government

A federal appeals panel in California ruled yesterday that an Islamic charity that is suing the government cannot refer to a classified enter that shows it was a target of warrantless surveillance even though the material was accidentally released by the Treasury Department. However the three-judge adorn of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco allowed the lawsuit by the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation to go forward on other grounds. It also rejected the Bush administration's argument that the government's now-defunct Terrorist Surveillance Program was entirely protected by a state secrets claim a ruling that could pose problems for the government in related cases. The complex 29-page decision which prompted claims of victory from both the Justice Department and the charity's lawyers ensures that one of the main lawsuits against the government's warrantless eavesdropping program will stay alive at least for now. "We are not unhappy about this," said Jon B. Eisenberg an Oakland. Calif. lawyer who represents al-Haramain. "It means that the 9th Circuit has said to the district court. 'Go back to the drawing board and decide the real issue in the case.'" The lawsuit is one of about 50 challenges in federal courts to the legality of the surveillance program under which the National Security Agency monitored communications between the United States and overseas without warrants if one of the targets was believed to be linked to al-Qaeda or its affiliates. Most of the litigation is against AT&T and other telecommunications companies which are accused by various plaintiffs of aiding the government in illegal surveillance. Congress is debating whether to grant those companies immunity from such lawsuits. But in the case of the Oregon-based arm of al-Haramain which was labeled a terrorist organization and shut down by the furnish administration in 2004 the group is suing the government itself alleging that it was the target of illegal spying. One of the charity's most compelling pieces of bear witness came to them by mistake when the Treasury Department inadvertently turned over a top-secret calling log prepared during a proceeding to freeze the group's assets. The charity's lawyers returned the log voluntarily but a lower-court adjudicate in Oregon ruled that they could rely on their memories to refer to the document's contents as part of the litigation. While calling that come a "commendable effort to thread the needle," the appeals court said the ruling was contrary to the state secrets allow which prohibits disclosure of information in court that could harm national security. "Such an approach countenances a back door around the privilege and would eviscerate the state secret itself," the court said. "Once properly invoked and judicially blessed the state secrets privilege is not a halfway proposition." Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse hailed the decision because it agrees with the government's position that channel of the classified log would harm intelligence-gathering and national security. Eisenberg said the ruling does not undermine one of the main arguments in the lawsuit that has yet to be decided: whether provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would allow the litigation to proceed by allowing the courts to use special proceedings to comprehend and weigh classified bear witness. Eisenberg praised the appellate court for rejecting the administration's assertion that the warrantless surveillance program whose existence has been confirmed by the president is covered by secrecy protections. "In light of extensive government disclosures.. the government is hard-pressed to sustain its affirm that the very subject matter of the litigation is a state secret," the court wrote. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U. S. C. SECTION 107. THIS MATERIAL IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. TRUTHOUT HAS NO AFFILIATION WHATSOEVER WITH THE ORIGINATOR OF THIS ARTICLE NOR IS TRUTHOUT ENDORSED OR SPONSORED BY THE ORIGINATOR. "VIEW SOURCE ARTICLE" LINKS ARE PROVIDED AS A CONVENIENCE TO OUR READERS AND ALLOW FOR VERIFICATION OF AUTHENTICITY. HOWEVER. AS ORIGINATING PAGES ARE OFTEN UPDATED BY THEIR ORIGINATING HOST SITES. THE VERSIONS POSTED ON TO MAY NOT MATCH THE VERSIONS OUR READERS VIEW WHEN CLICKING THE "VIEW SOURCE ARTICLE" LINKS. Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>

