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Telecommunications Archive:

20071219

John Edwards - Ron Paul - Mike Huckabee - Noteworthy - Journalists - Politics - Corporations - Legislation - Telecom - Money - 2008 Election - "Media hostility toward anti-establishment candidates." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Ron] Paul and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Mike] Huckabee are obviously disparate in significant ways -- ideologically, temperamentally, and otherwise. But there is a vital attribute common to those three campaigns that explains the media's scorn: they are all, in their own ways, anti-establishment candidates, meaning they are outside and critical of the system of which national journalists are a critical part, the system which employs and rewards our journalists and forms the base of their identity and outlook. Any candidate who criticizes and opposes that system -- not in piecemeal ways but fundamentally -- will be, first, ignored and, then, treated as losers by the press." ... "It is very striking how little Edwards' substantive critique of our political system has penetrated into the national discourse. That's because the centerpiece of his campaign is a critique that is a full frontal assault on our political establishment. His argument is not merely that the political system needs reform, but that it is corrupt at its core -- "rigged" in favor of large corporate interests and their lobbyists, who literally write our laws and control the Congress. Anyone paying even casual attention to the extraordinary bipartisan effort on behalf of telecom immunity, and so many other issues driven almost exclusively by lobbyists, cannot reasonably dispute this critique." ... "Yet because that argument indicts the same Beltway culture of which our political journalists are an integral part, and further attacks the system's power brokers who are the friends, sources, and peers of those journalists, they instinctively react with confusion, scorn and hostility towards Edwards' campaign. They condescendingly dismiss it as manipulative populist swill, or cynically assume that it's just a ploy to distinguish himself by "moving left." In the eyes of our Beltawy press, the idea that our political system is "rigged" or corrupt must be anything other than true or sincerely held." ... "As Digby notes [**], Ron Paul is going to raise more money than any Republican candidate this quarter; he just topped the record for most money raised in a single day; and has now exceeded Howard Dean's 2004 quarter total when Dean was at the peak of his online fundraising prowess. Huckabee is now tied for the lead in national polls and is leading in several of the key early states. Yet our establishment media stars continue to sneer at these anti-establishment candidates as though they are aberrational jokes, and there is virtually no serious effort to understand the meaning of their success." ... "Worse, whenever these candidates are discussed, it almost never entails any discussion of the critiques they are making. Is Edwards right that corporations and lobbyists dictate legislation in Washington and that this state of affairs is profoundly anti-democratic and corrupt? Are Paul's criticisms of our bipartisan imperial policies and his warnings of resulting financial unsustainability (and increasing anti-Americanism) accurate? Is Huckabee's claim true that the GOP has obliterated the economic prospects of its own middle- and lower-middle-class followers?" -Glenn Greenwald -Salon

20071218

Kevin Jeffrey Martin

Corporate

Government

Politics

Media

Communications

Broadcast

Radio

"FCC Loosens Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership Limits: Federal Communications Commission Voted Along Party Lines; Copps Expects Rule to Be Overturned." ... "To cries of " unfair" and "this vote is a sham" from a handful of protesters, the Federal Communications Commission voted along strict party lines Tuesday to loosen its newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule." ... "Democratic commissioner Michael Copps was the first commissioner to weigh in with a public statement in advance of that vote, saying that the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] was "just inking up a rubber stamp for another round of consolidation."" ... "[Republican President Bush's] FCC chairman Kevin Martin called it a relatively minor change that may help to "forestall erosion of local news coverage" and only loosens the rules where there are many voices and competition." ... "The move sets up a showdown with mostly Democratic senators who have pledged to nullify that vote, and the deicison will likely be taken to court by media activists opposing any more consolidation, or even broadcasters arguing that it has not gone far enough -- no other ownership rule was loosened, in contrast to the 2003 rule rewrite, the remand of which by a court the FCC is wrapping up." ... "The commission will presume that newspaper-broadcast combinations in the top 20 markets are in the public interest so long as eight independent voices, including newspapers, remain and the stations are not among the top four in the market. It will also allow newspaper-radio combinations but require no voices test." ... "Newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership would also be presumed to be in the public interest in markets smaller than the top 20 so long as at least seven hours of local news is added to a station that did not do it before, or if the station or newspaper is in financial distress." ... "The latter is defined as a station or newspaper that has gone dark at least four months before a waiver is filed for, or a station that has less than 4% of the audience, where there has been negative cash flow for at least three years (newspaper or station) and where no out-of-market buyer wants it." ... "Copps called the ruling a shiny gift for big media and a lump of coal for the rest. "Happy holidays," he said, adding that the change won't pass muster with either Congress or the courts." ... "Citing the congressional pushback, Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the FCC "has never attempted such a brazen act of defiance against Congress. Like the Titanic, we are steaming at full speed despite repeated warnings of danger ahead. It might yet sink. We should have slowed down rather than put everything at risk."" ... "Adelstein said three out of five unelected bureaucrats should not be able to overrule the American people, whom, he added, weighed in passionately in public hearings against consolidation. "They danced, they sang, they read us poems," he said, as well as providing expert opinions." ... "Both Adelstein and Copps said Martin made last-minute changes to the proposal late Monday night and they indicated that the commission was now granting waivers to 42 combinations in the dark of night." ... "Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, issued the following statement: "FCC chairman Kevin Martin is ignoring the public will and defying the [United States] U.S. Senate. His decision to gut longstanding ownership rules shows once again how the largest media companies -- with their campaign contributions and high-powered lobbyists -- are corrupting the policymaking process at the expense of local news coverage and independent voices."" ... "He continued, "Martin's FCC relied on slanted research and a rigged process to reach today's preordained outcome -- local media wrapped in a bow for Tribune, News Corp., Gannett and all the rest."" -By John Eggerton -BroadcastingCable.com

20071217

Chris Dodd - Corporate - Government - Spy - Law - Intelligence - Politics - Telephone - Internet - E-Mails - Electronic - Civil Liberties - 2008 Election - Foreign - American - Nevada - Conn - Wisc - VT - Mass - "Spy law showdown postponed until next year." ... "Congress won't decide until next year whether to pass a complex law that would let telephone and Internet companies off the hook from lawsuits alleging illicit cooperation with federal government spies." ... "In something of an unexpected move, U.S. Senate Majority Leader [Nevada Democratic Senator] Harry Reid took to the Senate floor on Monday evening and announced he would postpone debate on the so-called FISA Amendments Act [FISA: Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]. That bill, which has already been approved in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, would grant such corporate immunity and make it easier for the feds to snoop on phone calls and e-mails involving foreigners and Americans without a warrant, drawing rampant criticism from civil liberties groups." ... "Earlier in the day, however, it appeared more certain that the Senate would move ahead with a vote to approve the controversial Senate measure, which would provide legal immunity to electronic communications providers that have allegedly opened up their networks to the National Security Agency and other federal spies since the September 11, 2001 attacks. Above vocal objections from some Democrats, the senators nevertheless voted 76-10 to limit debate and other stalling tactics related to the bill." ... "But in the end, last-minute rallying from Democrats opposed to the telecommunications immunity provisions applied the necessary pressure." ... "Perhaps most notably, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Connecticut Senator] Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), a presidential hopeful, devoted nearly the entire day to delivering one impassioned speech after another about his opposition to granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies accused of providing illegal assistance to government spying programs. Other influential Democratic senators, including [Wisconsin Democratic Senator] Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), [Vermont Democratic Senator] Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and [Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) echoed his concerns at various points during the day." -By Anne Broache -CNET
Chris Dodd - Secret - Telecom - Industry - Government - Spying - Politics - Net - E-Mails - Data - Iowa - Connecticut - 2008 Election - "Dodd out of Iowa for Senate filibuster." ... "With just weeks until the pivotal Iowa caucuses, [2008 Election] presidential candidate and Democratic [Connecticut Senator] Sen. Chris Dodd has abandoned the Hawkeye State to lead a filibuster against a controversial measure that would give special legal protections to the telecom industry." ... "The Connecticut Democrat has criticized the proposed renewal of government spying powers, insisting it gives too much power to secret agencies and lets large telecommunications firms off the hook for handing over reams of private data on American phone calls and e-mails." ... "Under the measure being considered this week, telecom firms would be given legal immunity from invasion of privacy lawsuits that result from the release of this information to government officials." -By Lisa Desjardins and Rebecca Sinderbrand -CNN

20071216

Secret - Surveillance - Terrorism - Crime - Telecommunications - Companies - Government - Legislation - Politics - Intelligence - Drug - Consumer - Wireless - Technology - United States - Global - Space - Colorado - New Jersey - "Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry." ... "For months, the [Republican President] Bush administration has waged a high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by President Bush and closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "But the battle is really about something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance operations in fighting terrorism and crime." ... "The N.S.A.’s reliance on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before, according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained by legal worries and the fear of public exposure." ... "To detect narcotics trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who call people in Latin America, according to several government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. But in 2004, one major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers’ records. Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which has not been previously disclosed." ... "In a separate N.S.A. [National Security Agency] project, executives at a Denver [Colorado] phone carrier, Qwest, refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported. They say the arrangement could have permitted neighborhood-by-neighborhood surveillance of phone traffic without a court order, which alarmed them." ... "The federal government’s reliance on private industry has been driven by changes in technology. Two decades ago, telephone calls and other communications traveled mostly through the air, relayed along microwave towers or bounced off satellites. The N.S.A. could vacuum up phone, fax and data traffic merely by erecting its own satellite dishes. But the fiber optics revolution has sent more and more international communications by land and undersea cable, forcing the agency to seek company cooperation to get access." ... "[An ATT engineer is claiming in a lawsuit that as early as February 2001,] “What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the [Republican] Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”" (1, 2) -By Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Scott Shane -NYTimes

20071203

Americans' - Communications - Freedom - Government - Intelligence - Surveillance - Law - Politics - "Protecting privacy." ... "Contrary to [TIME Magazine Columnist Joel] Klein's claims, Democrats want to require individualized warrants only when the government targets Americans, not foreigners overseas. Klein is also flat out wrong to suggest there is "broad, bipartisan agreement" on new surveillance powers. In fact, the [Republican President Bush] administration and its allies adamantly oppose even modest proposals to protect law-abiding Americans who are swept up in this new, essentially warrantless surveillance. Only after the president's illegal wiretapping program was publicly revealed was the administration forced to comply with the law. Now the administration is demanding broad new powers that could allow it to collect countless communications. Congress must make sure that the new law requires independent court oversight and protects innocent Americans' privacy. That's not "stupid"; that's our sworn and solemn duty." -By United States Senator Russ Feingold -ChicagoTribune

20071128

Telecommunications - Money - Politics - Government - Surveillance - Intelligence - Electronic - Network - "Judge: Feds must release telecom records." ... "An electronic privacy group challenging [Republican] President Bush's domestic spying program scored a minor victory after a judge ordered the federal government to release information about lobbying efforts by telecommunications companies to protect them from prosecution." ... "The Electronic Frontier Foundation in January 2006 filed a class-action suit against AT&T Inc., accusing the company of illegally making communications on its networks available to the National Security Agency without warrants." ... "Congress is now considering changing the law to grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that would protect them from such court challenges." ... ""Any attempt for immunity is aimed at getting these very important cases swept back under the rug," EFF spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke said Wednesday." -By Kim Curtis -AP via -Yahoo

