Jesselyn Radack, a lawyer who worked in the Justice Department’s Professional Responsibility Advisory Office, is without a job and at the center of a debate over legal ethics in a high profile terrorist case. Radack provided legal advice to the FBI on the possible interrogation of John Walker Lindh, the American who was captured in Afghanistan after joining with the Taliban.

On May 27, 2003 the Supreme Court refused to hear a case challenging the blanket secrecy of deportation hearings held for hundreds of foreigners detained after the September 11th attacks. The government ordered all immigration hearings closed for foreigners that were deemed "special interest" because of possible terrorist connections. This policy was challenged in two different circuit courts with two different rulings.

The Defense Department's budget authorization bill for fiscal year 2004 includes a provision that would further shroud the National Security Agency (NSA) in secrecy, even though no public case has been made for the provision. The Senate language, included in the proposed FY 2004 Defense Authorization Act (S. 1050, sec. 1035), would exempt all "operational files" of the NSA from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The Pentagon has spent almost all of the $28.5 billion in “emergency-response” funds allocated to them by Congress in the year after the September 11th attacks. However, almost nothing is available to the public explaining how the taxpayer’s money was spent. Apparently, even confidential reports to congressional staff leave too many questions about the expenditures unanswered.