Freedom of Information
May 11, 2013
* FOIA Request to DOJ Yields Expansively Redacted Response

ABCNews: "The Department of Justice complied with the letter of the law and responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from the ACLU seeking insight into the Obama Administration’s policy on intercepting text messages from cell phones. But -- it didn’t release any actual information. Or even any words or letters. As one Reddit comment put it, “[the document is] so transparent it’s completely invisible.” Instead, the Justice Department released 15 pages that were entirely redacted, shaded over in heavy black from top to bottom. All that was visible is the subject of the memo: “Guidance for the Minimization of Text Messages over Dual-Function Cellular Telephones” It is all part of a larger legal battle between civil rights activists and the federal law enforcement about electronic communications. The ACLU has argued that current government surveillance practices on electronic communications violate citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights, which are meant to protect Americans from unlawful searches and seizures. With the FOIA request they were trying to determine if the FBI had properly complied with a 2010 appeals court decision that concerned when email providers must turn over messages to law enforcement and whether the guidelines apply to text messages."

May 10, 2013
* NSA Releases 2007 version - Untangling the Web, A Guide to Internet Research

Unclassified and released on 4/19/2013 in response to a FOIA request by MuckRock and reported by Wired: request, Untangling the Web: A Guide to Internet Research has not been updated since 2007. It is 651 page document that on one hand references sites and sources that no longer exist, but on the other offers insights in techniques and leverage the deep web and techniques to obtain effective competitive intelligence information and data.

May 09, 2013
* Executive Order -- Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information

"To promote continued job growth, Government efficiency, and the social good that can be gained from opening Government data to the public, the default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable. Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable. In making this the new default state, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall ensure that they safeguard individual privacy, confidentiality, and national security."

May 05, 2013
* Sunlight Foundation: Municipal Lobbying Data Guidebook

Sunlight Foundation - Municipal Lobbying Data Guidebook

  • "Why do we need access to lobbying data? Information that is critical to understanding access to power and how that access is being used should be made available to the public with as few restrictions as possible. That means making information available in searchable, sortable and machine-readable format, but also taking into consideration the kinds of information that should be disclosed (the difference between lobbying registration, say, and lobbying activity). For lobbying disclosure to live up to its full potential, the transparency it creates needs to be proportional to the influence that it seeks to influence, with real-time reporting and substantive disclosure empowering public scrutiny of political power at work. The goal of disclosing this data isn't to make life more difficult for the lobbyists, but to ensure that citizens have the ability to track influence -- to glean the context critical to understanding political decision-making and legislation. Meaningful, complete, open lobbying data is vital to creating accountable government. As the state of municipal lobbying data collection and disclosure varies enormously from one city or county to the next, the Sunlight Foundation has created this guide to help local policymakers and advocates create stronger lobbying disclosure."
  • May 03, 2013
    * Reporters Without Borders - New Report: 39 Predators of Freedom of Information

    "Reporters Without Borders is today, World Press Freedom Day, releasing an updated list of 39 Predators of Freedom of Information
    – presidents, politicians, religious leaders, militias and criminal organizations that censor, imprison, kidnap, torture and kill journalists and other news providers. Powerful, dangerous and violent, these predators consider themselves above the law. “These predators of freedom of information are responsible for the worst abuses against the news media and journalists,” Reporters
    Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “They are becoming more and more effective. In 2012, the level of violence against news providers was unprecedented and a record number of journalists were killed. “World Press Freedom Day, which was established on the initiative of Reporters Without Borders, must be used to pay tribute to all journalists, professional and amateur, who have paid for their commitment with their lives, their physical integrity or their freedom, and to denounce the impunity enjoyed by these predators."

    April 29, 2013
    * TRAC: ICE's FOIA Requests Piling Up

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: "At Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) there has been a rapid rise in the backlog of FOIA requests received that have been waiting unanswered for long periods of time. According to its annual FOIA report, ICE had only 50 pending requests at the end of FY 2011; this number jumped to 2,903 at the end of FY 2012 after the agency was assigned the responsibility of processing some of the backlog of FOIA requests received by the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS). And according to the latest available agency records analyzed by TRAC, ICE's backlog is projected to grow to over 13,125 by the end of September 2013 when the fiscal year ends, three and a half times higher than it was at the end of FY 2012. For the latest FOIA Project report, with more details on the ICE FOIA request backlog, go here."

    April 24, 2013
    * EPIC FOIA Request Reveals Details About Government Cybersecurity Program

    EPIC: "New documents obtained by EPIC in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit reveal that the Department of Defense advised private industry on how to best circumvent federal wiretap law. The documents concern a collaboration between the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and private companies to allow government monitoring of private Internet networks. Though the program initially only applied to defense contractors, an Executive Order issued by the Obama administration earlier this year expanded it to include other "critical infrastructure" industries. The documents obtained by EPIC also cited NSPD 54 as one source of authority for the program. NSPD 54 is a presidential directive issued under President Bush that EPIC is pursuing in separate FOIA litigation. For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Defense Contractor Monitoring), and EPIC: EPIC v. NSA - Cybersecurity Authority."

    April 16, 2013
    * Get Grandpas FBI File.com Website Now Makes Getting FBI Files Easy

    News release: "The process for obtaining FBI files about family members who may have been the subject of a federal investigation has just become much simpler with the help of a step-by-step consumer website: GetGrandpasFBIfile.com established by Virginia-based Meme Transmission Enterprises...The Federal Bureau of Investigation maintains billions of pages of records and millions of files -– all compiled using taxpayer dollars. But the clock is ticking. Recently, the FBI has begun destroying the bulk of its historic files to save space. Only a very tiny fraction of its voluminous files will be preserved at the National Archives So time is of the essence in asking for files before they are gone forever. Get Grandpas FBI File makes it easy to get these files by guiding the public through the process of completing a request letter. The website does not ask for any payment, and most requests for FBI files are processed by the FBI without any fees whatsoever."

    April 09, 2013
    * EPIC Sues FBI to Obtain Details of Massive Biometric ID Database

    "EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to obtain documents about "Next Generation Identification", a massive database with biometric identifiers on millions of Americans. The EPIC lawsuit follows the FBI's failure to respond to EPIC's earlier FOIA requests for technical specifications and contracts. According to EPIC's complaint, "When completed, the NGI system will be the largest biometric database in the world." NGI aggregates fingerprints, DNA profiles, iris scans, palm prints, voice identification profiles, photographs, and other identifying information. The FBI will use facial recognition to match images in the database against facial images obtained from CCTV and elsewhere. For more information, see EPIC v. FBI - Next Generation Identification, EPIC: Biometric Identifiers and EPIC: Face Recognition."

    April 08, 2013
    * WikiLeaks Launches Public Library of US Diplomacy

    News release: "The Kissinger Cables are part of today's launch of the WikiLeaks Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD), which holds the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As of its launch on April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words. WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange stated: "The collection covers US involvements in, and diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on Earth. It is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever published."

    April 05, 2013
    * EPIC Supports Public Mark Up for Controversial Cyber Security Bill

    "EPIC joined a letter signed by a coalition of privacy and civil liberty organizations to urge the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to open the markup process of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to the public. CISPA suspends privacy safeguards so that companies can disclose vast amounts of customer and client information to the government, including the National Security Agency, for "cybersecurity purposes." Some in Congress believe that the proposal should be adopted in a secret committee meeting. EPIC favors government transparency and is currently pursuing a lawsuit against the NSA stemming from a FOIA request for National Security Presidential Directive 54, which grants the NSA broad authority over computer networks in the United States. For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. NSA - Cybersecurity Authority."

    April 02, 2013
    * Petition - Require free online permanent public access to ALL federal government information and publications

    James R. Jacobs - Government Information Librarian - Stanford University: "...[we have created] a petition on the White House's "We the People" petition site. If you believe in free permanent public access to authentic government information, we hope you'll sign the petition. And if every one of the @2500 govdoc-l subscribers signs, posts to their Facebook accounts and sends to 10 friends who sign, we'll reach our goal of 100,000 signatures by April 11, 2013! If we get enough signatures, the White House will respond and the FDLP community will move forward by leaps and bounds." See the Petition and the Context.
    WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
    Require free online permanent public access to ALL federal government information and publications.
    1. Assure that GPO has the funds to continue to maintain and develop the Federal Digital System (FDsys).
    2. Raise ALL Congressional, Executive & Judicial branch information, publications & data to the level of federally funded scientific information & publish ALL government information as "Open Access."
    3. Mandate the free permanent public access to other Federal information currently maintained in fee-based databases - including the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER), the National Technical Reports Library (NTRL), & USA Trade Online.
    4. Establish an interagency, govt-wide strategy to manage the entire lifecycle of digital government information w/ FDLP Libraries - publication, access, usability, bulk download, long-term preservation, standards & metadata.

    March 27, 2013
    * EFF Commentary on Expanded Powers of Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Reform

    EFF: "Law professor and historian Tim Wu has called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) the “worst law in technology.” The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has described the government’s interpretation of it “expansive,” “broad,” and “sweeping.” And Orin Kerr, former federal prosecutor and law professor, has detailed how the government could use it to put "any Internet user they want [in jail]." So it's pretty surprising to see that now, instead of reining in the CFAA’s dangerous reach, the House Judiciary Committee is floating a proposal to dramatically expand it and is reportedly planning to rush it to the floor of Congress during its April “cyber” week...Techdirt’s Mike Masnick posted a new draft and analysis of the CFAA expansion bill on Monday."

    March 17, 2013
    * Grading Government Transparency Scientists’ Freedom to Speak (and Tweet) at Federal Agencies

    Union of Concerned Scientists - "A strong democracy depends on transparency, accountability, and trust in the government to make evidence-based decisions that protect public health and the environment. Federal scientists play an important role in fulfilling this mandate by providing critical expertise to decision makers and the American people. But sometimes, political or commercial forces interfere with this process, preventing scientific information from reaching those who need it. Strong policies governing external communications serve as the first line of defense against such abuses. Our 2013 report, Grading Government Transparency, looks at the policies governing scientists' communications through both traditional and social media at 17 federal agencies, evaluating the policies in a variety of categories and summarizing each evaluation with a letter grade."

    * EFF - National Security Letters Are Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules

    "A federal district court judge in San Francisco has ruled that National Security Letter (NSL) provisions in federal law violate the Constitution. The decision came in a lawsuit challenging a NSL on behalf of an unnamed telecommunications company represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In the ruling publicly released [March 15, 2013], Judge Susan Illston ordered that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stop issuing NSLs and cease enforcing the gag provision in this or any other case. The landmark ruling is stayed for 90 days to allow the government to appeal."

  • Links to the full order and more on this case - both via EFF.
  • * Paper - The Implausibility of Secrecy

    The Implausibility of Secrecy, by Mark Fenster. University of Florida - Fredric G. Levin College of Law. February 18, 2013

  • "Government secrecy frequently fails. Despite the executive branch’s obsessive hoarding of certain kinds of documents and its constitutional authority to do so, recent high-profile events — among them the WikiLeaks episode, the Obama administration’s celebrated leak prosecutions, and the widespread disclosure by high-level officials of flattering confidential information to sympathetic reporters — undercut the image of a state that can classify and control its information. The effort to control government information requires human, bureaucratic, technological, and textual mechanisms that regularly founder or collapse in an administrative state, sometimes immediately and sometimes after an interval. Leaks, mistakes, open sources — each of these constitutes a path out of the government’s informational clutches. As a result, permanent, long-lasting secrecy of any sort and to any degree is costly and difficult to accomplish. This article argues that information control is an implausible goal. It critiques some of the foundational assumptions of constitutional and statutory laws that seek to regulate information flows, in the process countering and complicating the extensive literature on secrecy, transparency, and leaks that rest on those assumptions. By focusing on the functional issues relating to government information and broadening its study beyond the much-examined phenomenon of leaks, the article catalogs and then illustrates in a series of case studies the formal and informal means by which information flows out of the state."
  • * POGO - Shining a Light on FOIA Practices

    "In celebration of Sunshine Week, a number of organizations released Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reviews. These reviews, conducted by National Security Archives, the Center for Effective Government, Cause of Action, Associated Press, and OpenTheGovernment.org, indicate how agencies measure up when it comes to providing the public with information. Although the studies indicate that agencies on the whole increased their responses to FOIA requests in 2012, disparities remain between agencies on things like response time, compliance with the 2007 Open Government Act and 2009 Guidance from the White House, cost of responding, fee waivers, and backlog reductions. A majority of responses to FOIA requests in 2012 were only partial responses, and use of exemptions to withhold or redact information increased. The following snapshots contain some of the highlights of each review."

    March 15, 2013
    * Aaron Swartz to be honored with freedom of information award

    Follow up to previous postings on Aaron Swartz, news that Aaron is to be honored with freedom of information award by the American Library Association - "A champion of open access rights to documents on the Internet, the 26-year-old activist under prosecution committed suicide earlier this year."

  • See also Aaron Swartz’s Lawyers Accuse Prosecutors of Misconduct: "The complaint, filed by Aaron’s lawyers in late January, also notes that the attempts to coerce Aaron into accepting plea bargain were improper, and beyond the bounds of the guidelines for prosecutors. It also “makes additional charges that cannot be revealed because the government fought for a protective order that keeps case information secret,” according to Huffington Post. Aaron’s lawyers are in the process of trying to lift the protective order."
  • * POGO - FOIAonline is a one-stop shop for requesters

    "The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) gives you the right to access information from federal agencies. FOIAonline allows you to submit FOIA requests to all participating agencies from this website, track the status of requests, search for requests submitted by others, and generate up-to-the-minute reports on FOIA processing. FOIAonline participating agencies include: the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Commerce (except the US Patent and Trademark Office), Office of General Counsel of the National Archives and Records Administration, Merit Systems Protection Board, Federal Labor Relations Authority, and the Department of the Treasury's Departmental Offices (headquarters), Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and United States Mint. Please note that the Internal Revenue Service, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration are not participating in FOIAonline. Moreover, Treasury only participates in FOIAonline to the extent of allowing submission of requests; Treasury manages processing in a separate system. A chart provides further details on the information available in FOIAonline by participating agency."

    March 14, 2013
    * TRAC: Media Making Fewer Challenges to Government Secrecy in Federal Court

    "Federal court records show that Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits challenging government secrecy by news groups have declined, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). This slump in the number of media suits does not seem to indicate that there is less government secrecy. In fact, the overall number of FOIA suits by individuals and other organizations has increased under the Obama administration. Among the reasons cited for the decline are slashes in newsroom budgets and the development of alternative organizations ferreting out more and more government information that was previously unavailable. Included in the short list of the most active news organizations using the FOIA were the New York Times, the Fox News Network and the Associated Press. Among those who did not file a single suit during the last term of President Bush and the first term of President Obama were USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Huffington Post. The report also examined usage of FOIA by reporters submitting requests to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the last two years."

    March 13, 2013
    * Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often

    Freedom of Information Act Performance, 2012: Agencies Are Processing More Requests but Redacting More Often. Center for Effective Government, March 13, 2013

  • "A building block of American democracy is the idea that citizens have a right to information about how their government works and what it does in their name. However, citizen access to public information was only established by law in 1966 with the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The law has since been strengthened and improved over the years, and FOIA currently requires federal agencies to formally respond to requests for information within 20 working days or potentially face a lawsuit. While there are exemptions that agencies can use to avoid the disclosure of sensitive information or information that violates privacy rights, agencies processed over half a million FOIA requests in 2012. In about 41 percent of these cases, the information requested was released “in full” with no parts “redacted” – i.e., clean, complete documents with no blacked-out parts were provided to the person who requested the information. How does this compare to past years and past administrations? How well has President Obama met his goal of being the most transparent administration in history with regard to access to public information? This report examines the processing of FOIA requests from 25 major federal agencies in 2012 and reviews the processing of FOIA requests by agencies since 1998."
  • * Using Metadata as the Foundation for a Government-Wide FOIA Library

    News release: "The Justice Department’s Open Government Plan version 2.0 (PDF) announced a variety of new Department initiatives concerning the administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A key initiative of this plan was the development of metadata standards that would “facilitate the ability of interested persons to search and retrieve documents across websites and disparate record keeping systems.” The plan called for the Office of Information Policy (OIP) to issue guidance for developing metadata standards in the posting of FOIA documents. Today, OIP posted the first in a series of guidance pieces designed to implement these standards across all agencies of the federal government. As the volume of material posted to agency websites continues to increase and “given that information on a given topic often is separately maintained by multiple agencies, it is essential that the public can quickly retrieve records of interest that are posted across government websites.” Looking to make government information not only available, but also accessible and usable, this initial guidance piece introduces the concept of a standard metadata “FOIA” tag to be used by agencies in the posting of FOIA material on agency websites."

    * The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information

    The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information, David Pozen, Columbia Law School. March 2013, Harvard Law Review, Forthcoming

  • "The United States government leaks like a sieve. Presidents denounce the constant flow of classified information to the media from unauthorized, anonymous sources. National security professionals decry the consequences. And yet the laws against leaking are almost never enforced. Throughout U.S. history, fewer than a dozen criminal cases have been brought against suspected leakers. There is a dramatic disconnect between the way our laws and our leaders condemn leaking in the abstract and the way they condone it in practice. This article challenges the standard account of this disconnect, which emphasizes the difficulties of apprehending and prosecuting offenders, and advances an alternative theory of leaking. The executive branch's "leakiness" is often taken to be a sign of institutional failure. The article argues it is better understood as an adaptive response to external liabilities (such as the mistrust generated by presidential secret-keeping and media manipulation) and internal pathologies (such as overclassification and bureaucratic fragmentation) of the modern administrative state. The leak laws are so rarely enforced not only because it is hard to punish violators, but also because key institutional actors share overlapping interests in maintaining a permissive culture of classified information disclosures. Permissiveness does not entail anarchy, however, as a nuanced system of informal social controls has come to supplement, and all but supplant, the formal disciplinary scheme. In detailing these claims, the article maps the rich sociology of governmental leak regulation and explores a range of implications for executive power, national security, democracy, and the rule of law."
  • March 11, 2013
    * Pogo Blog - 5 Great Online Tools for Mining Public Records

    Lili Shirley: "Thanks to our open records laws, you can find a treasure trove of information on the web—everything from details about publically traded companies to where stimulus funds are going. You can even submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests online. Take some time this week to educate yourself about the information and data available from government websites. Below are five great online tools that you can use to help hold government accountable."

  • See also Sunshine Week, March 10-16, 2013 - Open government is good government
  • * Report - Delivering on Open Government: The Obama Administration's Unfinished Legacy

    "The Obama administration has dedicated more effort to strengthening government transparency than previous administrations. The president entered office offering a grand vision for more open and participatory government, and this administration used its first term to construct a policy foundation that can make that vision a reality, issuing an impressive number of directives, executive orders, plans, and other actions aimed at bolstering government openness. With the notable, glaring exception of national security, the open government policy platform the Obama administration built is strong. However, the actual implementation of open government policies within federal agencies has been inconsistent and, in some agencies, weak. This report, Delivering on Open Government: The Obama Administration's Unfinished Legacy, examines progress made during President Obama’s first term toward open government goals outlined in a comprehensive set of recommendations that the open government community issued in November 2008, titled Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-to-Know Agenda. We examine activity in the three main areas of the 2008 report: creating an environment within government that is supportive of transparency, improving public use of government information, and reducing the secrecy related to national security issues."

    March 10, 2013
    * EPIC Prevails in Two FOIA Cases, Obtains Further Details on Body Scanners

    Follow up to related postings on TSA body scanners, via EPIC: "A federal judge has granted EPIC victories in two Freedom of Information Act cases involving the controversial airport body scanners. Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, DC held that the Department of Homeland Security must turn over two safety reports detailing radiation output by the scanners and a set of power point slides containing details on automated target recognition software. The agency previously claimed it was not required to release the documents to EPIC. EPIC has pursued several related Freedom of Information Act cases as a challenge to the deployment of the devices. In 2011, the DC Circuit of Appeals ruled in EPIC v. DHS that the agency must receive public comments on the decision to deploy body scanners for primary screening. For more information see: EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program)"

    March 08, 2013
    * CRS Reports remain out of public domain - new legislation seeks wider access

    Sunlight Foundation Blog, by Matthew Rumsey: March 7, 2013, "Representatives Leonard Lance (R-NJ) and Mike Quigley (D-IL) reintroduced legislation that will make it easier for the public, the media, and government employees to better understand the important policy matters facing Congress. The bipartisan "Public Access to Congressional Research Service Reports Resolution of 2013" would ensure that these reports, which are often cited by courts and the media and sold by third parties for $20 per copy, are freely available to the public on a website maintained by the House Clerk. When Representatives Lance and Quigley introduced this resolution in the 112th Congress we praised the bill, noting that "reliable access to CRS Reports would ensure that everyone has timely and comprehensive access to the collective wisdom of hundreds of analysts and experts on political issues when they're at their most salient." This is perhaps even more important today with controversial issues like the sequester and gun control tying our legislature in knots. A few non-profit organizations manage to make some of these reports freely available, but only the CRS can do this in a truly comprehensive manner."

    March 05, 2013
    * CRS - Public Access to Data from Federally Funded Research

    Public Access to Data from Federally Funded Research: Provisions in OMB Circular A-110. Eric A. Fischer, Senior Specialist in Science and Technology. March 1, 2013

  • "The results of scientific studies are often used in making government policy decisions. While the studies are often published, traditional federal research funding policies did not require the data on which they are based to be made available publicly. Such policies did, however, generally require researchers to share data and physical samples with other scientists after publication of the research. A rider, often called the Shelby Amendment or Data Access Act, that was attached to the Omnibus Appropriations Act for FY1999, P.L. 105-277, mandated the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to amend Circular A-110 to require federal agencies to ensure that “all data produced under a [federally funded] award will be made available to the public through the procedures established under the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA].” The amendment
    authorizes user fees. OMB was required to make changes and release a revised circular; subsequently, agencies that chose to do so issued their own conforming rules. The final revision was published in the Federal Register on October 8, 1999, and has not been changed in subsequent updates to the circular."
  • March 04, 2013
    * EPIC Prevails in Social Media Monitoring FOIA Suit

    "EPIC has obtained a court order and an opinion in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, requiring the agency to turn over more documents about the monitoring of social media and Internet media organizations. EPIC had previously obtained several hundred pages of documents, revealing that the agency monitors the internet for reports that “reflect adversely” on the agency or the federal government. EPIC also obtained a list of very broad search terms used by the agency to monitor social media. As a result of EPIC’s findings, Congress held a hearing on "DHS Monitoring of Social Networking and Media: Enhancing Intelligence Gathering and Ensuring Privacy." For more information see: EPIC: EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security: Media Monitoring."

    February 23, 2013
    * Commentary - The Saga of Barrett Brown: Inside Anonymous and the War on Secrecy

    The Saga of Barrett Brown: Inside Anonymous and the War on Secrecy, By Christian Stork, February 21, 2013

  • "Alleged “hacktivist” Barrett Brown, the 31-year old mislabeled “spokesman” for the shadowy hacker collective known as Anonymous, faces federal charges that could put him away for over a hundred years...His crime: making leaked e-mails accessible to the public—documents that shine a light on the shadowy world of intelligence contracting in the post-9/11 era. A critically acclaimed author and provocative journalist, Brown cannot be too easily dismissed as some unruly malcontent typing away in the back of a gritty espresso lounge. He is eccentric. And he was clearly high on something, if only his own hubris, when he made a threatening video that put him in the feds’ crosshairs. But that’s not the real reason for the government’s overreaction. Evidence indicates it has a lot more to do with sending a message to the community he comes from, which the government sees—correctly—as a threat."

  • January 27, 2013
    * FBI Records Update: Attempted Assassination of President Ronald Reagan

    "On March 31, 1981, John W. Hinckley, Jr., shot President Ronald Reagan and several others in a failed assassination attempt. The FBI conducted an extensive investigation, named REAGAT. This FOIA release consists of an extensive “Prosecutive Report” submitted by the FBI to the Department of Justice in May 1981 as Justice lawyers considered how to prosecute Hinckley for the attacks."

    January 18, 2013
    * AARP - What Are the Retirement Prospects of Middle-Class Americans?

    What Are the Retirement Prospects of Middle-Class Americans? - Barbara A. Butrica
    Urban Institute; Mikki D. Waid, AARP Public Policy Institute, January 2013

  • "The past three decades have been difficult for middle-class Americans. Wages have stagnated, and jobs have become less secure. Employee contributions to workplace health insurance and retirement plans have reduced take-home pay. Skyrocketing health care costs and college tuitions have further strained family budgets. The Great Recession and ongoing financial crisis, which eliminated millions of jobs and wiped out trillions of dollars in household wealth, have tightened the squeeze on middle-class families and cast a shadow on the future retirement prospects of today’s workers. The Urban Institute uses statistical analyses to project various measures of the future retirement prospects of workers ages 25 to 54 in 2012, with a particular focus on middle-class workers. Middle class is defined as those whose household income falls in the middle third of the income distribution. The model compares the retirement prospects of current workers (future retirees) to current retirees and compares the prospects of various subgroups of future retirees by age cohort, income level, educational attainment, race/ethnicity, and gender/marital status. Because of the critical role of escalating healthcare costs, the model also compares retirement prospects before and after accounting for projected increases in medical out-of pocket (MOOP) costs."
  • January 14, 2013
    * Commentary, action and reason for change - the death of Aaron Swartz

  • Marcia Hoffman/EFF: "Over the past two years, Aaron was forced to devote much of his energy and resources to fighting a relentless and unjust felony prosecution brought by Justice Department attorneys in Massachusetts. His alleged crimes stemmed from using MIT's computer network to download millions of academic articles from the online archive JSTOR, allegedly without "authorization." For that, he faced 13 felony counts of hacking and wire fraud, which carried the possibility of decades in prison and crippling fines. His case would have gone to trial in April. The government should never have thrown the book at Aaron for accessing MIT's network and downloading scholarly research. However, some extremely problematic elements of the law made it possible. We can trace some of those issues to the U.S. criminal justice system as an institution, and I suspect others will write about that in the coming days. But Aaron's tragedy also shines a spotlight on a couple profound flaws of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in particular, and gives us an opportunity to think about how to address them."
  • Via Free Government Information: "Even before we learned of Aaron Swartz's passing last Friday, several colleagues and I were in the midst of writing letters nominating Aaron for the ALA James Madison Award which was established by the ALA in 1986 to "honor individuals or groups who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s “right to know” on the national level." We write now to ask all of our readers to also submit letters in support. The deadline for letter submission is January 16, 2013, so get a move on! Send e-mail nominations to Jessica McGilvray, Assistant Director for the ALA Office of Government Relations, at jmcgilvray@alawash.org. Submissions can also be mailed to: James Madison Award / Eileen Cooke Award, American Library Association, Washington Office, 1615 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20009-2520"
  • January 13, 2013
    * New on LLRX - FOIA Facts - What I’ve Learned

    Via LLRX: FOIA Facts - What I’ve Learned - Scott A. Hodes' New Year's commentary is both an overview and a roadmap to the FOIA process. Scott's experience has taught him that requesters do not realize that their biggest obstacle to having their requests processed in a timely manner is not usually FOIA offices. The biggest obstacles tend to be the program offices that have equity in the records sought and the agency executives who see FOIA offices as an expense they don’t want to fund.

    December 28, 2012
    * White House: Nearly 2.9 Million Records Released

    Matt Compton: "In September 2009, the President announced that—for the first time in history—White House visitor records would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis. Today’s release also includes visitor records generated prior to September 16, 2009 that were requested by members of the public in November 2012 pursuant to the White House voluntary disclosure policy. This release brings the total number of records made public by this White House to nearly 2.9 million—all of which can be viewed in our Disclosures section."

    December 20, 2012
    * TRAC - FOIA Lawsuits Increase During Obama Administration

    "A new study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) has found that there were more court complaints asking federal judges to force the government to abide by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) during the first term of the Obama Administration than there were in the last term of President Bush. While the administration-to-administration increase -- documented in court records for the entire FY 2005 to FY 2012 period -- was relatively small at 6 percent, a comparison of the FOIA filings in the last two years of Mr. Bush's second term and the last two years of Mr. Obama's first term showed a far more pronounced jump of 28 percent -- from 562 to 720. For more detailed information about the growing number of FOIA suits in the last two years, including which federal departments had the worst and best records, view the latest report from the FOIA Project."

    December 05, 2012
    * EFF - Newly Released Drone Records Reveal Extensive Military Flights in US

    News release: "Today EFF posted several thousand pages of new drone license records and a new map that tracks the location of drone flights across the United States. These records, received as a result of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), come from state and local law enforcement agencies, universities and—for the first time—three branches of the U.S. military: the Air Force, Marine Corps, and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)."

    December 04, 2012
    * Audit - Outdated Agency Regs Undermine Freedom of Information

    National Security Archive: "A government-wide Freedom of Information Act audit by the National Security Archive has found that sixty-two out of ninety-nine government agencies have not updated their FOIA regulations since US Attorney General Eric Holder issued his March 19, 2009 FOIA memorandum to all heads of executive departments instructing them to make discretionary FOIA releases of documents that might be technically exempt from release (especially with respect to the "deliberative" b(5) exemption), to proactively post records of interest to the public, and to remove "unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles." Original FTC regulations from 1975, still on the books. Fifty-six agencies have not updated their Freedom of Information Act regulations since the passage of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, which mandated that agencies reform their fee structures, institute request tracking numbers, publish specific data on their FOIA output, and cooperate with the new FOIA mediators at the Office of Government Information Services."

    November 13, 2012
    * Government Transparency and Secrecy: An Examination of Meaning and Its Use in the Executive Branch

    CRS - Government Transparency and Secrecy: An Examination of Meaning and Its Use in the Executive Branch, November 8, 2012

  • "From the beginnings of the American federal government, Congress has required executive branch agencies to release or otherwise make available government information and records. Some scholars and statesmen, including James Madison, thought access to information - commonly referred to in contemporary vernacular as “transparency” - was an essential cornerstone of democratic governance. Today, the federal government attempts to balance access to information with the need to protect certain information (including national security information and trade secrets) in order to achieve transparency. As a consequence, access and protection are often in tension with one another...The Obama Administration has undertaken its own transparency initiative, known as the Open Government Initiative, to make executive branch agencies more transparent, publicly accessible, and collaborative than they have historically been. Watchdog organizations have offered mixed reviews of the initiative’s ability to promote and institute government transparency."
  • November 02, 2012
    * EFF Launches New Transparency Project

    News release: "From cell phone location tracking to the use of surveillance drones, from secret interpretations of electronic surveillance law to the expanding use of biometrics, EFF has long been at the forefront of the push for greater transparency on the government’s increasingly secretive use of new technologies. With the launch of our new Transparency Project, we’ve made the information we’ve received easier to access and added new tools to help you learn about the government and file your own requests for information. The new name—Transparency Project—reflects the fact that EFF’s work has expanded far beyond filing and litigating federal Freedom of Information Act requests. While that work still makes up a solid core of what our Transparency Team does, we also seek information from state and local governments, regularly report on transparency issue more broadly, and provide tools to help you find out more about our government and what it’s up to."

    * TRAC - DOJ Inspector General Overly Critical of EOIR Statistics

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC): "The Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Justice Department has just released a report criticizing the statistics of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Lost in the news coverage of the OIG's report are several important points:

    • First, in criticizing the EOIR numbers, the OIG's report doesn't acknowledge that there is already a source for the very statistics it recommends EOIR develop: TRAC's public website. TRAC compiles these statistics each month using EOIR's official case-by-case records.
    • Second, the OIG does not credit EOIR for the very important role the agency has played in the development of these TRAC statistics. We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the cooperation we have received from EOIR, which has been truly exceptional in expediting the release of its case-by-case data to TRAC each month under the Freedom of Information Act. Other federal agencies would do well to emulate EOIR's commitment to providing greater public transparency.
    • Third, the OIG report doesn't acknowledge that the approach taken by EOIR in reporting its workload statistics isn't at all unusual. The same approach criticized by the OIG is used by the federal courts in their annual statistical reports, and by other Justice Department components including the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. When cases are transferred from one court to another, or one U.S. Attorney's office to another, the case is counted as a closing in one, and a new filing or receipt in the other. And while the widespread use of this method by other well-respected bodies does not mean that the OIG's criticism is without merit, it does place the issue into a broader context. When measuring "workload" there are equally valid reasons to support the approach used by EOIR and other organizations. Though TRAC long ago adopted the method OIG now recommends, there simply isn't just one "best" method."

    October 05, 2012
    * National Archives Joins Federal Agencies to Launch New Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Online System

    News release: "The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the Department of Commerce (DOC), have partnered to develop an online system aimed at expanding public access to information requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FOIAonline, formerly known as the FOIA Module, is available as of today (October 1). It offers the public one place to submit FOIA requests, track their progress, communicate with the processing agency, search other requests, access previously released responsive documents and file appeals with participating agencies. For agencies, FOIAonline provides a secure website to receive and store requests, assign and process requests, post responses, generate metrics, manage records electronically, create management reports and electronically generate the annual report required from each agency by FOIA. EPA began looking at the feasibility of a FOIA portal in 2010 with the idea of leveraging Regulations.gov, the Federal rulemaking portal that allows people to comment on Federal regulations and other agency regulatory actions. EPA administers Regulations.gov, which launched in 2002 and now has 38 partner agencies that govern and financially support the program. By leveraging the infrastructure of Regulations.gov, FOIAonline avoided many start-up costs, resulting in a total of $1.3 million to launch and an estimated cost avoidance of $200 million over the next five years if broadly adopted."

    October 02, 2012
    * Government Agency Consortium Launches FOIAonline

    "FOIAonline is a tool that allows both the public and agency staff to make, monitor, and manage FOIA requests from a single website. Requesters may choose to submit requests and file appeals by registering for an account. This will also allow requesters to track progress and communicate directly with agency staff. Prior to making a request, a searchable repository of records previously released may be reviewed to eliminate the need to make a new request. Agency staff can move requests between organizations, review documents for potential withholding, generate invoices and make referrals and consultations quickly to other partner agencies. Agency management will be pleased with the time saved to prepare the Annual Report to the Department of Justice, a standard report in FOIAonline. FOIAonline was developed by a small group of government agencies looking for ways to use technology to process FOIA requests in a cost-effective way. FOIAonline operates as a module of the eRulemaking system and, like eRulemaking, is managed by a Change Control Board of partner agencies. The current partner agencies are: Departments of Commerce and Treasury, Environmental Protection Agency, National Archives and Records Administration, Merit System Protection Board and Federal Labor Relations Authority."

    September 30, 2012
    * Bloomberg Report - Obama Administration's Record on Government Transparency

    Interactive Graphic by David Ingold, David Evans and Danny Dougherty. Reporting by Danielle Ivory and Jim Snyder: "On his first full day in the White House, Barack Obama promised to “usher in a new era of open government” and ordered officials to be more transparent with the public they serve. An investigation to test that pledge shows that many of the president’s own appointees haven’t met those goals. In June, Washington-based reporters at Bloomberg News filed requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the out-of-town travel records for fiscal year 2011 for Cabinet secretaries and top officials at 57 major federal agencies subject to the law. Only about half of those contacted provided the records and costs."

    September 28, 2012
    * EPIC FOIA Uncovers Google’s Privacy Assessment

    "Through a Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Trade Commission, EPIC has obtained Google's initial privacy assessment. The assessment was required by a settlement between Google and the FTC that followed from a 2010 complaint filed by EPIC over Google Buzz. The FTC has withheld from public disclosure information about the audit process, procedures to assess privacy controls, techniques to identify privacy risks, and the types of personal data Google collects from users. EPIC intends to challenge the agency withholdings. For more information, see EPIC: Google Buzz."

    September 27, 2012
    * ACLU Reports on DOJ Warrantless Electronic Surveillance

    Naomi Gilens: "Justice Department documents released today by the ACLU reveal that federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants, sufficient oversight, or meaningful accountability. The documents, handed over by the government only after months of litigation, are the attorney general’s 2010 and 2011 reports on the use of “pen register” and “trap and trace” surveillance powers. The reports show a dramatic increase in the use of these surveillance tools, which are used to gather information about telephone, email, and other Internet communications. The revelations underscore the importance of regulating and overseeing the government’s surveillance power. (Our original Freedom of Information Act request and our legal complaint are online.)"

    September 12, 2012
    * OpenTheGovernment.org - Secrecy 2012 Report

    News release: "The 2012 Secrecy Report released today by OpenTheGovernment.org — a coalition of more than 80 groups advocating for open and accountable government — reveals that positive changes from the Obama administration’s open government policies nevertheless appear diminished in the shadow of the President’s bold promise of unprecedented transparency. Ultimately, though, the public needs more information to judge the size, shape, and legitimacy of the government’s secrecy...Efforts to open the government continue to be frustrated by a governmental predisposition towards secrecy, especially in the national security bureaucracy. Among the troubling trends: the National Declassification Center will not meet its goal for declassifying old records on time; the government continues to use the state secrets privilege in the same way it did prior to release of a new procedural policy; and the volume of documents marked “Classified” continues to grow, with little assurance or reason offered for the decision that the information properly needs such protection. The report also indicates some of the Administration’s openness policies are having a positive effect. The federal government received and processed significantly more public requests for information than in previous years. The Office of Special Counsel is also on track to deliver an all-time high number of favorable actions for federal employees who have been victims of reprisal, or other prohibited personnel practices, for blowing the whistle on waste, fraud, abuse, or illegality. Even in the national security field, there is some progress: most notably, the total amount of money requested for intelligence for the coming year was formally disclosed. This is a tremendous success because such disclosure was resisted by government officials for so long. Additionally, the number of people with the authority to create new secrets continued to drop."

    September 05, 2012
    * National Security Archive FOIA Request Surfaces WMD Document

    News release: "The online magazine ForeignPolicy.com today published an extraordinary CIA document on the recent Iraq war which the National Security Archive obtained through a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) request to the CIA. The document, "Misreading Intentions: Iraq's Reaction to Inspection Created Picture of Deception," dated January 5, 2006, blames "analyst liabilities," such as neglecting to examine Iraq's deceptive behavior "through an Iraqi prism," for the failure to correctly assess the country's virtually non-existent WMD capabilities. The review was one in a series of reevaluations the agency produced of its own work after Operation Iraqi Freedom."

    August 30, 2012
    * New GAO Reports - Coast Guard - Legacy Vessels, FOIA
    • Coast Guard - Legacy Vessels' Declining Conditions Reinforce Need for More Realistic Operational Targets [Reissued on August 30, 2012], GAO-12-741, Jul 31, 2012
    • Freedom of Information Act, Additional Actions Can Strengthen Agency Efforts to Improve Management, GAO-12-828, Jul 31, 2012
    • Income Security - Overlapping Disability and Unemployment Benefits Should be Evaluated for Potential Savings, GAO-12-764, Jul 31, 2012
    August 20, 2012
    * DOJ Office of Information Policy's current report on status of FOIA

    Summary of Agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports for 2012 and
    Assessment of Agency Progress in Implementing the President's FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General's FOIA Guidelines With OIP Guidance for Further Improvement
    , August 2012

  • "OIP selected for the assessment seventeen milestones tied to the five key areas addressed in the Chief FOIA Officer Reports. These milestones were chosen as indicative of progress made in each area, but they are by no means exclusive. Agencies include in their Chief FOIA Officer Reports a wide variety of accomplishments and initiatives that have been undertaken to improve FOIA administration and so this assessment is meant to be read in conjunction with the Chief FOIA Officer Reports themselves, which provide a more comprehensive picture of each agency's work in implementing the FOIA Guidelines. The purpose of the assessment is to provide a visual snapshot of several key areas in FOIA administration. The assessment readily illustrates the many areas where agencies have made real progress and also serves to highlight the areas where further improvement can be made."
  • July 06, 2012
    * National Security Archive Compilation of 46 News Stories for Anniversary of FOIA

    News release: "Marking the 46th anniversary of President Johnson's signing the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archive [July 4, 2012] posted a compilation of 46 news headlines from the past year made possible by active and creative use of the FOIA. This representative sample, drawn from hundreds of FOIA stories reported by newspapers, blogs, broadcasters, and researchers, describe FOIA requests that revealed the theft of Jack Daniels whiskey by airport security screeners, the keywords used by homeland security officials to monitor social networking sites, the soil contamination endangering Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune, pre-9/11 attempts to 'hit' Osama bin Laden, and $1.2 trillion of secret Federal Reserve loans to banks, among dozens of other topics that the public has a right and a need to know."

    June 29, 2012
    * Earthjustice: Deal Reached on Transportation Bill Excludes Dangerous Coal Ash Provision

    "[June 27, 2012] the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released information revealing the existence of hundreds of previously unknown coal ash dumps nationwide. The information comes pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) by Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice. The data released...by the EPA reveal that there are at least 451 more coal ash ponds than previously acknowledged—significantly increasing the known threat from coal ash. The EPA had admitted to 710 ponds, and today’s numbers increase that total to at least 1,161. In addition, the agency previously did not know how many ponds were unlined. [The] data indicate that at least 535 ponds (46 percent) operate without a liner to prevent hazardous chemicals from reaching drinking water sources.

  • See the full list of responses from power plants about their coal ash ponds and landfills," and this related news release, House passes transportation bill - see text here.
  • June 19, 2012
    * National Security Archive: Top Secret CIA Documents on Osama bin Laden Declassified

    News release: "The National Security Archive today is posting over 100 recently released CIA documents relating to September 11, Osama bin Laden, and U.S. counterterrorism operations. The newly-declassified records, which the Archive obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, are referred to in footnotes to the 9/11 Commission Report and present an unprecedented public resource for information about September 11. The collection includes rarely released CIA emails, raw intelligence cables, analytical summaries, high-level briefing materials, and comprehensive counterterrorism reports that are usually withheld from the public because of their sensitivity. Today's posting covers a variety of topics of major public interest, including background to al-Qaeda's planning for the attacks; the origins of the Predator program now in heavy use over Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran; al-Qaeda's relationship with Pakistan; CIA attempts to warn about the impending threat; and the impact of budget constraints on the U.S. government's hunt for bin Laden. Today's posting is the result of a series of FOIA requests by National Security Archive staff based on a painstaking review of references in the 9/11 Commission Report."

    May 28, 2012
    * Information Security Oversight Office's Report for Fiscal Year 2011

    Via FAS - this report by the Director, Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives, John P. Fitzpatrick "Dear Mr. President: I am pleased to submit the Information Security Oversight Office’s (ISOO) Report for Fiscal Year 2011, as required by Executive Order 13526, “Classified National Security Information” (the Order). This report provides statistics and analysis concerning key components of the system of classification and declassification, as well as coverage of ISOO’s reviews of Departments’ and Agencies’ programs. It also contains information with respect to industrial security in the private sector as required by Executive Order 12829, as amended, “National Industrial Security Program."

    May 21, 2012
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: Things Requesters Should Know

    via LLRX - FOIA Facts: Things Requesters Should Know: FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes shares his professional experience working with FOIA Analysts, and their perspective on how they make the FOIA process smoother in regard to their relationships with requesters. This however is a double edged coin – FOIA requesters can also take specific steps and make efforts to assist with the satisfactory and timely completion of a request when communicating with government FOIA personnel.

    May 03, 2012
    * FAS: Counterintelligence Surveillance Under FISA Grew in 2011

    Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood: "In 2011, the US Government submitted 1,745 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for authorization to conduct electronic surveillance or physical searches under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), according to a new annual report to Congress. Of these, 1,676 included requests for authority for perform electronic surveillance, the report said. That compares to 1,579 such applications in 2010 (including 1,511 for electronic surveillance). As is usually the case, the FIS Court did not deny any electronic surveillance applications in whole or in part last year, though it made modifications to 30 of them. The new report says that the government filed 205 applications for business records (including “tangible things”) for foreign intelligence purposes last year, compared to 96 in the previous year."

    * Documents Captured During Bin Laden Raid Released by U.S. Military

    Letters from Abbottabad: Bin Ladin Sidelined? May 03, 2012. Authors: Don Rassler, Gabriel Koehler-Derrick, Liam Collins, Muhammad al-Obaidi, Nelly Lahoud

  • "This report is a study of 17 de-classified documents captured during the Abbottabad raid and released to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC)/West Point. They consist of electronic letters or draft letters, totaling 175 pages in the original Arabic and 197 pages in the English translation. The earliest is dated September 2006 and the latest April 2011. These internal al-Qa`ida communications were authored by several leaders, most prominently Usama bin Ladin. In contrast to his public statements that focused on the injustice of those he believed to be the “enemies” of Muslims, namely corrupt “apostate” Muslim rulers and their Western “overseers,” the focus of Bin Ladin’s private letters is Muslims’ suffering at the hands of his jihadi “brothers”. He is at pain advising them to abort domestic attacks that cause Muslim civilian casualties and focus on the United States, “our desired goal.” Bin Ladin’s frustration with regional jihadi groups and his seeming inability to exercise control over their actions and public statements is the most compelling story to be told on the basis of the 17 de-classified documents. “Letters from Abbottabad” is an initial exploration and contextualization of 17 documents that will be the grist for future academic debate and discussion."
  • April 29, 2012
    * New on LLRX - Opening Government: On the Limits of FOIA and the Metaphor of Transparency

    Via LLRX.com - Opening Government: On the Limits of FOIA and the Metaphor of Transparency - Professor Annmarie Bridy discusses the use of “transparency” as a metaphor for openness in government, the use of FOIA as a mechanism for ensuring such openness, and the ways in which proponents of greater public involvement in policy-making may disserve the cause by focusing too single-mindedly on access to information and the right to know, both of which are operationalized through FOIA.

    April 19, 2012
    * TRAC - ICE Prosecutorial Discretion Initiative: Latest Figures

    "A prosecutorial discretion initiative by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has resulted in the closure of a total of 2,609 Immigration Court cases, according to the latest data obtained and analyzed by TRAC, current through the end of March. This is less than one percent of the 298,173 cases pending before the Immigration Courts at the end of last September. A new report by TRAC presents detailed results from the Baltimore and Denver pilots of this program, and also includes figures from other courts around the nation.,,TRAC's findings are based on case-by-case data, obtained from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). These data included special codes that identified closures under ICE's prosecutorial discretion initiative."

    March 20, 2012
    * House of Representatives - Report Card on Federal Government’s Efforts to Track and Manage FOIA Requests

    Report Card on Federal Government’s Efforts to Track and Manage FOIA Requests, Staff Report, House of Representatives, 112th Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, March 15, 2012

  • "...on January 25, 2011, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa sent a letter to 180 entities representing 100 government agencies requesting information about their FOIA tracking systems. The letter requested each entity to provide an electronic and sortable copy of its FOIA logs containing the following information: 1) the name of the requester; 2) the date of the request; 3) a brief description of the documents or records sought by the request; 4) any tracking number assigned to the request by the agency as required by Section 7 of the OPEN Government Act of 2007; 5) the date the request was closed, if not still an outstanding request; 6) whether records were provided in response to the request; 7) any additional identification number or codes assigned to the request by the agency for internal use...The Committee assigned its grade of governmentwide FOIA logs based on the average of the 17 Cabinet-level departments, which have the most components and receive the majority of requests. This grade was a C-, which is slightly below average, and it most accurately reflects the performance of the Federal government in this evaluation as related to the overwhelming majority of FOIA requests."
  • March 14, 2012
    * Mediated Access: Journalists' Perceptions of Federal Public Information Officer Media Control

    Mediated Access: Journalists' Perceptions of Federal Public Information Officer Media Control, by Carolyn Carlson, David Cuillier and Lindsey Tulkoff - Society of Professional Journalists, March 12, 2012

  • "On the eve of Sunshine Week 2012, a survey of journalists who cover federal agencies found that information flow in the United States is highly regulated by public affairs officers, to the point where most reporters considered the control to be a form of censorship and an impediment to providing information to the public. According to a survey of 146 reporters who cover federal agencies, conducted by the Society of Professional Journalists in February 2012, journalists indicated that public information officers often require pre-approval for interviews, prohibit interviews of agency employees, and often monitor interviews. Journalists overwhelmingly agreed with the statement that “the public was not getting all the information it needs because of barriers agencies are imposing on journalists’ reporting practices.”
  • * Following the Money 2012: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data

    "In Following the Money 2012: How the States Rank on Providing Online Access to Government Spending Data, researchers at the United States Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) graded all 50 states on how well they provide online access to information about government spending. States were given “A” to “F” grades based on the characteristics of the online transparency systems they have created to provide information on contracts, subsidies and spending at quasi-public agencies...This report is U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s third annual ranking of states’ progress toward “Transparency 2.0” – a new standard of comprehensive, one-stop, one-click budget accountability and accessibility. The past year has seen continued progress, with new states providing online access to government spending information and several states pioneering new tools to further expand citizens’ access to spending information and engagement with government."

    March 12, 2012
    * EPIC Publishes 2012 FOIA Gallery

    "In celebration of Sunshine Week, EPIC published the EPIC FOIA Gallery: 2012. The gallery highlights key documents obtained by EPIC in the past year, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation's watch list guidelines, records of the Department of Homeland Security's social media monitoring program, Google's first Privacy Compliance Report, records detailing the government's FAST scanning program, records of the FBI's surveillance of Wikileaks supporters, and DHS records detailing the use of body scanners at the U.S. border. EPIC regularly files Freedom of Information Act requests and pursues lawsuits to force disclosure of critical documents that impact privacy. EPIC also publishes the authoritative FOIA litigation manual. For more, see EPIC Open Government and EPIC Bookstore: FOIA.

    March 11, 2012
    * LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: FOIA as Golf

    LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: FOIA as Golf - Recent reports of both the Department of Justice and others about the administrations FOIA overall program have led FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes to imagine FOIA as golf. President Obama is currently on the fairway of the ninth hole. Voters will let him know in November if he gets to play the back nine.

  • See also AP's investigative report - Government can't keep up with information requests
  • * Virginia Coalition for Open Government

    Virginia Coalition for Open Government: "We are a nonprofit alliance formed to promote expanded access to government records, meetings and other proceedings at the state and local level. Our efforts are focused solely on local/state information access. While we do some lobbying (within limits imposed by IRS rules), our primary work is educational. The Coalition was formed in 1996, after a year-long organizing effort. Our 23-member board of directors represents the state's access activists and friends of open government, including Virginia's librarians, genealogists, broadcasters, newspapers and the public at large. Start-up funding was provided by the Virginia Press Association, the Virginia Association of Broadcasters, Media General, the Landmark Communications Foundation, America Online, all of the major in-state newspapers, public radio and television stations, a number of commercial stations and other friends of open government. Supporters also include Dominion, Appalachian Power, SunTrust, LexisNexis, Christian & Barton, Conservation Voters League, Woods Rogers, Gentry Locke."

    February 23, 2012
    * FTC Commissioner Warns of International Threats to Internet Freedom

    Via WSJ, this commentary by FTC Commission Robert K. McDowell: "On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year's end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish "international control over the Internet" through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices. If successful, these new regulatory proposals would upend the Internet's flourishing regime, which has been in place since 1988. That year, delegates from 114 countries gathered in Australia to agree to a treaty that set the stage for dramatic liberalization of international telecommunications. This insulated the Internet from economic and technical regulation and quickly became the greatest deregulatory success story of all time...Russia, China and their allies within the 193 member states of the ITU want to renegotiate the 1988 treaty to expand its reach into previously unregulated areas. Reading even a partial list of proposals that could be codified into international law next December at a conference in Dubai is chilling..."

    February 18, 2012
    * Justice Department Wins Rosemary Award for Worst Open Government Performance in 2011

    News release: ""The Department of Justice – which is responsible for enforcing FOIA government-wide – was supposed to be the change agent and role model for President Obama's FOIA reforms," said Nate Jones, the Archive's Freedom of Information Act Coordinator. "But, despite the president's clear instructions, the DOJ has embraced a 'FOIA-as-usual mindset' that has failed to transform the decades-old FOIA policies within its department, much less throughout the government."

    December 29, 2011
    * EPIC Sues DHS Over Covert Surveillance of Facebook and Twitter

    "EPIC has filed a Freedom of information Act lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of the details of the agency's social network monitoring program. In news reports and a Federal Register notice, the DHS has stated that it will routinely monitor the public postings of users on Twitter and Facebook. The agency plans to create fictitious user accounts and scan posts of users for key terms. User data will be stored for five years and shared with other government agencies.The legal authority for the DHS program remains unclear. EPIC filed the lawsuit after the DHS failed to reply to an April 2011 FOIA request. For more information, see EPIC: Social Networking Privacy."

  • See also DHS Privacy Impact Assessment for the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative, Update January 6, 2011
  • December 25, 2011
    * EFF - the major trends influencing digital rights in 2011

    News release: "As the year draws to a close, EFF is looking back at the major trends influencing digital rights in 2011 and discussing where we are in the fight for a free expression, innovation, fair use, and privacy. The government has been using its secrecy system in absurd ways for decades, but 2011 was particularly egregious. Here are a few examples...

    December 23, 2011
    * Bloomberg Releases Federal Reserve Data Repository on Bank Borrowing

    "Bloomberg News today released spreadsheets showing daily borrowing totals for 407 banks and companies that tapped Federal Reserve emergency programs during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. It’s the first time such data have been publicly available in this form. To download a zip file of the spreadsheets, go to http://bit.ly/Bloomberg-Fed-Data. For an explanation of the files, see the one labeled “1a Fed Data Roadmap.” The day-by-day, bank-by-bank numbers, culled from about 50,000 transactions the U.S. central bank made through seven facilities, formed the basis of a series of Bloomberg News articles this year about the largest financial bailout in history."

  • Related postings on financial system
  • December 21, 2011
    * The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions

    The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions, International Journal of Communication 5 (2011), Feature 1375–1405 1932–8036/2011FEA1375 [via gigaom]

  • "This article details the networked production and dissemination of news on Twitter during snapshots of the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions as seen through information flows—sets of near-duplicate tweets—across activists, bloggers, journalists, mainstream media outlets, and other engaged participants. We differentiate between these user types and analyze patterns of sourcing and routing information among them. We describe the symbiotic relationship between media outlets and individuals and the distinct roles particular user types appear to play. Using this analysis, we discuss how Twitter plays a key role in amplifying and spreading timely information across the globe."
  • Arab World: Global Voices Bridges on Twitter - Part of Global Voices special coverage - Egypt Revolution 2011 and Tunisia Revolution 2011.

