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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 …
HR 3282, approved 16-15; HR 5766, approved 15-12; Side-by-side comparison of Sunset Commission Bills in the 109th Congress, by OMBWatch.
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
“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 …
