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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: March 2008

February 2008

• Panel witnesses press for GAO audits of intelligence agencies by Chris Strohm, Congress Daily, February 29. "Government and public policy experts Friday said legislation is badly needed that would affirm the right of GAO to audit programs and financial activities of the U.S. intelligence agencies, especially because their scope and complexity have grown enormously since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."
• Court Lifts Injunction Against Wikileaks (PDF), February 29. "Having considered Plaintiffs’ pleadings, the relevant legal authority, and the record in this case, the Court DENIES Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction [against Wikileaks and] DISSOLVES the stipulated permanent injunction between Plaintiffs and Defendant Dynadot."
• The Dark Bush Legacy on Secrecy by Nat Hentoff, Washington Times, February 25. "There is no question that President Bush believed that he was doing the necessary and right thing in making secret decisions and setting secret policies as commander in chief against the jihadists. But how will the next president know what has been done in our name, and whether the resulting practices were, as Mr. Bush kept telling us, within the law?"
• Army Says It Will Restore Public Access to Online Library by Christopher Lee, Washington Post, February 23. "The Army will restore public access to the largest online collection of its doctrinal publications within two weeks, an Army spokesman said yesterday."
• Army Will Restore Public Access to Reimer Digital Library Within 2 Weeks, email message to FAS, February 21-22. "We fully intend to put the Reimer Digital Library back to where the public can access the unclassified documents."
• Close of Wikileaks Website Raises Free Speech Concerns by Ben Arnoldy, Christian Science Monitor, February 22. " Internet activists this week gave a Swiss bank and a San Francisco judge a powerful demonstration of the 'Streisand Effect.' That's Internet jargon for any effort to suppress online information that backfires by drawing much wider publicity."
• Army Blocks Public's Access to Documents in Web-Based Library by Christopher Lee, Washington Post, February 21. "The Army has shut down public access to the largest online collection of its doctrinal publications, a move criticized by open-government advocates as unnecessary secrecy by a runaway bureaucracy."
• DoJ Office of Legal Counsel Denies FOIA Request for Opinion on Executive Orders, February 18. "We are withholding the document in full because it is classified."
• DoJ Office of Professional Responsibility Declines to Pursue Investigation in ISOO-OVP Conflict, letter from H. Marshall Jarrett, February 14. "Based on our review of the misconduct allegations we have concluded that the facts do not raise an issue of attorney misconduct that requires an investigation by this office."
• Whistle-blower Web site ordered shut down by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, February 20. "A San Francisco federal judge has taken the highly unusual step of ordering the shutdown of a Web site devoted to anonymous allegations of high-level wrongdoing after it posted documents purporting to describe offshore activities of a Swiss bank."
• Court Issues Injunction Against Wikileaks.org, February 15. "Dynadot shall immediately lock the wikileaks.org domain name to prevent transfer of the domain name to a different domain registrar, and shall immediately disable the wikileaks.org domain name and account to prevent access to and any changes from being made to the domain name and account information, until further order of this Court."
• Court Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against Wikileaks.org, February 15. "Defendants are RESTRAINED and ENJOINED from displaying, posting, publishing, distributing, linking to and/or otherwise providing any information for the access or other dissemination of copies of and/or images of the [Julius Baer] Property."
• FAS Asks Army to Release a Copy of the Reimer Digital Library (pdf), February 13. "We hope to restore public access to the RDL by obtaining all of its publicly releasable contents and posting that material on our own website."
• The next president should open up the Bush Administration's record by Steven Aftergood, Nieman Watchdog, February 7. "By now no one expects the Bush Administration to make itself accountable for its controversial and possibly illegal practices. But the next President will have a unique opportunity to reveal what has been kept hidden for the last seven years."
• CIA Monitors YouTube For Intelligence by Thomas Claburn, Information Week, February 6. "U.S. spies are looking increasingly online for intelligence and they've become major consumers of social media."
• President Bush Calls for Security Clearance Reform, memorandum for agency heads, February 5. "The Federal Government needs a qualified, trusted workforce available to successfully execute its missions. However, longstanding practices used in the security processing of individuals and contractors to work for the Government pose challenges to the speed with which these individuals can begin their work or move from one role to another."
• Lecturer criticizes government secrecy, advocates public records by Brian Honigman, The Pitt News, February 5. "Steven Aftergood thinks the government keeps too many secrets. But there's one thing that differentiates Aftergood from your average nervous conspiracy theorist. He happens to be the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, a respected organization that applies scientific authority to public policy."

Older News: January 2008

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