  • December 15, 2011
    * New Report: Obama Administration Makes Transparency Gains; Challenges Remain

    News release: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and OpenTheGovernment.org released a joint report, Measuring Transparency Under the FOIA: The Real Story Behind the Numbers, analyzing the government’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data for 2010 and how it compares to the previous administration’s data...The results paint a very mixed picture on the FOIA front, with agencies generally processing more requests more quickly, but also increasing their reliance on the FOIA’s nine exemptions to withhold more information from the public. Our analysis revealed an even more alarming truth: the government’s FOIA data is flawed, making it impossible to assess key areas of progress and casting doubt on its overall reliability. As a result, what started as a statistical report on agencies’ handling of FOIA requests ended as an expose of the problems with the data and tools the government has developed to measure its progress in implementing the FOIA."

    * UK clarifies law on information held in private email accounts

    News release: "The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has today published new guidance making it clear that information concerning official business held in private email accounts is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Information Commissioner, Christopher Graham said:

  • “It should not come as a surprise to public authorities to have the clarification that information held in private email accounts can be subject to Freedom of Information law if it relates to official business. This has always been the case – the Act covers all recorded information in any form. It came to light in September that this is a somewhat misunderstood aspect of the law and that further clarification was needed. That’s why we’ve issued new guidance today with two key aims – first, to give public authorities an authoritative steer on the factors that should be considered before deciding whether a search of private email accounts is necessary when responding to a request under the Act. Second, to set out the procedures that should generally be in place to respond to requests. Clearly, the need to search private email accounts should be a rare occurrence; therefore, we do not expect this advice to increase the burden on public authorities.”
  • November 28, 2011
    * Presidential Memorandum - Managing Government Records

    "This memorandum begins an executive branch wide effort to reform records management policies and practices. Improving records management will improve performance and promote openness and accountability by better documenting agency actions and decisions. Records transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) provide the prism through which future generations will understand and learn from our actions and decisions. Modernized records management will also help executive departments and agencies (agencies) minimize costs and operate more efficiently. Improved records management thus builds on Executive Order 13589 of November 9, 2011 (Promoting Efficient Spending), which directed agencies to reduce spending and focus on mission critical functions. When records are well managed, agencies can use them to assess the impact of programs, to reduce redundant efforts, to save money, and to share knowledge within and across their organizations. In these ways, proper records management is the backbone of open Government."

    November 25, 2011
    * National Security Archives: The Iran-Contra Scandal - Documents from the Declassified History

    News release [Note; scroll down to locate links to the documents obtained via FOIA]: "President Ronald Reagan was briefed in advance about every weapons shipment in the Iran arms-for-hostages deals in 1985-86, and Vice President George H. W. Bush chaired a committee that recommended the mining of the harbors of Nicaragua in 1983, according to previously secret Independent Counsel assessments of "criminal liability" on the part of the two former leaders posted today by the National Security Archive. Twenty-Five years after the advent of the "Iran-Contra affair," the two comprehensive "Memoranda on Criminal Liability of Former President Reagan and of President Bush" provide a roadmap of historical, though not legal, culpability of the nation's two top elected officials during the scandal from the perspective of a senior attorney in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh. The documents were obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the National Security Archive for the files compiled during Walsh's six-year investigation from 1987-1993."

    November 06, 2011
    * UNESCO Global Open Access Portal launched

    "The Global Open Access Portal (GOAP) presents a snapshot of the status of Open Access (OA) to scientific information around the world. For countries that have been more successful in implementing Open Access, the portal highlights critical success factors and aspects of the enabling environment. For countries and regions that are still in the early stages of Open Access development, the portal identifies key players, potential barriers and opportunities. The portal has country reports from over 148 countries with weblinks to over 2000 initiatives/projects in Member States. The portal is supported by an existing Community of Practice (CoP) on Open Access on the WSIS Knowledge Communities Platform that has over 1400 members."

    October 31, 2011
    * New on LLRX - FOIA Facts: DOJ FOIA Regulations

    LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: DOJ FOIA Regulations - Scott A. Hodes addresses the proposed new Department of Justice ("DOJ") FOIA regulations which call for DOJ components to "respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist." This response should not differ in wording from any other response given by the component" when applying an exclusion to the FOIA. The purpose of this article is to clear up some of the confusion around FOIA exclusions and these proposed regulations. He is giving no opinion on whether or not the proposed regulations should be adopted.

    October 26, 2011
    * Google's Transparency Reporting - government entities requests for removal of content

    Google Transparency Report - Government Requests: "Like other technology and communications companies, Google regularly receives requests from government agencies and courts around the world to remove content from our services and hand over user data. Our Government Requests tool discloses the number of requests we receive from each government in six-month reporting periods with certain limitations. Governments ask companies to remove content for many different reasons. For example, some content removals are requested due to allegations of defamation, while others are due to allegations that the content violates local laws prohibiting hate speech or pornography. Laws surrounding these issues vary by country, and the requests reflect the legal context of a given jurisdiction. We hope this tool will be helpful in discussions about the appropriate scope and authority of government requests. These observations on content removal requests highlight some trends that we've seen in the data during each reporting period, and are by no means exhaustive."

    October 16, 2011
    October 05, 2011
    * Reducing Overclassification Through Accountability

    Reducing Overclassification Through Accountability Publications, by Elizabeth Goitein and David M. Shapiro, October 5,2011

  • "The authority to classify documents exists to protect information that could threaten national security if it got into the wrong hands. It is one of the most important tools our government has to keep us safe. But many secrets “protected” by the classification system pose no danger to the nation’s safety. On the contrary, needless classification—“overclassification”—jeopardizes national security. Excessive secrecy prevents federal agencies from sharing information internally, with other agencies, and with state and local law enforcement, making it more difficult to draw connections and anticipate threats. The 9/11 Commission found that the failure to share information contributed to intelligence gaps in the months before the September 11, 2001, attacks, cautioning that “[c]urrent security requirements nurture overclassification and excessive compartmentation of information among agencies. Overclassification also corrodes democratic government. Secret programs stifled public debate on the decisions that shaped our response to the September 11 attacks. Should the military and CIA have used torture to extract information from detainees in secret overseas prisons and at Guantánamo Bay? Should the National Security Agency have eavesdropped on Americans’ telephone calls without warrants? Even leaving aside the legality of these measures, whether to use torture or to forego the use of warrants are questions that, in a democracy, properly belong in the public sphere. Classification forced the nation to rely on leaked information to debate these questions, and to do so well after torture and warrantless surveillance programs were in place...When a member of the public asks an agency to review particular records for declassification (through a process called “mandatory declassification review”), 92 percent of the time the agency determines that at least some of the requested records need not remain classified. But the number of documents reviewed through this process pales in comparison to the universe of documents that, though they may not require classification, remain unreviewed—and thus classified—for many years..A major theme of this report—and a source of frustration to those who have studied the classification system—is the persistent gap between written regulation and actual practice."
  • September 27, 2011
    * The Open Government Partnership - National Action Plan for the United States of America

    The Open Government Partnership - National Action Plan for the United States of America, September 20, 2011

  • "Over the past two and a half years, Federal agencies have done a great deal to make government more transparent and more accessible, to provide people with information that they can use in their daily lives, to solicit public participation in government decision-making, and to collaborate with all sectors of the economy on new and innovative solutions. These Open Government efforts are now entering a new phase, as we collaborate with other countries in the global Open Government Partnership (OGP)...Transparency enables people to find information that they “can readily find and use.” For this reason, the President has asked agencies to “harness new technologies” and "solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public."
  • September 07, 2011
    * EPIC: DC Circuit Court Grants Access to Cell Phone Surveillance Records

    "The Circuit Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that the Department of Justice must release information regarding government surveillance of cell phone location data. The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information regarding current and past cases where the Department of Justice had accessed cell phone location data without a warrant. The agency sought to keep this information secret, claiming that releasing cell phone tracking data could implicate privacy of investigation subjects. The court, however, disagreed, stating, "The disclosure sought by the plaintiffs would inform this ongoing public policy discussion by shedding light on the scope and effectiveness of cell phone tracking as a law enforcement tool." For more information, see EPIC: Wiretapping and EPIC: Electronic Surveillance 1968-2010."

    September 06, 2011
    * 2011 Secrecy Report - OpenGovernment.org

    Obama Administration Fulfills Some Open Gov Goals, National Security Bureaucracy Hinders Progress - "The Obama Administration has made some positive changes towards an open government this year, but the national security bureaucracy continues to hinder progress, according to a report released today. The 2011 Secrecy Report was released by OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition of more than 80 groups (including POGO) advocating for a more open and accountable government. According to the report, some of the Obama Administration’s promises of transparency are paying off—but certain national security agencies are ignoring the open government agenda. Some of the good news highlighted in the report centers on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Administration has been “rebuilding openness” and FOIA performance has improved from previous years. Compared to 2009, FOIA backlogs in 2010 were reduced by 10 percent.Other moves the Obama Administration has made towards transparency include releasing newly declassified details about the U.S. nuclear stockpile, updating sites like FederalReporting.gov and USAspending.gov, and refusing to assert Executive Privilege to deny congressional requests for information (Obama is the first president in OpenTheGovernment.org’s records not to do so.)...The report points to an Associated Press study that found that the Central Intelligence Agency and Securities and Exchange Commission rejected information requests more than half the time during 2010."

    August 21, 2011
    * Freedom House Releases Special Report on 20th Anniversary of Failed Soviet Coup

    "Freedom House launched a special report, Promise and Reversal: The Post-Soviet Landscape Twenty Years On, to mark the 20th anniversary of the failed Soviet coup of August 19, 1991. A retrospective essay examining changes in the state of political rights and civil liberties in the former Soviet Union over the last two decades, as well as graphs and rankings that illustrate the region’s performance in the annual Freedom House publications Freedom in the World and Freedom of the Press, highlight that there is a serious and disturbing failure to embrace democratic institutions in most of the post-Soviet region."

    August 14, 2011
    * FOIA contacts across federal departments and agencies

    "The Department of Justice has published a FOIA Contacts Listing on the FOIA.gov website. The listing was updated on August 1, 2011. The Developer Resources Page hosts a listing of FOIA contacts across federal departments and agencies." [Michael Ravnitzky]

  • Download the full FOIA contacts list, in xls - here (updated as of 8/01/2011)
  • August 12, 2011
    * Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP

    Privatization of GPO, Defunding of FDsys, and the Future of the FDLP, by jajacobs

  • "On July 22, the House passed a bill that would remove funding for FDsys, reduce funding for GPO by 20%, and reduce funding for the Superintendent of Documents by 16% (Kelley). The House Report on the bill also directs the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study on "the privatization of the GPO" and the transfer of the Superintendent of Documents and the FDLP to the Library of Congress (page 25). The bill includes many other changes that are relevant to the dissemination of government information (see House Bill Questions Future of GPO and the comments to that post, and the stories in Library Journal and OMB Watch), but the ones related to FDsys and the privatization of the GPO are the ones which, if ultimately approved, would have the greatest negative impact on long-term free public access to government information. Passage of only some of these bad ideas would almost certainly result in a catastrophic loss of long-term access to and preservation of government information. These bad ideas are, however, only symptoms of a still bigger problem. There is, luckily, an obvious, logical path around all these threats."

  • August 05, 2011
    * Assessing This Past Year's Progress in Implementing Attorney General Holder's FOIA Guidelines

    DOJ News release: "After reviewing the Chief FOIA Officer Reports, OIP has prepared an assessment of the progress made by the Executive Departments in implementing the President's FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General's FOIA Guidelines. The fifteen Departments account for nearly 80% of all FOIA requests processed by the government. Those Departments were scored on elements from all five of the key areas, as reflected by the information provided in their 2011 Chief FOIA Officer Reports and their Fiscal Year 2010 Annual FOIA Reports. A green score was given by OIP when the Department reported accomplishing the milestone; yellow reflects mixed progress in reaching the milestone; and red reflects that the milestone was not met. This graphic representation readily illustrates the many accomplishments achieved by the Departments this past year. It also highlights the areas in need of further improvement...As to numerical increases in the numbers of requests where records are provided in full or in part, eight of the fifteen Departments increased their disclosures in full, while seven did not. Ten Departments increased their partial disclosures, while five did not."

  • 2011 Chief FOIA Officer Reports - Summary of Federal Departments
  • August 02, 2011
    * CIA Forced to Release Long Secret Official History of Bay of Pigs Invasion

    News release: "Pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive on the 50th anniversary of the infamous CIA-led invasion of Cuba, the CIA has released four volumes of its Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. The Archive today posted volume 2, "Participation in the Conduct of Foreign Policy" (Part 1 | Part 2), classified top secret, which contains detailed information on the CIA's negotiations with Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama on support for the invasion. "These are among the last remaining secret records of this act of U.S. aggression against Cuba," noted Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba Documentation Project at the Archive. "The CIA has finally seen the wisdom of letting the public scrutinize this major debacle in the covert history of U.S. foreign policy." Kornbluh noted that the agency was "still refusing to release volume 5 of its official history." Volume 5 is a rebuttal to the stinging CIA Inspector General's report, done in the immediate aftermath of the paramilitary assault, which held CIA officials accountable for a wide variety of mistakes, miscalculations and deceptions that characterized the failed invasion. The National Security Archive obtained the declassification of the ultra-secret Inspector General's report in 1998."

    July 27, 2011
    * Report - Congress needs to Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Laws and Increase Oversight of the Secret Security Establishment

    ACLU news release: "Today, we’re releasing a report, Drastic Measures Required: Congress needs to Overhaul U.S. Secrecy Laws and Increase Oversight of the Secret Security Establishment...we lay out the scope of the problem and analyze its unfortunate consequences for the operation of our government, for our national security, and for our democracy at large. The report asserts that Congress must overhaul U.S secrecy laws and increase its oversight of the secret security establishment in order to rein in the out-of-control secrecy that is poisoning our democracy. We present a number of detailed recommendations for how, exactly, Congress should act to reform the “state secrets privilege,” strengthen Congressional oversight of national security programs, and regulate the use of classification by the executive branch."

    July 14, 2011
    * S&P : Special Report: U.S. Negative CreditWatch Placement And The Knock-On Effects

    "Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today said it placed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the United States of America on CreditWatch with negative implications. The CreditWatch action reflects our view of two separate but related issues. The first issue is the continuing failure to raise the U.S. government debt ceiling so as to ensure that the government will be able to continue to make scheduled payments on its debt obligations. The second pertains to our current view of the likelihood that Congress and the Administration will agree upon a credible, medium-term fiscal consolidation plan in the foreseeable future. On May 16, 2011, the U.S. government reached its Congressionally mandated ceiling for federal debt of $14,294 billion. Since then, the government has undertaken exceptional measures to avoid breaching the debt ceiling. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner wrote, "The unique role of Treasury securities in the global financial system means that the consequences of default would be particularly severe....Even a short-term default could cause irrevocable damage to the American economy." The Treasury currently estimates that it will have exhausted these exceptional measures on or about Aug. 2, 2011, at which time it will either have to curtail certain current expenses or risk missing a scheduled payment of interest or principal on Treasury securities held by the public...Congress and the Administration are debating various fiscal consolidation
    proposals. At the high end, budget savings of $4 trillion phased in over 10 to 12 years proposed by the Adminstration, (separately) by Congressional leaders, as well as by the Fiscal Commission in its December 2010 report, if accompanied by growth-enhancing reforms, could slow the deterioration of the U.S. net general government debt-to-GDP ratio, which is currently nearing 75%. Under our baseline macroeconomic scenario, net general government debt would reach 84% of GDP by 2013. (Our baseline scenario assumes near 3% annual real growth and a post-2012 phaseout of the December 2010 extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.) Such a percentage indicates a relatively weak government debt trajectory compared with those of the U.S.' closest 'AAA' rated peers (France,
    Germany, the U.K., and Canada)."

    July 04, 2011
    * Eight Federal Agencies Have FOIA Requests a Decade Old, According to Knight Open Government Survey

    "Forty-five years after President Johnson signed the U.S. Freedom of Information Act into law in 1966, federal agency backlogs of FOIA requests are growing, with the oldest requests at eight agencies dating back over a decade and the single oldest request now 20 years old, according to the Knight Open Government Survey by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The Knight Survey of the oldest requests utilized the FOIA to examine the actual copies of the oldest requests from the 35 federal agencies and components that process more than 90 percent of all FOIAs. It shows that the oldest requests in the U.S. government were submitted before the fall of the Soviet Union. These unfulfilled requests – some are for documents that are themselves more than 50 years old – are victims of an endless referral process in which any agency that claims “equity” can censor their release."

    July 02, 2011
    * FOIA Request Produces DoD IG Report on Audit of Boeing Spare Parts Contracts

    Via Project On Government Oversight (POGO): "Taxpayers were massively overcharged in dozens of transactions between the Army and Boeing for helicopter spare parts, according to a full, unredacted Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) audit - that POGO is making public for the first time. The overcharges range from 33.3 percent to 177,475 percent for mundane parts, resulting in millions of dollars in overspending. The May 3, 2011, unclassified “For Official Use Only” report is 142 pages. Prior to POGO’s publication of the full report, the only publicly available version was a 3-page “results in brief” [Excess Inventory and Contract Pricing Problems Jeopardize the Army Contract with Boeing to Support Corpus Christi Army Depot] on the DoD OIG’s website, first reported by Bloomberg News. The findings in the results in brief, while shocking on their own, pale in comparison to the detail contained within the full report. The DoD OIG scrutinized Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command (AMCOM) transactions with Boeing that were in support of the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) in Texas. The audit focused on 24 “high-dollar” parts. Boeing had won two sole-source contracts (the second was a follow-on contract awarded last year) to provide the Army with logistics support—one of those support functions meant Boeing would help buy and/or make spare parts for the Army—for two weapons systems: the Boeing AH-64 Apache and Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters."

    July 01, 2011
    * The Freedom of Information Act on its 45th anniversary

    The Freedom of Information Act on its 45th anniversary | Commentary - July 01, 2011: "Lyndon Johnson opposed FOIA — said it was a plot against his administration — but a tenacious backbencher from California, John Moss, had pursued it for 12 years and LBJ finally relented, signing the legislation on July 4th, 1966. Here Michael Lemov, author of a new book on Moss and FOIA, recounts events leading to the enactment."

    June 28, 2011
    * EPIC v. DHS Lawsuit -- FOIA'd Documents Raise New Questions About Body Scanner Radiation Risks

    EPIC: "In a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC has just obtained documents concerning the radiation risks of TSA's airport body scanner program. The documents include agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs, and results of some radiation tests. One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters - safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure. Another document indicates that the DHS mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST "affirmed the safety" of full body scanners. The documents obtained by EPIC reveal that NIST disputed that characterization and stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test the devices. Also, a Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the "General Public Dose Limit." For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security - Full Body Scanner Radiation Risks and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program)."

    June 21, 2011
    * LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: The Most Transparent Administration in History?

    Via LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: The Most Transparent Administration in History? - Scott A. Hodes argues that we have no real benchmark to determine executive branch success in fulfilling Presidential promises about openness and transparency. Rather he contends that the measure is not each time the administration doesn’t release something in a timely fashion to say it has failed the test.

    June 03, 2011
    * UN - Report of Special Rapporteur on promotion and protection of right to freedom of opinion and expression

    United Nations General Assembly: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, May 16, 2011

  • "This report explores key trends and challenges to the right of all individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds through the Internet. The Special Rapporteur underscores the unique and transformative nature of the Internet not only to enable individuals to exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression, but also a range of other human rights, and to promote the progress of society as a whole. Chapter III of the report underlines the applicability of international human rights norms and standards on the right to freedom of opinion and expression to the Internet as a communication medium, and sets out the exceptional circumstances under which the dissemination of certain types of information may be restricted. Chapters IV and V address two dimensions of Internet access respectively: (a) access to content; and (b) access to the physical and technical infrastructure required to access the Internet in the first place. More specifically, chapter IV outlines some of the ways in which States are increasingly censoring information online, namely through: arbitrary blocking or filtering of content; criminalization of legitimate expression; imposition of intermediary liability; disconnecting users from Internet access, including on the basis of intellectual property rights law; cyberattacks; and inadequate protection of the right to privacy and data protection. Chapter V addresses the issue of universal access to the Internet. The Special Rapporteur intends to explore this topic further in his future report to the General Assembly. Chapter VI contains the Special Rapporteur’s conclusions and recommendations concerning the main subjects of the report."

  • May 22, 2011
    * WSJ Posts Searchable Database of Private Jet Flights

    "Those with access to private jets fly around the globe on a whim, their flight paths generally hidden from view. But The Wall Street Journal has penetrated this hidden world and, as the FAA considers publishing data on private-aircraft flights, the Journal unveils its own database."

  • Wall Street Journal Jet Tracker

  • May 07, 2011
    * University of Texas Releases Faculty Productivity Data

    Release of Faculty-Productivity Data Roils U. of Texas, By Audrey Williams June, Chronicle of Higher Education

  • "How much professors in the University of Texas system earn and how many courses and students they teach were parts of a vast data file that system officials compiled at the request of a newly formed task force on productivity and excellence and released publicly on Thursday. Professors immediately voiced concerns that the information would be used to incorrectly gauge their efficiency on the job. However, system officials stressed that the data in the 821-page spreadsheet, which covers nine institutions, was in draft form and "is incomplete and has not yet been fully verified or cross referenced," according to a statement issued by Anthony P. de Bruyn, the system's director of public affairs. "In its present raw form, it cannot yield accurate analysis, interpretations, or conclusions."
  • SPREADSHEET: Download the U. of Texas system's faculty-productivity data
  • May 06, 2011
    * Applications Made to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court During 2010

    FISA Annual Reports to Congress 2010 [via FAS]

  • "During calendar year 2010, the Government made 1,579 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (hereinafter "FISC") for authority to conduct electronic surveillance andlor physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes. The 1,579 applications include applications made solely for electronic surveillance, applications made solely for physical search, and combined applications requesting authority for electronic surveillance and physical search. Of these, 1,511 applications included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance. Of these 1,511 applications, five were withdrawn by the Government. The EISC did not deny any applications in whole, or in part. The FISC made modifications to the proposed orders in fourteen applications. Thus, the FISC approved collection activity in a total of 1,506 of the applications that included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance."
  • April 28, 2011
    * NRC: FOIAs Related to Japan's Emergency

    FOIAs Related to Japan's Emergency: "To avoid duplication of effort and delays in response times, please take note of the following requests that have already been submitted to the NRC. Responses to these FOIA requests will be made publicly available as soon as possible."

    April 22, 2011
    * Information Security Oversight Office released its Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Report to the President

    Information Security Oversight Office’s (ISOO) Report to the President for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010: "This report provides information on the status of the security classification program as required by Executive Order 13526, “Classified National Security Information” (the Order). It provides statistics and analysis concerning key components of the system, primarily classification and declassification, and coverage of ISOO’s reviews. It also contains information with respect to industrial security in the private sector as required by Executive Order 12829, as amended, “National Industrial Security Program.” FY 2010 was a notable year for the security classification program. The initial implementation of Executive Order 13526 began in earnest and remains ongoing. To comply with your direction that a government-wide implementing directive be issued within 180 days, we led an interagency working group that developed 32 C.F.R. Part 2001 which became effective and binding on all appropriate Executive branch agencies on June 25, 2010. However, we are concerned about delays in the issuance of agency regulations implementing the Order. Despite the preparation of agency drafts and the completion of our review last Fall, many agencies failed to issue their regulations in final form by December 2010 and many have yet to issue them as of the date of this letter [April 15, 2011]."

    April 11, 2011
    * TRAC: New Website Tracks FOIA Withholding Challenges

    "Details about every new court challenge to the withholding of information by the Obama Administration are now available on a new website developed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Designed to bring more transparency to FOIA withholding decisions, the new site -- http://FOIAproject.org -- gives the American people a way to track all instances in which a federal agency's decision to deny government records has become the subject of a suit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) since October 1, 2009. The site, supported with a grant from the CS Fund/Warsh-Mott Legacy, is updated daily with the latest court FOIA filings and provides extensive information about the names of withholding agency, the names of the plaintiffs, the location where the action was brought, along with the actual complaint and attachments that were filed."

  • Welcome to the FOIA Project. This site’s goal is to bring transparency to the process by which the U.S. government withholds information. Initially, we are featuring documents from FOIA cases against government defendants brought in district court since October 1, 2009, and provide a number of ways of getting at these documents."
  • April 03, 2011
    * FBI Launches New Electronic Reading Room

    "The Vault is our new electronic reading room, containing more than 2,000 documents that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office. Included here are more than 25 new files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; and files from our previous electronic reading room. The Vault includes several new tools and resources for your convenience: Searching for Topics; Searching for Key Words; Viewing the Files; Requesting a Status Update." [via Michael Ravnitzky]

  • See also the Vault Index
  • March 28, 2011
    * Middle-East and African Governments Censoring Citizens Using Western Technologies

    News release: "Today, the OpenNet Initiative, a partnership between the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs (Munk School) and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, announced the release of a new report titled West Censoring East: The Use of Western Technologies by Middle East Censors, 2010-2011 by Helmi Noman and Jillian C. York. The OpenNet Initiative has documented network filtering by national governments of the Internet in more than forty countries worldwide. National governments use network filtering as one of many methods to control the flow of online content, and utilize a variety of technical means to institute such filtering. The report analyzes the use of three American and Canadian-made tools: Websense, McAfee SmartFilter, and Netsweeper for the purpose of government-level filtering in the Middle East and North Africa. The investigation found that nine countries in the region utilize Western-made tools for the purpose of blocking social and political content, effectively blocking a total of over 20 million Internet users from accessing such websites. The authors analyze as well the increasing opacity of the usage of Western-made tools for filtering at the national level."

    March 27, 2011
    * DOJ Releases Redacted Draft Version - Striving for Accountability in Aftermarth of Holocaust

    The Office of Special Investigations: Striving for Accountability in the Aftermarth of the Holocaust, by Judy Feigin, Edited by Mark M Richard, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice Criminal Division, December 2008

  • "[T]he Holocaust is one of those few issues that the more distant we are from it, the larger it looms. Each decade since the end of the war has seen greater, not lesser, attention, and that is an oddity. There are very few issues which grow in magnitude as they are further away from the event. This is one of them. Perhaps
    because it is the ultimate evil, because it takes so much time to absorb its lessons, and that those lessons have become universalized in Cambodia, in Rwanda, in ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, the Holocaust has taken on an even greater sense of urgency."
  • March 21, 2011
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: Funding FOIA

    Via LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: Funding FOIA: Scott A. Hodes contends that reducing FOIA Operations any further is the wrong way to go if the objectives of increasing government transparency are to be pursued. The actual process of searching for records in response to FOIA requests and processing those requests requires human interaction - in other words, while the documents themselves can be digitized, a person will always be required to search for and process responsive records.

    March 15, 2011
    * DOJ Launches FOIA.gov

    "As the flagship initiative of the Department’s Open Government Plan, OIP [Office of Information Policy] is proud to announce the launch of FOIA.Gov, a comprehensive public resource for government-wide FOIA information and data. FOIA.Gov displays graphically a wealth of data on agency FOIA compliance, contains educational material about how the FOIA works, and contact information for all government agencies. OIP’s own website will always provide a link to FOIA.Gov on the right hand side of our site."

    March 10, 2011
    * Wikileaks and Freedom, Autonomy and Sovereignty in the Cloud

    You Have No Sovereignty Where We Gather – Wikileaks and Freedom, Autonomy and Sovereignty in the Cloud, Balázs Bodó - Budapest University of Technology and Economics; Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, March 7, 2011

  • "Wikileaks represents a new type of (h)activism, which shifts the source of potential threat from a few, dangerous hackers and a larger group of mostly harmless activists – both outsiders to an organization – to those who are on the inside. For insiders trying to smuggle information out, anonymity is a necessary condition for participation. Wikileaks has demonstrated that the access to anonymity can be democratized, made simple and user friendly. Being Anonymous in the context of Wikileaks has a double promise: it promises to liberate the subject from the existing power structures, and in the same time it allows the exposure of these structures by opening up a space to confront them. The Wikileaks coerced transparency, however, is nothing more than the extension of the Foucauldian disciplinary power to the very body of state and government. While anonymity removes the individual from existing power relations, the act of surveillance puts her right back to the middle. The ability to place the state under surveillance limits and ultimately renders present day sovereignty obsolete. It can also be argued that it fosters the emergence of a new sovereign in itself. I believe that Wikileaks (or rather, the logic of it) is a new sovereign in the global political/economic sphere. But as it stands now, Wikileakistan shares too much with the powers it wishes to counter. The hidden power structures and the inner workings of these states within the state are exposed by another imperium in imperio, a secretive organization, whose agenda is far from transparent, whose members, resources are unknown, holding back an indefinite amount of information both on itself and on its opponents. I argue that it is not more secretive, one sided transparency which will subvert and negate the control and discipline of secretive, one sided transparency, it is anonymity."
  • * Release of data.gov.au

    "The new data.gov.au site has now been released and I invite you to explore, access and reuse the data available on the site. The release of public sector information in the form of datasets allows the commercial, research and community sectors to add value to government data in new, innovative and exciting ways. Data.gov.au plays a crucial role in realising the Australian Government’s commitment to informing, engaging and participating with the public, as expressed in its Declaration of Open Government and Freedom of Information (FoI) reforms. It is the Australian equivalent to similar overseas sites such as the United States’ data.gov, the United Kingdom’s data.gov.uk and New Zealand’s data.govt.nz. Agencies such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Geoscience Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) already release large amounts of data to the public. An important goal of data.gov.au is to provide a broader range of agencies the opportunity to similarly release more data online. More than 200 datasets are accessible through data.gov.au"

    March 07, 2011
    * EPIC: Supreme Court Affirms Open Government, Limits Exemptions

    EPIC: "In Navy v. Milner, the Supreme Court held that the Freedom of Information Act’s “Exemption 2” is limited to employee relations and human resources issues. The decision overturns previous decisions by lower courts that applied the exemption to broader categories of records, allowing federal agencies to block disclosure of documents to the public. The Court stated that this practice contravened Congress’s intent. The Court emphasized that Congress intended all nine FOIA exemptions to be construed narrowly. EPIC is currently challenging the use of Exemption 2 in its lawsuit to force disclosure of records concerning full body scanners at airport checkpoints. The Court's decision in Navy v. Milner demonstrates that the Department of Homeland Security is improperly withholding information about the scanners from the public. For more information, see EPIC-Milner v. Dept. of Navy, and EPIC: OPEN Government."

    February 17, 2011
    * FOIA Request Yields FBI Documents on Expanding Federal Surveillance Laws

    "EFF just received documents in response to a 2-year old FOIA request for information on the FBI’s "Going Dark" program, an initiative to increase the FBI's authority in response to problems the FBI says it's having implementing wiretap and pen register/trap and trace orders on new communications technologies. The documents detail a fully-formed and well-coordinated plan to expand existing surveillance laws and develop new ones. And although they represent only a small fraction of the documents we expect to receive in response to this and a more recent FOIA request, they were released just in time to provide important background information for the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing [February 17, 2011] on the Going Dark program."

    February 15, 2011
    * CRS: The Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative: Issues for Congress

    The Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative: Issues for Congress, Wendy R. Ginsberg - Analyst in Government Organization and Management, January 28, 2011

  • "The 112th Congress may oversee the Administration’s open government efforts and has the authority to codify any parts of the initiative. This report reviews and discusses the centerpieces of President Obama’s transparency initiatives, the Open Government Initiative and the Open Government Directive. The report analyzes agency response to the OGI and the OGD and examines whether the OGD’s requirements can meet the stated goals of the Administration. The report discusses the three central tenets of the Administration’s OGD—transparency, public participation, and collaboration—and analyzes each one individually to determine whether agencies are meeting these requirements and whether the requirements may improve the effectiveness of the federal government."
  • February 05, 2011
    * PACER, RECAP, and the Movement to Free American Case Law

    PACER, RECAP, and the Movement to Free American Case Law, by Steve Schultze, VoxPopuLII, LII/Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School (February 3, 2011), via freegovinfo.info: "...The ultimate solution to the PACER {Public Access to Court Electronic Records) fee problem unfortunately lies...in bureaucratic details of authorization subcommittees and technical details of network architecture. This is the next front of PACER liberation. We now have friends in Washington, and we understand the process better every day. We also have very smart geeks, and I think that the ultimate finger on the scale may be our ability to explain how the U.S. Courts could run a tremendously more efficient system that would simultaneously generate a diversity of new democratic benefits. We also need smart librarians and archivists making good policy arguments. That is one reason why the Law.gov movement is so exciting to me. It has the potential not only to unify open-law advocates, but to go well beyond the U.S. Federal Case Law fiefdom of PACER."

  • "Better Access to Public Court Records - RECAP is a free extension for Firefox that improves the experience of using PACER, the electronic public access system for the U.S. Federal District and Bankruptcy Courts."
  • January 29, 2011
    * Freedom in the World 2011 Survey Release

    Freedom in the World 2011: The Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy, Washington, D.C, January 13, 2011: "Global freedom suffered its fifth consecutive year of decline in 2010, according to Freedom in the World 2011, Freedom House’s annual assessment of political rights and civil liberties around the world. This represents the longest continuous period of decline in the nearly 40-year history of the survey. The year featured drops in the number of Free countries and the number of electoral democracies, as well as an overall deterioration for freedom in the Middle East and North Africa region. A total of 25 countries showed significant declines in 2010, more than double the 11 countries exhibiting noteworthy gains. The number of countries designated as Free fell from 89 to 87, and the number of electoral democracies dropped to 115, far below the 2005 figure of 123. In addition, authoritarian regimes like those in China, Egypt, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela continued to step up repressive measures with little significant resistance from the democratic world. Published annually since 1972, Freedom in the World examines the ability of individuals to exercise their political and civil rights in 194 countries and 14 territories around the world. The latest edition analyzes developments that occurred in 2010 and assigns each country a freedom status—Free, Partly Free, or Not Free—based on a scoring of performance on key democracy indicators.

  • Freedom in the World 2011 Table of Independent Countries
  • Freedom in the World 2011 - The Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy - Selected data from Freedom House’s annual survey of political rights and civil liberties, January 2011
  • January 25, 2011
    * DHS Releases Freedom of Information Act Report for 2010

    EPI: "The Department of Homeland Security has released the Freedom of Information Act Report for 2010. The report analyzes the processing of FOIA requests made throughout the year by each DHS component, detailing the disposition of each request, response times, and the number of backlogged requests. DHS is under scrutiny for their policy of referring FOIA requests to political appointees before processing. The release of over 1,000 agency documents revealed a persistent agency practice of flagging FOIA requests from EPIC and other watchdog organizations for referral.The FOIA does not permit agencies to select FOIA requests for political scrutiny and the Supreme Court has stated that neither the identity of the FOIA requester nor the reason for the request is relevant to the processing of requests. EPIC has recommended that the FOIA Ombudsman investigate the Department’s policy. For related information see EPIC: Open Government and EPIC: Litigation under the Federal Open Government Laws 2010."

    January 20, 2011
    * Unpublished SEC IG Reports of Investigations Obtained via FOIA by POGO

    SEC Inspector General Reports of Investigation: In recent years, investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General (OIG) have exposed a wide range of serious misconduct, including the agency's failure to crack down on the Madoff and Stanford Ponzi schemes, retaliation against whistleblowers, conflicts of interest, revolving door abuses, the failure to take action against Bear Stearns, insider trading by SEC employees, and much more. Unfortunately, most of these reports are nowhere to be found on the SEC or OIG's website. POGO has obtained many of the OIG's recent investigative reports through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and from other sources. We've made the reports searchable and are compiling them here as a resource to the public. Reports that have not been posted on the SEC or OIG's website are marked in red."

    January 13, 2011
    * EPIC Uses FOIA to Obtain TSA documents on Airport Screening Procurement Specifications

    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, this News release: "A federal district court has granted the Department of Homeland Security's motion to conclude one of EPIC's Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. EPIC was seeking more than 2,000 images generated by airport body scanners held by the TSA. The DHS objected to the disclosure and the court sided with the government. The court relied on a legal theory, "Exemption High (b)(2)" that is currently under review by the Supreme Court in Milner v. Dept. of Navy. As a result of this lawsuit, EPIC obtained many documents concerning the airport screening program, including Procurement Specifications, Operational Requirements, traveler complaints, and vendor contracts with L3 and Rapiscan, that were subsequently made available to the public. EPIC may appeal the district court's decision as to the release of the body scanner images. For more information see EPIC: EPIC v. DHS and EPIC: Body Scanners."

    January 09, 2011
    * FCC Announces Open Internet Apps Challenge

    News release: "...the FCC announced a challenge to researchers and software developers to engage in research and create apps that help consumers foster, measure, and protect Internet openness. The Open Internet Challenge is part of the FCC’s efforts to empower end users to help preserve Internet openness. Details of the challenge are posted at openinternet.gov/challenge. “This challenge is about using the open Internet to protect the open Internet,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “Our goal is to foster user-developed applications that shine light on any practice that might be inconsistent with the free and open Internet. Empowering consumers with information about their own connections will promote a vibrant, innovative, world-leading broadband ecosystem.” The Open Internet Challenge seeks to encourage the development of innovative and functional applications that provide users with information about the extent to which their fixed or mobile broadband Internet services are consistent with the open Internet. These software tools could, for example, detect whether a broadband provider is interfering with DNS responses, application packet headers, or content."

  • See also: Linguists vote 'app' as word of the year
  • December 29, 2010
    * Political Change in the Digital Age: The Fragility and Promise of Online Organizing

    "The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to announce the release of a new paper, Political Change in the Digital Age: The Fragility and Promise of Online Organizing, by Bruce Etling, Robert Faris, and John Palfrey."

  • "In this paper, we discuss the possible impact of digital technologies in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian regimes. We conclude that policymakers and scholars that have been most optimistic about the impact of digital tools have over-emphasized the role of information, specifically access to alternative and independent sources of information and unfiltered access to the Internet. We argue, in contrast, that more attention should be paid to the means of overcoming the difficulties of online organization in the face of authoritarian governments in an increasingly digital geopolitical environment."
  • * Report: Distributed Denial of Service Attacks Against Independent Media and Human Rights Sites

    "The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to share a new report, Distributed Denial of Service Attacks Against Independent Media and Human Rights Sites by Ethan Zuckerman, Hal Roberts, Ryan McGrady, Jillian York, John Palfrey

  • "Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is an increasingly common Internet phenomenon capable of silencing Internet speech, usually for a brief interval but occasionally for longer. In this paper, we explore the specific phenomenon of DDoS attacks on independent media and human rights organizations, seeking to understand the nature and frequency of these attacks, their efficacy, and the responses available to sites under attack. Our report offers advice to independent media and human rights sites likely to be targeted by DDoS but comes to the uncomfortable conclusion that there is no easy solution to these attacks for many of these sites, particularly for attacks that exhaust network bandwidth."
  • December 21, 2010
    * New Study Released on Congressional Staff Pay and Congressional Competence

    Via a posting to GOVDOC-L by Daniel Schuman, Director | Advisory Committee on Transparency, Policy Counsel | The Sunlight Foundation: "I've just released a significant report on the link between congressional staff pay and congressional competence. What makes it relevant to this list is that the research wouldn't have been possible without a government document librarian, and it highlights how difficult it can be to obtain official gov't docs that aren't official enough to be available from GPO. Second, for those who care about the legislative branch, Congress must do a better job of making available information about itself. It was nearly impossible to obtain copies of staff salary surveys. Not until this past
    year were House Expenditure Reports, which include staff pay, made available online, and they are in a terrible format that is difficult to evaluate. The Senate won't begin publishing comparable data online until the 3rd quarter of 2011. The publication. Vital Statistics on Congress 2008 is incredibly useful, but was compiled by private researchers. Again, Congress should make this information available online in formats that lend themselves to easy analysis."

    * WaPo: CIA launches task force to assess impact of U.S. cables' exposure by WikiLeaks

    Washington Post: "The CIA has launched a task force to assess the impact of the exposure of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables and military files by WikiLeaks...To some agency veterans, WikiLeaks has vindicated the CIA's long-standing aversion to sharing secrets with other government agencies, a posture that came under sharp criticism after it was identified as a factor that contributed to the nation's failure to prevent the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001...As recently as two years ago, the agency rejected a request to make more of its intelligence reports available on the SIPRNET, the classified network used by the Pentagon to pass information around the world."

    December 13, 2010
    * Judiciary Committee Plans Hearing on Wikileaks

    Follow up to postings on Wikileaks, news of a Hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks, Thursday 12/16/2010.

  • Pew Research Center: Public Sees WikiLeaks as Harmful
  • November 25, 2010
    * White Paper - Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere

    Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere, Jillian C. York, The OpenNet Initiative (ONI), November 2010

  • "Online conversations today exist primarily in the realm of social media and blogging platforms, most of which are owned by private companies. Such privately owned platforms now occupy a significant role in the public sphere, as places in which ideas and information are exchanged and debated by people from every corner of the world. Instead of an unregulated, decentralized Internet, we have centralized platforms serving as public spaces: a quasi-public sphere. This quasi-public sphere is subject to both public and private content controls spanning multiple jurisdictions and differing social mores...This paper will highlight the practices of fiveplatforms—Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and Blogger—in regard to TOS and account deactivations. It will highlight each company’s user policies, as well as examples of each company’s procedures for policing content."

  • November 23, 2010
    * Citizens Group Still Seeking Public Records from DOJ

    News release: "Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing concern over the Department of Justice's (DOJ) failure to abide by President Obama's commitment to government transparency and accountability. Despite policy directives from President Barack Obama and Attorney General Holder mandating a presumption of openness in administering the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DOJ continues to operate - as it did during the Bush administration -- under a presumption of secrecy, deliberately withholding information about what DOJ is up to and why."

  • On April 7, 2010, DOJ released its Open Government Plan"
  • November 17, 2010
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: High Profile FOIA Requests

    FOIA Facts: High Profile FOIA Requests - Scott A. Hodes comments on recent reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) added a new layer of scrutiny for FOIA requests that came from what it considered high profile groups (basically political non-profits and media organizations). The argument is that this review did or could potentially deny these requesters material they should receive and these denials (or potential denials) were only for political purposes.

    November 13, 2010
    * NYT: Secret DOJ Report Details How U.S. Helped Former Nazis

    Eric Lichtblau: "A secret history of the United States government’s Nazi-hunting operation concludes that American intelligence officials created a “safe haven” in the United States for Nazis and their collaborators after World War II, and it details decades of clashes, often hidden, with other nations over war criminals here and abroad. The 600-page report, which the Justice Department has tried to keep secret for four years, provides new evidence about more than two dozen of the most notorious Nazi cases of the last three decades. It describes the government’s posthumous pursuit of Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death at Auschwitz, part of whose scalp was kept in a Justice Department official’s drawer; the vigilante killing of a former Waffen SS soldier in New Jersey; and the government’s mistaken identification of the Treblinka concentration camp guard known as Ivan the Terrible. The report catalogs both the successes and failures of the band of lawyers, historians and investigators at the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which was created in 1979 to deport Nazis. Perhaps the report’s most damning disclosures come in assessing the Central Intelligence Agency’s involvement with Nazi émigrés. Scholars and previous government reports had acknowledged the C.I.A.’s use of Nazis for postwar intelligence purposes. But this report goes further in documenting the level of American complicity and deception in such operations. The Justice Department report, describing what it calls “the government’s collaboration with persecutors,” says that O.S.I investigators learned that some of the Nazis “were indeed knowingly granted entry” to the United States, even though government officials were aware of their pasts. “America, which prided itself on being a safe haven for the persecuted, became — in some small measure — a safe haven for persecutors as well,” it said. The report also documents divisions within the government over the effort and the legal pitfalls in relying on testimony from Holocaust survivors that was decades old. The report also concluded that the number of Nazis who made it into the United States was almost certainly much smaller than 10,000, the figure widely cited by government officials. The Justice Department has resisted making the report public since 2006. Under the threat of a lawsuit, it turned over a heavily redacted version last month to a private research group, the National Security Archive, but even then many of the most legally and diplomatically sensitive portions were omitted. A complete version was obtained by The New York Times."

    November 04, 2010
    * New Executive Order on Controlled Unclassified Information

    "This order establishes an open and uniform program for managing information that requires safeguarding or dissemination controls pursuant to and consistent with law, regulations, and Government-wide policies, excluding information that is classified under Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009, or the Atomic Energy Act, as amended. At present, executive departments and agencies (agencies) employ ad hoc, agency-specific policies, procedures, and markings to safeguard and control this information, such as information that involves privacy, security, proprietary business interests, and law enforcement investigations. This inefficient, confusing patchwork has resulted in inconsistent marking and safeguarding of documents, led to unclear or unnecessarily restrictive dissemination policies, and created impediments to authorized information sharing. The fact that these agency-specific policies are often hidden from public view has only aggravated these issues. To address these problems, this order establishes a program for managing this information, hereinafter described as Controlled Unclassified Information, that emphasizes the openness and uniformity of Government-wide practice..."

    November 01, 2010
    * FOIA, Transparency and Additional Reviews Based on Origin of Requests

    DHS Singles Out EFF’s FOIA Requests for Unprecedented Extra Layer of Review: "The Identity Project notes on its blog today that the Department of Homeland Security singled out EFF, along with other activist groups and media representatives such as the ACLU, EPIC, Human Rights Watch, AP, etc, for an extra layer of review on its FOIA requests. Records posted online by the DHS in response to one of the Identity Project’s FOIA requests show that the agency passed certain requests through extra levels of screening. According to a policy memo from DHS’s Chief FOIA Officer and Chief Privacy Officer, Mary Ellen Callahan, DHS components were required to report “significant FOIA activities” in weekly reports to the Privacy Office, which the Privacy Office then integrated into its weekly report to the White House Liason. Included among these designated "significant FOIA activities" were requests from any members of "an activist group, watchdog organization, special interest group, etc." and “requested documents [that] will garner media attention or [are] receiving media attention."

    October 28, 2010
    * EFF: Government Withholds Records on Need for Expanded Surveillance Law

    News release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against three agencies of the Department of Justice (DOJ) today, demanding records about problems or limitations that hamper electronic surveillance and potentially justify or undermine the Administration's new calls for expanded surveillance powers. The issue has been in the headlines for more than a month, kicked off by a New York Times report that the government was seeking to require "back doors" in all communications systems -- from email and webmail to Skype, Facebook and even Xboxes -- to ease its ability to spy on Americans. The head of the FBI publicly claimed that these "back doors" are needed because advances in technology are eroding agents' ability to intercept information. EFF filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the DOJ Criminal Division to see if that claim is backed up by specific incidents where these agencies encountered obstacles in conducting electronic surveillance."

    October 14, 2010
    * New FOIA Documents Reveal DHS Social Media Monitoring During Obama Inauguration

    EFF: "As noted in our first post, EFF recently received new documents via our FOIA lawsuit on social network surveillance, filed with the help of UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Clinic, that reveal two ways the government has been tracking people online: Citizenship and Immigration’s surveillance of social networks to investigate citizenship petitions and the DHS’s use of a “Social Networking Monitoring Center” to collect and analyze online public communication during President Obama’s inauguration. This is the second of two posts describing these documents and some of their implications. In addition to learning about surveillance of citizenship petitioners, EFF also learned that leading up to President Obama’s January 2009 inauguration, DHS established a Social Networking Monitoring Center (SNMC) to monitor social networking sites for “items of interest.” In a set of slides [PDF] outlining the effort, DHS discusses both the massive collection and use of social network information as well as the privacy principles it sought to employ when doing so."

    October 11, 2010
    * New on LLRX.com: FOIA Facts - Mid-Term FOIA Grade for the Obama Administration

    LLRX.com: FOIA Facts - Mid-Term FOIA Grade for the Obama Administration - Scott A. Hodes provides perspective, and an overall grade, to how the administration has done during the first half of its first term in regard to FOIA.

    October 05, 2010
    * TRAC: Unlawful Denial of Records Blocks Public Understanding of Immigration Enforcement

    "The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) October 4, 2010 charged the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency of serious legal and procedural violations in its withholding of performance data about how the agency is enforcing the immigration laws. The deficiencies, detailed in a letter TRAC sent the agency {October 4, 2010], involve ICE's violation of long standing provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the agency's own administrative rules and the stated policies of Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama in the handling of a request from TRAC for anonymous alien-by-alien statistical data about the arrests, detentions, charges and removal activities of the agency. The agency's actions — spelled out in a three-page September 22 letter to TRAC — have the effect of denying the American people concrete information about an important and controversial aspect of a key responsibility of the federal government: what is it doing and not doing to enforce the nation's immigration laws. Among the anonymous statistical data that ICE previously released but now said were "unavailable" were the city or state where the alien's apprehension took place, the facility where the alien is currently being detained, the nature of the formal removal charges, the details of any criminal charges and the alien's marital status. Under the FOIA, all federal agencies are required to provide specific reasons — such as national security or privacy — when they withhold records from requestors. But in the September 22 letter, FOIA Director Catrina M. Pavlik-Kennan, did not cite any of the possible exemptions to justify her decision not to provide a large segment of the data requested in May by TRAC."

    October 01, 2010
    * FOIA at the Mid-term: Obstacles to Transparency Remain

    FOIA at the Mid-term: Obstacles to Transparency Remain - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), September 30, 2010

  • "When President Obama took office, he pledged to bring an unprecedented level of transparency to the federal government and to transform how federal agencies handle Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Even with this fundamental policy change, however, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) – a frequent FOIA requester and litigator – has not noticed a marked change in how agencies handle FOIA requests. On the litigation front, CREW has continued to fight many of the same battles it fought under the Bush administration. For example, CREW sued the Bush Department of Justice (DOJ) for the FBI’ notes of its interview with Vice President Cheney in the Valerie Plame Wilson leak investigation, but the Obama Justice Department also refused to disclose the notes (a court eventually ordered the DOJ to release them). Similarly, Attorney General Eric Holder’s policy
    of disclosure has not translated into greater access to records that would shed light on controversial subjects, such as the policy of the Veterans Administration to purposefully underdiagnose post-traumatic stress disorder."
  • September 27, 2010
    * CRS: The Freedom of Information Act and Nondisclosure Provisions in Other Federal Laws

    The Freedom of Information Act and Nondisclosure Provisions in Other Federal Laws, Gina Stevens, Legislative Attorney, September 13, 2010

  • "Congress has enacted legislative exemptions from FOIA to provide assurance that private information submitted to government agencies will not be disclosed or will only be disclosed in limited situations. Generally, the legislation has exempted covered information from disclosure under FOIA. Congress has recognized that some situations do not fall within FOIA’s framework. The proliferation of legislative exemptions from FOIA has resulted in widespread concern that information that needs to be shared will be inappropriately withheld. To respond to these concerns, Congress enacted the OPEN FOIA Act of 2009, P.L. 111-83, which requires that when Congress provides for a statutory exemption to FOIA, Congress must state its intention clearly."
  • August 12, 2010
    * CREW Files Suit Against Federal Election Commission

    News release: "[August 11, 2010] Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan filed suit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, CREW v. Fed. Election Comm’n (D.D.C.). The suit seeks to end the FEC’s practice of summarily dismissing complaints without explanation, leaving complainants insufficient information to sue the agency for failing to enforce campaign finance laws."

    August 07, 2010
    * EPIC FOIA - Feds Save Thousands of Body Scan Images

    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, "In an open government lawsuit against the United States Marshals Service, EPIC has obtained more than one hundred images of undressed individuals entering federal courthouses. The images, which are routinely captured by the federal agency, prove that body scanning devices store and record images of individuals stripped naked. The 100 images are a small sample of more than 35,000 at issue in the EPIC lawsuit. EPIC has pursued a but the DHS refuses to release the images it has obtained. EPIC has also filed suit to stop the deployment of the machines in US airports. For more information, see EPIC Body Scanners, EPIC - EPIC v. DOJ (Marshall Service FOIA)

    August 04, 2010
    * EPIC FOIA - Feds Save Thousands of Body Scan Images

    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, via EPIC new the organization has filed an open government lawsuit against the United States Marshals Service, EPIC has obtained more than one hundred images of undressed individuals entering federal courthouses. The images, which are routinely captured by the federal agency, prove that body scanning devices store and record images of individuals stripped naked. The 100 images are a small sample of more than 35,000 at issue in the EPIC lawsuit. EPIC has pursued a but the DHS refuses to release the images it has obtained. EPIC has also filed suit to stop the deployment of the machines in US airports. For more information, see EPIC Body Scanners and EPIC - EPIC v. DOJ (Marshall Service FOIA).

    * National Declassification Center Issues First Report

    News release: "The National Archives National Declassification Center (NDC) has issued its first status report, covering the reporting period of January 1- June 30, 2010. During this time, nearly 8 million pages of material were processed and made available to the public. The creation of the NDC is specified in the Executive Order on Classified National Security Information signed by President Obama on December 29, 2009. The NDC is charged with streamlining declassification processes, facilitating quality assurance measures, and implementing standard training for declassification reviewers. "By streamlining the declassification process, the NDC is ushering in a new day in the world of access, allowing the National Archives to make more records available for public scrutiny much more quickly," said Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero. "I’m pleased the NDC is off to such a great start."