20071116

Government - Surveillance - Telephone - Companies - Intelligence - Politics - Civil Liberties - "Panel Drops Immunity From Eavesdropping Bill." ... "Reflecting the deep divisions within Congress over granting legal immunity to telephone companies for cooperating with the [Republican President] Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a new domestic surveillance law on Thursday that sidestepped the issue." ... "By a 10 to 9 vote, the committee approved an overhaul of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that dropped a key provision for immunity for telecommunications companies that another committee had already approved. The Senate leadership will have to decide how to deal with the immunity question on the Senate floor." ... "On Thursday night, the House voted 227 to 189, generally along party lines, to approve its own version of the FISA bill, which also does not include immunity." ... "But the administration has made clear that President Bush will veto any bill that does not include what it considers necessary tools for government eavesdropping, including the retroactive immunity for phone carriers that took part in the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program after the Sept. 11 attacks." ... "Since the N.S.A. program was disclosed nearly two years ago, the major telephone companies have been sued by civil liberties groups and others, who argue that the companies violated the privacy rights of millions of Americans." -By James Risen -NYTimes

20071018

Media - Business - Politics - Television - Radio - Telecommunications - Illinois - New York - "Plan Would Ease Limits on Media Owners." ... "The head of the Federal Communications Commission has circulated an ambitious plan to relax the decades-old media ownership rules, including repealing a rule that forbids a company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city." ... "[Republican] Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the commission, wants to repeal the rule in the next two months — a plan that, if successful, would be a big victory for some executives of media conglomerates." ... "Among them are Samuel Zell, the Chicago [Illinois] investor who is seeking to complete a buyout of the Tribune Company, and Rupert Murdoch, who has lobbied against the rule for years so that he can continue controlling both The New York Post and a Fox television station in New York." ... "The proposal appears to have the support of a majority of the five commission members, agency officials said, although it is not clear that Mr. Martin would proceed with a sweeping deregulatory approach on a vote of 3 to 2 — something his predecessor tried without success.In interviews on Wednesday, the agency’s two Democratic members raised questions about Mr. Martin’s approach." (1, 2) -By Stephen Labaton -NYTimes

20071013

Government - Surveillance- Phone - Company - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Politics - Colorado - New York - "Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm: Qwest Feared NSA Plan Was Illegal, Filing Says." ... "A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal." ... "Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver [Colorado] this week." ... "Details about the alleged NSA program have been redacted from the documents, but Nacchio's lawyer said last year that the NSA had approached the company about participating in a warrantless surveillance program to gather information about Americans' phone records." ... "Nacchio's account, which places the NSA proposal at a meeting on Feb. 27, 2001, suggests that the [Republican President] Bush administration was seeking to enlist telecommunications firms in programs without court oversight before the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon. The Sept. 11 attacks have been cited by the government as the main impetus for its warrantless surveillance efforts." ... "Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said: "It's inappropriate for the government to be awarding a contract conditioned upon an agreement to an illegal program. That truly is what's going on here."" (1, 2) -By Ellen Nakashima and Dan Eggen with contributions by Richard Drezen -WashingtonPost

20071011

Secret - Government - Phone - Network - Spying - Intelligence - Law - Terrorism - Money - Politics - "Documents: Qwest was targeted: 'Classified info' was not allowed at ex-CEO's trial." ... "The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest." ... "The documents indicate that likely would have been at the heart of former CEO Joe Nacchio's so-called "classified information" defense at his insider trading trial, had he been allowed to present it." ... "The secret contracts - worth hundreds of millions of dollars - made Nacchio optimistic about Qwest's future, even as his staff was warning him the company might not make its numbers, Nacchio's defense attorneys have maintained. But Nacchio didn't present that argument at trial." ... "The documents suggest U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham refused to allow Nacchio to present the argument about retaliation. Nottingham also said Nacchio would have to take the stand to raise the classified defense." ... "Nacchio was convicted last spring on 19 counts of insider trading for $52 million of stock sales in April and May 2001, and sentenced to six years in prison. He's free pending appeal." ... "The topic itself is redacted each time it appears in the hundreds of pages of documents, but there is mention of Nacchio believing the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it." ... "The NSA contract was awarded in July 2001 to companies other than Qwest." ... "USA Today reported in May 2006 that Qwest, unlike AT&T and Verizon, balked at helping the NSA track phone calling patterns that may have indicated terrorist organizational activities. Nacchio's attorney, Herbert Stern, confirmed that Nacchio refused to turn over customer telephone records because he didn't think the NSA program had legal standing." ... "The documents maintain that Nacchio met with top government officials, including [Republican] President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in 2000 and early 2001 to discuss how to protect the government's communications network." -By Sara Burnett And Jeff Smith -RockyMountainNews.com

20071009

Secret - Osama bin Laden - TV - Web - Communications - Terrorist - Surveillance - Company - Military - Intelligence - Politics - "Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets: Firm Says [Republican President Bush's] Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts." ... "A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release." ... "Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide." ... "The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group [Search for International Terrorist Entities], says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network." ... ""Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries." ... "She spoke first with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, whom she had previously met, and then with Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Both expressed interest in obtaining a copy, and Bagnal suggested that she send a copy to Michael Leiter, who holds the No. 2 job at the National Counterterrorism Center." (1, 2) -By Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost

20070920

Secret - Phone - E-Mail - Surveillance - Company - Consumer - Lawsuit- Politics - Terrorism - Government - Intelligence - San Francisco - California - "Case Dismissed? The secret lobbying campaign your phone company doesn't want you to know about." ... "The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the [Republican President Bush] White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs." ... "The campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco [California] is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed." ... "If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant." ... "But critics say the language proposed by the White House—drafted in close cooperation with the industry officials—is so extraordinarily broad that it would provide retroactive immunity for all past telecom actions related to the surveillance program. Its practical effect, they argue, would be to shut down any independent judicial or state inquires into how the companies have assisted the government in eavesdropping on the telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. residents in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks." ... "Among those coordinating the industry’s effort are two well-connected capital players who both worked for President George H.W. Bush: Verizon general counsel William Barr, who served as attorney general under 41, and AT&T senior executive vice president James Cicconi, who was the elder Bush's deputy chief of staff." ... "Working with them are a battery of major D.C. lobbyists and lawyers who are providing "strategic advice" to the companies on the issue, according to sources familiar with the campaign who asked not to be identified talking about it. Among the players, these sources said: powerhouse Republican lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon, respectively), former GOP senator and U.S. ambassador to Germany Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint), former Democratic Party strategist and one-time assistant secretary of State Tom Donilon (who represents Verizon), former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick (whose law firm also represents Verizon) and Brad Berenson, a former assistant White House counsel under President George W. Bush who now represents AT&T." (1, 2, 3) -By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball -MSNBC /Newsweek

20070912

US - Intelligence - Politics - Terrorism - Germany - Overseas - Telephone - E-Mail - Secret - Electronic - Surveillance - Law - Connecticut - "Spy Master Admits Error: Intel czar Mike McConnell told Congress a new law helped bring down a terror plot. The facts say otherwise." ... "In a new embarrassment for the [Republican President] Bush administration's top spymaster, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is withdrawing an assertion he made to Congress this week that a recently passed electronic-surveillance law helped U.S. authorities foil a major terror plot in Germany." ... "The temporary measure, signed into law by President Bush on Aug. 5, gave the U.S. intelligence community broad new powers to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications overseas without seeking warrants from the surveillance court. The law expires in six months and is expected to be the subject of intense debate in the months ahead. On Monday, McConnell—questioned by [Connecticut Independent Democratic Senator] Sen. Joe Lieberman—claimed the law, intended to remedy what the White House said was an intelligence gap, had helped to “facilitate” the arrest of three suspects believed to be planning massive car bombings against American targets in Germany. Other U.S. intelligence-community officials questioned the accuracy of McConnell's testimony and urged his office to correct it. Four intelligence-community officials, who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive material, said the new law, dubbed the "Protect America Act,” played little if any role in the unraveling of the German plot." ... "Late Wednesday afternoon, McConnell issued a statement acknowledging that "information contributing to the recent arrests [in Germany] was not collected under authorities provided by the 'Protect America Act'."" ... "The developments were cited by Democratic critics on Capitol Hill as the latest example of the Bush administration's exaggerated claims—and contradictory statements—about ultrasecret surveillance activities." (1, 2, 3) -By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball -MSNBC /Newsweek

20070831

E-Mail - Computer - Tech - Company - Government - Communications - Archive - Presidential Records Act - Law - Politics - California - "Bush E-Mail Mystery Deepens: White House Won't Name Tech Contractor." ... "The [Republican President Bush] White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of millions of White House e-mails." ... "According to the White House, at least five million e-mails were not properly archived and may be lost forever, in apparent violation of the Presidential Records Act. The post-Watergate law states that communications relating to official activity in the offices of the president and vice president are owned by the American public and cannot be destroyed." ... "The firm worked for the Information Assurance Directorate, under the White House chief information officer, [California Democratic Representative Henry] Waxman said he was told." -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

20070830

Federal - Electronic - Surveillance - Intelligence - Telecom - Internet - Terrorism - Law - "Point, Click ... Eavesdrop: How the FBI Wiretap Net Operates." ... "The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act." ... "The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected." ... "DCSNet is a suite of software that collects, sifts and stores phone numbers, phone calls and text messages. The system directly connects FBI wiretapping outposts around the country to a far-reaching private communications network." ... "Many of the details of the system and its full capabilities were redacted from the documents acquired by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, but they show that DCSNet includes at least three collection components, each running on Windows-based computers." ... "The $10 million DCS-3000 client, also known as Red Hook, handles pen-registers and trap-and-traces, a type of surveillance that collects signaling information -- primarily the numbers dialed from a telephone -- but no communications content. (Pen registers record outgoing calls; trap-and-traces record incoming calls.)" ... "DCS-6000, known as Digital Storm, captures and collects the content of phone calls and text messages for full wiretap orders." ... "A third, classified system, called DCS-5000, is used for wiretaps targeting spies or terrorists." (1, 2, 3) -By Ryan Singel -Wired

20070819

American - Liberty - Law - Politics - Government - Electronic - Surveillance - Business - Communications - Foreign - Intelligence - "Concern Over Wider Spying Under New Law." ... "Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the [Republican President] Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans' business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said." ... "Several legal experts said that by redefining the meaning of “electronic surveillance,” the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States." ... "These new powers include the collection of business records, physical searches and so-called “trap and trace” operations, analyzing specific calling patterns." ... "Yet Bush administration officials have already signaled that, in their view, the president retains his constitutional authority to do whatever it takes to protect the country, regardless of any action Congress takes. At a tense meeting last week with lawyers from a range of private groups active in the wiretapping issue, senior Justice Department officials refused to commit the administration to adhering to the limits laid out in the new legislation and left open the possibility that the president could once again use what they have said in other instances is his constitutional authority to act outside the regulations set by Congress." ... "At the meeting, Bruce Fein, a Justice Department lawyer in the [Republican President] Reagan administration, along with other critics of the legislation, pressed Justice Department officials repeatedly for an assurance that the [Republican President Bush] administration considered itself bound by the restrictions imposed by Congress. The Justice Department, led by Ken Wainstein, the assistant attorney general for national security, refused to do so, according to three participants in the meeting. That stance angered Mr. Fein and others. It sent the message, Mr. Fein said in an interview, that the new legislation, though it is already broadly worded, “is just advisory. The president can still do whatever he wants to do. They have not changed their position that the president’s Article II powers trump any ability by Congress to regulate the collection of foreign intelligence.”" (1, 2) -By James Risen and Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes

20070816

Government - Intelligence - Wiretap - Secrets - Phone - E-Mail - Internet - Messages - Technology - Companies - Politics - San Francisco - California - "Classified evidence debated: Court likely to allow suit against AT&T, reject wiretap case." ... "A federal appeals court holding a high-stakes hearing Wednesday in San Francisco [California] on President Bush's clandestine eavesdropping program appeared inclined to keep alive a lawsuit accusing AT&T of illegally letting the government intercept millions of Americans' phone calls and e-mails." ... "At the same hearing, however, the panel appeared skeptical about a suit by a defunct Islamic charity that said it had evidence that it and two of its lawyers had been wiretapped - the only such case in the nation filed by an alleged target of the surveillance program. The snag is that the evidence, a document that the government inadvertently released to the plaintiffs in 2004, is classified top secret and thus can't be used in court to prove that the calls were overheard." ... "The two-hour hearing by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals involved two different cases with a common theme: the Bush administration's argument that the details of the program were so sensitive that a lawsuit challenging any aspect of it would pose an unacceptable risk of exposing state secrets." ... "The AT&T suit, like several cases pending against other telecommunications companies, accuses the firm of giving the National Security Agency unlimited access to customers' phone calls, e-mails and message records. Plaintiffs in the AT&T case have submitted a declaration by a former company engineer who said he helped install equipment at the company's San Francisco office that would divert Internet messages to a room reserved for government-cleared employees." -By Bob Egelko -SFGate.com

20070815

US - International - Secret - Government - Phone - Wiretapping - Internet - Intelligence - Database - Technology - Law - San Francisco - California - "NSA Judge: 'I feel like I'm in Alice and Wonderland'." ... "Spectators lined up outside the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco [California] starting at noon to guarantee a seat at a much-anticipated legal showdown over the government's secret wiretapping program." ... "The hearing involves two cases: one aimed at AT&T for allegedly helping the government with a widespread datamining program allegedly involving domestic and international phone calls and internet use; the other a direct challenge to the government's admitted warrantless wiretapping of overseas phone calls." ... "Jon Eisenberg, (right [photo at Wired.com]) an Oakland-based [California] attorney, is arguing on behalf of a now-defunct Islamic charity Al-Haramain and its lawyers, who claim to have been accidentally given a Top Secret log of their own phone conversations, which they say proves the government illegally eavesdropped on them without warrants." ... "The courtroom filled quickly with more than 20 attorneys in the courtroom well, and 80 spectators seated and standing. Another 40 filed into an overflow courtroom, including Mark Klein, the former AT&T engineer who provided internal company documents to the EFF. Those documents allegedly show that AT&T built a secret spying room for the NSA in its San Francisco internet switching center. " ... "The government says the purported log of calls between one of the Islamic charity directors and two American lawyers is classified Top Secret and has the SCI level, meaning that it is "secure compartmented information." That designation usually applies to surveillance information" -By Kevin Poulsen -Wired

20070813

Government - Secrecy - Telephone - Civil Liberties - Law - Ohio - "Secrecy May Be Spy Program's Defense." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program has a built-in feature the Justice Department believes may shield it from ever being challenged as unconstitutional: secrecy." ... "The administration has acknowledged it intercepted some U.S. telephone conversations without warrants as it hunted for terrorists. Whose calls? The government isn't saying. And since only those who were spied on have grounds to sue, it's almost impossible to mount a successful legal challenge." ... "A federal appeals court in Ohio dismissed one such challenge last month because the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups could not prove the government had listened to their conversations. The court did not rule on whether the program was constitutional." ... "The U.S. Supreme Court has held that people can't sue merely to right a wrong. They must have standing, meaning they must be able to prove they were harmed by the government's behavior. Even if it might mean nobody will ever have standing to sue, the Supreme Court has said that proof is required." ... "``Without that, I think there is that Catch-22,'' said Charles Fried, who served as solicitor general under [Republican] President Reagan." -By Matt Apuzzo -AP via -Guardian.co.uk
Wireless - Communications - Market - Emergency - Radio - - - Technology - "FCC Rules Allow One Bidder To Buy More Than Half of Spectrum." ... "A single company could bid for more than half the lucrative spectrum to be auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission after the final rules for the sale failed to include a provision prohibiting this from occurring." ... "There had been pressure on FCC policymakers to include such a rule to ensure that an incumbent wireless carrier such as Verizon Wireless or AT&T Inc. wouldn't be able to take the lion's share of the spectrum being sold." ... "Potential new entrants to the market, such as Google Inc., as well as a handful of public interest groups had been pushing the FCC to include the rule." ... "Two sections make up 32 megahertz of the 62 megahertz of prized airwaves being sold off. They include one 22-megahertz swath with so-called open-access requirements attached -- which is actually six separate pieces that can be added together, and another 10-megahertz chunk that will be used to provide wireless broadband service to the emergency services community, with any spare capacity able to be used for commercial purposes." ... "The remaining 30 megahertz has been broken up into several hundred licenses." -By Corey Boles -WSJ.com

20070812

Americans - Global - Communications - Liberty - Politics - Law - Secret - Government - Intelligence - Electronic - Surveillance - Tech - E-Mail - Terrorism - History - "How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won." ... "For three days, Mike McConnell, the [Republican President Bush's] director of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments to a federal surveillance law, but now he was putting his foot down. "This is the issue," said the plain-spoken retired vice admiral and Vietnam veteran, "that makes my blood pressure rise."" ... "McConnell viscerally objected to a Democratic proposal to limit warrantless surveillance of foreigners' communications with Americans to instances in which one party was a terrorism suspect. McConnell wanted no such limits. "All foreign intelligence" targets in touch with Americans on any topic of interest should be fair game for U.S. spying, he said, according to two participants in the Aug. 2 conversation." ... "McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the [Republican President] Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially been willing to accept." ... "Until September -- and possibly for much longer -- the new law will enable the high-tech collection of foreign communications without judicial scrutiny on a vastly larger scale than previously possible, allowing billions of phone calls and e-mails inside as well as outside the United States to be routinely screened for possible links to terrorism and other security threats." ... "What McConnell wanted most from Congress was to be able to intercept, without a warrant, purely foreign-to-foreign communications that pass through fiber-optic cables and switching stations on U.S. soil. That provision was meant to restore a U.S. capability that existed three decades ago, when a 1978 law allowed warrantless surveillance of foreign calls that were overwhelmingly relayed wirelessly." ... "Since then, advances in technology have caused 90 percent of global communications to pass through wires -- mostly optic fibers capable of carrying 6,000 calls in a strand. That development has been a boon to the National Security Agency, which has worked hard to monitor the traffic with U.S.-based taps and concluded it was doing so legally." ... "But in a secret ruling in March, a judge on a special court empowered to review the government's electronic snooping challenged for the first time the government's ability to collect data from such wires even when they came from foreign terrorist targets. In May, a judge on the same court went further, telling the administration flatly that the law's wording required the government to get a warrant whenever a fixed wire is involved." (1, 2, 3) -By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost

20070811

US - Political - Terrorism - Government - Foreign - Intelligence - Communications - Surveillance - Law - Wisconsin - California - "Reported Drop in Surveillance Spurred a Law." ... "At a closed-door briefing in mid-July, senior intelligence officials startled lawmakers with some troubling news. American eavesdroppers were collecting just 25 percent of the foreign-based communications they had been receiving a few months earlier." ... "Congress needed to act quickly, intelligence officials said, to repair a dangerous situation." ... "Some lawmakers were alarmed. Others, jaded by past intelligence warnings, were skeptical." ... "The report helped set off a furious legislative rush last week that, improbably, broadened the [Republican President Bush] administration’s authority to wiretap terrorism suspects without court oversight." ... "To many Democrats who opposed the action, it was a reflection of fear mongering by the White House, and political capitulation by some fellow Democrats." ... "“There was an intentional manipulation of the facts to get this legislation through,” said Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a Democrat on the Intelligence Committee who voted against the plan." ... "Representative [California Democratic Representative] Jane Harman, Democrat of California, said the White House “very skillfully played the fear card.”" (1, 2) -By Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Mark Mazzetti -NYTimes

20070809

Music - Entertainment - Webcast - Artists - Free Speech - Communications - Media - Net - Corporate - Politics - Seattle - Washington - Illinois - "Pearl Jam protests censoring of Lollapalooza webcast: AT&T says the deleting of Vedder's anti-Bush lyrics was a 'major, major mistake.'." ... "Pearl Jam is alarmed that an AT&T concert website pulled the plug on their stage politics, but an official with the communications giant today called the incident "a major, major mistake" that runs counter to the company's policy." ... "The Seattle [Washington] rock band closed the three-day Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago [Illinois] last weekend, with AT&T's Blue Room handling the live webcast. But when lead singer Eddie Vedder sprinkled one song with some disparaging lyrics about [Republican] President Bush, a content monitor chose to hit the equivalent of a mute button." ... "The band, on its official website, called that decision an example of Corporate America putting a chill on free speech." ... ""This, of course, troubles us as artists but also as citizens concerned with the issue of censorship and the increasingly consolidated control of the media," the band said in the statement. "AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media."" -By Geoff Boucher -LAtimes

20070807

Alberto R Gonzales - US - Government - Foreign - Intelligence - Surveillance - Law - Politics - E-Mail - Communications - Secrecy - "Same Agencies to Run, Oversee Surveillance Program." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration plans to leave oversight of its expanded foreign eavesdropping program to the same government officials who supervise the surveillance activities and to the intelligence personnel who carry them out, senior government officials said yesterday." ... "The law, which permits intercepting Americans' calls and e-mails without a warrant if the communications involve overseas transmission, gives Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales responsibility for creating the broad procedures determining whose telephone calls and e-mails are collected. It also gives McConnell and Gonzales the role of assessing compliance with those procedures." ... "The law, signed Sunday by President Bush after being pushed through the Senate and House over the weekend, does not contain provisions for outside oversight -- unlike an earlier House measure that called for audits every 60 days by the Justice Department's inspector general." ... "Central to the new program is the collection of foreign intelligence from "communication service providers," which the officials declined to identify, citing secrecy concerns." -By Walter Pincus with contributions by Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost

20070806

Secret - United States - Government - Foreign - Intelligence - Surveillance - History - Electronic - E-Mail - Telephone - Law - Language - Politics - Terrorism - "Bush Signs Law to Widen Legal Reach for Wiretapping." ... "[Republican] President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants." ... "Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States." ... "They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens." ... "“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation." ... "Previously, the government needed search warrants approved by a special intelligence court to eavesdrop on telephone conversations, e-mail messages and other electronic communications between individuals inside the United States and people overseas, if the government conducted the surveillance inside the United States." -By James Risen -NYTimes

20070805

US - Saudi Arabia - Secret - Government - Terrorism - Phone - Wiretap - Civil Liberties - Law - Politics - "Secret call log at heart of wiretap challenge." ... "In open court and legal filings it's referred to simply as "the Document."" ... "Federal officials claim its contents are so sensitive to national security that it is stored in a bombproof safe in Washington [D.C.] and viewed only by prosecutors with top secret security clearances and a few select federal judges." ... "The Document, described by those who have seen it as a National Security Administration log of calls intercepted between an Islamic charity [in Saudi Arabia] and its American lawyers, is at the heart of what legal experts say may be the strongest case against the [Republican President] Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "Unlike dozens of other lawyers who have sued alleging similar violations of civil liberties stemming from the Bush administration's secret terrorism surveillance program, Eisenberg's team had what it claimed to be unequivocal proof: the Document." ... "In 2004, as the Treasury Department was considering whether to include the group on its list of terrorist organizations, Al-Haramain's Washington lawyer, Lynne Bernabei, asked to see the evidence." ... "That's when, in a case of bureaucratic bungling, Treasury officials mistakenly handed over the call log — which has the words "top secret" stamped on every page — along with press clippings and other unclassified documents deemed relevant to the case." ... "Still, the lawyers were unsure what they'd been given until December 2005, when The New York Times published a story exposing the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The attorneys involved in the Al-Haramain case suddenly realized that the call log was proof their clients had been eavesdropped on, and they sued." ... "Belew and Ghafoor, the two lawyers whose calls were allegedly intercepted by NSA, appear to be the only U.S. citizens with actual proof that the government eavesdropped on them." -By Paul Elias -AP via -USATODAY

