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From Secrecy News:
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence announced (pdf) that it will hold a hearing on Friday May 26 on "the Media's Role and Responsibilities in Leaks of Classified Information."There is no legislation on leaks currently before the Committee, and there are no governmental witnesses testifying at the hearing.
From Secrecy News:
The state secrets privilege has been invoked by the Bush Administration with greater frequency than ever before in American history in a wide range of lawsuits that the government says would threaten national security if allowed to proceed.In virtually every case, the use of the privilege leads to dismissal of the lawsuit and forecloses the opportunity for an injured party to seek judicial relief. . .
. . . See this selection of case files from recent state secrets cases.
From Secrecy News:
For the third year in a row the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney has refused to disclose data on its classification and declassification activity, in an apparent violation of an executive order issued by President Bush. . .. . . The Office of the Vice President has declined to report such data since 2002. Yet it is clear that disclosure is not optional.
From the National Security Archive:
Today the National Security Archive announces the publication of the most comprehensive collection ever assembled of the memoranda of conversations (memcons) involving Henry Kissinger, one of the most acclaimed and controversial U.S. diplomats of the second half of the 20th century. Published on-line in the Digital National Security Archive (ProQuest) as well in print-microfiche form, the 28,000-page collection is the result of a seven-year effort by the National Security Archive to collect every memcon that could be found through archival research and declassification requests.
Welcome to our window on open government and freedom of information, both in our nation’s capital and around the U.S. The view is clouded by increasing government secrecy, but our goal is to provide timely reports on efforts to achieve greater access to public records and meetings and a free flow of information. We also provide background reports and lists of resources that may be of help to you in seeking information. We hope you’ll make this your front page when you need information on transparency in government issues and FOI efforts. We welcome your ideas on content and your suggestions on how to present FOI information in a way most useful to journalists.http://www.cjog.net/
In this study, Daniel Cohn argues that academics have substantial and ample opportunities to influence public policy but that this influence is usually indirect, achieved by convincing those with power to advocate for and/or act on their ideas. Cohn examines how such opportunities arise and can be generated by academics. He also looks at the ways in which state actors can best make use of scholarly advice.PDF; 136 KB
This white paper (published in its sixth edition in 2005) "assesses how government actions have affected the media's ability to provide information to the public" since September 11, 2001. Discusses the USA Patriot Act, the reporter's privilege, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, access to government documents, and state-specific legislation. From the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
"Today four Connecticut librarians spoke publicly for the first time about their experience as recipients of a National Security Letter (NSL) demanding library records. Plaintiffs in John Doe v. Gonzales George Christian, Executive Director of Library Connection; Barbara Bailey, President of the Library Connection Board; Peter Chase, the Board’s Vice President; and Janet Nocek, Secretary of the Board spoke to reporters at an ACLU press conference in New York City. The Plaintiffs were finally allowed to speak publicly after lawyers representing the government withdrew an appeal to keep their identities hidden after Federal District Court Judge Janet C. Hall declared the perpetual gag order that accompanies National Security Letters unconstitutional."
http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/may2006/johndoeungagged.htm
From CBS News:
The Bush administration asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss a pair of lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigation would jeopardize state secrets.In legal papers filed late Friday, Justice Department lawyers said it would be impossible to defend the legality of the spying program without disclosing classified information that could be of value to suspected terrorists.
Federal and state courts across the country are becoming publicly accessible as never before. Growing reliance on computer technology generally and on the Internet specifically, has made the prospect of placing court case records and information online via the Internet a reality. Yet as courts around the country are discovering, difficult policy questions arise as courts move from paper to electronic records, move beyond providing online access to court calendars and docket information, and begin making case files themselves available over the Internet. This article addresses the current debate between public access and privacy in courts around the country as many courts begin providing Internet access to court docket information and case records.
From American Libraries Online:
As part of an unprecedented $448.7-million line-item veto of state funding, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slashed a total of $5.8 million in grants to public libraries, pilot projects for library homework help and web-based high-school texts, and funding for a joint-use library in Tampa. Bush, whose term runs out in January 2007, said as he signed the $73.9-billion state budget May 25 that he was pleased to leave the state with a $6.4-billion reserve cushion against hard times, the Tallahassee Democrat reported May 26.
