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Public Citizen reports:

A new law enacted last fall denies a fair hearing or hardly any hope of release to those confined at Guantanamo naval base, and to other non-citizens labeled "enemy

Public Citizen has a web petition going here.

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In Short

A defiant President Bush warned Democrats Tuesday to accept his offer to have top aides testify about the firings of federal prosecutors only privately and not under oath or risk a constitutional showdown from which he would not back down

The Response

Democrats' response to his proposal was swift and firm: They said they would start authorizing subpoenas as soon as Wednesday for the White House aides.

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According to the Washington Post, the FBI issued thousands of national security letters many without any clear ties to "emergencies" or current investigations.

Referring to the exigent circumstance letters, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote in a letter Friday to Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine: "It is . . . difficult to imagine why there should not have been swift and severe consequences for anyone who knowingly signed . . . a letter containing false statements. Anyone at the FBI who knew about that kind of wrongdoing had an obligation to put a stop to it and report it immediately."

No kidding. What I don't get is why everyone is saying that the "FBI's use of the exigency letters "circumvented" the law" rather than just say "They broke the law and many of the buggers are going to jail".

DHL

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Apparently the head of the DHS doesn't see why the REAL-ID act is such a big deal.

I'll make this very simple: Passports. E-voting. Airline security. Domestic spying. Not a great track record.

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Idaho has joined a growing trend of states that are flat out telling the federal government to jump off a cliff. The REAL ID act has been attacked by privacy organizations for being a national ID card which will have far reaching implications to personal freedom. Not only that, but implementation of the system is extremely expensive and each state is supposed to pay for it.

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Bruce Shneier says it better, with more sources, but the FBI is abusing it's powers to circumvent the subpeona process.

The Justice Department's inspector general has prepared a scathing report criticizing how the F.B.I. uses a form of administrative subpoena to obtain thousands of telephone, business and financial records without prior judicial approval.

George W. Bush

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In a move that's sure to shock every child under the age of 6, Bush's privacy board cleared him of any privacy invasion.

Civil liberties groups who've advocated that the board be separated from the executive branch and given real subpoena power are unlikely to be satisfied with the board's findings. Congressional Democrats have already expressed disdain for the new report, and they're moving to strengthen the board's oversight capabilities.

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Using some simple deduction, a security consultant discovered how to clone a passport as it's being mailed to its recipient, without ever opening the package.

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The Register reports that Diebold has hurt its relationship with customers and election officials with their pathetic voting machine fiasco.

Negative publicity about the voting machines - such as the HBO documentary Hacking Democracy - has cast a shadow over the 150-year old company, analysts say. Until its move into e-voting, the firm was better known for its safes and automated teller machines.

Which, of course, anyone would now question the ATMs as well. The article goes on to speculate that Diebold may try to sell off the division… if anyone would buy it.

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In an independent study, Ponemon (not to be confused with Pokemon) conducted a survey of over 7000 people accross the nation as to what their trust level was for various government agencies. Specifically, do we trust the government to safeguard our personal information?

Not surprisingly, once you're out of the top 5, the trust level is in the 60% range or lower. Considering that there are a lot more than 5 government agencies, it seems there's not a lot of trust in government. Anyway, the report is very short so give it a quick read.