20070803

Secret - US - World - Intelligence - E-Mail - Communications - Spying - Government - Law - Politics - John A Boehner - Ohio - Illinois- California - New York - "Ruling Limited Spying Efforts: Move to Amend FISA Sparked by Judge's Decision." ... "A federal intelligence court judge earlier this year secretly declared a key element of the [Republican President] Bush administration's wiretapping efforts illegal, according to a lawmaker and government sources, providing a previously unstated rationale for fevered efforts by congressional lawmakers this week to expand the president's spying powers." ... "House Minority Leader [Ohio Republican Representative] John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) disclosed elements of the court's decision in remarks Tuesday to Fox News as he was promoting the administration-backed wiretapping legislation. Boehner has denied revealing classified information, but two government officials privy to the details confirmed that his remarks concerned classified information." ... "The judge, whose name could not be learned, concluded early this year that the government had overstepped its authority in attempting to broadly surveil communications between two locations overseas that are passed through routing stations in the United States, according to two other government sources familiar with the decision." ... "The practical effect has been to block the NSA's [National Security Agency's] efforts to collect information from a large volume of foreign calls and e-mails that passes through U.S. communications nodes clustered around New York and California." ... ""There's been a ruling, over the last four or five months, that prohibits the ability of our intelligence services and our counterintelligence people from listening in to two terrorists in other parts of the world where the communication could come through the United States," Boehner told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto in a Tuesday interview." ... "Commenting on Boehner's remarks, [Illinois Democratic Representative] Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the House Democratic Caucus chairman, said yesterday that "John should remember the old adage: Loose lips very much sink ships."" (1, 2) -By Carol D. Leonnig and Ellen Nakashima with contributions by Dan Eggen, Barton Gellman, and Paul Kane -WashingtonPost

20070802

Alberto Gonzales - US - Foreign - Intelligence - Surveillance - Government - Terrorism - Communications - US Attorneys - Politics - "Gonzales an issue in surveillance law upgrade." ... "White House officials and Democratic congressional leaders are still trying to work out differences to modernize the law on monitoring communications between suspected terrorists." ... "But beyond technical and legal issues, embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is one of the sticking points." ... "One of the sticking points involves intercepted communications where one end turns out to be in the United States." ... "The DNI [Director of National Intelligence] proposal gives the attorney general the authority to approve and monitor the surveillance. However, the Democrats want the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court -- the special panel that has to approve any wiretaps involving U.S. persons -- to oversee the eavesdropping and authorize warrants when there is a pattern of calls from a foreign target to the United States." ... "Democrats -- and at least one leading Republican -- don't want to extend that power to Gonzales, who is embroiled in disputes with Congress over his testimony over government surveillance and the firings of U.S. attorneys last year that critics say were politically motivated." -CNN
US - Foreign - Intelligence - Surveillance - Government - Terrorism - E-Mail- Telephone - Politics - "Court puts limits on surveillance abroad: The ruling raises concerns that U.S. anti-terrorism efforts might be impaired at a time of heightened risk." ... "A special court that has routinely approved eavesdropping operations has put new restrictions on the ability of U.S. spy agencies to intercept e-mails and telephone calls of suspected terrorists overseas, U.S. officials said Wednesday." ... "The previously undisclosed ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has prompted concern among senior intelligence officials and lawmakers that the efforts of U.S. spy agencies to track terrorism suspects might be impaired at a time when analysts have warned that the United States is under heightened risk of attack." ... "One official said the issue centered on a ruling in which a FISA court judge rejected a government application for a "basket warrant" — a term that refers to court approval for surveillance activity encompassing multiple targets, rather than warrants issued on a case-by-case basis for surveillance of specific terrorism suspects." ... "The recent FISA court ruling was a blow to the [Republican] Bush administration, which had bypassed the court when it launched the NSA program in 2001. The White House moved it back under the FISA court's supervision last year after Democrats won control of Congress and appeared poised to challenge the constitutionality of a program that monitored U.S. residents' communications without warrants." ... "The issue has become the center of a fierce new debate on Capitol Hill over how to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to get a special court's approval before monitoring communications of people in the U.S. Public records show that the court rejects few of the government's requests: In 2005, for example, it approved 2,072 applications and denied none; in 2006 it approved 2,176 and denied, in part, one." -By Greg Miller with contributions by Richard B. Schmitt -LAtimes

20070726

Alberto Gonzales - Karl Rove - Monica Goodling - US Attorneys - Terrorism - Phone - E-Mail - Surveillance - Intelligence - Law - Politics - New York - "Rove Summoned as Democrats Escalate Fight With Bush (Update2)." ... "Senate Democrats sought a special prosecutor to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied to lawmakers and they subpoenaed [Republican] President George W. Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, to testify about the firing of U.S. attorneys." ... "Charges by four Democratic senators that Gonzales repeatedly lied under oath, plus the latest subpoena, raised the stakes in the congressional fight with Bush over his refusal to allow aides to testify about the firing of nine prosecutors last year." ... "``The attorney general took an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,'' New York [Democratic Senator] Democrat Charles Schumer told reporters today. ``Instead, he tells the half-truth, the partial truth and everything but the truth. And he does it not once, and not twice, but over and over and over again.''" ... "The lawmakers said Gonzales's testimony that he never talked to other colleagues about the prosecutor firings after the controversy erupted was contradicted by former aide Monica Goodling. She told Congress in May that she felt ``uncomfortable'' when Gonzales raised the subject." ... "The Democrats also said they found ``deeply troubling'' Gonzales's assertions in 2006 Senate testimony that ``there has not been any serious disagreement'' in the administration over the interception of suspected terrorists' international phone calls and e-mails without court warrants." ... "The attorney general's statement was contradicted in congressional testimony earlier this year by former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey, who said there had been dissent at the highest levels of the Justice Department in March 2004." -By James Rowley -Bloomberg

20070718

Police - Fire - Emergency - Communications - Money - Politics - "US Works to Fix Emergency Communications." ... "The government will distribute nearly $1 billion to states and cities to fix communications problems that still hamper police and fire departments six years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks." ... "A total of $968 million for interoperable communications grants was announced Wednesday by the heads of the departments of Homeland Security and Commerce, after a review earlier this year found that of 75 major U.S. cities, only six received a top grade in emergency communications." ... "The money, said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, will answer "the urgent need for firefighters, police and other first responders to be able to communicate effectively with one another."" ... "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the money should get the entire country up to a basic standard of effective emergency communication by 2009 -- but only if the local authorities coordinate with each other and avoid turf fights." -By Devlin Barrett -AP via -Salon

20070713

David Vitter - Telephone - Politics - Louisiana - "Escort service called senator during votes: Louisiana senator remains in seclusion." ... "A woman accused of running a Washington prostitution ring placed five phone calls to [Republican Louisiana Senator] David Vitter while he was a [Republican Louisiana Representative] House member, including two while roll call votes were under way, according to telephone and congressional records." ... "Telephone records released by Deborah Jeane Palfrey indicate she placed calls that were answered by Vitter’s Washington phone on five occasions while Vitter was in the House, from 1999 through 2001. On four of those five days, the House was in session and Vitter participated in every roll call vote." -AP via -MSNBC
Germany - China - Russia - Foreign - Military - Legislation - Telecommunications - Energy - Politics - "Germany in call to curb foreign buyers." ... "Pressure mounted on Thursday on Angela Merkel to enact legislation allowing the government to block investments by foreign state-controlled investors as senior conservative politicians warned the German chancellor about the risks facing Europe's largest economy." ... "Ms Merkel warned last week that large German companies could fall into the hands of foreign, and possibly hostile, states through investments by sovereign wealth funds and public-sector companies. Morgan Stanley puts the total assets of Chinese, Russian and Middle Eastern state-controlled funds at $2,500bn (£1,230bn, €1,813bn). By leveraging, these funds could finance acquisitions worth 10 times this [$25 TRILLION DOLLARS], the finance ministry has said." ... "Aides to Ms Merkel say she is concerned about a risk to national security if, say, parts of the country's energy infrastructure fell into the hands of investors guided by political rather than commercial imperatives." ... "According to several officials, Peer Steinbrück, finance minister, has come under pressure from his SPD's left wing to put selected sectors - from telecommunications and energy to banking - under special protection." ... "Left-wingers in the SPD also want the state to build blocking minorities in strategic companies by acquiring shares." -By Bertrand Benoit -FT.com

20070712

US - Pakistan - Afghanistan - Osama bin Laden - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Money - Communications - Politics - Nev - "U.S. Warns Of Stronger Al-Qaeda: Administration Report Cites Havens in Pakistan." ... "Six years after the Bush administration declared war on al-Qaeda, the terrorist network is gaining strength and has established a safe haven in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan for training and planning attacks, according to a new Bush administration intelligence report to be discussed today at a White House meeting." ... "The report, a five-page threat assessment compiled by the National Counterterrorism Center, is titled "Al-Qaida Better Positioned to Strike the West," intelligence officials said. It concludes that the group has significantly rebuilt itself despite concerted U.S. attempts to smash the network." ... "Although the officials declined to discuss the assessment's content because it is classified, the CIA's deputy director for intelligence, John A. Kringen, told a House committee yesterday that al-Qaeda appears "to be fairly well settled into the safe haven in the ungoverned spaces of Pakistan."" ... ""We see more training. We see more money. We see more communications," Kringen said." ... "Citing news reports about the intelligence assessment, Senate Majority Leader [Nevada Democratic Senator] Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement that "it is a travesty that Osama bin Laden remains at large . . . and appears to have found new sanctuary to operate freely in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions." Several House" (1, 2) -By Spencer S. Hsu and Walter Pincus with contributions by Dan Eggen, Joby Warrick and Alice Crites -WashingtonPost

20070710

Secret - Alberto R Gonzales - Civil Liberties - Surveillance - Law - Phone - Internet - Finances - Terrorism - Intelligence - Politics - "Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations: After Bureau Sent Reports, Attorney General Said He Knew of No Wrongdoing." ... "As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005." ... "Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act." ... "The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated." ... "The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as a national security letter (NSL), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March." ... "The report sent to Gonzales on April 21, 2005, concerned a violation of the rules governing NSLs, which allow agents in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations to secretly gather Americans' phone, bank and Internet records without a court order or a grand jury subpoena." (1, 2) -By John Solomon -WashingtonPost
David Vitter - Rudolph W Giuliani - Women - Business - Politics - Telephone - Louisiana- New York - 2008 Election - "Senator's Number on 'Madam' Phone List." ... "[Republican Lousiana Senator] Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case." ... "The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004." ... "The service's proprietor, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 51, faces federal charges of racketeering for allegedly running a prostitution ring out of homes and hotel rooms in the Washington area. Authorities say the business netted more than $2 million over 13 years beginning in 1993. Palfrey contends that her escort service was a legitimate business." ... "Vitter was the first senator to endorse former [New York City] New York mayor [and 2008 election Republican Presidential Candidate] Rudolph W. Giuliani and serves as the campaign's Southern regional chairman." -By Shailagh Murray -WashingtonPost

