FCNL Rights and Liberties Weekly

Volume 4, No. 1

January 9, 2006

Privacy Year in Review: The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has compiled the Top Ten Privacy Stories of 2005 as well as a list of issues to watch in 2006. Check it out at:

http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_yir2005.html

NSA Wiretapping: A memo by Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, details the ways in which the president’s authorization of warrantless wiretaps by the National Security Agency directly violate the explicit will of Congress and are in fact criminal. Read it here:

http://www.fcnl.org/pdfs/civ_liberties/NSA_spying.pdf

Obedience and Torture: Recalling famous obedience experiments from the 1960s, Rushworth Kidder gives insight into how a person, or a nation, acting obediently under an authority figure can jettison moral judgement. This article appearing in the “Christian Science Monitor” asks what torture does to the torturers:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1219-32.htm

Executive Order on FOIA: The president issued an executive order on December 16 revising the procedure for processing of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. OpenTheGovernement.org has links to the order and to further resources including relevant bills in Congress:

http://www.openthegovernment.org/article/articleview/164/1/72?TopicID

FISA Resources: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) established the secret FISA court to adjudicate requests for surveillance of people engaged in international espionage. This system of judicial oversight was circumvented by an executive order approving of electronic surveillance without FISA court review. A wide-ranging index to FISA resources can be found here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/index.html

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FCNL’s Rights and Liberties Weekly is intended as a supplement to other FCNL Civil Liberties and Human Rights Program materials and does not reflect FCNL's complete policy position on any issue, nor does it include all pertinent facts on any topic. For more information, please contact:

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