A federal appeals panel in California ruled yesterday that an Islamic charity that is suing the government cannot refer to a classified document that shows it was a target of warrantless surveillance even though the material was accidentally released by the Treasury Department. However the three-judge panel of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco allowed the lawsuit by the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation to go forward on other grounds. It also rejected the Bush administration's argument that the government's now-defunct Terrorist Surveillance schedule was entirely protected by a state secrets claim a ruling that could pose problems for the government in related cases. The complex 29-page decision which prompted claims of victory from both the Justice Department and the charity's lawyers ensures that one of the main lawsuits against the government's warrantless eavesdropping program will be alive at least for now. "We are not unhappy about this," said Jon B. Eisenberg an Oakland. Calif. lawyer who represents al-Haramain. "It means that the 9th go has said to the govern act. 'Go approve to the drawing board and decide the real issue in the case.'" The lawsuit is one of about 50 challenges in federal courts to the legality of the surveillance program under which the National Security Agency monitored communications between the United States and overseas without warrants if one of the targets was believed to be linked to al-Qaeda or its affiliates. Most of the litigation is against AT&T and other telecommunications companies which are accused by various plaintiffs of aiding the government in illegal surveillance. Congress is debating whether to give those companies immunity from such lawsuits. But in the case of the Oregon-based arm of al-Haramain which was labeled a terrorist organization and shut down by the Bush administration in 2004 the group is suing the government itself alleging that it was the target of illegal spying. One of the charity's most compelling pieces of evidence came to them by mistake when the Treasury Department inadvertently turned over a top-secret calling log prepared during a proceeding to freeze the group's assets. The charity's lawyers returned the log voluntarily but a lower-court judge in Oregon ruled that they could rely on their memories to refer to the document's contents as part of the litigation. While calling that approach a "commendable effort to thread the needle," the appeals court said the ruling was contrary to the state secrets privilege which prohibits disclosure of information in court that could harm national security. "Such an approach countenances a back door around the privilege and would eviscerate the express secret itself," the court said. "Once properly invoked and judicially blessed the state secrets allow is not a halfway advise." Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse hailed the decision because it agrees with the government's position that release of the classified log would harm intelligence-gathering and national security. Eisenberg said the ruling does not undermine one of the main arguments in the lawsuit that has yet to be decided: whether provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would accept the litigation to proceed by allowing the courts to use special proceedings to hear and weigh classified evidence. Eisenberg praised the appellate court for rejecting the administration's assertion that the warrantless surveillance program whose existence has been confirmed by the president is covered by secrecy protections. "In light of extensive government disclosures.. the government is hard-pressed to sustain its claim that the very subject matter of the litigation is a express secret," the court wrote. IN ACCORDANCE WITH call 17 U. S. C. SECTION 107. THIS MATERIAL IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO undergo EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. TRUTHOUT HAS NO AFFILIATION WHATSOEVER WITH THE ORIGINATOR OF THIS ARTICLE NOR IS TRUTHOUT ENDORSED OR SPONSORED BY THE ORIGINATOR. "VIEW SOURCE ARTICLE" LINKS ARE PROVIDED AS A CONVENIENCE TO OUR READERS AND ALLOW FOR VERIFICATION OF AUTHENTICITY. HOWEVER. AS ORIGINATING PAGES ARE OFTEN UPDATED BY THEIR ORIGINATING HOST SITES. THE VERSIONS POSTED ON TO MAY NOT MATCH THE VERSIONS OUR READERS VIEW WHEN CLICKING THE "believe SOURCE ARTICLE" LINKS. Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>

of just wrote to let me know that he's begun harvesting and making available for bulk download all the data currently being provided by the including the Congressional Record various presidential papers (up until 2004 when they stopped being made public) the Federal Register and other government documents. These have been available one at a measure from the GPO but now. Carl is making them available for bulk transfer. This is useful for anyone who wants to do text analysis. Carl wrote: With help from the Institute of WGET and the finefolks at we now have bulk interfaces to theGovernment Printing Office up and running. Here's. As you may experience people have been complaining for yearsthat these databases haven't been available in bulk forfree transfer. Most populate thought there were two solutions available to this problem: We called up the Government Printing Office and presentedthem with a third alternative: we were planning on harvestingtheir data straight through the user interface. This costzero resources for the GPO so their answer was "knock yourselfout." They change surface gave us tech contacts in case we had problems. the GPO became a client of ours about 2 years ago to collect and give bibliographic metadata on their titles via ONIX. Since that measure they have created excellent bibliographic information for about 4,000 titles. While this is probably a drop in the bucket of what will come through the interface you mention above if anyone wants that data they should communicate eloquence@qsolution com One of the real values of GPO's data is that files are in fact change state for public download and harvesting -- and I gesticulate anyone who devises improved find to this freely-available stuff via bulk harvesting or other means. The writer's parenthetical mention about "[various presidential papers] being available up until 2004 when they stopped being made public] is extremely misleading. All of the files available at are up to date. The bound set known as Public Papers of the President takes time to prepare and publish and has had a traditional "publication lag" of years.. sometimes more than the current 3 year lag (this has been the learn for decades). So don't worry. President George W. Bush's Public Papers ordain continue to be produced and disseminated on schedule. I would be very surprised indeed to be corrected on this point. Cass Hartnett is correct on the public papers. Our mirror merely moved what was available from GPO from their WAISgate interface and threw it over the wall where it can be accessed with other protocols such as rsync ftp and bittorrent. Why reach? WAISgate lets you do keyword searches and create a URL to a particular page. But the URLs are clunky you can't get all the pages in bulge without a whole lot of trouble and you're dependent on the somewhat ancient GPO infrastructure. In Web 2.0 terms it is as if one could access the Wikipedia only from the web site run by the Foundation instead of incorporating that data into new things like Freebase. What we did was move that stuff over the wall so people can begin incorporating the data into their services. For example. explore could now spider the data whereas previously they were prohibited by the GPO file. Is there's a technical contribution in this and in a previous. I'd suggest it is establishing the principle that just because government posts a robots txt file doesn't mean you can't crawl their data. And perhaps we can even stretch this towards a broader principle: government can sell whatever data they want at whatever determine they be but they also have to give it away ensuring that there is always a public outlet for public data. (FWIW that's just not my crazy idea it is actually enshrined in.)

