Tuesday, May 15, 2007

White House Edits to Privacy Board's Report Spur Resignation

By John Solomon and Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, May 15, 2007; Page A05

The Bush administration made more than 200 revisions to the first report of a civilian board that oversees government protection of personal privacy, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials deemed "potentially problematic" intrusions on civil liberties, according to a draft of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

One of the panel's five members, Democrat Lanny J. Davis, resigned in protest Monday over deletions ordered by White House lawyers and aides. The changes came after the congressionally created Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board had unanimously approved the final draft of its first report to lawmakers, renewing an internal debate over the board's independence and investigative power.

Some of the changes sought by the administration ultimately were reversed, and some members of the panel said they were not opposed to the others.

But one section deleted by the administration would have divulged that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's civil liberties protection officer had "conducted reviews of the potentially problematic programs and has established procedures" for intelligence officials to file complaints about possible civil liberties and privacy abuses.

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