From American Libraries Online:
A federal appeals judge has criticized the FBI’s permanent ban on speech in terrorism investigations—the gag provision allowed by National Security Letters (NSLs) authorized by the USA Patriot Act—as probably unconstitutional in the light of recent congressional amendments to the law. Judge Richard Cardamone of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City made the comments as the court ruled May 23 on two challenges filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, one of them involving librarians in a Connecticut library consortium who received a demand for patron records through an NSL.
From News.com:
A bill that seeks to prevent broadband providers from offering an exclusive high-speed lane for video and other services has taken a step closer to becoming law.By a 20-13 vote Thursday that partially followed party lines, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would require broadband providers to abide by strict Net neutrality principles, meaning that their networks must be operated in a "nondiscriminatory" manner.
From Yahoo! UK:
Internet users in Myanmar were experiencing a third day without web access after the military-ruled country's already tenuous links to the online world were cut, service providers said.Internet service providers were at a loss to explain the problem, and officials could not say if the connection was broken or if it had been deliberately taken down.
"The Library of Congress has just launched a Web site devoted to information about its program to capture and preserve historically important Web sites so that they can be accessed by future generations of users. The Library of Congress and libraries and archives around the world are interested in collecting and preserving content on the Web because an ever-increasing amount of the world's cultural and intellectual output is created in digital formats and does not exist in any physical form. Creating an archives of Web sites supports the goals of the Library's Digital Strategic Plan, announced in March 2003, which focuses on the collection and management of digital content. The Web Capture Program is directly related to the Library's larger digital preservation program, called the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. The subject areas in which the Library has been collecting Web sites include recent Supreme Court nominations; Hurricane Katrina; and the papal transition following the death of John Paul II. Current collecting projects include the crisis in Darfur, Sudan; the Iraq War; and the upcoming Election 2006. The Library collects Web sites only after it has received formal permission from Web site content owners to do so."
The Florida Legislature passed a bill earlier this month that would prohibit faculty and students from public universities and community colleges from traveling to countries that the U.S. State Department has designated as sponsors of terrorism. At the present moment, those countries are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. As the above linked article states: “[a]lthough the law pertains to research in a small number of nations, it would affect academics who study a variety of issues -- from architecture in Cuba to public health in Syria.”The bill in question is S. 2434. The text, along with some legislative history and reports, is available on the Florida Legislature’s website here. Governor Jeb Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.
From News.com:
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, has called for clear separation between Internet access and Internet content.Speaking at the World Wide Web conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday morning, Berners-Lee gave his views on the growing battle over Net neutrality. . .
. . .Berners-Lee characterized the issue as a U.S.-only problem at present. "In Europe, Net neutrality is the rule," he said.
From the Wall Street Journal: (registration required)
The Federal Communications Commission won't look into whether telephone companies violated consumer-privacy laws by allegedly sharing millions of phone records with the National Security Agency. Kevin Martin, the FCC's Republican chairman, yesterday cited the "classified nature" of the NSA's activities in explaining that his agency would be "unable to investigate the alleged violations ... at this time."
From the Wall Street Journal: (registration required)
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the non-profit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, has reached a deal to market all of its vast and eclectic library on Internet services like the iTunes Music Store. The development promises to bring to a wider audience seminal works by Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly as well as recordings from around the world.
From the Wall Street Journal: (registration required)
Documents unveiled in a lawsuit that privacy advocates filed against AT&T Inc. contain allegations from a former AT&T technician that the company allowed the National Security Agency to install equipment capable of examining "every individual message" on the Internet. In the documents, published yesterday by Wired.com, Mark Klein, the former AT&T employee, offers technical explanations for how the NSA may have tapped into AT&T's network by installing hardware in secret rooms at the company's San Francisco office and elsewhere.
"U.S. Senators Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND), members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today introduced legislation that would preserve the open and democratic character of the Internet. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act would ensure that all content, applications and services are treated equally and fairly on the Internet by prohibiting broadband network operators from blocking, degrading, or prioritizing service on their networks."
http://dorgan.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=255904
"Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) today introduced the Free Flow of Information Act, a bill seeking to protect the public's right to information through a free press. This legislation would provide appropriate protections for professional journalists and their employers from having to reveal information that a journalist learned under a promise of confidentiality and in the course of carrying out news-gathering functions."
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/3487
Government Access to Phone Calling Activity and Related Records: Legal Authorities
This report will summarize statutory authorities regarding access by the Government, for either foreign intelligence or law enforcement purposes, to information related to telephone calling patterns or practices. Where pertinent, we will also discuss statutory prohibitions against accessing or disclosing such information, along with relevant exceptions to those prohibitions.
