On Jan. 24, 2003, a new law enforcement and investigatory agency whose duties include functions taken from as many as 22 other federal agencies came into existence. The reorganization of these operations reportedly marks the biggest government bureaucratic shake-up since the creation of the Department of Defense half a century ago.
Even before the new Department of Homeland Security opened its doors, controversies arose over not just how it would operate and exercise its powers, but what level of access to information it would allow, and how it would respond to news media requests. Will new exemptions be carved out of the FOI Act, either by law or by practice? Will officials and agents feel free to tap phones of journalists, or subpoena their records during investigations? Will the new director consider procedural safeguards, like those adopted years ago by the Department of Justice, to ensure that freedom of the press will not be denied? And will those practices be followed?

But "homeland" security is not the only concern for journalists covering anti-terrorism initiatives; military actions abroad often present a greater challenge, as questions over disclosure of information, access to troops, and restraints on reporting seem to resurface anew with each conflict.

Questions and issues like these led the Reporters Committee to launch this "weblog," so that there will be a centralized site on the Internet for journalists who want to follow these issues and pass along information they learn while covering — or worse, being covered by — the new department and other anti-terrorism actions. Please submit comments and pass along tips to make this project as useful, thorough and up-to-date as possible.

A few words about what this project will not do. We do not intend to cover many of the issues that will undoubtedly come up as the Department takes shape, even if those issues are the ones generating headlines. We will cover information access and free press issues, but will not follow debates over many civil liberties issues that, while important, are outside of our domain.

Funding for the launch of this site was provided by The Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation.

May. 31, 2005

DEFENSE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING ADDRESSES KORAN ABUSE ALLEGATIONS. Brigadier General Jay Hood spoke at a Defense Department news briefing Thursday on the treatment of religious articles at Guantanamo Bay. At the briefing, Hood said that the military had reviewed 31,000 documents and "found no credible evidence that a member of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay ever flushed a Koran down a toilet." Hood did, however, discuss 13 specific incidents where the Koran was allegedly mishandled in other ways. To understand these 13 incidents better, Hood reminded journalists that they should remember the Guantanamo detainees are "not a benign group of people." — Posted at 2:32 pm

ACQUITTED SOLDIER\'S TESTIMONY CONTRADICTS EARLIER SWORN STATEMENT. Navy SEAL Lt. Andrew K. Ledford, who made a sworn statement to military investigators last year that he punched an Iraqi prisoner, testified the opposite before a military court last week and was acquitted of assault one day later, The Washington Post reported Saturday. The prisoner, Manadel al-Jamadi, later died while suspended from his wrists in CIA custody. Now that he is acquitted, Ledford plans to return to work as a Navy SEAL, and will receive a promotion that had been in limbo pending his court-martial. — Posted at 2:30 pm

COMPILATION OF GOVERNMENT DOCS SHEDS LIGHT ON U.S. TORTURE POLICY. Using leaks, government reports, and records received from Freedom of Information Act requests, the Slate Web site last week reported on what the U.S. government believes constitutes torture and comes to the conclusion that American "policies were deliberately designed to carve out exceptions to international rules regarding prisoners of war that the United States had once championed and led the world to embrace." One of the piece's authors, Dahlia Lithwick, noted that "legal methods and language have framed the discussion... There is something about bare-bones legal analysis that immunizes - even sterilizes - the content of the message." — Posted at 2:29 pm

ABSENCE OF GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION INTO KORAN ABUSE LEAVES QUESTIONS. No government documents have been published to indicate that any internal investigation of Koran abuse claims has been conducted, The Washington Post reported Sunday, despite Brig. Gen. Jay Hood's admission last Thursday that incidents "broadly defined as the mishandling of the Koran" had taken place. The consequence of the government's failure to investigate, according to The Post, is that "much of the world believes the misbehavior has been worse." — Posted at 2:27 pm

DATA ROADBLOCKS ON BAGHDAD\'S \'DEATH STREET.\' In an article about "Death Street," the 10-mile attack-prone route out of and into Baghdad International Airport, The New York Times reports that censored information in a government report contradicts a report by a Western security company about the number of attacks on the road, where American soldiers on March 4 fired on a car, killing Italian military officer Nicola Calipari and wounding Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena. The report said there had been 135 attacks on the road in the four months up to early March, including 15 suicide car bombs, 19 roadside bombs, and 14 attacks with rocket-propelled grenades. But even these figures may understate the threat. One report this year by a Western security company said airport road attacks had included 14 suicide car bombs in November and December last year alone, double the incidence cited by the Calipari report. — Posted at 12:03 pm

