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ACLU Says Fusion Centers Remain Problematic (04/17/2008)
Washington, DC – As a Senate subcommittee met today to get a “progress report” on fusion centers, the American Civil Liberties Union once again voiced its concerns with the intelligence-gathering institutions. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration heard testimony from government and intelligence officials on a recent report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding the centers. Though several recent reports have confirmed fusion centers’ growing role in law enforcement and revealed their expanding ties to private industry, including relationships with massive data-brokering companies, no third parties were set to testify. The ACLU released a report last year outlining serious concerns with fusion centers.

ACLU Sues Pentagon To Uncover Records Of Deaths At Guantánamo (04/17/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit today to force the Department of Defense to release all records relating to deaths, suicide attempts and homicide attempts at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay since 2002. The ACLU's lawsuit follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for those documents, including records relating to four specific detainee deaths that the government categorized as suicides. To date, the Defense Department has failed to comply with the ACLU's FOIA request.

Documents Obtained By ACLU Describe Charges Of Murder And Torture Of Prisoners In U.S. Custody (04/16/2008)
NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union obtained documents today from the Department of Defense confirming the military’s use of unlawful interrogation methods on detainees held in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. The documents from the military’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID), obtained as a result of the ACLU’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, include the first on-the-ground reports of torture in Gardez, Afghanistan to be publicly released.

Jury Still Out on Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (04/16/2008)
WASHINGTON – Today, the Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing regarding the repeatedly delayed implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI). WHTI would require all travelers, including American citizens, to have a passport or other “appropriate security documentation” to enter or re-enter the United States from countries within the Western Hemisphere, including Canada and Mexico.

ACLU Challenges National Security Letters In Congress And Court (04/15/2008)
WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging National Security Letter (NSL) statutes on two fronts today, testifying before Congress and filing a lawsuit in federal court in its fight to end the government’s abuse of NSL powers. NSLs, secretly issued by the government, are used to obtain access to personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions and credit reporting agencies. Recipients of the NSLs are generally forbidden, or “gagged,” from disclosing that they have received the letters. The ACLU and representatives from the Department of Justice will testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at a hearing on a bill introduced by the committee’s chairman, Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), entitled “The National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007.”

Bush Admits To Knowledge of Torture Authorization by Top Advisers (04/12/2008)
WASHINGTON – In a stunning admission to ABC news Friday night, President Bush declared that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA’s use of torture. Bush reportedly told ABC, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.” Bush also defended the use of waterboarding.

News Report Reveals White House Approved Torture Techniques (04/10/2008)
WASHINGTON DC – ABC News reported that in dozens of top-secret White House meetings, the most senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, discussed and approved specific torture techniques for use on detainees. According to this report, Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft sanctioned these tactics. In light of this revelation, the American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Congress to appoint a special counsel to investigate these charges.

Military Commission Proceedings Put Credibility Of U.S. Justice System On The Line (04/09/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union will be at Guantánamo Bay this week to observe the U.S. military commission hearings of Sudanese national Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al-Qosi, Saudi national Ahmed Mohammad al-Darbi and Canadian national Omar Ahmed Khadr. The ACLU has been present as an independent observer at each and every commission hearing and continues to see no indication that the proceedings are fair, impartial or in accordance with constitutional principles.

Innocent Victim Of CIA Extraordinary Rendition Program Takes Case To International Tribunal (04/09/2008)
NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent victim of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear El-Masri's case in October 2007.

ACLU Calls for Investigation into NSL Abuse (04/08/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday called on Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine to begin an internal investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) use of National Security Letters (NSLs), and whether they were used to funnel Americans’ private information to the Department of Defense (DOD). The NSL statute is a tool used by law enforcement to compel the release of information, such as communications or business records, without a court order. The revelation that the military is getting the FBI to issue NSLs in strictly DOD investigations was disclosed in documents obtained by the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The ACLU sent a letter to Fine yesterday asking him to investigate whether the FBI has aided the DOD in circumventing the law.

ACLU Argues That Ashcroft Can Be Held Accountable For Wrongful Detention (04/08/2008)
SEATTLE – The American Civil Liberties Union is arguing today in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of an innocent American, Abdullah al-Kidd. The ACLU is also arguing that the federal material witness law cannot be used to preventively detain or investigate suspects without sufficient evidence that they have actually committed crimes.

ACLU And NACDL Assembling Guantánamo Defense Teams (04/03/2008)
NEW YORK – In order to protect American values of fairness and justice and the constitutional guarantee of due process, the American Civil Liberties Union, together with National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), announced today that it is assembling defense teams to be available to assist in the representation of detainees facing prosecution in the military commissions proceedings at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The Guantánamo military commissions process – which allows detainees to be convicted on the basis of secret evidence, hearsay, and confessions derived from torture – is an affront to civil liberties and a stain on America’s reputation around the world.

ACLU Urges Senate Judiciary Committee to Probe Department of Homeland Security (04/02/2008)
WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an annual oversight hearing, the American Civil Liberties Union calls on the committee to demand he answer tough questions about DHS’s most troubling initiatives. The ACLU submitted a statement for the record detailing concerns the organization has with some of the department’s activities, namely recent policies regarding immigration raids, deaths in immigration detention facilities, Real ID, Total Information Awareness and fusion centers.

New Report Supports ACLU Warnings on Fusion Centers (04/02/2008)
Washington, DC – A new document obtained by the Washington Post supports warnings by the American Civil Liberties Union regarding the post-9/11 institutions known as fusion centers. A story published today in the Post confirms fusion centers’ growing role in law enforcement and reveals their expanding ties to private industry, including relationships with massive data-brokering companies. The ACLU released a report last year outlining serious concerns with fusion centers.

Bush Administration Memo Says Fourth Amendment Does Not Apply To Military Operations Within U.S. (04/02/2008)
NEW YORK – A newly disclosed secret memo authored by the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in March 2003 that asserts President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations of detainees also reveals a radical interpretation of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The memo, declassified yesterday as the result of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, cites a still-secret DOJ memo from 2001 that found that the "Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations."

Secret Bush Administration Torture Memo Released Today In Response To ACLU Lawsuit (04/01/2008)
NEW YORK — A secret memo authored by the Department of Justice (DOJ) asserting that President Bush has unlimited power to order brutal interrogations to extract information from detainees was declassified today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The memo, written by John Yoo, then a deputy at the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), was sent to the Defense Department in March 2003.

Newly Unredacted Documents Confirm Lack Of Oversight Of Military's Domestic Surveillance Powers (04/01/2008)
NEW YORK - On the heels of an internal report criticizing the FBI for abusing its power to issue National Security Letters (NSLs), newly unredacted documents released today as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit reveal that the Department of Defense (DoD) is using the FBI to circumvent legal limits on its own NSL power and may have overstepped its authority to obtain private and sensitive records of people within the United States without court approval.

ACLU Tells House to Remain Steadfast on FISA (04/01/2008)
Washington, DC – The American Civil Liberties Union today commented on reports that President Bush said he is willing to negotiate on the domestic surveillance program.

Passport Security Breaches Show Privacy Vulnerabilities (03/21/2008)

Federal Appeals Court to Hear NYCLU Arguments About Secret Court Opinion and NSA Warrantless Wiretapping (03/21/2008)
The United States Court of Appeals in Manhattan will hear arguments Monday morning in a criminal prosecution that presents a challenge to the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program as well as a challenge to a secret lower court order and related government filings about the NSA program. The New York Civil Liberties Union is directly challenging the secret court order and secret government filings and also has filed a separate friend-of-the-court brief about the NSA program.