From the Center for Democracy and Technology:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has released a second order reaffirming its decision to require that broadband and certain VoIP services be designed to make government wiretapping easier. This new order was issued despite the fact that a federal appeals court is considering a legal challenge to the FCC's initial decision to extend the "Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act" (CALEA) to the Internet. In its second order, the FCC imposed new compliance deadlines, but refused to clarify exactly what service providers must do. CDT has led the appeals court challenge, which if successful will overrule the FCC order.
Library Journal reports:
The proposed 80 percent cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) library budget is causing Congress to take notice, especially after a recent meeting between library representatives and several EPA staff members suggested that the agency has planned far too little for the transition. A subcommittee of the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has restored $5 million to the president's budget request for EPA, including funds for libraries, said Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association's Washington Office. The issue also was raised by Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT) at the recent confirmation hearing of an EPA official. "Congress is definitely sending signals to EPA, saying we do not approve of this," Sheketoff told LJ.
From News.com:
The push for new laws mandating Net neutrality principles appears to be gaining steam on Capitol Hill.The leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee released a five-page bill on Thursday that would embed new provisions requiring so-called network neutrality in existing federal antitrust laws.
From the Mercury News:
Secret documents allegedly detailing surveillance of AT&T Inc. phone and e-mail lines under the Bush administration's domestic spying program can be used in a lawsuit against the telephone giant, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, but the records will remain sealed.U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker rejected a bid by AT&T to return the records given to the privacy advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation by a former AT&T technician. But Walker said the records would remain under seal until it can be determined whether they reveal trade secrets.
From the Mercury News:
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte declassified a list of 30 congressional briefings the Bush administration says have been held since the National Security Agency began its no-warrant surveillance program after the Sept. 11 attacks.Half of the briefings took place between Oct. 25, 2001, and the public disclosure of the program this past December, according to a document provided to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The remaining 15 occurred over the past five months and included an expanded group of lawmakers who were told of the program's operational details.
Congratulations! Your help was instrumental in securing a major victory to preserve our right to know about pollution in our environment.As you know, we have been in a long battle with EPA over their proposed rollbacks to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted to block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from spending any more money to reduce the reporting requirements.
The vote was on the Toxic Right-To-Know Amendment sponsored by Reps. Frank Pallone (NJ) and Hilda Solis (CA). The amendment, which was to the Interior Appropriations Bill, (which sets funding for EPA) passed by a wide margin of 231 to 187.
Your emails and phones calls to EPA and Congress over the last few months played a key role in getting this win. So thank you for your contribution to this well-deserved victory and congratulations.
In the coming months, there will likely be additional challenges in the Senate and with EPA on this TRI issue. We hope you can continue to stay involved and continue to speak up for the public's right to know.
If you would like to stay informed on this and other environmental right to know issues, please sign up for our monthly 'eUpdate on Right to Know' by visiting http://www.crtk.org/subscribe.cfm.
Thanks again for all your support and engagement, and again, Congratulations.
Sincerely,
OMB Watch
If you have specific examples of how the SF Regional EPA library is used, please contact Grant Cope in Senator Boxer's office. He can be reached at (202) 224-2738 or grant_cope@boxer.senate.gov. The following comes from Mary Alice Baish, AALL's representative in the April 24 meeting with the EPA. I posted Mary Alice's notes from the meeting the other day.
Dear CA Friends,Sen. Boxer's staff person, Grant Cope, needs to hear from her constituents about the impact of the closure of EPA libraries on public access--my understanding is that the S.F. regional library has already been substantively downsized although I don't think they plan to close it (as they have announced for the Chicago and Dallas regional libraries).
Several of us met on April 26th with EPA staff, and below you'll find my notes from that meeting. Also attached fyi are our talking points.
Grant is looking for specific examples of how the S.F. library's
collections are used, and it would be good to stress the importance of access to its many unique materials. He can be reached at (202) 224-2738 or grant_cope@boxer.senate.gov.If you contact him by email, please copy both myself and Emily
Sheketoff, executive director of the ALA Washington Office. Her email is: esheketoff at alawash dot org.Please pass this on to others who can weigh in. As always, time is of
the essence. Grant needs to hear from CA folks asap.Thanks,
Mary Alice
baish at law dot georgetown dot edu
From Wired.com:
Former National Security Agency director Bobby Ray Inman lashed out at the Bush administration Monday night over its continued use of warrantless domestic wiretaps, making him one of the highest-ranking former intelligence officials to criticize the program in public, analysts say."This activity is not authorized," Inman said, as part of a panel discussion on eavesdropping that was sponsored by The New York Public Library. The Bush administration "need(s) to get away from the idea that they can continue doing it."
