transparency

To follow up on my earlier post about Rep. Louis Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and her speech on her colleagues’ move to amend the Freedom of Information Act to prevent the release of photographs depicting abuse of detainees in U.S. custody, it’s worth looking at the conference report on the bill. The bill is called the “Protected [...]

Much as Barack Obama may deserve the Nobel Peace Prize for changing the climate toward international diplomacy and recognizing the value in cooperating with the rest of the world, the prize seems more about congratulating the United States for breaking with the Bush go-it-alone attitude than for any great achievements or policy changes Obama has [...]

Dr. Steven Miles, a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School and faculty member of its Center for Bioethics, for years tried to track the deaths of “war on terror” detainees being held in U.S. custody. The author of the book “Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity and America’s War on Terror,” published in 2006 [...]

After the Justice Department dragged out four different lawsuits seeking public access to White House visitor records, the Obama administration finally agreed yesterday to settle the cases, brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and committed to post visitor records online.
CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan praised the White House, saying, “The Obama [...]

Despite President Obama’s previous criticism of former President George W. Bush’s “signing statements” that limit the president’s responsibility to comply with a bill passed by Congress, it turns out Obama has been doing much the same thing since he took office.  Charlie Savage reported in The New York Times on Sunday that Obama has issued [...]

In another black mark on the Obama administration’s promised transparency, former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed has launched an urgent legal fight to prevent photos he claims prove he was tortured from being destroyed. Mohamed, who was seized in Pakistan in 2002 and later transferred to Morocco and Guantanamo Bay, was released in February and returned [...]

The Weekly Standard and Greg Sargent are both reporting that the House Democratic leadership is boldly (my characterization, not the Standard’s) standing up to the White House and the Senate, which last week passed an amendment to the appropriations bill that would allow Obama to keep those much-discussed detainee abuse photos secret.
The Lieberman-Graham Amendment, also [...]

The National Security Archive at Georgetown George Washington University today announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation won its annual award for worst Freedom of Information Act performance by a federal agency.  The FBI has apparently been unable to find records in response to two-thirds of the FOIA requests it’s received over the past four [...]

A case involving CIA black sites, Boeing and torture victims sets up the first real-world example of the Obama administration’s take on national security.

Although it’s not yet available on the White House Website, President Obama has reportedly issued an order aimed at reversing the secrecy policies of the Bush administration.
Former Bush administration Attorney General John Ashcroft encouraged information officers to vigorously search all the Freedom of Information Act exemptions before releasing anything, which yielded all sorts of excuses [...]