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The FOI Advocate
Back to The FOI Advocate Index
July 29, 2004
The E-Newsletter of the National Freedom of Information Coalition
"A government by secrecy benefits no one. It injures the people it seeks to serve; it damages its own integrity
and operation. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty."
-- 110 Congressional Record 17, 087 (1964) (Statement of Senator Long)
A Publication of The Freedom of Information Center
A Unit of the Missouri School of Journalism
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. Men
born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to
liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
-- Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928
TOP OF THE NEWS
"Sometimes, of course, there are legitimate reasons, such as security, for
the White House's secrecy. Other times, such a reason is elusive. In April
2002, for example, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the Apopka Little
League team of 11- and 12-year-olds would visit the White House on May 5
to watch a T-ball game. The source: the team manager and parents.
'The White House would not confirm the invitation,' the paper reported. "
-- The Washington Post's Dana Milbank in an uproarious Washington notebook column on White House secrecy.
COURT OPENS FLORIDA ELECTION RECORDS: A state court judge in Florida ordered Thursday that the board of
elections immediately release a list of nearly 50,000 suspected felons to
CNN and other news organizations that last month sued the state for access
to copies of the list.
The list is used to determine who will be eligible to vote in November's
presidential election in the state.
In a statement issued shortly after the ruling was announced, Secretary of
State Glenda Hood accepted the ruling as final.
"Now that the court has ruled that statute to be unconstitutional, we will
make these records accessible to all interested parties," she said.
Florida bars people convicted of felonies in that state from voting. In
2000, a similar list was the center of controversy when state officials
acknowledged after the election that it contained thousands of names in
error, thus barring eligible people from voting.
Many of the barred voters were African-Americans, who traditionally tend
to vote Democratic.
Bush won the state by a 537-vote margin and, with it, the presidency.
Story 1 Link
The Miami Herald - using the data - found soime 1,600 votes eligible but
off the rolls in Florida:
Story 2 Link
BUSH FILES INADVERTANTLY DESTROYED: Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts
during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard more than 30
years ago have been inadvertently destroyed, according to the Pentagon.
It said the payroll records of "numerous service members," including
former First Lt. Bush, had been ruined in 1996 and 1997 by the Defense
Finance and Accounting Service during a project to salvage deteriorating
microfilm. No back-up paper copies could be found, it added in notices
dated June 25.
The destroyed records cover three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when
Mr. Bush's claims of service in Alabama are in question.
The disclosure appeared to catch some experts, both pro-Bush and con, by
surprise. Even the retired lieutenant colonel who studied Mr. Bush's
records for the White House, Albert C. Lloyd of Austin, said it came as
news to him.
Story Link
AND THE AP ASKS FOR THE REST OF 'EM: The Associated Press asked a federal judge Friday to order the Pentagon
to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service
record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military
service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with the news
service's Freedom of Information Act request for any record archived at a
state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush
fulfilled his National Guard service for a period during the Vietnam War,
the AP argued in papers filed in federal court in New York.
Story Link
HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN RECORD: When Ohio legislators approved a new law allowing residents to carry
concealed weapons, but allowed only the media to find out the names of
those obtaining such permits, The Plain Dealer in Cleveland decided to let
the public know which of their neighbors were on the list.
Starting Wednesday, the paper began publishing the names, ages and home
counties of the 3,000 residents who have taken out such permits, citing
the public's right to know.
"We don't think the public should be denied access to the names at all,"
said Plain Dealer Editor Doug Clifton, who published about 1,500 names
over a full page Wednesday and planned to run a page and a half of the
remaining names on Thursday. "We figured it was our obligation to share it
with the broader public."
Story Link
ANTITERROR, IRAQ, ETC.
ASHCROFT SQUARES OFF WITH WHISTLEBLOWER: Sifting through old classified materials in the days after the Sept. 11,
2001, attacks, FBI translator Sibel Edmonds said, she made an alarming
discovery: Intercepts relevant to the terrorist plot, including references
to skyscrapers, had been overlooked because they were badly translated
into English.
