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The FOI Advocate
Back to The FOI Advocate Index
Sept. 30, 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
"If the documents are more of an embarrassment than a secret, the public
should know of our government's treatment of individuals captured and held
abroad. "
-- Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Federal District Court in Manhattan,
chastising the administration for its "glacial pace" and ordering the
Pentagon and other agencies to produce a list of all their documents on
the detentions at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Oct. 15.
IT'S VOODOO ECONOMICS: A study by the coalition openthegovernment.org reveals that the
excessive secrecy of the Bush administration comes at a high price,
literally. According to the report, "the federal government spent $6.5
billion last year creating 14 million new classified documents and
securing accumulated secrets -- more than it has for at least the past
decade." For every dollar the administration spent on declassifying
documents last year it spent $120 to keep documents secret.
Story Link
COURT CITES ADMINISTRATION'S "INDIFFERENCE" TO FOIA: A federal judge in New York, complaining that the Bush administration
"shows an indifference" to the freedom of information laws, has ordered
the Pentagon and other agencies to produce a list of all their documents
on the detentions at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq by Oct. 15.
The ruling, issued yesterday by Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Federal
District Court in Manhattan, came in a suit filed July 2 by the American
Civil Liberties Union. The group sued after the federal government failed
to provide any relevant documents in response to a Freedom of Information
Act request it made on Oct. 7, 2003.
The request was for documents about the treatment and deaths of detainees
while in United States custody in Iraq, among other subjects. The group
provided a list of 70 priority documents, all of which were mentioned in
public reports or press accounts.
In his ruling, Judge Hellerstein wrote that the "glacial pace" of the
government's response "fails to afford the accountability of government"
that the freedom of information laws require. On Aug. 17 the judge had
ordered the government to start producing the 70 documents, but none have
been released.
Story Link
DON'T LOOK AT US... Republican members of a House committee squelched a Democratic attempt on
Wednesday to seek information on Vice President Cheney's energy task
force, in a rowdy session punctuated by cries of 'Shame!' from Democrats
on the panel.
On a party line vote, "the panel voted down the Democratic motion for the
committee to ask the White House for the names of members and other
information about the 2001 task force that formulated energy policy."
There has been no official investigation into industry influence on the
administration's proposed energy policy, even though Cheney acknowledges
meeting with Enron executives and the Government Accountability Office has
suggested the legislation was shaped by corporate executives from the
petroleum, electricity, nuclear, coal, chemical and natural gas companies,
among others.
Story Link
ANTITERROR, IRAQ, ETC.
"The danger to political dissent is acute where the government attempts to
act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.'
Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the
danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."
-- The ACLU quoting a 1972 United States Supreme Court opinion in United
States v. United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan, 407 U.S. 297 (1972), which re-emerged in the news recently after
Justice Department lawyers blacked it out in filings in a Patriot Act
case.
For the evidence, see:
www.thememoryhole.org/feds/justice_redaction.htm
SECRET ARGUMENTS IN SECRET CASE: The Justice Department has asked an appellate court to keep its
arguments secret for a case in which privacy advocate John Gilmore is
challenging federal requirements to show identification before boarding an
airplane.
A federal statute and other regulations "prohibit the disclosure of
sensitive security information, and that is precisely what is alleged to
be at issue here," the government said in court papers filed Friday with
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Disclosing the restricted
information "would be detrimental to the security of transportation," the
government wrote.
Story Link
CLOSING UP PORT INFO: Citing the threat of terrorism, federal officials are keeping more
information about the security of the nation's seaports secret, but new
regulations -- and proposed legislation -- could also shut off records
about safety and environmental issues.
Critics say the new rules could block disclosure of data about the driving
records of hazardous-waste haulers, the criminal records of port
stevedores and the recent safety history of railroads and vessel
operators.
Transportation Security Agency officials, charged with keeping airports
and seaports secure, said they will move cautiously to interpret and
enforce regulations, similar to the rules covering aviation, that went
into effect in June.
Those rules allow the Coast Guard to designate data about a port's
operation as ''sensitive security information'' that cannot be made
public. How shippers and haulers handle cargo is a prime concern, with
security experts warning that ports are especially vulnerable to smuggling
by terrorists.
But that new designation could include any records ''that would be
detrimental to the security of transportation if that information was
disclosed,'' and another provision says that could be extended to
personnel records.
