Government Secrecy

12/07/2011

Secrecy Without Sense: State Department Censors Cables Already Published by WikiLeaks

By Anna Estevao, National Security Project & Nathan Freed Wessler, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project at 9:27pm

For the first time, the government has acknowledged that the WikiLeaks release contains authentic State Department cables.

10/26/2011

Patriot Act

ACLU Sues Government to Find Out Secret Interpretation of Patriot Act

By Anna Estevao, National Security Project at 12:44pm

We believe the public has a right to know how the government is interpreting a law that is carried out in secret and applies to all Americans.

07/28/2011

Government Secrecy

Secrecy Poisoning American Democracy

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 10:49am

A new report that we’re releasing today makes the case that out-of-control secrecy is a serious disease that is hurting American democracy. More and more of our government’s actions are being hidden from the people who are supposed to be ultimately in charge of that government. A story about attempts to uncover secret laws in today’s Washington Post shows just how timely our report is.

05/31/2011

Patriot Act

Unmasking "Secret Law": New Demand for Answers About the Government's Hidden Take on the Patriot Act

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.

03/15/2011

Patriot Act

Howlers on the Patriot Act

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project & Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:44pm

The Patriot Act has been surrounded by a cloud of fear-mongering since it was reintroduced almost immediately after the 9/11 attacks and rushed through Congress, without any finding that the sweeping new powers granted by the act had anything to do with the problems and failures that contributed to that attack.

At the heart of the issue has been confusion between giving the authorities surveillance powers, and giving them unchecked surveillance powers. Much of what the Patriot Act did was to remove independent judges from oversight over invasions of privacy conducted in the name of law enforcement and national security.

11/05/2010

Government Secrecy

Secrets

By Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Director, ACLU at 6:11pm

Which secrets should be kept, and which should be exposed? Those questions are at the heart of Doug Liman's new film, Fair Game, which tells the story of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame. Joe Wilson, remember, was the former U.S. diplomat who exposed one of the many false claims made by the Bush administration in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Valerie Plame is Wilson's wife, a covert CIA operative whose identity the Bush administration disclosed to reporters in an effort to retaliate against Wilson.

04/09/2010

PCLOB

Obama to Appoint Privacy Board Members

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 2:09pm

A few weeks ago, Jay wrote about the Obama administration's failure to appoint members to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB). It looks like all those letters from members of Congress (PDF) and a civil liberties coalition (PDF) Jay mentioned might've been the nudge the president needed, because in today's Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima reported some good news: "The White House is vetting someone for one of the three Democratic seats on the board."

03/31/2010

PCLOB

Help Wanted: Oversight Over $60 Billion Security Establishment

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 10:59am

(Originally posted on Daily Kos.)

Never before in history has the United States had such a huge, and increasingly powerful security establishment. This behemoth has tens of thousands of employees and a budget of at least $60 billion, and though first established to protect our country from outside threats, it is increasingly turning its eye inward upon the people of America. It is vital that we have strong checks and balances in place to counterbalance this growing, secretive center of government power. Unfortunately, in many ways Congress has been weakening, rather than strengthening, those checks and balances in recent years.

American Civil Liberties Union