Police on Tuesday incinerated more than 1,300 DNA samples taken to eliminate possible suspects in the BTK serial killer investigation, inviting the media to watch the event. Dennis Rader, who called himself BTK for his preferred method to "bind, torture and kill" his victims, pleaded guilty last June to killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991. He was sentenced in August to 10 consecutive life prison terms. Most of the 1,326 samples were taken voluntarily, but some were taken under court order. Some possible suspects had worried that the samples could end up in crime databases, despite police assurances that they would not.
Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson announced several personnel changes yesterday that will include the firing of a senior career data analyst who lost the sensitive personal information of millions of veterans. The 60-year-old civil servant, a GS-14 employee who earns between $91,407 and $118,828 a year, has been notified that he will be terminated, VA officials said. The employee violated department policy by taking home electronic files containing the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of as many as 26.5 million veterans.
The Supreme Court yesterday bolstered the government's power to discipline public employees who make charges of official misconduct, ruling that the First Amendment does not protect those who blow the whistle in the course of their official duties. By a vote of 5 to 4, the court ruled that the Los Angeles County district attorney's office did not violate prosecutor Richard Ceballos's freedom of speech by allegedly demoting him after he wrote to supervisors charging that a sheriff's deputy had lied to get a search warrant.
The European Union's highest court ruled Tuesday that the Union had overstepped its authority by agreeing to give the United States personal details about airline passengers on flights to America in an effort to fight terrorism. The decision will force the two sides to renegotiate the deal at a time of heightened concerns about possible infringements of civil liberties by the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism, and the extent to which European governments have cooperated.
A federal database program with a checkered track record could dramatically expand to affect every U.S. employer and worker under provisions of the immigration legislation being considered by Congress. The program is intended to keep illegal immigrants from working in the United States and to discourage more from entering, but in nearly a decade of small-scale tests, it has had trouble distinguishing between those who are here legally and those who are not. Fixing it and rolling it out nationwide could cost more than $1 billion.
As many as 26.5 million veterans were placed at risk of identity theft after an intruder stole an electronic data file this month containing their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, Secretary Jim Nicholson said yesterday. A career data analyst, who was not authorized to take the information home, has been put on administrative leave pending the outcome of investigations by the FBI, local police and the VA inspector general, Nicholson said.
The Supreme Court reaffirmed Monday that police can enter homes in emergencies without knocking or announcing their presence. The decision overturned a ruling by Utah's Supreme Court that said a trial judge was correct to throw out charges stemming from the police search. The trial judge ruled that police had violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches by failing to knock before entering the house.
The government has the legal authority to prosecute journalists for publishing classified information, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday. Asked whether he was open to the possibility that The New York Times should be prosecuted for its disclosures in December concerning a National Security Agency surveillance program, Mr. Gonzales said his department was trying to determine "the appropriate course of action in that particular case."
Less than a month after the Sept. 11 attacks, Gen. Michael V. Hayden summoned 80 or 90 staff members to a conference room at the National Security Agency. President Bush had just approved the use of wiretapping on the international calls and e-mail of Americans without warrants, and the general, then leading the spy agency, was setting his troops in motion. As General Hayden recounted the meeting at his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday, he explained what the president had authorized and ended his remarks by saying, "We're going to do exactly what he said, and not one photon or one electron more."
The National Security Agency developed a pilot program in the late 1990s that would have enabled it to gather and analyze massive amounts of communications data without running afoul of privacy laws. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it shelved the project--not because it failed to work--but because of bureaucratic infighting and a sudden expansion in the agency's surveillance powers that was granted by the White House, according to several intelligence officials.
Verizon, the country's second-largest phone company, said yesterday that it had not provided local phone records to the National Security Agency as part of efforts to compile a database of calling records to track terrorist activities. The announcement, a day after BellSouth issued a similar statement, came in response to a report in USA Today last Thursday that the three biggest Bell companies had handed over their customer calling records to the security agency, including data on local calls, without warrants. But the statement by Verizon left open the possibility that MCI, the long-distance carrier it bought in January, did turn over such records � or that the unit, once absorbed into Verizon, had continued to do so.
The White House, facing a potentially tough Senate grilling of its choice to head the CIA, agreed yesterday to expand the number of lawmakers who will receive classified briefings on the administration's anti-terrorism efforts that include warrantless wiretaps of domestic phone calls and e-mails. The administration previously had insisted on briefing only a small fraction of Congress's 535 members, saying larger gatherings were likely to result in leaks of secret information. The White House agreed to brief 21 members of the House and 16 Senators.
