2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 20, 2006 NATION/WORLD Google rebuffs White House request for list of search entries Bush administration sees online database of information as vital to uphold online child protection laws SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been look- ing up on the Internet's leading search engine - a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance. Mountain View-based Google has refused to com- ply with a White House subpoena first issued last summer, prompting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week to ask a federal judge in San Jose for an order to hand over the requested records. The government wants a list of all requests entered into Google's search engine during an unspecified single week - a breakdown that could conceivably span tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected Web addresses from various Google databases. In court papers that the San Jose Mercury News reported on after seeing them Wednesday, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its effort to restore online child protec- tion laws that have been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yahoo Inc., which runs the Internet's second- most used search engine behind Google, con- firmed yesterday that it had complied with a similar government subpoena. Although the government says it isn't seeking any data that ties personal information to search requests, the subpoena still raises serious privacy concerns, experts said. Those worries have been magnified by recent revelations that the White House authorized eavesdropping on civilian communications after the Sept. 11 attacks without obtaining court approval. "Search engines now play such an important part in our daily lives that many people probably contact Google more often than they do their own mother," said Thomas Burke, a San Francisco attorney who has han- dled several prominent cases involving privacy issues. "Just as most people would be upset if the gov- AP PHOTO Google CEO and University alum Larry Page introduces Google Talk Beta, a free global online Instant messaging and talk software application Jan. 6, at the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, in Las Vegas. Google Inc. rebuffs the Bush administration's request, in a porn probe, for a broad range of information from the search engine. ernment wanted to know how much you called your mother and what you talked about, they should be upset about this, too." The content of search request sometimes contain information about the person making the query. For instance, it's not unusual for search requests to include names, medical profiles or Social Security information, said Pam Dixon, executive director for the World Privacy Forum. "This is exactly the kind of thing we have been wor- rying about with search engines for some time," Dixon said. "Google should be commended for fighting this." Every other search engine served similar subpoe- nas by the Bush administration has complied so far, according to court documents. The cooperating search engines weren't identified. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo stressed that it didn't reveal any personal information. "We are rigor- ous defenders of our users' privacy," Yahoo spokes- woman Mary Osako said yesterday. "In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue." Microsoft Corp. MSN, the No. 3 search engine, declined to say whether it even received a similar subpoena. "MSN works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested," the company said in a statement. N~w iNBRIEF3 TEL AVIV, Israel Palestinian suicide bomber injures 20 A Palestinian suicide bomber posing as a peddler blew himself up in a Tel Aviv fast-food restaurant yesterday and wounded 20 people in an apparent attempt to destabilize the region a week before Palestinian elections. Islamic Jihad, the only Palestinian faction boycotting the vote, claimed responsibility. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas accused the group of try- ing to sabotage the Jan. 25 election. The Israeli response will be a key test for acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who took over after Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke earlier this month. The bombing came two days after Olmert said he is ready to resume peace talks following Israel's March election, provided Abbas dis- arms militants. The bomber, who witnesses said posed as a peddler selling disposable razors, walked into the restaurant and blew himself up even though most of the customers were sitting relatively far away at sidewalk tables, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA probe starts nine-year trip to Pluto An unmanned NASA spacecraft the size and shape of a concert piano hur- tled toward Pluto yesterday on a 3-billion-mile journey to the solar system's last unexplored planet - a voyage so long that some of the scientists who will be celebrating its arrival are still in junior high. The New Horizons spacecraft blasted off aboard an Atlas V rocket in a spec- tacular start to the $700 million mission. Though it is the fastest spacecraft ever launched, capable of reaching 36,000 mph, it will take 9 1/2 years to reach Pluto and the frozen, sunless reaches of the solar system. "God has laid out the solar system in a way that requires a certain amount of patience on the part of those who choose to explore it," NASA administrator Michael Griffin said. The probe, powered by 24 pounds of plutonium, will not land on Pluto but will photograph it, analyze its atmosphere and send data back across the solar system to Earth. WASHINGTON Report: Clinton thwarted Cisneros probe The independent counsel who investigated former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros charged in his final report yesterday that the Clinton administration thwarted his investigation, drawing the curtain on the longest-ever probe under a post-Watergate era reform law. Officials who worked in the Clinton administration flatly deny the allega- tions by prosecutor David Barrett, who has concluded the most protracted investigation of its kind ever undertaken. His report, closing a decade-long probe, details a behind-the-scenes battle inside the government as he tried to look into possible tax violations by Cisneros. Cisneros, who was housing secretary during the Clinton administration, pleaded guilty in 1999 to a misdemeanor of lying to the FBI about payments to a former mistress. BAGHDAD Twin bombings kill more than a dozen Iraqis Two near-simultaneous bombings targeted a crowded downtown Baghdad cof- fee shop and a nearby restaurant yesterday, killing more than a dozen people. The attacks came as a foreign assessment team reported evidence of fraud in the Dec. 15 elections, but did not endorse calls for a rerun. The bombings occurred despite government moves to heighten security as the election commission prepares to announce the election results. The announce- ment, which could come Friday, sets the stage for talks on a new national unity government U.S. officials hope will help calm the insurgency and enable the United States to begin withdrawing its 140,000 troops. - Compiled from Daily wire reports CORRECTIONS A story on the front page of yesterday's Daily (Alum battles book censorship) mis- spelled Cammie Mannino's last name. Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com. be 3kigauiaailg 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com Leahy to vote against Alto Democratic senator says nominee would only act in interest of Bush WASHINGTON (AP) - Demo- cratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said yes- terday he will oppose Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's con- firmation, saying he did not believe the conservative judge would be independent of President Bush and the executive branch in his future rulings. "At a time when the president is seizing unprecedented power, the Supreme Court needs to act as a check and to provide balance," Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a speech at Georgetown University's law school. "Based on the hearing and his record, I have no confidence that Judge Alito would provide that check and balance." It is not a surprise that Vermont senator is voting against Alito. He was one of the nominee's harshest interro- gators at Alito's confirmation hearings last week. Leahy also has been a critic of President Bush and the White House's JASON Z. 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