. The information was contained in the National Intelligence Estimate, one of the most closely held CIA analyses of whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war." ... "Fitzgerald said Libby's disclosure took place as the result of "a strong desire by many, including multiple people in the White House, to repudiate" claims made in a July 2003 newspaper article by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was hired by the CIA to evaluate whether Iraq sought nuclear material in Niger. Wilson wrote that "some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."" ... "Bush has been a major critic of leaks of classified information, and his aides have repeatedly said they want to "get to the bottom" of who leaked the name of Wilson's wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, to the media, which touched off Fitzgerald's investigation . But in the past 33 months the White House has never disclosed Bush's apparent involvement in the deliberate disclosure of information meant to undermine Wilson." (1, 2, 3) -By R. Jeffrey Smith with contributions by Dafna Linzer, Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei and Lucy Shackelford -WashingtonPost
Secret - Intelligence - Law - Reporters - "Experts: Tactic Would Be Legal but Unusual." ... "Legal experts say that President Bush had the unquestionable authority to approve the disclosure of secret CIA information to reporters, but they add that the leak was highly unusual and amounted to using sensitive intelligence data for political gain." ... ""It is a question of whether the classified National Intelligence Estimate was used for domestic political purposes," said Jeffrey H. Smith, a Washington lawyer who formerly served as general counsel for the CIA." -By Michael A. Fletcher -WashingtonPost

20060330

US - Iraq - Karl Rove - Secret - Government - Nuclear - Military - Intelligence - 2004 Election - "Insulating Bush." ... "Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews." ... "Hadley was particularly concerned that the public might learn of a classified one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, specifically written for Bush in October 2002. The summary said that although "most agencies judge" that the aluminum tubes were "related to a uranium enrichment effort," the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Energy Department's intelligence branch "believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons."" ... "Three months after receiving that assessment, the president stated without qualification in his January 28, 2003, State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."" -By Murray Waas with contributions by Brian Beutler -NationalJournal

20060324

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Police - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Law - Politics - "Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement: In addendum to law, he says oversight rules are not binding." ... "When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers." ... "The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates." ... "In the [addendum] statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."" ... "Bush wrote: ''The executive branch shall construe the provisions . . . that call for furnishing information to entities outside the executive branch . . . in a manner consistent with the president's constitutional authority to supervise the unitary executive branch and to withhold information . . . "." -By Charlie Savage -BostonGlobe

20060309

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Politics - "G.O.P. Plan Would Allow Spying Without Warrants." ... "The plan by Senate Republicans to step up oversight of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program would also give legislative sanction for the first time to long-term eavesdropping on Americans without a court warrant, legal experts said on Wednesday." ... "Civil liberties advocates called the proposed oversight inadequate and the licensing of eavesdropping without warrants unnecessary and unwise. But the Republican senators who drafted the proposal said it represented a hard-wrung compromise with the White House, which strongly opposed any Congressional interference in the eavesdropping program." ... "The Republican proposal would give Congressional approval to the eavesdropping program much as it was secretly authorized by Mr. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks, with limited notification to a handful of Congressional leaders." -By Scott Shane and David D. Kirkpatrick -NYTimes

20060305

Media - Intelligence - Government - Law - Law Enforcement - Politics - Secret - Prisons - "White House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks: Sources, Reporters Could Be Prosecuted." ... "The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws." ... "In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases." ... "Some media watchers, lawyers and editors say that, taken together, the incidents represent perhaps the most extensive and overt campaign against leaks in a generation, and that they have worsened the already-tense relationship between mainstream news organizations and the White House." ... ""There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."" (1, 2, 3) -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Charles Lane and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Secret - Government - Enforcement - Politics - "Secret court cases increase under Bush administration." ... "Despite the 6th Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts in the past three years." ... "Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005." ... "An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains." -By Michael J. Sniffen and John Solomon -AP via -ChicagoTribune

20060303

Privacy - Law - Secret - Military - Government- Terrorism - "Negroponte Makes the Most of His Post as Minister Without Portfolio." ... "On many a workday lunchtime, the nominal boss of U.S. intelligence, John D. Negroponte, can be found at a private club in downtown Washington, getting a massage, taking a swim, and having lunch, followed by a good cigar and a perusal of the daily papers in the club’s library." ... "“He spends three hours there [every] Monday through Friday,” gripes a senior counterterrorism official, noting that the former ambassador has a security detail sitting outside all that time in chase cars. Others say they’ve seen the Director of National Intelligence at the University Club, a 100-year-old mansion-like redoubt of dark oak panels and high ceilings a few blocks from the White House, only “several” times a week." ... "Surely Negroponte needs a comfort zone, forced as he is to spends hours in the witness chair in front of congressional committees, fielding hot potatoes on subjects over which he has no control — the NSA’s warrantless surveillance, domestic spying by secret military intelligence units, paying newspapers in Iraq to run pro-U.S. stories." -By Jeff Stein -CQ.com

