DAWN | The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit to stop the US government from conducting surveillance under a new wiretapping law that gives the Bush administration virtually unchecked power to intercept e-mails and telephone calls. The case was filed on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labour, legal and media organisations whose ability to perform their work - which relies on confidential ...

What we learned in December, 2005 that George Bush and the telecoms were doing -- listening in on the private conversations of American citizens without warrants -- is a felony under clear U.S. law, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine for each offense. Anyone can go read the section of FISA -- right here -- that says that as clearly ...

Today, in a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy, the Senate passed an unconstitutional domestic spying bill that violates the Fourth Amendment and eliminates any meaningful role for judicial oversight of government surveillance. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 was approved by a vote of 69 to 28 and is expected to be signed into law by President Bush shortly. This bill essentially legalizes the president’s unlawful warrantless ...

By Robin Turner | USING CCTV cameras to spy on dog owners who fail to clear up their pets’ mess is perfectly acceptable, Wales’ most controversial police chief claims. In his blog, the outspoken North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom dismissed the debate on alleged misuse of CCTV as “a bizarre hue and cry”. And he maintained a tidy environment had a much bigger impact on most people’s lives than the ...

guardian.co.uk | Human rights and freedom of information legislation should be extended to cover charities and social enterprises that deliver public services, such as care homes, a report said today. The government already contracts out a range of services – including employment training and social care – to the voluntary sector and is keen to encourage more third sector service delivery. Today's report ...

AP | U.S. military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay resume this week even as new legal challenges could throw the system into further turmoil. Five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are to appear Wednesday and Thursday for pretrial hearings in the Bush administration's special tribunal for terrorism suspects. Their trials have not yet been scheduled. The suspects could get the death penalty if convicted of ...

AP News | A federal judge overseeing Guantanamo Bay lawsuits ordered the Justice Department to put other cases aside and make it clear throughout the Bush administration that, after nearly seven years of detention, the detainees must have their day in court. "The time has come to move these forward," Judge Thomas F. Hogan said Tuesday during the first hearing over whether the detainees are being held lawfully. "Set aside every ...

By Ryan Singel |On Tuesday, the Senate resumes considering whether to hand new dragnet spy powers to the nation's spooks and to grant retroactive amnesty to telecoms that secretly helped the government spy on Americans without warrants for five years. The Senate seems set to bless the president's secretive program and to free some of the nation's largest corporations from the indignity of due ...

WEST Australian Police have asked the state government to authorise them to take a DNA sample from anyone who is arrested, even for minor offences such as trespassing. WA Police can now take samples only from people charged with or suspected of an offence that carries a minimum jail sentence of 12 months. According to a report in The West Australian, police made the request for greater powers in ...

By Ellen Nakashima |   The United States is negotiating deals with European countries to exchange fingerprint and DNA data in criminal and terrorist cases, and in some circumstances to transfer data on race or ethnic origin, political and religious beliefs, or sexual orientation. Such agreements are a condition for granting citizens of newer European Union member states ...

By Bradley Olson | With Congress on the verge of outlining new parameters for National Security Agency eavesdropping between suspicious foreigners and Americans, lawmakers are leaving largely untouched a host of government programs that critics say involves far more domestic surveillance than the wiretaps they sought to remedy. These programs - most of them highly classified - are run by an alphabet ...

The Guardian | I've got the opening scene of a dystopian thriller all worked out. It's a hot summer night in a typical suburban flat. A young woman (let's call her Alison) stands over the body of her boyfriend, who she's just killed in a fit of madness. A crime of passion. She didn't mean to do it, but gah - now look at the ...

By Andrew Porter | The cost of Britain’s "surveillance society" measures is now running at £20 billion, a new report reveals today. The amount is equivalent to £800 per household and includes £19 billion for the planned ID card system and £500 million for CCTV cameras. The report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance was highlighted by David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, who stands in a by-election this week ...

Daily Record | VILLAGERS are up in arms after CCTV was installed in an area where crime is almost unknown. Nearly all of them have signed a petition to have the spy cameras removed. Highland Council put the £1200 system on the village pier at Elgol on Skye along with prominent warning notices. That followed arguments among local boat owners about berthing rights. But residents say the camera system invades their privacy ...

By ERIC LICHTBLAU | A federal judge in California said Wednesday that the wiretapping law established by Congress was the “exclusive” means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and he rejected the government’s claim that the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief trumped that law. The judge, Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge ...