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CIA Tries to Withhold Information That Is Already Public
The CIA has refused to allow Valerie Wilson, who was outed as an intelligence operative after her husband criticized the Bush administration, to publish her memoir because it discusses how long she worked for the agency, according to The New York Times.
The CIA says the information, which was classified, still is classified - even though it has been published in the Congressional Record. For that reason, the agency says,
So
“The CIA’s effort to classify public domain information is an unreasonable attempt at prior restraint of publication and a violation of our First Amendment rights,” said Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for planned book publisher - and fellow plaintiff in the lawsuit suit - Simon & Schuster, in the Times.
The CIA is sticking to its position, saying the information’s disclosure was a mistake.
Posted 06-01-2007 3:48 PM EDT
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Public Citizen Argues for Release of Hepatitis B Vaccine Information
Giving the parents of a boy who was disabled by a hepatitis B vaccine information about the use of the vaccine in the
On May 23, Public Citizen attorney Michael Kirkpatrick argued before a federal court in
Access to this information would allow the public and independent researchers to determine whether particular vaccine lots have a higher rate of adverse events. Adverse events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but without knowing how many doses from a certain lot have been used, researchers cannot calculate and compare the adverse event rate for the vaccines.
In March 2003, plaintiffs Dr. and Mrs. Robert Sharkey of
For more information about the case, look here.
Posted 05-30-2007 5:08 PM EDT
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Cheney Wants to Keep His Visitors Secret
Vice President Dick Cheney’s office apparently doesn’t want anyone to know exactly who’s visiting him at his residence.
A newly released letter from Cheney’s lawyer, dated last September, tells the Secret Service that it should not keep any copies of information about the visitors to Cheney’s residence.
The letter was posted on the Web site of the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which has filed a lawsuit seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who had visited the vice president at his official residence.
For more information about the letter, look here.
Posted 05-30-2007 4:33 PM EDT
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Who’s Making Global Warming Political Today? The Smithsonian
Apparently concerned about upsetting lawmakers or the Bush administration, the Smithsonian toned down an Arctic climate change exhibit last year - doing such things as altering the text of the exhibit to make the relationship between global warming and humans seem more uncertain, according to The Associated Press.
Robert Sullivan, who used to be the associate director in charge of exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (he resigned last fall), says the museum’s leaders didn’t want to anger politicians, although he did acknowledge that he knew of no one in the administration who pressured the Smithsonian.
“The obsession with getting the next allocation and appropriation was so intense that anything that might upset the Congress or the White House was being looked at very carefully,” Sullivan said.
The White House says that it had “no role” in the exhibit.
Posted 05-22-2007 2:32 PM EDT
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Justice Department Refuses to Release Documents
Even with all the negative attention it’s received over the
According to The Washington Post, the Justice Department has released almost 6,000 pages of documents relevant to the firing of the eight
The withheld papers include e-mails that discuss media strategies, drafts of letters to Capitol Hill, memos and other documents, according to the Post.
Can’t imagine that Congress is going to like this …
Posted 04-27-2007 2:42 PM EDT
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You Never Know What’s Secret in the Bush Administration
Intelligence officials spent months figuring out the number of contractors working for intelligence agencies, including the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency and others, according to The New York Times.
Apparently, there’s some concern about how reliant the intelligence agencies have become on private contractors. The Times article noted that the intelligence agencies have increased their use of contractors during the Bush administration’s tenure.
But the question remains: How many contractors do work for intelligence agencies?
We don’t know. The government won’t tell us, because the number of contractors is classified.
Apparently, knowing the number of contractors - not government employees, mind you - will somehow give the bad guys a leg up.
“It reveals how confused the government is about what is really sensitive and what is not,” said Steven Aftergood of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. “What would Osama bin Laden do with the fraction of intelligence workers who are contractors? Absolutely nothing.”
Posted 04-26-2007 12:17 PM EDT
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The Mystery of the Missing White House E-mails
To enable White House officials to conduct political business without getting into trouble for doing it with government equipment, the Republican National Committee (RNC) gave the officials RNC e-mail accounts several years ago. Those receiving the accounts included top White House advisor Karl Rove, according to news reports. (Check out this Reuters report and this column in The Washington Post.)
Trouble is, Rove apparently conducted some government business with his RNC account - a great way to keep that government business hidden.
Now, some of those official e-mails may erroneously have been deleted, the White House says. And some of Rove’s e-mails may have been related to the controversial firing of
Cover up? Or just an honest mistake? Stay tuned. We’ll almost certainly hear more about this one.
Posted 04-16-2007 3:59 PM EDT
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House Stands Up to Secretive Administration
Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives are joining together to oppose the Bush administration’s secretive ways, according to a New York Times editorial published March 16.
Last week, the House “overwhelmingly” approved legislation that requires federal agencies to be more responsive to Freedom of Information requests, according to The Associated Press.
The House also passed legislation that reverses a Bush decision to make it easier for presidents to keep their records from the public.
“The bipartisan support that’s emerging is no doubt driven by the administration’s unalloyed dedication to secret machinations - whether in the
The Times called for the Senate to swiftly take up companion legislation.
Posted 03-19-2007 1:16 PM EDT
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Don’t talk about the polar bears unless they tell you to …
A New York Times story published March 8 says that internal documents from the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Alaskan division tell government-employed biologists and other federal employees who travel in countries around the Arctic to keep quiet about climate change, polar bears or sea ice - unless they are designated to speak about these topics.
“This sure sounds like a Soviet-style director to me,” said Deborah Williams, an environmental campaigner in
Posted 03-08-2007 11:24 AM EDT
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Public Citizen Urges Congress to Curb Executive Branch Secrecy
The Bush administration's executive order to restrict access to presidential records violates the letter and spirit of the law and should be overridden by Congress, according to testimony March 1 by Public Citizen before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee. For more information, click here.
Posted 03-01-2007 4:35 PM EDT
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