Congress must protect privacy rights in cybersecurity bill

Congress must include strong privacy protections in any cybersecurity legislation it adopts, a bipartisan constitutional watchdog group said in a comprehensive report released on January 27, 2012.

While acknowledging the importance of protecting government and private computer networks against cyber-attacks, the report prepared by The Constitution Project's (TCP) Liberty and Security Committee says any cybersecurity program adopted by the federal government must have clear legal safeguards to prevent unrestricted access by government officials to individuals' private information when searching network communications for harmful material.

Detainee Task Force Discuss 'Black Sites' with Lithuanian Officials

Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a member of The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment, and Alka Pradhan, a task force counsel, met with Lithuanian government officials last week to discuss Lithuania’s role in the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program. "There are a number of credible reports that Lithuania housed one or more of the 'black site' detention facilities that the CIA allegedly used to interrogate, and some claim torture, individuals they thought were involved in terrorist activity against the United States," Pradhan said. "Ambassador Pickering and I wanted to get information from the Lithuanian government officials closest to the situation to help the task force ascertain the veracity of these reports," she said. Any information gleaned from their various meetings will be incorporated into the task force’s final report, set for release in early 2013. On January 13th TCP released a statement about the talks.

Defense Bill Provisions Threaten to Undermine Constitutional Traditions & Rule of Law

After weeks of threatening to veto the legislation over controversial provisions relating to detention of suspected terrorists, President Obama signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law on December 31^st.  TCP President Virginia Sloan said in a statement following the signing, “We remain concerned that provisions in the new law threaten to undermine our constitutional traditions and commitment to the rule of law.”  She said provisions of the law that make it difficult for the president to close the military prison at Guantánamo Bay were particularly problematic, as was another section that codifies the executive branch’s power to subject a suspected terrorist to military detention without trial until “the end of hostilities,” a point Sloan called “dangerously elusive more than a decade after the attacks of September 11, 2001.”

Despite the president’s assurances contained in a signing statement that he would interpret NDAA consistent with both the Constitution and laws of war, and would not use the law to authorize indefinite military detention at least of American citizens, Sloan wasn’t mollified.  “While the president’s pledge is a step in the right direction, it is not legally binding—either on this administration or succeeding ones,” she said.

Sloan also noted TCP’s long-standing criticism of the misuse of presidential signing statements.  “We are troubled by President Obama’s assertion that he might treat certain of NDAA’s provisions, unrelated to detention, as ‘non-binding,’ thereby effectively vetoing them without affording Congress the opportunity to override the veto,” she said.

Guantanamo Turns Ten

On January 11, 2012, the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility turned ten and, despite the avowed desire of two Presidents to permanently close the facility, it remains open. Seven hundred and seventy-nine prisoners have been held at the facility since it opened its doors on January 11, 2002; of those, 171 remain in custody today.  The treatment of those prisoners and their ability to access justice has been the subject of much controversy. Still, most Americans do not have a clear or complete picture of what happened at Guantanamo.

To provide the American people with a broader understanding of what is known—and what may still be unknown—about the past and current treatment of suspected terrorists detained by the U.S. government, both at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, TCP has assembled a blue-ribbon panel of experts to review our country’s detention policies over the last two decades, and to offer-up recommendations for future policies that comply with the nation’s legal obligations, foreign policy objectives and historic values.  The Constitution Project’s Task Force on Detainee Treatment expects to release its much-anticipated report early next year.