Civil Liberties Watch

9/19: Bush urges Congress to make surveillance law updates permanent

President Bush today called on Congress to make permanent a law that gives the government broad authority to eavesdrop without warrants on phone calls, e-mail and other communication between people in the United States and suspected 'terrorists' abroad.

The president wants Congress to extend the law, set to expire in February, that allows spy agencies to intercept the communications of suspected terrorists that pass through U.S. switching facilities >> Read More

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8/21: DOD ending TALON military database of domestic spying in September

The US Defense Department's controversial Threat and Local Observation Notice system, or TALON database [Wired report; JURIST news archive], will be discontinued on September 17 [press release; official report] but the data it has collected will be retained in accordance with intelligence oversight requirements, Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Gary Keck said Tuesday. Keck said that TALON is being suspended because it no longer has "analytical value." Keck announced that a new reporting system has not yet been implemented and, in the interim, the Department of Defense [official website] will use the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Guardian reporting system.

TALON, created after the September 11 terrorist attacks [JURIST news archive], was designed to consolidate information regarding threats against the US military into one database. NBC News revealed [NBC report] in December 2005 that the military maintained a database of "suspicious incidents" that included peaceful anti-war protests and groups. The Pentagon launched an investigation [DOD press release; JURIST report] into possible misuse of the program, which revealed that about 260 entries were improper and subject to removal [JURIST report]. In April, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. recommended to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the TALON database be shut down [JURIST report], but a final decision on whether to continue the program was postponed >> Read More

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Prisoner Watch

2/8: Journalist Josh Wolf Behind Bars 171 Days and Counting

Josh Wolf, who refused to hand over footage of a protest, is the longest-incarcerated journalist in modern U.S. history. >> Read More

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2/8 CA: Urgent Call for Action on California’s Prison Crisis

Progressive Christians Uniting

...and the Governor's Attack on Prop 36!

We all have seen the headlines regarding our state’s prison overcrowding crisis, the health care catastrophe inside these institutions, and the governor’s plans to build new prisons while, in the meantime, ordering the involuntary transfer of up to 5,000 inmates to privately-run prisons in other states. >> Read More

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