As House Homeland Security Committee Chair Peter King (R-N.Y.) is set to hold his next hearing on the "radicalization" of American Muslims — this time focusing on prisons — it is instructive to see what his last two hearings accomplished.
Congress once again extended expiring provisions of the Patriot Act with very little debate. The American people deserve to hear a real debate about what government surveillance programs are really doing in their name. Only then can we make an informed, responsible decision about whether the claimed security benefits of those programs justify their costs.
On President Obama's first day in office, he stated unequivocally that his administration was "committed to operating with an unprecedented level of openness in government," leaving behind the culture of secrecy surrounding the executive branch during the previous administration. It is time for the president to live up to his promise.
The Department of Homeland Security recently issued long-awaited guidance informing the many organizations it funds that they must take steps to ensure that they can communicate with the people they serve. The most immediate beneficiaries will be people with limited proficiency in English (LEP) who seek help from the police or the Red Cross, but we will all benefit -- the effective, efficient operation of these essential taxpayer-funded services matters to us all.
The Obama administration is requiring Guantánamo detainees’ lawyers to treat the documents setting forth the government’s erstwhile assessment of the detainees as they would treat any other classified documents – even though the documents were recently made public by virtue of an unauthorized disclosure to WikiLeaks.
On March 18th, the Brennan Center held a day-long symposium, Intelligence Collection and Law Enforcement: New Roles, New Challenges. Click for video, photos and a media round up of the event.
A recent EFF study found hundreds of FBI violations over the last decade. It is time for the Bureau to recognize its own tendency for excessive zeal in intelligence collecting and to undertake a serious effort to reform its practices.
Rep. Peter King’s hearing to examine “radicalization” of American Muslims created a media circus. After releaseing a report this week on theories of radicalization, the Brennan Center's Faiza Patel offered her expertise to media outlets across the country.
Conventional wisdom took a hit yesterday as 26 Republicans broke rank in the House to help defeat the reauthorization of three expiring Patriot Act provisions.
With the departure of Glenn Fine as Inspector General, senior officials at the FBI and DOJ, members of Congress, and the American people must take a more active role in demanding accountability and transparancy.