Edmonds, 34, who is fluent in Turkish and Farsi, said she quickly reported
the mistake to an FBI superior. Five months later, after flagging what she
said were several other security lapses in her division, she was fired.
Now, after more than two years of investigations and congressional
inquiries, Edmonds is at the center of an extraordinary storm over US
classification rules that sheds new light on the secrecy imperative
supported by members of the Bush administration.
In a rare maneuver, Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered that
information about the Edmonds case be retroactively classified, even basic
facts that have been posted on websites and discussed openly in meetings
with members of Congress for two years. The Department of Justice also
invoked the seldom-used ''state secrets" privilege to silence Edmonds in
court. She has been blocked from testifying in a lawsuit brought by
victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and was allowed to speak to the panel
investigating the Sept. 11 attacks only behind closed doors.
Story Link
TORTURE MEMO CLASSIFICATION QUESTIONED: The federal government's secrecy watchdog has asked the Pentagon to
explain why parts of a memo about the interrogation of terror detainees
were classified.
The Information Security Oversight Office, which enforces government
secrecy policy, says one passage discussed the political fallout if the
use of certain techniques became public.
"Looking at that paragraph," said William Leonard, the office's director,
"it's difficult to see how that information (could) ... damage national
security."
The memo, declassified and released last month, is the report of a working
group on interrogation techniques established in January 2003 by the
Defense Department's general counsel.
Story Link
...AND WHILE YOU"RE AT IT: The White House and the Central Intelligence Agency have refused to give
the Senate Intelligence Committee a one-page summary of prewar
intelligence in Iraq prepared for President Bush that contains few of the
qualifiers and none of the dissents spelled out in longer intelligence
reviews, according to Congressional officials.
Senate Democrats claim that the document could help clear up exactly what
intelligence agencies told Mr. Bush about Iraq's illicit weapons. The
administration and the C.I.A. say the White House is protected by
executive privilege, and Republicans on the committee dismissed the
Democrats' argument that the summary was significant.
Story Link
GENERAL FOI NEWS
PRINCIPALS STEAMED OVER DISCLOSURE: The head of the New York City principals' union demanded an apology
yesterday from Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein for releasing the names of
45 principals who the chancellor said were removed for poor performance.
In many cases, the union leader said, the chancellor had violated
confidentiality agreements. Klein maintains that he was simply following
the public records law, which would demand release of the documents.
Mr. Klein's list has created a stir since his office released it Monday
evening. Teachers and parents scoured it for names of unpopular principals
they hoped to see included. Some newly retired principals woke up Tuesday
morning to read in newspapers, to their horror, that their own names were
on it.
Earlier this week, the chancellor said the removal of the principals
reflected increased accountability within the city school system under his
and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's leadership. He maintained that all the
principals on the list had performed poorly this year even though many had
ultimately retired or accepted demotions. Two of the principals are
fighting their dismissals.
Story Link
FOI AT WORK: MILLIONAIRES FOR NADER... Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader -- still not on the ballot
in a single state -- has received a recent windfall of contributions from
deep-pocketed Republicans with a history of big contributions to the
party, an analysis of federal records show.
Nearly one in 10 of Nader's major donors -- those writing checks of $1,
000 or more -- have given in recent months to the Bush-Cheney campaign,
the latest documents show. GOP fund-raisers also have "bundled"
contributions -- gathering hefty donations for maximum effect to help
Nader, who has criticized the practice in the past.
The donations from wealthy Republicans -- combined with increasingly vocal
Democratic charges that they represent a stealth GOP effort to wound
Democrat John Kerry -- prompted Nader's vice presidential running mate,
Green Party member Peter Camejo, to suggest the consumer advocate reject
the money that doesn't come from loyal Nader voters.
"If there has been a wave of these (donations), then that's something
Ralph and I will have to talk about -- and about returning their money,''
he said Thursday in an interview with The Chronicle. "If you oppose the
war, if you're against the Patriot Act, your money is welcome.
