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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: September 2004

August 2004

• White House takes secrecy to new levels, coalition reports by Edward Epstein, San Francisco Chronicle, August 27. "The federal government under President Bush is classifying more information as secret, spending more to do it and falling further behind in dealing with the public's requests for information, a coalition of groups trying to combat secrecy in government reported Thursday."
• All That Secrecy is Expensive by Noah Shachtman, Wired News, August 27. "The 9/11 Commission, leaders in Congress -- even the government's top secret-keeper -- all agree that Washington's penchant for keeping information under wraps has grown out of control. Now, a coalition of watchdog groups has documented just how much it's costing to keep all those records away from the public eye."
• Refined Topographic Data Now Available for Large Areas of the World, NGA news release, August 27. "The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has reached a milestone in its program to make “finished” topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) available to the public."
• Secretary Rumsfeld on Stovepipes, Leaks, Overclassification, press conference, August 26. "Our country has forgotten how to keep a secret. We have such a hemorrhaging of information that’s classified."
• Nobel Laureates Urge Open Access to Government-Funded Health and Medical Research, open letter to Congress, August 26. "Science is the measure of the human race's progress. As scientists and taxpayers too, we therefore object to barriers that hinder, delay or block the spread of scientific knowledge supported by federal tax dollars - including our own works."
• A Spreading Shroud of Government Secrecy by Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service, August 25. "Three years after 9/11, the shroud of government secrecy is spreading as agencies strip information from their Web sites and withhold public information on the grounds it could help terrorists."
• Ludicrous, Lethal Government Secrets Cited by Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press, August 24. "Ludicrous and lethal examples of classification were cited Tuesday by members of Congress and witnesses at a House subcommittee hearing into the Sept. 11 commission's conclusion that secrecy is undermining efforts to thwart terrorists."
• Lawmakers seek incentives to reduce classification of information by Chris Strohm, Government Executive Daily Briefing, August 23. "House lawmakers on Tuesday will begin trying to develop incentives to stop federal agencies from overclassifying material in an effort to improve information sharing across the government."
• U.S. Uses Secret Evidence In Secrecy Fight With ACLU by Dan Eggen, Washington Post, August 20. "In one of the cases, the government also censored more than a dozen seemingly innocuous passages from court filings on national security grounds, only to be overruled by the judge, according to ACLU documents."
• Rumsfeld, McLaughlin, Clinton on Secrecy, Overclassification, colloquy from Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, August 17. "Overclassification is, I agree, something that very properly ought to be addressed in a serious way."
• Requests for government information hit all-time high by Chris Strohm, Government Executive Daily Briefing, August 5. "The total number of Freedom of Information Act requests made to federal departments and agencies broke records in fiscal 2003 and cost the government almost $325 million, according to a new report from the Justice Department."
• 9/11 Commission Puts Spotlight on Secrecy by Steven Aftergood, Center for American Progress, August 5. "The 9/11 Commission put it simply: The U.S. intelligence community is becoming increasingly complex and secretive – which can cost lives."

Older News: July 2004

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