GETTING FIT TO FIGHT TERRORISTS. Federal homeland security money has been spent on things like fitness training and equipment for local police and fire departments, according to records cited by The Kentucky Post. The vice president of policy for Taxpayers for Common Sense, Keith Ashdown, said that when people frame their needs in terms of protecting the homeland, "they really can basically rationalize any type of expenditure." — Posted at 12:01 pm

HOMELAND SECURITY EXPENDITURES RAISE PENNSYLVANIANS\' EYEBROWS. According to records released by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, $120 million in federal grants have been disbursed to the state on items such as keyless entry for a rural firehouse and flat-screen televisions, WGAL reported on its Web site. The treasurer of a group called Citizens Against Higher Taxes said that the state seemed to buy whatever it wanted simply by labeling it homeland security-related. Though Pennsylvania is willing to inventory its homeland security purchases, it refuses to tell its citizens where individual items were sent. — Posted at 12:00 pm

May. 27, 2005

HOUSE COMMITTEE REQUESTS DEFENSE INTEL PROGRAM INVENTORY. The House Armed Services Committee has told the Pentagon that defense intelligence programs should be inventoried so as to assure what has been lackluster congressional oversight of all of their missions, the Federation of American Scientists reported this week. "The committee believes that it does not have complete visibility," it said. — Posted at 5:20 pm

STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL SUPPORT REPORTER\'S PRIVILEGE IN PLAME CASE. The Associated Press reports that Attorneys General in 34 states will file a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court today in support of reporters' right to protect their confidential sources. The court is expected to decide whether it will hear the case or not within the next month, but if accepted, the case would not actually be argued until the court's next session, which begins in October. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is leading the effort, and will be joined by AGs in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. AGs for Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands will join as well. "A free society needs a free press," Shurtleff said in a press release. "We are asking the Supreme Court to make sure reporters aren't prosecuted under federal law for doing something they are encouraged to do under state law." — Posted at 11:42 am

May. 26, 2005

HATFILL ARGUES APPEAL OF LIBEL DISMISSAL. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. (4th Cir.) heard arguments Tuesday in bioterrorism expert Dr. Steven Hatill's libel lawsuit against The New York Times, the Associated Press reports. Hatfill, a former army schientist, is suing over opinion columns by Nicholas Kristof about the government's investigation of Hatfill in the 2001 anthrax mailings. The Department of Justice labeled Hatfill a "person of interest" in the investigation, but he was never charged. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton dismissed the lawsuit last year, and Hatfill appealed. In a separate suit, Hatfill is suing government officials for violation of the federal Privacy Act for releasing information about him from the investigation. Hatfill subpoenaed as many as 15 news organizations to testify in that case. Four of the subpoenas have since been withdrawn and eight are being contested. — Posted at 5:09 pm

INFORMATION ABOUT COLOSSAL CHLORINE TANK SECURITY A SECRET. When asked by a local NBC affiliate whether huge, easily visible chlorine tanks posed a serious chemical threat to neighboring residents, a spokeswoman for Lee County Utilities in Florida said that she was unable to discuss anything about a recent Environmental Protection Agency vulnerability assessment, the television station reported on its Web site yesterday. If the tanks were exploded, the chlorine could diffuse quickly through the atmosphere. — Posted at 3:07 pm

MISIDENTIFICATION SUITS MULTIPLY. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that a man whose photo was mistakenly identified as depicting a terrorism suspect has sued CNN and Arab-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat , seeking a retraction, damages and an inquiry into how the mistake occurred. Asif Iqbal, a 32-year-old Pittsford, N.Y., software engineer shares the same name with a British citizen nearly ten years younger who was held as a terrorism suspect by the U.S at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The younger Iqbal was released last year and is suing the U.S. government for abuse. A photo of the elder Iqbal was published in the Democrat and Chronicle in 2002 to illustrate a story about his mistakenly being placed on the government's "no fly" list over confusion between the identity of the two men. CNN and Asharq Al-Awsat later used the photo but mistakenly said it depicted the younger Iqbal. The elder Iqbal previously filed a separate but similar lawsuit against CBS and the Associated Press. > > — Posted at 3:05 pm

