By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 7:08pm
Today the ACLU won a significant victory in our battle to ensure that cell phones don’t become Big Brother tracking devices. Following a four-year fight, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to comply with our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and turn over the names and docket numbers in numerous cases where the government accessed cell phone location data without a warrant.
By Nusrat Choudhury, Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project at 2:12pm
Today we filed a lawsuit to enforce a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking the government for information about a nationwide FBI system called eGuardian, which is used to collect and share so-called "Suspicious Activity Reports" (SARs) about people from local, state and federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The government has been using eGuardian since January 2009 to compile data on thousands of Americans, and the ACLU wants to know how this system works, and what safeguards are in place to make sure that the constitutional rights of innocent people are protected.
By Robyn Greene, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 9:19am
Last week, Wired’s Spencer Ackerman reported on a FBI document released through an ACLU document request that the agency uses to train new recruits on best practices for “successful interviews/interrogations with individuals from the M.E. [Middle East].” As Ackerman concludes, the training document “presents much information that has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with constitutionally-protected religious practice and social behavior.”
By David Shapiro, ACLU National Prison Project at 12:29pm
Two years ago, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had no idea how many immigration detainees had died on its watch. Yes, you read that right. In 2009, DHS had simply lost track of the number of immigrants who had died in the detention centers that it operates. It wasn’t until the ACLU brought a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act that the government finally launched an investigation to uncover the real death toll.
Last month,The New York Times reported that Bush administration officials attempted to "gather sensitive information" to discredit Professor Cole because he was a vocal critic of the Iraq War and the Bush administration on his blog, Informed Comment. Glenn Carle, a former CIA agent, alleged in the Times article that he had seen a memo written by his supervisor, David Low, intended for the White House that contained "derogatory details" about Professor Cole.
By Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU at 11:28am
Today the ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demanding that the Justice Department release information about the government's use and interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
This morning, we filed a lawsuit to enforce our April 2009 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for information about Bagram detainees. We're looking for basic information, such as how many people are imprisoned at Bagram, who they are, how long they’ve been detained, and where and under what circumstances they were captured. We are also requesting records about the rules and policies that govern Bagram detentions, the process for prisoners to challenge their detention, and the conditions of confinement. So far, the agencies we requested the information from—the Departments of Justice, State, Defense and the CIA—have been less than forthcoming.
Yesterday, the Justice Department filed a brief (PDF) with the D.C. Court of Appeals asserting that detainees in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan have no right to challenge their detention in American courts.
Sound familiar? In early December 2007, Bush Justice Department lawyers made the same argument, except they were arguing that Guantánamo detainees didn't have these rights. The Supreme Court disagreed: in the landmark Boumediene v. Bushdecision, the high court found that detainees in U.S. custody at Guantánamo did have the right to challenge their detention.
For anyone looking for the human price of unlawful government secrecy, take time to consider Bob Snashall’s recent editorial in The Charleston Gazette. Snashall spent 30 years as a freedom of information adviser within the U.S. Labor Department Solicitor’s office, Division of Mine Safety and Health.
