A Stability Police Force for the United States
This project investigates the need for a U.S. Stability
Police Force, the major capabilities it would need if created, where in
the federal govern- ment it would best be headquartered, and how it
should be staffed. In doing so, it considers options based in the
Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and State. The
project was conducted for the U.S. Army’s Peacekeeping and Stability
Operations Institute (PKSOI). Its purpose was to make recommendations to
PKSOI, the Army, and the community of rule-of-law researchers,
practitioners, and policymakers on the need for (and characteristics of)
a U.S. Stability Police Force.
Source: RAND, ISBN 978-0-8330-4653-6, 2009
More FBI Privacy Violations Confirmed
The FBI
improperly used national security letters in 2006 to obtain personal
data on Americans during terror and spy investigations, Director Robert
Mueller said Wednesday.
Source: myway, March 5, 2008
FBI to collect biometric information on Britons
British visitors to the US will have details of their
physical characteristics added to a new billion dollar database under
plans drawn up by the FBI.
Fingerprints, iris scans and even details of the way
people walk, their scars and the size and shape of their ear lobes will
be collected.
Source: Telegraph, December 26, 2007
FBI Working on World’s Largest Biometric Database
The FBI is embarking on a $1
billion project to build the world’s largest computer database of
biometrics to give the government more ways to identify people at home
and abroad, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Source: PC Magazine, December 26, 2007
Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request
Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order
cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can
pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other
criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.
In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the
government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a
crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a
crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average
Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.
Source: The Washington Post (online), November 23, 2007
Judge Criticizes Warrantless Wiretaps
Royce Lamberth, a
district court judge in Washington, said Saturday it was proper for
executive branch agencies to conduct such surveillance. “But what we
have found in the history of our country is that you can’t trust the
executive,” he said at the American Library Association’s convention.
Source: MyWay, June 23, 2007
FBI Finds It Frequently Overstepped in Collecting Data
An internal FBI
audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency
rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone
calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than
was documented in a
Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional criticism.
Source: The Washington Post (online), June 14, 2007
FBI Terror Watch List ‘Out of Control’
Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.
ABC News (online), June 13, 2007
Military positioned to launch action – here
The United States military is being
positioned to be put into action under presidential authority in any
one of a dozen scenarios within the United States – including natural
disasters, epidemics, terrorist attacks, insurrections, or domestic
violence including conspiracies, according to a report from WND columnist Jerome R. Corsi.
Source: WorldNetDaily, June 5, 2007
Bush grants presidency extraordinary powers
President Bush has signed an
executive order granting extraordinary powers to the office of the
president in the event of a declared national emergency, apparently
without congressional approval or oversight.
Source: WorldNetDaily, May 23, 2007
Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years
TIDE [Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment] has also
created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the
first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence
database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list,
it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can
lead to “horror stories” of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information,
Travers acknowledged.
Source: The Washington Post (online), March 25, 2007
Lawmakers Threaten FBI Over Spy Powers
Republicans and Democrats sternly
warned the FBI on Tuesday that it could lose its broad power to collect
telephone, e-mail and financial records to hunt terrorists after
revelations of widespread abuses of the authority detailed in a recent
internal investigation.
Source: Breitbart, March 20, 2007
Justice Dept.: FBI Misused Patriot Act
The FBI
improperly and, in some cases, illegally used the USA Patriot Act to
secretly obtain personal information about people in the United States, a
Justice Department audit concluded Friday.
Source: MyWay, March 9, 2007
Bush Gives Himself Authority to Search the Mail
While most of Congress was preparing for the holiday
season, President George Bush quietly asserted his authority by giving
the government the right to search your mail without a warrant.
Source: consumeraffairs.com, January 4, 2007
Bill Clinton authorized Sandy Berger’s access
President Bill Clinton signed a letter authorizing former
National Security Adviser Sandy Berger’s access to classified documents
that later came up missing, according to a newly released investigation
report by the National Archives and Records Administration.
Source: WorldNetDaily, January 4, 2007
FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of
electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a
mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby
conversations.
Source: C/net, December 1, 2006
Man Mistakenly Abducted by C.I.A. Seeks Redress
The officials said Mr. Masri was released in May 2004 on the orders of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
then the national security adviser, after she learned he had been
mistakenly identified as a terrorism suspect. He was freed in Albania,
where he was left to make his way home to Germany, which he likened to
being treated “like a piece of luggage.”
Source: The New York Times (online), November 28, 2006
Justice Department Eyes Spy Program
The Justice Department has begun an internal
investigation into its handling of information gathered in the
government’s domestic spying program. However, Democrats criticized the
review as too narrow to determine whether the program violated federal
law.
Source: Breitbart, November 27, 2006
FBI setting up lab to track digital data
Crime scenes aren’t just about fingerprints and blood samples anymore.
Increasingly, criminals are leaving behind digital traces of their
activities — on computers, cell phones, BlackBerries and other
electronic devices.
Source: Courier Journal, October 20, 2006
Bush Signs Terror Interrogation Law
President Bush
signed legislation Tuesday authorizing tough interrogation of terror
suspects and smoothing the way for trials before military commissions,
calling it a “vital tool” in the war against terrorism.
Source: My Way, October 17, 2006
Bush says he can edit security reports
President Bush, again defying Congress, says he has the power to edit the Homeland SecurityDepartment’s reports about whether it obeys privacy rules while handling background checks, ID cards and watchlists.
Source: Yahoo News!, October 5, 2006
Education Department assisted FBI in terror search
A little-known federal program created days after Sept.
11, 2001, examined financial aid records of college students targeted by
the FBI in terrorism investigations, but it’s unclear whether it netted
any terrorists, according to U.S. Education Department documents.
The program, called Project Strike Back, was a
joint project of the department and the FBI and was created 10 days
after the terrorist attacks, according to the documents from the
department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
Source: USA Today (online), September 1, 2006
Lawyers to seek White House documents on alleged phone spying program
A pair of public interest lawyers said Tuesday they plan
to subpoena the White House for any documents showing whether the Bush
administration approved a secret program to examine the phone records of
millions of Americans.
Source: Newsday (online), August, 29, 2006
Judge Rules Domestic Spying Wiretaps Illegal
A federal judge [in Detroit] ruled Thursday that the
government’s warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and
ordered an immediate halt to it.
Source: CBS5 (San Francisco, online), August 17, 2006
Court backs U.S. on prosecuting 2 who received leak
Limiting citizen use of government data sets new standard
In a ruling with potentially broad implications, a
federal judge said Thursday that the Bush administration could use
espionage laws to prosecute private citizens who gain access to national
defense information.
Source: SFGate, August 11, 2006
Federal eavesdropping cases to be consolidated in S.F.
A federal panel is transferring 17 class-action lawsuits
against telecommunications companies that allegedly cooperated with a
warrantless government eavesdropping program to a San Francisco federal
judge’s courtroom.
Source: The Mercury News (online), August 10, 2006
Gonzales: Bush Blocked Eavesdropping Probe
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that
President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from
pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that
monitors Americans’ international calls and e-mails when terrorism is
suspected.
Source: My Way, July 18, 2006
White House asks for dismissal of NSA wiretap suit
The Bush administration on Monday asked a federal judge
to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the National Security Agency’s domestic
eavesdropping program, arguing that defending the four-year-old
wiretapping program in open court would risk national security.
Source: Reuters (online), July 10, 2006
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