A majority of Americans disapprove of a massive Pentagon database containing the records of billions of phone calls made by ordinary citizens, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. About two-thirds are concerned that the program may signal other, not-yet-disclosed efforts to gather information on the general public. By 51%-43%, those polled disapprove of the program, disclosed Thursday in USA TODAY. The National Security Agency has been collecting phone records from three of the nation's largest telecommunication companies since soon after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
A state trooper who took a picture of a 25-year-old woman while engaged in a sexual act with her in Belmar last summer shared it with others without her knowledge including a state juvenile corrections officer, according to prosecutors. Using the camera on his mobile phone, authorities say 26-year-old Christopher Johnston of South Plainfield took a picture of the woman while engaged in a consensual sexual act with her Sept. 4 at a Belmar summer residence. He then showed it to "other individuals," according to a Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office release.
Phone companies know every number we dial. Grocery stores watch what we buy, search engines track what we look for on the Internet, banks count each penny we deposit or withdraw. All of that information could become available to the government as it works to thwart terrorist activity. This week's disclosure that the National Security Agency is amassing phone calling records for millions of Americans highlighted how blurred the notion of consumer privacy has become in the digital age.
The former chief executive of Qwest, the nation's fourth-largest phone company, rebuffed government requests for the company's calling records after 9/11 because of "a disinclination on the part of the authorities to use any legal process," his lawyer said yesterday. The statement on behalf of the former Qwest executive, Joseph P. Nacchio, followed a report that the other big phone companies - AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon - had complied with an effort by the National Security Agency to build a vast database of calling records, without warrants, to increase its surveillance capabilities after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY. The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans � most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.
President Bush has ordered the creation of a new federal task force to battle identity theft. After hearing what he called "horror stories" from victims of the crime, he told reporters he wants federal agencies to ramp up their efforts. The task force aims to coordinate the work of a dozen federal agencies that either hunt identity thieves � or help those whose personal info is stolen.
The departments of Education and Health and Human Services have unveiled a computerized matching program to assist in collecting money from people who default on loans awarded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act or people who must refund an overpayment. Education will gather personal data and employment information on people who have defaulted on student loans or who have outstanding grant overpayments. HHS' Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement, will verify the data, perform a computerized match and produce a file for Education containing the name, Social Security number, address, employer, wages and employer's address for each individual.
The departments of Education and Health and Human Services have unveiled a computerized matching program to assist in collecting money from people who default on loans awarded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act or people who must refund an overpayment. Education will gather personal data and employment information on people who have defaulted on student loans or who have outstanding grant overpayments. HHS' Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Support Enforcement, will verify the data, perform a computerized match and produce a file for Education containing the name, Social Security number, address, employer, wages and employer's address for each individual.
With the deadline for setting up REAL ID two years away, states are frustrated. They say the law � which requires states to use sources like birth certificates and national immigration databases to verify that people applying for or renewing driver's licenses are American citizens or legal residents � will be too expensive and difficult to put in place by the May 2008 deadline. Another issue is the privacy impact of the requirement that states share, through databases, the personal information needed for a driver's license.
With the deadline for setting up REAL ID two years away, states are frustrated. They say the law � which requires states to use sources like birth certificates and national immigration databases to verify that people applying for or renewing driver's licenses are American citizens or legal residents � will be too expensive and difficult to put in place by the May 2008 deadline. Another issue is the privacy impact of the requirement that states share, through databases, the personal information needed for a driver's license.
With the deadline for setting up REAL ID two years away, states are frustrated. They say the law � which requires states to use sources like birth certificates and national immigration databases to verify that people applying for or renewing driver's licenses are American citizens or legal residents � will be too expensive and difficult to put in place by the May 2008 deadline. Another issue is the privacy impact of the requirement that states share, through databases, the personal information needed for a driver's license.
With the deadline for setting up REAL ID two years away, states are frustrated. They say the law � which requires states to use sources like birth certificates and national immigration databases to verify that people applying for or renewing driver's licenses are American citizens or legal residents � will be too expensive and difficult to put in place by the May 2008 deadline. Another issue is the privacy impact of the requirement that states share, through databases, the personal information needed for a driver's license.
A push to require all convicted criminals in New York to submit their DNA to a central database is gaining crucial support in Albany, where officials say it could create the most comprehensive DNA collection system in the nation. Currently, 43 states require that people convicted of all felonies submit DNA, but none require samples from those convicted of all misdemeanors, and New York has required those convicted only of some felonies and some misdemeanors to do so, officials said.
Some of the opponents in the debate over the potential privacy abuses of identification and tracking systems using tiny radio tags have come together to draft best-practices guidelines that are to be released today at a technology trade show in Las Vegas. Among other things, the guidelines say that consumers should be notified when goods have radio tags, which can be invisibly buried in labels, packaging or the goods themselves.
The government asked a federal judge here Friday to dismiss a civil liberties lawsuit against the AT&T Corporation because of a possibility that military and state secrets would otherwise be disclosed. The lawsuit, accusing the company of illegally collaborating with the National Security Agency in a vast surveillance program, was filed in February by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group.
