SECRECY & THE SECURITY STATE - page 15

The Supreme Court will hear litigation that will determine if high-ranking US officials can be sued for civil rights abuses that occurred just after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Justices said on Tuesday that they will take up the case, which was brought by mostly Muslim immigrants against former top George W. Bush appointees. Defendants include former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former FBI Director Robert Mueller III. A federal appeals court in New York had stripped Ashcroft and Mueller of their “qualified immunity”…

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One in four Americans may soon be living in places where marijuana is fully legal, thanks to state ballot initiatives this November. California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Maine and Nevada will all be asking voters next month whether to end prohibition on the recreational consumption of cannabis. Polling in all states but California indicate the outcome of the referenda will be close, according to an article published Thursday by The Hill. Voters in the Golden State—the first jurisdiction in the country to legalize medicinal marijuana—appear to back…

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A federal appellate court in San Francisco ruled that the Pentagon can withhold the names of foreign students who take part in a controversial Latin American military training program. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made the 2-1 ruling late last week, reversing the decision of a district judge who had come down on the side of disclosure. Litigants had filed a Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) lawsuit in 2011, to force the Department of Defense to reveal the names of students at the Western Hemisphere…

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The Drug Enforcement Administration is running a freewheeling confidential sources program that leaves the agency vulnerable to fraud and constitutional abuses, according to an audit by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General (OIG). While DEA officials boast that the use of informants is the “bread and butter” of their enforcement, the agency does not adequately oversee their activities. Nor does it sufficiently track the payments made to them, the investigation found. The lack of oversight, according to the report: “exposes the agency to an unacceptably…

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The Director of the FBI claimed that he doesn’t know if there’s a problem of police killing civilians in the US because the government doesn’t collect enough data on the issue. James Comey told the House Judiciary Committee that he expects the FBI will have a database up and running within two years to track all incidents of individuals killed during encounters with law enforcement. Until then, though, the Director alleged that the current debate is “uninformed.” “We’re having passionate important conversations in this country about…

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Dozens of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling on the White House to thwart the Drug Enforcement Administration’s moves to ban kratom, claiming the herbal opioid substitute was rescheduled in violation of procedural law. The lawmakers, organized by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), asked Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan on Monday to “use your statutory authority” to the delay implementation of the rule change. Fifty-one US Representatives, including 22 Republicans, signed the letter, according to The Huffington Post. Under…

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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter to the US Postmaster General on Wednesday requesting information about a domestic surveillance operation that logs information about letters in transit. The spy program, known as “mail covers,” allows postal workers to record the metadata on a letter–including “to” and “from” addresses–without a warrant, and turn the information over to state and federal agencies. A recent investigation by a Portland, Ore. news outlet, KGW, discovered that the government had submitted nearly 90,000 requests over the last decade to…

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The intelligence community is establishing an award to recognize whistleblowers, according to a report on open government released last week by the White House. Intelligence officials will now be recognized for “effectuating change by speaking truth to power, by exemplifying professional integrity, or by reporting wrongdoing through appropriate channels,” according to the paper. As Steven Aftergood noted in Secrecy News on Monday, there are already more than a dozen awards regularly given out to members of the intelligence community, but none are for flagging malfeasance.…

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The bloody Saudi-led bombing of Yemen is having an effect on the psyche of US Senators, with more than a quarter of the upper chamber on Wednesday calling for a halt to weapons shipments to the Kingdom. Twenty-seven Senators voted in support of a resolution condemning a scheduled $1.15 billion arms transfer to Saudi Arabia that was announced last month. Although the resolution failed, the roll call vote was a sign that Riyadh’s inhumane bombing campaign in Yemen is fraying relations in Washington. “[The] very fact…

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Lawmakers who unanimously backed a bill that would allow terrorism lawsuits against foreign governments that aren’t officially considered sponsors of terror are starting to rethink their support, in response to fierce White House opposition to the legislation. President Obama is expected to veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) this week. In response, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised votes next week to override the presidential veto. JASTA was passed by unanimous consent in both chambers, though some lawmakers are now beginning to…

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