BENEFITS OF EVER-GROWING KENTUCKY HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT UNKNOWN. The Kentucky Homeland Security Department - whose near-singular responsibility is distributing federal grant money - has ballooned to $1 million in annual operating costs but still is the subject of little or no oversight or accountability analysis, The Kentucky Post reported Monday. Referring to the department's 17-person staff, Rep. Tom Burch (D-Louisville) asked "Who are these people? What are their qualifications to deal with Homeland Security and what benefit are we getting from it? Can anybody tell us that we are safer today before we put those people in there?" — Posted at 3:04 pm

WHISTLEBLOWERS SHOULD BE THANKED, NOT ABUSED. An editorial in today's edition of The Washington Times said that whistleblowers, or "modern Paul Reveres," have found that the government "would rather crush truth-tellers than admit their foibles." The article detailed the plights of Robert G. Wright, Jr., and Russ Tice, who have been retaliated against by the FBI and the National Security Agency, respectively, for calling the public's attention to possible government problems. — Posted at 3:02 pm

LABOR DEPARTMENT STATISTICS VAGUE ON CAUSE OF CIVILIAN DEATHS. Labor Department statistics show that 276 civilians have died while working on U.S. funded reconstruction projects in Iraq, although there is no published data on how those deaths occurred, Reuters reported. "Most are believed to be at the hands of insurgents," the wire service wrote. — Posted at 3:01 pm

TAL AFAR, A FORBIDDEN CITY. Reporters were barred from the northern Iraq city of Tal Afar where there were reports of street fighting between Shiites and Sunnis one day after at least 20 people were killed by car bombs, The Associated Press reported. — Posted at 3:01 pm

CIA AGENT TESTIFIES FROM BEHIND CURTAIN. A floor-to-ceiling curtain shielded a CIA agent who testified yesterday at Navy Lt. Andrew Ledford's court-martial, where the judge constantly reminded wtinesses not to discuss classified operations, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The public was kept out of the courtroom while the agent testified about secret or classified information, the Los Angeles Times reported. — Posted at 2:59 pm

May. 24, 2005

ENHANCEMENT OF EXPIRING PATRIOT ACT PROVISION PROPOSED. Civil liberties groups warn that proposed changes to the USA PATRIOT Act would permit the FBI to subpoena and seize records without court oversight, Reuters reports. The changes, pushed by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan), would allow the FBI to secretly issue administrative subpoenas for medical, tax, gun purchase, travel and other records without permission or oversight by a judge or grand jury, so long as the subpoenas were in pursuit of a terrorism or foreign-intelliegence investigation. The Senate intelligence committee will consider the legislation in closed session on Thursday. The American Civil Liberties Union, the Open Society Institute and the Center for Democracy and Technology all decreid the changes. "This bill includes ideas long sought, and rejected ... The idea that a FBI official could issue a piece of paper saying, 'Give me all your records' with no judicial approval, no prosecutorial review, no checks and balances," Jim Dempsey, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said. — Posted at 8:23 pm

NAVY GUARDS SECRECY AT SEAL\'S COURT MARTIAL. The Navy is taking care to protect secrecy during the court-martial this week of a SEAL accused in the death of an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib. Two CIA officials may testify at the trial of Lt. Andrew Ledford in San Diego, but their names won't be spoken aloud in court and they will be shrouded by a curtain, the Los Angeles Times reports. The press and public also may be banned from the courtroom on days that "secret" information is revealed, the judge ruled. The Associated Press reports that the detainee - bombing suspect Manadel al-Jamadi - was suspended by the wrists, which were handcuffed behind his back, before he died. — Posted at 8:19 pm

DISAPPEARING JOURNALISTS IN IRAQ. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on U.S. and Iraqi officials to explain why they have detained at least eight Iraqi journalists, including a freelance cameraman working with CBS News. The journalists, all of whom work for Western news organizations, have not been formally charged with any crime, according to CPJ. "We are deeply concerned by the arbitrary nature of these detentions and are concerned that these journalists are in detention merely for doing their work," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "U.S. and Iraqi officials must credibly explain the basis for these detentions at once." — Posted at 8:17 pm

BUSH WANTS TO GET TO THE (NEARLY) NAKED TRUTH. The New York Times reports that the Bush administration has opened an investigation into who leaked prison pictures of Saddam Hussein clad only in his underwear to two tabloids. The Sun (London) and The New York Post, both owned by Newscorp, ran the pictures last week saying they had been supplied by American military sources. — Posted at 8:16 pm

NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY CAMERA BAN PLAN DROPPED. The New York Police Department and the city's transit officials have tossed a plan to ban photography on the city's subway system, the New York Daily News reported. Civil libertarians and free press groups, including The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, criticized the plan. — Posted at 8:14 pm

