FAS | Intelligence | News | 2003 ||||

December 2003 Intelligence News

• Attorney General Ashcroft Recuses Himself from CIA Leak Investigation, Justice Dept press briefing, December 30. "The attorney general, in an abundance of caution, believed that his recusal was appropriate based on the totality of the circumstances and the facts and evidence developed at this stage of the investigation."
• Spooked by Spencer Ackerman, The New Republic, December 29. "The antagonism between the CIA and the Bush administration is creeping into dealings between analysts and their bosses at Langley as well. Some analysts are simmering over the inability--or unwillingness--of their superiors to defend them from the incursions of policymakers."
• Redesignation of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, State Department release, December 23.
• State Department Notice on Additional Aliases of Terror Orgs Jaish e-Mohammed and Lashkar e-Tayyiba, Federal Register, December 23.
• Justice Department Statement on the Padilla Decision, news release, December 18. "The Department of Justice will seek a stay and further judicial review of the 2-1 decision issued by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals today in the Padilla case. In times of war, the President must have the authority to act when an individual associated with our nation�s enemies enters our country to endanger American lives."
• Justice Dept Statement on the 9th Circuit Decision Regarding Detainees' Access to Attorneys, news release, December 18. "Our position that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over non-U.S. citizens being held in military control abroad is based on long-standing Supreme Court precedent."
• Statement by the President on Signing the FY 2004 Intelligence Authorization Act, White House release, December 13. "Today, I have signed into law H.R. 2417, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. The Act authorizes funding for United States intelligence activities, including activities in the war against terrorists of global reach."
• NSA can summarily reject requests for information by Ariel Sabar, Baltimore Sun, December 11. "The National Security Agency has won the authority to automatically turn down requests by citizens for records on how the spy agency eavesdrops on foreign countries."
• DoD Announces Detainee Allowed Access to Lawyer, Pentagon press release, December 2. "The Department of Defense announced today that Yaser Esam Hamdi, an enemy combatant detained at the Charleston Consolidated Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C., will be allowed access to a lawyer subject to appropriate security restrictions."
• Limited Progress Seen in Sharing Threat Information by Brian Krebs, WashingtonPost.com, December 2. "The Bush administration has failed to improve how federal agencies and law enforcement officials share information in the war against terrorism, leaving the government in danger of missing key clues about future attacks, according to a report issued today by a panel of national security and technology experts."