FAC

With the revelation that a U.S. drone strike in in Pakistan in January killed two hostages, aid workers Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, there are renewed calls for greater transparency about the strikes and their collateral damage. Human rights groups have long urged the Obama administration to disclose enough information about the drone strikes including their standards and criteria to allow for Congressional oversight and judicial review. (The Christian Science Monitor, April 25, 2015,

The cybersecurity laws currently in Congress will create a new exemption to the Freedom of Information Act that blocks the public from knowing anything about signs of cyber threats and defensive tactics companies and individuals share with the government. (Politico, April 20, 2015, by Josh Gerstein) The Freedom of the Press Foundation and others signed two letters opposing the bills which they say are “little more than new surveillance powers wrapped in a cheap disguise.”

In a rare victory for workers, the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that  federal labor laws protect employees making complaints to their employer. The ruling came in a case in which a security guard claimed he was punished for telling his boss he had not been paid for several month. (Courthouse News Service, April 20, 2015, by Jack Bouboushian) Before the 2nd Circuit weighed in, it was necessary to make a written complaint

Sony lawyer David Boies warned the media not to publish a WikiLeaks database of internal Sony documents and e-mails obtained after a cyberattack last year. WikiLeak’s Julian Assange claimed that the information should be public because Sony is part of the U.S. military-industrial complex and the documents offer a view of a “large, secretive multinational corporation.” (International Business Times, April 18, 2015, by Catherine Dunn) Wikileaks published the documents in a searchable format called “The

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) obtained a document allegedly showing that while the CIA was withholding information about the hunt for Osama bin Laden from Congress and the public, they gave secret information to the makers of the film “Zero Dark Thirty”  that told the story of how the U.S. tracked and killed bin Laden. Defense Inspector General Lynne Halbrooks allegedly covered up the transaction. (POGO, April 16, 2015, by Adam Zagorin) Senator Charles