From News.com:
A prominent Republican in the U.S. Congress has backed away from plans to rewrite Internet privacy rules by requiring that logs of Americans' online activities be stored.Wisconsin Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said through a representative this week that he will not be introducing that legislation after all.
From Yahoo! News:
New York's Central Park and a number of other public spaces will become public Internet hubs starting this summer when the city's parks begin offering free wireless net access, the city government said.We expect Central Park to be launched in July, and the rest of the parks in the late summer," the Department of Parks and Recreation said. Among those green spaces going on-line for public Wi-Fi access will be Washington Square, Union Square, Brooklyn's Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows.
From Deutsche Welle:
A German foundation plans to create a "library of burned books" to honor authors persecuted by the Nazis.It has been 73 years since the Nazis instituted their public book burnings in more than 50 cities. About 10,000 so-called "un-German" titles went up in flames and disappeared from public life. Most of the authors were persecuted and had to flee the country and some even murdered.
In order to remember such barbarism and victimization of authors, the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies in Potsdam is launching a "library of burned books."
On April 24, Emily Sheketoff (ALA), Doug Newcomb (SLA), and Mary Alice Baish (AALL) met with representatives of the EPA to express the library community's concern over the budget reduction for the regional EPA libraries and the premature dismantling of the libraries before the budget had even passed. Below are the notes from that meeting.
There is still a little time for you to contact your legislators. Urge your Members of Congress to introduce or support any amendment introduced to the FY 07 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill to restore the funding for EPA libraries that has been cut in the Agency's budget. The ALA's new Legislative Action Center makes it easy to do.
EPA Meeting, April 24, 2006Present:
Emily Sheketoff (ALA)
Doug Newcomb (SLA)
Mary Alice Baish (AALL)EPA: Linda Travers, Acting Assistant Administrator/CIO
Emma McNamara, Director, Information Access Division
Mike Flynn, Deputy Office Director, OIAA
Kate Sijthoff, OIAA
Staff person sitting in for Rick Martin, Office Director, OIAAAs we introduced ourselves, Emily let them know that this is animportant issue for ALA and one of the "Key Congressional Messages" thatALA members would be taking to the Hill on National Library Legislative Day.
Linda Travers began the discussion by noting that they have been looking at their libraries for many years and now have to deal with the $2.5 M reduction in FY 2007. She said that their focus is on digital information, both for future dissemination and for access to the legacy collection and that they are moving away from print. She noted that Mike Flynn is chair of the Steering Committee to oversee the changes.
Mike Flynn picked up on that by noting they are moving to a new model for greater efficiencies, and that we needed to understand the transition. The Steering Committee consists of management (no EPA scientists or librarians are on it) and they're looking at budget issues and what decisions the regional offices are making.
They want to ensure that good services continue for EPA employees (there was mere lip service paid to our concerns about access by the public). He noted that there will be a transition to 1-3 repositories (Cincinnati, Research Triangle and possibly even the HQ library) that would become "centers of excellence" and provide ILL services to "anyone. But no real thought has gone into public access to this information. He said that public access will be "different," no longer physical access.
Linda then noted that EPA provides good public access through their web site, and they respond to many phone and email queries. At one point, she mentioned that the regions would probably have some sort of small office on the ground floor where either a staff of public affairs or a librarian would respond to public queries. Part of the rationale for closing the libraries, she said, was the security concerns post-9/11.
Mary Alice had brought along a copy of the "Transforming EPA Libraries" report suggesting that it provided a roadmap to improved efficiencies. They jumped on that, saying they in fact are following its recommendations. Our response that you should not close the libraries until you have the new improved system in place fell on deaf years.
Emma McNamara (a librarian) responded to our concerns about closing libraries by stating that the Cincinnati repository is committed to digitizing all unique materials and they are reviewing how to phase that in. We pointed out the substantial costs of digitizing the entire legacy collection--millions of dollars--and there was no reaction. We were alarmed when Emma said that they would keep ONE copy of all EPA reports and make these available through ILL--hardly sufficient to provide the necessary access or preservation, as we pointed out. She said at one point that Cincinnati would make "free" copies of their reports available to anyone who asked.
