From the New York Times

Judge Marrero said he feared that the law could be the first step in a series of intrusions into the judiciary’s role that would be “the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values.”

According to a report from the Justice Department’s inspector general in March, the F.B.I. issued about 143,000 requests through national security letters from 2003 to 2005. The report found that the bureau had often used the letters improperly and sometimes illegally. (more)

From the BBC

The Patriot Act allows for the use of national security letters, or administrative subpoenas, in cases relating to spying or terrorism.

Under such a subpoena, personal records of clients and customers must be handed over to the FBI from such sources as banks, telephone firms and internet service providers.

Judge Marrero ruled in favour of the American Civil Liberties Union, which had complained against the use of such letters.

He said his ruling did not mean the FBI must get court approval before ordering records, but that it must be able to justify why the request should be kept secret. (more)

From the Wired

The ACLU sued on behalf of an anonymous internet service provider, which was served an NSL about one of the websites it hosted. The ISP contested the order, which the FBI subsequently dropped, but the ISP remains unable to even acknowledge that it got a request, and the company’s president said he’s been forced to lie to his friends and girlfriend about it.

Judge Victor Marrero of the Southern District of New York ruled that the gag order and the strict rules about how to contest them amounted to prior restraint on speech and allowed the FBI to pick and choose which persons would be gagged, based on whether the feds believed the target might speak critically of the government. Judge Marrero found, in a 106 page opinion, that the gag order provisions couldn’t be struck down without affecting the rest of the statute so he found that the entire NSL provision was unconstitutional. He also stuck down a provision that prescribed the standards courts should use in judging the FBI’s arguments for keeping gag orders. Marrero wrote that Congress had overstepped its bounds in setting out those standards.(more) (PDF of Ruling)

As I’ve indicated in previous posts, defense attorneys for years have been trying to discover the software source code used by manufacturers of various breathalyzer models. (See “Secret Breathalyzer Software Still Secret”) The accuracy of these machines, which essentially determine a suspect’s guilt or innocence, depends upon the accuracy of the software driving them; as the computer techs say, “Garbage in, garbage out”. But the manufacturers have refused to produce the information, relying upon a claim of “trade secrets” — that is, that the code of each model is a unique creation of the manufacturer. And prosecutors, apparently more concerned with profits than with justice, have joined them in resisting disclosure.

Recently, however, judges in Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey and a growing number of other states have begun ordering the manufacturers to reveal the inner workings of their machines to the defense. (See “Judge: Divulge Breathalyzer Code…or Else”.) Not surprisingly, the manufacturers have refused to comply. Until a few days ago….

(continued)

From the New York Times:

The Texas pardons board, appointed by the governor, took the unusual action of voting 6 to 1 Wednesday to recommend commutation of Mr. Foster’s death sentence. The result was not released until Thursday morning and shortly afterward, Mr. Perry, a Republican, announced he had accepted the recommendation.

“After carefully considering the facts of this case, along with the recommendations from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster’s sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment,” the governor said in a statement.

He said he was also concerned about the law that allowed Mr. Foster and the actual triggerman to be tried together and urged the Legislature to re-examine the issue. (more)

From Save Kenneth Foster on Blogspot:

Perry’s decision is historic. Not only has the Board of Pardons and Paroles rarely recommended clemency (by one count, 3 times since 1982), but Rick Perry has overseen more executions than any Governor of the State of Texas, including George Bush. (more)

I mentioned this case before. Even if you agree with the death penalty (I don’t), Perry’s decision to commute Foster’s sentence is important. His guilt and death sentence was largely based on the guilt of another person; he was not tried separately. Guilt by association should never be enough to have someone executed.

A Pentagon review found that it had included reports on peaceful protesters and anti-war demonstrations which should have been deleted.

However, the report by the defense department’s inspector general said the Pentagon had acted legally in collecting information on US citizens because the reports were gathered for law enforcement rather than intelligence purposes. (read the entire article)

Honestly, that makes me feel so much better.

Kot Hordynski is a student that was involved in one of the groups watched by TALON. You can find out more about his experiences from the ACLU.

WASHINGTON - National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled the curtain back on previously classified details of government surveillance and of a secretive court whose recent rulings created new hurdles for the Bush administration as it tries to prevent terrorism.

McConnell’s comments were made in an interview with the El Paso Times last week and posted as a transcript on the newspaper’s web site Wednesday.

The revelations raised eyebrows for their frank discussion of previously classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA.

Among the disclosures:

McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted with President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation. “Now if you play out the suits at the value they’re claimed, it would bankrupt these companies,” McConnell said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help.

