12/22/09: The Blog of Legal Times reports that DOJ wants to bar the public from a court hearing Jan. 7 in the criminal case against five Blackwater security guards who are charged in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians, saying that the proceeding may result in the disclosure of classified information.
Continue reading "DOJ urges closed hearing in Blackwater case in DC" »
12/15/09: Secrecy News reports that an interagency report released by the Obama Administration today says that the government should replace the more than 100 different control
markings that are now used to limit the distribution of sensitive but
unclassified (SBU) information and should establish a single
“controlled unclassified information” (CUI) policy for all such
information in government. The Department of Defense, the intelligence agencies, and the
Department of Homeland Security have already indicated that they plan
to use the CUI Framework for all of their sensitive unclassified
information.
Continue reading "New framework proposed for “sensitive” government info" »
12/11/09: Wired reports that three Republican lawmakers have asked the Department of Homeland
Security what can be done to bar or criminally penalize whistleblower
sites that re-posted a sensitive airport-screening manual that was
published on the internet by a government worker.
Continue reading "Lawmakers want to bar sites from posting sensitive government docs" »
11/30/09: SCOTUSblog reports that the Supreme Court on Monday wiped out a lower court ruling in Defense Department, et al.,. v. American Civil Liberties Union, et al. that would have forced the Pentagon to release scores of photos that are said to show abuse of detainees by the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Justices, in a brief order, vacated the Second Circuit Court decision and told that court to reconsider in the wake of a new law Congress passed to keep those photos from public disclosure.
Continue reading "Supreme Court overturns order releasing detainee photos" »
11/30/09: The Boston Globe reports that millions of pages of 25-year old classified documents that had been scheduled to be declassified by the end of the year will remain secret because the Obama administration has been unable to get the agencies holding the documents to comply with the declassification order. (HT to FOIAblog)
Continue reading "Declassification order delayed by Obama administration" »
11/17/09: The LA Times reports that sensitive CIA operations overseas will face new scrutiny from the nation's intelligence director under a plan approved by the White House and outlined in a memo to the espionage workforce last week.
Continue reading "National intelligence director to evaluate CIA missions" »
11/10/09: BeSpacific reports that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a FOIA lawsuit challenging DHS's failure to make public details about the agency's Whole Body Imaging program. EPIC demanded that the agency disclose records that describe the scanners' capacity to save and transmit images.
Continue reading "EPIC sues DHS for information about digital strip search devices" »
11/08/09: The Washington Post reports that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to question Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. about his support of a compromise reporters' shield law before they vote on it. Under the compromise, a "balancing test," in which a judge weighs the importance of the public having certain information against the potential damage such disclosure could do, would not be required when the government shows a judge that the information it seeks by subpoena from a reporter "would materially assist" it in preventing, mitigating or identifying the perpetrator of a terrorist act or significant harm to national security.
Continue reading "GOP senators want to query attorney general on reporter-shield legislation" »
10/29/09: The
New York Times reports that The FBI recently made public its interpretation of domestic intelligence-gathering when it released, in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit, its “Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.”
The disclosure of the manual has opened the widest window yet onto how
agents have been given greater power in the post-Sept. 11 era.
Continue reading "Loosening of FBI rules stirs privacy concerns" »
10/22/09: FOIA Blog reports that despite the Obama administration's recent legal settlement to begin releasing White House visitor logs later this year, it has denied the watchdog group Judicial Watch's recent request for those same records in the meantime.
Continue reading "Secret Service denies access to White House visitor logs" »
10/22/09: Intelligence Daily reports that the Obama administration indicated in court papers it may appeal a federal judge’s ruling ordering the Justice Department to release portions of the transcribed interview between former Vice President Dick Cheney and Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to probe the roles Bush administration officials played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson six years ago.
Continue reading "DOJ indicates it may fight release of Cheney’s CIA leak transcript" »
10/16/09: Politico reports that US military commanders in Afghanistan are retreating somewhat from
an effort to ban embedded journalists from publishing photos or video
of American soldiers killed in action there, according to ground rules
issued Thursday.
But the new limitations on embeds – put in place after a flap
between the Pentagon and the Associated Press over a photo of a wounded
soldier who later died, have elicited deep concerns from military
journalists and press advocates.
Continue reading "New DoD war photo rules rile critics" »
10/01/09: The Lift reports that Amnesty International and several other human rights groups are accusing the Obama administration of abusing the National Security defense by refusing to release documents related to detainee abuses.
Continue reading "Human rights groups allege abuses of ‘National Security’ defense" »
Opinion: Congress wants it both ways on FOIA
10/26/09: Unredacted has a post arguing that the new FOIA (b)(3) withholding statute that bars the release of pictures of detainees held in US custody, including at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq frustrates a part of the purpose of FOIA legislation: holding government actors accountable for their conduct.
Continue reading "Opinion: Congress wants it both ways on FOIA" »
October 26, 2009 at 03:26 PM in Congress, Secrecy / Transparency / FOIA, Commentary / Opinion | Permalink