  • National Archives and Records Administration Bi-annual Report on Operations of the National Declassification Center Reporting period: January 1, 2010 – June 30, 2010
  • June 30, 2010
    * Department of Defense Open Government Plan Version 1.1

    Department of Defense Open Government Plan Version 1.1, June 25, 2010

  • "The Department has made significant progress in the weeks since we first published our Open Government Plan. Personnel from across the Department continue to contribute datasets for Data.gov We solicited feedback from outside government groups on our initial Plan, and incorporated their input. Additionally, our Open Government Web site has been expanded to include a library of links to key information resources across the Department, including FOIA Reading Rooms, regulatory updates, news subscriptions and scientific paper databases. Our efforts are now focused on full implementation of our plans to create a more transparent Department and we will continue to post updates on our progress at www.defense.gov/open."
  • Related postings on President Obama's Open Government plans
  • June 26, 2010
    * Grassley Releases Medical Ghostwriting Report, Recommends NIH Promote Transparency

    News release: "Senator Chuck Grassley released a staff report of the Committee on Finance on the practice of medical ghostwriting and is urging the National Institutes of Health to incorporate its findings in new, final disclosure guidelines. The committee staff report is based on a two-year review of the role that pharmaceutical and medical device companies play in developing articles for publication in medical journals. Grassley has expressed concern about the lack of transparency when industry pays third parties to write articles for medical journals which are then marketed to research and other physicians for their signatures."

  • Ghostwriting in Medical Literature, Minority Staff Report, 111th Congress, United States Senate Committee on Finance, Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member, June 24, 2010
  • June 16, 2010
    * New on LLRX.com: FOIA Facts - Ideas for Faster FOIA Processing

    FOIA Facts - Ideas for Faster FOIA Processing: Scott A. Hodes notes that in the current Congress there are bills pending that would create a commission to come up with ideas for faster FOIA processing. He contends that by taking those ideas, along with a few days of congressional oversight hearings to solicit other opinions, Congress would have ample information to create an actual bill that would implement faster FOIA processing now rather than wait for a "commission" to come up with these same ideas.

    May 09, 2010
    * Senate Unanimously Passes Faster FOIA Act

    EPIC: "The Senate unanimously passed the Faster FOIA Act of 2010, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX), that will establish a 16-member commission to determine methods for reducing delays in processing FOIA requests. Government reports reveal substantial delays in disclosing records subject to the open government law. The legislation seeks to improve the processing of FOIA requests. EPIC frequently uses the FOIA to obtain information about government programs that impact privacy rights."

    May 06, 2010
    * Case Study: How Open Data Saved Canada $3.2 Billion

    Case Study: How Open data saved Canada $3.2 Billion - 14 April 2010 | David Eaves [via Susannah Fox, Pew Internet]

  • "...government data - information that should be made more accessible and open in an unfettered and machine readable format - helped reveal one of the largest tax evasion scandals in the country's history. But if the CRA was already investigating, scrutiny of this data by the public served a different purpose – helping to bring these issues out into the open, forcing CRA [Canada Revenue Agency] to take public action (suspending these organizations' right to solicit more donations), sooner rather than later. Essentially from before 2005-2007 dozens of charities were operating illegally. Had the data about their charitable receipts been available for the public's routine review, someone in the public might have taken notice and raised a fuss earlier. Perhaps even a website tracking donations might have been launched. This would have exposed those charities that had abnormally large donations with few programs to explain then. Moreover, it might have given some of the 100,000 Canadians now being audited a tool for evaluating the charities they were giving money to."
  • May 03, 2010
    * Audit of Open Government Plans Reveals Wide Range of Performance

    News release, PEER: "A ranking of agencies’ Open Government Plans compiled in an independent audit reveals the strongest and weakest agency plans, with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the top of the list and the Department of Justice (DOJ) at the bottom. Significantly, the audit found that key agencies assigned to oversee government openness efforts, particularly the President’s own Office of Management & Budget and DOJ, failed to produce strong Open Government Plans themselves. The audit was organized by OpenTheGovernment.org and conducted by volunteers from nonprofit public interest groups, including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), which have experience working with the agencies and evaluating their information policies. The Obama administration’s December 8, 2009, Open Government Directive (OGD) required executive agencies to develop and post Open Government Plans by April 7, 2010. The OGD specified elements related to transparency, participation, and collaboration that must be included in the plans. The audit rated the extent to which agencies met the administration's standards as spelled out in the OGD and allowed bonus points for actions that went beyond the OGD minimum."

  • Group gives most open government plans mediocre marks
  • April 21, 2010
    * Coalition Petitions Homeland Security to Suspend Airport Body Scanners

    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, this news release: "EPIC and a broad coalition of organizations sent a formal petition to the Department of Homeland Security to demand that the agency suspend the airport body scanner program. The petition states that the "uniquely intrusive search" is unreasonable and violates the Constitution. The petition further states the program fails to comply with several federal laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Privacy Act of 1974, and the Administrative Procedures Act. The petitioners also argue that the machines are ineffective and that there are better, less costly security technology. The petitioners contend that the TSA has routinely misled the pubic about the ability of the devices to store and transmit detailed images of travelers' naked bodies. In a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, EPIC has already obtained technical documents, vendor contracts, and hundreds of traveler complaints."

    * FDA Announces Draft Revised Guidance on Transparency and Advisory Committees

    News release: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced draft guidance that would expand transparency and disclosure when the agency grants a conflict of interest waiver to permit an individual’s participation at an FDA advisory committee meeting. The draft guidance would expand the information disclosed about waivers prior to committee meetings. Specifically, the FDA proposes to post online the name of the company or institution associated with the financial interest along with the type of conflict of interest. Scientific advisory committees provide expert advice on significant scientific, technical, and policy matters to assist in the FDA’s mission to protect and promote the public health. The committees provide advice on specific regulatory decisions, such as product approvals, and general policy matters, including regulations and guidance."

    April 19, 2010
    * DOJ Releases Email Retention Policy In Response to FOIA Request from CREW

    Follow up to Missing White House E-Mails Still Factor in Torture Memo Investigation, this CREW news release: "On Friday, April 16, CREW received an initial response to its Freedom of Information Act request of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) related to the failure of former OLC official John Yoo to preserve any of his emails. In response to CREW’s request for record keeping guidance issued to OLC staff, OLC produced two memos, both of which require OLC staff to retain all emails “that are important to understanding a decision of the Office.” There can be no question Mr. Yoo’s failure to preserve any emails directly contravenes OLC’s record keeping guidance. Click here to read CREW's FOIA request."

    April 18, 2010
    * U.S. Department of State Self Study Guides for 35 Countries

    "The U.S. Department of State provided these thirty five Self Study Guides in response to a FOIA request. This series of study guides, each covering a country or geographic area, were prepared for the use of USAID staff assigned to temporary duty in those countries. The guides are designed to allow individuals to familiarize themselves with the country or area in which they will be posted. These guides range in date from 2000 - 2006." [via governmentattic.org FOIA request]

    April 07, 2010
    * Administration Announces Releases of Federal Agencies Open Government Plans

    "Today, U.S. departments and agencies are releasing their Open Government Plans -- another historic milestone in President Obama's campaign to change Washington. For too many years, Washington has resisted the oversight of the American public, resulting in difficulties in finding information, taxpayer dollars disappearing without a trace, and lobbyists wielding undue influence. For Americans, business as usual in Washington has reinforced the belief that the government benefits the special interests and the well-connected at the expense of the American people. No more. Since coming to office, the President has launched a series of initiatives to let the sunshine in, including posting White House visitor records, disclosing lobbyist contacts regarding stimulus funds, and launching data.gov and recovery.gov. That's why independent groups recently gave the Administration an A grade for transparency. Today we add to that body of accomplishments as the departments and agencies issue Open Government Plans pursuant to the Open Government Directive. The Plans will make operations and data more transparent, and expand opportunities for citizen participation, collaboration, and oversight. These steps will strengthen our democracy and promote accountability, efficiency and effectiveness across the government. Here are a few highlights:

    March 26, 2010
    * Presidential Statement and White House Memorandum on the FOIA Issued During Sunshine Week

    FOIA Post: "On March 16, 2010, during Sunshine Week, the White House issued both a Presidential Statement and a Memorandum on the FOIA. First, President Obama issued a statement on the FOIA. In his Statement, the President applauded the work that has been done so far to increase transparency. He also recommitted his administration “to be the most open and transparent ever.” After highlighting some of the transparency initiatives the White House has undertaken, the President concluded by stating that “our work is not done” and that “[w]e will continue to work toward an unmatched level of transparency, participation, and accountability across the entire Administration.” On that same day, Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, and Bob Bauer, Counsel to the President, issued a Memorandum to the Heads of Departments and Agencies on the Freedom of Information Act. The Memorandum highlights the successful work that has been done by agencies “to make the government more open and accountable to the American people.” The White House also expressed appreciation to agencies for their efforts in implementing the President’s Memorandum on the FOIA and confidence that agency Chief FOIA Officer Reports will demonstrate the progress achieved thus far. At the same time, the White House points out that “more work remains to be done, and such work requires persistent effort.” The White House requests department and agency heads to take action in two specific areas “to ensure full implementation of the President’s Memorandum on FOIA.” The Memorandum closes by noting that agencies may already be taking these and other steps as part of their drafting of their Open Government Plans, which are being developed as a result of the Open Government Directive, available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf."

    March 21, 2010
    * Second Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Fed Must Reveal Info on Loans to Private Banks

    Bloomberg: "The Federal Reserve Board must disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever, a federal appeals court said. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled today that the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched primarily after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The ruling upholds a decision of a lower-court judge, who in August ordered that the information be released."

  • Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 09-4083-cv; 09-4097-cv, decided March 19, 2010
  • March 16, 2010
    * Leahy, Cornyn Commemorate Sunshine Week With Faster FOIA Act Introduction

    News release: "[On March 15, 2010] Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced bipartisan legislation to make further improvements to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the nation’s premier open government law. Leahy is a longtime leader on FOIA issues, and has led efforts to make the federal government more open and transparent to the people it represents. This week marks the sixth annual Sunshine Week, a national observance of the importance of an open and transparent government. Leahy partnered with Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) to author the Faster FOIA Act, which will establish an advisory panel to examine agency backlogs in processing FOIA requests. Under the legislation, the panel, named the Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays, will be required to provide to Congress recommendations for legislative and administrative action to enhance agency responses to FOIA requests. The panel will be required to identify methods to reduce delays in the processing of FOIA requests, and will be charged with examining whether the system for charging fees and granting fee waivers under FOIA should be reformed in order to reduce delays in processing fee requests."

    March 14, 2010
    * National Security Archive FOIA Audit Finds Ancient Requests Still Pending (up to 18 Years)

    News release: "Despite President Barack Obama's and Attorney General Eric Holder's 2009 memoranda calling for reform in government agencies' administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the latest government-wide FOIA Audit released today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University found:

    • Ancient requests--as old as 18 years--still persist in the FOIA system.
    • A minority of agencies have responded to the Obama and Holder Memos with concrete changes in their FOIA practices.
    • Only four out of 28 agencies reporting--including Holder's own Justice Department--show releases up and denials down under the FOIA.

    The Audit, which is based on data obtained from government agencies through FOIA requests filed by the Archive in September 2009, found that federal agencies had a wide range of responses to the Obama and Holder Memos. Some agencies (13 out of 90) implemented concrete changes in practice as a result of the memos; some (14 out of 90) have made changes in staff training; and still others (11 out of 90) have merely circulated and discussed the memos. The remaining agencies (52) either told the Archive that they have no records that demonstrate how they implemented the Obama and Holder Memos or did not respond at all to the FOIA request."

    March 08, 2010
    * EPIC v. DHS: EPIC Obtains Complaints About Airport Body Scanners

    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports - "In response to an EPIC Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released more documents about body scanners in US airports. The documents include many complaints from travelers who went through the devices. Travelers reported that they were not told about the pat down alternative or that they were going to be subject to a body scan by TSA officials. Travelers also expressed concern about radiation risks to pregnant women and the image capture of young children without clothes. EPIC has previously obtained whole body imaging vendor contracts, operational requirements, and procurement specifications from TSA. EPIC and Ralph Nader have urged President Obama to suspend the program until an independent review is completed."

    February 21, 2010
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: Why the Wait?

    LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: Why the Wait? Requesters who are new to using the FOIA statute often complain that they have filed a request within the last month but haven't receive their documents yet. FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes explains that the congressional budgeting process does not specifically provide FOIA operations within an agency a set line item amount. Thus, FOIA Offices usually have limited resources from within their own agencies to fulfill requests.

    February 19, 2010
    * FBI Releases Amerithrax Investigation Report

    New York Times: "In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released its 92-page report on the investigation into anthrax-laced letters that left five dead in 2001. The report describes evidence pointing to Bruce E. Ivins, a biodefense expert who killed himself in 2008. Included here is the F.B.I.'s summary report, as well as selected exhibits. Related Article."

    February 15, 2010
    * Some News Organizations Persist in Using FOIA, and Prevail

    New York Times: "Some big companies, like Hearst and The Associated Press, have been quietly ramping up their legal efforts, by doing more of the work in-house — and saving costs by not hiring outside lawyers — and being more aggressive in states where they can recoup legal fees and at the federal level, which also allows plaintiffs in such access cases to sue for legal fees when they win. At Hearst, the company’s top lawyer says it has never had more First Amendment lawsuits in courtrooms around the country than it does now. At The A.P., a cooperative owned by its member newspapers, in-house lawyers say they are becoming more aggressive on a number of fronts. In 2009, the agency was party to 40 lawsuits, moderately up from four years ago, when the number of lawsuits was in the low 30s, according to Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for The A.P....But The A.P. has been vastly more assertive in appealing denied Freedom of Information Act, or F.O.I.A., requests from the federal government under the Obama administration, which came to power promising to operate a more open government and alter what some media lawyers complained was a trend toward more government secrecy in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks."

  • News release: "The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has approved a new $2 million, three‐year grant to the National Freedom of Information Coalition to launch the Knight FOI Fund and support state open government groups. The Knight FOI Fund will provide up‐front costs such as court costs, filing and deposition fees, if attorneys are willing to take on a pro‐bono basis cases that otherwise would go unfiled."
  • * Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Annual Report

    Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Annual Report Fiscal Year 2009. Released February 1, 2010.

    February 12, 2010
    * What Happened to Blue Collection Mailboxes Throughout America?

    Mail collection boxes on street corners, and those located in shopping and business districts throughout our country have methodically, silently, vanished over the course of the past decade. The large blue, free standing mailboxes many of us grew up using regularly to assist in the delivery of written correspondence, and of course birthday cards, are all but unknown to many. Perhaps the deluge of snow here in suburban Maryland has me waxing poetic about Americana, but there are indeed ramifications related to this occurrence. Does the disappearance of the mailboxes subtly herald the triumph of "connecting" and "networking"? The electronic "replacements": e-cards, e-mail, e-books, and e-time, along with texting, tweeting and a variety of other mobile techie apps. Back to ground, the facts indicate 100,000 collection boxes are gone, and this database, released via FOIA request, lists those that remain - just in time for Valentine's Day. So try and find one, and maybe mail a card - with thanks from those of us who still enjoy sending and receiving them (especially ones that are home made).

    February 10, 2010
    * 9/11 World Trade Center Photos Obtained By FOIA Request Released By ABC News

    World Trade Center 9/11 Photos: A Fresh But Painful Look at Sept. 11 Tragedy

  • "A trove of aerial photographs of the collapsing World Trade Center was widely released this week, offering a rare and chilling view from the heavens of the burning twin towers and the apocalyptic shroud of smoke and dust that settled over the city. The images were taken from a police helicopter — the only photographers allowed in the airspace near the skyscrapers on Sept. 11, 2001. They were obtained by ABC after it filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal agency that investigated the collapse."
  • Related postings on 9/11
  • December 29, 2009
    * Executive Order - Original Classification Authority

    Executive Order - Original Classification Authority, December 29, 2009: designating specific officials to classify information originally as "Top Secret" or "Secret"

  • New York Times: "President Obama declared on Tuesday that “no information may remain classified indefinitely” as part of a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch’s system for protecting classified national security information. In an executive order and an accompanying presidential memorandum to agency heads, Mr. Obama signaled that the government should try harder to make information public if possible, including by requiring agencies to regularly review what kinds of information they classify and to eliminate any obsolete secrecy requirements....He also established a new National Declassification Center at the National Archives to speed the process of declassifying historical documents by centralizing their review, rather than sending them in sequence to different agencies. He set a four-year deadline for processing a 400-million-page backlog of such records that includes archives related to military operations during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars."
  • December 18, 2009
    * EPIC Files Lawsuit for Information about "Digital Strip Search" Devices

    Follow up to previous postings on government implementation of whole body scanning technology at airports, this news: On December 17, 2009, EPIC filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice concerning the use of devices that capture images of individuals stripped naked. The Transportation Security Administration has confirmed the Whole Body Imaging machines are being used in at least one Virginia federal court by the US Marshall Service. EPIC submitted a FOIA request for information about these devices including the contracts with the manufacturer of the machines, and information about technical specifications and training materials. The Marshall Service failed to respond adequately to the request. EPIC filed suit, said that the agency had not performed a sufficient search and should disclose the documents requested."

    December 15, 2009
    * Presidential Task Force Report on Controlled Unclassified Information

    Via FAS: "The President's Memorandum of May 27, 2009 on Classified Information and Controlled Unclassified Information, directed a Task Force, led by the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General, to review the Controlled Unclassified Information (“CUI”) Framework established in 2008 for the management of Sensitive but Unclassified1 (“SBU”) terrorism-related information. The Task Force undertook a 90-day study of the CUI Framework, the current regimes for managing SBU information in the Executive Branch, and, by extension, the sharing of that information with our non-federal information-sharing partners. The Task Force concluded that Executive Branch performance suffers immensely from interagency inconsistency in SBU policies, frequent uncertainty in interagency settings as to exactly what policies apply to given SBU information, and the inconsistent application of similar policies across agencies. Additionally, the absence of effective training, oversight, and accountability at many agencies results in a tendency to over-protect information, greatly diminishing government transparency."

  • Report and Recommendations of the Presidential Task Force on Controlled Unclassified Information transmitted August 25, 2009 and released December 15, 2009.
  • December 08, 2009
    * The Open Government Directive and Open Government Progress Report to the American People
    • The Open Government Directive
    • The Open Government Progress Report to the American People

      "The directive, sent to the head of every federal department and agency today, instructs the agencies to take specific actions to open their operations to the public. The three principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration are at the heart of this directive. Transparency promotes accountability. Participation allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise to government initiatives. Collaboration improves the effectiveness of government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the federal government, across levels of government, and between the government and private institutions." Peter Orszag is the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

    November 26, 2009
    * November Release of White House Visitor Records

    News release: "Building upon last month’s historic release of nearly 500 White House visitor records, today the White House releases more than 1,600 records of visits to the White House in response to another month’s worth of requests. You can view all the records in a searchable database in our Disclosures section. We announced earlier that in December the White House would -- for the first time in history -- begin posting all White House visitor records under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. As part of that initiative, we also offered to look back at the records created before the announcement of the policy and answer specific requests for visitor records created earlier in the year."

    November 07, 2009
    * Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law

    Protectionism Online: Internet Censorship and International Trade Law, ECIPE [European Centre for International Political Economy] Working Paper No. 12/2009, By Brian Hindley, Hosuk Lee-Makiyama

  • "This paper suggests that many W TO member states are legally obliged to permit an unrestricted supply of cross- border Internet services. And as the option to selectively censor rather than entirely block services is available to at least some of the most developed censorship regimes (most notably China), there is a good chance that a panel might rule that permanent blocks on search engines, photo-sharing applications and other services are inconsistent with the GATS provisions, even given morals and security exceptions. Less resourceful countries, without means of filtering more selectively, and with a censorship based on moral and religious grounds, might be able to defend such bans in the WTO. But the exceptions do not offer a blanket cover for the arbitrary and disproportionate censorship that still occurs despite the availability to the censoring government of selective filtering."
  • October 30, 2009
    * White House Releases Partial Visitor Log

    News release: "We previously announced that the White House in December of this year would -- for the first time in history -- begin posting all White House visitor records under the terms of our new voluntary disclosure policy. As part of that initiative, we also offered to look back at the records created before the announcement of the policy and answer specific requests for visitor records created earlier in the year. So far we’ve processed 110 disclosure requests from September that yielded nearly 500 visitor records. All of these are now available on the White House website in accessible, searchable format for anyone to browse or download. Consistent with our earlier announcement that we will only release records 90 days or older, this first batch covers the period of time between January 20, 2009 to July 31, 2009. Future batches will be posted on an ongoing basis."

    October 28, 2009
    * FOIA Lawsuit Yields Unclassified FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide

    New York Times: "In September 2008, the Bush administration changed domestic intelligence-gathering rules. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's interpretation of those rules was recently made public when the bureau released a redacted copy of its "Domestic Investigations and Operation Guide" in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit. The new rules have given F.B.I. agents the most power in national security matters that they have had since the post-Watergate era."

    October 03, 2009
    * Judge Orders Release of More VP Cheney Papers on Plame CIA Leak

    Follow up to previous postings on Investigation of Plame CIA Leak, this October 1, 2009 news release: "U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the release of records of former Vice President Cheney’s interview with the FBI in the Valerie Plame Wilson leak investigation. Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), CREW had sued the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking release of the records. Judge Sullivan agreed with CREW that because the investigation is now over the Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot withhold all documents based on an exemption that protects law enforcement records from disclosure. Judge Sullivan rejected DOJ’s argument that future White House officials would be unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement inquiries if these records were released."

    September 27, 2009
    * DOJ Limits Use of State Secrets Privilege

    EPIC: "...the Department of Justice announced a new policy that limits the government’s use of the state secrets privilege. The state secrets privilege is a rule of evidence intended to prevent genuine matters of national security from being disclosed in open court. However, recently it has been misused by both the Bush and Obama administrations in order to derail litigation completely. For instance, in 2007 EPIC filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief in a warrantless wiretapping case, Hepting v. United States, in which the government argued that the case should be dismissed because it would reveal “state secrets.” Under the new policy, the privilege will be invoked only "to the extent necessary to protect against the risk of significant harm to national security." The Attorney General will also have to approve each determination. The State Secret Protection Act of 2009, legislation with a similar purpose, is now pending in Congress. For more information, see EPIC Open Government."

  • DOJ: Policies and Procedures Governing Invocation of the State Secrets Privilege
  • * International Right to Know Day

    "The 7th International Right to Know Day on 28th of September 2009 will mark a year of historic advances for the right of access to information and will be celebrated by the Freedom of Information Advocate’s Network which has around 200 organisations in 75 countries who are calling for universal respect for the public’s right to know. The aim of Right to Know Day is to raise awareness of every individual's right of access to government-held information: the right to know how elected officials are exercising power and how taxpayers' money is being spent. Freedom of information advocates have used the day to share ideas, strategies, and success stories about the development of freedom of information laws and the goals of open government."

    * SEC OIG: Review of the SEC's Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act

    Review of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, Securities and Exchange Commission Office of Inspector General, September 25, 2009.

  • "The OIG found that the manner that the Commission’s Chief FOIA Officer functioned was not in compliance with the requirements of Executive Order 13392 or the OPEN Government Act. Prior to our review of the FOIA program in connection with this report, the Commission had not defined any explicitly stated authorities, responsibilities, or reporting duties for the Chief FOIA Officer. During the course of this review, the SEC has taken steps to fill the Chief FOIA Officer position. Further, we determined that few FOIA liaisons have developed written policies and procedures for processing FOIA requests. This increases the risk of error and could result in information being inappropriately disclosed or the SEC could withhold information from the public that should be released. Additionally, we found that the SEC has inadequate or incorrect procedures for disclosing responsive documents that are not in compliance with Act. We also found that there is an insufficient separation of the administrative processes between the initial FOIA determination and the FOIA appeal process. In addition, SEC management has not established any comprehensive management, supervisory, or personnel practices for staff that are responsible for FOIA processing."
  • September 14, 2009
    * Recent CRS Reports: Pension Sponsorship and Participation, Electric Power Storage, Access to Government Info, Energy and Water Development
    September 13, 2009
    * Boston City Employees Routinely Deleted Most Emails - Public Records Violation

    Boston.com: "Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s administration, prompted by public records requests from the Globe, has acknowledged that city employees were routinely deleting e-mails, a potential violation of the state public records law. The acknowledgement came after the Globe filed several requests for e-mails sent and received by Menino’s Cabinet chief of policy and planning, Michael J. Kineavy. He is one of Menino’s most powerful and trusted advisers, intimately involved in nearly everything at City Hall, but a search of city computers found just 18 e-mails he had sent or received between Oct. 1, 2008, and March 31 of this year. The unusually low figure prompted administration officials to question him about what happened to the rest of the e-mails he was presumably sending and receiving during that period. Kineavy, who is also one of the mayor’s chief political advisers and a strategist on Menino’s reelection campaigns since 1993, told them that he deletes all his e-mails on a daily basis, in such a way that they are not saved on city backup computers, administration officials said."

    September 09, 2009
    * Sunlight Labs Posts Apps for America Winners

    The Apps for America Winners [via Abi Morgan]:

    • DataMasher: "DataMasher helps citizens have a little fun with those data by creating mashups to visualize them in different ways and see how states compare on important issues. Users can combine different data sets in interesting ways and create their own custom rankings of the states."
    • GovPulse: "govpulse was built to open the doors of government to the people they work for. By making such documents as the Federal Register searchable, more accessible and easier to digest, govepulse seeks to encourage every citizen to become more involved in the workings of their government and make their voice heard on the things that matter to them, from the smallest to the largest issues."
    • ThisWeKnow: "Our long-term vision for ThisWeKnow is to model the entire data.gov catalog and make it available to the public using Semantic Web standards as a large-scale online database. ThisWeKnow will provide citizens with a single destination where they can search and browse all the information the government collects. It will also provide other application developers with a powerful standards-based API for accessing the data."

    * OpenTheGovernment.org releases the 2009 Secrecy Report Card

    "The 2009 Secrecy Report Card chronicles slight decreases in secrecy across a wide spectrum of indicators in the last year of the Bush-Cheney Administration. The report, released today by a coalition of more than 70 open government advocates, also provides a six-month overview of the Obama Administration’s promise and practice on openness issues, and a section on financial transparency during the economic crisis...While very few quantitative indicators of secrecy exist yet to compare the Obama Administration to its predecessor, the Special Section on the Obama Administration uses qualitative examples to discuss the Administration’s openness promising policies and, in some instances, discouraging practice. Among the issues discussed are: the Open Government Directive, Classified Information, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), signing statements, use of state secrets, and more."

  • Download the FOIA Risk Assessment Chart, an assessment of changes in FOIA practices by the Bush and Obama Administrations, and the expanded fiscal transparency section.
  • September 04, 2009
    * White House voluntary disclosure policy - visitor access records

    White Hosue Policy: "The President has decided to increase governmental transparency by implementing a voluntary disclosure policy governing White House visitor access records. The White House will release, on a monthly basis, all previously unreleased WAVES and ACR access records that are 90 to 120 days old. For example, records created in January 2010 will be released at the end of April 2010. The short time lag will allow the White House to continue to conduct business, while still providing the American people with an unprecedented amount of information about their government. No previous White House has ever adopted such a policy. The voluntary disclosure policy will apply to records created after September 15, 2009, and the first release of records (covering the month of September) will occur at the end of the year, on or about December 31, 2009. We expect that each monthly release will include tens of thousands of electronic records. Since the White House considers these records to be subject to the Presidential Records Act, it will continue to preserve them accordingly."
    Bush Administration

  • WHO: [PDF part 1, PDF part 2]
  • OVP: [PDF]

  • Obama Administration
  • WHO: [.csv]
  • August 28, 2009
    * Federal Reserve Board Must Release Bank Bailout Info to News Organizations

    Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press:" The string of FOIA lawsuits for release of records of the government's emergency lending programs finally saw its first victory Monday. The Federal Reserve Board must release to Bloomberg News records identifying the financial firms it loaned bailout funds to as well as the assets or amounts put up as collateral, the news agency reported. Chief Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan federal court issued the first ruling requiring disclosure in a handful of suits in New York federal court brought separately by Bloomberg, Fox News and the New York Times. Bloomberg reported that she rejected the argument that the records were exempt from release under FOIA because they might harm the competitive advantage of the borrowers."

  • Related postings on financial system
  • August 26, 2009
    * Newly Declassified CIA Histories on Wars in Indochina

    National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 283: "The Central Intelligence Agency participated in every aspect of the wars in Indochina, political and military, according to newly declassified CIA histories. The six volumes of formerly secret histories (the Agency's belated response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados) document CIA activities in South and North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in unprecedented detail. The histories contain a great deal of new material and shed light on aspects of the CIA's work that were not well known or were poorly understood."

    August 25, 2009
    * CCR, Amnesty and NYU Receive Docs Cheney Wanted Declassified to Justify Torture

    News release: "The [redacted] documents [below] were released through FOIA litigation by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International USA, and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law seeking disclosure of information concerning “disappeared” detainees, including “ghost” and unregistered prisoners. The original FOIA requests were filed with several U.S. government agencies including the Departments of Justice and Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency...CCR has led the legal battle over Guantanamo for the last seven years – sending the first ever habeas attorney to the base and sending the first attorney to meet with a former CIA “ghost detainee” there. CCR represents current and former detainees who were tortured and abused at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and in the secret CIA detention program."

    August 12, 2009
    * EPIC Forces Disclosure of Government Contracts with Social Media Companies, Privacy Terms Missing

    "In response to an EPIC Freedom of Information Act Request, the Government Services Administration released several contracts between the federal government and web 2.0 companies, including agreements with Blip.tv, Blist, Google (YouTube), Yahoo (Flickr), and MySpace. EPIC also obtained amendments to agreements with Facebook, Slideshare.net, Vimeo.com, and AddThis.com. The contracts do not address the privacy obligations of social media companies. The GSA letter to EPIC explained that “no specific Web 2.0 guidance currently exists,” but provided EPIC with Training Slides that raise privacy issues. The GSA Agreement with Google actually states that, “to the extent any rules or guidelines exist prohibiting the use of persistent cookies in connection with Provider Content applies to Google, Provider expressly waives those rules or guidelines as they may apply to Google.” Some of the agreements also permit companies to track users of government web sites for advertising purposes."

    August 04, 2009
    * "Tool uses crowdsourcing to gain insight into what users around the world are experiencing in terms of Web accessibility"

    "Herdict is a project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Herdict is a portmanteau of 'herd' and 'verdict' and seeks to show the verdict of the users (the herd). Herdict Web seeks to gain insight into what users around the world are experiencing in terms of web accessibility; or in other words, determine the herdict. The brainchild of Professor Jonathan Zittrain, Herdict Web is a natural progression from the OpenNet Initiative. Whereas OpenNet views Internet filtering through an academic lens, Herdict uses crowdsourcing to learn about and present a real time view of the experiences of users around the globe."

    July 20, 2009
    * NYT Posts Unreleased Government Report on Dangers of Using Cell Phones While Driving

    "The following body of research, conducted by the Department of Transportation and completed in 2003, has not been made public until now. The documents pertain to the safety of using wireless communication devices while driving. The New York Times obtained the research from the Center for Auto Safety and Public Citizen, two consumer advocacy groups that earlier this year acquired more than 250 pages of undisclosed material through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit." See also Related Article.

  • Status Summary: Using Wireless Communications Devices While Driving, Original Date May 21, 2002 - Last updated: July 2003 [266 pages]

  • July 17, 2009
    * Systematic Overclassification of Defense Information Poses Challenge for President Obama's Secrecy Review

    "Pentagon classification authorities are treating classified historical documents as if they contain today's secrets, rather than decades-old information that has not been secret for years. Today the National Security Archive posted multiple versions of the same documents—on issues ranging from the 1973 October War to anti-ballistic missiles, strategic arms control, and U.S. policy toward China—that are already declassified and in the public domain. What earlier declassification reviewers released in full, sometimes years ago, Pentagon reviewers have more recently excised, sometimes massively. The overclassification highlighted by these examples poses a major problem that should be addressed by the ongoing review of national security information policy that President Obama ordered on May 27, 2009. New presumptions against classification that may be added to an executive order on national security information will not, in isolation, end overclassification. Rigorous oversight, accompanied by improved training and consequences for improper classification are essential."

    July 09, 2009
    * New Report Shines Light on Secrecy Labeling of Government Information

    News release, July 8, 2009: "Today, OMB Watch published a report that explores the impacts of secrecy labeling practices within the federal government. The report, Controlled Unclassified Information: Recommendations for Information Control Reform, shines a light on how government withholds unclassified information from the American people and offers recommendations on how to balance the need to protect sensitive materials with the duty to disclose information to the public...The report walks the reader through some of the aspects of secrecy labeling and explains technical terms such as sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information and controlled unclassified information (CUI)."

  • Controlled Unclassified Information: Recommendations for Information Control Reform, July 2009
  • July 05, 2009
    * EFF Demands Public Release of FBI Surveillance Rules

    News release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice [on June 24, 2009], demanding the public release of the surveillance guidelines that govern investigations of Americans by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI's Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines went into effect in December of 2008 and detail the Bureau's procedures and standards for implementing the Attorney General's Guidelines on approved surveillance strategies...The FBI's general counsel has acknowledged that "the expansion of techniques available [to the Bureau] has raised privacy and civil liberties concerns." Investigations can include the electronic collection of information from online sources and computer databases, as well as the use of grand jury subpoenas to obtain telephone and email subscriber information. Other recent policy changes allow the FBI to engage in free-ranging investigation of Internet sites, libraries, and religious institutions." [Darlene Fichter]

    June 23, 2009
    * ACLU: CIA Delays Release Of Inspector General Report On Torture

    News release: "The CIA informed the American Civil Liberties Union that it would delay by one week its release of a reprocessed version of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report on the CIA's interrogation and detention program [The heavily redacted version of the report released last year is available here.] The CIA turned over a heavily redacted version of the report in May 2008 as part of an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, but on May 28, 2009, informed the court that it would review the same report with a view toward disclosing more information.In a letter to the ACLU, the government said it "will need additional time to make a final determination as to what additional information, if any, may be disclosed from the report."

    June 17, 2009
    * Newly-declassified Report for 9/11 Commission Focused on Agency Info Sharing

    Secrecy News: "The rise of “the wall” between intelligence and law enforcement personnel that impeded the sharing of information within the U.S. government prior to September 11, 2001 was critically examined in a detailed monograph (pdf) that was prepared in 2004 for the 9/11 Commission. It is the only one of four staff monographs that had not previously been released. It was finally declassified and disclosed earlier this month. In April 2004, Attorney General John Ashcroft testified (pdf) that the failure to properly share threat information in the summer of 2001 could be attributed to Justice Department policy memoranda that were issued in 1995 by the Clinton Administration. That is an erroneous oversimplification, the staff monograph contends: “A review of the facts… demonstrates that the Attorney General’s testimony did not fairly and accurately reflect” the meaning or relevance of those 1995 policy documents. For one thing, those policies did not even apply to CIA and NSA information, which could have been shared with law enforcement without any procedural obstacles."

  • “The information sharing failures in the summer of 2001 were not the result of legal barriers but of the failure of individuals to understand that the barriers did not apply to the facts at hand,” the 35-page monograph concludes. “Simply put, there was no legal reason why the information could not have been shared.”
  • June 14, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: The Detainee Photo Issue - Is it What it Seems?

    New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: The Detainee Photo Issue - Is it What it Seems? - Scott A. Hodes comments on the Obama administrations' decision to continue to fight the release of detainee photos.

    June 13, 2009
    * ACLU Seeks Records About Laptop Searches At The Border

    News release: "United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) policy permits officials to search the laptops and other electronic devices of travelers without suspicion of wrongdoing, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed the FOIA request with CBP, a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to learn how CBP's suspicionless search policy, first made public in July 2008, is impacting the constitutional rights of international travelers."

    June 11, 2009
    * National Archives Appoints Director of the Office of Government Information Services

    News release: "Acting Archivist of the United States Adrienne Thomas announced today the appointment of Miriam Nisbet as the director of the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) within the National Archives and Records Administration. OGIS, an organization newly established under the OPEN Government Act of 2007, will provide policy guidance and mediation services for FOIA activities government-wide."

    June 07, 2009
    * New Declassification Releases by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel

    News releases, National Security Archive [includes links to full text of referenced documents]: "Now that President Obama has announced a review of U.S. secrecy policy, critics of secrecy policy and declassification requesters alike can only hope that those who carry it out understand the serious failings of the secrecy system as it currently exists. One of the absurdities of the system is that historical national security information, even information 60 years old, is subject to standards that are nearly as tough as those applied to recently-produced information. A group of documents recently declassified by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel and a CIA history that ISCAP could not release illustrate the problems raised by current standards, overly strict interpretations of those standards, and legal obstacles blocking the declassification of historical intelligence information...Recently, in response to appeals from the National Security Archive, ISCAP reversed several Central Intelligence Agency initial denials of documents from the 1960s and 1970s. While ISCAP withheld material it regards as sensitive secrets, it nevertheless found that much of the information denied by the CIA could be declassified without harm to national security."

    May 19, 2009
    * D.C. Circuit Holds Office of Administration Is Not An Agency, Not Subject to FOIA

    Follow up to previous postings on missing White House emails during Bush administrations, today's news release: "Today, in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) v. Office of Administration, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion upholding the district court's conclusion that the Office of Administration (OA) is not an agency and therefore is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). CREW brought this lawsuit under the FOIA to uncover documents related to OA's response to the discovery that millions of emails had gone missing from White House servers. Although OA had a history of responding to FOIA requests – in fact the office’s own website included regulations for filing FOIA requests with OA – after CREW sued OA suddenly claimed it was not an agency and was not required to produce any of the requested documents. The district court sided with the Bush administration, finding that OA was not an agency because it performed only administrative support functions and did not exercise substantial independent authority. In today's ruling, the D.C. Circuit agreed with that decision."

    May 18, 2009
    * 2009 Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act - Procedure for Ordering Copies

    News release: "The Office of Information Policy is planning to publish the 2009 edition of the Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act through the Government Printing Office (GPO) in June. The 2009 Guide will contain detailed discussions of the FOIA’s exemptions, as well as its procedural requirements, and FOIA litigation considerations. The 2009 Guide will also discuss proactive disclosures, FOIA fees and fee waivers, exclusions, discretionary disclosures and waiver, FOIA attorney fees, and reverse FOIA cases...The Office of Information Policy will send one courtesy copy of the Guide to the Chief FOIA Officer and principal FOIA contact at each agency."

    May 17, 2009
    * Groups Request White House Office of Administration Be Subject to Freedom of Information Act

    News release: "Citizens for Responsibility of Ethics in Washington (CREW), along with 36 other organizations, has sent a letter to the White House urging that the White House's Office of Administration (OA) once again become an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as had been the case in previous administrations."

    May 07, 2009
    * The President’s 2010 Budget

    White House news release: "The President’s 2010 Budget seeks to usher in a new era of responsibility – an era in which we not only do what we must to save and create new jobs and lift our economy out of recession, but in which we also lay a new foundation for long-term growth and prosperity. Making long overdue investments and reforms in education so that every child can compete in the global economy, undertaking health care reform so that we can control costs while boosting coverage and quality, and investing in renewable sources of energy so that we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil – these all are key pillars of this new foundation. Another is fiscal discipline. We cannot put our nation on a course for long-term growth with uncontrollable deficits and debt, and we no longer can afford to tolerate investments in programs that are outdated, duplicative, ineffective, or wasteful. That’s why the Budget includes a separate volume, Terminations, Reductions, and Savings. In this volume, the Administration identifies 121 terminations, reductions, or other areas of savings which will save nearly $17 billion next year alone. About half of the savings for next fiscal year are from defense programs, and half are from non-defense programs. This volume is a progress report on the President’s effort to have his Administration go through the budget line by line to identify which programs work and which do not."
    The President’s Budget

    April 21, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com - FOIA Facts: DOJ AG Issues New Guidelines Establishing a System for Improving Transparency

    FOIA Facts: DOJ AG Issues New Guidelines Establishing a System for Improving Transparency: Scott A. Hodes highlights the areas of this new DOJ guidance that are of the most interest to the FOIA community.

    April 19, 2009
    * President Obama's FOIA Memorandum and Attorney General Holder's FOIA Guidelines

    DOJ Office of Information Policy FOIA Post - Creating a New Era of Open Government: "On his first full day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of all departments and agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The President directed that FOIA "should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails."...The President directed the Attorney General to issue FOIA Guidelines for the heads of executive departments and agencies "reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency." On March 19, 2009, during Sunshine Week, Attorney General Eric Holder issued those Guidelines. The Attorney General highlighted that the FOIA "reflects our nation’s fundamental commitment to open government" and that his Guidelines are "meant to underscore that commitment and to ensure that it is realized in practice."...The FOIA Guidelines stress that the FOIA is to be administered with the presumption of openness called for by the President. This presumption means that information should not be withheld "simply because [an agency] may do so legally." Moreover, the Attorney General has directed that whenever full disclosure of a record is not possible, agencies "must consider whether [they] can make partial disclosure." The Attorney General also "strongly encourage[s] agencies to make discretionary disclosures of information."

    April 15, 2009
    * Sunshine in Government Initiative Report on FOIA Backlogs

    "Despite reforms enacted by Congress and an order from the last administration to do a better job, federal agencies continue to give those seeking information a frustrating and oftentimes unsatisfying experience, an analysis of federal agency FOIA reports shows. Backlogs persist despite fewer FOIA requests, agencies continue to miss the statutory response deadline in a majority of cases, and agencies said they rejected a highest percentage of requests since performance reporting began, according a quantitative review by the Sunshine in Government Initiative of federal agency FOIA reports."

  • Fewer Requests, Fewer Responses, More Denials - An analysis of federal agencies performance in responding to Freedom of Information Act requests in 2008, April 2009. This report was prepared by Pete Weitzel for the Sunshine in Government Initiative.
  • Download the charts
  • See also FOIA Facts on LLRX.com by Scott A. Hodes
  • April 14, 2009
    * EPIC Demands Disclosure of Documents Detailing "Virtual Strip Search" Airport Scanners

    "Today, EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding disclosure of records detailing airport scanners that take naked pictures of American travelers. Security experts describe the "whole body imaging" scanners as virtual strip searches. The Transportation Security Administration plans to make the scans mandatory at all airport security checkpoints, despite prior assurances that whole body imaging would be optional. EPIC's request seeks documents concerning the agency's ability to store and transmit detailed images of naked U.S. citizens. For more information, see EPIC's Whole Body Imaging page and EPIC's FOIA Litigation Manual."

    April 07, 2009
    * Fujimori Found Guilty of Human Rights Crimes

    News release (includes links to declassified documents): "As a special tribunal in Peru pronounced former president Alberto Fujimori guilty of human rights atrocities, the National Security Archive today posted key declassified U.S. documents that were submitted as evidence in the court proceedings. The declassified records contain intelligence gathered by U.S. officials from Peruvian sources on the secret creation of “assassination teams” as part of Fujimori’s counterterrorism operations, the role of the Peruvian security forces in human rights atrocities and Fujimori’s participation in protecting the military from investigation."

    March 25, 2009
    * CIA Releases 25-Year Program Archive Search

    "The automatic declassification provisions of Executive Order 12958, as amended, require the declassification of nonexempt historically-valuable records 25 years old or older. By 31 December 2006 all agencies were to have completed the review of all hardcopy documents determined to be historically valuable (designated as "permanent" by the agency and the National Archives) and exclusively containing their equities. As the deadline pertains to CIA, it covers the span of relevant documents originally dating from the establishment of the CIA after WWII through 1981.

    CIA has deployed an electronic full-text searchable system it has named CREST (the CIA Records Search Tool), which has been operational since 2000 and is located at NARA II in College Park Maryland. On this Agency site, researchers can now use an on-line CREST Finding Aid to research the availability of CIA documents declassified and loaded onto CREST through 2008. Data for the remaining years up to the present (CREST deliveries have been ongoing) will be placed on this site at later dates.

    Search the CREST web database here. Note: it does not contain actual images of the documents as the regular Electronic Reading Room search does. Rather, it contains details on the files to speed FOIA requests.

    March 23, 2009
    * EFF Launches Search Tool for Uncovered Government Documents

    News release: "In celebration of Sunshine Week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today launched a sophisticated search tool that allows the public to closely examine thousands of pages of documents the organization has pried loose from secretive government agencies. The documents relate to a wide range of cutting-edge technology issues and government policies that affect civil liberties and personal privacy.

    EFF's document collection -- obtained through requests and litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) -- casts light on several controversial government initiatives, including the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse and DCS 3000 surveillance program, and the Department of Homeland Security's Automated Targeting System and ADVISE data-mining project. The documents also provide details on Justice Department collection of communications routing data, Pentagon monitoring of soldiers' blogs, mismatches in the Terrorist Screening Center's watchlist, and FBI misuse of its national security letter subpoena authority.

    The new search capability enables visitors to EFF's website to conduct keyword searches across the universe of government documents obtained by EFF, maximizing the value of the material."

    March 21, 2009
    * Columbia Journalism Review: FOIA’s Hidden Exemptions

    Follow up to March 19, 2009 - New Attorney General Guidelines on FOIA Released - CJR: "In a bit of Congressional commemoration, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Cornyn, his Texan Republican colleague, have introduced S. 612, new legislation that would require any new b(3) exemptions to specifically reference the Freedom of Information Act, so that these exemptions would be easier to spot. The senators have frequently collaborated on legislation designed to improve FOIA, and this is the third consecutive Sunshine Week in which Cornyn and Leahy have introduced this legislation. In 2007, it passed the Senate unanimously...Because the law only applies to future b(3) exemptions that Congress might write, it does nothing to address those already in the US Code. Like Title 7, Chapter 77, Sec 4608, Subsection G, Paragraph 1, which protects certain information about honeybee handlers, or Title 7, Chapter 80, Section 4908, Subsection c, which does something similar for watermelon producers and handlers submitting information quantifying the size of their business in order to participate in the National Watermelon Promotion Board."

    * Sunshine Week 2009 Survey Of State Government Information Online

    Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Govt. Info. Online, Published: March 14, 2009, Last Updated: March 18, 2009

  • "The Sunshine Week 2009 Survey of State Government Information online found that while more and more government records are being posted online, some of the most important information is being left offline. And in some cases governments are charging taxpayers to access records that they already paid for, such as death certificates...The information least likely to be found online were death certificates, found on the Web sites of only five states, and gas pump overcharge records, available online in eight. Also infrequently posted online were schools' building inspections and/or safety ratings, which are posted by only nine states, and school bus inspection reports, which only 13 states posted online. Information most frequently found online were statewide school test scores and DOT projects/contracts, online in 50 and 48 states, respectively. Close behind was campaign data, reported in 47 of the 50 states; disciplinary actions against medical physicians, 47 states; and financial audits, 44 states."
  • Download a PDF showing information categories viewable online by region.
  • March 20, 2009
    * New GAO Reports: FOIA, Seafood Fraud
    • Freedom of Information Act: DHS Has Taken Steps to Enhance Its Program, but Opportunities Exist to Improve Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness, GAO-09-260, March 20, 2009: "DHS has taken steps to enhance its FOIA program. DHS developed an improvement plan that focused on eliminating its backlog of overdue requests, implementing enhanced training requirements, and deploying more advanced technology. Further, the DHS Privacy Office has initiated actions to ensure policy compliance and provide oversight of FOIA operations throughout the department's component agencies, including developing a department wide handbook, monitoring monthly data processing statistics, and instituting relevant training for employees. As a result, DHS has reported reducing its backlog by about 24 percent since implementing its plan. However, opportunities exist for DHS to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of FOIA processing across the department."
    • Seafood Fraud: FDA Program Changes and Better Collaboration among Key Federal Agencies Could Improve Detection and Prevention, GAO-09-258, February 19, 2009: "In 2007, Americans consumed almost 5 billion pounds of seafood. Most seafood buyers, at many levels--importers, distributors, supermarkets, restaurants, and individual consumers--assume that the seafood they buy is what the seller claims it is. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes seafood products are mislabeled for financial gain--an activity called seafood fraud."
    March 19, 2009
    * New Attorney General Guidelines on FOIA Released

    National Security Archive: "Attorney General Eric Holder today released new guidelines for federal agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that reinforce the presumption of disclosure articulated by President Obama in his day one Memorandum on FOIA, issued January 21, 2009. Attorney General Holder’s memorandum provides practical guidance for implementing the presumption of disclosure, including by encouraging discretionary releases of records and releasing portions of records even when other portions are being withheld. It states that the Department of Justice will only defend withholdings in court when there is a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm to an interest protected by one of the FOIA exemptions or the law requires the information to be withheld. It states that this policy will be applied to pending litigation “if practicable” and “where there is a substantial likelihood that application of the guidance would result in a material disclosure of additional information.”

    March 17, 2009
    * DOJ Posts Summaries of New FOIA Decisions
    March 16, 2009
    * TRAC Challenges Government Privacy Claim

    News release: "The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) today asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to reverse its decision withholding government organizational information on the grounds that the release would violate the privacy of individual employees. TRAC's appeal to OPM concerned a February 23 ruling by Gary A. Lukowski, the manager of OPM's Workforce Information and Planning Group, that contended the release of the requested information about how an agency is organized into units and subunits "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." In its appeal, TRAC said it was impossible for the requested structural information to invade personal privacy because "these records contain no information about any individual." TRAC also noted that the OPM action directly contradicted President Obama's January 21 Transparency and Open Government memorandum pledging his administration to "an unprecedented level of openness."

    March 12, 2009
    * 2009 Rosemary Award for Worst FOIA Performance Goes to FBI

    News release: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today won the fifth annual Rosemary Award for the worst Freedom of Information Act performance by a federal agency. The FBI’s reports to Congress show that the Bureau is unable to find any records in response to two-thirds of its incoming FOIA requests on average over the past four years, when the other major government agencies averaged only a 13% “no records” response to public requests...During fiscal year 2008, the FBI gave “no records” responses to 57% of the requests it processed, more than any other major agency. The Bureau only provided documents (most redacted) in less than 14% of cases—the lowest percentage of requests granted among the major agencies in the federal government. In 2007, the FBI responded with “no records” in 70% of its FOIA requests. In 2006, “no records” peaked at 74%; and in 2005, at 66%—the four-year average."

    March 02, 2009
    * CIA Documents to Court Destruction of 92 Interrogation Tapes

    News release: "According to a letter filed by the government in court today, the CIA acknowledged it destroyed 92 tapes of interrogations. The admission comes in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit seeking records of the treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad. In December 2007, the ACLU filed a motion to hold the CIA in contempt for its destruction of videotapes recording the harsh interrogation of prisoners in violation of a court order requiring the agency to produce or identify all the requested records. That motion is still pending."

  • Letter to Judge Hellerstein Acknowledging Destroyed CIA Interrogation Tapes
  • ACLU's contempt motion and related legal documents
  • Related postings on Guantanamo
  • February 26, 2009
    * Obama Administration Lifts Blanket Ban on Media Coverage of the Return of Fallen Soldiers

    National Security Archive: "Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates lifted a blanket ban on news media coverage of the honor guard ceremonies that mark the return of military casualties from abroad. The new policy will permit media coverage of the ceremonies, during which caskets draped with American flags are brought home from war, after consultation with the families of the fallen. The Obama administration’s move restores press access to the honor ceremonies, which had been the practice from World War II through the Panama invasion of 1989. During the lead-up to the Gulf War in 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney instituted the ban. The news media lost a first amendment challenge to the ban, but Professor Ralph Begleiter and the National Security Archive forced the release of hundreds of images taken by military photographers under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 2005."

  • News release: Defense Department to Allow Photographs of Caskets With Family’s Permission
  • February 22, 2009
    * Bloomberg FOIA Request For Fed Documents on Bailout

    Via Michael Ravnitzky: "Bloomberg News asked the Federal Reserve Board to disclose the securities that the central bank is accepting from banks on behalf of taxpayers as collateral for $1.5 trillion in loans to the banks, according to a November 2008 Bloomberg news report by Mark Pittman. Bloomberg News [subsequently] sued the Federal Reserve to [obtain] the documents. The Bloomberg lawsuit is Bloomberg LP v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 08-CV-9595, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan)...The Government Attic website has posted documents from the Federal Reserve relating to a request by Bloomberg News for information on collateral put up for bank bailouts. The relevant material is a few pages into the document posted here titled: Contents of the administrative tracking/processing file for each FOIA request and FOIA Appeal received at the Federal Reserve Board from Bloomberg News Service during calendar years 2007 and 2008 - [21-February 2008].

  • Excerpt from the Fed's response: "While the Board strongly supports transparency (as evidenced, in part, by its publication of extensive information on discount window and emergency operations of the Federal Reserve Banks), the Board also has a legal obligation under the FOIA to consider the significant adverse consequences that release of responsive information would have on the effectiveness of Federal Reserve Bank lending activity in addressing liquidity strains of financial markets and institutions and the potential adverse effects on the economy now and in the future. The Board also has to be and is mindful of the commercial and financial interests of borrowers, the institutions whose collateral secures the borrowings, and the financial integrity of the Federal Reserve Banks."
  • Related postings on financial system
  • * Declassified Oral History Interviews Posted by National Security Agency

    "The National Security Agency (NSA) has recently declassified and posted lengthy, formerly Top Secret oral history interviews with four of its most prominent personnel: Arthur J. Levenson, Dr. Solomon Kullback, Oliver R. Kirby, and Benson K. Buffham." [The Memory Hole]

  • Note: "the NSA The National Security Agency/Central Security Service launched its newly redesigned public web site - www.nsa.gov. Visitors to the site, "NSA/CSS - Defending our Nation. Securing the Future" will discover many new features including:
    • A video overview of the NSA/CSS mission, a virtual tour of the National Cryptologic Museum and an NSA/CSS photo gallery;
    • "Latest News" showcasing NSA/CSS-generated press releases and features of interest as well as media coverage of NSA initiatives;
    • A "Doing Business with NSA" section to guide businesses through the contracting process;
    • An area dedicated to NSA's commitments - to the country, the community, and the environment; and,
    • A video message from LTG Keith B. Alexander, Director, National Security Agency / Chief, Central Security Service.
  • February 21, 2009
    * District Court Judge Directs Treasury to Comply With Fox Document Request

    "FOX Business Network has won a victory against the Treasury Department in its Freedom of Information Act request for details about the government’s bailout plan. Judge Richard J. Holwell of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said in a decision Friday that the government is directed to comply with FOX Business’s request under the FOIA “within 30 days and to produce a Vaughn index with 45 days.”

