[JURIST] Former vice-president Dick Cheney [JURIST news archive] directly ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] to withhold from Congress information on a counterterrorism program kept secret for eight years until it was terminated by current CIA director Leon Panetta [official profile], according to a Saturday New York Times report [text]. The secret counterterrorism program was initiated in the months following the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive], and details about the program's scope have not been disclosed to the public. Panetta informed [NPR report] Congress in an emergency closed meeting with both the Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives and the Senate [official websites] on June 24, after learning about the program and immediately terminating in on June 23. According to Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) [official website], Chairman of the House Intelligence committee, the CIA would have violated National Security Act [text] requirements that Congress be kept informed of programs such as this one by keeping it a secret.

On Friday, five federal agencies released a report [text; JURIST report] on the president's warrantless wiretapping program that reviewed both the flawed legal origins of the program as well as questioned the effectiveness of information produced by wiretapping international communications of American citizens. In May, Cheney defended the national security policies [speech transcript; JURIST report] of the Bush administration speaking at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) [organization website], while criticizing many of the security policies of President Barack Obama [official profile].

[JURIST] US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] is still considering appointing a prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture during the Bush administration, Newsweek reported [text] Saturday. Despite pressure from the White House [official website] to "look forward, not backwards" with regard to Bush-era interrogation tactics [JURIST news archive], Holder has reportedly requested a list of ten candidates, five from within the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] and five from outside the agency. According to the report, the person selected, if anyone is selected at all, must have "gravitas and grit." DOJ sources indicated to Newsweek that Holder is aware of the politically charged, and thus delicate, nature of a possible investigation but feels compelled to investigate both because the legal authorizations for the interrogation techniques were themselves questionable and because some interrogators went beyond what was authorized. A final decision is expected to be announced within the next few weeks.

In April, Democratic members of the US House Judiciary Committee [official website] sent Holder a letter urging him to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations of torture [press release and letter text; JURIST report] against Bush administration officials. Earlier in April, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official profile] had reiterated his calls for a non-partisan truth commission [JURIST report] to investigate Bush administration officials responsible for authorizing certain interrogation techniques. Also in April, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website] released a report [text; JURIST report] by the DOJ indicating that former attorney general John Ashcroft and former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in 2002 approved the use of waterboarding and other extreme interrogation techniques used by CIA agents against Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archives] detainees. The report supports many of the conclusions of a November Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) [official website] report [text, PDF; JURIST report] detailing the extent of top Bush administration officials' involvement in implementing the techniques, which was declassified [JURIST report] in April 2009. Calls for an independent investigation of Bush administration interrogation policies intensified after the Obama administration released four top secret memos [JURIST report] outlining the legal rationale behind controversial techniques.

[JURIST] The Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program [JURIST news archive] relied on a flawed legal analysis at its inception and produced results of questionable effectiveness, according to an unclassified version of a report [text] released Friday by five government agencies. The report, prepared by inspector generals at the US Department of Justice (DOJ), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) [official websites], says that agency officials had "difficulty evaluating the precise contribution of the PSP [President's Surveillance Program] to counterterrorism efforts because it was most often viewed as one source among many available ..." despite the "unprecedented collection activities" that the program entailed. The report also cited lack of awareness of the program and the poor quality of the information it produced that has been described by receiving officers as vague. It recommended careful monitoring of any retained information collected. Responding to the report, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] Legislative Counsel Michelle Richardson emphasized [press release] "that the power Congress authorized with the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] Amendments Act is even broader than the illegal program the Bush administration was conducting, and is most likely just as ineffective. Giving up the Fourth Amendment for an ineffective program is a double slap in the face of Americans."

In June a federal judge upheld [JURIST report] provisions of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FISAAA) giving immunity to telecom companies from liability associated with assisting the National Security Agency (NSA) with warrantless eavesdropping, dismissing 46 lawsuits against the telecom industry. In January, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review made public [JURIST report] a ruling from August 2008 that upheld the Protect America Act [text], a previous 2007 amendment to FISA that allowed warrantless wiretaps of international phone and e-mail communications. After the amendment, warrants were still required to monitor purely domestic communications. The 2008 FISA amendment law granted the FISA court authority to review a wider range of wiretapping orders, prohibited the executive branch from overriding the court's authority, and ordered the DOJ and other agencies to issue this latest report on the country's use of wiretapping orders.