Story Link
GENERAL FOI NEWS
NEW HIPAA SITE: The US Department of health and Human Services has launched a most
useful web site dedicated to explaining the intersection of HIPAA and
public records laws. It contains lots of background information and a FAQ
on coverage of HIPAA.
Story Link
AP STILL LOOKING FOR BUSH MILITARY RECORDS: While attacks on Senator John Kerry's service in Vietnam have garnered
headlines in the past month, the Associated Press has quietly continued
its efforts, in court and through Freedom of Information requests, to find
missing documents relating to President Bush's service in the National
Guard in the same period.
Now, AP's Matt Kelley has revealed that documents that should have been
written to explain gaps in Bush's Air National Guard service are missing
from the military records released about his service in 1972 and 1973,
according to regulations and outside experts.
For example, Air National Guard regulations at the time required
commanders to write an investigative report for the Air Force when Bush
missed his annual medical exam in 1972. The regulations also required
commanders to confirm in writing that Bush received counseling after
missing five months of drills.
No such records have been made public and the government told The
Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that
it has released all records it can find.
Story Link
...AND NOW IT'S GETTING 'IMPERATIVE...': A memo issued by the office of the secretary of defense on Aug. 31
requires U.S. officials to perform an exhaustive search for records
relevant to the president's Air National Guard duty.
The Daily obtained a copy of the memo on Thursday. Lt. Col. Ellen Crenke,
a press officer in the Department of Defense, confirmed the memo's
validity.
Raymond F. DuBois, director of the Office of the Secretary of Defense,
issued the memo. It advises officials that "it is now imperative that an
exhaustive, system-wide search be conducted for all documents pertaining
to President Bush's service in the Air National Guard."
The memo went to the archivist of the United States, the director of the
Air National Guard, the director of the Defense Finance and Accounting
Service and the director of the Defense Security Service.
"There have been many searches. Each time we issue a new call, though, it
seems we find something else," Banks said Thursday.
Story Link
...THEN A JUDGE ORDERS THE PENTAGON TO SEARCH: A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to find and make public by next
week any unreleased files about President Bush's Vietnam-era Air National
Guard service to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The
Associated Press.
Story Link
THIS JUST IN...ADMINISTRATION MORE SECRETIVE! Rep. Henry A. Waxman's Government reform Minority Office has released a
comprehensive examination of secrecy in the Bush Administration. The
report analyzes how the Administration has implemented each of our
nation's major open government laws. It finds that there has been a
consistent pattern in the Administration's actions: laws that are designed
to promote public access to information have been undermined, while laws
that authorize the government to withhold information or to operate in
secret have repeatedly been expanded.
Story Link
The committee's web site:
Story Link
GOVERNMENT ADMITS IT WENT A TAD TOO FAR: The government has conceded that the U.S. Marshals Service violated
federal law when a marshal ordered reporters with The Associated Press and
the Hattiesburg American to erase their recordings of a speech by Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia.
The Justice Department also said the reporters and their employers are
each entitled to $1,000 in damages and reasonable attorney fees, which had
been sought by the media organizations.
The government's concessions were contained in court papers filed Friday
in response to a lawsuit by the news organizations.
While agreeing the federal Privacy Protection Act forbids the seizure of
the work product of a journalist, the government said the plaintiffs were
not entitled to an injunction that would bar the Marshals Service from a
repeat of the incident.
Story Link
HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN: Federal government agencies have been ordered by a federal appeals court
to release data on sales of firearms and
tracing of firearms recovered by law enforcement. The data had first been
sought by the City of Chicago, through a Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) request, over four years ago, but ATF refused to
release the information based on certain exemptions of FOIA. The
Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives (ATF) were ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh
Circuit to release the data.
This is the second time that the court has ruled that this information
must be made available to the public, while ATF has asked the
courts and Congress to help keep the information secret. The data was
sought by the City of Chicago for use in its lawsuit against gun
manufacturers, distributors, and dealers for contributing to a public
nuisance in Chicago by facilitating trafficking of large numbers of
firearms into Chicago, where handguns have been illegal since 1982. By
concealing the data, ATF is preventing the public from learning which
firearms dealers have sold the most crime guns even though reports ATF has
published have noted that just over one percent of dealers are linked to
more than 57 percent of crime guns recovered nationwide and traced.
