A congressional committee hearing is being held today on the Homeland Security Department’s (DHS) monitoring of social media. The meeting, being convened by the House Subcommittee of Counterterrorism and Intelligence, chaired by Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-PA), is being held as a result of documents on DHS monitoring that were exposed through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public research center that focuses attention on emerging issues of privacy and other civil liberties issues.

The House Committee for Oversight & Reform, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, held a hearing on the presence of Occupy DC in McPherson Square. The hearing was titled “Who Made the Decision to Allow Indefinite Camping?” and called into question the National Park Service’s role in allowing occupiers to have tents and engage in what Issa and other members of Congress believe to be illegal camping.

Two witnesses called to testify have been deemed “unavailable” to give testimony by the presiding investigative officer of Pfc. Bradley Manning’s pre-trial hearing after invoking their rights under Article 31 of the US Code of Military Justice.

Both SFC Paul Adkins and WO-1 Kyle J. Balonek refused to give testimony. They did so under advice of legal counsel. They were able to escape providing information to the court despite the fact that David Coombs, a member of the defense, wholly objected and read off codes of military justice that are supposed to be followed during the hearing, which should have prevented the witnesses from invoking their rights under Article 31.

Bradley Manning’s Article 32 hearing or, as it is more generally called, pre-trial hearing resumes today with the government continuing to present the evidence it thinks it has to support the prosecution of Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.

Members of the prosecution include Captain Ashden Fein, Captain Joe Morrow and Captain Angel Overgaard. Members of the defense include Mr. David Coombs, Major Matthew Kemkes and Captain Paul Bouchard.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), is holding a major hearing on whether the United States is safer ten years after the September 11th attacks. Homeland Security Department Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen will be testifying before the committee.

HALT

Republican Lamar Smith of Texas, the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, profoundly wasted the committee’s time today with a junk piece of legislation that would only make matters worse for immigration authorities if passed. The legislation, the “Hinder the Administration’s Legalization Temptation (HALT) Act,” limit the administrative authority the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration Customs & Enforcment (ICE) has to consider waivers and issue cancel deportations, if deemed necessary.