Story Link
TRANSPARENT PRIVACY? A great Q&A with futurist, scientist and author David Brin, who has long
studied what tomorrow could hold for humanity. Several of his novels have
been New York Times best sellers, winning multiple Hugo, Nebula and other awards. A 1989
ecological thriller, Earth, foreshadowed global warming and the World Wide Web. Brin holds a
bachelor of science from the California Institute of Technology, and a
master's in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in space physics from the
University of California at San Diego. He also spent four years as a
research engineer for Hughes Aircraft Research Labs.
His 1998 nonfiction book, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between
Freedom and Privacy?, examines the ramifications of technological advances on individual
lives. He begins by presenting a choice between living in two different
cities of the near future. Each town appears the same, except for one
significant difference.
Story Link
9/11 COMMISSION A RARE PEEK BEHIND CURTAIN: With the release this morning of the Sept. 11 commission's final report,
not quite three years after the attacks, the country will receive an
account of the day no longer anchored in the shock of the moment, but one
that peels open layers of the federal government that are rarely glimpsed,
much less scrutinized.
The version of events that evolved from those secret records reflects a
profound shift. The inquiry established that the attacks, rather than
being bolts from the blue, were preceded by a rising tide of unheard,
ignored or mishandled warnings of pending trouble. The hearings and
interim reports revealed years of troubling entanglements with other
countries and evidence of a fractured national intelligence system of
squabbling, uncommunicative agencies.
The commission has cut more quickly and deeply into the secrets of two
presidential administrations than did earlier commissions that studied
national calamities, such as Pearl Harbor, the John F. Kennedy
assassination and the Iran-contra affair, according to scholars on the
presidency and secrecy.
Often, the scholars said, this kind of historical overhaul takes years or
decades, but the pressures of a presidential election year and the
persistent inquiries of victims' families meant that closely guarded
secrets and embarrassing lapses were revealed with remarkable speed.
Story Link
PRESS GROUPS FILE FOIA APPEAL: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press today urged the federal
appeals court in Washington, D.C., to clarify the standard for when
government agencies must more quickly process Freedom of Information Act
requests.
The Reporters Committee, joined by the National Security Archive, the
American Civil Liberties Union, the American Society of Newspaper Editors,
and the Society of Professional Journalists, filed a friend-of-the-court
brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in
the case of Electronic Privacy Information Center v. Department of
Justice.
The case arose after an August 22, 2003, Washington Post story by Dan
Eggen, which reported that Guy A. Lewis, director of the Executive Office
of United States Attorneys in the Department of Justice, sent a letter to
all federal prosecutors urging them to lobby against legislation pending
in Congress that would limit the use of "sneak and peek" warrants under
the USA PATRIOT Act. The article questioned whether the letter was a
violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act.
On September 10, the Electronic Privacy Information Center ("EPIC"), a
Washington, D.C.-based public interest group, filed a Freedom of
Information Act request for the letter and other related records with the
Department of Justice. EPIC requested that the department expedite
processing of the request because it involved an "urgency to inform the
public concerning actual or alleged Federal Government activity," and
because it involved "a matter of widespread and exceptional media interest
in which there exist possible questions about the government's integrity
which affect public confidence." In support of its request, EPIC submitted
31 news articles from 14 states and Washington, D.C.
The department denied EPIC's request to expedite processing. Without first
appealing the denial to the department, EPIC filed suit in U.S. District
Court in Washington, D.C.
Story Link
9/11 COMMISSION DECRIES OVERCLASSIFICATION: The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
determined last week what open government advocates have long argued:
Federal agencies are overclassifying information.
According to the commission, poor information-sharing among federal
agencies was a primary problem that contributed to the attacks. The
panel's final report, issued last week, recommends that the overall budget
of the intelligence community should be declassified, and information
sharing should be stressed over information hoarding. Indeed, Chairman
Thomas Kean told reporters after the report was released that half of all
the classified documents he reviewed did not need to be classified.