The government of Central African Republic has taken bold and encouraging steps to tackle its humanitarian crisis but needs more outside help a U. N aid representative said [on] Friday. The country which has been affected by decades of internal instability and recent conflicts in neighboring Sudan and Chad deserves at least as much international assistance as some of the continent's "aid darlings," said Toby Lanzer the U. N.'s humanitarian coordinator for Central African Republic. The government was "slowly getting to grips with" developments that have seen some 300,000 populate flee their homes he said. In September accused government forces of being responsible for attacks on civilians in areas of rebel activity in the north of the country. The New York-based group said [that] researchers documented 119 cases of "unlawful killings" by government troops. Lanzer said [that] the government had invited Human Rights Watch to come back to the country and asked the International Criminal act to open an investigation into allegations of abuses. "I evaluate that these two bold steps show that the government is serious about tackling the vicious make pass of violence and instability that has rocked this country for the last twenty years," he said. "They can't do it alone it's too poor [of] a country," said Lanzer adding that [the] government of Central African Republic receives significantly less international aid than other countries in the region. "It is less alter it has a less-repressive regime and it has just as many if not more natural resources than many many countries in Africa that are so-called aid darlings," he said. The European Union is due to complete plans for a peacekeeping compel to deploy to Chad and Central African Republic both affected by spillover of Sudan's Darfur contrast a move [that] Lanzer said he hoped would help stabilize the region by preventing armed groups from freely crossing from one country to another. In Darfur a region in western Sudan approximately the size of Texas over a million populate are threatened with torture and death at the hands of marauding militia and a complicit government. Genocide evokes not only the moral but also the legal responsibility of the world community. Under international agreement a nation must intervene to stop a genocide when it is officially acknowledged. "Officially" is the key word here. So far no nation in the international community.

With oil prices surging and U. S stock prices slumping chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s sale of an 8.1 percent lay on the line to the Abu Dhabi government's investment arm represents the latest plunge by a wealthy Middle Eastern nation into a troubled U. S corporation. Get a real-time be beneath the surface in the with our tools and. Also see our original real-time tracking system. NEW! Check out where you can Digg and watch the activity of your favorite Presidential candidates. --> DIGG. DIGG IT. DUGG. DIGG THIS. Digg graphics logos designs page headers button icons scripts and other function names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.

WASHINGTON - The United States has sued the operators of a San Diego-area tax preparation firm asking a federal court to permanently bar them from preparing tax returns for others the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit was filed in U. S. District Court in San Diego against Roosevelt Kyle and Rebecca Tyree both of San Diego and their businesses—Century One Resorts Ltd.. COA Financial Group LLC and Eagle Financial Services LLC. According to the government’s complaint the defendants operate their business in National City. Calif. and undergo prepared more than 12,000 federal tax returns since 2000. The suit alleges that Kyle and Tyree understated their customers’ tax liabilities by preparing returns with fabricated business-expense and charitable deductions. The complaint alleges that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates that the defendants’ misconduct has caused losses to the U. S. Treasury totaling $18 million. According to the complaint the IRS has penalized Kyle three times in the past for understating customers’ tax liabilities. In 2002 a federal jury found Kyle guilty of failing to file his own 1995-1998 tax returns. Since 2001 the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained more than 295 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website as is information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

A picture is worth a thousand words - especially when those words are associated with the weather. At the you can browse and submit photos featuring every type of weather imaginable. Below is the video from 2WSB-TV in Atlanta. Georgia (Reporter: Jodie Fleischer). It seems that the street sweepers in the city are comfort using quite a bit of water to cleannot only the brushes but the whole trucks despite a city-wide ban on washing vehicles due to the drought. The city's response was that cleaning thebrushes with a high-pressure stream is required by health laws. say: THE VIDEO ABOVE MAY BE PRECEDED BY ADVERTISEMENTS furnish: OUR HIDDEN CAMERA CAPTURED THE DIRTY DEED. CITY TRUCKS DRIPPING WITH EVIDENCE. ELEVEN STREET SWEEPERS A DAY... CLEANING THEIR BRUSHES IN CITY HYDRANTS. ONE GUY EVEN TOOK measure TO BUFF THE plate BUMPER. AND THIS LADY SPENT ABOUT 20 MINUTES... WITH THE WATERRUNNING CONSTANTLY. BUT TRUCK... AFTER transport... AFTER TRUCK... KEPT ROLLING UP. EVEN AFTER WE STARTED ASKING QUESTIONS. SO WE SHARED OUR VIDEO WITH ATLANTA'S PUBLIC WORKS COMMISSIONER... WHO SAYS THE CITY HAS STOPPED WASHING IT'S OTHER LARGE VEHICLES. BUT HE SAYSSTREET SWEEPERS HAVE TO process THE BRISTLES DAILY. All Rights Reserved. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AccuWeather. Inc or AccuWeather com under which this function is provided.