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“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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.”