"The culture of agencies feeling they own the information they gathered
at taxpayer expense must be replaced by a culture in which the agencies
instead feel they have a duty to the information -- to repay the
taxpayers' investment by making the information available," the report
concluded. "Current security requirements nurture overclassification and
excessive compartmentalization of information among agencies."
Story Link
IN THE STATES
NEWSDAY WINS ROUND IN DOT FIGHT: The state Department of Transportation must honor a Freedom of
Information Law request from the Long Island newspaper Newsday and detail
downstate's most dangerous intersections and what the state is doing to
make them safer, a state appellate court ruled.
Another state court, the Court of Appeals, also decided it will hear an
appeal in the New York Times' FOIL case for telephone transcripts and
other records related to Sept. 11, 2001, from the New York Fire
Department.
Newsday's attempt to get records the DOT is required to keep under the
federal highway Hazard Elimination Program was rebuffed by the state
agency, which argued the state FOIL law allows it to hold on to
information that is exempted from disclosure under federal law. The DOT
said the dangerous roadway information is just such data.
Story Link
KENTUCKY PRESS ASSOCIATION SUES: A newspaper group filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to pry open juvenile
court proceedings and records that are shielded from the public by state
laws.
The suit asks a federal judge to strike down those laws and issue an
injunction to open the hearings and records to public scrutiny.
It was filed in U.S. District Court by the Kentucky Press Association,
which claims the laws violate the state and federal constitutions. Named
as defendants are the state and the Franklin County Circuit Court clerk.
The suit said the current system for juvenile court proceedings "deprives
KPA and its members of their First Amendment rights to gather and publish
news and deprives the public of its First Amendment right of access to
information related to court proceedings and records."
Story Link
COUNTY COMMISSION'S CALENDAR OFF LIMITS? Despite a series of requests over a period of months, the Mobile County
Commission has refused to allow public inspection of the three
commissioners' appointment books, saying such access would hinder their
work and discourage people from meeting with them.
The commission apparently is interpreting the state's public records law
differently than the office of Gov. Bob Riley. The governor's office
provided the Mobile Register with Riley's schedule for certain dates in
response to a similar request by the newspaper.
The Mobile Register first asked in summer 2003 to see the appointment
books maintained by the commissioners' secretaries in order to stay on top
of those activities. The newspaper has followed up with several inquiries
since then.
Alabama law states simply that "every citizen has a right to inspect and
take a copy of any public writing of this state, except as otherwise
expressly provided by statute."
Story Link
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION? The Government's passion for secrecy while it talks about openness is
revealed today after a study by The Daily Telegraph that raises serious
concerns about the new Freedom of Information Act.
It shows that more than 76,000 files which have passed the normal 30-year
closure period laid down by the Public Record Act remain hidden on the
Lord Chancellor's instructions. More than a third - 27,000 - are regarded
as so sensitive by the Whitehall departments which produced them that even
a description of their contents has been suppressed.
The 76,000 files represent almost 0.8 per cent of the 9.5 million
documents preserved in the National Archives, a process that began with
the Domesday Book.
Story Link
GET READY FOR FOI: Publishing his annual report on Wednesday, Richard Thomas also warned
traditionally secretive Whitehall departments that they must show a clear
commitment to the principles of the new legislation.
The watchdog said there were welcome indications "that Whitehall
departments and other public bodies are recognising the benefits of open
government".
But he said that this commitment "must be backed up by clear action".
"I'm encouraged by the commitment voiced and demonstrated among public
bodies to freedom of information but fine words are not enough," said
Thomas.
"Training is underway, FoI champions have been appointed and a culture
change has been promised but the real test will come in just five months
time when the Act comes into full force."
Story 1 Link
Report at:
Story 2 Link
TRANSPARENCY LACKING IN ECB: French finance minister Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday (6 July) called on the
European Central Bank (ECB) to publish records of its debates and votes
when setting interest rates, in the interests of transparency.