RECORDS SHOW POLICE SURVEILLANCE OF RALLIES. Using public records it has amassed on the operations of Brevard County Sheriff Jack Parker in Florida, the American Civil Liberties Union has surmised that he maintains a surveillance unit that targets liberal and anti-war groups, The Associated Press reported last week. The ACLU will turn its findings over to the county commissioners and ask for change in the sheriff's activities, which in the past has included photographing attendees of peace and anti-Bush rallies. — Posted at 8:12 pm

MILITARY JUSTICE PAINFULLY SLOW. The New York Times has obtained confidential documents indicating that even after testimony indicated that military guards killed two Afghan detainees by committing "blunt force trauma" to their legs in 2002, no criminal investigation was immediately forthcoming. "Crucial witnesses were not interviewed, documents disappeared, and at least a few pieces of evidence were mishandled," the Times said in its Sunday edition. Now, two years later, criminal charges are pending against seven soldiers. Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told the paper that the investigations "appear" to have taken too long, and that "justice delayed is justice denied." — Posted at 8:07 pm

STILL NO CREDIBLE REPORTS OF QURAN ABUSE, DEFENSE DEPARTMENT MAINTAINS. Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita has said that although the International Committee of the Red Cross has provided the Pentagon with documentation of allegations of U.S. military personnel mishandling the Quran, none of those charges have been substantiated, the May 30 issue of Newsweek reported. Di Rita also indicated that after reviewing 31,000 documents, the Defense Department has only been able to find "fewer than a dozen log entries" alleging Quran abuse. — Posted at 8:02 pm

SADDAM\'S SKIVVIES RAISE QUESTIONS. U.S. military sources have leaked photographs of Saddam Hussein in his underwear in captivity, which have since been published by various outlets worldwide, and Editor and Publisher discussed the related ethical considerations on its Web site. One such consideration is whether the publication violates Geneva Convention privacy guarantees for prisoners, and another is whether the publication will offend Arab sensibilities. — Posted at 8:00 pm

DETAINEE ACCOUNTS REVEAL GITMO GOINGS-ON. In an article published Monday, The Associated Press reported on many Guantanamo Bay detainees' self-written accounts of their experiences at the camp, obtained from the government pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. Some accounts make no mention of torture and in fact, one detainee lauded the treatment he received at Gitmo as compared to a Taliban jail. Another detainee, however, criticized the military tribunals designed to assess whether prisoners were "enemy combatants." During a hearing, he said, a tribunal judge knew nothing about the terrorist cell that the detainee has purportedly been a member of. How can you charge someone with something and you don't know what it is, the prisoner asked. — Posted at 7:57 pm

QAEDA TRIED TO DEVELOP BIO WEAPONS LAB, GOVERNMENT RECORDS SHOW. According to documents obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request to the Defense Department, al Qaeda was attempting to build a biological weapons lab even before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, The New York Times reported. Qaeda letters detailing the efforts were retrieved by the U.S. during its invasion of Afghanistan, and describe how members of the terrorist cell visited a laboratory to learn about deadly biological agents and anthrax immunizations. — Posted at 7:54 pm

May. 22, 2005

FBI TRIED TO CHECK OUT LIBRARY PATRONS. A library board of trustees in Washington State successfully thwarted the FBI's efforts to obtain a list of patrons who had borrowed copies of Osama bin Laden biography. Librarian Joan Airoldi recounts the details in an op-ed piece in USA Today. Had the feds obtained an order under the USA Patriot Act, Airoldi notes, she would have been forbidden to disclose this published account. — Posted at 3:07 pm

NUMBER OF IRAQI PRISONERS ON THE RISE, RATE OF RELEASE DECLINING. Maj. Gen. William Brandenburg, in charge of U.S. detention operations in Iraq, said that the number of prisoners had increased by 20 percent since elections were held in that country in January, The Hill reported on its Web site. Those detainees' subsequent release is determined by a review panel comprised of Iraqis and coalition participants, he said, and lately the panel only recommends release 40 percent of the time as opposed to last fall's rate of 60 percent. — Posted at 3:06 pm

MILITARY RECORDS REVEAL MOCK EXECUTIONS OF DETAINEES. Government records released to the ACLU pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request show that an Army colonel did not think it was necessary to "tarnish" the record of a sergeant who "enjoyed scaring detainees" by pretending to execute them, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. The sergeant mock-executed one Iraqi just out of eyeshot of his father after having asked the man to choose which of his sons he wanted to die. The documents also reveal that another soldier, since discharged, forced an Iraqi man to dig his own four-foot-deep grave before pretending to shoot him. — Posted at 3:04 pm