We got into a discussion about Science Direct and the need to retain print journals for their staff. Emma said that they will keep at least one subscription to their print journals for that purpose (we understand that is part of their contract with Reed Elsevier). She noted that EPA pays $3.5-4 million annually for Science Direct but that it comes out of the EPA budget, not the library budget.
We tried whenever possible to restate our talking points that they are envisioning the future but it's not here now and closing the libraries should not be implemented until robust public access through these "centers of excellence" can be achieved. We talked a lot about user needs for EPA materials, including state and local government entities. They clearly are not concerned about loss of public access. At one point, Linda admitted that it might take 6 months to move the Chicago collections and make them accessible again. We reiterated that their proposal to convert everything to digital is going to be very costly at a time when they want to cut a mere $2.5 million.
Finally, we asked numerous times for their business plan. Apparently there will "ultimately" be such a document and we encouraged that it be distributed for public comment. Linda Travers seemed to understand that the EPA staff has done a poor job of communicating and there is no realistic plan in place to move forward in what they want to do.
All in all, an important conversation with EPA about the library budget cuts but clearly they are moving ahead and we certainly didn't change their minds. We need to get support on the Hill quickly as EPA's FY 2007 approps bills are being marked up shortly.
Mary Alice Baish
5/9/2006
From the Chronicle of Higher Education: (registration required)
A joint convocation held by the American Council of Learned Societies and the Association of American Universities to assess the state of the humanities drew over 200 scholars and administrators -- as well as two prominent Congressional advocates for arts and letters -- to a hotel here on Friday.The convocation, which was pegged in part to a 2004 report issued by the association, "Reinvigorating the Humanities," eschewed much of the doom and gloom that has surrounded such gatherings in recent decades. Speakers largely agreed that scholarship in the humanities was vigorous, but that the disciplines still faced serious challenges posed by the digital revolution, a rigidity in academic organization, and a lack of public outreach. . .
. . . Paul N. Courant, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, argued that such trends are leading to "a pervasive inaccessibility of cultural materials."
"The humanities are at risk here," he said at one of the convocation sessions. "We risk losing our own source material. There will be a hole in our history."
He recommended that universities wage an aggressive campaign to defend and extend the "fair use" provisions of copyright law.
"Scholarship is fair use," Mr. Courant declared. "Period."
From the Wall Street Journal: (registration required)
BellSouth Corp. yesterday denied turning over bulk calling records to the National Security Agency, amid uproar over the alleged role of phone companies in U.S. surveillance efforts. The Atlanta-based company also said the agency had never contacted it to provide massive amounts of information about domestic calls.
From News.com:
A Republican senator on Monday questioned whether the federal government should be using its resources for large-scale data-mining efforts such as those associated with the National Security Agency's wiretapping program.Speaking at a privacy seminar here at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire said the latest revelations that the nation's three biggest phone companies have delivered call records on potentially millions of Americans to the NSA raise concerns about the government's encroachment into private citizens' lives, even if the actions were legal.
"The has launched a new "In Your State" tool. Accessible by link from the Center's home page, the In Your State feature provides easy access to all Center research and analysis on a particular state... users can view the actual disclosure filings of the given state's legislators, including nearly 7,000 reports filed by legislators in 2005 that the Center posted on its Web site today."
"The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia today released new evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is using counterterrorism resources to spy on peaceful faith- and conscience-based advocacy groups. School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) and its multinational faith-based network is the latest organization uncovered by the ACLU to have been subject to Federal Bureau of Investigation counterterrorism surveillance."
From ABC News:
The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters’ phone records in leak investigations.“It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration,” said a senior federal official.
The acknowledgement followed our blotter item that ABC News reporters had been warned by a federal source that the government knew who we were calling.
The Washington Post reports on the EPA library budget cuts:
Proposed budget cuts could cripple a nationwide system of Environmental Protection Agency libraries that government researchers and others depend on for hard-to-find technical information, library advocates say.The $2 million cut sought by the White House would reduce the 35-year-old EPA Library Network's budget by 80 percent and force many of its 10 regional libraries to close, according to the advocates and internal agency documents.
From the Mercury News:
China's biggest Internet search site, Baidu.com, has launched a Chinese-language encyclopedia inspired by the cooperative reference site Wikipedia, which the communist government bars China's Web surfers from seeing.The Chinese service, which debuted in April, carries entries written by users, but warns that it will delete content about sex, terrorism and attacks on the government.