    February 08, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: President Obama's FOIA Memorandum and When Change Will Actually Occur

    FOIA Facts: President Obama’s FOIA Memorandum and When Change Will Actually Occur - Scott A. Hodes notes the Obama administration's immediate focus on FOIA, but reminds us that changing the ship of government requires numerous steps and constant vigilance to ensure change remains consistent and constant.

    February 07, 2009
    * CIA Posts Freedom of Information Act Annual Report for 2008

    Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Annual Report
    Fiscal Year 2008

  • Via The Memory Hole: "The agency processed 1,698 requests during the year. (703 requests had been pending at the start of the year, and 1,935 were received during the year. Thus, 940 were left pending at the end of the year). Of those 1,698 processed requests, documents were released in full 237 times. They were denied in full due to FOIA exemptions 388 times. A partial release was granted 532 times. The remaining 541 were full denials for various reasons other than the FOIA exemptions, such as “no records” or “improper FOIA request.”
  • January 21, 2009
    * Report: Military Recruitment 2008 - Significant Gap in Army's Quality and Quantity Goals

    "A new National Priorities Project (NPP) analysis highlights a significant gap in the Army's 2008 quantity and quality goals...This analysis is based on data obtained from the Department of Defense (Army Recruiting Command) through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the National Priorities Project. The Department of Defense provided the data for every non-prior service, active-duty Army accession by ZIP Code with race, ethnicity, gender, birth date, citizenship, educational attainment and score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) for Fiscal Year 2008. Demographic data used in the study were purchased from Claritas, a leading marketing and demographic data company. Population estimates from the Census Bureau were also used. To access the data by state, county, or zip code, go to the NPP Database."

    * President Obama Reestablishes Openness for Government Documents

    News release: "On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order and two presidential memoranda heralding what he called a "new era of openness." Announcing a Presidential Memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act to reestablish a presumption of disclosure for information requested under FOIA, President Obama said that "every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known."

    President Obama also issued an executive order reversing changes made by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Records Act (PRA), stating he would hold himself and his own records "to a new standard of openness." The PRA order permits only the incumbent president (and not former presidents' heirs or designees or former vice presidents) to assert constitutional privileges to withhold information, and would provide for review by the Attorney General and the White House Counsel before a president could claim privilege over his or her records.

    Finally, President Obama also today issued a Presidential Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government which recognizes that "[o]penness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government." It directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Chief Technology Officer, and the Administrator of the General Services Administration to develop an Open Government Directive within 120 days to implement the memo."

  • January 26, 2009 Federal Register: Memorandum of January 21, 2009 of Freedom of Information Act Memorandum of January 21, 2009 and — Transparency and Open Government
  • January 19, 2009
    * DOJ Posts Annual FOIA Report

    U.S. Department of Justice Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2008: Backlogs of FOIA Requests and Administrative Appeals as of end of fiscal years - 4364.

    January 13, 2009
    * POGO Releases Previously Unavailable Government Report Detailing Recommendations to Reduce Procurement Fraud

    News release: "The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is publicly releasing for the first time the final version of a white paper created by the National Procurement Fraud Task Force Legislation Committee recommending ways to reduce procurement fraud. The June 9, 2008, white paper titled "Procurement Fraud: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Proposals," consists of recommendations that would "significantly aid the Federal Government in preventing, detecting and prosecuting procurement fraud," according to its authors. The Legislation Committee co-chairs are Brian Miller, Inspector General for the General Services Administration, and Richard Skinner, Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security. The draft white paper was originally dated July 9, 2007, but it went through an intense year-long vetting process."

    January 12, 2009
    * New on LLRX.com: New FOIA Provisions Take Effect

    FOIA Facts: New FOIA Provisions Take Effect - Scott A. Hodes discusses two sections (Section 6 and 7) of the OPEN Government Act of 2007 that just went into effect, and the problems that will be encountered by requesters trying to use them to their advantage.

    January 10, 2009
    * Public Interest Project Investigating Death of Daniel Pearl Files FOIA Lawsuit

    The Georgetown Hoya: "A Georgetown group investigating the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has recently filed suit against several government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency, to obtain documents relating to Pearl’s death. The approximately 30 students and former student members of the Pearl Project have spent over a year trying to determine who killed Pearl in Pakistan in 2002...As part of the investigation, the Pearl Project filed Freedom of Information Act requests with eight federal agencies, requesting documents pertaining to the case and to key suspects. However, all eight agencies have, according to the lawsuit, refused to grant access to the documents for a variety of reasons."

    January 06, 2009
    * House and Senate Appropriations Committees Announce New Earmark Reforms

    News release: "Rep. Dave Obey (D-WI), Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), incoming Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced three significant changes to further increase transparency and reduce funding levels for earmarks, building on reforms brought about in the last Congress...new reforms to begin with the 2010 bills include:

    • Posting Requests Online: To offer more opportunity for public scrutiny of member requests, members will be required to post information on their earmark requests on their Web sites at the time the request is made explaining the purpose of the earmark and why it is a valuable use of taxpayer funds.
    • Early Public Disclosure: To increase public scrutiny of committee decisions, earmark disclosure tables will be made publically available the same day as the House or Senate Subcommittee rather than Full Committee reports their bill or 24
      hours before Full Committee consideration of appropriations legislation that has not been marked up by a Senate Subcommittee.
    • Further Cuts: Earmarks will be further reduced to 50% of the 2006 level for non-project-based accounts." [Note: "President-elect Barack Obama said today in a meeting with members of his budget team that he will ban earmarks from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that will soon go before Congress. The President-elect also said he expects his administration to inherit a budget deficit of up to $1 trillion."]

    January 04, 2009
    * New York Times Editorial - Bush Legacy of Secrecy and Consequences

    Editorial - Exit Stonewalling: "...E-mail messages that have gone suspiciously missing are estimated to number in the millions. These could illuminate some of the administration’s darker moments, including the lead-up to the Iraq war, when intelligence was distorted, the destruction of videotapes of C.I.A. torture interrogations, and the vindictive outing of the C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame Wilson. The deep-sixed history also includes improper business conducted by more than 50 White House appointees via e-mail at the Republican Party headquarters. Historians and archivists are suing the administration. We should be grateful for their efforts. Entire days of e-mail records have turned up conveniently blank at the offices of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney."

    December 09, 2008
    * Committee Releases Staff Report on Findings of FCC Investigation

    News release: "Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, today released a Committee on Energy and Commerce Majority Staff report detailing the findings of the Committee’s bipartisan investigation relating to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)...The report, titled Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission Under Chairman Kevin J. Martin, is the culmination of a bipartisan investigation into the FCC’s regulatory processes and management practices that was formally launched on January 8, 2008."

    December 08, 2008
    * SEC, MSRB: New Measures to Provide More Transparency Than Ever Before for Municipal Bond Investors

    News release: "The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that it has unanimously approved measures that will shine more light than ever before on the municipal securities market by tapping the power of the Internet. For the first time, investors will have a free, one-stop way to find municipal bond information online to help them make investment decisions...The rule amendments approved by the SEC designate the MSRB as the central repository for ongoing disclosures by municipal issuers. Under a separate MSRB rule change, its Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) system would make these disclosures available to investors in the same manner that the SEC’s EDGAR system does for corporate disclosures...EMMA will operate as a consolidated, online portal where investors can instantly access, for free, all of the key information produced by municipal bond issuers about their bonds. Offering documents, real-time trade prices, and education resources already are available on EMMA."

    December 07, 2008
    * Public Citizen Launches Public Interest FOIA Clinic

    "Public Citizen launched the Public Interest FOIA Clinic, an online resource that will help nonprofit organizations obtain federal government documents. The FOIA Clinic will help ensure that agencies live up to a high standard for openness and accountability set by the Freedom of Information Act and that public interest organizations can receive the information they need to further their work. Through the Public Interest FOIA Clinic, the Public Citizen Litigation Group - a division of Public Citizen - will provide a range of direct litigation assistance to public interest organizations, from initial advice about requesting documents to pro bono representation in litigating the denial of a request. Litigation assistance is particularly essential to the many public interest organizations that have substantive expertise in their field but lack substantial FOIA litigation experience."

    December 06, 2008
    * Obama Transition Project Staff Announces Transparency Policy

    “Seat at the Table” Transparency Policy: "As an extension of the unprecedented ethics guidelines already in place for the Obama-Biden Transition Project, we take another significant step towards transparency of our efforts for the American people. Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the Transition and the Administration, both orally and in writing. We want to ensure that we give the American people a “seat at the table” and that we receive the benefit of their feedback. Accordingly, any documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be posted on our website for people to review and comment on. In addition to presenting ideas as individuals at www.change.gov, the American people deserve a “seat at the table” as we receive input from organizations and make decisions. In the interest of protecting the personal privacy of individuals, this policy does not apply to personnel matters and hiring recommendations."

    November 30, 2008
    * Article Evaluates Censorship of YouTube Around the World

    Google's gatekeepers, by Jeffrey Rosen, IHT: "For the past two years, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, along with other international Internet companies, have been meeting regularly with human rights and civil-liberties advocacy groups to agree on voluntary standards for resisting worldwide censorship requests. At the end of October, the Internet companies and the advocacy groups announced the Global Network Initiative, a series of principles for protecting global free expression and privacy.

    Voluntary self-regulation means that, for the foreseeable future, Wong [Nicole Wong, the deputy general counsel of Google] and her colleagues will continue to exercise extraordinary power over global speech online. Which raises a perennial but increasingly urgent question: Can we trust a corporation to be good - even a corporation whose informal motto is "Don't be evil"?"

    November 28, 2008
    November 19, 2008
    * 2007 Privacy Act Issuances

    "The Privacy Act Issuances contain descriptions of Federal agency systems of records maintained on individuals and rules agencies follow to assist individuals who request information about their records. The two sources of Privacy Act Notices are: the Privacy Act Issuances (Compilations 1995-Forward) and the Federal Register which has updates to the most recent Compilation."

  • Browse the Current Edition - 2007 Privacy Act Issuances
  • November 18, 2008
    November 16, 2008
    * New on LLRX - FOIA Facts: Sources for FOIA Training

    FOIA Facts: Sources for FOIA Training - Scott A. Hodes comments on the limited availability of training in this critical area, and identifies providers in the private and public sectors.

    November 13, 2008
    * Groups Make Recommendations for Presidental Transition and Beyond

    OMB Watch: "...more than 240 individuals and organizations [Participants included good government groups, professional associations, traditional reporters, bloggers, unions, representatives of the philanthropic community, technology experts, and members of academia. In an unprecedented manner, the project brought together conservatives, libertarians, and progressives. These recommendations are a demonstration that government transparency is neither a left nor a right issue. It's an American issue] called on President-elect Barack Obama and the 111th Congress to act on a series of government openness recommendations. The recommendations are included in a report from the 21st Century Right to Know Project, titled Moving Toward a 21st Century Right-to-Know Agenda: Recommendations to President-elect Obama and Congress.

    Seventy recommendations urge the new president and the incoming Congress to act quickly on a number of key government openness issues while encouraging a more systemic, longer-term approach to a variety of other transparency problems that plague the federal government. Recommendations needing urgent attention are grouped into a "First 100 Days" chapter. Others are sorted into three additional chapters: National Security and Secrecy; Usability of Information; and Creating a Government Environment for Transparency."

    November 12, 2008
    * Coalition Calls for Obama Administration to Restore Government Transparency

    News release: "The Obama administration can act quickly after taking office in January to reverse the secrecy trend of the last eight years and restore openness in the executive branch, according to a set of new proposals posted online today by the National Security Archive. More than 60 organizations joined the recommendations, which call on President-elect Obama to restore efficiency and openness to the Freedom of Information Act process, reform the classification system to reduce overclassification and facilitate greater declassification, and ensure that presidential records are handled in accordance with the law and Congress’ intent."

    November 08, 2008
    * Organizations Urge Next President to Move Swiftly on Science Adviser and Science-Related Issues

    "Nearly 180 organizations representing the business, education and scientific communities have urged the next president to appoint a White House science adviser by January 20—Inauguration Day—and give the adviser cabinet rank."

  • "Dear Senator Obama: The next President of the United States will face a wide range of domestic and international challenges, from financial and regulatory reform to healthcare and rising energy costs, from global climate change to ensuring U.S. economic competitiveness and national security. These challenges share one thing in common: long-term solutions that will be impossible without groundbreaking scientific and technological advances. It is therefore critical that the next President seek out and rely upon sound scientific and technological advice early and often in the new Administration. Your responses to the Science Debate 2008 questions reflect your acknowledgment of the important role that science will play in a new Administration. With this in mind, it is essential to quickly appoint a science advisor who is a nationally respected leader with the appropriate scientific, management and policy skills necessary for this critically important role."
  • November 05, 2008
    * District Court Rules in Favor of Media Group in CIA FOIA Decision

    News release: "In a striking rebuke to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Judge Gladys Kessler of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia yesterday rejected the CIA's view that it - and not journalists - has the right to determine which Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are newsworthy. Reconsidering its earlier decision deferring to the CIA's written assurances that the agency would cease illegally denying the National Security Archive's news media status, the court ordered the CIA to treat the Archive as a representative of the news media for all of its pending and future non-commercial requests. Finding that the CIA "has twice made highly misleading representations to the Archive, as well as to [the] Court," the court explained that the CIA's position "is truly hard to take seriously" and enjoined the CIA from illegally denying the Archive's news media status."

    * Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO)

    ISOO Notices: "On September 30, 2008, the Director of the Information Security Oversight Office advised Federal agencies that ISOO would begin to issue ISOO Notices covering aspects of the classification, safeguarding, and declassification programs administered under Executive Order 12958, as amended and its implementing directive, 32 C.F.R. 2001. These ISOO Notices will seek to improve the classified national security information programs of Federal agencies by disseminating and providing consistent guidance to Federal agencies."

  • "On October 13, 1995, President Clinton signed an Order designating original classification authority to various Government officials. More information about original classification can be found in Executive Order 12958, as amended."
  • November 02, 2008
    * Court Orders Government to Submit Warrantless Surveillance Legal Opinions for Judicial Review

    "In EPIC v. DOJ, EPIC, the ACLU, and the National Security Archive are seeking government documents regarding the President's warrantless wiretapping program. Today, a federal court ordered the Department of Justice to provide for inspection copies of legal memos authored by government lawyers. The opinions, prepared by the Office of Legal Counsel, provided the legal basis for the President to wiretap US citizens in the United States without court approval. EPIC began the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in December 2005, after the New York Times first reported the details of the wiretap program. For more information, see EPIC's EPIC v. DOJ page. (Oct. 31)"

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • October 24, 2008
    * New DOJ FOIA Guidance Issued

    DOJ Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) Guidance: Segregating and Marking Documents for Release in Accordanc with The Open Government Act

  • "...it is important that agencies do not “white out” information when withholding it under the FOIA, as that can make it difficult for a requester to identify the amount of withheld material and its location within a document. Instead, agencies must mark documents in a way that makes it readily apparent to the requester where within a document information has been withheld. This can be accomplished by darkening, or “blacking out” the withheld portions of the documents, or by inserting brackets around them, or by outlining or “boxing” them, or any other method that ensures that a requester can easily discern where the redactions have been made. Further, each page containing redactions should be marked to show the amount of information being withheld and the exemption being asserted and, if technically feasible, those markings should be placed at the point in the record where the deletion occurs."
  • * George Bush Library - Processed Freedom of Information Act Requests

    Processed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requests - "The George Bush Library is in the process of updating and adding to the list of finding aids on this page" [which currently includes documents from 1998 to 2005].

    October 22, 2008
    * Sen. Leahy Issues Subpoena For Office of Legal Counsel Documents

    News release: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) issued a subpoena Tuesday compelling Attorney General Michael Mukasey to provide testimony and related documents to the Senate Judiciary Committee about legal analysis and advice from the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) related to the Bush administration’s terrorism policies, including detention and interrogation policies and practices."

    October 18, 2008
    * Public Interest Group Issues Report Card on Federal Agency Media Policies

    "The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) today issued a report card grading 15 federal agencies on their policies controlling communication between staff scientists and the news media and the public. The report found significant inconsistencies and confusion among agency media policies and their implementation. Some agency policies encourage free speech, but the agencies stifle communication. Other policies are weak, but in practice the agencies allow scientists to speak freely. And although overall many agency policies are deficient, UCS has seen some positive changes in recent years.

    October 12, 2008
    * IRS Finally Releases Audit Data to Non-profit Research Organization

    TRAC news release: "...the Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday turned over to TRAC thousands of pages of agency statistics on audits of all types, including individual, corporate, partnership and S corporation audits. A strongly worded June 13, 2008 ruling issued by Judge Marsha Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington mandated that the data requested under the Freedom of Information Act be turned over to TRAC, as specified in two court orders issued against the agency in 2006. However, rather than release the information as directed by the Court, the IRS instead filed a motion for a stay pending an appeal to the Ninth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals.

    In denying this motion for a stay, Judge Pechman wrote that "Defendant has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, and [...] enforcement of the Court's June 13, 2008 order will not cause irreparable harm to any party or increase the burden on the IRS and does not impact the public interest."

    Despite this ruling, and despite explicit instructions from the Court directing the IRS to immediately comply with the instructions set forth in the June 13, 2008 order, the IRS submitted a second motion for a stay. The denial of this second motion for a stay included the observation that the "Defendant has repeatedly defied this Court's orders" and instructed the IRS yet again to comply with the June 13, 2008 order.

    Scott L. Nelson, TRAC's lead attorney in this case, detailed in an October 6 letter to the Ninth Circuit why the Court should not expedite consideration of the IRS' appeal. The next day, the IRS abandoned its request for an expedited ruling, and turned over the requested data to TRAC. The IRS has not however withdrawn its motion for a stay."

  • IRS Tax Statistics - Corporation and Individual Income Tax Returns
  • October 11, 2008
    * CIA 25-Year Program Archive Search

    CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room: "The automatic declassification provisions of Executive Order 12958, as amended, require the declassification of nonexempt historically-valuable records 25 years old or older. By 31 December 2006 all agencies were to have completed the review of all hardcopy documents determined to be historically valuable (designated as "permanent" by the agency and the National Archives) and exclusively containing their equities. As the deadline pertains to CIA, it covers the span of relevant documents originally dating from the establishment of the CIA after WWII through 1981.

    CIA has deployed an electronic full-text searchable system it has named CREST (the CIA Records Search Tool), which has been operational since 2000 and is located at NARA II in College Park Maryland. On this Agency site, researchers can now use an on-line CREST Finding Aid to research the availability of CIA documents declassified and loaded onto CREST through 2002. Data for the remaining years up to the present (CREST deliveries have been ongoing) will be placed on this site at later dates.

    Search the CREST web database here. Note: it does not contain actual images of the documents as the regular Electronic Reading Room search does. Rather, it contains details on the files to speed FOIA requests."

    September 30, 2008
    * Over 16,000 Pages of FBI File on Martin Luther King Posted Online

    Internet Archive: "The FBI's entire main (Headquarters) file on Martin Luther King, Jr. All 121 parts - 16,600+ pages - posted online for the first time, by The Memory Hole. The 121 parts have been put into 12 zip files. To access them, click here."

    September 28, 2008
    * The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

    CNNMoney.com: "The federal government would provide as much as $700 billion in a far-reaching plan to rescue the nation's troubled financial system, according to a draft of the proposed bill obtained by CNN. The legislation is still being negotiated and elements of the bill could still change. The core of the bill is based on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's request for authority to purchase troubled assets from financial institutions so banks can resume lending and so the credit markets, now virtually frozen, can begin to operate more normally."

    September 16, 2008
    * Overview of all 88 FOIA Countries

    Overview of all 88 FOIA Countries (15 pages, PDF) by Roger Vleugels.

    September 13, 2008
    * Open Source Tobacco Wiki Research Project

    "Welcome to TobaccoWiki, the online research project to which anyone can contribute. We need your help to mine the millions of pages of previously-secret, internal tobacco industry documents now posted on the Internet. The purpose of Tobaccowiki is to make it easier to find information about tobacco industry behavior, and to reveal what has been learned about the industry through its documents. Like Wikipedia, the collaborative, online, free encyclopedia, Tobaccowiki is also a collaborative project. We need you to help us search through the tobacco industry documents now available online and enter information here about what you find. We welcome participation from everyone: students, journalists, smokers and non-smokers, food service workers, public health workers, tobacco control advocates, musicians, scientists, researchers and just plain curious folks. Everyone is invited to join in this project to facilitate access to information in the tobacco industry documents."

    September 09, 2008
    * National Security Archive and Historians Secure Long Secret Rosenberg Grand Jury Testimony

    News release: "More than 50 years after the historic but controversial execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were convicted of atomic espionage, the U.S. government this Thursday, September 11, is expected to make public long shrouded grand jury testimony from its prosecution of the Rosenbergs, which will be the subject of a press briefing on September 11, 2008.

    Several noted Cold War scholars will provide expert analysis of the newly public documents at the briefing, organized by the National Security Archive, the independent nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University, which successfully led a coalition of historians in demands that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) unseal Rosenberg trial grand-jury records. The Archive, along with the American Historical Association, the American Society for Legal History, the Organization of American Historians, the Society of American Archivists, and New York Times reporter Sam Roberts, filed a petition in January 2008 seeking the release of grand jury records from the 1951 indictment of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, arguing that public interest outweighed privacy and national security concerns."

    * Treatment of Agency Records Maintained For an Agency By a Government Contractor for Purposes of Records Management

    DOJ FOIA Post: "In light of Section 9 [Section 9 amends 5 U.S.C. § 552(f), the definitions provision of the FOIA, by including in the definition of “record” any information “maintained for an agency by an entity under Government contract, for the purposes of records management.” This provision makes clear that records, in the possession of Government contractors for purposes of records management, are considered agency records for purposes of the FOIA] of the OPEN Government Act, it is important for agencies to ensure that their searches for records in response to FOIA requests include any potentially responsive agency records that may be in the possession of an entity under contract with the agency for purposes of records management. Any agency employing such a government contractor to manage or store its records must institute appropriate procedures to allow it to search for and identify agency records that may be responsive to a FOIA request that are in the possession of that records management-contractor. Given that the clear intent of this provision is to clarify that the location of the agency records in the hands of the contractor for records management purposes does not remove the records from the scope of the FOIA, such records must be capable of being searched in response to FOIA requests. If responsive agency records are located in the possession of the records management-contractor, they should be forwarded to the appropriate FOIA office within the agency for processing. Such records must be identified and handled by the agency just as if they had been in the possession of the agency in the first instance."

  • Related FOIA Facts by Scott A. Hodes on LLRX.com
  • * OpenTheGovernment.org has published the 2008 Secrecy Report Card

    "OpenTheGovernment.org’s fifth annual report, Secrecy Report Card 2008, shows both a continued expansion of government secrecy across a broad array of agencies and actions and some movement toward more openness and accountability, particularly in the Congress. The public has a right to know what its government is doing to preserve health, safety, and the public weal. Information created by or for the federal government belongs to the American public and should be open (except in strictly limited and specified contexts)...The government spent $195 maintaining the secrets already on the books for every one dollar the government spent declassifying documents in 2007, a 5% increase in one year. At the same time, fewer pages were declassified than in 2006, even though the government spent the same amount of money on declassification. The intelligence agencies, which account for a large segment of the declassification numbers, are excluded from the total reported figures."

    September 02, 2008
    * Federal Judge Orders DOJ To Turn Over Memos Authorizing Torture Or Justify Withholding Them

    ACLU news release: "A federal judge [U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York] has ordered the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to turn over three memos that authorized the extremely harsh treatment of prisoners in CIA custody or explain by October 3 why these memos can lawfully be withheld. The American Civil Liberties Union called for the immediate release of the May 2005 OLC memos as part of its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit requesting information on the treatment and interrogation of detainees in U.S. custody overseas...In another development in the same case, the ACLU obtained Department of Defense (DOD) documents about the treatment of detainees in Iraq. The documents, from the military's Criminal Investigation Division, are from two investigations."

    August 24, 2008
    * Gannett News Service Survey of 9,000 Public Library Systems Nationwide

    "Gannett News Service compiled 2002 data from the National Center for Education Statistics on more than 9,000 public library systems nationwide. To make a five-year comparison, GNS also obtained 2006 data from each state and the District of Columbia that were not available from NCES.

    The federal government requires states to report library information in a number of categories. GNS focused on four key yardsticks: visits, circulation (number of items checked out), operating expenses and number of public computers with Internet access.

    "Each year, more than 1 billion people visit libraries to borrow books or videos, log onto the Internet or participate in various community programs." Link to databases and related resources on the right sidebar of this page

    August 17, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com: Expanding the FOIA

    FOIA Facts: Expanding the FOIA - Scott A. Hodes highlights the recent introduction of legislation that would eliminate the FOIA shield for the Smithsonian Institute, and the continued lack of transparency when dealing with other federal agencies.

    August 04, 2008
    * Global Internet Freedom Consortium Offers China-Based Reporters Software to Break Through Internet Blockade

    News release: "The Global Internet Freedom Consortium (GIFC) announced today that their anti-censorship software tools are ready to help journalists and tourists during the Olympics, to circumvent China's Internet blockade. The software, which is available free of charge, can be downloaded onto a hard drive or USB drive to safely and effectively overcome the Internet censorship in China.

    In the run-up to Olympics, Beijing tightened control over media and Internet. Overseas web sites that have keywords on Beijing's blacklist are blocked and cannot be visited from China without any "anti-censorship" tools. The decision to block access to these websites is in contravention to Beijing's earlier promises to grant unrestricted Internet access to foreign reporters during the Games, and will seriously impede reporters' ability to do their work in Beijing. Although web restrictions were relaxed to some degree on Friday, it is unclear how long these conditions will last.

    In order to overcome these Internet restrictions and gain free access to the Internet in China, the GIFC recommends that journalists and tourists download the free software packages by its partners. All Internet traffic through the tools is encrypted and can successfully bypass the Internet blockades in repressive nations around the world."

    August 02, 2008
    * NRC Solicits Public Input Into How It Can Increase Public Access to Security Information

    News release: "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking suggestions from the public on how it can increase its level of openness related to security at nuclear power plants and certain other facilities while still protecting sensitive information. A summary of the feedback will be posted on the NRC’s Web site, provided to the Commission and considered in the development of new openness policies.

    After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the Commission implemented a new policy of withholding certain information. Some information previously available to the public was withheld and new information, such as certain orders to NRC licensees on security measures, was designated as classified, safeguards information or sensitive unclassified information and withheld from the public.

    In 2007, the NRC began redacting and releasing many of the safety documents previously withheld, and the agency is interested in taking additional action regarding security-related inspection and license performance information. Under consideration are several approaches, including adding more detail to an annual report to Congress on security oversight and to the cover letters for security inspection reports, and by making more information available on the NRC Web site."

    Related postings on Disappearing Docs. From Gov't Websites

    July 27, 2008
    * Pentagon Posts Documents on Embedded Media

    Via The Memory Hole, "On a subpage of their Freedom of Info Act website, the Defense Department today has posted 127 pages of documents concerning embedded media. The file may be downloaded here: DOD FOIA Reading Room."

  • Related article from the New York Times, July 26, 2008 - 4,000 U.S. Deaths, and a Handful of Images [Please be advised that graphic and disturbing images are included.]: "If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers."
  • See also this April 28, 2005 posting, FOIA Requests Yield Photos of Return of Fallen Troops to US
  • July 21, 2008
    * TRAC Immigration Judge Reports — Asylum

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: "New reports on the nation's 200-plus immigration judges are now available. The reports, covering how the judges decided asylum matters in the FY 2002 to FY 2007 period, are based on tens of thousands of very detailed records obtained and analyzed by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act. The source was the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an agency within the Justice Department. The reports provide biographic information about the judges, breakdowns on the proportion
    of asylum matters they decline, and how their records compare with other judges in the base city and for the nation as a whole. Also available are data on the nationality of those requesting asylum and the percent who were represented by counsel."

    July 01, 2008
    * Committee Chairs Introduce Bill to Strengthen GAO

    "Chairman Henry A. Waxman and 18 other committee chairs introduced legislation to strengthen the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and restore GAO’s authority to pursue litigation if documents are improperly withheld from the agency. One key provision of the Government Accountability Office Improvement Act of 2008 (H.R. 6388) repudiates the district court decision in Walker v. Cheney and reaffirms GAO’s authority to go to court when agencies or the White House refuse to provide access to records. Other provisions of this bill give GAO authority to interview federal employees and administer oaths. The bill also affirms GAO’s right to obtain records from three agencies that have sometimes thwarted GAO oversight by denying access to documents: the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission."

    June 30, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com: 60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes, FOIA Facts, Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide
    • FOIA Facts: My Proposals for the FOIA: Following up on the passage earlier this year of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, FOIA expert Scott A. Hodes make two proposals absent from the law, but which would help FOIA requesters. — Published June 29, 2008
    • 60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes - Three techie gurus (Barbara Fullerton, Ed Vawter, and Dina Dreifuerst) take you on a whirlwind, freewheeling virtual trip of the latest, greatest, fun, fanciful, must have gadgets available now and in the near future. — Published June 24, 2008
    • Competitive Intelligence - A Selective Resource Guide - Sabrina I. Pacifici's revised and updated pathfinder focuses on leveraging selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web and database products, services and tools, as well links to reliable sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers. — Published June 1, 2008
    June 27, 2008
    * DOJ Issues Guidances on FOIA Backlogs and Reading Room Requirements
    • DOJ Office of Information and Privacy - Guidance on Preparing Backlog Reduction Plans (posted 06/27/2008): "This memorandum provides guidance for preparing Backlog Reduction Plans. All agencies with backlogs which have not made progress in reducing those backlogs over the last two years are required to prepare Backlog Reduction Plans by September 8, 2008. Each agency Chief FOIA Officer must, in turn, notify the Department of Justice and OMB by October 6, 2008, that he/she has approved their agency's Backlog Reduction Plan."
    • Guidance on Submitting Certification of Agency Compliance with FOIA's Reading Room Requirements (posted 06/27/2008): "This memorandum provides guidance for providing certification to the Department of Justice and OMB by October 31, 2008 that your agency's FOIA Reading Room is in compliance with the FOIA. All agency Chief FOIA Officers must provide this certification."
    June 26, 2008
    * Interior OIG Evaluation of Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Program Highly Redacted

    Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) posted the PDF version: [Y-RR-FWS-0007-2007] Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) — Progress Evaluation of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Endangered Species Program, that was released on June 25, 2008. This statement appears on the cover page, “Portions of this report have been redacted pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5) of the Freedom of Information Act.”

  • Also via PEER, this version of this report clearly shows the extensive redactions from the IG report on the Endangered Species Act
  • June 23, 2008
    * Committee Calls for Declassification of Information About U.S. Bases in Iraq

    "Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Waxman sent a letter today requesting that President Bush declassify provisions in the “Joint MNF-I/U.S. Embassy-Baghdad Campaign Plan” that refer to U.S. military bases in Iraq and the timeline for their existence, as well as a GAO report issued today regarding this Joint Campaign Plan."

    * Statewatch Analysis - Proposal on access to documents:Article-by-Article commentary

    Statewatch Analysis, June 2008 - Proposal on access to documents:
    Article-by-Article commentary
    , Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex

  • "The following Statewatch analysis looks at every provision of the access to documents Regulation which the Commission has proposed to amend, as well as several key provisions of that Regulation which the Commission has not proposed to amend. This analysis assesses whether each of the Commission’s proposals would in turn either reduce the current standards regarding access to documents, or simply
    maintain the status quo. The proposals which would reduce standards are highlighted. Unfortunately, there are no provisions of the Commission’s proposal which would improve the current standards."

  • June 19, 2008
    * Information Security Oversight Office Releases FY07 Annual Report to the President

    News release: "The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) has released its Report to the President for Fiscal Year 2007...The Report profiles data about the Government-wide security classification program during Fiscal Year 2007."

    June 17, 2008
    * TRAC Study: Surge in Immigration Prosecutions Continues

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse [TRAC] Report: "Federal immigration prosecutions in March 2008 continued their recent and highly unusual surge, apparently reaching an all-time high, according to timely data from the Justice Department. The total of 9,350 such prosecutions was up by almost 50% from the previous month and 73% from the previous year.

    The dramatic changes in the number of defendants charged with immigration-related charges are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United states Attorneys."

    * World Information Access 2008 Report

    "The World Information Access 2008 Report presents important trends in the distribution of information and communication technologies around the world. The 2008 WIA Report explores information access by looking at trends in the blogger arrests worldwide, diversity in the ownership of media assets in the 15 largest media markets in the Muslim world, and the ideological diversity of political content online in 74 countries with large Muslim populations." Howard, Philip N, and World Information Access Project. World Information Access Report - 2008. 3. Seattle: University of Washington, 2008.

  • Complete 2008 Briefing Booklet: "Unfortunately, one way to assess the political importance of blogging around the world is through the growing number of blogger arrests. Since 2003, 64 citizens unaffiliated with news organizations have been arrested for their blogging activities. The topics of these blog posts vary, as do the kind of criminal charges and punishments handed down. Altogether 940 months of jail time has been served by
    bloggers around the world. China, Egypt and Iran account for more than half of all the arrests since 2003."
  • June 16, 2008
    * Court Rules White House E-Mail Not Subject to FOIA

    Follow up - related postings on missing White House emails, today's news: News release: "Today, D.C. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an opinion in CREW v. Office of Administration, finding that the Office of Administration (OA) is not an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In May 2007, CREW sued OA for records regarding missing White House e-mail and the office’s assessment of the scope of the problem. After initially agreeing to provide records, OA changed course and claimed it was not an agency and, therefore, had no obligation to comply with the FOIA. OA made this claim despite the fact that even the White House’s own website described OA as an agency and included regulations for processing FOIA requests."

    * EPIC: Supreme Court Rejects Limits on FOIA Requests

    EPIC: In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court upheld the right of individuals to request documents under the Freedom of Information Act, even if similar documents were previously requested by others. The Court rejected the Federal Aviation Administration's contention that it may ignore requests if the agency previously received identical requests from different requesters. The Court also rejected the agency's "virtual representation" claim, that a FOIA requester can be "virtually represented" by a previous requester who sought similar records. The Court based its decision on America's "deep-rooted historic tradition that everyone should have his own day in court."

    June 10, 2008
    * AG's Report to President on Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information"

    Attorney General's Report to the President on Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information" (posted 06/10/2008)

  • "In the Executive Order, the President directed the head of each Executive Branch agency to designate a senior official (at the Assistant Secretary level or equivalent) to serve as that agency's Chief FOIA Officer. So as to ensure a citizen-centered approach to responding to FOIA requests, the Order also directed each agency to establish one or more FOIA Requester Service Centers and to designate one or more FOIA Public Liaisons. The Service Centers would "serve as the first place that a FOIA requester can contact to seek information concerning the status of the person's FOIA request and appropriate information about the agency's FOIA response." The Liaisons would "serve as supervisory officials to whom a FOIA requester can raise concerns about the service the FOIA requester has received from the Center." In addition, the Liaisons would "seek to ensure a service-oriented response to FOIA requests and FOIA-related inquiries," and would "assist, as appropriate, in reducing delays, increasing transparency and understanding of the status of requests, and resolving disputes."
  • May 25, 2008
    * The Diary of Anatoly S. Chernyaev: 1987-1988

    May 23, 2008: "...the National Security Archive publishes its third installment of the diary of one of the main supporters of Mikhail Gorbachev and strongest proponents of glasnost during the perestroika period in the Soviet Union — Anatoly Sergeevich Chernyaev. This section of the diary, covering two key years of history, is being published in English here for the first time.

    By 1987 Chernyaev has become a member of Gorbachev’s inner circle, a close adviser the General Secretary relies on for drafting his speeches, writing his book on perestroika, and often for baring his soul and sharing doubts and concerns about the speed and the direction that the reform is taking. Even though Chernyaev’s position focuses his responsibilities on foreign policy, the diary shows how deeply involved he was in developing the ideas of perestroika in philosophical terms, and in applying them to Soviet domestic political structures and ideology. He is especially vocal in his encouragement of openness and freedom of the press.

    May 23, 2008
    * DOJ Issues New Annual FOIA Report Guidance
      Department of Justice Issues New Annual FOIA Report Guidance: "In the wake of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, which amended the reporting requirements for agency Annual FOIA Reports, the Department of Justice, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, has revised both the content and the format of the Report and its corresponding guidelines. The revised guidelines, posted today, reflect the new statutory mandate. They also include new reporting requirements, including data on agency backlogs, which are an extension of the goals set forth in Executive Order 13,392, and are in furtherance of best practices in FOIA administration. The guidance also clarifies existing reporting requirements and further defines the type of requests to include in the Annual FOIA Report."
    • 2008 Guidelines for Agency Preparation of Annual FOIA Reports
    May 21, 2008
    * "Global Internet Freedom: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law"

    Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT): Global Internet Freedom Should Be Top Human Rights and Foreign Policy Priority - "The Congress and Administration should make global Internet freedom a top human rights and foreign policy priority, CDT said today in testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law. The government should closely monitor and report on global Internet freedom and factor progress in this area into criteria for development assistance and conditions for trade agreements. CDT also called for greater cooperation between the U.S. government and the technology industry to better manage human rights risks associated with offering Internet services in repressive countries."

    May 15, 2008
    * Ombudsman launches EU-wide consultation on access to databases
    • Press release: "The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has launched a consultation process within the European Network of Ombudsmen on access to information contained in databases. This follows a complaint from a Danish journalist about the refusal of the European Commission to disclose data on beneficiaries of EU agricultural subsidies. The Commission justified its refusal on grounds of confidentiality. Furthermore, it argued that the EU's rules on access to documents apply to databases only if the data can be easily retrieved."
    • To read the Statement setting out the Network's aims, please go to: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/liaison/en/statement.htm
    • The letter launching the consultation process is available under: http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/letters/en/20080319-1.htm
  • May 13, 2008
    * DOJ Office of Information Privacy FOIA Posts - April 2009

    "As announced previously by OIP, we are now posting up-to-date summaries of new court decisions. To facilitate their review, the cases are broken down by FOIA Exemption or procedural element and internal citations and quotations have been omitted. OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries, they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such. Set out below are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of April 2008."

    May 11, 2008
    * New on LLRX.com
    May 06, 2008
    * DOD Posts Documents Released to New York Times on Pentagon's Military Analyst Program

    Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Staff Reading Room: These documents were released to the New York Times regarding the Pentagon's Military Analyst program."

  • See the New York Times, April 20, 2008. Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand - "Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks," by David Barstow.
  • May 03, 2008
    * Should there be a Freedom of Information Act for the EU?

    European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) news release: "The European Commission is publishing amendments to Regulation 1049/2001. The new regulation is an exercise more in clarification and codification, rather than more ambitious reform towards genuine freedom of information. The European Parliament and Council will need to look carefully at whether the adjustments reflect a balance between the interests of the public to have greater access to documents and those of the institutions to protect their decision-making processes. This is part of the European transparency initiative, but is transparency moving forward?"

    April 26, 2008
    * Request FCC TV Show Complaints Via New Public Interest Website

    "Every year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) receives thousands of complaints about television shows. Sometimes insightful, sometimes hilarious, sometimes horrifying, they provide a fascinating glimpse into the psyches of our fellow TV-watching Americans.

    This web site, TV Show Complaints.org, helps you obtain copies of these complaints! It's as simple as sending an email to the FCC, and our web site will help you write one -- it will take just a few seconds of your time and is usually free."

    April 20, 2008
    * CIA Proposed Rule Modifying Freedom of Information Act Procedures

    "Consistent with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as amended by the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007, and Executive Order 13392, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has undertaken and completed a review of its public FOIA regulations that govern certain aspects of its processing of FOIA requests. As a result of this review, the Agency proposes to revise its FOIA regulations to more clearly reflect the current CIA organizational structure, record system configuration, and FOIA policies and practices and to eliminate ambiguous, redundant and obsolete regulatory provisions. As required by the FOIA, the Agency is providing an opportunity for interested persons to submit comments on these proposed regulations." [Federal Register: April 17, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 75)] [Proposed Rules][Page 20882-20884]

    April 06, 2008
    April 03, 2008
    * Amtrak Releases Monthly Performance Reports Online

    Monthly Performance Reports [the related links appears toward the bottom of this page] - "Generally, reports are available 6 weeks after the end of the month. The unaudited financial statements included herein are subject to adjustment based on the results of the annual audit." [via Michael Ravnitzky]

    April 01, 2008
    * Federal Railroad Administration Accident Investigation Reports Now Publicly Available Online

    News release: "To increase public awareness about the causes of specific train accidents and to reduce the need for individuals to submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is for the first time making its investigation reports of major train accidents and other incidents available online, FRA Administrator Joseph H. Boardman announced today...FRA does not typically release its own report about an accident until the NTSB has issued its findings. Due to size constraints and other considerations, attachments and exhibits associated with the FRA investigation reports are not being posted online, and will continue to be available only through a FOIA request. The accident/incident reports that railroads are required by federal law to routinely file with the FRA will continue to be available online. Individuals may sign up for automatic email notification of when a new investigation report is added to the public webpage. The accident investigation webpage is here."

    * The Sunshine in Litigation Act: Does Court Secrecy Undermine Public Health and Safety?

    The Sunshine in Litigation Act: Does Court Secrecy Undermine Public Health and Safety? Senate Judiciary Committee, S. HRG. 110–263 [248 pages, PDF]. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 110th Congress, 1st Session, December 11, 2007. [via FAS]

    March 30, 2008
    * Pew Study: Most Chinese Say They Approve of Government Internet Control

    News release: "Many Americans assume that China's internet users are unhappy about their government's control of the internet, but a new survey finds most Chinese say they approve of internet regulation, especially by the government."

  • Most Chinese Say They Approve of Government Internet Control,
    by Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, March 27, 2008: "According to findings from the fourth and most recent of a series of surveys about internet use in
    China from 2000 to 2007, over 80% of respondents say they think the internet should be managed or controlled, and in 2007, almost 85% say they think the government should be responsible for doing it."
  • March 26, 2008
    * 26 March 2008: The world's first Document Freedom Day

    "Today is Document Freedom Day: The Document Freedom Day (DFD) is a global day for Document Liberation with roughly 200 active teams worldwide. It is a day of grassroots effort around the world to promote and build awareness for the relevance of Free Document Formats in particular and Open Standards in general...Open Standards are essential for interoperability and freedom of choice based on the merits of different software applications. They provide freedom from data lock-in and the subsequent vendor lock-in... This makes Open Standards essential for governments, companies, organisations and individual users of information technology.This is where teams will report their activities in 2008."

    March 22, 2008
    * FOI in Practice: Analysis of the Mexican FOI System

    "In celebration of Sunshine Week, the National Security Archive's Mexico Project publishes today a new study of Mexico's transparency law: FOI in Practice: Measuring the Complexity of Information Requests and Quality of Government Responses in Mexico.

    The study represents the first comprehensive analysis of the Mexican freedom of information law: what information requesters have sought and how the government has responded.

    The authors analyzed the quality of government responses in relation to the complexity of FOI requests sent through Mexico's electronic information system from June 12, 2003 to April 30, 2006. After examining 1,000 information requests and corresponding government responses, the authors concluded that in 76% of the cases the government responses satisfied the requests of the user during the first three years of the law's existence. Nevertheless, the results also demonstrated that the most complex FOI requests were more difficult for public officials to answer, and received satisfactory responses in only 57% of the cases analyzed.

    The findings serve as a warning about Mexico's need to improve the capacity of government agencies to respond to more complex requests for information as requesters become increasingly sophisticated in their demands over time."

    March 19, 2008
    * First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's Daily Schedules, 1993-2001

    National Archives and Records Administration: "The William J. Clinton Presidential Library and the National Archives opened 11,046 pages of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's White House schedules. These Presidential records are...now available [via this page at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum site]...These schedules are from the First Lady's Staff files of Patti Solis Doyle, Special Assistant to the President and Director of Scheduling for the First Lady. Doyle was responsible for the First Lady's schedule from 1993 to 1998, and then assumed additional responsibilities as Director of Advance for the First Lady throughout the rest of the Clinton Administration. Arranged chronologically, these records document in detail the activities of the First Lady, including meetings, trips, speaking engagements and social activities for the eight years of the Clinton Administration...Of the 11,046 pages of schedules that are being opened, 4,746 have redactions. The majority of the redactions pertain to the privacy interests of third parties, including their social security numbers, telephone numbers, and home addresses."

  • New York Times: "These documents are outlines of the first lady’s activities and illustrate the array of substantive issues she worked on — including health care, child care, adoption, education, veterans, microenterprise and international development, women’s rights and democracy,” Jay Carson, a Clinton campaign aide, said in a statement."
  • March 16, 2008
    * More People See Federal Government as Secretive; Want to Know Candidates' Stand on Transparency

    "Three-quarters of American adults view the federal government as secretive, and nearly nine in 10 say it's important to know presidential and congressional candidates' positions on open government when deciding who to vote for, according to a Sunshine Week survey by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University. The survey shows a significant increase over the past three years in the percentage of Americans who believe the federal government is very or somewhat secretive, from 62 percent of those surveyed in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008."

    March 14, 2008
    * Celebrating James Madison and the Freedom of Information Act

    DOJ Office of Information and Privacy: "On March 16 we celebrate the anniversary of James Madison's birthday. Madison, traditionally viewed as the Father of the United States Constitution, is also seen by many as a defender of open government. He once wrote, "[a] popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps, both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." In a similar vein, he asserted that "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge" is "the only Guardian of true liberty." ...With Madison's views on the importance of an informed citizenry in mind, the occasion of James Madison's birthday is an excellent opportunity for federal agencies to review their FOIA operations to ensure that this vital government function is receiving the attention it deserves."

    March 07, 2008
    * Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act Reports for the Department of the Homeland Security

    FOIA Annual Report for 2007 (PDF, 94 pages)

    March 01, 2008
    * China Prepares Internet Connectivity Exclusively For Olympic Attendees

    The Connection Has Been Reset, by James Fallows.

  • "In reality, what the Olympic-era visitors will be discovering is not the absence of China’s electronic control but its new refinement—and a special Potemkin-style unfettered access that will be set up just for them, and just for the length of their stay. According to engineers I have spoken with at two tech organizations in China, the government bodies in charge of censoring the Internet have told them to get ready to unblock access from a list of specific Internet Protocol (IP) addresses—certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners are expected to work or stay during the Olympic Games."
  • February 25, 2008
    * DOJ Office of Information Privacy FOIA Posts

    Summaries of New Decisions - January 2008, posted 2/25/2008

  • "..up-to-date summaries of new court decisions..broken down by FOIA Exemption or procedural element and internal citations and quotations have been omitted. OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries, they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such."
  • February 19, 2008
    February 18, 2008
    * INTELWIRE Releases FBI Documents Cited In 9/11 Commission Report

    J.M. Berger, INTELWIRE.com: "INTELWIRE has obtained more than 1,700 pages of FBI documents cited in the end notes of the Final Report of the 9/11 Commission...The package covers a wide variety of topics, including the movements of the hijackers over more than 10 years, people who associated with the hijackers in the U.S., FBI interviews with the victims, transcripts of phone calls to the hijacked flights, intelligence obtained by overseas agencies... Documents are listed here according to the chapter of the 9/11 Report in which they appeared...and may be the largest online repository of 9/11 source documents on the Web." [Note: these documents are heavily redacted.]

  • Related resources on 9/11
  • February 16, 2008
    * ACLU: Bush Budget Kills FOIA Ombudsman

    ACLU Blog: "...the Open Government Act of 2007, a bill that enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Congress...called for the appointment of a FOIA ombudsman, to work out of the National Archive, who would serve as an impartial mediator between citizens and the government agencies receiving their FOIA requests...Agencies would be held to the FOIA standards by the ombudsman and not just by threat of court action. FOIA requesters would find it less necessary to bring lawsuits and the government itself would save itself from having to spend public money and time to mount defenses...Tucked away in Bush's proposed new budget for 2008 — in the 1,300-page appendix — was language that stripped funding for the FOIA ombudsman role, and shoves the responsibilities off to the Justice Department. The same department, we might add, responsible for defending the government agencies when they're named in lawsuits to have FOIA requests enforced."

    February 11, 2008
    * Statistical Data about Agency Tax Enforcement Remains Unavailable to Public

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) press release: "The Internal Revenue Service is flouting three court orders requiring it to regularly provide a nationally-recognized researcher with the statistical data she needs for her studies, according to a court action brought today by the researcher. The new motion was filed by Susan B. Long, a professor at Syracuse University's Martin J. Whitman School of Management. For more than 30 years Long has used the IRS's own statistical data to examine how this powerful agency has been enforcing the nation's tax laws. In the February 11 filing Long requests that Judge Marsha Pechman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington enforce two of her own court orders against the agency, issued in 2006, as well as the court's 1976 consent agreement on the same issue."

    February 07, 2008
    * CIA Freedom Of Information Act Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2007

    Central Intelligence Agency Freedom Of Information Act Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2007, Unclassified.

  • "For those FOIA cases closed in FY 2007, 80% were closed in 175 days; median response time was 40 days; average response time was 223 days. For those Privacy Act cases closed in FY 2007, 80% were closed in 58 days; median response time was 18 days; average response time was 69 days."
  • February 06, 2008
    * Committee to Protect Journalists Report - Attacks on the Press 2007

    "China’s onerous media restrictions, the erosion of press freedom in African democracies, the criminalization of journalism in central Asia, and the use of vague “antistate” charges to jail journalists worldwide are among the troubling trends revealed in the new edition of Attacks on the Press."

    February 03, 2008
    January 27, 2008
    * FOIA Request Yields VA Data on American Casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

    The Herald (United Kingdom): "The US has suffered more than 72,000 battlefield casualties since the start of the war on terror in 2001, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. The query by the campaigning Veterans for Common Sense organisation shows that 4,372 American soldiers have died and another 67,671 have been wounded in action, injured in accidents or succumbed to illness in Iraq and Afghanistan. The veterans' group had to force the US Defence Department to release the figures by persuading judges to uphold their FoI rights. A second request to the Veterans' Administration, the government-funded body responsible for taking care of ex-servicemen and women, showed 263,909 soldiers with experience of the two 21st-century wars have so far received treatment for everything from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to the aftermath of amputated limbs."

  • DoD Fact Sheet: Casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan Wars: DoD Reports 72,043 Battlefield Casualties Among 1.6 Million Deployed Since 2001
  • * Ombudsman: NGOs can help EU institutions do their job better

    Press release: "The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has underlined the importance of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in pointing out possible instances of maladministration in the EU institutions. Over the past ten years, the Ombudsman's office has received almost 1,000 complaints from NGOs and associations. They included alleged maladministration concerning environmental projects, late payment for EU contracts, and lack of transparency in the EU institutions. Among the NGOs that complained were Statewatch, Corporate Europe Observatory, and the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS). Two recent complaints concerning the environmental policy of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the question of "revolving doors" in the Commission were lodged, respectively, by two Polish NGOs and Greenpeace. Mr Diamandouros commented: "The Ombudsman relies on complaints from NGOs to help him uncover possible instances of maladministration in the EU institutions. The institutions, in turn, profit from the active involvement of NGOs to help them rectify problems in the system."

    January 24, 2008
    * DOJ Summaries of New FOIA Decisions -- December 2007

    "As announced previously by Office of Information and Privacy, we are now posting up-to-date summaries of new court decisions. To facilitate their review, the cases are broken down by FOIA Exemption or procedural element and internal citations and quotations have been omitted. OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries, they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such. Set out here are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of December 2007."

    January 23, 2008
    January 20, 2008
    * Annual FOIA Reports Submitted by Federal Departments and Agencies

    Annual FOIA Reports Submitted by Federal Departments and Agencies: This site has been created in accordance with the Electronic FOIA Amendments of 1996, which specifies that the Attorney General should make annual FOIA reports from all federal departments and agencies available at "a single electronic access point," beginning with reports for fiscal year 1998.

  • Department of Justice, 2007
  • January 16, 2008
    * EPA To Set Up Human Resources Shared Service Centers - Questions Remain About Fate of Libraries

    Follow up to postings on EPA library closures, this press release from January 10, 2008: EPA To Set Up Human Resources Shared Service Centers: "The Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to establish shared service centers in three locations, beginning in June 2008, to process personnel and benefits actions for the agency's 17,000 employees. The centers, to be located in current EPA facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, Las Vegas, Nev., and Research Triangle Park, N.C., also will process vacancy announcements throughout the agency. The move will improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and customer service of agency human resources operations. It is expected to take 12-24 months to complete. Staff affected by the creation of the shared service centers will continue their employment at one of the centers or elsewhere in the agency. The centers will enhance the timeliness and quality of customer service and standardize work processes."

  • See also EPA's move to 'modernize' libraries spurs concerns, By Aliya Sternstein Technology Daily, January 15, 2008
  • January 15, 2008
    * New Publication Helps Judges On Classified Information

    "Most federal judges come into contact with classified information infrequently, if at all, but when they do, they are faced with the dilemma of how to protect government secrets in the context of an otherwise public proceeding. This pocket guide is designed to familiarize federal judges with statutes and procedures established to help public courts protect government secrets when courts are called upon to do so. The guide provides information about the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), information security officers, and secure storage facilities. I hope you will find this guide useful in meeting the challenge of protecting government secrets in a public forum. Barbara Jacobs Rothstein, Director, Federal Judicial Center"

  • Keeping Government Secrets: A Pocket Guide for Judges on the State-Secrets Privilege, the Classified Information Procedures Act, and Court Security Officers, Robert Timothy Reagan, Federal Judicial Center, 2007
  • January 14, 2008
    * FOIA Requests Generates Release of CIA Assessment of Prospects for Further Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1970s

    Press release: "In the wake of the Indian "peaceful nuclear explosion" on May 17, 1974 and growing concern about the spread of nuclear weapons capabilities, the U.S. intelligence community prepared a Special National Intelligence Assessment, "Prospects for Further Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," published today by the National Security Archive."