20070706

Secret - US - Foreign - Government - Intelligence - Surveillance - Journalists - Academics - Telephone - Internet - Civil Liberties - Law - Politics - Michigan - "Court orders dismissal of U.S. wiretapping lawsuit: A divided appeals court says plaintiffs weren't harmed by surveillance program." ... "A U.S. appeals court has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit against the U.S. National Security Agency for a wiretapping program because it said the plaintiffs haven't been hurt by the agency's actions." ... "A divided three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled today that the lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of journalists, lawyers and academics, be sent back to a district court judge to be dismissed. In August 2006, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled the NSA program, which monitored telephone and Internet communications without court-ordered warrants, was illegal." ... "Judge Ronald Lee Gilman disagreed with the two-judge majority, arguing that the NSA program violates FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court], which establishes wiretapping procedures, including warrants. "When faced with the clear wording of FISA ... the conclusion becomes inescapable that [the program] was unlawful," he wrote." ... "The appeals court ruled that the plaintiffs could not sue because they can't prove they were affected by the program, and at the same time, ruled that details about the program, including who was targeted, are state secrets." (1, 2) -By Grant Gross -Computerworld
Spying - Lawsuit - Politics - History - US - International - Phone - E-Mail - Intelligence - "Court dismisses lawsuit on spying program." ... "A U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday a lawsuit challenging the domestic spying program created by [Republican] President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks must be dismissed, in a decision based on narrow technical grounds." ... "The surveillance program was authorized by Bush to monitor the international phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens, without first obtaining a court warrant. A lower court had ruled in August 2006 that the program was unconstitutional." ... "But the two judges in the majority opinion said the plaintiffs had failed to prove they were under surveillance." ... "In the previous ruling, a U.S. district judge in Detroit ruled the program violated the Constitution and a 1978 law prohibiting surveillance of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil without the approval of the special surveillance court." ... "The two judges in the majority, Julia Smith Gibbons and Batchelder, are Republican appointees, named by Bush and his father [former Republican President George H. W. Bush], respectively." (1, 2) -By Andrea Hopkins with contributions by James Vicini and Matt Spetalnick -Reuters

20070628

Dick Cheney - Secret - Electronic - Communications - Surveillance - Terrorism - Politics - Vermont - Civil Liberties - Enforcement - "Bush won't supply subpoenaed documents." ... "The Senate committee investigating the Bush administration's controversial domestic wiretapping program subpoenaed the [Republican President Bush] White House, Vice President Dick Cheney's office and the Justice Department today for information regarding their legal justification for the warrantless secret surveillance." ... "The subpoenas by the Judiciary Committee set the stage for another legal and political battle between Senate Democrats and the administration over its counter-terrorism and law enforcement policies. Earlier subpoenas issued by Democratic lawmakers to current and former White House officials have essentially been ignored." ... "[Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick] Leahy noted that the Judiciary Committee was charged with oversight of the executive branch in the areas of constitutional protections and the civil liberties of Americans. "The warrantless electronic surveillance program directly impacts those responsibilities," Leahy wrote. "We cannot conduct this oversight without knowing the legal arguments the administration has used to justify interception of the communications of Americans without a warrant."" -By Terence Hunt -LAtimes
US - International - Dick Cheney - Secret - Military - Surveillance - Telecommunications - E-Mail - Companies - Intelligence - Law - History - Politics - "Panel pushes for files on spy program: White House, Cheney get subpoenas." ... "The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday issued subpoenas to the Bush administration for documents related to its warrantless surveillance program, elevating a long-simmering dispute between Congress and the [Republican] White House over classified national-security information into a possible constitutional showdown." ... "Specifically, the committee is seeking documents related to White House authorization and reauthorization of the warrantless surveillance program, internal memos analyzing whether the surveillance is legal, agreements with telecommunications companies that assisted in the spying, orders by a secret national-security court regarding the program, and papers concerning [Republican] President Bush's decision to shut down an in-house Justice Department investigation related to the program." ... "The program dates to the weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when [Republican President George] Bush signed an order authorizing the military's National Security Agency to monitor Americans' international phone calls and e-mails without a judge's approval." ... "A 1978 statute makes it a felony to conduct such surveillance without a warrant, but the president's legal team secretly asserted that his wartime powers include an unwritten right to bypass such laws at his own discretion. Cheney and his counsel, David Addington , were the leading proponents of the program and the controversial legal theory supporting it, former administration lawyers have said." ... "The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility, which polices compliance with legal ethics, opened an investigation into whether department lawyers knowingly signed off on a faulty interpretation of the law to give the program legal cover. But Bush shut down the investigation by refusing to grant the office security clearance." -By Charlie Savage -Boston/Globe

20070618

Jack Abramoff - Ralston - Alberto Gonzales - Karl Rove - Political - Government - E-Mail - Communications - Presidential Records Act - Law - US Attorneys - California - "Report: White House aides used GOP e-mail to skirt law." ... "E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House aides with Republican Party accounts, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reported Monday." ... "The White House says the accounts were set up to keep political work separate from official business, but investigators concluded White House officials used the accounts to conduct official business in a way that circumvented the Watergate-era Presidential Records Act." ... "The committee, led by California Democrat [Represenative] Henry Waxman, began looking into the GOP e-mail accounts after messages from the accounts turned up in two cases -- the case of imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the 2006 firings of eight U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department." ... "[Susan] Ralston told investigators that [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales, now attorney general, knew [Karl] Rove was using his party e-mail account for official business, "but took no action to preserve Mr. Rove's official communications," the report states." -CNN
Alberto Gonzales - Government - E-Mail - Communications - Politics - Presidential Records Act - "Lawmaker claims 'extensive destruction' of e-mail records." ... "White House use of Republican National Committee e-mail accounts is more extensive than previously known, while the "extensive destruction" of e-mails points to widespread violations of the Presidential Records Act, according to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee." ... "The evidence has prompted the committee to open yet another front in the investigation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who as White House counsel may have known about the use of RNC accounts for official communications but did nothing to ensure the e-mails were preserved, according to the report." -By Keith Koffler -GovExec.com

20070614

Government - Surveillance - Phone - EMail - Internet - Financial - Terrorism - Intelligence - Law - Politics - "FBI Finds It Frequently Overstepped in Collecting Data." ... "An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism." ... "The new audit covers just 10 percent of the bureau's national security investigations since 2002, and so the mistakes in the FBI's domestic surveillance efforts probably number several thousand, bureau officials said in interviews. The earlier report found 22 violations in a much smaller sampling." ... "The vast majority of the new violations were instances in which telephone companies and Internet providers gave agents phone and e-mail records the agents did not request and were not authorized to collect. The agents retained the information anyway in their files, which mostly concerned suspected terrorist or espionage activities." ... "But two dozen of the newly-discovered violations involved agents' requests for information that U.S. law did not allow them to have, according to the audit results provided to The Washington Post. Only two such examples were identified earlier in the smaller sample." (1, 2) -By John Solomon -WashingtonPost

20070613

Government - Radio - Phone - Patent - Tech - Drug - Laws - Consumer - Politics - "UPDATE: New Bush Aide Has Extensive Corporate Lobbying Ties." ... "The line between lobbying the federal government and running it just got blurrier." ... "A new high-ranking adviser to President George W. Bush will enter the White House with recent lobbying ties to dozens of companies seeking the federal government's help on everything from proposed acquisitions to patent disputes." ... "Ed Gillespie, named Wednesday as the next White House counselor, is a partner in Quinn Gillespie & Associates LLC, a lobbying firm whose clients include: Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), which needs antitrust approval to acquire a rival; Qualcomm (QCOM), which wants Bush to veto a federal agency's ban on imported cell phones made with its chips; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group trying to limit drug industry regulation." ... "Consumer advocates lamented Bush's decision to put Gillespie in his inner circle, fearing that the interests of average citizens would be trumped by those of corporate America." -AP via -CNN

20070607

Cheney - Secret - Surveillance - Politics - Phone - E-Mail - United States - - Intelligence - Liberty - Law - Health - "Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps: Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference." ... "[Republican] Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday." ... "The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey." ... "Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas." ... "Comey said that Cheney's office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance." ... "The disclosures also provide further details about the role played by then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. He visited Ashcroft in his hospital room and wrote an internal memorandum on the surveillance program shortly afterward, according to Comey's responses. Gonzales is now the attorney general." ... ""Mr. Comey has confirmed what we suspected for a while -- that White House hands guided Justice Department business," said Sen. [New York Democratic Senator] Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). "The vice president's fingerprints are all over the effort to strong-arm Justice on the NSA program, and the obvious next question is: Exactly what role did the president play?"" (1, 2) -By Dan Eggen with contributions by Amy Goldstein -WashingtonPost

20070413

Rove - Miers - Gonzales - Political - Government - E-Mail - Communication - Archive - US Attorneys - "Missing E-Mail May Be Related to Prosecutors." ... "The White House said Thursday that missing e-mail messages sent on Republican Party accounts may include some relating to the firing of eight United States attorneys." ... "The disclosure became a fresh political problem for the White House, as Democrats stepped up their inquiry into whether Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush used the e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee to circumvent record-keeping requirements." ... "Mr. Rove uses several e-mail accounts, including one with the Republican National Committee, one with the White House and a private domain account that is registered to the political consulting company he once owned. Mr. Waxman said Mr. Kelner reported that in 2005, the national committee adopted a new policy, specifically aimed at Mr. Rove, which “removed Mr. Rove’s ability to personally delete his e-mails from the R.N.C. server.”" ... "Mr. Waxman also said he now had “serious concerns about the White House’s compliance with the Presidential Records Act,” a 1978 law that requires administrations to keep records of deliberations, decisions and policies. The congressman asked for an inventory of all communications by White House officials on nongovernment e-mail accounts." ... "The Democrats’ investigation into the political e-mail accounts grows directly out of the inquiry into the firing of the United States attorneys. When the Justice Department turned over documents to Congress, they showed that, contrary to the White House’s initial assertions, Mr. Rove and Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, seemed to be involved in planning the dismissals." ... "The documents also revealed that a deputy to Mr. Rove, Scott Jennings, who works in the White House Office of Political Affairs, had used his Republican National Committee e-mail account, ending in gwb43.com, to communicate about the dismissals with a top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales." (1, 2) -By Sheryl Gay Stolberg with contributions by Scott Shane and David Johnston -NYTimes

20070412

Rove - Ralston - Abramoff - Government - E-Mail - Electronic - Communication - History - Archive - Law - US Attorneys - Politics - "Countless White House E-Mails Deleted." ... "Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday." ... "The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication." ... "Until 2004, all e-mail on RNC accounts was routinely deleted after 30 days. Since 2004, White House staffers using those accounts have been able to save their e-mail indefinitely -- but have also been able to delete whatever they felt like deleting. By comparison, the White House e-mail system preserves absolutely everything forever, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act." ... "In an afternoon conference call with reporters, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel spread the blame all around. "White House policy did not give clear enough guidance," he said." ... "But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff," says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with." ... ""As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."" ... "The handbook further explains: "The official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements."" ... "And if that wasn't clear enough, the handbook notes --as was the case in the Clinton administration -- that "commercial or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of the records management requirements."" ... "Stanzel refused to publicly release the relevant portions of the White House staff manual and denied my request to make public the transcript of the call, which lasted more than an hour but which -- due to Stanzel's refusal or inability to provide straight answers on many issues -- raised more questions than it answered." ... "The use of non-government e-mails first became an issue about four weeks ago, when some of the e-mails turned over in a congressional investigation of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys showed that Rove deputy Scott Jennings repeatedly used an RNC e-mail address (sjennings@gwb43.com) in his official communications. One e-mail to Rove was sent to a kr@georgewbush.com address." ... "Since then, it's been pointed out that some of the e-mails released in the congressional investigation of now-convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff indicated that former Rove aide Susan Ralston made a point of keeping her communication with Abramoff off the White House e-mail servers, and on either her RNC or AOL e-mail accounts." (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) -By Dan Froomkin -WashingtonPost