20060302

US - Iraq - Dick Cheney - Secret- Government - Military - Nuclear - Technology - "What Bush Was Told About Iraq." ... "Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources." ... "The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate that discussed whether Saddam's procurement of high-strength aluminum tubes was for the purpose of developing a nuclear weapon." ... "Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb." ... "The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program. Neither the president nor the vice president told the public about the disagreement among the agencies." -By Murray Waas -NationalJournal

20060223

US - Cuba - Guantanamo Bay - Government - Military - Prisons - Secrecy - People - Media - "Judge orders Guantanamo captive IDs released: Defense Department announces it will comply with ruling." ... "A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Thursday to release the identities of hundreds of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to The Associated Press, a move that would force the government to break its secrecy and reveal the most comprehensive list yet of those who have been imprisoned there." ... "Some of the hundreds of detainees in the war on terrorism being held at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been held as long as four years. Only a handful have been officially identified." -AP via -MSNBC
Total Information Awareness - Government - Military - Terrorism - Secret - Database - Technology - Privacy - Law - Politics - "TIA Lives On." ... "A controversial counter-terrorism program, which lawmakers halted more than two years ago amid outcries from privacy advocates, was stopped in name only and has quietly continued within the intelligence agency now fending off charges that it has violated the privacy of U.S. citizens." ... "Research under the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program --which developed technologies to predict terrorist attacks by mining government databases and the personal records of people in the United States -- was moved from the Pentagon's research-and-development agency to another group, which builds technologies primarily for the National Security Agency, according to documents obtained by National Journal and to intelligence sources familiar with the move. The names of key projects were changed, apparently to conceal their identities, but their funding remained intact, often under the same contracts." -By Shane Harris -NationalJournal.com

20060210

US- Iraq - Lewis Libby - Dick Cheney - Secret - Military- Political - Intelligence - "Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks." ... "A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers." ... "Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003." ... "The NIE is a report prepared by the head of the nation's intelligence operations for high-level government officials, up to and including the president. Portions of NIEs are sometimes declassified and made public. It is unclear whether that happened in this instance." -By Toni Locy -AP via -WashingtonPost

20060120

US - Israel - Lawrence A Franklin - Douglas Feith - Classified - Military - Intelligence - "Pentagon Analyst Gets 12 Years for Disclosing Data." ... "A federal judge sentenced a former Defense Department analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, to more than 12 years in prison today after Mr. Franklin admitted passing classified military information to two pro-Israel lobbyists and an Israeli diplomat." ... "The charges against Mr. Franklin and the two lobbyists are offenses under the Espionage Act, but none of the men have been accused of spying." ... "The lobbyists, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, were senior staff members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, a pro-Israel lobbying organization with close relationships to officials in the [Republican President] Bush administration." ... "Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman were charged in an indictment in August 2005 with conspiring to gather and disclose classified national security information to journalists and an unnamed foreign power that government officials identified as Israel." ... "As Aipac's director of foreign policy issues, Mr. Rosen was a well-known figure in Washington who helped the organization define its lobbying agenda on the Middle East and forged important relationships with powerful conservatives in the Bush administration." ... "Mr. Franklin worked at the Pentagon for a time under Douglas Feith, a former undersecretary at the agency." -By David Johnston -NYTimes

20060108

US - Iraq - Secret - Military - Health- " Marines died short of armor." ... "A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials." -By Michael Moss -NYTimes via -NYTimes

20060106

Samuel Alito - Secret - Government - Legal - Opinions - "Senators to Demand Full Answers From Alito: Democrats Signal Willingness to Delay Final Vote on Supreme Court Confirmation." ... "Senate Democrats warned Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. yesterday to expect pointed questions at next week's hearing, and said they may postpone a final vote on his confirmation until late January." ... "In a day of dueling news conferences by liberal and conservative groups, Alito's supporters said he is no more obligated to answer all questions than were previous nominees, several of whom sidestepped queries about pending or past Supreme Court cases." -By Charles Babington-WashingtonPost

20060105

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Phone - E-Mail - Civil Liberty - Privacy - Politics - "Surveillance Court Is Seeking Answers: Judges Were Unaware of Eavesdropping." ... "The members of a secret federal court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases are scheduled to receive a classified briefing Monday from top Justice Department and intelligence officials about a controversial warrantless-eavesdropping program, according to sources familiar with the arrangements." ... "Several judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said they want to hear directly from administration officials why President Bush believed he had the authority to order, without the court's permission, wiretapping of some phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Of serious concern to several judges is whether any information gleaned from intercepts by the National Security Agency was later used to gain their permission for wiretaps without the source being disclosed." -By Carol D. Leonnig with contributions by Dafna Linzer -WashingtonPost

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