GOVERNMENT SHOULD PRACTICE WHAT IT PREACHES, NEWSPAPER SAYS. An editorial in Wednesday's New York Times chides the government for getting on a soapbox about what it perceives to be the lack of accountability at Newsweek over its retracted reports of disrespect for the Quran at Guantanamo Bay. "If the Pentagon is as enthusiastic about accountability in its own house as its spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, is when it comes to Newsweek, then it should release the Southern Command's report on Guantanamo Bay, on which the magazine report was based," the paper said. — Posted at 3:02 pm

FOI ACT LAWSUIT SEEKS FBI INVESTIGATION INFO. Five liberal advocacy groups have banded together to sue the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act for documents on the agency's alleged investigations of individuals on the exclusive basis of their constitutionally protected speech, CNN's Web site reported. The FBI has only turned over two activists' investigative files thus far, and the plaintiffs now want the rest. The two files they have received so far "confirm that the FBI's anti-terrorism force has been collecting information about peaceful protesters and dissenters" because of their speech, an ACLU spokesman told The Washington Post. — Posted at 3:01 pm

NEVADA BILL WOULD EMPOWER GOVERNMENT TO CLOSE MORE MEETINGS. A new bill in Nevada would permit government bodies to close their meetings to the public whenever the subject impacts homeland security in some way, shape or form, the Lahontan Valley News reported last week. The ACLU and the Nevada Press Association oppose the bill, warning that its vague language would close too many meetings that should remain open. — Posted at 2:58 pm

May. 17, 2005

TERROR WAR SUBSUMES HEALTH CARE FRAUD BUDGET. Money slated for health care fraud investigations by the FBI has been diverted in the past by the agency to counterterrorism projects, The Washington Post reported. The FBI has admitted that its attentions shifted 100 percent to counterterrorism in the immediate wake of 9/11. Because the agency has not since reformed its accounting for health care fraud spending, the Government Accountability Office suspects that the practice continues. — Posted at 8:47 pm

COLORADO LAW OPENS UP HOMELAND SECURITY EXPENDITURES (SORT OF). Colorado can no longer completely obscure how it spent $130 million in homeland security grants from the federal government under a new law signed by Gov. Bill Owens, the Rocky Mountain News reported. Senate Bill 131, which will take effect July 1, still permits some sensitive terrorism preparedness information to be closed from public view, but not all security investments as was the case before. — Posted at 8:46 pm

GUANTANAMO MEMO ADVISED RESPECTFUL TREATMENT OF QURAN. A January 2003 Guantanamo Bay training memorandum advises the base's personnel to "ensure that the Holy Quran is not placed in offensive areas," the Times of Oman reported today. The Pentagon has promised to conduct an investigation into whether the holy book was ever thrown into Guantanamo Bay toilets after a Newsweek story to that effect, retracted since its publication last week, recently prompted riots and 14 deaths in Afghanistan. The investigation comes as Muslim commentators say it is not enough for Newsweek to simply say that its story was wrong. "All innocent people released from U.S. custody have said on the record that there was desecration of the Holy Quran," said Ghaffar Aziz of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Pakistan. — Posted at 8:43 pm

WHISTLEBLOWERS VULNERABLE SINCE 911. A Project On Government Oversight report finds that since 9/11, whistleblowers have increasingly reported on the security weaknesses they have observed for years, believing that the weaknesses could put lives at risk, but that patriotic truth-tellers are not protected from retaliation by the agencies they seek to reform. The report says that today federal government policies "support and reinforce wrongdoers who would seek to silence whistleblowers." — Posted at 8:40 pm

THE POLITICS OF DEFINING TERROR. In an attempt to inflate the number of terrorism cases to increase its funding, the Justice Department defines the category so broadly it includes airport runway employees who failed to report previous drug arrests, The Des Moines Register reported. An added benefit of the practice is that it permits the Bush administration to claim more success in the war on terror, the article said. — Posted at 6:05 pm

REPORTERS QUESTIONED IN PENTAGON LEAK. The New York Times reports that FBI agents have questioned four reporters in an investigation into the alleged leaks of military secrets by a Pentagon analyst. The as-yet-unidentified reporters have not been subpoenaed yet, and are being questioned only on a voluntary basis, but a federal grand jury that could subpoena them has been convened. One reporter was identified as working for a newspaper, and the others published on the Internet. The target of the investigation, former Department of Defense analyst Lawrence A. Franklin, has been charged by federal prosecutors with disclosing classified information about potential attacks on American forces in Iraq to foreign officials and to the media, and with passing information to a pro-Israel lobbying group. — Posted at 6:03 pm

