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From a new GAO report, Federal Advisory Committees: Additional Guidance Could Help Agencies Better Ensure Independence and Balance (149 pages, pdf): “Federal advisory committees have been called the “fifth arm of government” because of the significant role they play in advising federal agencies, the Congress, and the President on important national issues. To be effective, …
Eleventh public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States – “The two-day hearing will examine the response of local and federal emergency response departments on September 11, 2001, and will consider how to improve these critical functions in the event of future terrorist attacks.” Staff Statement No. 13 – Emergency …
S. Res. 360 – Expressing the sense of the Senate that legislative information shall be publicly available through the Internet. May 13, 2004: From the statement by co-sponsor Sen. Leahy: “In particular, we are calling on the Library of Congress to improve its public website, called “THOMAS (U.S. Congress on the Internet),” in order to …
From the New York Times, an article whose significance will no doubt have even wider context as the rapid flow of information around the world continues to expand: New Technology Loosens Controls Over Images of War. See also The Needle in the Database, an op-ed on the need for inter-agency cooperation in intelligence gathering and …
“In a Freedom of Information Act request, the Federation of American Scientists requested copies of [three CDs] discs with “abuses committed against Iraqi prisoners held in the custody of US government or coalition forces in Iraq.” [Link]
From the ACLU press release, Judge Revises Sealing Order in Controversial Patriot Act Challenge, May 12: “A federal judge today revised a strict sealing order in a challenge to the Patriot Act’s expanded “National Security Letter” power filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union. The government had relied …
Updated – 12 May 2004, The Freedominfo.org Global Survey: Freedom of Information and Access to Government Records Around the World (96 pages, pdf). “This is an ongoing survey of the state of freedom of information in countries which have adopted comprehensive new national laws on access.”
As a follow-up to my May 5 posting, Dept. of Interior Guidelines to Secure Geospatial Data, from the Rand Corporation, this press release stating that “Less than 1 percent of publicly available federal Web sites and databases contain geospatial information not readily available elsewhere that could help terrorists and other hostile forces mount attacks in …
As referenced in today’s New York Times article, Illuminating Blacked-Out Words, see the following paper: Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2004: International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, Interlaken, Switzerland, May 2-6, 2004. Proceedings, Projective Coordinates Leak (abstract only).
DOJ Office of Information and Privacy, FOIA policy guidance:Use of “Cut-Off” Dates for FOIA Searches: “…all federal agencies should be mindful of the proper use of “cut-off” dates in their administration of the FOIA. Only with proper attention to this basic mechanism for determining a FOIA request’s full scope at the outset of their handling …
Report to Senator McCain into the alleged destruction of an audiotape of air traffic controller witness statements from 9/11/01, May 4, 2004. From the New York Times, F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers’ Statements
Two related stories worth noting: The New York Times reports increased circulation stats over the past six months, but other newspapers including the Washington Post report a downturn, some of which may be attributed to the migration of readers to the paper’s website. A recent Nielsen/NetRatings survey reports “that Web surfers are more politically active …