Story Link
CRASH RECORDS WITHHELD: Federal auto safety officials are backtracking on a pledge to give
consumers access to detailed data on which cars and trucks may be linked
to deaths, injuries and property damage. The reason: Tire makers have sued
to prevent its release.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says it will
hold off indefinitely on releasing the information while the lawsuit by
the country's largest tire makers is argued and decided, which could take
months, if not years. Consumer advocates have been clamoring for the
release of such data since the 2000 Ford-Firestone rollover debacle.
Until last week, the government said it had made or would make available
to the public the new vehicle safety data, including details on the make,
model and year of a vehicle in which someone died or was injured, and what
vehicle part or system may have caused the accident.
But following a Freedom of Information Act request by the Free Press,
NHTSA last week acknowledged this informationwas not available -- as it
had said earlier. It also acknowledged it would not be made public until
it deals with the lawsuit filed in June by the Rubber Manufacturers
Association, a group that represents tire makers such as Bridgestone,
Goodyear and Continental.
Story Link
IN THE STATES
"Attached is a request for a FOI (freedom of information). The mayor said
to delay it as long as we can. My question is how much, if any,
information should we give them. Thank you."
-- a fax mistakenly sent to Peoria, Illinois City Hall by East Peoria's
city clerk.
JUST GIVE US A REASON: The Journal Star asked a judge to force District 150 to make public the
reasons why the School Board ousted Superintendent Kay
Royster.
In a lawsuit filed in Peoria County Circuit Court, attorneys for the
newspaper's parent company, Copley Press Inc., maintain letters and
evaluations sent to Royster "that address the board's reasons for placing
her on administrative leave" are considered public documents under the
state's Freedom of Information Act.
"We don't view this as being an unusual request," said the newspaper's
attorney, Peter Storm of Geneva. "The only thing that is unusual is that
the school district has apparently decided that it doesn't have to make
public the reason for dismissing a superintendent of schools."
Story Link
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
BLAIR TO DROP FOI FEES: Tony Blair has agreed to scrap most of the fees levied for making use of
the Freedom of Information Act, as part of an effort to regain
disillusioned liberal voters at the election.
He told a cabinet meeting devoted to party issues last week that Labour
was losing votes, not just those of disillusioned working class families
but also of the middle class, especially women, many of whom oppose the
war in Iraq.
It is the first time in many years that Mr Blair has acknowledged in
private that the Liberal Democrats win more than a temporary protest vote.
It is expected that Lord Falconer, the constitutional affairs secretary,
will announce that charges for applications for information under the
Freedom of Information Act will not be levied so long as the cost of
gathering the information does not exceed £600.
Story Link
ROPE-A-DOPE IN PEORIA: Peoria Mayor Dave Ransburg and East Peoria Mayor Charles Dobbelaire both
talk of working together to "grow the region," but there hasn't been much
evidence of that, especially lately.
Take the fax that East Peoria City Clerk Berta Dinkins mistakenly sent to
Peoria City Hall. Her handwritten message on the cover page shows
Dobbelaire apparently trying to stall city of Peoria officials from
getting public records surrounding the proposed Embassy Suites Hotel.
Dinkins wrote: "Attached is a request for a FOI (freedom of information).
The mayor said to delay it as long as we can. My question is how much, if
any, information should we give them. Thank you."
The message was meant for East Peoria assistant city attorney Mike Tibbs.
Somehow, it also was forwarded to Peoria City Hall.
Story Link
MONTENEGRO READIES FOI LAW: After two years of preparation, the Draft-Law on Access to Information
entered into Government review procedure (to be read and commented by the
competent Committees), and is expected to go into the Parliament by the
end of the year, announced yesterday Slobodan Franovic, President of the
Montenegro Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (MHC). He added that a
seminar on the freedom of information is to be held today and tomorrow in
Budva, organized by Article 19, Initiative for Justice and MHC. The seminar should serve as a forum for
exchange of experiences in the implementation of legislation on freedom of
expression and information in the region.
Story Link
A MULTINATIONAL AUDIT: Access to public information is increasing worldwide, but many countries
are lagging far behind, said a new study.
The pilot survey monitoring freedom of information was released by the
Open Society Justice Initiative on September 28, designated "Right to Know
Day" by global FOI groups.
Conducted in Armenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Peru and South Africa, the
survey marks one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to test the limits
of government transparency. It involved the submission of 100 information
requests to 18 different public institutions by a range of actors in each
country. On average only 35 percent of requests for information were
fulfilled. Many requests not explicitly rejected were simply ignored?in
total, 36 percent of requests submitted resulted in tacit or "mute"
refusals.
