Posted by James O'Rourke on May 8, 2008
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 8, 2008;
Page A18
NEW DELHI, May 7 — A brief comment by President Bush about the role of India in the world food crisis has set off a firestorm of criticism in this country.
Speaking to employees at a high-tech firm in St. Louis over the
weekend, Bush noted that much of the developing world was prospering
and that U.S. businesses could benefit. As an example, he cited India,
where the “middle class is larger than our entire population.”
But “when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better
nutrition and better food,” he said. “And so demand is high, and that
causes the price to go up.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bush Administration, World Affairs | 1 Comment »
Posted by James O'Rourke on May 8, 2008
The FBI sent a “national security letter” to Brewster Kahle’s Internet Archive, seeking the name, address and Web surfing data of a patron of the nonprofit. (By Ben Margot — Associated Press)
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 8, 2008; Page D01
The FBI has withdrawn a secret administrative order seeking the name, address and online activity of a patron of the Internet Archive after the San Francisco-based digital library filed suit to block the action.
It is one of only three known instances in which the FBI has backed off from such a data demand, known as a “national security letter,” or NSL, which is not subject to judicial approval and whose recipient is barred from disclosing the order’s existence.
NSLs are served on phone companies, Internet service providers and other electronic communications service providers, but because of the gag order provision, the public has little way to know about them. Their use soared after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, when Congress relaxed the standard for their issuance. FBI officials now issue about 50,000 such orders a year.
The order against the Internet Archive was served Nov. 26, and the nonprofit challenged it based on a provision of the reauthorized USA Patriot Act, which protects libraries from such requests. The privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the archive in the suit, which was joined by the American Civil Liberties Union. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bush Administration, Civil Liberties, Rights, Justice | Leave a Comment »
