Newsmaking conference presentation in Washington, D.C.

I always enjoy buying the local paper when I travel. I especially like reading the Washington Post for its political coverage. At ALA conferences, I look for coverage of the library field. I didn’t get a chance to read the paper much at this conference, though I remember a headline in the “Style” section. But Tuesday night, on the plane ride home, I stumbled upon a bigger story than librarian makeovers.

Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus wrote about District Judge Royce C. Lamberth’s presentation Saturday morning, calling it “an unusually open discussion” of his work as chief judge of a special court that supervises applications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Lamberth was the court’s chief judge from 1995 to 2002. Pincus called the presentation “probably the most revealing discussion to date of actions by the FISA court, which since 1978 has approved wiretaps and other secret surveillance activities involving foreign intelligence and terrorism cases.” Lamberth descirbed being awaken at 3 a.m. on August 8, 1998, after the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, to approve five wiretaps, including one of Osama bin Laden’s former secretary in Texas.

You can view a video of the presentation on the Washington Office’s Web site.