  • Special National Intelligence Estimate 4-1-74, "Prospects for Further Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons,"23 August 1974, Top Secret, Excised Copy
  • January 10, 2008
    * SEC Acknowledges Significant Increase in FOIA Requests Accompanied by Backlog

    Law.com: Tripled FOIA Requests Put SEC to the Test, Harold K. Gordon and Tracy V. Schaffer.

  • "In recent years, the number of requests the SEC has received under the FOIA, 5 U.S.C. §552, has more than tripled, leaving the agency with a hefty backlog of thousands of requests. According to the SEC, it received 8,961 FOIA requests just in its fiscal year ("FY") ending September 30, 2006, up from 2,834 requests six years earlier. Further, at the end of FY 2006, the agency had 10,403 requests pending compared to only 151 requests when FY 2000 ended."
  • January 09, 2008
    * DOJ FOIA Post: Congress Passes Amendments to the FOIA

    "For the first time in well over a decade, Congress has enacted amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. No changes to the Act’s nine exemptions were made. Rather, the amendments address a range of procedural issues impacting FOIA administration, including the codification of several provisions of Executive Order 13,392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.” Entitled the “Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007,” or the “OPEN Government Act of 2007,” the bill was signed into law by the President on Monday, December 31, 2007. The amendments consist of ten substantive sections, each of which is summarized and discussed below. The complete text of the OPEN Government Act of 2007."

    * Report to the President from the Public Interest Declassification Board Report

    Improving Declassification - A Report to the President from the Public Interest Declassification Board Report, December 2007 (48 pages, PDF): "There are at least eight ways by which security classified national security information may become declassified, including through Freedom of Information Act requests and through automatic declassification under Executive Order 12958. The Board presents several recommendations that would increase the efficiency of the system as a whole."

  • About the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB)
  • Secrecy News: "The report perceptively reaches deep into the nuts and bolts of classification policy to recommend that information classified as "Formerly Restricted Data" under the Atomic Energy Act be handled as defense information subject to declassification under the President's executive order, a step that would significantly expedite the declassification of historical records pertaining to nuclear weapons policy."
  • January 07, 2008
    * Upcoming Conference Providing Guidance on Newly Enacted Amendments to the FOIA

    "On January 16, 2008, the Office of Information and Privacy (OIP), Department of Justice, will host a conference on the newly enacted amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. Entitled the "Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007," the bill was signed into law by the President on Monday, December 31, 2007. See, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/print/20071231-4.html

    * Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War

    Via Secrecy News, "this 2002 study was released in response to a Mandatory Declassification Review request filed by Michael Ravnitzky": Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War, 1945-1975 by Robert J. Hanyok, Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2002.

    January 02, 2008
    * The Best and Worst of 2007: Government Secrecy

    The Best and Worst of 2007: Government Secrecy, Patrick Radden Keefe, The Century Foundation, 1/2/2008.

  • "America has a classification problem, and has for quite some time. The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once observed that if all the newspapers in the United States printed all the classified documents produced by the government on any given day, there wouldn’t be room in the papers for anything else. An unassailable impulse to classify information that might endanger national security has morphed into a cumbersome and expensive bureaucratic system in which great swaths of government activity are shielded from public view. Classification has become both a reflex within the federal government and a powerful get-out-of-jail-free card for the executive branch."
  • * Press Freedom Round-up 2007

    Press Freedom Round-up 2007, Reporters Without Borders: "At least 86 journalists were killed around the world in 2007. The figure has risen steadily since 2002 - from 25 to 86 (+ 244%) - and is the highest since 1994, when 103 journalists were killed, nearly half of them in the Rwanda genocide, about 20 in Algeria’s civil war and a dozen in the former Yugoslavia. More than half those killed in 2007 died in Iraq."

    January 01, 2008
    * President Bush Signs FOIA Amendments into Law

    White House press release: "On Monday, December 31, 2007, the President signed into law: S. 2488, the "Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007," which amends the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by: (1) establishing a definition of "a representative of the news media;" (2) directing that required attorney fees be paid from an agency's own appropriation rather than from the Judgment Fund; (3) prohibiting an agency from assessing certain fees if it fails to comply with FOIA deadlines; and (4) establishing an Office of Government Information Services in the National Archives and Records Administration to review agency compliance with FOIA."

  • Related postings on FOIA and LLRX.com's monthly column, FOIA Facts by Scott A. Hodes
  • December 23, 2007
    * Brief Asserts Public Should Have Access to 9/11 Related Court Filings

    Press release: "The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press asked a federal court in Manhattan [December 21, 2007] to require open access to records in the civil case over liability following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Victims of the attacks and their families filed lawsuits against airline and security companies seeking to determine liability for their injury or losses due to the security breaches that led to the attacks. Documents filed with the court in this case were presumed open, except for a few narrow categories of records Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein deemed could be confidential, including financial and trade secrets data. However, the airline and security companies have been using the narrow protective order to assert that more than 99 percent of the tens of thousands of pages of documents they filed with the court should be covered as confidential under the order. The Reporters Committee argued in a friend-of-the-court brief that is extremely unlikely that nearly all the records contain the information required for confidentiality under the order and asked Hellerstein to require the parties to strictly adhere to the order, only limiting public access to that information allowable under the order...The brief was filed in In re September 11 Litigation, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York."

    December 22, 2007
    * Declassified Hoover Plan on Suspending Habeas Corpus

    New York Times, Hoover Planned Mass Jailings in 1950: "A newly declassified document shows that J. Edgar Hoover, the longtime director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a plan to suspend habeas corpus and imprison some 12,000 Americans he suspected of disloyalty. Hoover sent his plan to the White House on July 7, 1950, 12 days after the Korean War began. It envisioned putting suspect Americans in military prisons. Hoover wanted President Harry S. Truman to proclaim the mass arrests necessary to “protect the country against treason, espionage and sabotage.” The F.B.I would “apprehend all individuals potentially dangerous” to national security, Hoover’s proposal said. The arrests would be carried out under “a master warrant attached to a list of names” provided by the bureau."

  • Text: Hoover’s Letter to Truman’s Special Consultant (December 22, 2007)

  • Department of State: The Intelligence Community, 1950–1955 - Organization of U.S. Intelligence (789 pages, PDF)
  • * State Dept. OIG Report on Blackwater Released After FOIA Request

    TPMmuckraker, State Dept Document from 2005 Shows Fraud in Blackwater's Iraq Contract:

    "A report prepared for the State Department's inspector general in January 2005, and obtained by TPMmuckraker, shows Blackwater's accounting system for its no-bid, multimillion dollar Iraq contract was "not considered adequate for accumulating costs on government contracts." The report is an audit of Blackwater's contract prepared by the accounting firm of Leonard H. Birnbaum. It has been referred to by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and in a 2006 story in The Nation, but has not been made publicly available until now. It was obtained by TPMmuckraker after we filed a Freedom of Information Act request in October with the State Department for Blackwater-related documents. You can read the 2005 State Department report in our Documents Collection here."

    December 21, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Post: Summaries of New Decisions -- November 2007

    "As announced previously by OIP, we are now posting up-to-date summaries of new court decisions. To facilitate their review, the cases are broken down by FOIA Exemption or procedural element and internal citations and quotations have been omitted. OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries, they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such. Set out [here] are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of November 2007."

    December 18, 2007
    * Congress Passes First FOIA Reform Bill in More Than a Decade

    The National Security Archive: "The House of Representatives at 5:18 pm today unanimously passed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reform bill (S. 2488) that passed the Senate by unanimous consent on December 14. The bill aims to fix some of the most persistent problems in the FOIA system, including excessive delay, lack of responsiveness, and litigation gamesmanship by federal agencies. Following today’s approval by the House, the OPEN Government Act will be sent to the President's desk for approval...The new law would mandate tracking numbers for FOIA requests that take longer than 10 days to process to ensure they will no longer fall through the cracks, require agencies to report more accurately to Congress and the public on their FOIA programs, create a new ombuds office at the National Archives to mediate conflicts between agencies and requesters, clarify the purpose of FOIA to encourage dissemination of government information, and provide incentives to agencies to avoid litigation and processing delays."

    December 17, 2007
    * Federal Judge Declares White House Visitor Records Subject to Freedom of Information Act

    Press release from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: "From its first days, this administration has tried to keep the American public in the dark about what goes on behind closed White House doors. Through a secret agreement and a letter from Vice President Cheney’s counsel, the administration had attempted to permanently hide from view records related to those who visit the White House and the vice president’s residence. Today, a federal judge has cracked open those doors by holding that these are Secret Service subject to public disclosure. As a result of CREW’s lawsuit, District of Columbia District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ordered the Secret Service to produce records of certain conservative leaders’ visits to the White House within 20 days."

  • Related postings on White House visitor logs
  • December 11, 2007
    * EFF Obtains Government Documents on Congressional Intelligence Briefings

    "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has received a second set of records from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) detailing behind-the-scenes briefings for lawmakers working to make substantial changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). EFF requested release of the records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) earlier this year...Last month, a federal judge ordered ODNI to release all documents by December 10. The first batch of records, made public on November 30, detailed contentious negotiations between Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and members of Congress that resulted in the passage of the Protect America Act...The second set of records contains more correspondence between McConnell and members of Congress, as well as heavily redacted versions of classified testimony delivered to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and an FAQ detailing how the National Security Agency performs electronic surveillance. Withheld records include ODNI presentation slides used to brief Congress on foreign intelligence issues, and other classified documents."

  • Part one of the ODNI documents

  • Part two of the ODNI documents

  • ODNI declaration explaining withholdings

  • more on EFF v. ODNI

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • December 05, 2007
    * Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2007

    Press release: "Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) Tuesday introduced bipartisan, revised legislation to increase government transparency and provide the first major reforms to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in more than a decade. The Senate passed an earlier version of the Leahy-Cornyn bill -- the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National (OPEN) Government Act -- and the House has passed a counterpart measure, but efforts to reconcile the two bills were stymied over House concerns about “pay-go” issues...The OPEN Government Act would:

    • Restore meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA;

    • Impose real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s 20-day statutory deadline;

    • Clarify that FOIA applies to government records held by outside private contractors;

    • Establish a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies;
    • and Create a FOIA Ombudsman to provide FOIA requestors and federal agencies with a meaningful alternative to costly litigation.

    • Related postings on FOIA

    December 04, 2007
    * Election Assistance Commission FOIA Reading Room

    "The FOIA Reading Room contains frequently requested documents as well as EAC statements, correspondence, and administrative policies."

    Provisional Voting Research Project: "In October 2006, the EAC adopted a set of best practices regarding provisional voting. The best practices document was based on research provided by the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and the Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University. The EAC best practices document and the research are available below. Please note that some of these files are large and may take a few minutes to download."

    November 29, 2007
    * Twelve States Sue EPA Over Regs Denying Public Access to Toxic Chemicals Database

    Press release: Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York and eleven other states are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over new regulations denying the public access to information about toxic chemicals in their communities. The EPA will allow thousands of companies to avoid disclosing information to the public about the toxic chemicals they use, store, and release into the environment by rolling back chemical reporting requirements. The suit seeks to overturn the weakened reporting requirements and provide the public with the access they had in the past."

  • Related postings on EPA's efforts to limit public access to pollution release inventory
  • November 27, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Post: Summaries of New Decisions - October 2007

    DOJ FOIA Post: Summaries of New Decisions -- October 2007: "As announced previously by OIP, we are now posting up-to-date summaries of new court decisions. To facilitate their review, cases are broken down by FOIA Exemption or procedural element and internal citations and quotations have been omitted. OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries, they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such. Set out below are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of October 2007."

    November 25, 2007
    * Reporting by USA Today Finds 20,000 Unreported Wounded U.S. Troops

    "At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY. The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon's official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327."

    November 21, 2007
    * Collaborative Online Government Document Database Launched

    Blog announcement: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), in conjunction with a coalition of government watchdog groups, launched a new online government document database, governmentdocs.org on Thursday, November 8. The database houses Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) responses, and other government documents, from a number of organizations, that can be browsed, searched and reviewed. It is the only one of its kind...Governmentdocs.org for the first time creates a central repository of government documents, promoting greater transparency into the inner-workings of our government. Traditionally, most government watchdog groups have either posted FOIA documents on their websites as unsearchable PDFs, or statically highlighted several pages within a document to bolster their findings. This has historically limited the public's access to FOIA documents, and minimizes the opportunities for use by researchers, journalists and citizen reviewers for further research and disclosures. Governmentdocs.org changes that: Each and every document goes through an optical character recognition (OCR) process, so that the text of each document is entirely searchable; A powerful search engine provides full-text searches and hit highlighting; Citizen reviewers can add information to each document page and highlight important findings, allowing for more robust and targeted searches.
    Every page of every document has its own unique URL so that documents can be linked, shared, or posted onto websites; The database is a coalition effort, so all of the organizations’ documents will be housed on governmentdocs.org and searches will work across collections."

    November 20, 2007
    * Report Documents Top 100 Private Contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan

    Center for Public Integrity: "It's been four years since the Center released its acclaimed Windfalls of War investigation, which first named Halliburton as the largest single contractor in Iraq and revealed the most comprehensive list of the top Iraq and Afghanistan contractors available at the time. That list included more than 70 American companies that had been awarded up to $8 billion in contracts from 2002 through July 1, 2004. By the end of 2006, U.S. contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown to $25 billion, while oversight has seriously deteriorated, according to a new Center analysis, Windfalls of War II. The Center report shows that KBR, Inc., formally known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and a Halliburton subsidiary until April 2007, continues to top the list at more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts from 2004 to 2006. DynCorp International, at $1.8 billion, came in at a distant second...The Center assembled its list of the top 100 contractors, where the reported place of performance was in Iraq and Afghanistan, by analyzing the General Service Administration's Federal Procurement Data System. After reviewing this federal database, the Center was able to piece together the 100 companies that received the most contracts from fiscal years 2004 to 2006. However, even this publicly available federal database does not include all Iraq and Afghanistan contracts, including the ones originating at the Baghdad contracting agency. The Baghdad contracting agency has rebuffed Center efforts to obtain missing contracts. The Center is now seeking to acquire them through Freedom of Information Act requests."

    November 19, 2007
    * 50-State Analysis of Post 9/11 Open Records Laws

    Stateline.org: "The 2001 terrorist attacks led every state but South Dakota to restrict access to information deemed critical to homeland security — from architectural blueprints to emergency evacuation routes, according to a comprehensive, state-by-state study of post-9/11 changes to open-government laws. Wary of terrorists, state lawmakers closed government meetings previously open to the public, denied residents access to disaster-response plans and concealed documents on mass-transit systems, energy companies and research laboratories, according to the findings."

    November 16, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Summaries of New Decisions, September 2007

    DOJ FOIA Summaries of New Decisions, September 2007: "OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries, they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such. Set out below are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of September 2007."

    November 13, 2007
    * CBS Investigative Report on Veteran Suicide

    Veteran Suicide - Methodology, November 13, 2007: "When CBS News began looking into veteran suicide, it found that no federal organization or agency tracks the number of veteran suicides nationally. No one is keeping count. We wanted to know how many veterans are committing suicide nationwide and how the rate of suicide for veterans compares to non-veterans. This is a summary of the methodology and results of the data that appeared in this CBS Evening News investigation, The Veteran Suicide Epidemic - A CBS News Investigation Uncovers A Suicide Rate For Veterans Twice That Of Other Americans.

  • "CBS News’ investigative unit wanted the numbers, so it submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense asking for the numbers of suicides among all service members for the past 12 years. Four months later, they sent CBS News a document, showing that between 1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers...So CBS News did an investigation - asking all 50 states for their suicide data, based on death records, for veterans and non-veterans, dating back to 1995. Forty-five states sent what turned out to be a mountain of information. And what it revealed was stunning. In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year."

  • See also Defense Data Manpower Center Report: Military Suicides by Location of Death, January 1995 - July 2007.
  • November 11, 2007
    * FERC Narrows Scope of Protected Critical Energy Infrastructure Information

    Press release: "The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [October 30, 2007] amended its regulations for accessing critical energy infrastructure information (CEII) to create a more efficient process and provide additional guidance of what material is considered CEII...Specifically, the Commission is allowing landowners access to alignment sheets containing CEII for the limited portion of a project that would affect their land and the adjacent parcels on each side without going through the CEII process. In addition, the Commission is eliminating the non-internet public (NIP) category because much of the information currently designated as NIP is easily available on-line from other sources such as the U.S. Geological Survey or commercial mapping firms."

    November 10, 2007
    * CIA FOIA Backlog Reduction Goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010

    CIA FOIA Backlog Reduction Goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010

    November 09, 2007
    * Space-Based Early Warning Archives Posted to the Web

    Press release: "In anticipation of the planned launch of the final Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite tomorrow evening, which was originally scheduled to be orbited in October 2005, the National Security Archive has posted on the Web a collection of declassified documents tracing the history of the program from its roots as Subsystem G of WS-117L in 1957. At that time the U.S. began seriously planning to deploy satellites that would detect the infrared signals emitted by intercontinental ballistic missiles in order to provide warning of a Soviet missile attack.
    The documents posted today, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and archival research, include documents on the theoretical work behind the concept of space-based missile detection, the early doubts about the feasibility of such detection, and 1960s research and development work on the Missile Defense Alarm System (MIDAS). They also include documents on the evolution of the DSP--with regard both to its capabilities and its use for a variety of additional missions, including the detection of intermediate-range missiles, bombers flying on afterburner and spacecraft. In addition, a number of documents focus on the decades-long search for a follow-on system to DSP.
    Compiled by National Security Archive Senior Fellow Dr. Jeffrey T. Richelson, the documents in the briefing book originated with the Defense Department, Air Force, U.S. Space Command, Air Force Space Command, Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Aerospace Corporation, Government Accounting Office, and other organizations."

    * FOIA Logs for Federal Aviation Administration Posted Online

    GovernmentAttic.org has posted the FOIA Case Logs for the Federal Aviation Administration for the years 2006 and 2007.

  • FOIA Logs for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for FY 2006 (537 pages, PDF)

  • FOIA Logs for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for FY 2007 (354 pages, PDF)
  • October 31, 2007
    * Oversight Committee: White House Withholds Hundreds of Abramoff Documents

    "Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding to turn over more than 600 pages of documents relating to the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that are being withheld because they involve internal White House deliberations."

    * House Committee: Public Has a Right to See U.S. Air Safety Survey Data

    Press release: "The Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Committee Members today heard from NASA Administrator Dr. Michael Griffin on his agency’s management of the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS)...NAOMS has garnered headlines recently due to NASA’s refusal to release data collected from an air safety survey of 24,000 of the nation’s airline pilots. NASA had refused to release the survey because they claimed it “could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of the air carriers…” Committee Members called NASA’s refusal “troubling” and “unconvincing.” The survey, conducted over more than six years at a cost of more than $11 million taxpayer dollars, was expected to be the forward-looking tool the U.S. would use to identify emerging aviation safety problems. Instead, NASA stopped the NAOMS project – despite the fact that it had enjoyed unusual success in gathering responses from pilots – and has done nothing since to provide the flying public with the insights gained from the survey."

  • Witness testimony, supporting exhibits and accompanying information from the hearing, Aviation Safety: Can NASA Do More to Protect the Public?

  • Union of Concerned Scientists: "NASA spent nearly four years to conduct telephone surveys of some 8,000 commercial and general aviation pilots, asking them about near misses in the air and on runways and cases in which air traffic controllers changed landing instructions at the last second. The AP tried unsuccessfully to obtain the survey results under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) over a 14-month period."
  • October 26, 2007
    * 2007 World Press Freedom Index

    Press release: "Eritrea has replaced North Korea in last place in an index measuring the level of press freedom in 169 countries throughout the world that is published today by Reporters Without Borders for the sixth year running...Outside Europe - in which the top 14 countries are located - no region of the world has been spared censorship or violence towards journalists. Of the 20 countries at the bottom of the index, seven are Asian (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Laos, Vietnam, China, Burma, and North Korea), five are African (Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Somalia and Eritrea), four are in the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, Palestinian Territories and Iran), three are former Soviet republics (Belarus, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) and one is in the Americas (Cuba)."

  • Worldwide Press Feedom Index 2007
  • October 22, 2007
    * Governmentattic.org Website Launches With FOIA Request Logs for 50 Agencies

    governmentattic.org..."rummaging in the government's attic" launches with the FOIA Logs for 50 federal agencies (in PDF), as well several dozen sets of government documents obtained via FOIA requests. The topical documents range from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Standardized Chapel Library Project book list to the US DOJ Federal Bureau of Investigation Documents re: No Fly Lists 2001 - 2003 [251 pages]. This is an eclectic, interesting and expanding treasure trove of government documents that otherwise may not be available to the public were it not for the efforts of the website's authors.

    October 21, 2007
    October 15, 2007
    * New Website Simplifies Your Access to Your FBI Files

    Michael Ravnitzky: "The new website, http://www.getmyfbifile.com provides a quick and easy way to request your FBI Files, if they exist, from FBI Headquarters as well as the various FBI Field Offices. Additional bonus features allow you to ask for files about you at other federal agencies including the CIA, DIA, NSA, the Secret Service, and the Army Criminal Investigative Command. This is a sister site to the successful Get Grandpas FBI File website, established due to the number of people asking how they could get their own FBI File."

    October 11, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Posts - Summaries of New Decisions -- July 2007

    DOJ FOIA Posts - Summaries of New Decisions -- July 2007 (posted 10/11/2007)

    October 05, 2007
    * FCC OIG Report on Investigation Into Allegations Research Work was Suppressed or Destroyed

    Press release, October 5, 2007: "The Inspector General of the Federal Communications Commission has released a report finding that the evidence did not substantiate allegations that two draft research reports of staff economists in the Commission’s Media Bureau had been suppressed by senior managers at the Commission or that senior managers had ordered one of the reports to be destroyed. The investigation was directed by Carla Conover, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations."

  • FCC Office of Inspector General Report of Investigation Into Allegations That Senior Management Ordered Research Work Suppressed or Destroyed, October 4, 2007 (34 pages, PDF)
  • September 30, 2007
    September 28, 2007
    * The Mexico Freedom of Information Program

    Press release: "In celebration of International Right to Know Day the National Security Archive's Mexico Project is launching a new Web site dedicated to its Transparency and Freedom of Information Program. The Web site features a new publication on the week-long media initiative Mexico Abierto, which launched its first edition during the week of March 11-17 of this year. With our partners at the Consejo Ciudadano del Premio Nacional de Periodismo, we are now preparing for the second edition that will be celebrated in March 2008. The Web site also includes a multi-media section with pictures, news publications and video clips of forums and delegations in Mexico. The Archive's Mexico Project has been actively involved in the movement for freedom of information rights in Mexico since 2001--a struggle which achieved its first success with the enactment of a landmark freedom of information statute in June 2002. The project supports the work of citizens' groups promoting greater transparency, openness and accountability in government. To this end, the Archive works closely with scholars, lawyers, freedom of information activists, NGOs, human rights groups and the press to design strategies for advancing the people's right to know in Mexico."

    September 27, 2007
    * DOJ OIP Summaries of New FOIA Decisions -- June 2007

    DOJ Office of Information and Privacy, Privacy Summaries of New Decisions -- June 2007: "Set out below are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of June 2007."

    September 21, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Posts - Summaries of New Decisions -- May 2007

    "As announced previously by OIP [Office of Information Policy], we are now posting up-to-date summaries of new court decisions. To facilitate their review, each case is broken down by FOIA Exemption or procedural element and internal citations and quotations have been omitted. OIP provides these case summaries as a public service; due to their nature as summaries they are not intended to be authoritative or complete statements of the facts or holdings of any of the cases summarized, and they should not be relied upon as such. Set out below are summaries of the court decisions that were received by OIP during the month of May 2007."

    September 16, 2007
    * DOJ Summary of Annual FOIA Reports for Fiscal Year 2006

    "In the past, although not required to do so under the FOIA, the Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) compiled summaries of the information contained in agency annual FOIA reports and made them publicly available. OIP is now resuming that practice starting with the annual FOIA reports for Fiscal Year 2006. Set forth below is a summary compilation of the information contained in the annual FOIA reports prepared by the fifteen federal departments and seventy-seven other federal agencies for Fiscal Year 2006."

    September 14, 2007
    * Documents Describe Use of Satellites in Support of Civil Agencies

    Press release: "Today the National Security Archive publishes a collection of documents concerning the use of U.S. reconnaissance satellites to collect data on targets within the United States over the last four decades. This new publication follows the August 15, 2007, revelation in the Wall Street Journal that the United States is planning to expand the use of reconnaissance satellites over the United States in support of civil agencies (those outside of the Defense Department and Intelligence Community) in response to recommendations by an independent study group. Obtained primarily through the Freedom of Information Act and archival research, the declassified documents published today describe a number of uses for which U.S. reconnaissance satellites have been employed, including evaluation of satellite performance, mapping, disaster relief, and assistance to Environmental Protection Agency investigations."

    September 11, 2007
    * IRS OIG Audit of Denials of FOIA, Privacy Act, and I.R.C. § 6103 requests

    Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) - Office of Disclosure Can Improve Compliance With the Freedom of Information Act Requirements, August 31, 2007: "The IRS improperly withheld information from requestors in 4 (4.6 percent) of the 88 FOIA and Privacy Act cases sampled. This represents a small improvement from the results in our Fiscal Year 2006 audit report (6.1 percent). Also, the IRS improperly withheld information from requestors in 12 (14.5 percent) of the 83 I.R.C. § 6103 cases. This represents a significant increase over the 2.3 percent error rate for I.R.C. § 6103 cases we reported last year. As a result, TIGTA estimates the Disclosure offices did not provide available tax records to 344 requests made under the FOIA and Privacy Act and to 815 requests made through I.R.C. § 6103. The errors appear to have occurred mainly because of inadequate research or simple oversight by the Disclosure office caseworkers."

    September 10, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Post: Summaries of New Decisions -- April 2007

    Summaries of New Decisions -- April 2007: "As part of OIP's feature to provide up-to-date information on new court decisions, we have included below summaries of the court decisions that were decided in April 2007. OIP will continue to post monthly summaries until we are current. Thereafter, summaries of new court decisions will be posted regularly."

    September 09, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Guidance on Submitting Backlog Reduction Goals

    Guidance on Submitting Backlog Reduction Goals for Fiscal Years 2008, 2009, and 2010: "As part of the June 1, 2007 report to the President on agency progress under Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information," the Attorney General recommended that any agency that has a FOIA request or administrative appeal pending beyond the statutory time period (i.e., a backlog) at the end of Fiscal Year 2007, should establish backlog reduction goals for the next three fiscal years. These goals are required to be posted on each agency's FOIA web site by November 1, 2007."

    September 05, 2007
    * National Security Archive Announces Decisions in Two FOIA Cases

  • Court Permits CIA to Withhold Historic President's Daily Briefs, But Denies Categorical Exemption for PDBs: "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week held that the disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act of two Presidential Daily Briefs written for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s could “reveal protected intelligence sources and methods.” The Court rejected, however, the Central Intelligence Agency’s “attempt to create a per se status exemption for PDBs.”

  • Court Rejects Wiretapping Secrecy Claims, Orders New Index of Documents and More Detailed Reasons for Withholding: "The United States District Court for the District of Columbia today largely rejected the government’s attempt to withhold without explanation all records concerning its warrantless wiretapping surveillance program. In a Freedom of Information Act law suit brought by the National Security Archive, along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union, the Court rejected the summary explanations and declarations of the government."
  • * Archive Sues to Recover 5 Million Missing White House E-mails

    Follow up to previous postings on missing White House e-mails and violations of the Presidential Records Act, this press release: "The National Security Archive today sued the White House seeking the recovery and preservation of more than 5 million White House e-mail messages that were apparently deleted from White House computers between March 2003 and October 2005. The lawsuit filed this morning in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia names as defendants the Executive Office of the President and its components that are subject to the Federal Records Act, including the White House Office of Administration (OA), and the National Archives and Records Administration (which is responsible for long-term preservation of federal and presidential records), under the records laws and the Administrative Procedure Act."

    * White House FOIA Handbook

    Follow up to September 3, 2007 posting White House Website States Executive Office of President Not Subject to FOIA, White House FOIA Handbook: "The Office of Administration, whose sole function is to advise and assist the President, and which has no substantial independent authority, is not subject to FOIA and related authorities. This handbook is intended to assist you in making a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Office of Administration (OA), Executive Office of the President (EOP). For further details please refer to the OA FOIA Regulations which can be found at 5 CFR §2502. These regulations are currently being updated."

    September 04, 2007
    * DOJ Summaries of New Decisions in FOIA Cases

    New FOIA Post Feature -- Summaries of New Decisions in FOIA Cases, (posted 9/4/2007): "Each year the federal courts issue hundreds of decisions in FOIA cases, addressing all aspects of the law. These decisions shape the way the law is interpreted and applied by the many attorneys and access professionals across the government who handle FOIA requests, administrative appeals, and litigation. To aid those professionals, and to facilitate greater understanding of the FOIA overall, OIP [Office of Informationn and Privacy] will begin publishing summaries of FOIA decisions on a regular basis."

    * Secrecy Report Card 2007: Report Finds Expanded Federal Government Secrecy in 2006

    Press release: "Government secrecy saw further expansion last year despite growing public concern, according to a report released today by a coalition of open government advocates. The Secrecy Report Card 2007, produced annually by OpenTheGovernment.org in order to identify trends in public access to information, found a troubling lack of transparency in military procurement, assertions of executive privilege, and expansion of "sensitive" categories of information, among other areas. In 2006, the public's use of the Freedom of Information Act continued to rise. Agency backlogs are significant; the oldest FOIA request in the federal government has now been pending for more than 20 years."

    September 03, 2007
    * White House Website States Executive Office of President Not Subject to FOIA

    Follow up to previous posting on Presidential Records Act Violations, FOIA within the EOP: "The Office of Administration [OA], whose sole function is to advise and assist the President, and which has no substantial independent authority, is not subject to FOIA and related authorities. OA is a distinct entity from the other components of the EOP. Please contact the separate EOP entities, that are subject to FOIA, individually, if you would like to make a FOIA request for their records.

    The EOP entities subject to the FOIA are:
    Council on Environmental Quality
    Office of Management and Budget
    Office of National Drug Control Policy
    Office of Science and Technology Policy
    Office of the United States Trade Representative

    The EOP entities exempt from the provisions of the FOIA are:
    White House Office
    Office of Administration
    Office of the Vice President
    Council of Economic Advisers
    National Security Council
    Office of Policy Development

    Domestic Policy Council
    Office of National AIDS Policy
    National Economic Council

    President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board"

  • Soft Crimes Against Democracy: What ever happend to Freedom of Information? by Ruth Rosen
  • * New Center Center Launched on Government Secrecy Headed by Former DOJ Information and Privacy Director

    Press release: "The Center on Government Secrecy (CGS) was created in August 2007 as a non-partisan academic center devoted to the study of government openness and secrecy. Established under the auspices of the Program on Law and Government in the Washington College of Law (“WCL”), at American University in Washington, D.C., it stands as the first such center of its kind at any law school in the United States. It operates in conjunction with both the JD and LLM/SJD degree programs at WCL and is designed to afford law students interested in this area of legal specialization the opportunity to gain both scholarly and practical experience, including in the growing field of international transparency. CGS is headed by former Department of Justice Office of Information and Privacy Director Daniel J. Metcalfe, who is a Faculty Fellow in Law and Government at WCL and also serves as CGS’s executive director."

    August 30, 2007
    * Committee Requests Information on Reports of Lost White House E-mails

    "Today Chairman Waxman wrote [Letter to Fred Fielding] to request information from the White House Office of Administration about reports that millions of e-mails that may have been lost from the White House e-mail system."

  • Related postings on White House e-mail investigation
  • August 20, 2007
    * Department of State Declassification Plan, 2004

    Via FAS, Department of State Declassification Plan 2004 Update and FY05-07 Projections, 13 pages, PDF. "prepared pursuant to...Executive Order 12958 [Classified National Security Information, as Amended]...The Order and Directive required executive branch agencies to institutionalize the declassification of permanent, classified records and establish an implementation date of December 31, 2006 for the introduction of automatic declassification whether or not records had been reviewed for declassification prior to becoming 25 years old."

    August 12, 2007
    * OSD/JS FOIA Requester Service Center Reading Rooms

    The Defense Freedom of Information Policy Office (DFOIPO) is responsible for the formulation and implementation of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policy guidance for the Department of Defense (DoD)

  • OSD/JS FOIA Requester Service Center Reading Rooms
  • August 09, 2007
    * New Analysis of Freedom of Information Act Performance by Coalition of Journalists for Open Government

    "Still Waiting After All These Years, a new analysis of Freedom of Information Act performance by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, shows that service continues to frustrate requesters, despite a presidential directive ordering agencies to improve agency response. Over the past nine years that agencies have been reporting performance data, the number of FOIA requests processed has fallen 20%, the number of FOIA personnel is down 10%, the backlog has tripled, and the cost of handling a request is up 79%. (8/8/07)"

  • A Further Look at the Performance Records (22 pages, PDF)

  • Performance by Year, Category
  • August 08, 2007
    * Court Orders Release of Personal Data on FEMA Victims

    Press release: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is launching an effort to contact up to 2.2 million applicants for federal disaster assistance to inform them that a federal appellate court ruling requires FEMA to release certain personally identifiable information. This information would normally be protected under the Privacy Act and the exemption for personal privacy under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)...The order affects up to 2.2 million persons in eight states who applied for federal assistance in connection with disasters that include hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne in Florida in 2004 and 27 additional Presidentially declared disasters."

    August 03, 2007
    * Senate Passes FOIA Reform Bill

    Press release, Sen. Patrick Leahy: "...As the first major reform to FOIA in more than a decade, the OPEN Government Act would help to reverse these troubling trends and help to begin to restore the public’s trust in their government. This bill [S. 849] also improves transparency in the Federal Government’s FOIA process by: Restoring meaningful deadlines for agency action under FOIA; Imposing real consequences on federal agencies for missing FOIA’s 20-day statutory deadline; Clarifying that FOIA applies to government records held by outside private contractors; Establishing a FOIA hotline service for all federal agencies; and Creating a FOIA Ombudsman to provide FOIA requestors and federal agencies with a meaningful alternative to costly litigation."

  • National Security Archive: "The United States Senate yesterday joined the House in passing bipartisan legislation that will fix several of the most glaring problems with the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that were identified in six government-wide audits of FOIA practice carried out by the National Security Archive. The legislation, authored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx.), overcame a hold placed by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Az) on behalf of Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department. It passed late Friday evening by unanimous consent, on the last day of the Congressional session before the August recess."
  • July 30, 2007
    July 26, 2007
    * NIH Freedom of Information Act Presentation

    Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): An Overview - Ms. Susan Cornell, Freedom of Information Officer and Chief FOIA Liaison, NIH

    July 24, 2007
    July 19, 2007
    * CIA Issues New Rule on Freedom of Information Act Processing Fees

    "On January 8, 2007, the Central Intelligence Agency submitted a proposed rule for public comment on Freedom of Information Act processing fees to the Federal Register. The CIA has reviewed and carefully considered all of the comments that were submitted in response to our proposal. As a result of that review, the CIA hereby issues its final rule on FOIA processing fees...

  • Representative of the News Media refers to any person actively gathering news for an entity that is organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. The term "news" means information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public. Examples of news media entities include television or radio stations broadcasting to the public at large, and publishers of periodicals (but only in those instances when they can qualify as disseminators of "news") who make their products available for purchase or subscription by the general public. These examples are not intended to be all-inclusive. Moreover, as traditional methods of news delivery evolve (e.g., electronic dissemination of newspapers through telecommunications services), such alternative media would be included in this category. In the case of "freelance" journalists, they may be regarded as working for a news organization if they can demonstrate a solid basis for expecting publication through that organization, even though not actually employed by it. A publication contract would be the clearest proof, but agencies may also look to the past publication record of a requestor in making this determination.." Federal Register: July 18, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 137)] [Rules and Regulations] [Page 39315-39316]
  • July 18, 2007
    * Homeland Security 2007 Grants Total $1.7 Billion

    Press release: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today final Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) awards totaling $1.7 billion, including a total of almost $411 million to the nation’s six urban areas at highest risk of a terrorist attack: New York City/Northern New Jersey; the National Capital Region; Los Angeles/Long Beach; the California Bay Area; Houston; and Chicago."

  • FY07 Homeland Security Grant Program Allocation Overview (PDF, 19 pages)


  • Related government documents:
  • Press release: "Nearly $1 Billion in First Responder Communications Grants Funds to Help Fire Fighters, Police and Other First Responders Communicate During a Disaster, July 18, 2007.
  • Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) Allocations

  • Fact Sheet: Public Safety Interoperable Communications Grant Program


  • Related NGO documents:
  • Coalition of 18 health organizations releases recommendations for improved disaster response: "Disaster plans from Oregon, Arizona, Minnesota and Virginia recognized at the 2nd National Congress for Health System Readiness, July 18, 2007 - "Today a coalition of 18 health organizations* led by the American Medical Association (AMA) and American Public Health Association (APHA) released a consensus report with 53 strategic recommendations for legislators, government officials and organizational leaders to more effectively prepare for and respond to catastrophic emergencies. The recommendations, especially nine identified as "critical," serve as a national call to action from medicine, dentistry, nursing, hospitals, emergency medical services (EMS), and public health. The recommendations seek to strengthen health system preparedness and response through increased funding, greater integration, continued education and training and ensured legal protections for responders."
  • July 16, 2007
    * Information Security Oversight Office Reports Classification of 20.5 Million Documents

    "Each year Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) gathers relevant statistical data regarding each agency's security classification program. ISOO analyzes this data in its 2006 Annual Report to the President."

  • AP: "There were 20.5 million decisions to classify government secrets last year, and a report to the president found serious shortcomings in the process."


  • Related government documents: July 12, 2007 House Intelligence Committee Hearing on Classification of National Security Information.
  • Statement of Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, Chair

  • Statement of Bill Leonard, Director of the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)

  • Statement of Steven Aftergood, Director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)

  • Statement of Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel to the National Security Archive at George Washington University

  • July 13, 2007
    * Secrecy and U.S. Satellite Reconnaissance, 1958-1976

    Press release: "Throughout the 1960s and most of the 1970s, while the U.S. government conducted its space reconnaissance program under a veil of absolute secrecy, officials debated whether information about the program (including the "fact of" its existence and certain photographs) should be disclosed to other elements of the government, public, allies, and even the Soviet Union, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and archival research and posted today by the National Security Archive.

    The documents published today show that some officials argued that even with a program as sensitive as satellite reconnaissance, greater openness, both within and outside the government, could help a variety of U.S. policy objectives. A certain degree of transparency, these officials believed, would legitimize space reconnaissance (by removing the stigma of espionage), allow more extensive use of satellite imagery for both national security and civilian purposes, and preserve the credibility of the classification system. As the documents demonstrate, other officials naturally raised objections, often citing the likely unfavorable reactions from the Soviet Union and other nations as well as operational security concerns.

    Compiled by National Security Archive Senior Fellow Dr. Jeffrey T. Richelson, the documents in this briefing book include National Security Action Memoranda, national intelligence estimates, and other sensitive internal records produced by the White House, the CIA, the United States Intelligence Board, the National Photographic Interpretation Center, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Department of Defense, and the Air Force."

    July 09, 2007
    * Problems With FBI Use of NSL Revealed in New FOI Document Release

    EFF press release: "...The FBI's use of NSLs was expanded under the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001, allowing federal agents to gather private
    records about anyone's domestic phone calls, emails, and financial transactions without any court approval -- as long as an FBI agent claims that the information could be related to a terrorism or espionage investigation. EFF submitted a FOIA request about the reported misuse of NSLs in March, and when no documents were forthcoming, EFF sued the FBI for their immediate release. Last month, a judge held that the FBI was required to release records related to the inspector general's report beginning on July 5, with more documents to be disclosed every 30 days. In all, 1138 pages of NSL records were released to EFF late last week in the first batch of documents complying with the court's order."

  • Related postings on National Security Letters
  • July 02, 2007
    * Commentary Marks 41st Anniversary of Enactment of Freedom of Information Act

    Commentary - John Moss and the battle for freedom of information, 41 years later: "How one modest but stubborn congressman overcame the many entrenched obstacles to win the American people access to information about the activities of their government," by Michael R. Lemov.

    * Court Orders OSHA To Release Toxic Exposure Database

    Press release: "The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has wrongfully withheld data documenting years of toxic exposures to workers and its own inspectors, according to a federal court ruling posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result, the world’s largest compendium of measurements of occupational exposures to toxic substances - more than 2 million analyses conducted during some 75,000 OSHA workplace inspections since 1979 - should now be available to researchers and policymakers. Each year, an estimated 40,000 U.S. workers die prematurely because of exposures to toxic substances on the job."

  • U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, decision by Judge Mary Cooper, Finkel v. Department of Labor, June 29, 2007 (28 pages, PDF)

  • Fact sheet summarizing key points in this case

  • Backgrounder on Dr. Adam Finkel forcing OSHA to admit beryllium exposure of its own inspectors

  • Original FOIA request filed by Dr. Finkel
  • July 01, 2007
    * Survey Reviews Oldest Pending FOIA Requests

    The Knight Open Government Survey conducted by the National Security Archive, George Washington University: 40 Years of FOIA, 20 Years of Delay - Oldest Pending FOIA Requests Date Back to the 1980s, July 2, 2007 (39 pages, PDF).

  • This audit "surveys the 87 agencies and major components and finds that extensive backlogs persist. Requests from as early as 1987 are still waiting to be processed 20 years later. Additionally, some agencies have located pending requests older than those reported to the archive in 2003 and those reported to Congress as recently as this year, suggesting not only a broken system, but one immersed in confusion and disarry."
  • Related postings on FOIA and monthly LLRX.com column, FOIA Facts.
  • June 28, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Post - Guidance on Submitting Updated Status Reports to the

    "As part of the June 1, 2007 report to the President on agency progress under Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information," the Attorney General recommended that agencies submit to the President's Management Council an Updated Status Report concerning any deficiency reported by the agency in its Fiscal Year 2006 annual FOIA report. This Updated Status Report must describe the specific steps already taken, or which the agency has committed to take in the future, to remedy any deficiency the agency has encountered in implementing its FOIA Improvement Plan. Set out [in this release] is the text of the guidance distributed by the Office of Information and Privacy to all Chief FOIA Officers concerning the content of the Updated Status Reports. These reports are required to be submitted first in draft form to the Office of Information and Privacy by July 18, 2007. Each agency, through its Chief FOIA Officer, must then submit the final report to the Chair of the President's Management Council by August 1, 2007."

    June 27, 2007
    * Public Interest Group Releases Report on Federal Government’s Long-term Planning for a Hurricane on the Gulf Coast

    Press release: "Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released a new report, The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans, detailing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) plan to respond to a hurricane of Katrina’s magnitude and its subsequent failure to implement that plan...The Best Laid Plans is based on the 7,500 records DHS provided in response to CREW’s lawsuit."

    Document links:

  • The Best Laid Plans: Executive Summary

  • The Best Laid Plans: Full Report

  • The Best Laid Plans: Exhibits

  • 09/01/06 DHS-Katrina-NRC

  • More Related Documents

  • Office of Federal Procurement Policy Memoranda, Emergency Acquisitions Guide,Enhancing Competition in Federal Acquisition, May 31, 2007 (23 pages, PDF

  • June 26, 2007
    June 23, 2007
    * Washington Post Ombudsman Spotlights Critical Elements of Freedom of Information Act Legislation

    Facelift for the FOI Law, by Deborah Howell: "Without access to records, people cannot hold government accountable. One of the most important avenues for that on the federal level is the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), now in the midst, I hope, of reform."

  • See also the monthly LLRX column, FOIA Facts, by Scott A. Hodes
  • * New Citizen Sponsored Websites Speed Process to Request FBI Files

    Via the Pogo Blog: "The 1966 Freedom of Information Act gives the American public access to FBI files on everything from businesses to the famous deceased, a privilege that is equally as beneficial as it is underused. The new websites, Get Grandpa’s FBI File, [and Get Daddy's FBI file] hopes to shatter this apathy toward requesting FBI files, a process better known in the political world as “FOIA’ing” a file, by serving as the middle man between Joe Schmo and the FBI."

    The site asks:

  • “Did Grandpa Joe run a gambling ring? Did Aunt Mary ever lead an antiwar protest? Did Cousin Gary smuggle booze during prohibition? Was Great-Uncle Fred a communist organizer?” By filling in a few slots on this site, you can have a FOIA letter in a few seconds to send to the FBI and request their file. Not interested in the past misdeeds of your family, but obsessed with iconic figures from the past? Not only can you request and receive information about Hollywood stars, but you can also head over to the FBI’s Famous Person Listing and mull over the histories of Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe, among others."

  • June 20, 2007
    * Amended Copy of AG's Report to the President on Executive Order 13,392

    Attorney General's Report to the President on Executive Order 13,392 (June 1, 2007). This report is now available electronically on the Department of Justice's FOIA Web site here. The accessible version which is in compliance with Section 508 of the Disabilities Act is available here. (posted 6/8/07; supplemented 6/20/07).

  • "In the Executive Order, the President directed the head of each Executive Branch agency to designate a senior official (at the Assistant Secretary level or equivalent) to serve as that agency's Chief FOIA Officer. So as to ensure a citizen-centered approach to responding to FOIA requests, the Order also directed each agency to establish one or more FOIA Requester Service Centers and to designate one or more FOIA Public Liaisons. The Service Centers would "serve as the first place that a FOIA requester can contact to seek information concerning the status of the person's FOIA request and appropriate information about the agency's FOIA response." The Liaisons would "serve as supervisory officials to whom a FOIA requester can raise concerns about the service the FOIA requester has received from the Center." In addition, the Liaisons would "seek to ensure a service-oriented response to FOIA requests and FOIA-related inquiries," and would "assist, as appropriate, in reducing delays, increasing transparency and understanding of the status of requests, and resolving disputes."
  • June 11, 2007
    * 10 Million Pages of CIA Declassified Records Available

    Press release: "The CIA recently delivered more than 420,000 additional pages of redacted declassified electronic records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facility in College Park, Maryland. The declassified CIA records are hosted on the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), which is an electronic search and retrieval system. CREST now includes more than 10 million pages of records declassified under Executive Order 12958."

    June 08, 2007
    * AG's Report to the President on Executive Order 13,392

    Attorney General's Report to the President on Executive Order 13,392 (June 1, 2007) [posted 6/8/07 - 118 pages, PDF]

  • "On June 1, 2007, the Attorney General submitted his second report to the President on Executive Order 13,392. In accordance with the Executive Order, this report is based on the annual FOIA reports for Fiscal Year 2006, and it provides "an update on the agencies' implementation of the FOIA and of their plans" for improving their FOIA operations."

  • Executive Order Mandates Chief FOIA Officers for Each Agency by January 13, 2006
  • May 30, 2007
    * DHS OIG Report on 2004 Airline Security Incident Released Via FOIA Request

    Washington Times: The inspector general for Homeland Security late Friday released new details of what federal air marshals say was a terrorist dry run aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on June 29, 2004. Several portions of the report remain redacted. The release stems from a Freedom of Information request by The Washington Times in April 2006. The Times first reported on July 22 that this and other probes and dry runs were occurring on commercial flights since the September 11 terrorist attacks."

  • Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, Review of Department's Handling of Suspicious Passengers Aboard Northwest Flight 327, March 30, 2006 (51 pages, PDF)
  • May 06, 2007
    * Boucher Introduces Free Flow of Information Act

    Press release: "The bill provides a privilege in federal court proceedings for reporters to refrain from revealing their confidential sources of information. The privilege is similar in nature to that currently offered by 32 states and the District of Columbia. The ability to assure confidentiality to people who provide information is essential to effective news gathering and reporting on highly sensitive and important issues. Typically, the best information about corruption in government or misdeeds in a private organization will come from someone on the inside who feels a responsibility to bring the information to light. But that person has a lot to lose if his or her identity becomes known. In many cases, the person responsible for the corruption or the misdeeds can punish the source through dismissal or more subtle forms of punitive action if the source’s identity becomes known. And so it is only by assuring anonymity to the source that a reporter can gain access to the information in order to bring it to public scrutiny."

  • Statement of Congressman Boucher

  • Copy of the Bill - Free Flow Information Act of 2007

  • Section by Section Overview

  • News.com: Bills propose reporter's shield for bloggers
  • May 02, 2007
    * Open Government Act of 2007

    S. 849: A bill to promote accessibility, accountability, and openness in Government by strengthening section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act), and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Leahy, Patrick J. [VT] (introduced 3/13/2007). Related Bills: H.R. 1309, H.R. 1326.

  • Senate Reports: 110-59
  • May 01, 2007
    * The FBI Budget for Fiscal Year 2008

    Congressional Testimony, Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Statement Before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, April 26, 2007: "...The fiscal 2008 budget for the FBI totals 29,373 positions and $6.4 billion. The net fiscal 2008 program increases total 714 new positions (231 agents, 121 intelligence analysts, and 362 professional support) and $313.8 million. Our fiscal 2008 budget is focused on improving the FBI's capabilities in addressing five key challenges: combating terrorism; preventing the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction; defeating foreign intelligence operations; reducing child exploitation and violent crimes; and strengthening infrastructure and information technology."

  • See also Sharing Terrorism Information, Wayne M. Murphy, Assistant Director, Directorate of Intelligence, FBI, Before the House Homeland Security Committee, April 26, 2007: "Every marking that appears on any controlled unclassified information document in the future must have a clear and unambiguous meaning. There should be a website—accessible over the Internet to everybody—on which the approved markings are defined, and no markings should ever be used that are not defined on this website. This will mean that recipients of shared information who want to do the right thing will easily be able to find out what protective measures are expected of them. I believe that this change will both increase sharing and decrease the risks of sharing."
  • April 30, 2007
    * New GAO Reports Cover Defense Acquisitions, Immigration Benefits, ID Theft and More

  • Bureau of Justice Statistics: Quality Guidelines Generally Followed for Police-Public Contact Surveys, but Opportunities Exist to Help Assure Agency Independence GAO-07-340, March 30, 2007

  • Defense Acquisitions: Missile Defense Agency's Flexibility Reduces Transparency of Program Cost GAO-07-799T, April 30, 2007

  • Defense Management: High-Level Leadership Commitment and Actions Are Needed to Address Corrosion Issues GAO-07-618, April 30, 2007

  • DOD and VA Outpatient Pharmacy Data: Computable Data Are Exchanged for Some Shared Patients, but Additional Steps Could Facilitate Exchanging These Data for All Shared Patients GAO-07-554R, April 30, 2007

  • Employer-Sponsored Health and Retirement Benefits: Efforts to Control Employer Costs and the Implications for Workers GAO-07-355, March 30, 2007

  • Immigration Benefits: Sixteenth Report Required by the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 GAO-07-796R, April 27, 2007

  • Information Technology: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Needs to Fully Address Significant Infrastructure Modernization Program Management Weaknesses GAO-07-565, April 27, 2007

  • Medicaid Financing: Federal Oversight Initiative Is Consistent with Medicaid Payment Principles but Needs Greater Transparency GAO-07-214, March 30, 2007

  • Medicare: Focus on Physician Practice Patterns Can Lead to Greater Program Efficiency GAO-07-307, April 30, 2007

  • Nursing Workforce: HHS Needs Methodology to Identify Facilities with a Critical Shortage of Nurses GAO-07-492R, April 30, 2007

  • Privacy: Lessons Learned about Data Breach Notification GAO-07-657, April 30, 2007

  • Transportation Security: DHS Efforts to Eliminate Redundant Background Check Investigations GAO-07-756, April 26, 2007
  • April 11, 2007
    * ACLU Releases Civilian Casualty Data for Afghanistan and Iraq

    Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union today made public hundreds of claims for damages by family members of civilians killed or injured by Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU received the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request it filed in June 2006...The files made public today are claims submitted to the U.S. Foreign Claims Commissions by surviving Iraqi and Afghan family members of civilians said to have been killed or injured or to have suffered property damages due to actions by Coalition Forces. The ACLU released a total of 496 files: 479 from Iraq and 17 from Afghanistan. The documents released by the ACLU are available online in a searchable database..."

    April 10, 2007
    * EFF Sues Justice Department for Immediate Release of NSL

    Follow up to postings on investigations into FBI use of National Security Letters, this press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked a judge to issue an emergency order requiring the FBI to immediately release agency records about its abuse of National Security Letters (NSLs) to collect Americans' personal information. The Department of Justice has already agreed that the records should be disclosed quickly due to the exceptional media attention and the questions the NSL report has raised about the government's integrity. However, despite this recognition, the Bureau has failed to meet the 20-day time limit that Congress set for requests that do not merit fast processing...EFF's FOIA request asks for all FBI records discussing or reporting violations of current law, guidelines, or policies, as well as any communications discussing various potential interpretations of current federal investigative power. EFF also demands copies of the contracts between the FBI and three telephone companies, which were intended to allow the FBI to get rapid access to telephone records."

  • EFF FOIA complaint

  • EFF motion for a preliminary injunction
  • April 06, 2007
    * March 2007 Freedom of Information Act Guide Now Available

    USDOJ: "The Office of Information and Privacy has completed the latest revision of the Freedom of Information Act Guide, a comprehensive reference volume covering all aspects of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The March 2007 edition of the FOIA Guide contains a newly updated and revised discussion of the procedural requirements of the FOIA, the contours of the FOIA's nine exemptions and three exclusions, as well as the considerations applicable to FOIA litigation. This latest edition of the FOIA Guide also contains an overview of Executive Order 13,392, entitled "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information." This Executive Order was signed by the President on December 14, 2005, and calls upon all agencies to improve their FOIA operations by ensuring that they are "both results-oriented and produce results."

