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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. …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act Annual Report Fiscal Year 2009. Released February 1, 2010.
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 …
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 …
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 branchs system for protecting classified national security information. In an …
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 …
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 …
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. …
