“The delicate balancing act of maintaining national security while preserving civil liberties seems to get more complicated with each new generation of information technology. The House-Senate stalemate over extending a warrantless wiretapping law marks the latest case in point. President Bush says his ability to prevent terrorist attacks hhas been jeopardized by the infighting.” (Council [...]

“President Bush called on the House of Representatives today to renew a surveillance law that expired this month and to protect telecommunications companies from lawsuits, saying it was “not fair” to allow the firms to be sued for cooperating with the federal government’s efforts to monitor terrorist suspects. Addressing an annual gathering of the nation’s [...]

“In New York City, the Department of Homeland Security is training New York City firefighters to assist in gathering intelligence information during routine inspections and emergencies. In November, the Associated Press reported that in New York, Homeland Security was testing a program called the Fire Service Intelligence Enterprise (FSIE) to help identify “material or behavior [...]

“One of the most critical weapons in the fight against terrorists and other foreign intelligence threats — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — has not kept up with the technology revolution we have experienced over the past 30 years. We are on the brink of bringing this 20th-century tool in line with 21st-century technology [...]

“A plan to use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law-enforcement missions is moving forward after being delayed for months because of privacy and civil liberties concerns. The charter and legal framework for an office within the Homeland Security Department that would use overhead and mapping imagery from existing satellites is in the final [...]

“A former Boeing engineer was arrested on Monday on charges of stealing trade secrets for China about several aerospace programs, including the Space Shuttle, the U.S. Justice Department said. It also announced a separate case in which a U.S. Defense Department official and two others from New Orleans were arrested on Monday on espionage charges [...]

“Convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui’s drawn-out appeal is revealing new information about interrogation tapes in possession of the CIA and that prosecutors on the case knew that a CIA interrogation tape of Abu Zubaydah had been destroyed.” (ABC News)

The CIA’s inspector general has agreed to tighter controls over its investigative procedures, agency officials revealed yesterday, in what appeared to be an attempt to soften resentments among agency officials over the watchdog’s aggressive probes into the legality and effectiveness of the CIA’s counterterrorism efforts and detention programs.” (Washington Post)

“The top two U.S. intelligence officials traveled secretly to Pakistan this month to press President Pervez Musharraf to allow the CIA greater latitude to operate in the tribal territories where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other militant groups are all active, according to several officials who have been briefed on the visit. But in the [...]

“President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence community’s role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies’ computer systems. The directive, whose content is classified, authorizes the intelligence agencies, in particular the National Security Agency, to monitor the computer networks of all federal agencies [...]