  • "The March 2007 edition of the FOIA Guide is now available electronically on the Department of Justice's FOIA Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foia_guide07.htm. This electronic version of the FOIA Guide can be easily searched by using key words. The FOIA Guide has also been sent to the Government Printing Office, which expects it to be ready for distribution in hard copy within the next few weeks."

  • DOJ press release: "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today appointed Melanie Ann Pustay as Director of the Office of Information and Privacy (OIP). Pustay is a 24-year career civil servant at OIP, starting in the Department in 1983 as an attorney advisor. She has served as Acting Director since January 2007 and replaces Daniel J. Metcalfe as Director. Pustay manages the Department’s responsibilities related to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which include developing policy guidance and ensuring compliance with the FOIA, responding to initial information requests made to the senior leadership offices, adjudicating all appeals from denials by any Department component under the FOIA, and handling FOIA litigation matters.
  • March 30, 2007
    * GAO Report on FOIA Processing Trends

    Freedom of Information Act: Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans, Full Report GAO-07-441, and Highlights, March 30, 2007.

    March 27, 2007
    * Government Accountability Project Report - Redacting the Science of Climate Change

    "Redacting the Science of Climate Change [details] the findings of a year-long investigation into political interference at federal climate science agencies. The report demonstrates how policies and practices have increasingly restricted the flow of scientific information emerging from publicly-funded climate change research. This has negatively affected the media’s ability to report objectively on scientific issues, public officials’ capacity to respond with appropriate policies, and full public understanding of environmental concerns."

  • Committee on Science, March 28, 2007 hearing: Shaping the Message, Distorting the Science: Media Strategies to Influence Public Policy [includes links to witness statements]

  • Related postings on climate change
  • March 25, 2007
    March 21, 2007
    * Committee Examines Political Interference with Climate Science

    Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Full Committee hearing to Examine Allegations of Political Interference with Government Climate Change Science (Part II) - [Link to Part 1]. "This hearing examined evidence and allegations of political interference with the work of government climate change scientists under the current Administration."

    Documents and Links

  • Chairman Waxman's Opening Statement

  • Memorandum: Political Interference with Science: Global Warming, Part II

  • Witness List and links to respective statements

  • March 18, 2007
    March 17, 2007
    * OPEN Government Act of 2007 - Updates and Strenghens Freedom of Information Act

    Press release: "Mr. President, I am pleased to join Senator Cornyn in reintroducing the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act” (the “OPEN Government Act”). This bill contains commonsense reforms to update and strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for all Americans...Now in its fourth decade, the Freedom of Information Act remains an indispensable tool in shedding light on bad policies and government abuses. But, today, FOIA also faces challenges like never before. During the past six years, the Bush Administration has allowed lax FOIA enforcement and a near obsession with secrecy to undercut the public’s right to know. As we celebrate Sunshine Week this week, there is urgent need to update and strengthen our FOIA law."

    • Statement of Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee, On Reintroduction Of The Leahy-Cornyn OPEN Government Act

    • Section-By-Section Analysis: Openness Promotes Effectiveness In Our National Government Act Of 2007

    • One Pager: Leahy-Cornyn Openness Promotes Effectiveness In Our National Government Act Of 2007

    • Leahy Op-Ed: A Sunshine Week Forecast: Mostly Cloudy, Thin Rays Of Hope On The Horizon, as distributed by the Vermont Press Association during Sunshine Week 2007

    • Leahy-Cornyn Op-Ed: The OPEN Government Act: An Investment In American Democracy

    • Text Of Legislation

    March 15, 2007
    * House Oversight Chairman Waxman Applauds Passage of Open Government Bills

    "Today the House of Representatives passed four good government bills. H.R. 985 enhances protections offered to federal whistleblowers, H.R. 1255 strengthens the Freedom of Information Act, H.R. 1255 makes clear that presidential records belong to the public, and H.R. 1254 requires organizations that raise money for presidential libraries to disclose information about their donors.

  • H.R. 1255, approved by a vote of 333-93, makes clear that presidential records belong to the American people, not the president who created
    them. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 will nullify a Bush executive order which gave former presidents – and their heirs – nearly unlimited authority to withhold or delay the release of their own records. If it becomes law, this legislation will ensure that a complete historical record is available to researchers.

  • H.R. 1254, approved by a vote of 390-34, will require organizations that raise money for presidential libraries to disclose information about their donors. This will eliminate a major loophole that allows presidential supporters to secretly give millions in support of a president’s legacy while that president remains in office.

  • H.R. 1309, approved by a vote of 308-117, will strengthen the Freedom of Information Act and improve public access to government information. One key element of this legislation would restore the presumption of disclosure under FOIA that was eliminated by the Bush Administration in 2001.

  • H.R. 985, approved by a vote of 331-94, offers improved protections to federal whistleblowers who report wrongdoing to authorities. Federal employees and contractors are privy to information that enables them to play an essential role in ensuring government accountability."
  • March 13, 2007
    * Senate Moves to Declassify CIA Report on 9/11

    Press release: "U.S. Senate legislation to implement unfinished recommendations of the 9/11 commission includes a bipartisan amendment to declassify the Executive Summary of the CIA Inspector General’s Report on 9/11. The CIA report is the only major 9/11 government review that has not been made public, a fact that the Vice Chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Kit Bond (R-MO) and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a senior member of the Intelligence Committee, have spent more than a year working to correct."

  • Related postings on 9/11
  • March 12, 2007
    * AG Reno Testimony From 2000 Hearing Released After 3 Year FOIA Delay

    Via FAS: "The steps by which the Justice Department conducts investigations of unauthorized disclosures of classified information ("leaks") were described by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 2000 testimony before a closed hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee." [see this committee press release] Ms. Reno's testimony included the following statement: "In addition to the difficulties of identifying leakers, bringing leak prosecutions is highly complex, requiring overcoming defenses such as apparent authority, improper classification, and First Amendment concerns, and prosecutions are likely to result in more leaks in the course of litigation."

    March 11, 2007
    * Nationwide Information Audit of Public Hazmat Documents Meets with Suspicion, Confusion And, Sometimes, Compliance

    Press release: "A nationwide information audit, conducted as a prelude to Sunshine Week, found slightly more than four in 10 of the official gatekeepers willing – if wary – to provide copies of emergency response plans, which federal law makes public. Other local officials, however, reacted to requests with confusion, outright denials and sometimes by calling police to check out the auditors. Many weren’t sure who had the authority to release the reports, or even where the documents were located. More than a third of public officials audited refused to provide access to their local Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan – which is mandated by the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 as a public document. Another 20 percent provided only partial reports. Those denials stood in stark contrast to the experience of other auditors, many of whom were offered copies of the report in either paper or disc form; 48, or 12 percent, of the 404 communities put the reports online...The 1986 law not only says the plans are public, it also requires the local officials to advertise their availability once a year. In all, 162 news organizations participated as requestors, along with three student newspapers and eight League of Women Voters chapters. This report is built on a database of their experiences and offers a snapshot of the difficulties citizens may face when they request public information that may be considered sensitive."

  • The Sunshine Week 2007 National Information Audit: Comprehensive Emergency Response Plans (21 pages, PDF)
  • * Sunshine Week 2007: March 11-17

    "Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know. Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation of Miami. Though spearheaded by journalists, Sunshine Week is about the public's right to know what its government is doing, and why. Sunshine Week seeks to enlighten and empower people to play an active role in their government at all levels, and to give them access to information that makes their lives better and their communities stronger. Sunshine Week is a non-partisan initiative whose supporters are conservative, liberal and everything in between."

  • Sunshine Week 2007: Calendar of Events
  • * Survey Reports 10 Years After E-FOIA, Most Federal Agencies Are Delinquent

    National Security Archive: "Ten years after Congress enacted the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments (E-FOIA), only one in five federal agencies actually complies with the law, according to a new survey released today during Sunshine Week by the National Security Archive. Passed in 1996 and effective in 1997, E-FOIA ordered federal agencies to post key records online, provide citizens with detailed guidance on making information requests, and use new information technology to publish information proactively. The act's intent: Expand public access and reduce the burden of FOIA requests. But most federal agencies do not follow the law, according to the National Security Archive's government-wide audit, File Not Found, conducted with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Knight Open Government Survey systematically reviewed agency Web sites to cover all 91 federal agencies that have Chief FOIA Officers and the additional 58 agency components each of which handles more than 500 FOIA requests a year. Key findings are:

  • Only one in five federal agencies (21 percent) posts on the Web all four categories of records that the law specifically requires

  • Only one in 16 agencies (6 percent) posts all ten elements of essential FOIA guidance

  • Only 36 percent of agencies provide the required indexes of records

  • Only 26 percent of agencies provide online forms for submitting FOIA requests

  • Many agency Web links are missing or just wrong - one FOIA fax number checked in the Knight Survey actually rang in the maternity ward of a military base hospital."

  • March 06, 2007
    * Bill Summary: The Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007

    "On March 5, 2007, Reps. Wm. Lacy Clay, Todd Russell Platts, and Henry A. Waxman introduced H.R. 1309, the Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007. This legislation contains a dozen substantive provisions that will increase public access to government information by strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). On March 6, the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives reported this bill favorably to the full committee."

  • Bill Summary: The Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 2007

  • March 05, 2007
    * DOJ FOIA Post on Assessing Agency Efforts to Meet FOIA Requirements

    House Subcommittee Hearing: "The State of the [Freedom of Information Act]: Assessing Agency Efforts to Meet FOIA Requirements" - On February 14, 2007, the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in the House of Representatives held a hearing entitled "The State of the FOIA: Assessing Agency Efforts to Meet FOIA Requirements." Testifying on behalf of the executive branch were Melanie Ann Pustay, Acting Director, Office of Information and Privacy, Department of Justice and Linda Koontz, Director, Information Management, Government Accountability Office. Ms. Pustay detailed steps taken by the Department of Justice to ensure Governmentwide compliance with both the FOIA and Executive Order 13,392, "Improving Agency Disclosure of Information." See Statement of Ms. Pustay (February 15, 2007). Ms. Koontz reported on GAO's recent findings concerning agency FOIA Improvement Plans created under the Executive Order. The second panel of witnesses consisted of private sector witnesses from the Sunshine in Government Initiative, American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Security Archive at George Washington University." (posted 3/5/07)

    February 27, 2007
    * EFF Lawsuit Seeks Release of Secret Court Orders on Electronic Surveillance

    Press release: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice today, demanding records about secret new court orders that supposedly authorize the government's highly controversial electronic surveillance program that intercepts and analyzes millions of Americans' communications."

  • FOIA complaint filed against the Justice Department

  • Related postings on the government's domestic surveillance program
  • February 22, 2007
    * New Report Shows No Precedent for Mass U.S. Attorney Firings

    Press release: "Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA) released a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report [U.S. Attorneys Who Have Served Less than Full Four-year Terms, 1981-2006, February 22, 2007] showing the recent firing of seven U.S. Attorneys is unprecedented. Conyers and Sanchez requested the study, which found that since 1981, during a president's initial term in office of the 486 confirmed U.S. Attorneys appointments, no more than three U.S. Attorneys had beenforced out under similar circumstances. Because the Administration has refused to cooperate with CRS in their examination, they have not yet obtained all the available data on U.S. Attorney firings and their examination is ongoing. However, there is little doubt that the recent batch of dismissals goes well beyond previous experiences...The non-partisan CRS study found that of the 486 U.S. Attorneys confirmed during an initial presidential term, 54 U.S. Attorneys left voluntarily before completing a full four year term since 1981. Of those, 17 left to become federal judges; 15 went back to private law practice; six left to take other Executive branch positions; two left to seek elective office; two left to work in state government; and, one additional left to become a U.S. Magistrate judge. Of the remaining eight attorneys, five resigned or were fired in the midst of scandals, meaning that in sum total, no more than three U.S. Attorneys were forced out under similar circumstances to the present."

  • Related news, Washington Post - Information, Please - Watchdog Groups, Some Lawmakers Say Congressional Reports Should Be Made Public, February 19, 2007
  • February 20, 2007
    * Council on Environmental Quality Sued For Non Disclosure of Global Warming Documents

    Press release: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has sued the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) today for its failure to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records related to global warming science and policy. CREW filed its FOIA request after media reports -- including a 60 Minutes piece -- and documents gathered by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform revealed that political appointees at CEQ, including former Chief of Staff Philip Cooney, edited various government reports to downplay and obscure scientific findings about global warming."

    Related documents:

  • CREW Sends FOIA to Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) May 12, 2006

  • 2/20/2007: CEQ Complaint

  • 2/20/2007: CEQ Exhibits
  • February 19, 2007
    * CBO Testimony on Future Medical Spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs

    CBO Testimony - Statement of Allison Percy, Principal Analyst, Future Medical Spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs before the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, February 15, 2007.

    February 15, 2007
    * GAO Report on Freedom of Information Act Processing Trends

    Freedom of Information Act: Processing Trends Show Importance of Improvement Plans, GAO-07-491T, and Highlights, February 14, 2007.

  • "Based on data in annual reports from 2002 to 2005, the public continued to submit more requests for information from the federal government through FOIA. Despite increasing the numbers of requests processed, many agencies did not keep pace with the volume of requests that they received. As a result, the number of pending requests carried over from year to year has been steadily increasing.
  • February 13, 2007
    * PBS Four-Part Series on the Future of News

    PBS.org intro: "Drawing on more than 80 interviews with key figures in the print, broadcast and electronic media, and with unequaled, behind-the-scenes access to some of today's most important news organizations, FRONTLINE correspondent Lowell Bergman examines the challenges facing the mainstream news media, and the media's reaction, in "News War," a special four-part series."

  • 50+ Interviews - Search by name or topic to access FRONTLINE's extended interviews with major players in the debate.

  • Readings and Links: Reporter's Privilege The Plame Investigation Weapons of Mass Destruction

  • "A teacher's guide for "News War," focusing on freedom and the press and the Constitution, will be available beginning in March 2007."
  • February 08, 2007
    * New Rule on FOIA Processing Fee Imposes Burdens According to National Security Archive

    National Security Archive: "The CIA's proposed new rule on Freedom of Information Act processing fees is likely to discourage FOIA requesters while imposing new administrative burdens both on the Agency and the public, according to formal comments filed with the CIA [February 7, 2007] by the National Security Archive of George Washington University. The Archive's general counsel, Meredith Fuchs, commented that, "Significant time, money, and other resources were spent by the CIA on fee disputes last year. One of those disputes involved the CIA's refusal to abide by a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judicial decision about the Archive's fee status. Given that the Agency recouped only $4,732.80 in fees in FY 2006, those disputes served mainly to delay and obstruct FOIA requests. The Archive recommended that the Agency change its proposed rule to: (1) eliminate the unnecessary and improper definitions of FOIA requester categories; (2) eliminate the requirement that all requesters make open-ended, written fee commitments because many FOIA requests can be processed without the requester incurring any fees and the CIA proposal would discourage requesters and add to the Agency's administrative processing time; (3) eliminate the illegal provision mandating prepayment of fees before the CIA will honor form or format requests; (4) revise the proposed duplication fees provisions so that requesters pay only those "direct costs" actually incurred in the processing of the individual request, whether for paper or electronic duplication; and (5) revise the public interest fee waiver provisions to follow the letter and intent of the FOIA to promote dissemination of information in the public interest."

    February 07, 2007
    * CIA FOIA Database Updated With Addition of 138 New Documents

    "138 new documents were added to the site on February 5, 2007. Additional recent releases may be found here." [Note: all but four of the documents date back to the 1990s.]

    January 30, 2007
    * State Department Hosts First Conference on Global Internet Freedom

    Press release: "The Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT), which is jointly chaired by Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs, and Josette Sheeran, Under Secretary for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs, will host its first conference on Global Internet Freedom on January 30, 2007 in Washington, D.C. This event is a follow-up to the State Department's unveiling of the GIFT global strategy to monitor and respond to threats to Internet freedom held December 20, 2006. The presenters and attendees will include U.S. government officials and representatives of corporations, socially responsible investment (SRI) firms, and non-governmental organizations."

  • CNet: Web giants ask for feds' help on censorship
  • January 29, 2007
    * Government Secrecy vs. Freedom of the Press

    "A new First Amendment Center report examines the rising conflicts between the federal government and the press over matters of secrecy, leaks and threats to prosecute journalists for espionage or treason for reporting classified information. Government Secrecy vs. Freedom of the Press (77 pages, PDF), by Geoffrey R. Stone, a University of Chicago law professor, is one in a series of First Reports by the center exploring crucial First Amendment topics. Included in the report is an analysis of the 1918 Espionage Act by Stephen I. Vladeck of the University of Miami School of Law."

    January 23, 2007
    January 17, 2007
    * Federal Government Employees Owe Almost 3 Billion in Taxes for 2005

    WTOP Radio: "More than 450,000 active and retired federal employees did not voluntarily comply with federal income tax requirements for the 2005 tax year, according to documents obtained by WTOP through the Freedom of Information Act."

  • Excel spreadsheets: Agency Breakdown of Delinquent Employees in 2005 (xls); Agency Breakdown of Delinquent Employees in 2004 (xls)
  • January 16, 2007
    * New Japanese War Crimes Records Volume and Records Guide From NARA

    Press release: "The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) announces the availability of a new book, Researching Japanese War Crimes Records: Introductory Essays (PDF), and an electronic records guide that will help researchers locate and use the thousands of newly declassified and previously declassified files in the National Archives related to the war in the Pacific."

  • See also Select Documents on Japanese War Crimes and Japanese Biological Warfare
  • January 11, 2007
    * Citizens Group Sues NARA For Access to White House Visitor Logs

    Press release, January 10, 2007: "Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for its failure to adequately respond to CREW's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents related to the destruction of Secret Service visitor record logs. On September 27, 2006, CREW filed a FOIA request with NARA asking for communications with the Secret Service in which NARA ordered the Secret Service to stop destroying White House visitor logs. The Secret Service maintains the logs until they are transferred to the White House. CREW filed suit because NARA has refused to provide these records."

  • 1/10/07: NARA Complaint

  • 1/10/07: NARA Complaint Exhibits
  • January 10, 2007
    * Historic Declassification of FBI Records Includes Delay For Public Access

    Press release: "Imagine a library filled with a million books, each 270 pages long. That's how many historic FBI pages we declassified on December 31, in line with an executive order that now applies to the Bureau. "It's unprecedented," says David Hardy, chief of the Record/Information Dissemination Section in our Records Management Division. "To historians and researchers interested in the FBI, it may be remembered as the 'Great Declassification of 06." The 270 million pages of records cover a span of time stretching from the 1920s until 1981 and just about every kind of FBI investigation, including sensitive cases involving domestic security and more routine ones like organized crime and kidnappings...“Just because the files are officially declassified doesn’t mean they are automatically ready for public review. We have a lot of work to do before that happens," explains Hardy. Such as: Scouring for—and then redacting—information that would compromise personal privacy or would expose a government informant, identify a sensitive technique, or violate a treaty or agreement with another country...And how can you access them? Make a request to the National Archives or to us through our Freedom of Information Act website."

    January 04, 2007
    * AP Posts FBI Documents on Justice Rehnquist Obtained Through FOIA Request

    Documents prepared by the FBI (1,561 pages) in 1986 detailing Justice Rehnquist's decade long prescription drug pain treatment were obtained by AP through FOIA requests, and released today as follows:

  • http://wid.ap.org/documents/rehnquist/section1.pdf

  • http://wid.ap.org/documents/rehnquist/section3.pdf

  • http://wid.ap.org/documents/rehnquist/section4.pdf

  • http://wid.ap.org/documents/rehnquist/section5.pdf

  • http://wid.ap.org/documents/rehnquist/section6.pdf

  • http://wid.ap.org/documents/rehnquist/section7.pdf

  • Related posting from January 3, 2006, Article Details Justice Rehnquist's Senate Confirmation Hearings

  • Slate: Rehnquist's Drug Habit - The man in full, by Jack Shafer, Posted Friday, January 5, 2007
  • January 03, 2007
    * State Dept. Proposed Rule on National Security Information Regulations

    Summary: "The Department of State proposes to revise its regulations governing the classification of national security information that is under the control of the Department in order to reflect the provisions of a new executive order on national security information and consequent changes in the Department's procedures since the last revision of the Department's regulations on this subject." [Federal Register: January 3, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 1)][Proposed Rules][Page 59-62]

  • Related reference: postings on Executive Order 13292
  • December 28, 2006
    * CIA FOIA Database Increases With Addition of 77 New Documents

    "77 new documents were added to the site on December 28, 2006. Additional recent releases may be found here."

    December 21, 2006
    * Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT) Strategy: A Blueprint for Action

    Press release, December 21, 2006: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice established the Global Internet Freedom Task Force (GIFT) on February 14, 2006 as an internal State Department coordination group to address challenges to freedom of expression and the free flow of information on the Internet. The core aims of the GIFT are to maximize freedom of expression and the free flow of information and ideas, to minimize the success of repressive regimes in censoring and silencing legitimate debate, and to promote access to information and ideas over the Internet. We refer to such freedom of expression on the Internet as "Internet freedom." Since its launch in February 2006, the Task Force has developed a robust global Internet strategy that aims to monitor and respond to threats to Internet freedom and to advance the frontiers of Internet freedom by expanding access to the Internet. In executing this strategy, the State Department is coordinating its efforts with other U.S. government agencies and the National Security and National Economic Councils."

    December 20, 2006
    * USDA Makes Subsidy Payment Information Public

    Press release: "USDA will release a massive database today which, for the first time, will mean that payment data will be searchable for every individual in the U.S. who benefits from federal farm and conservation programs. In the past, while payments made to most individuals were available, shareholder data was obscured. Payment data for shareholders in farming corporations, members of agricultural cooperatives, and beneficiaries of estate trusts was obscured because only data on individuals was available from USDA. USDA made totals paid to a farming corporation, agricultural cooperative, estate trust, or Tribe. But section "1614" of the 2002 farm bill requires USDA to make it possible to track all farm and conservation benefits down to the individual, says Farm Service Agency administrator Teresa Lasseter. USDA's Farm Service Agency is releasing the so-called "1614" database today to four organizations - including the Environmental Working Group - that filed Freedom of Information requests." [thanks Mike]

  • Related news from AP: USDA discloses payments to individual farmers

  • 2006 Farm Subsidy Database Update
  • December 15, 2006
    * FCC Refuses Release of Cell Phone Service Outage Records For Security Reasons

    MSNBC: "Consumers have no idea how reliable their cell phone service will be when they buy a phone and sign a long-term contract. The Federal Communications Commission could offer some guidance, but it won't. The agency refuses to make public a detailed database of cell phone provider outages that it has maintained since 2004. A federal Freedom of Information Act request for the data, filed in August by MSNBC.com, has been rejected by the agency. The stated reasons: Release of the information could help terrorists plan attacks against the United States, and it would harm the companies involved."

  • Related news: FCC Cuts Public Line To Phone Outage Data, By Christopher Stern, Washington Post, Saturday, August 28, 2004: "The Federal Communications Commission, citing concerns about national security, has abandoned a 10-year-old policy and will no longer give the public access to information about past telephone network outages."
  • December 13, 2006
    * ALA Calls for Real Update on EPA Library Status

    Follow up to my December 11, 2006 posting, EPA Responds to Protests Over Library Closures, see today's ALA Press release: "American Library Association (ALA) President Leslie Burger responded to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) update Monday on the status of agency libraries. "The teleconference raised more questions than it answered. It is a gross oversimplification to state that everyone benefits when libraries go digital. This is only true when there is a thoughtful digitization plan that ensures valuable information is not lost and public access is retained. We are still waiting for the EPA to disclose its digitization plan and budget," Burger said."

    December 08, 2006
    * EPA Redacting Library Website to Remove Public Access to Reports

    Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) press release: "defiance of Congressional requests to immediately halt closures of library collections, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is purging records from its library websites, making them unavailable to both agency scientists and outside researchers, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). At the same time, EPA is taking steps to prevent the re-opening of its shuttered libraries, including the hurried auctioning off of expensive bookcases, cabinets, microfiche readers and other equipment for less than a penny on the dollar...on December 1st, EPA de-linked thousands of documents from the website for the Office of Prevention, Pollution and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) Library, in EPA's Washington D.C. Headquarters."

  • Look at the materials removed from the OOPTS Library website

  • Related postings on EPA library closures
  • November 26, 2006
    * Congress v. White House: Predictions That Documents Will Not Be Forthcoming

    Boston.com: Dick Cheney's mission to expand -- or 'restore' --the powers of the presidency - "A close look at key moments in Cheney's career...suggests that the newly empowered Democrats in Congress should not expect the White House to cooperate when they demand classified information or attempt to exert oversight in areas such as domestic surveillance or the treatment of terrorism suspects."

    November 22, 2006
    * Voluminous Data on New York State Legislator's Pork Barrel Spending Posted on Web

    AP reports that in response to a FOIA suit filed by the Times Union newspaper, data for fiscal years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 on money directed to earmarked projects has not been posted on the New York State Senate website. [Please note, the files below are very large.]

  • Community Projects Fund SFY 2003-04, November 22, 2006

  • Community Projects Fund SFY 2004-05, November 22, 2006
  • November 21, 2006
    * Judge Denies Group's FOIA Request for Access to Domestic Surveillance Documents

    Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled that the NSA wiretapping documents are classified and not subject to FOIA.

    November 20, 2006
    * GAO Recommendations for Management of Sensitive Info by DOJ

    Managing Sensitive Information: DOJ Needs a More Complete Staffing Strategy for Managing Classified Information and a Set of Internal Controls for Other Sensitive Information. Full text GAO-07-83, and Highlights, October 20, 2006.

    November 13, 2006
    * Privacy Expert Steven Aftergood's Work A Matter of Public Record

    As Director of the Project on Government Secrecy, Steven Aftergood has let the light shine in on the otherwise secret world of "sensitive" government documents, much to the benefit of scholars, researchers, librarians, journalists and interested citizens. This profile of his work by Federal Computer Week is worth a read.

    Related news and postings:

  • Washington Post, November 8. 2006: Army Revamps How Information Is Deemed Classified

  • Related postings on overclassification and reclassification of government documents
  • November 02, 2006
    * FOIA Request Unexpectedly Yields Formerly Redacted DHS Report Two Years After Publication

    Elizabeth Williamson at the Washington Post clearly and concisely documents, through the use of before and after graphics, the impact of redacting text from a DHS report, and its subsequent revelation, years later, as a result of a FOIA request.

  • Related postings on over classification of government documents
  • October 30, 2006
    * DoD Removes FOIA Regulation on "For Official Use Only"

    "SUMMARY: This documents removes Subpart D, "For Official Use Only" (FOUO) from 32 CFR part 286, "DoD Freedom of Information Act Program Regulations" and reserves that subpart for future use. Removing this from 32 CFR part 286 will eliminate confusion of the authoritative FOUO guidance and who is the authority on FOUO. This removal will alleviate any further uncertainty, avoid duplication of FOUO guidance, and is considered an administrative action." Federal Register: October 27, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 208)] [Rules and Regulations][Page 62940-62941]

  • Related postings on document classification
  • October 26, 2006
    * Public May Now Request and Obtain New York Records Via Email

    Effective October 25, 2006 the public may request records from state and local agencies ["any New York State or municipal department, board, bureau, division, commission, committee, public authority, public corporation, council, office or other governmental entity performing a governmental or proprietary function is subject to the Law"], via email in New York.

  • See the Freedom of Information Law - FAQ EMAIL REQUESTS
  • * Bloggers' FAQ on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

    Press release: "Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has released tips for bloggers who want the inside story on government agencies. The Bloggers' FAQ on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) outlines how to use open government laws to get access to records kept by federal agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or the Food and Drug
    Administration (FDA)...The guide walks bloggers through making a FOIA request -- addressing what to ask for, which government offices must
    comply, and what you can and cannot obtain through FOIA. It also explains how to put requests on the fast track and get processing fees waived."

  • The Bloggers' FAQ on the Freedom of Information Act

  • See also the complete Legal Guide for Bloggers

  • National Journal Beltway Blogroll: A Guide To Enterprise Blogging
  • October 20, 2006
    * Federal Judge Orders Release of Cheney's Visitor Logs

    In response to a FOIA request filed by the Washington Post seeking the records of persons who visited the Vice President's residence and White House Office, D.C. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina issued a memo opinion granting plaintiff's motion for preliminary injunction (25 pages, PDF).

    October 18, 2006
    * Boxer Calls on Baker to Release Initial Recommendations on Iraq War

    Press release - Portion of letter addressed to James A. Baker III, Co-Chair Iraq Study Group: "...Over the past several weeks, you have repeatedly said that the Iraq Study Group would not provide an independent assessment on the situation in Iraq until after the November midterm elections. Given the critical need to change course on Iraq, I urge the study group to release its recommendations as soon as possible without any consideration to the political calendar."

  • Iraq Study Group: "The Iraq Study Group will make a forward-looking, independent assessment of the current and prospective situation on the ground in Iraq and how that affects the surrounding region as well as U.S. interests."
  • October 16, 2006
    * AG Issues Report to President Regarding the Administration of FOIA

    Press release: "Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales submitted to President Bush today the Department’s report regarding the government-wide administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Today's report is the result of the first of three Justice Department reviews required under Executive Order 13392 titled, Improving Agency Disclosure of Information. The executive order, signed by the President on Dec.14, 2005, directs agencies to ensure citizen-centered and results-oriented agency FOIA operations. The order directed federal agencies to develop and implement plans in order to improve the performance of their FOIA programs. The order also established, for the first time ever, a Chief FOIA Officer for every agency, FOIA requester service centers and FOIA public liaisons."

    October 10, 2006
    * One in Four Vets of Afghanistan Wars Are Filing Disability Claims

    Press release: "One in four veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are filing disability claims, according to records released by the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) under the Freedom of Information Act after nine months of denying their existence and posted today on the National Security Archive Web site."

  • Document 1: VBA report, "Gulf War Veterans Information System, (GWVIS) February 2006," Release Date March 31, 2006

  • Document 2: VBA report, "Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among 464,144 Veterans Deployed to the Global War on Terror," January 30, 2006

  • Document 3: VBA report, "VBA report, "Compensation and Pension Benefit Activity Among Veterans Deployed to the Global War on Terrorism," July 20, 2006
  • October 09, 2006
    * CRS Report on Protection of Security-Related Information

    Protection of Security-Related Information, September 27, 2006.

  • "The terrorist attacks of September 11 prompted a reevaluation of how to balance public access to information with the need for safety and security. The accumulation of confidential business information from owners and operators of the nation's critical infrastructures, 85% of which is reportedly owned by the private sector, continues to be an important component of homeland security efforts...The Freedom of Information Act of 1974 (FOIA) along with other statutes and regulations provide legal authorities for the protection of various types of security-related information. Nevertheless, some owners and operators are hesitant to voluntarily share security-related information with the government because of the possible disclosure of this information to the public. To prohibit public disclosure of security-related information under the Freedom of Information Act and other laws, Congress has drafted and passed legislation designed to remove legal obstacles to information sharing."
  • October 03, 2006
    * "Rider" Letter to Be Used by Agencies for FOIA Guide

    "As announced earlier through FOIA Post, the Office of Information and Privacy is planning to publish the 2006 edition of the Department of Justice's Freedom of Information Act Guide next month. The 2006 edition of the FOIA Guide is scheduled to be published through the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) in November, with a delivery date most likely in December. The FOIA Guide publication will contain the "Justice Department Guide to the Freedom of Information Act" and the text of the Freedom of Information Act. It will no longer contain the Privacy Act Overview." [Link]

    September 29, 2006
    * DOD IG Audit of Internal Control Issues

    D-2006-123 Program Management of the Objective Individual Combat Weapon Increment I (09/29/2006) View Summary Only (Project D2006-D000AE-0154.000) "This special version of the report has been revised to omit attorney client privilege, predecisional, and source selection sensitive data. The full report is For Official Use Only (FOUO). To request a copy of the full report, file a Freedom of Information Act request."

    September 28, 2006
    * CRS Report on Protection of Security-Related Information

    Protection of Security-Related Information, September 27, 2006 (via FAS, 29 pages, PDF)

  • Related postings on use of various designations for government documents to restrict public access
  • September 25, 2006
    * Previously Unreleased Bibliographies and Indexes of NSA Publications

    The Memory Hole: "This page contains indexes of four periodicals published by the National Security Agency, plus a listing of publications from the NSA's Center for Cryptologic History. These indexes haven't been publicly released until now, and many of the Cryptologic History publications weren't previously known to the public. Researcher Michael Ravnitzky has discovered a huge cache of information about the NSA, intelligence, and cryptography."

  • Peek at NSA's Secret Reading List
  • September 22, 2006
    * Senate Judiciary Cmte. Approves Open Government Act

    Press release: "The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously approved a bill aimed at substantially enhancing and expanding the accessibility, accountability, and openness of the federal government. The Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act of 2005, or the OPEN Government Act (S. 394), was authored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, and John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the panel. The bill, introduced in 2005, would make meaningful reforms to federal government information laws, most notably the Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (FOIA)."

  • "The OPEN Government Act contains more than a dozen substantive provisions, designed to achieve the following FOUR objectives: (1) Strengthen FOIA and close loopholes; (2) Help FOIA requestors obtain timely responses to their requests; (3) Ensure that agencies have strong incentives to act on FOIA requests in a timely manner;(4)Provide FOIA officials with all of the tools they need to ensure that our government remains open and accessible."
  • September 20, 2006
    * Senators Ask for Review of Classified Information, Say Documents Were Overclassified

    Press release: Wyden, Bond, Senators Ask for Review of Classified Information in Senate Intelligence Report, Say Documents Were Overclassified - Request Marks First Time New Board Asked to Review Classification, September 19, 2006: "A bipartisan group of Senators who serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee...asked an independent board that oversees classification of information to review the documents to determine if in fact too much was kept secret in the recently released Senate Intelligence reports. in a letter to the head of the Public Interest Declassification Board, the Senators wrote, "The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on which we serve, recently released two reports addressing prewar intelligence issues regarding Iraq. We believe that portions of these two reports remain unnecessarily classified. We ask that the Board Review these two documents and evaluate whether any of the currently classified portions could be made public without negatively impacting national security."

  • Related postings on classification of government documents
  • September 15, 2006
    * Proposal to Restore Honesty and Accountability in Washington

    Press release: "Rep. Henry A. Waxman and Democratic Members of the Committee on Government Reform have developed six proposals to restore honesty and accountability in government...Ban secret meetings with lobbyists and close the revolving door; Restore open government; Clean up federal contracting; Block the appointment of cronies; Take politics out of science; Protect federal whistleblowers."

  • Restoring Honesty and Accountability in Washington (11 pages, PDF)
  • September 14, 2006
    * CDT's Internet Watch List

    "Nine Legislative Efforts that Must Be Stopped in 2006 - As Congress mounts its final push before the midterm elections, a number of bills that threaten the bedrock of Internet privacy and civil liberties could either come up for votes or worm their way into larger legislative packages that end up being rushed into law. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) compiled the Internet Watch List so that lawmakers, journalists and Internet activists can keep close tabs on the dangerous legislative efforts that cannot be allowed to succeed in the so-called "silly season" at the end of the 109th Congress."

    September 13, 2006
    * Treasury IG Audit of IRS Compliance with Freedom of Information Act

    Compliance With Freedom of Information Act Requirements Has Increased, August 31, 2006, Reference Number: 2006-10-129

  • Results of Review - The Internal Revenue Service Has Reduced the Percentage of Improperly Denied Requests for Information; and Disclosure Offices Significantly Improved the Timeliness of Responding to Requests for Information
  • * FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) Project

    "EFF's FLAG Project aims to expose the government's expanding use of new technologies that invade Americans' privacy. Through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the project will help protect individual liberties and hold the government accountable."

    * DOJ Ordered to Release Info On Government's Enforcement of the Law

    Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) press release: "A federal court has ruled that under the Freedom of Information Act the Justice Department must provide TRAC with additional information about the government's enforcement of the law. The September 8, 2006 ruling by Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia significantly expands the range of data that the DOJ is required to provide TRAC...Judge Friedman's order covers numerous kinds of information, one key category for those interested in white collar crime enforcement concerns the names, file names and docket numbers in criminal cases where the defendant is a corporation or business."

  • Case Order (PDF) and Opinion (PDF)
  • September 12, 2006
    * Google Joins ALA and Bookstores to Promote Access to Banned Books

    Inside Google Book Search Blog: "Starting today, you can visit http://www.google.com/bannedbooks to explore 42 banned or challenged books honored by the Radcliffe Publishing Course as among the Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. You can see which of these novels have been targeted for banning, find out where you can buy or borrow them, and check out what authors and critics have to say by browsing related books."

    September 08, 2006
    * Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 Passes Senate

    Follow-up to previous posting, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (S. 2590) unanimously passed the Senate on the evening of September 7. POGO reported "that Sens. Stevens (R-AK) and Byrd (D- WV) lifted their secret holds on the bill."

  • Update: September 13, 2006 House floor debate on the Act, via FAS
  • September 04, 2006
    * State Department Identifies Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories

    From the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs: The Top September 11 Conspiracy Theories "Numerous unfounded conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks continue to circulate, especially on the Internet." [August 28, 2006] This site reviews and rebuts eight such theories.

    Related government documents, literature and postings:

  • National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster, updated August 30, 2006

  • National Institute of Standards and Technology and the World Trade Center resource page

  • A Critical Analysis of the Collapse of WTC Towers 1, 2 and 7 from an Explosives and Conventional Demlition Industry Viewpoint, Implosion World, August 8, 2006.

  • 9/11: Debunking The Myths - Popular Mechanics examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11

  • LLRX.com archives of 9-11 News & Legal Resources, created on September 11, 2001.

  • beSpacific postings on 9/11
  • * Secrecy Report 2006

    OpenTheGovernment.org: "Report Finds Federal Government Still More Secretive in 2005: Government secrecy saw further expansion in 2005 despite growing public concern, according to the Secrecy Report Card 2006."

  • Secrecy Report Card 2006 - Indicators of Secrecy in the Federal Government


  • Recent related postings:
  • Report on Cost Estimates for Security Classification Activities for 2005

  • U.S. Government Has "Between 50 and 75 Different Classifications Of Unclassified Information"
  • August 23, 2006
    * Commentary on Librarians' Preserving Public Access to Information

    The Nation: Librarians at the Gates, by Joseph Huff-Hannon [posted online on August 22, 2006]:

  • "The day-to-day challenges librarians face are inherent in the job description: defending access to controversial or banned books, staving off budget cuts, and creating and expanding programs to draw more citizens into one of the few remaining genuinely public commons in American life. While the ethic of secrecy often prevails in the gathering and dissemination of corporate and governmental information, the work of a librarian is imbued with just the opposite. Be it in the capacity of archivist, reference librarian or information technology professional, a common thread is the profession's dogged commitment to safeguarding books, research and information to make knowledge more widespread, not less."
  • * Judge Cites Google Searching in FBI FOIA Case

    FindLaw: "A federal judge scolds the FBI in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for failing to "just Google" the names of people about whom plaintiffs sought audio recordings and other information in their litigation. According to Judge Garland, "Surely, in the Internet age, a "reasonable alternative" for finding out whether a prominent person is dead is to use Google (or any other search engine) to find a report of that person’s death." John Davis v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, August 22, 2006.

    August 22, 2006
    August 18, 2006
    * Historic U.S. Cold War Arsenal Data Reclassified

    Press release: "The Pentagon and the Energy Department have now stamped as national security secrets the long-public numbers of U.S. nuclear missiles during the Cold War, including data from the public reports of the Secretaries of Defense in 1967 and 1971, according to government documents posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive...Documents posted today by the National Security Archive include:

  • "Recently released Defense Department, NSC, and State Department reports with excisions of numbers of nuclear missiles and bombers in the U.S. arsenals during the 1960s and70s.

  • Unclassified tables published in a report to Congress by Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird as excised by Pentagon reviewers.

  • A "Compendium of Nuclear Weapons Arrangements" between the United States and foreign governments that was prepared in 1968 and recently released in a massively excised version under Defense Department and DOE guidelines.

  • Canadian and U.S. government documents illustrating the public record nature of some information withheld from the 1968 "Compendium."
  • August 15, 2006
    * NARA's National Personnel Records Center Guide to FOIA Requests

    From Mike Ravnitzky: "Researcher Jim Klotz recently discovered and obtained a useful and comprehensive information resource - a detailed explanation of how military records are retrieved and reviewed for release in response to FOIA requests.

    August 10, 2006
    * Redacted CIA IG List of Investigations from 1997-2004 Obtained Via FOIA

    The Memory Hole: "This heavily redacted list shows the closed investigations conducted by the CIA Inspector General from the beginning of 1997 to October 2004. It was obtained by researcher Michael Ravnitzky via FOIA."

    July 26, 2006
    * Hearing: FISA for the 21st Century

    Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing today: FISA for the 21st Century. Link to witness statements.

  • AP: President Pushes To Revise Wiretap Law

  • AP: Specter proposes challenge of Bush's power on laws

  • EFF: The White House/Specter Surveillance Bill

  • S. 2453 - A bill to establish procedures for the review of electronic surveillance programs.

  • ACLU press release: "As the Senate Judiciary Committee met [today] to examine the issue of "modernizing" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the American Civil Liberties Union urged Congress to reject attempts to further erode the Fourth Amendment and its protections. Since President Bush authorized the warrantless wiretapping and data-mining of Americans by the National Security Agency in 2001, FISA has been constantly violated."
  • * Agencies Fail to Address FOIA Request Backlogs According to GAO

    Freedom of Information Act: Preliminary Analysis of Processing Trends Shows Importance of Improvement Plans, Full-text GAO-06-1022T, and Highlights, July 26, 2006.

  • "According to data reported by agencies in their annual reports, the public continues to request and receive increasing amounts of information from the federal government through FOIA...Despite processing more requests, agencies have not kept up with the increase in requests being made: the number of pending requests carried over from year to year has been steadily increasing, rising to about 200,000 in fiscal year 2005--43 percent more than in 2002. The rate of increase in requests pending is also growing: the increase from fiscal year 2004 to 2005 is 24 percent, compared to 11 percent from 2003 to 2004. Most of the agency improvement plans discussed reducing backlog, but not all consistently followed the Executive Order or implementing guidance provided by the Justice Department."
  • Press release: "Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) – who have forged an effective political-odd-couple partnership in pushing three bills they have jointly authored to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – were lead witnesses Wednesday at a congressional hearing on FOIA. The House Government Reform Committee Subcommittee On Government Management, Finance, and Accountability held a hearing on Implementing FOIA: Does the Bush Administration's Executive Order Improve Processing?"
  • July 25, 2006
    * FAS Wins FOIA Lawsuit Over NRO Budget Documents

    Secrecy News: "In a rare victory for public access to intelligence agency records, a federal court yesterday ordered (pdf) the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to process its FY 2006 budget request for release under the Freedom of Information Act. Judge Reggie B. Walton of the D.C. District Court granted a motion filed by the Federation of American Scientists to compel the NRO to comply with the FOIA."

    July 20, 2006
    * House Gov't Reform Cmte Approves Sunset Commissions

    HR 3282, approved 16-15; HR 5766, approved 15-12; Side-by-side comparison of Sunset Commission Bills in the 109th Congress, by OMBWatch.

    July 14, 2006
    * New CRS Report on Terror Financing Program's Access to Global Banking Data

    Follow-up to postings on documents and news related to the terror finance tracking program, this recently published CRS report, posted by FAS: Treasury's Terrorist Finance Program's Access to Information Held by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), July 7, 2006.

  • Also from USNews.com, a reports that the That Times Leak Was No Surprise.
  • July 10, 2006
    * Detainee Interrogation Documents Obtained Through FOIA Request Released by ACLU

    ACLU press release today: "The documents, which include the report of Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, who was tapped to conduct a comprehensive review of Defense Department interrogation operations, reveal new details in how several systemic failures in the chain of command manifested themselves."

  • The full Church Report, along with other documents released to the ACLU.
  • * DOJ Asset Forfeiture Publication Updates Acquired Through FOIA Requests

    In a follow-up to this July 25, 2004 posting - Depository Libraries Directed to destroy DOJ Pamphlets - this update, via Mike Ravnitzky, from the Forfeiture Endangers American Rights Foundation (FEAR): "In response to our FOIA requests, this week the DOJ released three manuals to us voluntarily -- the 2006 versions of: Selected Asset Forfeiture Statutes, Money Laundering Statutes and Related Materials, and the DOJ Asset Forfeiture Policy Manual. These manuals are hot off the presses -- the two compilations of statutes (both of which include what appears to be a complete collection of every relevant federal statute on the subject -- and some very useful tables and "related material") were published in May 2006."

    July 06, 2006
    * Government Funds Law School Analysis of Sensitive Gov't Docs.

    USAToday.com reported that "the federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests. Beginning this month, St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio will analyze recent state laws that place previously available information, such as site plans of power plants, beyond the reach of public inquiries."

    July 05, 2006
    * Legislative History of the FOIA

    National Security Archive: "We have posted PDFs of the major items of FOIA's legislative history. We are not aware of any other easily accessible electronic version of these materials and so we hope this will be a resource for all open government advocates. We plan to add additional items, such as hearing records, and improve the site over the next few weeks, but I wanted to let you know it is there, particularly in case you get inquiries from people who may not have easy access to these items elsewhere. For inside the White House documents on the 1966 enactment, take a look here."

    July 04, 2006
    * Freedom of Information at 40

    National Security Archive: LBJ Refused Ceremony, Undercut Bill with Signing Statement, Censored Moyers' Openness Language on July 4, 1966.

  • Complete Legislative History of the FOIA

  • CDT: "Agencies Are Not Living Up to FOIA Obligations - Report
    On the 40th anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) many federal agencies are still lagging in their efforts to comply with the law, according to a report released on July 4. CDT and several other public interest groups contributed to the report (34 pages, PDF), published by OpenGovernment.org. The report tracked the way that agencies responded to a 2005 presidential order intended to improve disclosure of information. It found that many agencies failed to properly respond or are lagging in implementing FOIA.

  • July 03, 2006
    * Businesses Account for More Than 60% of FOIA Users

    Coalition of Journalists for Open Government: "By far the heaviest use of the Freedom of Information Act comes from the nation's businesses, seeking government records on contracts or for a host of other commercial uses, a new study (8 pages, PDF) by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government shows. Often they work through information brokers to mask their own identity. The review of records of 17 departments and agencies showed media use at six percent." July 3, 2006.

    * GAO Reports Address Government Document Classification

  • Managing Sensitive Information: Actions Needed to Ensure Recent Changes in DOE Oversight Do Not Weaken an Effective Classification System, Full-text GAO-06-785, and Highlights, June 30, 2006: "DOE's Office of Classification's systematic training, comprehensive guidance, and rigorous oversight programs had a largely successful history of ensuring that information was classified and declassified according to established criteria. However, an October 2005 shift in responsibility for classification oversight to the Office of Security Evaluations has created uncertainty about whether a high level of performance in oversight will be sustained."

  • Managing Sensitive Information: DOD Can More Effectively Reduce the Risk of Classification Errors, Full-text GAO-06-706, and Highlights, June 30, 2006: "A lack of oversight and inconsistent implementation of DOD's information security program are increasing the risk of misclassification."

  • Related postings on overclassification and reclassification of government documents
  • June 23, 2006
    * NARA Seminar on Mandatory Declassification of Gov. Docs.

    Press release: "A free workshop [June 30, 2006 - Jefferson Room National Archives Building 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC, 20408]sponsored by the National Archives Information Security Oversight Office that is aimed at informing the researcher public and the media of their rights in obtaining the maximum information by requesting a declassification review of classified national security documents. Due to limited space, pre-registration is required. Call 202-357-5250 or email isoo@nara.gov to reserve a place."

    June 20, 2006
    * DOJ Posts FOIA Improvement Plans

    "As was indicated in its governmentwide policy guidance issued under Executive Order 13,392 -- see FOIA Post, Executive Order 13,392 Implementation Guidance (posted 4/27/06) (noting, in footnote 2, prospective treatment of improvement plans and annual FOIA reports alike) -- the Office of Information and Privacy has established a special location on its FOIA Web site for the consolidated posting of all agency FOIA improvement plans prepared under the Executive Order. These plans can be accessed through the new "navbar" entitled Agency FOIA Improvement Plans Under EO 13392 that now is contained on OIP's FOIA Web site."

    June 16, 2006
    * Report on Congressional Oversight of Intelligence

    Congressional Oversight of Intelligence is Broken, June 13, 2006.

  • "The Center for American Progress today releases a comprehensive study of congressional oversight of the U.S. Intelligence Community, "No Mere Oversight: Congressional Oversight of Intelligence is Broken," (47 pages, PDF) that delineates where Congress is failing in its oversight duties and how past congressional methods, ways and means of effective oversight could be revived to correct the problems. In the study, authors Denis McDonough, Mara Rudman and Peter Rundlet explore the history of congressional oversight of the Intelligence Community and then examine how past congressional experience could be drawn upon today by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to ensure effective intelligence gathering capabilities are the norm, not the exception."

  • June 15, 2006
    * Sen. Grassley Challenges FBI's Overclassification of Gov. Docs.

    Press release: "Senator Chuck Grassley today requested more information from FBI Director Robert Mueller about the FBI's handling of a terrorist financing case and the subsequent classification of several portions of an Inspector General report about the botched case...Grassley's letter [included in this press release] also questioned Mueller's use of selective unclassified portions of the Inspector General report during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in May."

    * DOJ Sues NJ AG Who Is Seeking Docs. on Telecom's Data Sharing With NSA

    ABC reports that DOJ has filed suit in NJ District Court (Trenton) seeking an injunction to prevent the NJ attorney general from obtaining records on data that carriers provided in conjunction with the domestic surveillance program.

    June 14, 2006
    * Archive Sues to Break FOIA Fee Barrier for Journalists

    Press release: "The National Security Archive today filed suit [National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency] in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), challenging the Agency's recent practice of charging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) fees to journalists pursuing news. The FOIA says that "representatives of the news media" can be charged only copying fees since they help to carry out the mission of the law by disseminating government information; but the CIA last year began claiming authority to assess additional fees if the Agency decides any journalist's request is not newsworthy enough. In adopting this new practice, the CIA reversed its prior 15-year practice of presumptively waiving additional fees for news media representatives, including the National Security Archive."

    * ACLU Files Suit to Obtain Domestic Surveillance Info on Peace Groups

    Press release: "The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by the national ACLU and its affiliates in Florida, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maine, Pennsylvania and Washington. The lawsuit charges that the Defense Department is refusing to comply with national Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests seeking records on the ACLU, the American Friends Service Committee, Greenpeace, Veterans for Peace and United for Peace and Justice, as well as 26 local groups and activists."

  • Complaint in AFSC v. DOD (6/14/2006)

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program
  • June 11, 2006
    * Commentary on Security and Secrecy in the Age of Terrorism

    Washington Post, Public Secrets, by Robert G. Kaiser, Sunday, June 11, 2006.

  • "Steven Aftergood, who works on classification issues for the Federation of American Scientists, calls the administration's approach to secrets "a cultivation of fear as a policy driver." He adds: "We are being told that nothing is more important than the external threat that confronts us, and nothing is more valuable than security in the face of that threat." Aftergood calls this "craven, and an insult to the millions of Americans who have given their lives to defend this country.""


  • Related news and postings:
  • Washington Times: TSA tries to classify report: "Air marshal officials tried to classify a House Judiciary Committee report that criticized agency policies as endangering national security and denied that those procedures still existed, a point disputed by several of the air marshals who testified to the panel's investigators."

  • Sensitive but not classified government documents

  • June 10, 2006
    * CIA FOIA Top 25 Search Phrases

    CIA FOIA Top 25 Search Phrases: "This collection reports the most frequent phrases used to search for documents on this site during the previous month, along with the number of times that search phrase was entered. It does not reflect phrases entered into third-party search engines used to find this site, but rather reflects phrases entered into the search mechanisms on this site." [Metafilter]

    June 06, 2006
    * DOJ Testimony Reiterates AG Policy on Journalists and Leaks

    Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing: Examining DOJ's Investigation of Journalists Who Publish Classified Information: Lessons from the Jack Anderson Case, June 6, 2006.

  • Links to testimony and member statements

  • Related posting, AG States Prosecution of Journalists for Leaks is Legal
  • June 02, 2006
    * New FOIA Guide and Privacy Act Overview to Be Published in November

    "The Freedom of Information Act Guide & Privacy Act Overview contains the "Justice Department Guide to the Freedom of Information Act," a detailed discussion of the FOIA's substantive and procedural aspects that has become the primary FOIA reference volume; the "Privacy Act Overview," an overview discussion of the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974 that is prepared by OIP in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget; and the texts of the two statutes, as amended. It is designed to serve as a single reference volume for both FOIA and Privacy Act matters. The new 2006 edition of the Guide & Overview will replace its current edition, which was published in 2004." [Link]

    May 31, 2006
    * Historical Documents on Bacteriological Warfare in the US Posted on Web

    Michael Ravnitzky's FOIA requests for FBI files on Bacteriological Warfare in the United States, from 1950-1971 [709 redacted pages], are now available in PDF, with further releases forthcoming, according to Russ Kick at the Memory Hole.

    May 29, 2006
    * Public Access to SEC Comment Letters Still Denied

    This New York Times article describes the obstacles used by the SEC to obstruct public access to corporate records, even if a third party expert is used to facilitate document retrieval using a FOIA request.

    May 28, 2006
    * Amnesty International Launches Campaign Against Net Censorship

    "Irrepressible.org will harnass the power of the internet to mobilise people all over the world to take a stand against repression." [Link] "...Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information. The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression. Amnesty International, with the support of The Observer, is launching a campaign to show that online or offline the human voice and human rights are impossible to repress."