20070328

Telephone - E-Mail - Finances - Intelligence - Surveillance - Enforcement - Politics - "Officials may face firing over 'security letters'." ... "Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday called for sweeping changes in how "national security letters" are issued and tracked, including firing and prosecuting FBI officials responsible for allowing hundreds of such letters to be issued without authorization." ... "The reaction came during a hearing on a March 9 inspector general report that found that the FBI issued over 143,000 NSL requests from 2003 through 2005, including many that appeared to violate laws and the bureau's own guidelines. The letters, authorized by the Patriot Acts of 2001 and 2006, allow the FBI to access subscriber information for telephone and e-mail accounts as well as some credit information in national security investigations without resorting to a subpoena or a court order." ... "The report, by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, blamed sloppiness by individual agents and their supervisors and the lack of an internal tracking system for many of the errors. Fine also criticized the bureau's communications analysis unit, an element created after the Sept 11 attacks, for permitting 29 unauthorized officials to sign "exigent" letters that demanded information on a speeded up, or emergency basis." -By Richard Willing -USATODAY

20070327

Telecommunications - Money - Government - Language - Politics - "Justice gets wrong statute, pays $100M price." ... "Poorly written Justice Department documents cost the federal government more than $100 million in what was supposed to have been the crowning moment of the biggest tax prosecution ever." ... "Walter Anderson, the telecommunications entrepreneur who admitted hiding hundreds of millions of dollars from the IRS and District of Columbia tax collectors, was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison and ordered to repay about $23 million to the city." ... "But U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said he couldn't order Anderson to repay the federal government $100 million to $175 million because the Justice Department's binding plea agreement with Anderson listed the wrong statute." ... "Friedman said he could have worked around that problem by ordering Anderson to repay the money as part of his probation. But prosecutors omitted any discussion of probation -- a common element of plea deals -- from Anderson's paperwork." -AP via -CNN
Secret - Terrorism - Intelligence - Surveillance - Law - Enforcement - Politics - Phone - E-Mail - Internet - Companies - "FBI Provided Inaccurate Data for Surveillance Warrants." ... "FBI agents repeatedly provided inaccurate information to win secret court approval of surveillance warrants in terrorism and espionage cases, prompting officials to tighten controls on the way the bureau uses that powerful anti-terrorism tool, according to Justice Department and FBI officials." ... "The errors were pervasive enough that the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, wrote the Justice Department in December 2005 to complain. She raised the possibility of requiring counterterrorism agents to swear in her courtroom that the information they were providing was accurate, a procedure that could have slowed such investigations drastically." ... "The department's acknowledgment of the problems with the FISA court applications comes nearly two weeks after a blistering inspector general's report revealed widespread violations of the use of "national security" and "exigent circumstances" letters, which allow FBI agents to collect phone, e-mail and Internet records from telecommunications companies without review by a judge. The problems included failing to document relevant evidence, claiming emergencies that did not exist and failing to show that phone records requests were connected to authorized investigations." (1, 2) -By John Solomon -WashingtonPost

20061107

2006 Election - Money - Phone - Law - "It's a Candidate Calling. Again." ... "Republicans Deny Subterfuge as Phone Barrages Anger Voters." ... "This year's heavy volume of automated political phone calls has infuriated countless voters and triggered sharp complaints from Democrats, who say the Republican Party has crossed the line in bombarding households with recorded attacks on candidates in tight House races nationwide." ... "Some voters, sick of interrupted dinners and evenings, say they will punish the offending parties by opposing them in today's [2006] elections. But critics say Republicans crafted the messages to delude voters --especially those who hang up quickly -- into thinking that Democrats placed the calls." ... "Democrats cited federal records indicating that the NRCC recently spent about $600,000 in at least 45 contested House districts for robo-calls, which are among the least expensive campaign tools." ... "Many voters hang up as soon as a robo-call begins -- without waiting for the criticisms or the NRCC sign-off at the end -- so they think it was placed by the Democratic candidate named at the start, said Sarah Feinberg, spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee." ... "Democrats also cited Federal Communications Commission guidelines saying the originators of automated calls must identify themselves at the beginning of each call. Republican Party lawyers, however, said the requirement does not apply to political nonprofit organizations. They rebuffed a "cease and desist" letter sent yesterday by the DCCC." (1, 2) -By Charles Babington and Alec MacGillis with contributions by Jonathan Weisman, Dale Russakoff, and Michael Powell -WashingtonPost

20061025

Renzi - Arizona - Legislation - Politics - International - Money - Family - Military - Communications - Virginia - "Congressman From Arizona Is the Focus of an Inquiry." ... "Federal authorities in Arizona have opened an inquiry into whether [Arizona Republican] Representative Rick Renzi introduced legislation that benefited a military contractor that employs his father, law enforcement officials said Tuesday." ... "Mr. Renzi, 48, a Republican who represents the First Congressional District, is a former insurance executive and real estate investor who was first elected in 2002. Almost from the start, he has been a target of citizen watchdog groups who have accused him of ethical laxity in office." ... "Law enforcement officials said that the most serious accusation involved Mr. Renzi’s sponsorship of legislation in 2003 that appeared to indirectly benefit the ManTech International Corporation, a communications company based in Virginia that employs Mr. Renzi’s father, Eugene, a retired Army general, as executive vice president." -By David Johnston -NYTimes

20061009

Foley - Hastert - Shimkus - Alexander - Fla - Ill - La - Ariz - Gay - Lawmaker - Internet - E-Mail - Communication - Messages - "Lawmaker Saw Foley Messages In 2000: Page Notified GOP Rep. Kolbe." ... "A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications." ... "A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona]) confirmed yesterday that a former page showed the congressman Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable with the direction Foley (R-Fla. [Republican-Florida]) was taking their e-mail relationship. Last week, when the Foley matter erupted, a Kolbe staff member suggested to the former page that he take the matter to the clerk of the House, Karen Haas, said Kolbe's press secretary, Korenna Cline." ... "The revelation pushes back by at least five years the date when a member of Congress has acknowledged learning of Foley's behavior with former pages. A timeline issued by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill. [Republican-Illinois]) suggested that the first lawmakers to know, Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill. [Republican-Illinois]), the chairman of the House Page Board, and Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La. [Republican-Louisiana]), became aware of "over-friendly" e-mails only last fall. It also expands the universe of players in the drama beyond members, either in leadership or on the page board." ... "A source with direct knowledge of Kolbe's involvement said the messages shared with Kolbe were sexually explicit, and he read the contents to The Washington Post under the condition that they not be reprinted." ... "Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, is retiring at the end of the year." -By Jonathan Weisman with contributions by James V. Grimaldi -WashingtonPost

20061005

Foley - Internet - Communications - E-Mail - Messages - Florida - "Three More Former Pages Accuse Foley of Online Sexual Approaches." ... "Three more former congressional pages have come forward to reveal what they call "sexual approaches" over the Internet from former [Florida Republican] Congressman Mark Foley." ... "The pages served in the classes of 1998, 2000 and 2002. They independently approached ABC News after the Foley resignation through the Brian Ross & the Investigative Team's tip line on ABCNews.com. None wanted their names used because of the sensitive nature of the communications." ... "All three pages described similar instant message and e-mail patterns, with remarkably similar escalations of provocative questions." ... ""This was no prank," said one of the three former pages who talked to ABC News today about his experience with the congressman." -By Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz, and Maddy Sauer -ABCNEWS.com

20060914

GOV - TV - Media - Telecom - Business -Law - "Media ownership study ordered destroyed: FCC draft suggested fewer owners would hurt local TV coverage." ... "The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says." ... "The report, written in 2004, came to light during the Senate confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin." ... "Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that "every last piece" of the report be destroyed. "The whole project was just stopped - end of discussion," he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC's Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said." ... "The report, written by two economists in the FCC's Media Bureau, analyzed a database of 4,078 individual news stories broadcast in 1998. The broadcasts were obtained from Danilo Yanich, a professor and researcher at the University of Delaware, and were originally gathered by the Pew Foundation's Project for Excellence in Journalism." ... "The analysis showed local ownership of television stations adds almost five and one-half minutes of total news to broadcasts and more than three minutes of "on-location" news. The conclusion is at odds with FCC arguments made when it voted in 2003 to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a single market." -AP via -MSNBC

20060830

Hackers - Web - Telecommunications - Consumer - Business - "Hackers hit AT&T, steal users' info." ... "AT&T Inc. said hackers compromised its Web site last weekend, obtaining records and credit card information of up to 19,000 customers." ... "The country's largest telecommunications operator said Tuesday that hackers targeted a store on the company's Web site where customers purchased DSL equipment. The attack was discovered "within hours," the company said, prompting a shutdown of the store that was still in effect Tuesday." ... ""We are committed to both protecting our customers' privacy and to weeding out and punishing the violators," said Priscilla Hill-Ardoin, chief privacy officer at AT&T." -By Ryan Kim -SFGate.com

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

TV - Telecom - Marketing - Industry - Media - Consumer - Wisconsin - "FCC questions TV stations on 'fake news'." ... "The Federal Communications Commission has mailed letters to the owners of 77 television stations inquiring about their use of video news releases, a type of programming critics refer to as "fake news."" ... "The probe was sparked by a study of newsroom use of material provided by public relations firms. The study, entitled "Fake TV News: Widespread and Undisclosed," was compiled by the Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization that monitors the public relations industry." ... "When stations air video news releases, they are required to disclose to viewers "the nature, source and sponsorship of the material that they are viewing," according to the FCC." -AP via -USATODAY

20060803

DCI - Marketing - Psychology - Oil - Corporation - Politics - Opinion - Internet - Video - California - Entertainment - Media - Search Engine - Computer - Communications - EMail - Environmental - Science - Global - Climate - Al Gore - "Where did that video spoofing Gore's film come from?" ... "Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." But who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com?" ... "Like other videos on the popular YouTube site, it has a home-made, humorous quality. The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills [California] in an Internet profile." ... "In an email exchange with The Wall Street Journal, Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith's Yahoo account indicate it didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement." ... "Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp [Corporation]." ... "The anti-Gore video represents a less well-known side of YouTube. As its popularity has exploded, the public video-sharing site has drawn marketers looking to build buzz for new music releases and summer blockbusters. Now, it's being tapped by political operatives, public relations experts and ad agencies to sway opinions." ... "DCI is no stranger to the debate over global warming. Partly through Tech Central Station, an opinion Web site it operates, DCI has sought to raise doubts about the science of global warming and about Mr. Gore's film, placing skeptical scientists on talk-radio shows and paying them to write editorials." ... "Internet videos could prove particularly potent, because they may influence watchers in ways they don't realize. Nancy Snow, a communications professor at California State University, Fullerton, viewed the penguin video and calls it a lesson in "Propaganda 101." It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president, she says. The purpose of such images is to harden the views of those who already view Mr. Gore negatively, Dr. Snow says." ... "Traffic to the penguin video, first posted on YouTube.com in May, got a boost from prominently placed sponsored links that appeared on the Google search engine when users typed in "Al Gore" or "Global Warming." The ads, which didn't indicate who had paid for them, were removed shortly after The Wall Street Journal contacted DCI Group on Tuesday." -By Antonio Regalado and Dionne Searcey with contributions by Jeffrey Ball -WSJ.com via -Post-Gazette.com