Story Link
LITTLE SUNSHINE IN MOLDOVA: More than half of the state officials in Moldova do not observe the law
on access to information. This is the conclusion drawn by experts of
Transparency International Moldova, the Centre of Journalistic Research
and the Independent Press Association, which have carried out a research
on access to information.
Transparency International Moldova director Lilia Carasciuc today told a
news conference at the Infotag news agency that the research was conducted
between May and September 2004 at 95 state bodies and structures.
Those who answered did it between two and 80 days, while legislation
stipulates a maximum of 15 days for responding. Only 11 structures have
public-relations services, Carasciuc said.
According to the research, 66.6 per cent of the Moldovan population know
about their right to information access. One in every two citizens has at
least once applied for various information, and two-thirds of the
applicants received official answers.
The most disciplined responders are employees of city halls and district
councils, as well as parliament and the president's office. It is the most
difficult to obtain information from the police, prosecution bodies,
courts and the government, the researchers said.
Story Link
ON THE OP-ED PAGES: WHAT SOME ARE SAYING ABOUT OPEN GOVERNMENT
George Sorvalis of the Working group on Community-Right-to-Know: Do you know what hazardous chemicals are in your neighborhood, your air,
and your drinking water? Community right-to-know laws can help you find
out. Community right-to-know laws give people a greater voice in
environmental decisions by providing communities with information about
dangerous chemical storage, contaminated drinking water, or other
potential hazards.
For example, the Toxics Release Inventory came on-line in 1989 as the
first publicly available, federally mandated database of pollution
sources. Within the first eight years, industries responded by reducing
reported chemical releases by 44 percent, or 1.6 billion pounds, due in
part to improved public awareness.
Another important right-to-know program requires companies that use
extremely hazardous chemicals to submit 'Risk Management Plans' to the
federal government. These plans help businesses understand their own
hazards and inform workers and surrounding communities of the potential
dangers of an accidental chemical release. So what does this add up to?
Companies could report dangerous chemical storage or unsafe bridges to the
government, but with no obligation to fix these problems. Businesses could
submit information under the Act to avoid being held accountable for
safety problems. There is no requirement for the government or the company
to fix vulnerabilities that are described in the secret voluntarily
submitted information.
Disclosing problems helps to fix them. D.C.'s Blue Plains Sewage Treatment
Plant switched to a safer chemical to eliminate a threat that was apparent
to plant operators, lawmakers, and the public. Imagine if the plant were
able to secretly communicate that danger to the government with no
obligation to fix the problem. That scenario requires the public to
blindly trust industry and government without any recourse if problems are
not addressed.
Story Link
Katharine Gun, who faced jail time for blowing the whistle on US plans to
bug UN delegates in the runup to war in Iraq: "Twice this year I have found myself at the centre of media interest. First
when I was on trial at the Old Bailey, charged under the Official Secrets
Act because I revealed details of an American plan to bug the phones of
delegates to the United Nations Security Council.
And now, six months on, it's happened again. Last week's Observer
reported the formation of the Truth-Telling Coalition, a group of
'whistle-blowers' from several countries set up to offer support and
advice to people like myself. I, like many others, found myself in
possession of knowledge about something which was wrong and which the
public had a right to know about but which I was prevented from revealing
because of the laws, rules and regulations to which I was subject.
What has to be understood is that most whistle-blowers are not natural
activists - this one certainly wasn't. We usually work in anonymous jobs,
far from the spotlight. We are not campaigners, or journalists, or wannabe
celebrities, craving a platform. Our conscience tells us we have to reveal
what we know. We do that, we blow the whistle and, overnight, the whole
media circus descends on us..."
Story Link
Mark Tapscott of the Heritage Foundation on a little-known FOI hero: Rob Walters, Sean Adkins, Sharon Smith and Michelle Starr are not
household names like broadcast stars Tim Russert or Peter Jennings. But
these four ink-stained wretches in Pennsylvania are way ahead of the big
guys when it comes to digging out information that otherwise might never
see the light of day.
They work for The York Daily Record, and they've set a standard for using
the federal Freedom of Information Act that the Big Media stars would be
wise to imitate. The YDR crew routinely uses more than 250 FOIA requests
annually to break important stories for their newspaper's readers...
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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