A privacy watchdog group Thurs. sued the Justice Dept. under the ...
A privacy watchdog group Thurs. sued the Justice Dept. under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), demanding it immediately disclose information on the Bush Administration’s warrantless domestic surveillance program. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) asked U.S. Dist. Court,…
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D.C., for a preliminary injunction requiring relevant material be released within 20 working days of the Thurs. filing. President Bush said DoJ has had a key role in authorizing, implementing and overseeing National Security Agency (NSA) e-spying. Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales and other DoJ officials have tried to justify the program and its legality, EPIC said. In its filing, the group said the debate “cannot be based solely upon information that the Administration voluntarily chooses to disseminate.” On Dec. 16, EPIC sent FOIA requests to 4 DOJ components, hours after the NSA program was outed. The agency told EPIC its requests warranted priority treatment but has failed to comply with the usual FOIA time limit of 20 working days, the group said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to start hearings on the issue amid calls for an independent counsel, EPIC Open Govt. Project Dir. Marcia Hofmann said: “The debate is happening now. Now is the time that the public needs to be fully informed, not several months from now.”