20060802

Reporters - Phone - Privacy - Religion - Texas - Illinois - "U.S. Wins Access to Reporter Phone Records." ... "A federal prosecutor may inspect the telephone records of two New York Times reporters in an effort to identify their confidential sources, a federal appeals court in New York ruled yesterday." ... "The 2-to-1 decision, from a court historically sympathetic to claims that journalists should be entitled to protect their sources, reversed a lower court and dealt a further setback to news organizations, which have lately been on a losing streak in the federal courts." ... "The dissenting judge said that the government had failed to demonstrate it truly needed the records and that efforts to obtain reporters’ phone records could alter the way news gathering was conducted." ... "The case arose from a Chicago grand jury’s investigation into who told the two reporters, Judith Miller and Philip Shenon, about actions the government was planning to take against two Islamic charities, Holy Land Foundation in Texas and Global Relief Foundation in Illinois. Though the government contended that calls from the reporters tipped off the charities to impending raids and asset seizures, the investigation appears to be focused on identifying the reporters’ sources. No testimony has been sought from the reporters, and there has been no indication that their actions are a subject of the investigation." -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes

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

20050630

Gordon Smith - Corporate - Politics - Sports - Vacations - Jets - Accounting - Telecommunications - Energy - Lawmakers - Ore - Nev - Ind - Fla - Mich - Ky - Va - - - - - "Amid much scrutiny, mixing pleasure and politics goes on." ... "Even if lawmakers are more sensitive these days about teeing up [golfing] with lobbyists at posh resorts, one would never know it by witnessing a scene at Dulles International Airport on Sunday night when lobbyists returned from the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, a high-end course in southwestern Oregon. One lobbyist from Accenture, an accounting firm, even disembarked sporting a long-sleeve Bandon Dunes polo shirt." ... "[Oregon Republican Senator] Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.[Republican-Oregon]) held the fundraiser, an annual event for his political action committee Impact America. A score of telecommunications, financial-services and energy lobbyists paid $3,000 to $5,000 apiece to join him for the promise of unfettered access for a weekend with the second-term Oregonian and member of the Finance and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees." ... "Smith paid Bandon Dunes $14,472 last year to reserve the resort for his guests, according to disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Bandon Dunes charges $175 per person for a round of golf and at least $300 for rooms during the peak season, from May to October." ... "Smith, the heir of a frozen-foods fortune, seems to have no qualms about his close ties to the business community. He readily admitted that he flew to the event on FedEx’s corporate jet and returned via Union Pacific’s plane." ... "[Nevada] Republican [Senator] Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.[Republican-Nevada]) also flew out for the event, as did [Indiana Republican Representative] Reps. Chris Chocola (Ind.[Indiana]), [Florida Republican Representative] Ander Crenshaw (Fla.[Florida]) and [Indiana Republican Representative] Steve Buyer (Ind.[Indiana])." ... "[Michigan Republican Representative] Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.[Republican-Michigan]) is hosting a golf tournament in July at the Oakland Hills Country Club [in Michigan], the home of the 2004 Ryder Cup matches and the 2008 PGA Championship. [Kentucky Republican Representative] Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.[Republican-Kentucky]), a cardinal on the Appropriations Committee, will hold an event in August at Pebble Beach, the world-famous coastal golf course in California." ... "In the winter, several lawmakers including [Virginia Republican Representative] Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.[Republican-Virginia]), hosted trips to exclusive skiing resorts in Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming." ... "“You wonder how long Republicans can bifurcate their message to mainstream America with this gross display of wealth,” the lobbyist said." -By Jonathan E. Kaplan -TheHill.com

20060622

Phone - Companies - Consumer- Government - Intelligence - Law - Law Enforcement - "AT&T revises privacy policy, says owns customer data." ... "AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday it was revising its privacy policy, explaining to customers that it owns their phone records and can hand them over to law enforcers if necessary." ... "The changes take effect on Friday and come at a time when AT&T and other phone companies face lawsuits claiming they aided a U.S. government domestic spying program by giving the National Security Agency call records of millions of customers without their permission." -Reuters via -ABCNEWS.com

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

20060610

Internet - Phone - Privacy - Politics - Electronic - Technology - Police - "Appeals court backs Bush on wiretaps." ... "A federal appeals court sided with the Bush administration Friday on an electronic surveillance issue, making it easier to tap into Internet phone calls and broadband transmissions." ... "The court ruled 2-1 in favor of the Federal Communications Commission, which says equipment using the new technologies must be able to accommodate police wiretaps under the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, known as CALEA." ... "Judge David Sentelle called the agency's reading of the law a reasonable interpretation. In dissent, Judge Harry Edwards said the FCC gutted an exemption for information services that he said covered the Internet and broadband." ... "The FCC "apparently forgot to read the words of the statute," Edwards wrote." -AP via -USATODAY
2002 Election - New Hampshire - Phone - Law - "Fallen star blames self, GOP tactics: Jail term served in N.H. phone plot." ... "For nearly a decade, Allen Raymond stood at the top ranks of Republican Party power." ... "He served as chief of staff to a cochairman of the Republican National Committee, supervised Republican contests in mid-Atlantic states for the RNC, and was a top official in publisher Steve Forbes's presidential campaign. He went on to earn $350,000 a year running a Republican policy group as well as a GOP phone-bank business." ... "But most recently, Raymond has been in prison. And for that, he blames himself, but also says he was part of a Republican political culture that emphasizes hardball tactics and polarizing voters." ... "Raymond, 39, has just finished serving a three-month sentence for jamming Democratic phone lines in New Hampshire during the 2002 US Senate race. The incident led to one of the biggest political scandals in the state's history, the convictions of Raymond and two top Republican officials, and a Democratic lawsuit that seeks to determine whether the White House played any role. The race was won by Senator John E. Sununu , the Republican." -By Michael Kranish -Boston/Globe

20060531

E-Mail - Searches - Law - History - Internet - Telecom - Business - Law Enforcement - Terrorism - "U.S. asks Internet firms to save data." ... "Top law enforcement officials have asked leading Internet companies to keep histories of the activities of Web users for up to two years to assist in criminal investigations of child pornography and terrorism, the Justice Department said Wednesday." ... "Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI Director Robert Mueller outlined their request to executives from Google, Microsoft, AOL, Comcast, Verizon and others Friday in a private meeting at the Justice Department. The department has scheduled more discussions as early as Friday." ... "It wants records such as lists of e-mail traffic and Web searches, he [Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse] said." -By Jon Swartz and Kevin Johnson with contributions by William M. Welch -USATODAY
US - Iraq - Military - Intelligence - Phone - Privacy - Law - "Gore: Bush is 'renegade rightwing extremist'." ... "Al Gore has made his sharpest attack yet on the George Bush presidency, describing the current US administration as "a renegade band of rightwing extremists"." ... "Denying that his politics have shifted to the left since he lost the court battle for the 2000 election, Mr Gore says: "If you have a renegade band of rightwing extremists who get hold of power, the whole thing goes to the right."" ... "In the years since, he has been a steady critic of specific Bush administration policies. He opposed the war on Iraq at a time when most prominent Democrats were supporting it, and more recently spoke out against what he called "a gross and excessive power grab" by the administration over phone tapping." -Oliver Burkeman and Jonathan Freedland -Guardian.co.uk

20060529

New Hampshire - 2002 Election - Firefighters - Union - Phone - Corporate - Marketing - Prison - "Convicted phone-jammer helping host GOP candidate workshop." ... "The Republican operative who came up with the idea of jamming Democratic Party and union get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002 is back in the political swim." ... "Charles McGee, vice president of political and corporate communications at Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., sent out an e-mail recently inviting Republican candidates to a free "GOP Campaign School" hosted by the company, which publishes Republican mailers and fliers, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported." ... "A flier about the class calls it a "nuts and bolts boot camp" to give participants "all the tools you need to win."" ... "Hundreds of hang-up calls placed by a telemarketing firm tied up phone lines set up by the [New Hampshire] state Democratic Party and the Manchester firefighters union for more than an hour the morning of Election Day 2002, when then-U.S. [Republican] Rep. John Sununu defeated Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in a tight U.S. Senate race." ... "McGee, the former executive director of the state Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the phone-jamming scheme and served seven months in prison." -AP via -BostonGlobe

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

20060518

Michael Hayden -Military- Phone - Intelligence - "Full committees get NSA briefings: Wiretap details provided to Senate, House panels." ... "The Bush administration provided detailed information on its domestic wiretapping program to the full membership of the House and Senate intelligence committees Wednesday, part of an effort to stem growing criticism surrounding its nominee to head the CIA." ... "White House spokesman Tony Snow acknowledged that the decision to brief the full committees, a move the administration had resisted for months, came as part of an effort to ease the confirmation of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, the former National Security Agency chief whose confirmation hearings as CIA director are scheduled to begin today." ... "The White House said the Capitol Hill briefings, held by Army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, who succeeded Hayden as director of the NSA, would cover both the controversial eavesdropping program -- in which the administration has acknowledged listening in on a handful of phone calls between the United States and overseas -- and the recently disclosed NSA database of domestic phone calls." -By Peter Spiegel -LAtimes via -SFGate.com

20060516

Government - Phone - Company - Noteworthy - Reporters - Free Speech - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - Politics - "FBI Acknowledges: Journalists Phone Records are Fair Game." ... "The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters' phone records in leak investigations." ... "Officials say the FBI makes extensive use of a new provision of the Patriot Act which allows agents to seek information with what are called National Security Letters (NSL)." ... "The NSLs are a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government." -Brian Ross and Richard Esposito -ABCNEWS.com
Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Electronic - Communications - Companies - Consumers - Privacy - Politics - "FCC chief calls for probe of phone cos.." ... "The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the telephone industry, should open an investigation into whether the nation's phone companies broke the law by turning over millions of calling records to the government, an FCC commissioner says." ... "The National Security Agency has been collecting records of calls made in the U.S. by ordinary Americans as part of its anti-terrorism efforts, according to USA Today. The newspaper story followed reports that the NSA has been conducting eavesdropping on the electronic communications of suspected al-Qaida members and their contacts in the U.S. without warrants." ... ""There is no doubt that protecting the security of the American people is our government's No. 1 responsibility," Commissioner Michael J. Copps, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. "But in a digital age where collecting, distributing and manipulating consumers' personal information is as easy as a click of a button, the privacy of our citizens must still matter."" -By Douglass K. Daniel -AP via -MercuryNews

20060515

Government - Law Enforcement - Phone - Intelligence - Reporters - Free Speech - Civil Liberties - Privacy - Law - Politics - "Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling." ... "A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources." ... ""It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation." ... "ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls." ... "Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation." -Brian Ross and Richard Esposito -ABCNEWS.com

