Lawyer defends wiretapping program
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A government lawyer used a dramatic scenario of a nuclear attack on Washington to illustrate his arguments Tuesday in defense of President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program.
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As government surveillance has increased, violations of federal wiretap law have become a regular if little-noticed occurrence.
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A federal judge refused Friday to toss out FBI wiretap evidence in the Jose Padilla terrorism support case, rejecting an attempt by defense attorneys to prevent jurors from hearing conversations about Osama bin Laden and other well-known Islamic extremist leaders.
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A pretrial hearing to discuss the procedures for disclosing classified information in a case against two men accused of supporting terrorists should be open to the public, an attorney for several news organizations argued Monday.
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A security organization has suggested police use key-logging software to track communications between terrorists.
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A lawyer for a group of terrorism suspects held by the United States told a court on Friday that trusting the Justice Department with an inquiry into the CIA's destruction of interrogation tapes would amount to putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
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The U.S. government can continue to use its warrantless domestic wiretap program pending the Justice Department's appeal of a federal judge's ruling outlawing the program, a U.S. Appeals Court in Cincinnati ruled on Wednesday.
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A lawyer for a New York Times reporter and three BusinessWeek reporters who were spied on as part of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s boardroom surveillance scheme says the four have settled claims against the company.
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(InfoWorld) - U.S. lawmakers promised to push ahead legislation aimed at cracking down on pretexting despite some objections from telecom carriers and the U.S. Department of Justice. Nearly all the members of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee pledged to push the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act, which would give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) authority to file lawsuits against pretexters and the people who hire them. The bill would also require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to draw up new rules for telecom carriers to protect private phone records, and it would prevent carriers from sharing customer information with third parties without permission. Despite some concerns about the bill, lawmakers said consumers need protection against pretexting, the practice of posing as a telecom customer to obtain phone records and other private information. "Someone with bad intentions and a few bucks can get a hold of almost anybody's cell phone records," said Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican. President George Bush signed a bill creating criminal penalties for pretexting in January. But proponents of the Prevention of Fraudulent Access to Phone Records Act say the extra protections in the bill are also needed. The Energy and Commerce Committee approved the same bill during the last session of Congress, but the legislation apparently was held up on the House floor because of concerns from federal law enforcement agencies that the bill could slow efforts to get information on terrorism suspects. Lawmakers from both parties complained that they received little explanation about why the bill died last year. Thomas Navin, chief of the FCC's Wireline Bureau, said the Department of Justice was concerned that the FCC would set up rules that consumers are notified too soon after their phone records were accessed by someone else. The DOJ wanted a delay of seven days before consumers were notified, he said. But Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said consumers should be notified immediately. "I don't think the Department of Justice should be listened to on that issue," he said. "I think [victims] should be listened to on that issue." Markey pointed to news reports this week saying the FBI may have violated the law and its internal rules while collecting telephone, data, and other personal records through the Patriot Act. "There is still a lack of respect for the law of our country," he said. Beyond the law enforcement concerns, representatives of trade groups the United States Telecom Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association said the bill could prevent them from sharing customer information with third parties that market complementary products. CTIA members don't share customers' personal information with unrelated groups, but the carriers do use third-party vendors to market wireless-related products, said Steve Largent, CTIA's president and CEO. But Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, questioned industry concerns about language in the bill that could require carriers to get opt-in permission from customers to share their personal data. "It seems if we want to protect privacy, we should change this from opt out to opt in," he said.
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By Eric Berkman  E-mail conversations between an employee and his lawyer, conducted via the employee's private, Web-based e-mail account but from a company-issued computer, were protected by the attorney- client privilege, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge has ruled.
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Internet law professor Michael Geist wonders whether technology threatens the legal foundations of privacy law.
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The CIA's top lawyer said Tuesday he did not object to a 2002 memo authorizing interrogation techniques that stop just short of causing a sensation of impending organ failure or even death.
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Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.
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NEW YORK, July 3 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief strategist is being accused of illegal eavesdropping in a civil lawsuit that alleges he and his polling firm monitored the personal e-mails of a former associate who started a rival company.
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Information gained through a U.S.  wiretapping program much criticized by civil liberties  advocates helped authorities foil attack plots last week in  Germany and Denmark, top U.S. intelligence officials said on  Monday.
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A former U.S. Justice Department official told senators that Vice President Dick Cheney disagreed with objections to a secret surveillance program.
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A federal judge has refused to suppress evidence in a case accusing Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano of illegally wiretapping stars.