    May 27, 2006
    * DOJ IG Report Withheld Boeing Tanker Docs. From Public

    POGO: "The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has obtained a version of the May 2005 Defense Department Inspector General (DoD IG) report on the Boeing Tanker Lease scandal that shows the original report hid the text of Boeing emails and references to Boeing executives from the public. Redactions made by the White House Counsel office still remain in the newly released version...POGO is in the process of filing and administrative appeal to have the remaining redactions made public."

    May 26, 2006
    * Information Security Oversight Office Releases FY2005 Annual Report

    NARA: The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) has released its Report to the President for 2005 (32 pages, PDF). The Report profiles data about the Government-wide security classification program, primarily during Fiscal Year 2005. In his transmittal letter to the President included in the Report, ISOO Director J. William Leonard notes: One of the most notable developments is that the Public Interest Declassification Board is now holding regular sessions. This Board will contribute to the declassification process by identifying records on specific subjects that are of extraordinary public interest. These records will be identified when it is deemed that declassification will not undermine the national security interests of the United States."

  • Related postings on declassification of government documents
  • May 25, 2006
    * DOJ Investigation into Domestic Surveillance Program Blocked On Security Grounds

    Justice Department Probe Foiled, by Shane Harris and Murray Waas, National Journal: "An internal Justice Department inquiry into whether department officials -- including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft -- acted properly in approving and overseeing the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program was stymied because investigators were denied security clearances to do their work. The investigators, however, were only seeking information and documents relating to the National Security Agency's surveillance program that were already in the Justice Department's possession, two senior government officials said in interviews."

    Related legal documents, commentary, opinion and postings:

  • EFF press release: Key Portions of Critical Documents Unsealed in AT&T Surveillance Case - and in PDF (redacted text), Technician Describes Secret NSA Room at AT&T Facility
  • New Yorker, National Security Dept. - Listening In, by Seymour M. Hersh, posted May 22, 2006: "A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier’s network core—the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored."

  • Computerworld: NSA's alleged phone-records program puts spotlight on data mining - "...Narus' traffic processing engine can inspect data at speeds of up to 10Gbit/sec. while performing deep inspections of the content of network packets, including telephone calls, e-mail text and streaming video.."

  • Computerworld - Opinion: Why NSA spying puts the U.S. in danger - A former analyst looks at the agency's current controversy

  • Can Data Mining Catch Terrorists?

  • Postings on domestic surveillance program

  • May 21, 2006
    * AG States Prosecution of Journalists for Leaks is Legal

    ABC News This Week, May 21, 2006: "Gonzales also defended the NSA wiretapping program, insisting the Justice Department has not been reviewing the "content" in journalists' phone records without a court order. The attorney general reiterated that the rights of a free press cannot trump national security but added, "I understand very much the role the press plays in our society." "...When asked whether journalists should be prosecuted for publishing classified material, Gonzales answered, "It depends on the circumstances...We have an obligation to make sure the people are protected.""

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance program

  • May 20, 2006
    * Free Flow of Information Act

    Press release, May 18, 2006: "Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) today introduced the Free Flow of Information Act (12 pages, PDF), a bill seeking to protect the public's right to information through a free press. This legislation would provide appropriate protections for professional journalists and their employers from having to reveal information that a journalist learned under a promise of confidentiality and in the course of carrying out news-gathering functions."

  • Related postings
  • May 03, 2006
    * Journalists' Report Identifies 10 Most Censored Countries

    Special Report 2006: "North Koreans live in the most censored country in the world, a new analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists has found. The world's deepest information void, communist North Korea has no independent journalists, and all radio and television receivers sold in the country are locked to government-specified frequencies. Burma, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, and Libya round out the top five nations on CP's list of the "10 Most Censored Countries."

  • UN press conference on '10 Most Censored Countries'
  • April 21, 2006
    * National Archives Site Uploads Thousands of Diplomatic Cables

    Press release: "The National Security Archive's background paper on the new databases shows the strengths and weaknesses of the new on-line system as well as sample cables from 1973-1974..."

  • Related commentary: Vanishing archives, New York Times, April 20, 2006
  • April 20, 2006
    * Court Determines Air Force Has Violated FOIA For Almost Two Decades

    Press release: Federal Court Finds Air Force Engages in a Pattern or Practice of Violating the FOIA: "A federal court today granted partial summary judgment to the National Security Archive finding that the Air Force has violated the Freedom of Information Act and has engaged in a pattern or practice of violating the FOIA. In a suit brought by the Archive in March 2005, seeking to compel responses to 82 FOIA requests that had been pending between one and eighteen years, the court ordered the Air Force to provide the Archive with detailed information regarding each requested record and its FOIA processing, resolve each request with immediacy of attention and result, notify all agencies to which it has referred requests that it is operating under court order, and appear in court to discuss how to achieve results."

    April 18, 2006
    * National Archives Releases Second Declassified MOU

    Follow-up to two recent postings, Archivist Statement on Declassification of MOU Between National Archives and U.S. Air Force and NARA Participated In Keeping Gov Docs Secret After Declassification Occured, the following NARA press release, April 17, 2006: "On Thursday, April 13, 2006, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein learned that a second classified Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) relating to the re-review of open records existed. He requested its immediate declassification. This MOU, drawn up by the CIA, was declassified on Friday, April 14, 2006, and is available to the public today. Because this agreement unlike the one with the Air Force was generic and procedural in nature, National Archives staff initially did not view it as part of the reclassification program."

  • Background on NARA Classified MOUs
  • * FOIA Lawsuit to Obtain SEC Documents May Cost Company $2M

    WSJ free feature: SEC Watchdog's Data Request Snags on Fee Fight: "A government watchdog may get the SEC records it wants -- but may have to pay millions of dollars for them." At a cost of $28 per hour for research fees into documents from 26 companies, the SEC claims that a company called SEC Insight could be charged with a fee as high as $2 million to obtain the records it has sought through a FOIA lawsuit.

  • Related press release: "SEC Insight Makes Progress in FOIA Litigation Against the SEC.
  • * Papers of Columnist Jack Anderson Cannot Be Made Public Until Cleared By FBI

    The Chronicle of Higher Education reports today that the papers of political columnist Jack Anderson were bequeathed to George Washington University, but the FBI is blocking their public release pending an agency review to determine if any of the documents contain sensitive or secret information. His family is said to be "outraged."

    April 14, 2006
    * DHS OIG Report Reviews FEMA Katrina Performance

    A Performance Review of FEMA's Disaster Management Activities in Response to Hurricane Katrina (PDF, 218 pages), 04/14/2006.

  • Related postings on Katrina
  • April 11, 2006
    * NARA Participated In Keeping Gov Docs Secret After Declassification Occured

    Follow-up to April 10, 2006 posting, Archivist Statement on Declassification of MOU Between National Archives and U.S. Air Force, this press release today from the National Security Archive: "The National Archives and Records Administration secretly agreed to a covert effort, led by the Air Force, the CIA, and other still-hidden intelligence entities, to remove open-shelf archival records and reclassify them while disguising the results so that researchers would not complain, according to a previously secret Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The secret agreement, made between the Air Force and the National Archives, was declassified pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive and posted on the NARA website yesterday."

  • AP: "The National Archives agreed to seal previously public CIA and Pentagon records and to keep silent about U.S. intelligence's role in the reclassification, according to an agreement released under the Freedom of Information Act."
  • April 09, 2006
    * Series of Articles Addresses Critical Issue of Government Secrecy and Public Access to Information

    Federal Secrecy After September 11 and the Future of the Information Society, Volume 2, Issue 1 (2006), Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society.

    April 05, 2006
    * Advocacy Groups Oppose Sunset Proposals

    OMBWatch: "Nonprofit groups spoke out today against sunset proposals now being pushed by House conservatives. The proposals could create a single unelected commission to review every federal program, and would mandate that all federal programs automatically "sunset"--completely cease--after a fixed period, unless Congress intervened."

  • Read the letter to Congress

  • Learn more about sunset proposals

  • EPIC: "Attorneys General from 46 states and the District of Columbia filed a formal objection (PDF) to proposed IRS rules (PDF) that would allow businesses to share taxpayer information more easily for marketing and other purposes. The state officials recommended a ban on sharing taxpayer information, but also made several proposals for minimum safeguards that would protect privacy and stem identity theft. Senator Barack Obama also opposed the rule change and has introduced a bill that would prohibit the disclosure of sensitive taxpayer information to third parties."
  • March 28, 2006
    * Sunshine in Government Initiative

    "The Sunshine in Government Initiative is a coalition of media groups committed to promoting policies that ensure the government is accessible, accountable and open. Public oversight is the ultimate safeguard of democracy. This is not an issue just for the media. It is the inalienable right of citizens to examine and judge their government; and that right is served when news media act on behalf of the public to gain access to information."

    March 24, 2006
    * Collection of State Dept. Cables from 1973-1974 Now Searchable Online

    From the National Archives: Central Foreign Policy Files, 1973-1974: This series, popularly known as the "State Department Cables" or the "State Department Telegrams", consist of telegrams, and an index to airgrams, memoranda, correspondence, reports, diplomatic notes, and related material. The 1973 and 1974 digital and fully releasable permanent portion of this series is now accessible through Access to Archival Databases (AAD)."

    March 22, 2006
    * Freedominfo.org Launches Redesigned Website

    Press release: "Four years after its launch and more than 1 million hits later, freedominfo.org has a whole new look. But the dual mission of the site remains—a virtual network linking freedom of information (FOI) movements globally and an institutional memory for transparency and access to information rights throughout the world. Freedominfo.org today introduces a new, comprehensive country-by-country section that gives users access to resources about FOI laws in more than 60 countries—including background, legal texts, links to government bodies and organizations, and current news about the FOI movement in the country. As more countries move towards adopting FOI laws everyday, freedominfo.org provides vital tools for researchers, advocates, journalists, government officials, and members of the public to stay informed about the progress of the right to information, around the world and in their own backyards."

  • See also Open government advocates, media, public celebrate Sunshine Week in the United States
  • March 15, 2006
    * Summary and Analysis of Proposed Legislative Changes to FOIA in 2005

    From the First Amendment Center, Kevin Goldberg summarizes federal legislation in 2005 that involved FOIA issues, and comments on the status of the proposals.

  • Postings since 2002 on FOIA
  • * Website Tracks Censorship in Search Results

    "Welcome to CenSEARCHip! This is a tool developed by Mark Meiss and Filippo Menczer at the Indiana University School of Informatics in March of 2006 to allow you to explore the differences in the results returned by different countries' versions of the major search engines. We currently work with the Web search and image search functions of four national versions of Google and Yahoo!: the United States, China, France, and Germany."

    March 14, 2006
    * FOI Audit of Gov't Policies on Sensitive Unclassified Info

    Press release: "The first-ever government-wide audit of the ways that federal agencies mark and protect information that is unclassified but sensitive for security reasons has found 28 different and uncoordinated policies, none of which include effective oversight or monitoring of how many records are marked and withheld, by whom, or for how long. The audit began in February 2005 with Freedom of Information requests from the National Security Archive at George Washington University, to more than 40 agencies, for copies of their policies and guidelines on "sensitive unclassified information."

  • Pseudo-Secrets: A Freedom of Information Audit of the U.S. Government's Policies on Sensitive Unclassified Information, Entire Report in PDF

  • Executive Summary

  • Recommendations

  • Methodology

  • Appendix 1 - Chart: Card Memorandum FOIA Requests, Summary of Agency Processing

  • Appendix 2 - Chart: Impact of Card Memorandum, By Agency

  • Appendix 3 - Chart: Sensitive Unclassified Information FOIA Requests, Summary of Agency Processing

  • Appendix 4 - Chart: Sensitive Unclassified Information, Policies by Agency

  • Appendix 5 - Chart: Sensitive Unclassified Information, Distinct Policies

  • Appendix 6 - Glossary of Acronyms

  • Related postings on document overclassification
  • March 13, 2006
    * Sunshine Week 2006: March 12-18

    Sunshine Week press release: "Two national polls conducted on the eve of the second national Sunshine Week open government initiative, March 12-18, show a public that equates open government with effective democracy and is concerned about the rise in official secrecy at the national, state and local levels."

  • Scripps Survey Research Center poll

  • Washington State University in Pullman poll
  • * National Security Archive FOIA Audit Identifies Continued Backlog

    "Press release: The oldest Freedom of Information requests still pending in the U.S. government date back to 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, according to the Freedom of Information Audit released [March 12] by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University."

    * Reporters Group Tracks Missing Dockets

    Research on the Case Management/Electronic Case File system (PACER), conducted by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), documented 469 missing criminal cases and 65 missing civil cases over the five-year period of Jan. 1, 2001 to Dec. 31, 2005.

    Also from the RCFP:

  • This related editorial, In search of the secret docket

  • A summary of the docket listings in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

  • * CIA Wins Award for Worst FOIA Compliance by a Gov't Agency in 2005

    Press release: CIA Wins 2006 "Rosemary Award" for Worst Freedom of Information Performance by a Federal Agency

  • "The Central Intelligence Agency has won the second annual Rosemary Award, recognizing the worst performance by a federal agency in complying with the Freedom of Information Act. The Award is named after President Nixon's secretary Rosemary Woods and the backwards-leaning stretch which she testified resulted in her erasing eighteen-and-a-half minutes from a key Watergate conversation on the White House tapes. National Security Archive director Thomas Blanton announced today that this year's Rosemary goes to the Central Intelligence Agency, for what he called "the most dramatic one-year drop-off in professionalism and responsiveness to the public we have seen in 20 years of monitoring federal government compliance with the freedom of information law."

  • March 12, 2006
    * Rights Group Files Motion Challenging Legality of Domestic Surveillance Program

    Press release: "In New York on March 9, 2006, attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a significant motion for summary judgment in the challenge to the legality of the NSA Domestic Spying Program (CCR v. Bush), asserting that the Bush Administration has already admitted enough incriminating facts to prove the NSA Program is illegal."

  • Summary Judgement

  • Statement of Material Facts Not In Dispute

  • Notice of Motion

  • Goodman Affirmation
  • March 11, 2006
    * Resources on Filing FOIA Requests and Interview With Open Records Expert

  • USNews.com: Finding out what Uncle Sam has on you: "The U.S. Freedom of Information Act is approaching its 40th birthday. Given that March 12 begins national Sunshine Week–an effort to cast light onto the growing recesses of government secrecy–U.S. News is providing links so its readers can file requests for federal records under the FOIA and its sister statute, the Privacy Act. The process is surprisingly simple."

  • USAToday.com: Sunshine Week information

  • Secrecy Under Scrutiny, By David E. Kaplan: "March 12 to 18 is the second annual Sunshine Week, a nationwide initiative backed by the news media and watchdog groups to spark dialogue on the importance of open government. At a time of increasingly frequent battles over access to government records, U.S. News sat down with Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, to discuss his relentless push for greater freedom of information. For 15 years, Aftergood has fought for open records and accountability in government. His online newsletter, Secrecy News, is required reading for those who follow national security policy in Washington, D.C."
  • March 10, 2006
    * DOJ Removes Open Hearing Transcript From NORAD Site

    Declan McCullagh reported that NORAD orders Web deletion of transcript: "In an unusual follow-up to a public event, the Defense Department has ordered that a transcript of an open hearing on aviation restrictions be yanked from the Web."

  • North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)

  • See also Current Administration Classifying Documents at Unprecedented Rate and the 2005 Secrecy Report Card
  • March 09, 2006
    * List of CIA Films Housed At National Archives

    As posted on the Memory Hole: "After a certain number of years, the CIA, like many other agencies, turns over its films and other documents to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The lengthy list of CIA films at the Archives has never been publicly released, but researcher Michael Ravnitzky requested and received a copy from NARA...Many of the films were created by the CIA, and some - such as news reports and the occasional Hollywood movie - were not. Unfortunately, there's no indication of authorship in the list, though you can sometimes tell by the title."

    March 06, 2006
    * National Journal Profiles AG Gonzales

    National Journal: Defense Attorney, March 3, 2006.

  • "To his backers, Gonzales is a quiet, hardworking attorney general notable for his open management style and his commitment to the administration of justice and to the war on terrorism. To his critics, Gonzales is a Bush yes-man who never really left the White House and who continues to front for a commander-in-chief intent on illegitimately expanding his powers at the expense of civil liberties and in disregard of the legislative and judicial branches."
  • March 05, 2006
    * Gov't Crackdown on Info Sharing Related to Domestic Spying Program

    Washington Post via MSNBC, White House trains efforts on media leaks - Bush administration targets sources, reporters under espionage laws

    March 02, 2006
    * Archivist Responds to Gov't Reclassification of Docs.

    NARA press release: "Archivist of the United States Announces New Steps in Response to Withdrawal of Declassified Records from Open Shelves at the National Archives"

    Related documents, news and postings:

  • Public Interest Declassification Act of 2000

  • Public Interest Declassification Board Holds First Meeting: Document Withdrawal from the National Archives a Serious Concern, 2/28/2006.

  • New York Times today, Archivist Urges U.S. to Reopen Classified Files

  • beSpacific postings: Gov. Docs. Available to the Public Reclassified and Access Denied and Gov't Docs on the Web: Now You See Them, Now You Don't

  • Washington Post: Classifying Toothpaste

  • March 01, 2006
    * FOIA Requests Made Easy By Advocacy Group

    From People for the American Way, this new website, Make a FOIA Request: "Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), anyone has the right to request information from the government. Last strengthened by Congress in response to the Watergate scandal, FOIA gives citizens a way to demand transparency from the Administration -- and take the government to court if necessary. Many Americans -- especially those with family and friends abroad -- are wondering whether government agents have been listening to their phone conversations or reading their email. If you're worried this has happened to you, you can use this site to help you find out. We can't guarantee that the Bush administration will disclose all this information in compliance with the law, but we can help you through the process. By filing a FOIA request, you will send a strong signal that American citizens believe in the rule of law and aren't afraid to stand up to the President when he violates the Constitution!"

  • Related postings on FOIA

  • FOIA Facts, from LLRX.com
  • February 27, 2006
    * New York Times Sues Defense For Surveillance Documents

    Follow-up to the article that started the relentless investigation into the issue of domestic surveillance...news this evening that the New York Times has sued the Dept. of Defense pursuant to a FOIA request to obtain documents related to the government's monitoring of citizen communications.

    February 24, 2006
    * Gov't Docs on the Web: Now You See Them, Now You Don't

    Follow-up to February 22, 2006 posting, Agency Documents Increasingly Withheld From Public Access Through Sensitive Designation, see this press release the same day from NARA:

  • "As part of an ongoing review of the reclassification of documents at the National Archives, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein said, "Inappropriate declassification can subject our citizens, our democratic institutions, our homeland security, and our interactions with foreign nations to potential harm. Inappropriate classification (and reclassification) needlessly disrupts the free flow of information and can undermine our democratic principles which require that the American people be informed of the activities of their Government. This is not an either/or challenge. Deliberate, continuous effort is required to succeed at both. The American people expect and deserve nothing less and the National Archives is determined to fulfill its role in this process."
  • February 22, 2006
    * Agency Documents Increasingly Withheld From Public Access Through Sensitive Designation

    From OMB Watch: "The explosion in the use by federal agencies of Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) designations to withhold information since the 9/11 terrorist attacks has resulted in uneven policies across agencies and unnecessary restrictions on public access to information, according to a recent American Bar Association report. Such problems have manifested themselves in Connecticut, where state officials are trying to access, and make public, safety information pertaining to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, in order to determine and reduce any risk to the public posed by the plant." [thanks m.r.]

    * Army Issues New Rule on Freedom of Information Act Program

    SUMMARY: The Department of the Army is revising our rule in support of the Freedom of Information Act as required by public law and updating the provisions for access and release of information from all Army information systems (automated and manual) that further supports the Army's Records Management Program. This rule finalizes the proposed rule that was published in the Federal Register on December 28, 2004. [Federal Register: February 22, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 35)][Rules and Regulations][Page 9221-9254] (34 pages, PDF)

    February 21, 2006
    * Gov. Docs. Available to the Public Reclassified and Access Denied

    National Security Archive press release: "The CIA and other federal agencies have secretly reclassified over 55,000 pages of records taken from the open shelves at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), according to a report published today on the World Wide Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Matthew Aid, author of the report and a visiting fellow at the Archive, discovered this secret program through his wide-ranging research in intelligence, military, and diplomatic records at NARA and found that the CIA and military agencies have reviewed millions of pages at an unknown cost to taxpayers in order to sequester documents from collections that had been open for years."

  • New York Times: U.S. Reclassifies Many Documents in Secret Review
  • February 18, 2006
    * Minutes of the Legislative Reference Service, 1947-1953

    More terrific research by Michael Ravnitzky has been posted to the Memory Hole. Minutes of the Legislative Reference Service, 1947-1953, The Forerunner of the Congressional Research Service (26 pages, PDF).

    February 16, 2006
    * More NASA Personnel Report on Limiting Public Access to Global Warming Docs.

    Follow-up to a series of recent postings on the growing controversy concerning NASA's policy to limit public access to accurate scientific documents on global warming.

  • New York Times - Call for Openness at NASA Adds to Reports of Pressure: "Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say."

  • WSJ free feature: Statement Acknowledges Some Government Scientists See Link to Global Warming: "Amid a growing outcry from climate researchers in its own ranks, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration backed away from a statement it released after last year's powerful hurricane season that discounted any link to global warming."


  • Previous beSpacific postings on this issue:
  • Gov't Censorship of Global Warming Data Includes NASA and NOAA

  • Misinformation Issues At NASA Result in Resignation Amidst Continued Controversy

  • NASA Chief Calls for "Scientific Openness" Amidst Claims of Gov't Secrecy

  • Gov't Climate Change Expert Contends Censorship of Data

  • * Judge Orders Release of DOJ Docs. on NSA Domestic Surveillance

    "In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit (PDF) filed by EPIC, a federal judge has ordered (PDF) the Department of Justice to process and release documents related to the Bush Administration's warrantless surveillance program by March 8. It is the first court opinion addressing the controversial domestic spying operation. "President Bush has invited meaningful debate about the warrantless surveillance program," U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy wrote. "That can only occur if DOJ processes [EPIC's] FOIA requests in a timely fashion and releases the information sought."

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance
  • February 15, 2006
    * The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?

    House of Representatives Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, February 15, 2006 Hearing, The Internet in China: A Tool for Freedom or Suppression?

    Links to statements and testimony below are in PDF:

  • The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, The Honorable James A. Leach, Mr. James Keith, The Honorable David Gross, Mr. Michael Callahan (Senior VP & GC, Yahoo! - testimony in HTML), Mr. Jack Krumholtz (Microsoft), Elliot Schrage (VP, Google -- note, his testimony was posted on the Official Google blog in HTML), Mr. Mark Chandler (Senior VP and GC, Cisco Systems), Ms. Libby Liu (Radio Free Asia), Mr. Xiao Qiang, Ms. Lucie Morillon (Reporters Without Borders), Mr. Harry Wu, Ms. Sharon Hom

  • Related legislation from the House, introduced February 14, 2006: Global Online Freedom Act of 2006 (26 pages, PDF)


  • Related news:
  • New York Times, House Member Criticizes Internet Companies for Practices in China: "In a crowded House hearing room, Representative Christopher H. Smith, Republican of New Jersey, unleashed a scathing condemnation of four American Internet and technology companies — Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco — for a "sickening collaboration" with the Chinese government and for "decapitating the voice of the dissidents" there."

  • Online Firms Facing Questions About Censoring Internet Searches in China

  • AP: Congress Chides 4 Companies Over China

  • UK Times Online: Google and Yahoo face their Congressional critics

  • From Danny O'Brien, Electronic Frontier Foundation, open letter to the Committee, A Code of Conduct for Internet Companies in Authoritarian Regimes, February 15, 2006: "In considering how these companies might construct their services to best serve global human rights, we believe that simple guidelines, consciously followed, could significantly limit the damage caused by corporate engagement with these regimes..."

  • BusinessWeek.com - The Web and China: Not So Simple - Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft say they face a stark choice: Conform to Beijing's edicts or quit the market. The truth is much more complicated

  • January-February 2006 Legal Affairs, The latest American technology helps the Chinese government and other repressive regimes clamp down, by Derek Bambauer, fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School


  • Related information on domestic surveillance that was also the topic of discussion at the above referenced hearing today:
  • Declan McCullagh reports, "Under cross-examination during a congressional hearing, Yahoo's top lawyer refused on Wednesday to say whether the company opens its records for government surveillance without a court order." Declan's article includes an edited transcript of the exchange between Rep. Brad Sherman and Yahoo GC Michael Callahan on the NSA issue.

  • Also, Politicians lash out at tech firms over China, by Anne Broache and Declan McCullagh

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance

  • February 14, 2006
    * FOIA Lawsuit Reveals DOJ Can Release Legal Memos on Domestic Surveillance In March

    National Security Archives press release: "Under pressure from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Justice Department on February 10 conceded in federal court that it could begin releasing as early as March 3 the internal legal memos relied on by the Bush administration in setting up the controversial National Security Agency warrantless wiretapping program. The National Security Archive, along with the American Civil Liberties Union ("ACLU"), this week joined the Electronic Privacy Information Center in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Department of Justice seeking to compel the immediate disclosure of the internal legal justifications for the surveillance program. The filing this week by the Archive and the ACLU was consolidated with a suit filed on January 19, 2006, by the Electronic Privacy Information Center ("EPIC") that requested the federal court in Washington to issue a preliminary injunction requiring the release of relevant documents within 20 days-which Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. considered at a formal hearing today."

  • Postings on domestic surveillance
  • * State Dept. Establishes Task Force on Global Internet Freedom

    Following up on recent postings: Yahoo Issues Statement on Chinese Net Censorship, Net Censorship Abroad - Free Speech Colides With E-commerce? and Hearing Focuses on Internet Censorship in China, related news today via this State Dept. press release - statement of Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Josette Shiner: "I'm pleased to join you here today...to announce State's Global Internet Freedom Task Force. Since its launch a little over a decade ago, the internet has proven to be the greatest purveyor of news and information in history. From a small band of university researchers sharing documents to people -- over a billion people connecting in real-time around the globe, the internet has proven to be a force multiplier for freedom and a censor's nightmare, as efforts by repressive regimes have failed to fully restrict or block growth and access to the internet. Nevertheless, there are severe challenges to this openness. It's a top priority for the State Department and the U.S. Government to do all we can to ensure maximum access to information over the internet and to ensure minimum success by censors to information or silence legitimate debate in this global town hall."

    Additional news on Internet freedom:

  • As reported by Agence France Press, "The Chinese government has adopted supervisory measures to limit those immoral and harmful (Internet) contents... the goal is to safeguard the people's interest," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said."

  • AP: Web Companies Caught in Free Speech Fight

  • New York Times: In Rare Briefing, China Defends Internet Controls

  • February 13, 2006
    * Review of FOIA Countries Worldwide

    Review of FOIA Countries Worldwide - February 1, 2006 (10 pages, PDF), by Roger Vleugels, an independent Dutch-based legal consultant and FOIA expert.

    February 12, 2006
    * Gov't Censorship of Global Warming Data Includes NASA and NOAA

    Follow-up to postings on government censorship of dissemination of scientific data, this February 11, 2006 article from the Washington Post - Censorship Is Alleged at NOAA Scientists Afraid to Speak Out, NASA Climate Expert Reports: "James E. Hansen, the NASA climate scientist who sparked an uproar last month by accusing the Bush administration of keeping scientific information from reaching the public, said Friday that officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are also muzzling researchers who study global warming."

    Related references and resources on global warming issues:

  • Politics and Science: How Their Interplay Creates Public Policy - A Social Research Conference, The New School, February 9-10, Keynote Speaker: Neal Lane, Science Advisor to President Clinton

  • Global Warming Trend Documented in U.S.

  • Questions Surround Editing of U.S. Report on Global Warming

  • February 11, 2006
    * Computer Resource Security Center Draft Guidelines for Media Sanitization

    February 3, 2006: Draft Special Publication 800-88: Guidelines for Media Sanitization: "NIST's Computer Security Division has completed the initial public draft of Special Publication 800-88, Guidelines for Media Sanitization (40 pages, PDF). This guide is intended to assist organizations and system owners in making practical sanitization decisions based on the level of sensitivity of their information. It does not, and cannot, specifically address all known types of media however; the described draft sanitization decision process can be applied universally to all forms of media and categorizations of information."

    February 08, 2006
    * Misinformation Issues At NASA Result in Resignation Amidst Continued Controversy

    Follow-up to Gov't Climate Change Expert Contends Censorship of Data and NASA Chief Calls for "Scientific Openness" Amidst Claims of Gov't Secrecy, today this report from the New York Times on the resignation of a presidential appointee at NASA responsible for ordering revisions of data available to the public on the agency website.

    * Judiciary Cmte. Requests Extensive Info On Domestic Spying Program From Attorney General

    Following up on AG Gonzales Testimony to Judiciary Cmte. Generates Strong Response, news today about Congressional requests for additional information on the NSA spy program: Press release: "House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) today sent a Judiciary Committee oversight letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting extensive answers about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) terrorist surveillance program. The 14-page oversight letter requests that the Attorney General respond to the 51 questions by March 2nd. Chairman Sensenbrenner stated, "Questions have been raised about the President's authority to establish the NSA's terrorist surveillance program, which was created to protect Americans against a dangerous enemy intent upon using any means possible to destroy Americans and the freedoms we cherish. Fulfillment of Congress's oversight responsibility about this program no doubt will involve highly classified information that cannot be publicly released without harming national security. Nonetheless, I'm confident the unclassified responses to these questions will both assist the Committee's oversight efforts and better inform the people that the program is designed to protect."

    Related resources and references:

  • AP: White House to give House committee information on spy program

  • NSA Eavesdropping: Privacy vs. National Security? by Lionel Beehner From the Council on Foreign Relations

  • Washington Post: Analysis - Limiting NSA Spying Is Inconsistent With Rationale, Critics Say, by Dan Eggen

  • Washington Post: The Wrong Wiretap Debate

  • Washington Post: Activists on Right, GOP Lawmakers Divided on Spying Privacy Concerns, Terror Fight at Odds

  • Washington Post: For Some, Spying Controversy Recalls a Past Drama

  • Authorization for Use of Military Force, September 18, 2001 Public Law 107-40 [S. J. RES. 23] 107th Congress.

  • USNews.com: Seeking Spies-Why the CIA is having such a hard time keeping its best

  • Postings on domestic surveillance

  • February 07, 2006
    * DoD To Improve FOIA Response?

    Follow up on previous postings, Executive Order Mandates Chief FOIA Officers for Each Agency by January 13, 2006 and President Issues New Order on FOIA Disclosures, this posting by Steven Aftergood documents new directives for agency responses to FOIA requests.

    February 05, 2006
    * Some in Congress Set to Confront White House On Domestic Spying Program

    AP reports today the Senate Judicary Committe Chairman Arlen Specter "said he believes the administration violated a 1978 law specifically calling for a secretive court to consider and approve such monitoring."

    Additional resources:

  • Time, Sunday, Feb. 05, 2006 - Wartime Power Play, by Massimo Calabresi: "As Capitol Hill prepares to battle the White House over George W. Bush's expanding war powers, moderate Senators on both sides of the aisle are quietly considering a range of options that would attempt at the very least to delineate the President's authority, if not roll it back. Bush's claims of wartime license are so great--the White House and Justice Department have argued that the Commander in Chief's pursuit of national security cannot be constrained by any laws passed by Congress, even when he is acting against U.S. citizens--that some Senators are considering a constitutional amendment to limit his powers."

  • Law.com: Will Senate Wiretap Hearings Hit a Wall in the Form of the Attorney General?

  • AP: Gonzales Slated to Defend Bush Spy Program

  • Postings on domestic surveillance
  • February 04, 2006
    * Release of Historic Gov. Docs Chronicle White House Position on Wiretapping

    Follow-up to February 3, 2006 posting, Judiciary Cmte. Democrats Again Request Data on Domestic Surveillance From AG, which referred to an AP article, Papers: Ford White House Weighed Wiretaps...George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are cited in the documents, see this additional documentation from the National Security Archive:

  • "Despite objections from then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then-CIA director George H. W. Bush, President Gerald Ford came down on the side of a proposed federal law to govern wiretapping in 1976 instead of relying on the "inherent" authority of the President because the "pros" outweighed the "cons," according to internal White House documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and posted on the Web today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University."


  • Related legal documents:
  • From the Center for Security Studies, Legislative History of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

  • Postings on FISA

  • February 02, 2006
    * Sen. Boxer Calls For Hearings on Censorship of Gov't Scientists

    Follow-up to January 29, 2006 posting, Gov't Climate Change Expert Contends Censorship of Data - today Sen. Barbara Boxer issued a press release that included the text of her letters to ranking members of two Senate committees stating, "It has come to my attention that the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Dr. James E. Hansen, has had his public papers and statements on critical scientific matters severely restricted by Bush Administration officials. Considering the gravity of these allegations, I strongly urge you to hold a hearing to investigate these charges."

    February 01, 2006
    * Senate Cmte. Denied Access to DOJ Docs on Domestic Surveillance

    New York Times, February 2, 2006: Panel Rebuffed on Documents on U.S. Spying: "The Bush administration is rebuffing requests from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for its classified legal opinions on President Bush's domestic spying program, setting up a confrontation in advance of a hearing scheduled for next week, administration and Congressional officials said Wednesday."

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance

  • * New Book Online: Bright Ideas for Sunshine Week

    "Bright Ideas for Sunshine Week - This 72-page, full-color book features examples of some of the different ways Sunshine Week was observed in 2005. Sections include news and features, editorials and commentary, graphics and presentation, broadcast reports, online presentation, and ideas for 2006. The entire book is posted [online], broken out by section for easier downloading. Click on each chapter heading to open the PDF file."

  • Press release: "Hodding Carter III—an award-winning print and broadcast journalist, former State Department spokesman, and past president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation—has joined the Sunshine Week national open government initiative as honorary chairman for 2006. During Sunshine Week 2006, March 12-18, media organizations, civic groups, libraries, schools, non-profit organizations and others nationwide will participate in coverage of and discussions about the importance of protecting public access to government."
  • January 30, 2006
    * Advocacy Group Sues DHS For Failure to Release Katrina Documents

    Press release: "Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today sued the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over its continued refusal to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Katrina-related issues."

    Related government documents:

  • Witnesses Testimony, U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Hurricane Katrina: Urban Search and Rescue in a Catastrophe, January 30, 2006

  • AP: FEMA Acknowledges Blunders During Katrina (see testimony in link above)

  • National Climatic Data Center: Billion Dollar U.S. Weather Disasters

  • January 29, 2006
    * Commentary on Gov't Rationale for Domestic Surveillance

    New York Times editorial, January 29, 2006, Spies, Lies and Wiretaps: "A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies."

    Related news:

  • ABC News: President Bush Has More Explaining to Do on Domestic Spy Program, GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel Says

  • Palace Revolt - They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president's power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it. A NEWSWEEK investigation.

  • Postings on domestic surveillance


  • January 27, 2006
    * Pentagon Roadmap to Propaganda Report Obtained Under FOIA

    National Security Archive: "A secret Pentagon "roadmap: on war propaganda, personally approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003, calls for "boundaries" between information operations abroad and the news media at home, but provides for no such limits and claims that as long as the American public is not "targeted," any leakage of PSYOP to the American public does not matter. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University and posted on the Web today, the 74-page Information Operations Roadmap admits that "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa," but argues that "the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government] intent rather than information dissemination practices."

    January 25, 2006
    * NSA Faces Significant Challenge in Declassification of Millions of Documents

    Via FAS: "The National Security Agency has 46 million pages of historically valuable classified records more than 25 years old that are subject to automatic declassification by the end of December 2006,
    according to a new NSA declassification plan....A copy of the new NSA declassification plan was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by researcher Mike Ravnitzky."

  • NSA/CSS Declassification Plan for Executive Order 12958, Memorandum for Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Counterintelligence & Security), January 5, 2006
  • January 24, 2006
    * OpenCRS Site A Resounding Success

    From CDT: "Less than a year after the Center for Democracy & Technology made Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports freely available to the public, members of the Internet community have responded by downloading more than 1 million of the informative documents from OpenCRS.com. CDT launched OpenCRS.com in June as a way to provide citizens access to an important taxpayer-funded resource that was previously inaccessible to many ordinary citizens."

  • Related postings on CRS reports.

  • January 19, 2006
    * New on LLRX.com

    The January 15, 2006 issue of LLRX.com includes the following articles:

  • Deep Web Research Research 2006, by Marcus P. Zillman

  • The Google Library Project: The Copyright Debate, by Jonathan Band

  • Researching Laws and Information on Nutritional and Dietary Supplements On the Web, by Joel Rothman

  • Election Law @ Moritz, by Sara Sampson

  • Adobe's Macromedia Studio 8 -- What's New in the Upgrade? by Roger V. Skalbeck

  • E-Discovery Update - by Fios Inc.: Cost Savings With New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for e-Discovery? by Mary Mack

  • CongressLine by GalleryWatch.com: Floor Fight, by Will Hall and Dan Peake

  • The Government Domain: News Roundup, by Peggy Garvin

  • Faulkner's Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys: New Year's Resolution - Update Your Website, by Frederick L. Faulkner IV

  • The Tao of Law Librarianship: Do-It-Yourself Professional Development, by Connie Crosby

  • FOIA Facts: Bush Orders FOIA Executive Officers, by Scott A. Hodes

  • January 17, 2006
    * Comparison of Congressional Oversight During Clinton and Bush Administrations

    "In a pair of new reports, Rep. Henry A. Waxman examines the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to investigate wrongdoing by the Bush Administration and the very different approach toward oversight taken by the Republican-controlled Congress during the Clinton Administration. An additional report released in 2001 documents numerous examples of allegations against the Clinton Administration that Republican investigators pursued and ultimately failed to substantiate."

  • Congressional Oversight of the Bush Administration - "This report identifies 15 key oversight issues involving President Bush and his administration that Congress has failed to investigate." (22 pages, PDF)

  • Congressional Oversight of the Clinton Administration - "Over $35 million was spent on congressional investigations of the Clinton administration. When combined with the costs of investigations by independent counsels, the total amount of taxpayer funds expended on investigating President Clinton and his Administration exceeded $150 million." (10 pages, PDF)

  • 2001 Report on Unsubstantiated Allegations of Wrongdoing Against the Clinton Administration (27 pages, PDF)
  • * Lawsuit Filed Against Bush and NSA Over Domestic Spying

    Press release: "In New York, on January 17, 2006, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a lawsuit against President George W. Bush, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), and the heads of the other major security agencies, challenging the NSA’s surveillance of persons within the United States without judicial approval or statutory authorization. The suit seeks an injunction that would prohibit the government from conducting warrantless surveillance of communications in the U.S. CCR filed the suit in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York on its own behalf and on behalf of CCR attorneys and legal staff representing clients who fit the criteria described by the Attorney General for targeting under the NSA Surveillance Program."

  • NSA complaint (16 pages, PDF)

  • Related postings on domestic surveillance
  • January 16, 2006
    * Gore Speech Targets Executive Powers and Domestic Surveillance

    The New York Times reports on a speech given today in Washington D.C. at DAR Constitutional Hall by former Vice President Al Gore, the focus of which was presidential authority, government secrecy, domestic surveillance, and the decline of congressional power. An audience of several thousand attended Gore's speech, which was simulcast by C-SPAN, and co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy and The Liberty Coalition.

    The prepared text of Gore's remarks, Restoring the Rule of Law (16 pages, PDF)

  • "Republican as well as Democratic members of Congress should support the bipartisan call of the Liberty Coalition for the appointment of a special counsel to pursue the criminal issues raised by warrantless wiretapping of Americans by the President."

  • "Second, new whistleblower protections should immediately be established for members of the Executive Branch who report evidence of wrongdoing—especially where it involves the abuse of Executive Branch authority in the sensitive areas of national security."

  • "Third, both Houses of Congress should hold comprehensive—and not just superficial—hearings into these serious allegations of criminal behavior on the part of the President. And, they should follow the evidence wherever it leads."

  • "Once violated, the rule of law is in danger. Unless stopped, lawlessness grows. The greater the power of the executive grows, the more difficult it becomes for the other branches to perform their constitutional roles. As the executive acts outside its constitutionally prescribed role and is able to control access to information that would expose its actions, it becomes increasingly difficult for the other branches to police it. Once that ability is lost, democracy itself is threatened and we become a government of men and not laws."



  • Related resources and news:
  • National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

  • Postings on domestic surveillance

  • The Reporter's Privilege Under Siege: In a speech yesterday, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller stated, "...there is a full-scale assault by the federal government now on journalists in order to get to people who disclose classified information without authorization...Unless you have people who disagree with government policy who work for the government come forward, we will be getting only the information that the government wants us to have...That's authorized news. That's not a free and independent press."

  • ACLU Ads: No President Is Above the Law

  • January 14, 2006
    * ALA Announces Intention to File Patriot Act FOIA Request

    American Libraries Online, January 13, 2006: "The American Library Association's Executive Board intends to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if the FBI has been collecting information on the Association and its leaders as a result of their opposition to certain provisions of the USA Patriot Act. ALA OIF Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said the FOIA request builds on the American Civil Liberties Union's discovery of information that leads it to believe that the FBI has been scrutinizing organizations that advocate changes to the Patriot Act. The request would focus on activities relating solely to the Association's advocacy concerning the Patriot Act."

    January 12, 2006
    * Pew Research Report Gauges Public Response to Recent High Profile Washington News

    Americans Taking Abramoff, Alito and Domestic Spying in Stride - Democrats Hold Huge Issue Advantage, Released: January 11, 2006 (32 pages, PDF)

  • Summary of findings: "The public has been hardly stirred by the flurry of major Washington news in the early days of 2006. Jack Abramoff's admission that he bribed members of Congress has sparked little interest, with just 18% paying very close attention to news reports on the disgraced Washington lobbyist...Reports about President Bush authorizing wiretaps of Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists has drawn far more attention than the Abramoff case. But there is not an outcry or even consensus opinion about the government's monitoring, without court permission, the phone and email communications of Americans suspected of having terrorist ties...[and] the public paid scant attention to the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court in the days leading up to Senate confirmation hearings on Alito."

  • * Former CIA GC Memo to Intel Cmte. Challenges Legal Authority For Domestic Surveillance

    On January 3, 2006 Jeffrey H. Smith, a former General Counsel of the CIA and a former General Counsel of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a 16 page memorandum to the Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, addressing the legal authorities regarding warrantless surveillance of U.S. persons. His conclusion - "The 2001 [Authority for the Military Use of Force] AMUF does not, in my view, justify warrantless electonic surveillance of U.S. persons..."

    Related references:

  • Additional information relevant to January 10, 2006 posting, Calls for Investigation into Pentagon Domestic Surveillance Have Generated Response. As reported in the New York Times on January 11, 2006, the NSA IG audit of the domestic surveillance program does not relate to its legal authority, but only to agency adherence to proper procedures.

  • The Congressional Research Service and Constitutional Law Scholars Weigh in on President Bush's Authorization of Warrantless Surveillance: Why This Controversy Bridges the Partisan Divide, At Least Among Experts, by Elaine Cassel

  • Postings on domestic surveillance
  • * Waxman Presses For Public Access to Mine Safety Documents

    "Rep. Waxman asks the Labor Secretary Chao to reverse the Mine Safety and Health Administration's 2004 decision to exclude mine safety inspectors' notes in Freedom of Information Act responses. The agency's secrecy policy limited disclosure about hundreds of safety violations at the Sago mine for years before the recent disaster." [January 11, 2006]

  • Letter to Labor Secretary Chao (2 pages, PDF)

  • Related postings on government secrecy
  • January 11, 2006
    * Bush Drops Opposition to Hearings on Domestic Surveillance

    Following up on the series of references that were noted in my posting yesterday, news today that President Bush has apparently dropped his opposition to congressional hearings on the controversial domestic surveillance program about which news has appeared almost every day for the past month.

    Related reference on the upcoming hearings:

  • President Participates in Discussion on the Global War on Terror, Kentucky International Convention Center, Louisville, Kentucky, October 10, 2005: "There will be a lot of hearings and talk about that, but that's good for democracy -- just so long as the hearings, as they explore whether or not I have the prerogative to make the decision I made doesn't tell the enemy what we're doing. See, that's the danger."

  • January 10, 2006
    January 05, 2006
    * CRS Report on National Security Whistleblowers

    From FAS, this link to a new CRS report, National Security Whistleblowers, December 30, 2005 (47 pages, PDF):

  • "To discharge its constitutional duties, Congress depends on information obtained from the executive branch. Domestic and national security information is provided through agency reports and direct communications from department heads, but lawmakers also receive information directly from employees within the agencies. They take the initiative in notifying Congress, its committees, and Members of
    Congress about alleged agency illegalities, corruption, and waste within the agency. This type of information comes from a group known as whistleblowers. Through such techniques as "gag orders" and nondisclosure agreements, Presidents have attempted to block agency employees from coming directly to Congress. In response, Congress has enacted legislation in an effort to assure the uninterrupted flow of domestic and national security information to lawmakers and their staffs. Members of Congress have made it clear they do not want to depend solely on information provided by agency heads."


  • Related reference:
  • New York Times editorial, January 5, 2005: On the Subject of Leaks - "A democratic society cannot long survive if whistle-blowers are criminally punished for revealing what those in power don't want the public to know - especially if it's unethical, illegal or unconstitutional behavior by top officials."

  • January 04, 2006
    * First Anniversary Review of UK Freedom of Information Act

    Rob Evans of the UK Guardian documents the challenges encountered by citizens, and the responses of government officials, to the Freedom of Information Act during this first year since it entered into force. [m.r.]

    Related references, also from the UK Guardian:

  • The Freedom of Information Act forced the downfall of Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie over his use of taxis, but what else has it revealed to the media in the past year?

  • Freedom of information is commonly thought to be about important matters of state, but some people evidently had other things on their mind.
  • * Objections Conveyed to White House On Limited Scope of NSA Briefings

    AP reports that House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman sent a letter to the White House stating the limited scope of NSA briefings on domestic surveillance, provided only to select members of Congress, did not comply with the National Security Act.

    Related references:

  • "EPIC has obtained the first Freedom of Information Act documents released by the National Security Agency on its controversial surveillance program. The documents, which are internal messages (PDF) from the agency's director to staff, defend the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping and discourage employees from discussing the issue with the news media."

  • Cheney: NSA eavesdropping critical to U.S. security

  • January 03, 2006
    * Executive Order Mandates Chief FOIA Officers for Each Agency by January 13, 2006

    Just a reminder: Executive Order 13392, Improving Agency Disclosure of Information.

    December 23, 2005
    * Archives Releases Additional Documents Relating to Judge Samuel Alito

    NARA press release: "The National Archives at College Park will release 45 documents relating to Samuel Alito. These records total 744 pages from Record Group 60, Records of the Department of Justice, Files of John Bolton, Michael Carvin, Roger Clegg, Stephen Galebach, Brian Landsberg, Mark Levin, and Richard Willard....The National Archives found the documents, consisting of memoranda and other documents, in various folders in the files of these individuals during the processing of additional FOIA requests."

  • Records Pertaining to Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr

  • Previous postings on Alito


  • News related to issues raised in reviewing the latest documents:
  • AP: "Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote in a June 1985 memo that the ruling that legalized abortion should be overturned, a position certain to spur tough questioning at January's confirmation hearings."

  • Alito Said Attorney General Immune From Wiretap Suits

  • Sen. Leahy Statement on Documents Released by National Archives Relating to Alito Nomination re warrantless wiretaps: "DESCRIPTION OF THE JUNE 12, 1985, MEMO from Samuel Alito to the Solicitor General re: Forsyth v. Kleindienst (i.e. Mitchell v. Forsyth) (DOJ3-00285-DOJ3-00291) -- Mr. Alito later wrote the brief in Mitchell v. Forsyth arguing that the Attorney General should have qualified and absolute immunity for civil damages stemming from the warrantless authorization of wiretaps. Ultimately, the court ruled that the Attorney General was qualifiedly immune (because the decision was made before the Supreme Court clarified that such warrantless taps were unconstitutional), but rejected the arguments for absolute immunity. In this memo, Samuel Alito takes an approach mirroring what he did in Thornburgh by embracing the principle of absolute immunity and suggesting tactical reasons for avoiding taking it head on. He argues that the Administration should seek cert only on the appealability of the qualified immunity claim, not on absolute immunity, but for tactical reasons: "I do not question that the Attorney General should have this immunity, but for tactical reasons I would not raise the issue here." He lays out why this is not a good case for absolute immunity, including the fact that they would not have Justice Rehnquist's vote and that it involves a controversial official from a controversial era. In this memo Mr. Alito makes clear his own personal view in this matter, declaring that he, himself, has no doubt the Attorney General should have the immunity."

  • New York Times, Alito Memo in '84 Favored Immunity for Top Officials

  • December 21, 2005
    * Bipartisan Group of Senators Call For Joint Inquiry into Domestic Surveillance

    Press release, December 20, 2005: "U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and a bipartisan group of Senate Intelligence Committee members today called for a joint inquiry by the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees into the President's authorization of domestic electronic surveillance of U.S. citizens."

    Related reference:

  • Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union today submitted records requests under the Freedom of Information Act to the National Security Agency (NSA), the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency for information about the NSA's program of warrantless spying on Americans, which was authorized by President Bush."

  • December 16, 2005
    * Complete Pentagon FOI Request Logs for 2000 to Present Now Online

    Following-up on this November 24 posting, FOI Requests Made By Media Outpaced By Non Partisan Research Archive, additional details and the availability of complete FOI logs from 2000-2004 (in either Excel of zipped PDF), and the logs from 2004 to present (in either Excel or zipped PDF).

    December 15, 2005
    * Commentary by Bill Moyers on Government Secrecy

    In the Kingdom of the Half-Blind, by Bill Moyers. "This is the prepared text of the address delivered on December 9, 2005, by Bill Moyers for the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library at The George Washington University, in Washington D.C."

  • "It has to be said: there has been nothing in our time like the Bush Administration's obsession with secrecy...I am only one of legions who have reached this conclusion. See the recent pair of articles by the independent journalist, Michael Massing, in The New York Review of Books. He concludes, "The Bush Administration has restricted access to public documents as no other before it." And he backs this up with evidence. For example, a recent report on government secrecy by the watchdog group, OpenTheGovernment.org, says the Feds classified a record 15.6 million new documents in fiscal year 2004, an increase of 81% over the year before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. What's more, 64% of Federal Advisory Committee meetings in 2004 were completely closed to the public. No wonder the public knows so little about how this administration has deliberately ignored or distorted reputable scientific research to advance its political agenda and the wishes of its corporate patrons. I'm talking about the suppression of that EPA report questioning aspects of the White House Clear Skies Act; research censorship at the departments of health and human services, interior and agriculture; the elimination of qualified scientists from advisory committees on kids and lead poisoning, reproductive health, and drug abuse; the distortion of scientific knowledge on emergency contraception; the manipulation of the scientific process involving the Endangered Species Act; and the internal sabotage of government scientific reports on global warming..."
  • December 14, 2005
    * President Issues New Order on FOIA Disclosures

    AP reports Bush to Ease Public Access to Information, via an Executive Order signed this afternoon. According to White House press secretary Scott McClellan's statements at the briefing today: "The order requires agencies to designate a senior official as the chief officer for Freedom of Information Act requests. They'll be responsible for agency-wide implementation of the response, or of this disclosure of information. Under the order, each agency will also be required to take a close look at their programs, identify areas in which it can do better, and then map out a plan for the agency to implement those improvements in the coming fiscal years of '06 and '07. And agencies will also designate public liaisons to serve as a second level to respond to inquiries from those who are requesting information, to assist in resolving issues after staff in those centers have done their best."

  • Text of Executive Order 13392: Improving Agency Disclosure of Information

  • As noted by EPIC, "The order does not repeal a memo issued by Attorney General Ashcroft a month after 9/11 that discouraged free release of information under the FOIA."

  • FOIA postings on beSpacific

  • Related legisation: S. 394 and H.R. 867
  • December 12, 2005
    * Waxman Requests Removal of DIA FOIA Exemption From Defense Authorization

    Press release: "Rep. Waxman asks the House and Senate Armed Forces Committees to remove a provision in the pending National Defense Authorization Act that would weaken the nation's open government laws by exempting "operational records" of the Defense Intelligence Agency from the Freedom of Information Act."

  • Letter to House and Senate Armed Services Committees (2 pages, PDF)

  • S.1042, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (Public Print), Sec. 922. Operational Files of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
  • December 10, 2005
    * Online Rights Canada Launched

    "Online Rights Canada (ORC) is a grassroots organization that promotes the public's interest in technology and information policy. We believe that Canadians should have a voice in copyright law, access to information, freedom from censorship, and other issues that we face in the digital world." [press release]

    December 06, 2005
    * FOIA Request For Abramoff Docs. Yields No Response From Interior

    Press release: "Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sued the Department of the Interior (DOI) over its failure to provide requested documents related to Jack Abramoff and the Indian gaming scandal...In the midst of one of the largest government corruption scandals ever, the Department of Interior has decided to simply ignore federal law by failing to comply with FOIA requests [Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW]."

  • CREW archive of news releases, documents and articles on the Abramoff investigation and related FOIA requests.
  • * Univ. Research Center Files FOIA Lawsuit Against OPM

    Press release from TRAC, December 6, 2005: "The federal government is unlawfully withholding information it normally provides the public about some 900,000 of its civilian employees, including those working for such agencies as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to a suit filed today in the federal district of Northern New York. The lawsuit, brought by the co-directors of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), charges that the agency violated settled law by failing to provide requested information. Further, the agency didn't even explain the grounds under which it is withholding information about employees working in more than 250 federal agencies."

  • Full Text of District Court Complaint (PDF)

  • TRAC Correspondence with OPM (PDF)
  • December 02, 2005
    * FOIA Request For FEMA Hurricane Aid Response Records Denied

    Following up on this posting, Agencies Use FOIA Exemptions in Response to Increasing Number of Requests, news that a trio of Florida newspapers owned by Gannett, Inc. who filed a FOIA request to obtain FEMA surveys comprising homeowner data on 2004 hurricane relief services, were denied the information. FEMA cited the confidentiality exemption, and the newspapers have appealed the decision.