20060514

Dick Cheney - Michael Hayden - Government - Terrorism - E-Mail - Phone - Privacy - Law - Politics - "Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping." ... "In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants in the hunt for terrorists, according to two senior intelligence officials." ... "But N.S.A. lawyers, trained in the agency's strict rules against domestic spying and reluctant to approve any eavesdropping without warrants, insisted that it should be limited to communications into and out of the country, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the debate inside the Bush administration late in 2001." ... "The N.S.A.'s position ultimately prevailed. But just how Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the agency at the time, designed the program, persuaded wary N.S.A. officers to accept it and sold the White House on its limits is not yet clear." ... "As the program's overseer and chief salesman, General Hayden is certain to face questions about his role when he appears at a Senate hearing next week on his nomination as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Criticism of the surveillance program, which some lawmakers say is illegal, flared again this week with the disclosure that the N.S.A. had collected the phone records of millions of Americans in an effort to track terrorism suspects." (1, 2) -By Scott Shane and Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
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

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

US - International - Michael Hayden - Government - Military- Terrorism - Electronic - Communications - Intelligence - Privacy - Law - Pennsylvania - "Bush Names Hayden to Head CIA Amid Lawmakers' Unease (Update1)." ... "President George W. Bush named General Michael Hayden to head the Central Intelligence Agency today, even as lawmakers from both parties signaled concern about putting a military officer atop a civilian spy agency." ... "Hayden, 61, is currently the No. 2 official in the Office of National Intelligence, a post to which he was named in August. He was director of the National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005." ... "The super-secret NSA runs massive electronic surveillance programs of international communications and operates a much- criticized domestic wiretapping program as well." ... "Under the spying program approved by Bush in 2001, the NSA monitored conversations between U.S. residents and suspected foreign terrorists without seeking a court warrant, as prescribed by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. [Pennsylvania Senator Arlen] Specter has said the court set up by the act should approve surveillance requests." -By Jeff Bliss -Bloomberg

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

20060427

Telecommunications - Business - Law - Consumer - Internet - Television - "Panel Vote Shows Rift Over `Net Neutrality': A House committee rejects a bid to ban extra charges for faster, more reliable delivery of data." ... "A fight in a House committee about online tolls offered a preview Wednesday of the larger battle brewing over the future of the Internet as Congress overhauls telecommunications rules for the first time in a decade." ... "Despite lobbying from online giants such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected an amendment that would prohibit the owners of Internet networks from charging extra for preferential treatment of data." ... "Uncertainty over so-called Internet neutrality threatens to derail broader efforts to update the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which governs phones and cable television as well as Internet access." -By Jim Puzzanghera -LAtimes

20060426

Telecom - Business - Law - Consumer - Internet - Massachusetts - Texas - "Democrats lose House vote on Net neutrality: A hotly contested Democratic bid to enshrine extensive Net neutrality regulations in the law books failed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives." ... "By a 34-22 vote, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected a Democratic-backed Net neutrality amendment [by Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey] that also enjoyed support from Internet and software companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google." ... "Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican and committee chairman, pressured his fellow GOP members to vote against Markey's amendment--even going so far as to remind them that he opposed it and to call in wayward colleagues who had strayed out into the hallway." ... "Because the committee has a GOP majority, Markey's amendment never had a chance of passing unless some Republicans could be convinced to defect from the party line." ... "Democrats could try again to amend the bill on the House floor, but that tactic only works if the Republican leadership agrees to permit it, which seems unlikely at this point." (1, 2) -By Declan McCullagh -CNET /News
Internet - Business - Telecommunications - Legislation - Intel - Maine - ND - "Intel throws support to Net neutrality push." ... "Intel Corp. has waded into the debate over the future of the Internet, joining major Web companies in supporting legislation that would force Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally." ... "The House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved a telecommunications bill Wednesday that did not contain the kind of safeguard the "net neutrality" proponents are seeking." ... "With the defeat in the House, attention on the issue is expected to shift to the Senate, where Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., plan to introduce a net neutrality bill." -AP via -MSNBC
Telecom - Internet - Business - Law - "Telecoms groups win ‘net neutrality’ battle in Congress." ... "Telecommunications and cable companies scored a victory in the US Congress on Wednesday when a key House committee defeated plans for strict price controls on the high-speed networks that will form the next generation of internet connectivity." ... "The House energy and commerce committee voted 34-22 on Wednesday to defeat a Democrat-sponsored amendment that would have prevented AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from charging more for priority access to the high-speed networks of the future. Despite the defeat, the debate on “net neutrality” – the principle that all content providers should be treated equally on the internet – is far from over, say lobbyists, which pits big telecoms companies against giants of the internet content world, such as Google, Yahoo and eBay." -By Patti Waldmeir and Jenny Johnson -FT.com
Consumer - Internet - Telecommunications - Companies - Law - Massachusetts - Microsoft - Intel - "Net Neutrality Debate Heats Up: As a House committee gears up to vote on whether to require the FCC to enforce the notion of equal Internet access for all parties, the blogosphere is weighing in." ... "Congress continued to debate network neutrality Wednesday as a group opposing companies' push for tiered access gained momentum." ... "At the same time, the SavetheInternet.com Coalition announced that more than 250,000 people signed their petition calling for protection of net neutrality. The coalition, which joins libertarians and gun owners with liberal and business groups, gathered the signatures supporting Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed Markey's amendment in less than a week." ... ""Both sides of the political blogosphere have galvanized behind this political issue – with nearly 500 blogs linking to www.SavetheInternet.com within days," SavetheInternet.com announced." ... "The AARP, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, MoveOn.org, Gun Owners of America, MySpace.com and Vint Cerf are among those claiming that the Internet's level playing field is threatened." ... "Meanwhile, opposition continued to grow this week as dontmesswiththenet.com launched, while Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini and IAC/InternActiveCorp. Chairman and CEO joined the fight. They sent a letter to several representatives stating that net neutrality has supported innovation and empowered people and must be protected." -By K.C. Jones -InformationWeek

20060419

Parents - Telecom - Technology- Opinion - "Watch Out, Kids: With GPS Phones, Big Mother Is Watching." ... "Ever since the first telecom engineer figured out how to cram a Global Positioning System receiver into a cellphone, people have worried about how "They" might exploit those features." ... "Last week, Sprint Nextel Corp. introduced a new service called Family Locator that lets parents track their kids' whereabouts, using the GPS capabilities in each child's cellphone. For $9.99 a month, you can get a fix on your little ones' locations as long as they are on your Sprint account and carry one of the 30 Sprint or Nextel phones that allow this monitoring." ... "The whole idea of tracking your family in this manner is weird and alarming on some levels. So is the notion that we're all so deathly afraid for our kids that there's even a market for this." -By Rob Pegoraro -WashingtonPost

20060411

2002 Election -Phone - Politics- New Hampshire - "Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House: Phone Records in Court Show People in Election Phone Jamming Called White House." ... "Republican officials describe the two-dozen calls to the White House around Election Day 2002 as normal conversations about a close Senate race in New Hampshire." ... "Democrats have suggested in a court filing that another subject was discussed: a GOP scheme that jammed phone lines to keep state Democrats from being encouraged to vote." ... "The phone-jamming operation has led to three federal convictions and a pending indictment. Prosecutors have not raised questions in court about the White House conversations but records of the calls were available to them as criminal court exhibits." (1, 2, 3) -ABCNEWS.com

20060407

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
Terrorism - Government- Telephone - Privacy - Law- Politics - Calif. - "Warrantless Wiretaps Possible in U.S.." ... "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales left open the possibility yesterday that President Bush could order warrantless wiretaps on telephone calls occurring solely within the United States -- a move that would dramatically expand the reach of a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program." ... "In response to a question from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Gonzales suggested that the administration could decide it was legal to listen in on a domestic call without supervision if it were related to al-Qaeda." ... ""I'm not going to rule it out," Gonzales said." ... "In yesterday's testimony, Gonzales reiterated earlier hints that there may be another facet to the NSA program that has not been revealed publicly, or even another program that has prompted dissension within the government. While" -By Dan Eggen-WashingtonPost

20060406

Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Phone - E-Mail - Privacy - Law - Opinion - North Carolina - "Bush refuses apology for surveillance program: President told during speech he should be 'ashamed' for eavesdropping." ... "President Bush, told by a critic he should be ashamed of his policies, defended the government's secret eavesdropping program Thursday and said he would not apologize for listening in on the phone and e-mail conversations of Americans talking to people with suspected al-Qaida links." ... "A man who identified himself as Harry Taylor rose at a forum here [Charlotte, North Carolina] to tell Bush that he's never felt more ashamed of the leadership of his country. He said Bush has asserted his right to tap phone calls without a warrant, to arrest people and hold them without charges, and to revoke a woman's right to an abortion, among other things." -AP via -MSNBC

20060330

Terrorism - Emergency - Airport - Transportation - Communications - Technology - Money - "Report: TSA Got Little for $1 Billion." ... "A company awarded a $1 billion contract for airport security equipment performed so poorly that the Homeland Security Department's inspector general recommended that the project be put out for bid again." ... "The inspector general, Richard Skinner, found in a report released Thursday that Unisys received most of the $1 billion without providing the Transportation Security Administration much of the equipment "critical to airport security and communications."" ... "The federal officials who head airport security at hundreds of airports complained that Unisys supplied antiquated equipment and that their radios didn't always communicate with each other inside the same concourse _ a crucial function during an emergency." -By Leslie Miller -AP via -HoustonChronicle.com

20060113

Computer

Surveillance

Technology

Company

Intelligence

Communications

Data

"ZoneAlarm phones home." ... "A Perfect Spy? It seems that ZoneAlarm Security Suite has been phoning home, even when told not to. Last fall, InfoWorld Senior Contributing Editor James Borck discovered ZA 6.0 was surreptitiously sending encrypted data back to four different servers, despite disabling all of the suite’s communications options. Zone Labs denied the flaw for nearly two months, then eventually chalked it up to a “bug” in the software -- even though instructions to contact the servers were set out in the program’s XML [Extensible Markup Language] code. A company spokesmodel says a fix for the flaw will be coming soon and worried users can get around the bug by modifying their Host file settings. However, there’s no truth to the rumor that the NSA [National Security Agency] used ZoneAlarm to spy on [United States] U.S. citizens." -By Robert X. Cringely

-InfoWorld

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

20051231

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

20051228

NY - Internet - Messaging - Telecommunications - Patent - Search Engine - Business - "Google Talk faces patent lawsuit." ... "A New York company [Rates Technology (RTI)] is suing Google for patent infringement over the voice-over-Internet portion of its Google Talk instant messaging and voice chat program." ... "It alleges infringement on two of its patents for minimizing the cost of long-distance calls using the Internet."" ... "RTI President Jerry Weinberger returned a call seeking comment on Thursday and said his firm also has sued Vonage and Cablevision over patent infringement." ... ""When a VOIP call can be transferred to the regular PSTN (telephone network), the switching of that call infringes our patents," Weinberger said." -By Elinor Mills -CNET /News

20051227

UK - EMail - Business - EU - Privacy - Telecommunications - "Businessman wins e-mail spam case." ... "A businessman has won what is believed to be the first victory of its kind by claiming damages from a company which sent him e-mail spam." ... "Three years ago the EU passed an anti-spam law, the directive on privacy and telecommunications, which gave individuals the right to fight the growing tide of unwanted e-mail by allowing them to claim damages."-BBC /News

20051224

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

20051222

Secret - Government - Terrorism - Intelligence - Telecommunications - EMail - Privacy - Politics - "Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program." ... "The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government sources." ... "Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain authorized wiretaps from their court." (1, 2) -By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer with contributions by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost

20051220

Government - Military - Intelligence - Total Information Awareness - Secrecy - Consumer - Telecommunications -Databases - Privacy - Law -West-Virginia -&nbs