ETS Pictures

Political news

Recent political news has featured several alumni of previous ETS Pictures programs. Former congressman Bob Bar, who appeared in our 2007 documentary "Intent," was recently endorsed by the Libertarian Party as its presidential candidate.

Congressman Ron Paul, who was interviewed for a 2001 episode of "Declassified Radio" suspended his campaign for the Republican Party's presidential nomination on June 12th.

Seattle attorney Paul Richmond, who appeared in 2002's "Urban Warrior," is running for congress in Washington's 6th district.

Habeas corpus ruling

Today, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Boumediene v. Bush case. In part, the Court's opinion held that Congress did not properly suspend the writ of habeas corpus when it passed the 2006 Military Commissions Act. Thus, internees at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility are now able to challenge their detentions in U.S. courts.

The CATO Institute was among the large number of organizations that filed amicus briefs in the case. CATO's brief was written by Tim Lynch, who appeared in our 2004 program "Security and the Constitution."

Documentary Updates

ETS Pictures recently provided cinematography services for two upcoming broadcast documentaries. Myers Communications of Saint Paul is currently producing a program about the history of choral music in Minnesota, which will be released on PBS affiliate TPT later this year. Indiewood Pictures of Los Angeles is completing production of the feature documentary My Run, which looks at the life of marathon runner Terry Hitchcock.

Yoo memo released

The Washington Post has a story on a recently declassified memo written by former Justice Department attorney John Yoo, detailing legal issues related to the interrogation of enemy combatants. The memo cites a previous (and currently unreleased) DOJ memo setting forth the Department's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, and its lack of applicability to domestic military operations. This yet-to-be released memo may further illuminate the assumptions undergirding the Bush administration's policies relating to the detention of U.S. citizens as enemy combatants, and the implementation of the "Terrorist Surveillance Program." ETS Pictures has touched on both of these issues in previous programs.

See the Yoo memos here and here.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule

Austin, Texas-based filmmaker Mitch Schultz is completing production on a feature-length documentary about the world's most powerful hallucinogen - Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. The film is based in part on Dr. Rick Strassman's book "The Spirit Molecule." ETS Pictures has provided cinematography services for the production.

View the film's web site here

Details on warratless wiretapping program emerge

Eric Lichtblau, who co-wrote the original New York Times article on the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" has just released a new book, which examines the extent of that program in greater detail.

Oral arguments in Heller case this week

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the District of Columbia v. Heller gun case this Tuesday, March 18th. SCOTUSBLOG has a round-up of the opposing arguments here.

Moussaoui news round-up

The State Department recently awarded five million dollars to Clarence Prevost, a Minnesota tipster who provided information that ultimately let to the arrest of 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui. The award has caused controversy in Minnesota, due to the fact that other Moussaoui tipsters were not similarly compensated. The Star Tribune has the story.

The Associated Press reports that recently unsealed court documents indicate that the lead prosecutor in the Moussaoui trial might have known about the destruction of tapes relating to the interrogation of high value terror detainees. The destruction of the tapes has resulted in an internal Justice Department investigation, as well as a number of congressional hearings. At least one of these hearings featured William Mitchell professor John Radsan, who formerly worked as an assistant general cousel at the CIA.

ETS Pictures produced a short documentary on the Moussaoui case, which opened the TPT broadcast of a 2006 panel discussion featuring key personnel in the Moussaoui investigation, and the subsequent court proceedings. John Radsan organized the 2006 panel discussion as part of the William Mitchell National Security Law Forum.

"Intent" documentary on TPT

Over the past few months, "Intent: Searching For Meaning In the Constitution" has aired on several dozen PBS-affiliated stations. On January 6th, it will debut on the Twin Cities PBS affiliate TPT at 10:00 PM. There is a repeat broadcast Monday the 7th on channel 17 at 8:00 PM.

Hoover plan for mass arrests

On December 21st, the U.S. State Department released a raft of formerly classified documents, including a 1950 memorandum from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to President Harry Truman. The Hoover memo was issued shortly after the beginning of the Korean War. In it, Hoover urged Truman to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, and to authorize the arrests over 12,000 U.S. citizens for internment in military prisons. The names of those to be arrested were to be culled from a list that Hoover had compiled.

This list of names was the product of a long-running FBI project known as the "Security Index." For years, Hoover's FBI meticulously compiled dossiers on U.S. citizens considered to be politically subversive or disloyal. Persons included on the Security Index list were to be arrested in the event of a national security emergency under a so-called "master warrant."

Details of the Security Index program were first made public by the Pike and Church congressional committees, as well as by former FBI agent M. Wesley Swearingen. The "Non-Detention Act" passed by Congress in 1971 can be traced directly to concerns about executive detentions that were raised by the exposure of the "Security Index" program.

Many FBI dossiers bearing "Security Index" tags have been declassified in recent years, including documents held by Hunter College in New York City. The Hunter collection focuses on FBI surveillance of Puerto Rican political personalities. ETS Pictures interviewed the curator of the collection, Ramon Bosque-Perez, for inclusion in our documentary programs Security and the Constitution and Taking Liberties.