Intellectual Property Law

Intelligence Agencies Release Docs Describing Misconduct in Response to EFF Lawsuit

By nate

Today the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Security Agency released 162 pages of intelligence oversight reporting in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by EFF in July.

The reports, made to a presidential advisory committee called the Intelligence Oversight Board, detail intelligence activities that the agencies "have reason to believe may be unlawful."

EFF is reviewing the documents now and has posted them on our website. Some of our initial finds include reports that:

• The Department of Homeland Security improperly investigated the U.S.-based religious organization the Nation of Islam.
• High-level Pentagon officials gave false information to Congress about al-Qa'ida and the 9/11 attacks.
• The Department of Homeland Security improperly collected intelligence about a non-violent Muslim conference in Georgia, including details about conference speakers who were Americans.
• The National Security Agency admitted that, as of late 2007, it lacked processes and procedures for timely reporting of intelligence oversight violations.

The media has already started reporting on the discoveries in these documents. We'll continue to sift through these records for more important information, and hope reporters and others do the same. EFF filed this lawsuit because Americans deserve to know about incidents of intelligence misconduct -- how often they happen, and how effective oversight is for controversial programs. Now that we have some of the records we are seeking, it's time to bring that misconduct to light.

A federal judge indicated during a hearing yesterday that she intends to order other intelligence agencies to produce similar documents to EFF by February 2, 2010. We expect those disclosures to include reports from the CIA, Department of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Full post as published by Electronic Freedom Foundation - Deep Links on December 16, 2009 (boomark / email).