Secrecy News - from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy. The Director of National Intelligence has forbidden most intelligence community employees from discussing “intelligence-related information” with a reporter unless they have specific authorization to do so, according to an Intelligence Community Directive that was issued last month. “IC employees… must obtain authorization for contacts with the media” on intelligence-related matters, and “must also report… unplanned or unintentional contact with the media on covered matters,” the Directive stated.
The new Directive reflects — and escalates — tensions between the government and the press over leaks of classified information. It is intended “to mitigate risks of unauthorized disclosures of intelligence-related matters that may result from such contacts.” See Intelligence Community Directive 119, Media Contacts, March 20, 2014. Significantly, however, the new prohibition does not distinguish between classified and unclassified intelligence information. Obama Administration Claims "State Secrets" to Block Judge's Ruling on NSA Spying - Iceweasel. Madison RuppertActivist Post In an attempt to prevent a federal judge from ruling on the constitutionality of surveillance programs operated by the National Security Agency (NSA), the Obama administration told the court that litigating the case would endanger state secrets. This comes after a different federal judge ruled that the mass collection of NSA phone records is likely unconstitutional.
In a pair of court filings late Friday, the White House told the court for the Northern District of California that the NSA collection of Americans’ Internet and phone data was authorized by former President George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. “President Bush issued authorizations approximately every 30-60 days,” Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper revealed. Yet the government is now arguing that the release of more information on NSA surveillance programs in court cause “great harm to national security.” The Justice Department has asked U.S. The State Secrets Privilege | Electronic Frontier Foundation - Iceweasel. The first step in Jewel v. NSA is for the court to decide whether to adopt or reject the government’s invocation of the controversial 'state secrets' privilege—a legal tool that started as a limited shield intended to protect legitimate and critical government national security secrets, but which the government has attempted to turn into a sword to block Americans seeking to enforce the law and the Constitution.
Essentially, by invoking the state secrets privilege in this way, the government argues that even if all of the allegations of serious law-breaking and Constitutional violations are true, surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans is exempt from judicial review. In response to the government’s assertion, and as it has since the first wiretapping cases started in 2006, EFF argues that in creating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Congress preempted the state secrets privilege, creating a separate but still very secure way for the case to be decided. In Jewel v. Obama’s Portable Zone of Secrecy (Some Assembly Required) Obama Administration Appeals SOA Watch Court Victory | SOA Watch: Close the School of the Americas.
█████ ██ █ ████ everything ███ █████ is ████ ██ ████ fine ████ ███ █ █████ love. █████ █████ ███ your ████ ████ government. The Pentagon is Fighting Hard to Keep SOA/ WHINSEC Secrecy Obama Administration Continues to Refuse the Release of Names of SOA/WHINSEC Graduates: Appeals SOA Watch Court Victory Human rights activists and SOA Watch took the U.S. government to court over its refusal to release the names of the trainers at the SOA/WHINSEC - and WON!
In a landmark case, United States District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton from the Northern District of California ruled in April 2013, that the Pentagon had no grounds for refusing to release these names (click here to read the judgment). Now, two months later, the U.S. government is appealing the ruling and fighting to keep information about the SOA/WHINSEC secret, because this school has been connected to the training of torturers, death squads and military dictators throughout the Americas. Against the School of the Americas.