Promises, Promises
Despite its promises, the Republican National Committee (RNC) no longer will try to restore missing e-mails sent by White House officials on RNC accounts, according to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, during a Feb. 26 hearing.
White House officials – including former presidential adviser Karl Rove – had used RNC accounts for government business, even though rules stated that they had to use official channels to conduct government business, according to the Feb. 27 Washington Post. (Administration officials have acknowledged such practices.)
The RNC had told the committee previously that it was trying to restore e-mails from 2001 to 2003, when the RNC’s policy was to purge all e-mails after 30 days.
Somehow, the RNC had a change of heart.
“The result is a potentially enormous gap in the historical record,” Waxman said, including the prelude to the Iraq war.
Posted 02-27-2008 12:44 PM EDT
Army Restricts Access to Unclassified Information
The Army has closed public access to a digital library that contains unclassified field and technical information, according to The Washington Post.
On Feb. 6, the Reimer Digital Library was moved behind a firewall, protected by a password.
The Army says it is limiting access to comply with Defense Department policies for tightening the security of military Web sites and to keep better track of who is accessing these sites.
However, the Project on Government Secrecy, a program within the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists, is hoping to restore access to the documents. The group filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Feb. 13 for all of the unclassified, publicly releasable documents in the library’s collection so it can post the material on the group’s Web site.
“They can configure Army Web sites however they like,” the Project on Government Secrecy's director, Steven Aftergood, is quoted in the Post as saying. “What they cannot do is to withhold information from the public that is subject to release under the FOIA. … What we really want to do is to persuade them to adopt a reasonable policy of openness, not to provide an alternative – unless we have to.”
Posted 02-21-2008 12:49 PM EDT
Public Health Agency Suppresses Hazardous Substances Report
Same story, different cast: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is blocking the release of a report that studies environmental hazards in the eight Great Lakes states.
The study, originally set for release last July, warns that more than nine million people living in more than two dozen “areas of concern” – including those living in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee – could face increased health risks from exposure to contaminants such as pesticides, lead, mercury or other pollutants, according to The Center for Public Integrity.
The government has said the report’s quality was below expectations and was still being reviewed. (Dozens of experts have reviewed drafts of the report since 2004.) And the individual who oversaw the study has been demoted after pushing to release the Great Lakes study and other reports.
“It’s not good because it’s inconvenient,” said Canadian biologist Michael Gilbertson, a Canadian biologist who was a peer reviewer for the report. “The whole problem with all this kind of work is wrapped up in that word ‘injury.’ If you have injury, that implies liability. Liability, of course, implies damages, legal processes, and costs of remedial action. The governments, frankly, in both countries are so heavily aligned with, particularly, the chemical industry, that the worst amongst the bureaucracies is that they really do not want any evidence of effect or injury to be allowed out there.”
Posted 02-18-2008 1:17 PM EDT
House Issues Contempt Citations Against White House Aides
Three's a charm
Senators Introduce Bill for Oversight of State Secrets Privilege
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