Tag Archives: Schultz

America’s Freedom of Information Act has been increasinglysacrificed for the sake of national security, revealed the latestanalyses of the Associated Press.Having examined the annual document workflow of the 33 federalgovernment agencies, the Associated Press concluded that just overa third of the private requests applied to US government agenciesin 2012 were turned down altogether for various reasons, the mostcommon of which are matters of national security.In some cases the requested records could not be found, while inothers the requests were determined improper or the requestorrefused to pay for the copies.A considerable part of the remaining nearly two-thirds of therequests that were finally handed over to the applicants had beeneither preliminarily censored or selectively curtailed.White House spokesman Eric Schultz reported of great effort thegovernment agencies have demonstrated responsiveness in 2012 to“the president’s call for greater transparency.”Though the administration has answered a record number ofrequests in 2012, still matters of the national security withheldinformation in at least 5,223 cases in 2012, a sudden increase from4,243 cases in 2011 (and even fewer – 3,805 cases – during Obama’s first year in office).The US State Department answered just 57 per cent of itsrequests, a dramatic fall from 75 per cent in 2011.Up to 60 per cent of 3,586 requests applied to the CIA wereeither censored or withheld (49 per cent in 2011).The Pentagon’s National Security Agency monitoring internettraffic and phone calls worldwide follows closely with 2,390denials last year.The FOIA act is commonly understood as a remarkable index ofWashington’s transparency. Any citizen can ask for a copy offederal records for a symbolic cost – but only if this poses nothreat to national security, personal privacy, business secrets ornational decision-making confidential data.Official documents are often needed as evidence in court, butthe latest tendencies show that it is no longer enough to be afederal judge to resolve issues where governmental data isinvolved.When The New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Uniondemanded access in January to government’s legal justification fordrone attacks to kill terrorist suspects, including the Americancitizens, abroad, they were denied the right.Federal judge Colleen McMahon of New York had to resort toliterature, citing Alice in Wonderland and Catch-22, after rulingagainst the demand of NYT. And even her ruling in part becamesecret, being sealed and available to the government’s lawyersonly.“I find myself stuck in a paradoxical situation in which Icannot solve a problem because of contradictory constraints andrules — a veritable Catch-22,” Judge McMahon said. “I canfind no way around the thicket of laws and precedents thateffectively allow the executive branch of our government toproclaim as perfectly lawful certain actions that seem on theirface incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping thereasons for their conclusion a secret.”Journalists who often need urgent information for breaking newsprobably suffered the most last year. So-called ‘expeditedprocessing’ was granted by the US government in only 17 per cent ofcases (24 per cent in 2011). Remarkably enough, the CIA denied allsuch requests in 2012.The US government agencies under the Obama administrationcontinue to enhance the secrecy policies to an extent even greaterthan that at the times of George W. Bush and the laws supposed toprevent them from doing so, like the Freedom of Information Act,are losing their importance.“FOIA is an imperfect law, and I don’t think that’s changedover the last four years since Obama took office,” saidAlexander Abdo, a staff attorney for its national security projectat American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “We’ve seen a meteoricrise in the number of claims to protect secret law, thegovernment’s interpretations of laws or its understanding of itsown authority. In some ways, the Obama administration is actuallyeven more aggressive on secrecy than the [George W.] Bushadministration,” he told AP.In 2012 American citizens submitted over 590,000 FOIA-basedrequests for information.The leader of the number of requests among the agencies is theHomeland Security Department, requests to which almost doubled dueto immigration files demands, reaching 190,589 new requests lastyear. Four agencies, including the Office of National Drug ControlPolicy, opted not to publish their annual FOIA performance for 2012at all. … Read More