He provided new details on court rulings handed down by the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves classified eavesdropping operations and whose proceedings are almost always entirely secret. McConnell said a ruling that went into effect May 31 required the government to get court warrants to monitor communications between two foreigners if the conversation travels on a wire in the U.S. network. Millions of calls each day do, because of the robust nature of the U.S. systems.

McConnell said it takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a single telephone number. “We’re going backwards,” he said. “We couldn’t keep up.”

Offering never-disclosed figures, McConnell also revealed that fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants. However, he said, thousands of people overseas are monitored.

(continued)

The slogans printed on it:

“Draw a Pig for Freedom!”
“Liberty Over Communist Tyranny!!”
“The Intolerance of Free Expression is ‘Politically Correct’”

From Noodler’s Website:

A “radical and disruptive ink company”?
The Golden Year of the Pig was banned by the Chinese Communist party from any advertisements or mention on state controlled media. In response to this blatant restriction of free expression concerning an extremely popular holiday among the Chinese people, Noodler’s Ink sent three dozen bottles of a particular golden invisible ink to dissidents working at Chinese libraries and universities. Invisible inks are marvelous for free expression upon library texts, widely distributed and difficult for authorities to regulate - let alone find.
This label artwork promotes free expression in defiance of the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. Without freedom of expression, ink is not fully utilized!

On The Fountain Pen Network’s Forums:

The Communists vrs. the Fountain Pen:

I think most of us would agree that it is a fundamental human right to draw, write, create and form new concepts and ideas freely upon the page… To an ink company - and to somebody who lives and breathes all things ink day after day….the thought of restricting the ability of other human beings to freely express themselves upon the page with pen and ink - is abhorrent!

The “Year of the Golden Pig” (named due to the communist ban recently on displays or mention of the year of the golden pig on television or advertising! It was a type of invisible ink similar to the 20 bottle “Golden Ghost” - extremely light specific and next to impossible to know it is there unless you know exactly how to find it! continued…

“The Bush administration’s persistent stonewalling represents a unique kind of arrogance,” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “Since this program’s disclosure, the Senate has asked for key documentation only to be repeatedly denied. After bulldozing broad reforms to FISA through both chambers two weeks ago, the administration believes it can push this Congress around. Congress has to stand up to this administration by holding it in contempt and by revisiting its rash reforms to FISA.”

As you know, the House and Senate “modernized FISA” just a few weeks ago. The changes only last 6 months, and if we can learn what the warrentless wiretaps have been used for, there is hope that Congress will let the changes expire. The Senate Judiciary Committee must do everything in its power to get these records.

Comcast on Tuesday denied rumors that the company is filtering BitTorrent traffic running over its network.

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used to distribute large data files such as video. The protocol has been used widely throughout the Internet to distribute pirated movies. And sites that use the protocol have been targeted by the movie industry to stop the illegal distribution of copyrighted video.

Broadband providers have also not been big fans of BitTorrent because the use of the peer-to-peer protocol can clog networks with huge files. The blog TorrentFreak claims that several Internet Service Providers have been “throttling” or limiting BitTorrent traffic on their networks for the past two years. And last week, the blog accused Comcast of going even further to limit the use of BitTorrent on its network.

The blog claimed that some Comcast users had noticed that their BitTorrent transfers were being cut off and that they experienced a significant decrease in download speeds.

Over the past few days, these claims have been widely circulated throughout the Web. But when I spoke to Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas earlier today, he flat-out denied that the company was filtering or “shaping” any traffic on its network. He said the company doesn’t actively look at the applications or content that its customers download over the network. But Comcast does reserve the right to cut off service to customers who abuse the network by using too much bandwidth.

(continued)

See more here.

California cities are moving quickly to install video surveillance cameras on public streets and plazas without regulations, with little or no public debate, and without an evaluation of their effectiveness, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report released today.

continued…

Surveillance cameras are an extremely controversial issue. Although cameras may be appropriate in some situations, the benefits of such cameras must be very carefully weighed against the threat to civil liberties. In addition, alternatives to surveillance cameras must be looked into. However, many local governments across the nation are rushing to install these cameras as an ‘easy solution.’

Surveillance cameras have many flaws. Although they may assist in solving crimes, they are not capable of stopping a crime in progress, as a police officer would be. In addition, surveillance cameras have the potential to interfere with privacy. Do you really want a video of you kissing your SO showing up on You Tube? There is no guarantee that the video will remain in the sole custody of the city, or that it will be destroyed if not needed for a criminal investigation.