U.S.: Interior Computers Pose Series Risks to Indian Trust Beneficiaries, Federal Court Warned
WASHINGTON, June 12 - Warning that the federal government is continuing to conceal serious computer security problems with Indian Trust records, lawyers in a class-action lawsuit have urged a federal judge to begin contempt proceedings against newly-installed Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and his top Indian Affairs aide.
In a motion filed in the 10-year-old lawsuit over the Interior Department's acknowledged mishandling of Individual Indian Trust accounts, the lawyers said the secretary and James Cason, his acting assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, have ignored a court order that requires them to report about continuing problems Interior is having with its computer systems.
That failure places them in defiance of an Oct. 20, 2005, injunction that required the department to identify "each and every" computer system operated by the department and its contractors that does not house or provide access to Individual Indian trust data. That order also required Interior to identify to the court "each and every" Interior computer system necessary to protect against fires and other threats to life, property and national security.
"The government's refusal to acknowledge which computer of its many computer systems are faulty places at risk the balances in the trust accounts that the department holds for 500,000 Indian Trust beneficiaries", said Elousie Cobell of Browning, Mont., the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We proved to the district court last summer that trust records could be easily accessed through the many interconnections of Interior's computer systems. To allow this problem to continue is inexcusable and must be stopped now."
Although the government had initially won an injunction that blocked enforcement of the entire October injunction, the lawyers for the Indian plaintiffs in the Cobell versus Kempthorne lawsuit noted the appeals court had subsequently modified its order limiting the stay to one provision in the court order -- not including the reporting requirement. Those requirements remain in place and the department has not complied, the lawyers said in their motion.
The attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to order the two officials to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for their continuing failure to comply with the "relatively modest reporting requirements" he ordered in October.
"It is unfortunate that our first experience with the new secretary has to be so difficult", said Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Nation. "But this secretary, like his predecessors, must realize how important the security of trust assets are to Native people and the courts."
During a 59-day hearing during the summer of 2005 the Interior Department's computer systems were shown to be easy prey for computer hackers. The hackers testified they had easily broken into the department's computer systems. They said their unfettered access to Indian trust data went undetected for weeks.
Citing the risk that poised for the trust assets, Judge Lamberth ordered the department to disconnect its computers from the Internet on Oct. 20, 2005. The government appealed that order to the U.S. Court of Appeals but it did not challenge the other provisions of the Injunction, including the reporting requirements that the judge set forth in his order.
If contempt proceedings are instituted, Kempthorne would become the third Interior secretary to face such charges. Judge Lamberth has held both Bruce Babbitt in the Clinton Administration and Gale Norton in the
Bush administration in civil contempt during the course of the Cobell litigation. A federal appeals court vacated the finding against Norton, saying that additional evidence to show criminal intent was necessary.
The entire motion is available at http://www.indiantrust.com .
Indian Trust http://www.indiantrust.com
WASHINGTON, June 12 - Warning that the federal government is continuing to conceal serious computer security problems with Indian Trust records, lawyers in a class-action lawsuit have urged a federal judge to begin contempt proceedings against newly-installed Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and his top Indian Affairs aide.
In a motion filed in the 10-year-old lawsuit over the Interior Department's acknowledged mishandling of Individual Indian Trust accounts, the lawyers said the secretary and James Cason, his acting assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, have ignored a court order that requires them to report about continuing problems Interior is having with its computer systems.
That failure places them in defiance of an Oct. 20, 2005, injunction that required the department to identify "each and every" computer system operated by the department and its contractors that does not house or provide access to Individual Indian trust data. That order also required Interior to identify to the court "each and every" Interior computer system necessary to protect against fires and other threats to life, property and national security.
"The government's refusal to acknowledge which computer of its many computer systems are faulty places at risk the balances in the trust accounts that the department holds for 500,000 Indian Trust beneficiaries", said Elousie Cobell of Browning, Mont., the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. "We proved to the district court last summer that trust records could be easily accessed through the many interconnections of Interior's computer systems. To allow this problem to continue is inexcusable and must be stopped now."
Although the government had initially won an injunction that blocked enforcement of the entire October injunction, the lawyers for the Indian plaintiffs in the Cobell versus Kempthorne lawsuit noted the appeals court had subsequently modified its order limiting the stay to one provision in the court order -- not including the reporting requirement. Those requirements remain in place and the department has not complied, the lawyers said in their motion.
The attorneys asked U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth to order the two officials to show cause why they should not be held in contempt for their continuing failure to comply with the "relatively modest reporting requirements" he ordered in October.
"It is unfortunate that our first experience with the new secretary has to be so difficult", said Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Nation. "But this secretary, like his predecessors, must realize how important the security of trust assets are to Native people and the courts."
During a 59-day hearing during the summer of 2005 the Interior Department's computer systems were shown to be easy prey for computer hackers. The hackers testified they had easily broken into the department's computer systems. They said their unfettered access to Indian trust data went undetected for weeks.
Citing the risk that poised for the trust assets, Judge Lamberth ordered the department to disconnect its computers from the Internet on Oct. 20, 2005. The government appealed that order to the U.S. Court of Appeals but it did not challenge the other provisions of the Injunction, including the reporting requirements that the judge set forth in his order.
If contempt proceedings are instituted, Kempthorne would become the third Interior secretary to face such charges. Judge Lamberth has held both Bruce Babbitt in the Clinton Administration and Gale Norton in the
Bush administration in civil contempt during the course of the Cobell litigation. A federal appeals court vacated the finding against Norton, saying that additional evidence to show criminal intent was necessary.
The entire motion is available at http://www.indiantrust.com .
Indian Trust http://www.indiantrust.com