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Secrecy and Security News

Newer News: February 2009

January 2009

• Attorney General-Nominee Eric H. Holder, Jr. on Openness and State Secrets, answers to questions from Sen. Russ Feingold, January 2009. "I firmly believe that transparency is a key to good government. Openness allows the public to have faith that its government obeys the law. Public scrutiny also provides an important check against unpersuasive legal reasoning – reasoning that is biased toward a particular conclusion."
• A ray of sunshine into a dark world: the future declassification of satellite reconnaissance information by Dwayne A. Day, The Space Review, January 26. "Maybe, just maybe, in the next few years we might actually learn more about the amazing machines like the KH-9 that collected intelligence and helped win the Cold War."
• Hung Out to Dry by Laura Rozen, Columbia Journalism Review, January 22. "The Bush administration has left in its wake a demoralized national-security press corps, battered by leak investigations, subpoena-happy prosecutors, and a shift in the legal and wider culture away from the previous understanding of journalism’s mission and First Amendment protections."
• Lobbying Rules Surpass Those of Previous Presidents, Experts Say by Dan Eggen and R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, January 22. "New lobbying and records rules issued by President Obama yesterday appear to go beyond changes implemented by previous presidents, and could usher in an era of openness in federal government, according to ethics experts and open-government advocates."
• Obama overturns Bush order on access to White House records by Todd J. Gillman, Dallas Morning News, January 22. "President Barack Obama began dismantling the Bush legacy Wednesday, using his first full day to overturn an order that let ex-presidents seal their papers forever."
• Undoing Bush: Obama orders easier access to public records by Margaret Talev, McClatchy Newspapers, January 21. "President Barack Obama, in his first full day in office, revoked a controversial executive order signed by President Bush in 2001 that limited release of former presidents' records."
• President Obama Delivers Remarks at Swearing-In Ceremony, January 21. "For a long time now there's been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing some thing to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over."
• ODNI Denies Release of FY2006 National Intelligence Program Budget (pdf), January 14. "The size of the National Intelligence Program for Fiscal Year 2006 remains currently and properly classified pursuant to Executive Order 12958, as amended."
• Holder may reverse Bush secrecy by Pete Yost, Associated Press, January 14. "Attorney General-designate Eric Holder could set the tone for a more open White House by speaking out this week on Capitol Hill against Bush administration policies promoting government secrecy."
• Probe of CIA video destruction winding down by Randall Mikkelsen, Reuters, January 8. "A criminal probe into the CIA's destruction of videotapes showing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects is almost finished, court papers made public this week show."
• Obama expected to revoke Bush order on presidential records by Ken Herman, Austin American-Statesman, January 4. "Historians and open-records advocates say they are counting on President-elect Barack Obama to undo an executive order by President George W. Bush giving ex-presidents unprecedented control over the release of White House records."
• Money, Secrets Top DC Watchdog Worries in '09 by Justin Rood and Megan Chuchmach, ABC News The Blotter, January 2. "Call them the three S's: Spending, Secrets and Spying. Those are the major issues good government groups say they will be focused on in 2009, according to an informal poll by ABCNews.com."

Older News: December 2008

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