National Security

Should Congress create a public’s right to appeal secret FISA court rulings?

A former judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court suggests a mechanism to allow appeals of secret court proceedings while still safeguarding national security. In a New York Times op-ed column, senior federal judge James G. Carr advocates appointment of “independent lawyers with security clearances to serve ‘pro bono publico’ — for the public’s good — to challenge the government when an application for a FISA order raises new legal issues.” Full story

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Antiwar website says it was spied on by FBI

A lawsuit in San Francisco federal court seeks documents showing that the FBI has conducted secret surveillance on an antiwar website operated by two Bay Area men. The suit asserts that the FBI began targeting antiwar.com a decade ago and has documents indicating it considered the site a threat to national security. While the suit says the FBI denied having any such documents, antiwar.com produced a 2004 memo suggesting otherwise, according to an account in

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Government’s dangerous crackdown on whistle-blowers

In a New York Times op-ed, two esteemed First Amendment advocates argue that the Private Bradley Manning case underscores a grave threat to the press and public — no matter what you think of Manning’s judgment when he released volumes of documents to WikiLeaks. While attorney Floyd Abrams argues that Manning acted carelessly, Harvard law professor Yochai Benkler asserts that Manning behaved much like Daniel Ellsberg, who famously released the Pentagon Papers — secret documents

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The role of leaks in a democracy

Government struggles to protect its secrets; the media struggle to expose government excess. It’s a delicate dance, and an essential one in a democracy, says the New York Times’ public editor. While the administration has an obligation to protect the national security, the public has a right and need to know about prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and justification for drone killings, among other things, she says. So the chilling effect of the Obama administration’s

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