[LINK] FOI and EFOI in the US

[Kim Holburn]

On 2006 Sep 11, at 7:56 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:

> Given the recent finding of the High Court re access to Australian  
> government information through FOI processes and their gutting of  
> the legislation (in my best Little Britain voice: Ruddock says no),  
> the US approach is much more enlightened. There was a link on the  
> NASA site to this specific section on their website for access to  
> info:
>
> http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIA/agency/
>
> They even provide a listing of the electronic access rooms around  
> the country to get the information.
>
> Would that our AU governments saw their positions as WORKING FOR  
> us, instead of RULING us.

They are gutting FOI in the US too:
From:
http://www.projectcensored.org/censored_2007/index.htm

> #8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
>
> Sources:
>
> New Standard, May 6, 2005
> Title: “Pentagon Seeks Greater Immunity from Freedom of Information”
> Author: Michelle Chen
>
> Newspaper Association of America website, posted December 2005
> Title: “FOIA Exemption Granted to Federal Agency”
>
> Community Evaluator: Tim Ogburn
> Student Researcher: Rachelle Cooper and Brian Murphy

>  The Defense Intelligence Agency, the intelligence arm of the  
> Department of Defense, has been a source for critical information  
> on the Pentagon's foreign operations as well as the DIA's  
> observations of the conduct of other branches of the military. Its  
> request for immunity from the Freedom of Information Act last year  
> was not the first attempt to shield its data from members of the  
> public, but it did come at a time that the governent's anti-terror  
> fervor was beginning to crest.
>
> Open-government groups warn that such an exemption from FOIA  
> requests, which the Central Intelligene Agency already enjoys,  
> would close off a major channel for information in a government  
> bureaucracy already riddled with both formal and informal barriers  
> of secrecy. The Pentagon's request alarmed groups like the ACLU,  
> which has relied heavily on such data to build cases regarding  
> torture and abuse of detainees in Iraq.
> (http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/042005/).
>
> Since the article was published, the language proposed for the  
> Defense Department budget for FY 2006 was adopted. (The public  
> print of the bill can be read at the GPO website here, buried on  
> page 472: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi? 
> dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s1042pp.txt.pdf.)
>
> The bill specifically refers to the immunity of "operational  
> files," though this is somewhat ambiguously defined.
>
> Another development in this issue area over the past year is that  
> secrecy and intelligence gathering have become intense domestic  
> political issues. As a result, heightened public attention to the  
> gradual rollback on open-government laws is beginning to stir some  
> congressional action in the form of hearings and investigative  
> reports, not just related to classified information per se but also  
> the new quasi-classified categories that have cropped up since 9/11  
> (http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2006/index.html).
>
> Earlier this year, the Pentagon initiatied a department-wide review  
> of FOIA practices, though it is unlear whether this internal  
> evaluation will lead to actual changes in how information is  
> disclosed or withheld from public purview. (http:// 
> www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/DoD_FOIA_Review.pdf).
>
> For more on this issue, see:
> The Project on Government Secrecy, a watchdog group run by the  
> American Federation of Scientists:
> http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2006/index.html
>
> The National Security Archives at George Washington University,  
> which has an extensive collection of FOIA documents and has issued  
> numerous reports and studies on government secrecy and FOIA policies:
> http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/foia.html




--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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