According to Le Monde, Mr Sarkozy said, "It is important that an
independent European body communicates how its decisions are taken, not
just to the markets but also to the citizens. In a democracy, it is
important that this is explained".
"There is no longer any reason not to publish the votes of those who
decide our interest rates", he added, according to Reuters.
Story Link
IN IRELAND, GROWING CONCERN WITH DELAYS: Information commissioner Emily O'Reilly is concerned at the delays in
the processing of appeals by her office due to pressures of resources. The
Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) said in recent weeks they had
900 appeals, including some cases received in 1999, and 200 from before
January 2002.
The figures were contained in a letter from the OIC to Fine Gael TD
Bernard Allen, explaining why he had still not received a decision on an
appeal he made almost two- and-a-half years ago.
"The delays are a matter of serious concerns to the commissioner. However,
given the current pressure and resources, it has not been practicable to
make decisions as quickly as she would wish," the letter said.
Story Link
...AND WITH FEES: Information Commissioner Emily O'Reilly told the Dáil Finance
sub-committee the fees were not even meeting the €15,000 spent on
collecting them and were endangering the operation of the act.
She said she would be disappointed if some charges under the act, which
were introduced by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, were not reduced.
Requests for information under the FOI Act now cost €15, an internal
review costs €75 and an appeal to the Office of the Information
Commissioner costs €150.
Ms O'Reilly said: "I should point out that Ireland is very much in the
minority in charging fees for internal review and for an appeal to the
Information Commissioner
Story Link
NO WHISTLEBLOWING ALLOWED? A private watchdog group warned World Bank employees Thursday not to rely
on the bank's system for protecting staff members who blow the whistle on
internal misconduct, saying the system tends to be a trap managers use to
keep embarrassing information from reaching the public.
The Government Accountability Project said in a report the bank flunked
16 of 24 tests the group uses to assess a public institution's
friendliness to whistleblowers. The bank nevertheless looked good next to
three related organizations: the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development
Bank. Those banks scored even worse, the GAP said.
"The bottom line is real clear: We cannot responsibly recommend that a
whistleblower risk retaliation by working within any of the banks'
systems...," said Tom Devine, the GAP's legal director. "By and large,
these whistleblower systems are a trap in terms of identifying employees
who have evidence which could threaten the institution. They are a vehicle
for advance warning to internal management that they may be liable for
something, and they're not reliably safe channels."
Story Link
PROGRESS ON FOIA IN INDIA: The establishment of a strong legal framework for government transparency
in the country may have received a fillip this month. On July 13, the
Supreme Court heard a public interest litigation on the languishing
Central Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, passed in 2002. The petitioners
were the Centre for Public Interest Litigation and the National Campaign
for People's Right to Information (NCPRI). Noted public interest lawyer
Prashant Bhushan is handling the case on behalf of the petitioners.
After 2 days of hearings last week, the Chief justice asked the Government
to either notify the Central FOI Act or formulate rules and guidelines to
give effect to it right away. The government sought time to respond, and
the matter was adjourned till July 20. On July 20, the government's
lawyers represented that some rules and guidelines for the FOI Act have
been formulated but the Centre has sent them to all the State governments
for review and comments. New Delhi wanted time until September 15. With
the petitioners' counsel Prashant Bhushan agreeing to this, the Court set
September 15 as the deadline for the States to respond to the Central
Government.
Readers will be aware the Central Freedom of Information Act was passed in
2002, and received assent from the President in January 2003. But since
then, the rules and guidelines to give effect to the law had not been
announced and this was the essence of the petitioner's complaint. In the
meantime, nine states already have their own RTI laws, enacted before the
Central version. Citizens and civil society groups have been using the
state laws, particularly in Delhi, Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Story Link
ON THE OP-ED PAGES: WHAT SOME ARE SAYING ABOUT OPEN GOVERNMENT
First Amendment ombudsman Paul McMasters on the epidemic of secrecy: In the war on terror, information is our most powerful weapon. But our
leaders seem determined to disarm the American citizenry.