    * Biodefense Bill Creates Agency Exempt From FOIA Disclosures

    AP: GOP Wants to Create Secretive Gov't Agency

  • S. 1873 - A bill to prepare and strengthen the biodefenses of the United States against deliberate, accidental, and natural outbreaks of illness, and for other purposes. [Specific language as follows: "Information that relates to the activities, working groups, and advisory boards of the BARDA shall not be subject to disclosure under section 552 of title 5, United States Code, unless the Secretary or Director determines that such disclosure would pose no threat to national security. Such a determination shall not be subject to judicial review."]

  • Secrecy News: "A rapidly moving bill introduced in the Senate last week would establish a new Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency (BARDA) that would be categorically exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
    Ordinary FOIA exemptions place specific categories of information beyond the reach of FOIA. But the audacious new BARDA exemption would nullify the applicability of the FOIA to an entire agency."

  • Editorial, San Francisco Chronicle: Secrecy is unhealthy
  • December 01, 2005
    * Calls for Investigation Into Energy CEOs' Congressional Testimony

    Following up on an archive of postings on the Cheney Energy Task Force investigation, the embers of this controversy are still glowing:

  • Press release, November 23, 2005: "United States Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today released a report(3 pages, PDF) rebutting the legal argument put forward by Senate Republicans to protect the Big Oil CEOs who denied that their companies had participated in Vice President Dick Cheney's Secret Energy Task Force. Lautenberg last week requested an investigation by the Department of Justice after the Washington Post reported on a document that contradicted the testimony given by some Big Oil CEOs at a November 9 Senate hearing. It is illegal to make false statements to Congress."
  • Washington Post, December 1, 2005: Top Oil Company Executives Retool Responses on Energy Task Force Roles

  • AP, November 30, 2005: Oil executives deny misleading Congress

  • Posted on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources website, the text of individual Response Letters from Oil Companies In Reply to Senate Request for Clarification

  • Press release, November 30, 2005, Sen. Harry Reid: "I find it deeply disturbing that energy company CEOs may have made false statements before Congress about their involvement in the secretive Cheney energy task force. Despite the Vice President's active efforts to thwart open and transparent government, Congress has the right and the responsibility to seek and obtain information from witnesses that is honest and complete."


  • Related research:
  • From the Center for Public Integrity, "Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff have been unilaterally exempting themselves from long-standing travel disclosure rules followed by the rest of the executive branch, including the Office of the President."

  • Letter (PDF) from then Counsel to the Vice President stating that "the reporting requirement does not apply..."

  • November 30, 2005
    * Release of Additional Records Pertaining to Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

    Following up with a link to resources referenced in my posting yesterday, Additional Gov Docs. Released From Alito's DOJ Tenure, see today's press release: "The National Archives at College Park will release 31 documents totaling 336 pages from Record Group 60, Records of the Department of Justice, Files of Charles Cooper and Files of the Attorney General, Edwin Meese III. These records, consisting of memoranda and other documents, were located in various folders in the files of Mr. Cooper and Mr. Meese during the processing of FOIA requests by the National Archives."

  • The Alito documents are available on the National Archives web site


  • Related news and documents:
  • Washington Post: Memo - Alito Urged Government to Challenge Roe v. Wade

  • New York Times: Reagan-Era Files Show Alito Role on Abortion Law

  • Questionnaire of Samuel A. Alito, Jr., of New Jersey, Nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States (64 pages, PDF)


  • * Administration Presents Strategy For Victory in Iraq

    November 30, 2005: President Outlines Strategy for Victory in Iraq, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland

  • Fact Sheet: Training Iraqi Security Forces

  • In Focus: National Strategy for Victory in Iraq


  • Related documents:
  • LA Times (reg. req'd), U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press

  • Rep. Waxman Calls for an Investigation of U.S. Military Efforts to Influence Iraqi Media Coverage

  • November 28, 2005
    * Agencies Use FOIA Exemptions in Response to Increasing Number of Requests

    "A new study by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government...shows the use of FOIA exemptions to withhold information increased 22 percent between 2000 and 2004, despite the fact that federal agencies responded to 13 percent fewer requests for information. The exemptions most frequently used to say "no" to requesters were those recommended by Attorney General John Ashcroft in his 2001 memorandum and by White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card in a directive six months later." [Link]

  • When Exemptions Become the Rule, Coalition of Journalists for Open Government, November 22, 2005 (19 pages, PDF)
  • November 27, 2005
    November 24, 2005
    * FOI Requests Made By Media Outpaced By Non Partisan Research Archive

    According to a log [Word document: Listing of media requests] detailing FOI requests made by media organizations to the Pentagon for the period covering 2000 through February 2005, the National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research institute, far outpaced the number of requests made by news agencies, including AP, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Blogger Michael Petrelis filed the FOI request to obtain the data from the Pentagon. This news was posted by Raw Story.

    Related references:

  • The 2005 World Press Freedom Index (October 20, 2005) which ranks the United States in 44th place.

  • The Memory Hole, FOIA Case Logs: "Every federal agency, department, and office that responds to Freedom of Information Act requests keeps logs of the requests it receives. This page will post the FOIA case logs from as many of these federal units as possible, as received by The Memory Hole and others. Keep checking back, as it will be continuously updated."

  • November 15, 2005
    * Groups Seek Gov Docs on Impact of Patriot Act on Academic Freedom

    Press release: "The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has joined with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and PEN American Center in a legal action against the U.S. Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security and the Central Intelligence Agency. In a complaint filed [November 10, 2005 - 19 pages, PDF], the national groups charge that these federal agencies are illegally withholding information on the government's practice of excluding prominent foreign intellectuals based on their political views."

    November 14, 2005
    * Media Challenges Withholding Publication of Plame Investigation Documents

    AP reported today that in a motion filed with Judge Reggie Walton, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, Dow Jones has challenged Plame Special Counsel Fitzgerald's request for a protective order blocking the release of government documents related to the case against Libby.

    November 02, 2005
    * Advocacy Group Files FOIA Requests to Determine DOJ Antitrust Expenditures

    Citizens Against Government Waste press release: "The FOIA requests are part of an ongoing effort to determine the DOJ's cost of antitrust litigation...seeking material related to fiscal years 2000 through 2006, including a breakdown of cases initiated, a budget itemization, and a list of consultants employed during this period of time."

    October 31, 2005
    * Call for Hearings On WMD Documents Used to Justify Iraq War

    Press release: "Congressman Jerrold Nadler today demanded the House Judiciary Committee investigate whether White House officials deliberately deceived Congress in order to obtain its authorization of the war in Iraq. In a letter to Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. calling for hearings [text of which accompanies this link], Congressman Nadler cited new evidence from the investigation led by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, as well as evidence compiled from media reports, that the Bush Administration knowingly marketed the war with fictitious evidence. It was originally expected that Fitzgerald would issue a final report, detailing all of his findings...Now that he has declined to do so...there is even greater need for hearings that will air the facts in a public forum."

    * Commentary Reviews 50 Years of Open Records Law

    FOIA Falters - The law still works, but it needs a tune-up

  • Related resources: See FOIA Facts, by Scott A. Hodes
  • October 25, 2005
    * Eleventh Circuit Upholds Open Court Standard

    Press release, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: "Secret docketing procedures used by a federal court in Miami are unconstitutional, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta (11th Cir.) has ruled, meaning federal trial courts in three states must provide written explanations when they decide that sealing documents is warranted.

  • The court's opinion

  • The Reporters Committee's amicus brief
  • October 19, 2005
    * Supreme Court Nominee Miers' Responses to Judiciary Questionnaire, Financial Data and Texans United for Life

    From the New York Times (reg. req'd), links to the following documents in PDF:

  • Senate Judiciary Committee's Questionnaire (57 pages, PDF)

  • 1989 Questionnaire From Texans United for Life (2 pages, PDF)

  • Financial Statement/Net Worth (2 pages, PDF)

  • Financial Disclosure Report - Nomination Filing (6 pages, PDF)


  • From AP: Disclosure forms of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. All are in PDF format.

  • Related news also from the New York Times:
  • Nominee Backed Ban on Abortion in 1989 Campaign

  • Nominee's Financial Disclosures Show Worth of Less Than $1 Million

  • New York Times Magazine article, Sunday, October 16, 2005: The Woman's Seat



  • Related news from the Wall Street Journal and CNN:
  • Wall Street Journal free content today: Miers Disclosures Could Boost Conservative Support

  • Senators demand more information from Miers Response to questionnaire described as 'incomplete to insulting'...Miers confirmation hearings to begin November 7



  • From Sen. Patrick Leahy:
  • Response Of Harriet Miers To Leahy Letter Requesting Additional Information From Judiciary Committee Questionnaire, October 19, 2005

  • Specter-Leahy Request More Information From Miers, October 19, 2005


  • October 18, 2005
    * Updated Citizen's Guide on Using FOIA To Obtain Gov't Docs.

    House Report 109-226: A Citizen's Guide on Using the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act of 1974 To Request Government Records (85 pages, PDF), September 20. 2005.

    October 17, 2005
    * Assurance Sought for Public Report on Special Prosecutor's Investigation into Plame Leak

    October 11, 2005 - Text of Letter from Reps. Conyers, Harman, Lantos and Holt to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald Concerning a Final Report on the CIA Leak Investigation (PDF)

  • "We write to seek your assurance that, upon completion of your long running investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name, you will submit a final and public report to the Congress of all indictments, convictions and any decisions not to prosecute."
  • October 13, 2005
    * European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN)

    The European Civil Liberties Network (ECLN) will be launched on Wednesday, October 19, 2005. [d.c.]

  • "Participating organisations share the common objective of seeking to create a European society based on freedom and diversity, a society of fundamental civil liberties and personal and political freedoms, of free movement and freedom of information, and equal rights for all in Europe."
  • October 11, 2005
    * Opposition to Government Sponsored News Continues

    Updates to my September 30, 2005 posting, GAO Determines Bush Administration Violated Propaganda Policy

    Related references:

  • S.967, A bill to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure that prepackaged news stories contain announcements that inform viewers that the information within was provided by the United States Government, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Lautenberg, Frank R. [NJ] (introduced 4/28/2005)

  • October 6, 2005 press release from Sen. Lautenberg: Lawmakers Urge Attorney General to Investigate Possible Criminal Violations Uncovered During Department of Education Propaganda Scandal

  • Center for Media and Democracy - The Emperor Doesn't Disclose: Why the Fight Against Fake News Continues


  • September 30, 2005
    * Detainee Photos and Video Must be Released According to Court

    Press release: On September 29, 2005, CCR attorneys lauded the landmark decision issued today by federal district court Judge Alvin Hellerstein that ordered the Department of Defense to release hundreds of new photographs and videotapes of abuse in Iraq that the DOD has attempted to withhold from the public. The ruling was in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation brought by CCR and other civil rights groups to compel the United States Government to produce relevant documents concerning the treatment, torture, death, and rendition of detainees in U.S. custody."

    September 29, 2005
    * Broad Coalition Pushes to Lift Gag Order Against Librarian

    ACLU press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, the Free Congress Foundation and members of Congress gathered today to urge the Justice Department to lift a gag order silencing Americans who have received demands for personal records under the Patriot Act. "John Doe," an organization that is an ALA member and a client of the ACLU, is challenging a provision of the anti-terrorism law, parts of which are up for reauthorization."

  • Related links
  • September 28, 2005
    * International Right to Know Day

    "Marking International Right to Know Day, the National Security Archive commended the Department of State for including access to government information as one factor evaluated in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Transparency and information are essential to allow people to scrutinize and debate the actions of their government, combat corruption, and promote democracy. In its open letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Archive also requested that the Department include access to information an independent category in the reports, to increase the prominence and recognition of this fundamental human right department-wide." [National Security Archive]

    * Analysis of Criminal Prosecutions and Enforcement Stats for Bush Administration

    "The data, obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) under the Freedom of Information Act...document[s] changes in the kinds of cases being brought to court: immigration and weapons prosecutions are climbing while white collar crime and drug prosecutions are sliding. The new data go through the end of March 2005 (the first half of FY 2005). Go to
    http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/crim/136 for a short summary of the findings."

    September 23, 2005
    September 22, 2005
    * Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents

    From Reporters Without Borders, a new resource: Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents (46 pages, PDF):

  • "Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest. Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles."
  • September 18, 2005
    * House Cmte. Seeks Release of CIA Report on 9/11

    AP reports on a bipartisan call from the House Intelligence Committee for the public release of the classified CIA IG report on the agency's activities related to 9/11.

    September 13, 2005
    * Part of 9/11 Commission Report Reissued With Redacted Text Restored

    Press release: "After a second review by the executive branch, a September 12, 2005 version of the 9/11 Commission Staff Monograph on the Four Flights and Civil Aviation Security has been released by the U.S. Department of Justice and transferred to the National Archives. This newer version of the report contains fewer redactions than the version first released on January 28, 2005."

  • The newly released September 12, 2005 version of the monograph is available on the National Archives website (121 pages, http://www.archives.gov/research/9-11-commission/">PDF).

    Related links:
  • The full text of the January 28, 2005 version is also available on the National Archives' website (120 pages, PDF)

  • Related links on the 9/11 Commission and the 9/11 Public Discourse Project

  • F.A.A. Alerted on Qaeda in '98, 9/11 Panel Said

  • September 12, 2005
    * Journalists' Report Documents Challenges To Obtaining Government Data

    From the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ): "Journalists are having an increasingly difficult time using the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to drag information out of the federal government to shed light on Superfund sites, chemical factories, mining accidents and a host of other topics important to citizens."

  • Report of the First Amendement Task Force of the Society of Environmental Journalists: A Flawed Tool — Environmental Reporters' Experiences With the Freedom of Information Act (31 pages, PDF), September 12, 2005.
  • September 09, 2005
    * Documents Released on FAA Response to 9/11

    National Security Archive press release: "Ten minutes after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controllers in New York saw United Airlines Flight 175 heading "right towards the city," [p.13] but thought it was aiming for an emergency landing at a New York airport, according to FAA documents released this week under the Freedom of Information Act and posted on the web by the National Security Archive. Minutes later, Flight 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center. The FAA documents, which are referenced extensively in Chapter 1 of The 9/11 Commission Report, provide further detail on the report's chronology of the hijackings and its overall observation that the FAA was woefully unprepared and disorderly in its response to the attack. Distracted by Flight 11, the FAA notified the military at about 9:03 am that Flight 175 had been hijacked, almost the exact time the plane crashed into the second World Trade Center tower. Records show Flight 175 first exhibited signs of distress at 8:46 am."

    September 08, 2005
    * FEMA Blocks Journalists From Photographing Katrina's Victims

    Journalist Groups Protest FEMA Ban on Photos of Dead

  • Related links
  • September 07, 2005
    * Group Files FOIA Request for Gov. Docs on Katrina Reponses

    Press release: "Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent three Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Department of State, asking for records and communications regarding the federal government's preparedness and response to hurricane Katrina."

  • Related Link: CREW FOIA to DHS

  • Related Link: CREW FOIA to FEMA

  • Related Link: CREW FOIA to Department of State
  • September 04, 2005
    * Significant Questions Concerning Scientific Integrity in Federal Research Persist

    New York Times Magazine, September 4, 2005: Political Science

    Related references:

  • Questions Surround Editing of U.S. Report on Global Warming

  • Science Advisor to President Works Amidst Controversy
  • September 01, 2005
    * Will Librarian Go To Prison Over Patriot Act Challenge?

    Following up on my August 26 posting, Patriot Act Used to Demand Library Patron Records, this news from the ACLU: "In Legal Papers Unsealed Today, Librarian Speaks of Fear of Imprisonment Over Government Gag in Patriot Act Challenge."

  • The affidavit of the librarian who works for the ACLU's Doe client is available here. This document is heavily redacted.
  • August 29, 2005
    * Reagan Library Releases Additional Documents From Roberts Archive

    Press release: "Today the Ronald Reagan Library is releasing an additional 175 pages from its re-review of the John Roberts' records restricted from release on August 15, 2005. Of the pages being released today, 148 pages are being released in part and 27 pages are being released in their entirety. This material was originally withheld under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the release of 5,393 pages by the Reagan Library. The National Archives has determined that 303 pages will remain restricted in whole under applicable FOIA exemptions. The majority of the restricted material is closed under exemption (b)(6) of the FOIA --clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. Much of the information that remains closed deals with personal information of others, including financial information of those being considered for Presidential appointments."

  • Reagan Presidential Records from the Staff Member Office Files of John G. Roberts, Jr.
  • August 23, 2005
    * 9/11 Report by CIA IG Completed in June, Still Not Released to Congress

    From the Washington Post, via MSNB.com's cached version of the article from August 20, 2005: CIA report on 9/11 is complete - Two years after deadline, findings have yet to reach Congress.

    August 22, 2005
    * DNC Submits FOIA Request for Release of Roberts' Documents

    Today the Democratic National Committee sent a formal request (2 page letter, PDF) to the Solicitor General of the DOJ, requesting that the agency release all documents in its possession that were authored by Judge Roberts while an employee of the agency. The letter has 80,000 signatories.

  • Related references to Judge Roberts
  • August 20, 2005
    * FOIA Lawsuit to Obtain JFK Records Blocked by CIA

    From the New York Review of Books, this letter, Blocked, signed by a distinguished group of authors, journalists and researchers, responding to the CIA's refusal to produce copies of documents in response to a FOIA lawsuit under the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Act. [thanks Mike]

  • Related reference: The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection (NARA)
  • August 19, 2005
    * More Than 4 Million FOIA Requests Made in 2004

    The Coalition of Journalists for Open Government has issued two new reports, one of which addresses overall federal agency responsiveness to FOIA requests (the overwhelming majority of which come from the public not the media), and the second which provides a review of FOIA litigation decisions during the period of 1999 through 2004. The combined report is 14 pages, PDF.

    Related references:

  • Senate Approves Open Government Act

  • Bill Requiring Disclosure of FOIA Exemptions Passes Senate

  • August 17, 2005
    * Roberts Papers Missing From Reagan Library After Access by Gov't Lawyers

    From the Washington Post (reg. req'd), Library Missing Roberts File Papers Lost After Lawyers' Review, states that an undisclosed number of pages from the files of Justice Roberts' work pertaining to affirmative action during the 1980s have gone missing after they were reviewed last month by White House and DOJ attorneys.

    See also:

  • Related references on review of Judge Roberts government documents.

  • Leahy Presses For Release Of Roberts's Documents From Reagan Library That Are Being Withheld: "I also request that you continue to investigate thoroughly the missing 'Affirmative Action' file from the August 15 release of papers, and to clarify the basis upon which you believe you have reconstructed that file. I ask to know whether you have relied only upon the notes taken by White House employees who had previously reviewed the file, or whether there is another, independent inventory or source of information that could better assure the Senate that what was originally in the file is the same as your reconstruction."
  • * Senate Judiciary Cmte. Announces Roberts' Hearings to Begin September 6

    Press release today from Sen. Patrick Leahy: "Specter, Leahy Announce SCOTUS Hearing Locations And Details... In order to give advance notice so that you can make your travel plans, the Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. for the Supreme Court will begin on Tuesday, September 6th, at 1:30 P.M., in the Caucus Room in 325 Russell. At that time, we will proceed with ten minute opening statements by Committee members to be followed by the oath to be taken by Judge Roberts and his opening statement."

    Related references:

  • August 16 press release from Sen. Leahy: "Those papers that we have received paint a picture of John Roberts as an eager and aggressive advocate of policies that are deeply tinged with the ideology of the far right wing of his party then, and now. In influential White House and Department of Justice positions, John Roberts expressed views that were among the most radical being offered by a cadre intent on reversing decades of policies on civil rights, voting rights, women's rights, privacy, and access to justice."

  • Roberts gets "well qualified" rating from American Bar Association

  • National Archives to Open Additional Records Relating to Judge John Roberts - "38,546 pages of presidential records from the Staff Member Office Files of John Roberts, will be opened. 1,708 pages have been withheld from these files under FOIA exemptions."

  • August 12, 2005
    * NYC Fire Dept. Releases Additional 9/11 Documents

  • Statement from the New York City Fire Department Regarding September 11th Records Release: "Pursuant to a ruling issued by the New York State Court of Appeals on March 24, 2005, the Fire Department today is releasing additional records related to the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001."

  • From the New York Times, City Begins Releasing Thousands of Oral Histories of 9/11.

  • Also from the New York Times, a link to an alphabetical list of available oral histories
  • August 11, 2005
    * Reagan Library To Provide Additional Roberts Documents on August 15

    Press release: Reagan Library to Open Additional Records Relating to Judge John Roberts

  • See also Government Reports on Supreme Court Appointment Process
  • August 10, 2005
    * Jockeying Over Release of Roberts Documents to Senate Continues

  • Leahy Faults White House For 'Slow-Walking' Roberts Papers That Were Promised To The Senate..."comments of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt., ranking member, Senate Judiciary Committee) on Wednesday's Washington Post disclosure that White House officials are delaying the release of tens of thousands of pages of Reagan-era documents relating to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts."

  • Leahy's Reply To Chairman Specter's Letter On Roberts Documents August 10, 2005: "I and my Democratic colleagues on the Committee have made a carefully crafted and narrow request for documents in 16 important cases that might illuminate Judge Roberts's views on important issues of concern to all Americans – civil rights, privacy and access to justice. John Roberts's work as a political appointee in the office of 'the people's lawyer' – the Solicitor General – is especially relevant to his nomination, in our view, because his decisions there were made at the intersection of his legal views and major public policy decisions. I am greatly concerned about news reports in which unnamed White House sources seem to be acknowledging that papers pertinent to this nomination and promised to the Senate are being kept under wraps."
  • * National Archives Releases Records From Robert's Tenure as Assistant AG

    Press release from the National Archives: "Approximately 500 pages of material from five series of records from Record Group 60: Department of Justice have been processed for release. These records relate to Roberts’ tenure as Special Assistant to the Attorney General in 1981-82. The papers consist of notes, memoranda and other materials written by, or sent to John Roberts. Some of these documents may be duplicative of materials that were previously opened."

  • Records Pertaining to John G. Roberts, Jr., Record Group 60: Department of Justice, Records Released on August 11, 2005. [Link]
  • August 04, 2005
    * FOIA Lawsuit Generates Release of Additional Photos of Fallen Service Personnel

    As a follow-up to my April 24, 2004 posting, Release of Photos Sparks Debate on FOI and Privacy, today this news from the National Security Archive concerning the release of unredacted images:

  • "The Pentagon has released more images of the honor guard ceremonies for American war casualties, and agreed to process "as expeditiously as possible" ongoing Freedom of Information Act requests for such images, as part of a settlement of the FOIA lawsuit brought by University of Delaware professor Ralph Begleiter with legal representation from the National Security Archive and the firm of Jenner and Block."
  • August 03, 2005
    * Judge Roberts' Answers to Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire

    Judge John G. Roberts' responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire comprise 83 pages, and are available in PDF (thanks Mike). The committee has yet to set a date for hearings on his confirmation, which are anticipated for September.

    Related reference:

  • National Archives News - John G. Roberts: Department of Justice Record Group 60 has been processed for release. One folder of records from Record Group 60: Department of Justice, Files of the Attorney General, entitled "John G. Roberts, Jr. MISC" has been processed for release. These records are available online in PDF, and an item list is available here.

  • * Legal Challenge to Expansion of Secrecy for Gov't Docs.

    Press release: "The National Security Archive, along with other secrecy experts, today filed a 'friend of the court' brief ( 42 pages, PDF) in a lawsuit challenging the FBI's authority to issue national security letters (NSLs) without any judicial oversight and under a blanket gag order that prohibits the recipient from speaking with anyone about the NSL. The amicus curiae brief was filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which is reviewing a lower court decision (122 pages, PDF) that held that the NSL authority violated the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution."

  • See also related postings on government secrecy.
  • August 02, 2005
    * Updated DoD Directive on Public Disclosure of Classified Info

    "Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified Information to the Public," DoD Directive 5210.50, signed by Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, July 22, 2005. (7 pages, PDF)

    July 19, 2005
    * New on LLRX.com

    All the articles listed are available in Part 1 of the July 2005 issue of LLRX.com:

  • Delivering Actionable Information To Front-Line Lawyers - John Alber details the effective implementation of business intelligence (BI) systems within law firms.
  • The Government Domain: Bloggin' USA - Peggy Garvin looks at three free web services that leverage blogs and blogging software to deliver information on federal government issues.

  • Short Takes: The 18th edition of The Bluebook is hot off the press - Lee Peoples announces a program focused on the new edition of A Uniform System of Citation, presented at the AALL annual conference, now underway in San Antonio.

  • CongressLine: Legislative Monitoring - Additional Materials - I am delighted to welcome Paul Jenks as the new author of CongressLine, a must read column for professionals who are tracking federal legislation. Paul provides readers with resources, techniques and tools to power-up their legislative monitoring skills, significantly expanding the overall context and content of this challenging process.

  • Updates to LawPro Links - Sabrina I. Pacifici links to a range of recently available resources that include: presentation materials from the AALL 2005 annual conference; guides to RSS and blogging software; a library and information science wiki; and a terrific offer for free law firm website hosting.

  • FOIA Facts: Governmental Secrecy - Scott Hodes focuses on the issue of the proper classification of government documents as specified by Executive Order 12958.

  • July 18, 2005
    * FBI Acknowledges Monitoring Websites of Range of Advocacy Groups

  • FBI says it has files on ACLU, Greenpeace, other rights groups

  • Large Volume of F.B.I. Files Alarms U.S. Activist Groups: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected at least 3,500 pages of internal documents in the last several years on a handful of civil rights and antiwar protest groups in what the groups charge is an attempt to stifle political opposition to the Bush administration."

  • Government Has Amassed Thousands of Pages on National Peace and Civil Rights Organizations: "The American Civil Liberties Union today revealed that the FBI has amassed more than 1,100 pages of documents on its organization since 2001, as well as documents concerning other non-violent groups including Greenpeace and United for Peace and Justice."
  • * Commentary on the Expansion Federal Law Enforcement Power Under Umbrella of Enhancing Security

    The Security Pretext: An Examination of the Growth of Federal Police Agencies, CATO Briefing Paper, by Melanie Scarborough.

  • Full Text of Briefing Papers no. 94, 16 pages, (PDF)

    See also:
  • Cities opening more video surveillance eyes, by Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY

  • The Naked Crowd: Reclaiming Security and Freedom in an Anxious Age, by Jeffrey Rosen


  • July 12, 2005
    * Current Administration Classifying Documents at Unprecedented Rate

    New York Times editorial today, The Dangerous Comfort of Secrecy: "The Bush administration is classifying the documents to be kept from public scrutiny at the rate of 125 a minute. The move toward greater secrecy has nearly doubled the number of documents annually hidden from public view - to well more than 15 million last year, nearly twice the number classified in 2001 - as bureaucrats have invented more amorphous categories like "sensitive security information." At the same time, the declassification of documents required under the Freedom of Information Act has been choked down to a fraction of what it was a decade ago, leaving the government working behind an ever darker, ever denser screen."

    July 08, 2005
    * FERC Final Rule on FOIA Access to Critical Energy Documents

    Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Final rule, issued June 21, 2005. [Link]

  • SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) is issuing this final rule amending its regulations for gaining access to critical energy infrastructure information (CEII). These changes are being made based on comments filed in response to the March 3, 2005, notice seeking public comment on the effectiveness of the Commission's CEII rules. The final rule removes federal agency requesters from the scope of the rule, modifies the application of non-Internet public (NIP) treatment, and clarifies obligations of requesters. It also discusses changes that will be made to non-disclosure agreements...The rule will become effective June 28, 2005."

  • * Exec. Order on Access to Classified NSA Documents

    Executive Order 13381--Strengthening Processes Relating to Determining Eligibility for Access to Classified National Security Information Presidential Documents, June 27, 2005.

    July 05, 2005
    * Congressional Focus on FOIA Galvanizes Disparate Groups In Support of Open Access to Gov. Docs.

    From the Washington Post (reg. req'd), Openness Law May Get Muscle - A Diverse Coalition Pushes for Freedom of Information Act Compliance.

  • Related references on this legislation.

  • July 04, 2005
    * Substantial Increase in Classification of Gov't Docs Raises Concerns For Public and Media

    As a follow-up to my April 2, 2005 posting, Significant Rise in Classification of Gov't Docs Focus of New Reports, this July 3, 2005 New York Times article, Increase in the Number of Documents Classified by the Government, reports on growing concerns within the government, by advocacy groups and the media, about the rapid rise in the classification of government documents. In 2004, 15.6 million documents were classified, a rate double that of 2001.

    June 30, 2005
    June 27, 2005
    * Open CRS Project Provides Searchable Access to Over 8,000 Reports

    "American taxpayers spend nearly $100 million a year to fund the Congressional Research Service, a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology through the cooperation of several organizations and collectors of CRS Reports, Open CRS provides citizens access to CRS Reports already in the public domain and encourages Congress to provide public access to all CRS Reports."

    June 24, 2005
    * Senate Approves Open Government Act

    Press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy: "Legislation passed by the U.S. Senate on Friday will bring increased sunshine to the federal legislative process, and was another step toward strengthening the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), its sponsors say. The reform, authored by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) creates additional legislative transparency by requiring that any future legislation containing exemptions to requirements be "stated explicitly within the text of the bill." The bill (S. 1181) was the latest in a series of FOIA reform bills filed by Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee, and Cornyn, a member of the panel."

    * GPO Announces Policy on Restricting Access to Government Data

    "The GPO takes very seriously any Federal agency's request to
    restrict access to Government information that has been made
    public. However, the GPO cooperates with Federal agencies in
    the appropriate distribution of the official information they
    publish..." [Secrecy News]

  • Withdrawal of Federal Information Products from GPO's
    Information Dissemination Programs
    , Government Printing
    Office Information Dissemination Policy 72, June 21, 2005 (6 pages, PDF).
  • June 22, 2005
    * Public Interest Declassification Board Receives Funding Five Years After Establishment

    As part of FY2006 Appropriations, specified in House Report 109-119 - Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), created five years ago, and comprised of a nine member advisory panel, by next week may actually obtain approval for operational funds, which it has not had since its establishment in 2000. The House Committee on Appropriations "directs that from amounts available in Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide, $1,000,000 shall be available for the Public Interest Declassification Board." [FAS]

    * FOIA Request By Advocacy Group Reveals Social Security Data Released Post 9/11

    Social Security Opened Its Files for 9/11 Inquiry: "The Social Security Administration has relaxed its privacy restrictions and searched thousands of its files at the request of the F.B.I. as part of terrorism investigations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, newly disclosed records and interviews show."

    From EPIC:

  • "Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has recommended (2 pages, PDF) congressional hearings on the Social Security Administration's "ad hoc" decision to share personal information with law enforcement immediately after 9/11. "I am concerned that the SSA apparently gave no notification to Congress when it decided to change its rules and that there has been no real oversight of the SSA's actions," said Rep. Maloney. Documents (27 pages, PDF) obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act show that the agency changed its stringent policy to allow for liberal disclosure of personal information "in connection" with 9/11-related investigations...For more information, see EPIC FOIA Note #4."

  • June 21, 2005
    * ACLU Report Examines Restrictions on Scientific Research and Publication

    Press release: "The American Civil Liberties Union released a report today examining government policies and practices that have hampered academic freedom and scientific inquiry since September 11, 2001."

  • Science Under Siege: The Bush Administration's Assault on Academic Freedom and Scientific Inquiry (42 pages, PDF)

  • Science Under Siege Executive Summary (PDF)


  • Related references:
  • Leading Scientists Issue Report on Gov't Control of Scientific Data

  • Office of Science and Technology Policy

  • June 20, 2005
    * Article Addresses Reclaiming Gov. Docs Removed From Public Access Websites

    Mart, Susan Nevelow, Let the People Know the Facts: Can Government Information Removed from the Internet be Reclaimed? (June 1, 2005).

  • "This article examines the legal bases of the public's right to access government information, and examines and analyzes the types of information that have recently been removed from the Internet and the rationales given for the removals. The concerted use of FOIA by public interest groups and their constituents is suggested as a possible method of returning the information to the Internet. There article concludes with a brief review of recent FOIA cases that might provide some guidance on the litigation sure to follow such concerted requests."


  • June 17, 2005
    * Controvery Over Edits to BLM Report on Grazing Impact Study

    From the LA Times, June 17, 2005: "The Bush administration altered critical portions of a scientific analysis of the environmental impact of cattle grazing on public lands before announcing Thursday that it would relax regulations limiting grazing on those lands, according to scientists involved in the study."

  • BLM Publishes Final Environmental Impact Study on Changes to Grazing Regulations: The BLM today announced the availability of a final environmental impact study that concludes upcoming grazing regulation changes will produce long-term benefits for public rangelands. An official notice of the study's availability will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, June 17, 2005.

  • See also this related news, Controversy Over Global Warming Report and Resignation of Key Figure
  • * GAO Reviews DOE FOIA Fee Issues

    Information Management: Freedom of Information Act Fee and Fee Waiver Processing at the Department of Energy GAO-05-405, May 27, 2005. Highlights.

  • "GAO was asked to determine, for fiscal year 2004, the volume and nature of FOIA request processing at the Department of Energy (DOE), to what extent DOE followed the act and related Office of Management and Budget and Department of Justice guidance in processing cases that involve fees, and to what extent DOE communicated its fee-related decisions to requesters."

  • June 16, 2005
    * DOT OIG Letter in Response to Congressional Inquiry on FAA Pre-9/11 Security Monograph

    Letter to Congressmen Conyers, Oberstar, and Waxman regarding the classification and declassification of a 9/11 Commission report of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) pre-9/11 knowledge of aviation threats, June, 14 2005 (6 pages, PDF)

  • Related reference: More Facts on National Security Issues Prior to 9/11 Released to Public

  • June 15, 2005
    * FOIA Request Yields Gov. Docs on E-Voting Standards

    "Documents obtained by EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the complete draft standards for voting technology. The standards, which were developed by a technical committee for the Election Assistance Commission, could determine how votes will be tabulated in future elections. Other documents obtained by EPIC reveal vendor attempts to influence the development of the standards."

    June 14, 2005
    * Controversy Over Global Warming Report and Resignation of Key Figure

    On June 9, I posted Questions Surround Editing of U.S. Report on Global Warming, linking to reports on, and documents related to, the "editing" of climate change research prior to publication of a government report on the issue. Another relevant document associated with this story is a June 9 letter sent by Rep. Waxman and Sen. Kerry to the Comptroller General of the GAO requesting an investigation. Further, it was announced on June 12 that the author of the edits, Philip Cooney, has resigned, citing no association with the controversy. He has joined ExxonMobil.

  • Related reference, Protecting the Environment: 30 Years of U.S. Progress, An Electronic Journal of the U.S. Department of State
    June 2005

  • June 13, 2005
    * Bill Requiring Disclosure of FOIA Exemptions Passes Senate

    On June 9, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved S.1181, "a bill to ensure an open and deliberate process in Congress by providing that any future legislation to establish a new exemption to section 552 of title 5, United States Code (commonly referred to as the Freedom of Information Act) be stated explicitly within the text of the bill."

  • S. 1181, enacting section 8 of the OPEN Government Act [Cornyn-Leahy-Alexander-Feingold-Isakson], Thursday, June 9, 2005

  • U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Statement of U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), Thursday, June 9, 2005.

  • Text of Section 8 of the OPEN Government Act, June 07, 2005.

  • From OMB Watch, FOIA Continues to Get Congressional Attention

  • June 09, 2005
    * Non-Partisan Organization Promotes Self Regulation for Researchers to Ensure Open Access to Scientific Data

    CSIS Commission Backs Open Dissemination of Unclassified Fundamental Research, June 9, 2005: "Self-regulation within the scientific community is an important aspect of achieving national security goals, according to a CSIS panel report on science and security. The report also rejects a proposal by the Commerce Department's Inspector General that would have the effect of restricting participation of certain foreign nationals in unclassified research. The CSIS Commission on Scientific Communication and National Security also proposes that a senior group be established at universities and research institutions to assess and promote compliance with the various types of security controls that are applicable to research and other technical activity. Self-regulation "is an effective way to achieve the government's underlying security goals," the commission states in its report, "Security Controls on Scientific Information and the Conduct of Scientific Research" (25 pages, PDF).

    June 08, 2005
    * New Open Government Bill Introduced

    Press release, June 7, 2005, Cornyn, Leahy Call For Greater TransparencyIn Congressional FOIA Exemption Attempts -Congress should not establish new secrecy provisions through secret means:

  • "U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to ensure greater openness in the legislative process. The bill creates additional legislative transparency by requiring that any future legislation containing exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requirements be stated explicitly within the text of the bill. It marks one in a series of open government bills on FOIA reforms that Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Cornyn, a member of the panel, have sponsored together."
  • June 03, 2005
    * IG for Tax Administration Releases Report on FOIA Compliance

    Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, May 26, 2005: Some Improvements Have Been Made to Better Comply With Freedom of Information Act Requirements

  • "This report presents the results of our Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) review. The overall objective of this audit was to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) improperly withheld information requested by taxpayers in writing, based on FOIA exemption (b)(3), in conjunction with Internal Revenue Code (I.R.C.) Section (§) 6103, and/or FOIA exemption (b)(7), or by replying the requested records were not available."
  • May 18, 2005
    May 17, 2005
    * DC Metro SmarTrip System Collects Data on Riders

    EPIC FOIA Notes #5, May 16, 2005: "The SmarTrip farecard, which includes an embedded RFID chip, tracks each rider's metro travel and can be linked to address and credit card data. Most records held by state agencies are protected by law, but no similar protections exist for the SmarTrip system."

  • Metro SmarTrip homepage
  • May 13, 2005
    * The Restore Open Government Act of 2005

    Press release, May 12, 2005: Rep. Waxman Introduces Legislation to Restore Transparency and Open Government Laws:

  • "Today Rep. Henry A. Waxman introduced legislation to reverse the Bush Administration’s assault on open government by restoring laws promoting transparency. The Restore Open Government Act of 2005 (H.R. 2331) requires public disclosure of government information and presidential documents, promotes timely declassification of information, and prohibits secret advisory meetings between government officials and private parties."

  • May 11, 2005
    * GAO Report Surveys Rise in FOIA Requests

    Information Management: Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act GAO-05-648T, May 11, 2005, Highlights.

  • "According to data reported by agencies in their annual FOIA reports, citizens have been requesting and receiving an ever-increasing amount of information from the federal government through FOIA. The number of requests that agencies received increased by 71 percent from 2002 to 2004. Further, agencies reported they have been processing more requests--68 percent more from 2002 to 2004. For 92 percent of requests processed in 2004, agencies reported that responsive records were provided in full to requesters. However, the number of pending requests carried over from year to year--known as the backlog--has also been increasing, rising 14 percent since 2002."


  • Related reference:
  • Congress Urged Not to Undermine FOIA

  • May 10, 2005
    * Document Disclosure Not Required by White House Energy Task Force

    From FindLaw, In Re Cheney, May 10, 2005: "A federal appeals court rules that the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch "failed to establish any duty...owed to them by the federal government" to disclose any documents which may have shown what, if any, communications the White House Energy Task Force had with energy industry lobbyists and business executives."

  • Link to legal documents archive on the case from FindLaw

  • Related resources from beSpacific

  • Press release from Judicial Watch, Appeals Court Permits Energy Task Force Records to Remain Secret

  • Press release from Sierra Club, Cheney/Energy: Public Remains in the Dark as Court Dismisses Case
  • May 09, 2005
    * SEC to Commence Release of Disclosure Filings

    SEC press release:"The staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that on May 12, 2005, it will begin the process of publicly releasing comment letters and response letters relating to disclosure filings made after Aug. 1, 2004, and reviewed by the Division of Corporation Finance and the Division of Investment Management. See Press Release No. 2004-89."

  • Related news from the Washington Post indicates the SEC has been flooded with FOIA requests for these documents, and their release will alleviate the administrative backlog.

  • May 05, 2005
    * NY Governor Signs Bill Enhancing Freedom of Information Law

    Press release from New York Governor George E. Pataki, May 3, 2005: "Governor George E. Pataki today announced that he has signed legislation into law that will strengthen New York State's Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). The new law sets specific new timeframe requirements that will provide clarity and guidance to local governments and State agencies and make the Freedom of Information Law even stronger."

    May 02, 2005
    * Release of Report Critical To Understanding 9/11 Blocked by Judge

    This according to Washington Post (reg. req'd) writer Dan Eggen: "The report, titled A Review of the FBI's Handling of Intelligence Information Related to the September 11 Attacks, provides an in-depth examination of three episodes considered potential missed opportunities to detect the Sept. 11 plot, including Moussaoui's arrest in August 2001."

  • Related documents: from FindLaw, Terror Case History: U.S. v. Moussaoui
    [HTML File]
  • May 01, 2005
    * Calls for FOI Act Reform Are Resonating

    From Federal Computer Week, an overview of growing support for legislation to provide for more efficient responses to Freedom of Information Act requests by leveraging technology applications already in place in state and government agencies.

  • Related sources on FOI issues and legislation.
  • April 28, 2005
    * FOIA Requests Yield Photos of Return of Fallen Troops to US

    Press release from the National Security Archive: "Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005 - In response to Freedom of Information Act requests and a lawsuit, the Pentagon this week released hundreds of previously secret images of casualties returning to honor guard ceremonies from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and other conflicts, confirming that images of their flag-draped coffins are rightfully part of the public record, despite its earlier insistence that such images should be kept secret...The photos released by the Pentagon were taken by U.S. government photographers, not by journalists... These are among the most respectful images created of American casualties of war - far less wrenching than images we regularly see from the battlefield. They're taken under carefully controlled circumstances by military photographers covering honor ceremonies."

  • The Complete Set of Honor Guard Ceremony Images (more than 700 photos - loads slowly) [Requires Macromedia Flash Player]
  • April 19, 2005
    * WMD Commission Reveals Challenges Associated With Fulfilling Their Mandate

    UPI reported today that key members of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States repeatedly threatened to resign if the President did not guarantee the cooperation of intelligence agencies during the course of their enquires.

    April 14, 2005
    * President and Newspaper Editors Differ in Views on FOI

  • Has the sun set on FOIA’s future?: "Kevin Goldberg, legal counsel for the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) said government efforts to prevent the public release of information is forcing many newspapers to go to court."

  • President Bush addressed the American Society of Newspaper Editors today. The full text of his remarks are available in this White House press release. In regard to Freedom of Information Act requests, he stated: "...but we also spend a lot of money on analyzing FOIA, because somebody told me there's 3.5 million FOIA requests a year, which is a lot. I can't tell you the percentage which passed, or not passed, but there is -- there's an active interest in people reading documents. And I would hope that those who expose documents are wise about the difference between that which truly would jeopardize national security and that which should be read." He also stated, "...I don't email, however. And there's a reason. I don't want you reading my personal stuff."

  • Related references: Significant Rise in Classification of Gov't Docs Focus of New Reports and archive of beSpacific postings on FOI.
  • April 08, 2005
    * Significant Rise in Classification of Gov't Docs Focus of New Reports

    Data on the classification of government documents, compiled by the National Records and Archives Administration's Information Security Oversight Office, is available in the 2004 Report to the President:

  • "This report provides information on the status of the security classification program as required by Executive Order 12958, as amended, "Classified National Security Information.” It includes statistics and analysis concerning components of the system, primarily classification, declassification, and the ISOO inspection program. It also contains information with respect to industrial security in the private sector as required by Executive Order 12829, as amended, "National Industrial Security Program."

  • Related report - The Federal Government Keeps More Secrets for Longer, New Data Shows: "The federal government set a new record for keeping secrets in 2004, during which government employees chose to classify information a record 15.6 million times, according to new government figures released this week and highlighted in an update to OpenTheGovernment.org's Secrecy Report Card" (4 pages, PDF).
  • April 06, 2005
    * Court Orders CIA to Disclose 1963 Budget to FOIA Advocate

    A federal court orders the CIA to disclose its 1963 budget in Freedom of Information Act litigation brought by a pro se plaintiff, Steven Aftergood v. Central Intelligence Agency. This is the first time that a court has ordered the CIA to surrender budget information." (Federation of American Scientists via FindLaw)

    * Congressional Access to Intelligence Documents Narrows Precipitously

    White House Has Tightly Restricted Oversight of C.I.A. Detentions

  • "By law, the White House is required to notify the House and Senate Intelligence Committees of all intelligence-gathering activities. But the White House has taken the stance that the secret detention program is too sensitive to be described to any members other than the top Republican and Democrat on each panel."
  • April 04, 2005
    * Exorbitant FOIA Fee in Detainee Case is Lowered, Along With Expectations to Obtain Information

    Following-up on the controversy concerning the startlingly high fee set by the DOJ to fulfill a FOIA request that made news back in January, today's article from the Daily Business Review indicates the cost of fulfilling the request will be less than originally estimated, as will be access to the scope of information requested.

    March 25, 2005
    * Upcoming Release of WMD Report Subject to Redaction Prior to Release

    WMD report not expected to praise intelligence agencies

    March 24, 2005
    * New Open Source Journal on Freedom of Information

    "A new open access e-journal entitled "Open Government: a journal on freedom of information" published its inaugural issue on the 22nd March 2005. The journal, funded by School of Business Information at Liverpool John Moores University aims to publish research and communications related to Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation from the perspective of academics, practioners and FOI users..This open access journal is available free of charge at: www.opengovjournal.org and will be published on a quarterly basis." [Link]

    March 23, 2005
    * Study Details Public Access to State Records

    Press release: New University of Florida Study Ranks States' Records Access Laws - The project's panel of experts, known as the Sunshine Review Board, compared the state laws for 30 categories of legal provisions related to records requests and ranked them on a Sunshine Index for openness. The overall ranking is based on states' performance in six subcategories: redaction (removing sensitive information mixed with public data); copying, inspection and delivery of records; requester requirements; agency responsibilities to manage the records; request specifications; and agency responsiveness. The study showed that Pennsylvania, California, North Carolina, Vermont, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had more requester-friendly requirements including whether a requester has to state a purpose for his request, present identification or be a U.S. citizen or state resident to request a public record.

    March 22, 2005
    * Sensitive But Unclassified Gov Docs Released by Sen. Levin

    Press release yesterday: "Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., today released previously withheld portions of an FBI document critical of interrogation practices used by the Department of Defense (DOD) at Guantanamo Bay in 2002, disclosing information in that document previously withheld by the Department of Justice (DOJ). In a letter to DOJ on February 10, 2005, Levin and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., had requested reconsideration of the decision to withhold portions of that FBI document and, in response, DOJ released a new version of the FBI document with the additional information."

  • Related references: Admiral Issues Report on Detainee Operations

  • Report Recommends Regulatory Reforms to Balance Document Security and Public Access

  • March 18, 2005
    * FOIA Action to Compel Release of Air Force Documents

    Press release today: "The National Security Archive today filed (108 pages, PDF) suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of the Air Force for a pattern and practice of mishandling scores of FOIA requests. The suit alleges that the Air Force fails to acknowledge FOIA requests, loses FOIA requests, fails to process requests, tries to discourage the public from pursuing FOIA requests, fails to respond to inquiries about the status of the requests and lets requests languish while records are destroyed or transferred to other agencies."

    * Public Access to Gov Docs Faces Increasing Limitations

    From Slate, The Age of Missing Information - The Bush administration's campaign against openness.

  • Formal Statement, J. William Leonard, Director, Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives and Records Administration, before the Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, March 2, 2005: "Classification is an important fundamental principle when it comes to national security, but it need not and should not be an automatic first principle. In certain circumstances, even with respect to national security information, classification can run counter to our national interest. The decision to classify information or not is ultimately the prerogative of agency original classification authorities. The exercise of agency prerogative to classify certain information, of course, has ripple effects throughout the entire executive branch. For example, it can serve as an impediment to sharing information with another agency, with State or local officials, or with the public, who genuinely need to know the information."

  • * AP Launches FOI Webpage

    The new AP and Freedom of Information website includes links to FOI news stories from AP, an interactive guide to filing FOI requests, a list of links to FOI resources, and a Q&A with AP's CEO, Tom Curley, who states: "As we have reported, government at all levels is restricting access to information. We in the media, of course, have a stake in what's happening. We also have a duty to spotlight why this is a dangerous trend, especially when court or constitutional issues are at stake. The on-going battle against terrorism has followed the pattern of all eras when concern for security has moved to the forefront. There are real issues of public safety, which we all expect government to address. But historically government goes too far. As we can see in recent court rulings, the pattern has played out again in the aftermath of 9/11."

    * FOI Requests At All Time High

    AP reported today that "Americans made more than 4 million requests to the federal government under the Freedom of Information Act in 2004, a new high for requests in a single year."

    Related references from EPIC:

  • Freedom of Information Act Gallery "highlights some of the most significant documents we obtained this year."

  • "...EPIC FOIA Notes, a newsletter that will deliver the latest revelations EPIC obtains through the FOIA. You can view the first EPIC FOIA Note—which reports formerly classified documents (PDF) showing that Choicepoint assured the FBI it could verify legitimate businesses..."
  • March 16, 2005
    * More FOIA Resources for Sunshine Week

  • Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security hearing,
    Openness in Government and Freedom of Information: Examining the OPEN Government Act of 2005, March 15, 2005. Includes links to testimony and member statements (HTML format)

  • Sen. John Cornyn's (R–Texas) speech on bipartisan bill to promote openness in government

  • Arbiter would ease FOIA disputes, experts say
  • 'Strange Bedfellows: Reconciling Privacy & Freedom of Information'
    Text of speech at National FOI Day conference, March 16, 2005, by Lee Levine

  • Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) celebrates Sunshine Week
  • * FOIA Letter Regarding Exclusion of Foreign Nationals

    Press release: "ACLU Seeks Records on Use of Patriot Act to Deny U.S. Entry to Prominent Foreign Scholars - Citing a serious and growing threat to academic freedom, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records concerning the government’s practice of excluding scholars and other prominent individuals from the U.S. because of their political views."

  • Link to the FOIA request
  • March 14, 2005
    * Report Recommends Regulatory Reforms to Balance Document Security and Public Access

    The University of Maryland Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise announced the availablity of a report, The Unintended Audience: Balancing Openness and Secrecy - Crafting an Information Policy for the 21st Century (76 pages, PDF), that addresses post 9/11 limitations on public access to unclassified but "sensitive" government documents, and the associated impact of such restrictions on various professional communities throughout the country. The authors, Jacques S. Gansler and William Lucyshyn, recommend that the president issue an executive order creating a procedure to identify and designate specific government documents as Controlled Unclassified Security Information (CUSI). This system would clearly define what documents were to be made available within and between government agencies on the federal and local levels, as well as permitted access to various combinations of the scientific, academic and business communties, and to the public.

    * Sunshine Week Showcase

    This page, which will be updated throught Sunshine Week, provides summaries and links to selected national and state sources on the open government issue.

    Related resources:

  • Government secrecy: dark cloud over open society - Inside the First Amendment, by Paul K. McMasters, First Amendment Center ombudsman

  • Michigan Freedom of Information Act

  • March 13, 2005
    * Reporter's FOIA Request Unaswered After 24 Years

    Reporter's FOIA request dates to 1981

    Related references:

  • Audit of Freedom of Information Requests Highlights Gov't Delays

  • Nations use U.S. as model for FOIA laws

  • The Freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World
  • (96 pages, PDF)

    * Blogshine Sunday

    Bloggers Look for "Sunshine" on Public Access to Government Documents - FreeCulture.org announces Blogshine Sunday

  • "On March 13, news organizations across the United States will participate in "Sunshine Sunday" by running stories and editorials in support of public access to government information. Simultaneously, bloggers throughout the U.S. and beyond will spotlight their own experiences with obtaining access to government documents. This Blogshine Sunday has been organized by FreeCulture.org, an international group of student activists, to ensure that government remains accessible to tomorrow’s journalists."


  • Additional related sources:
  • AP Review: Gov't Reducing Access to Info

  • Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged TV News

  • March 10, 2005
    * Senators Introduce Faster FOIA Act

    Press release from Sen. Patrick Leahy today: "Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democratic member of the committee, introduced legislation on Thursday to establish an advisory Commission on Freedom of Information Act Processing Delays. The 16-member commission would be charged with reporting to Congress and the President its recommendations for steps that should be taken to reduce delays in the processing of requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)."

  • S.589, The Faster FOIA Act of 2005
  • Please note that the press release also provides Highlights of the Cornyn-Leahy Faster FOIA Act and the text of Sen. Leahy's Statement on the Introduction of the Bill.

  • Related legislation: S.394, the Open Government Act.
  • March 08, 2005
    * 9/11 Public Discourse Project

    "The ten members of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known as the 9-11 Commission) have initiated a nationwide public education campaign for the purpose of making America safer and more secure. In so doing, the commissioners will give people throughout America the opportunity to participate in a debate that has been limited largely to those inside the Washington Beltway." [Link to the the 9-11 Public Discourse Project]

  • "We paid a terrible price on September 11 because too much information was kept secret or otherwise not shared..." Richard Ben-Veniste
  • March 04, 2005
    * Witnesses Assess Government Overclassification of Documents

    Emerging Threats: Overclassification and Pseudo-classification, a hearing held on March 2, 2005.

  • "The purpose of this hearing is to examine the proliferation of categories of information that are not classified but are withheld from public disclosure." [Link (PDF) to Briefing Memo for March 2 Hearing on Classification]

  • Opening Statement of Chairman Shays

  • Links to testimony from eight witnesses (all PDF documents) includes that of Thomas S. Blanton, Director, National Security Archive, George Washington University and that of Richard Ben-Veniste, former Commissioner, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

  • March 02, 2005
    * Hearing on Overclassification of Government Documents

    Emerging Threats: Overclassification and Psuedo-Classification, House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, March 2, 2005.

    Related resources:

  • Shays Holds He