Not that Americans have been all that heavily armed with government
information. Ironically for an open society, we have warehouses filled
with secrets. And we keep grinding out more....
Those charged with making us secure must recognize the value in sharing
information judiciously with the American public. That builds confidence
in government leadership. It creates ownership of government policies. And
it generates a flow of information and good ideas from citizens to
officials.
In a democracy, over-reaching secrecy does not make us safer; rather it
creates only the equality of ignorance.
Story Link
Another installment of the Madison Capital-Times' excellent "Your Right to
Know" series: "The Open Meetings Law does not allow a majority of a local elected body
to meet in secret. That means, for example, that four or more members of a
seven-member village board can't legally gather in private, except for
some narrow exceptions spelled out in the law. This reduces the
possibility that a majority of the board will railroad through ordinances
out of public view, thus turning their public meetings into a sham.
But the law specifically exempts legislative caucuses. As a result,
Republicans and Democrats can and do meet in private to discuss pending
legislation. And because one party or the other holds a majority -
currently it's the Republicans in both the state Senate and Assembly - it
allows state lawmakers to flout the very law that local elected bodies
must obey.
The Waukesha County Board recently voted 26 to 9 to recommend that the
Legislature end its closed-door caucuses. It is hoped more local elected
bodies will put pressure on the Legislature to do away with this
indefensible practice...
Wisconsin legislators ought to hold themselves to the same standard of
openness required of local elected bodies. The only losers would be those
with something to hide from the rest of us, and the party leaders whose
influence would diminish under a truly open system.
Story Link
The Washington Post on the reflexive need to classify: "Flip through the Senate intelligence committee's report on prewar
intelligence and you'll find instance after instance in which lines,
paragraphs, even entire pages are blacked out. It could have been worse,
though: If intelligence officials had their way, nearly half of the
511-page report would have been redacted, rather than the 15 percent or so
that was excised in the final version. Said one outraged senator: "The
initial thing that came back was absolutely an insult, and it would be
laughable if it wasn't so insulting, because they redacted half of what we
had. A lot of it was to redact a word that revealed nothing." The speaker?
Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), hardly a wild-eyed foe of the intelligence
community.
Story Link
Fast Company CEO Allan Webber says the days of business secrecy are over: " In the 1990s, CEOs and other top corporate chieftains were among the
boldest supporters of information technology (IT). The Web, we were told,
was going to change everything - and the benefits to businesses would be
enormous. Productivity improvements, cost savings, opportunities to do all
kinds of work faster, cheaper and better would flow from the spread of the
Web and the increased power of IT.
But as anyone with a well-developed sense of irony can tell you, be
careful what you ask for - because you just might get it.
When it comes to the Web and IT, CEOs in almost every industry are
learning that the law of unintended consequences is alive and well. In
this case, what corporate leaders have gotten that they never anticipated
is the end of secrecy: Business today (and government, too) has to adjust
to a world in which nothing can remain hidden for very long. To which
champions of business and advocates of capitalism everywhere should say,
"It's about time!"
Story Link
Chellie Pingree, president and CEO of Common Cause, on secrecy and safety: Compare this growing secrecy movement to a program in Portland, Ore.,
where public officials and private companies have set up a nonprofit
partnership devoted to protecting the public. The information-sharing and
alert system they developed, called Regional Alliances for Infrastructure
and Network Security, has been in operation since last August. Working
with universities, technology companies, first responders, government
agencies and the state of Oregon, the system allows its participants to
add safety and security information to a secure, Web-based database. But
instead of clamping down on information like federal agencies have, RAINS
members share the information with each other, warn the public of dangers
that arise and coordinate emergency responses.
Story Link
WANT TO SUBSCRIBE?
News tips? Hot FOI links for us to use? Send them to the FOI Center at foi@missouri.edu
Additional information on the FOI Center can be found at the Center's website.
The FOI Center is a part of the Missouri School of Journalism.
Send comments or inquiries to: foi@missouri.edu Or call: (573) 882-4856
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