COMMISSION REPORT DERIVED FROM PUBLIC SOURCES YANKED FOR CONTAINING CLASSIFIED INFO. A government commission report analyzing overseas military bases has been pulled from the Internet for having revealed what the Defense Department called classified information, despite the commission's claim that all data was found in public sources, The Washington Post reported. Critics have speculated that the actual reason the Defense Department demanded the report be yanked is that it contained information critical of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. — Posted at 6:01 pm

May. 13, 2005

PLAME PROSECUTOR PURSUING PERJURY? In a Washington Post op-ed, David Ignatius speculates that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the Plame leak investigation may no longer be looking for a leaker, but trying to find out if an administration official lied to the grand jury. "If Fitzgerald's investigation has now expanded to include perjury, as some close followers of the case suspect, that sharpens the dilemma for the journalists involved. It's one thing to protect the identity of a confidential source, even if that person may have violated the law by disclosing the identity of a covert intelligence agent. But it is arguably quite a different matter if the reporter has reason to believe a source lied to a grand jury. Does a reporter's confidentiality agreement extend to protecting a cover-up?" — Posted at 4:19 pm

SHOPLIFTING CHARGE IS FICTION, KARPINSKI SAYS. The shoplifting charge used by the Army as a contributing reason for her recent demotion was fabricated, former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski has said, because "they had nothing" to use against her on Abu Ghraib, FindLaw.com reported today. Karpinski has made Freedom of Information Act requests for government records pertaining to a drugstore incident in which a "clearly partially used" canister of face cream already in her purse was mistaken for stolen merchandise, but no document production has yet been made. — Posted at 4:17 pm

KARPINSKI TALKS. Former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the first high-level military officer to be punished for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse, told ABC News in an interview this week that Gen. Geoffrey Miller was to blame for detainee humiliations, not individual military police, Reuters reported today. Military police "certainly did not come to Abu Ghraib or to Iraq with dog collars and dog leashes," she said. — Posted at 4:16 pm

FEDERAL JUDGE HEARS ARGUMENTS IN IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION FRAUD SUIT. A hearing this week before U.S. District Judge Thomas Selby Ellis III raised questions about a whistleblower lawsuit brought against Custer Battles LLC, an American corporation that has contracted to do reconstruction work in Iraq, The Washington Post reported today. The whistleblowers have alleged that Custer Battles defrauded the Coalition Provisional Authority of millions of dollars. The corporation said that a U.S. court has no jurisdiction over the dispute because it involved the CPA. Ellis said he will decide soon if the case can progress before him. — Posted at 4:08 pm

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT RECORDS SHOW POLITICS BEHIND PROSECUTION. According to the attorney of one defendant in a failed federal terrorism prosecution in Michigan, Justice Department memos show how "politics drive the criminal justice system," The Associated Press reported yesterday. After the federal terrorism charges fell through for prosecutorial misconduct, the government then charged many of the same defendants for mail fraud even though the case appeared rather weak to an assistant U.S. attorney based in Detroit, internal department emails revealed. Senior Justice Department officials, however, disagreed, and the case was filed anyway. — Posted at 1:45 pm

SPENDING LIMITATION CLARIFIES AMERICAN TORTURE POLICY. An $82 billion military spending bill passed by Congress this week contains a provision barring the expenditure of any of that money on subjecting American detainees to "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," The New York Times reported on Wednesday, further clarifying what has been cloudy American policy on detainee treatment issues. A White House spokesman said that President Bush was aware of the anti-torture provision and wanted to sign the appropriations bill quickly. Last year, the White House opposed anti-torture legislation saying that they would grant certain foreign prisoners legal rights to which they were not entitled. — Posted at 1:41 pm

RIDGE SAYS HE OFTEN DISAGREED WITH TERROR THREAT WARNINGS. Wanting to "debunk the myth" that the Homeland Security Department was responsible for repeatedly publicizing a raised terrorism threat level during the first administration of President George W. Bush, former department secretary Tom Ridge told reporters that the department was not exclusively responsible for those decisions, USAToday reported this week. "There were times people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'" he said. The color-coded terrorism threat level is actually raised when a majority of the president's Homeland Security Advisory Council agrees, and Bush concurs. The council's members at the time Ridge was Homeland Security Secretary included Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Chief Robert Mueller, CIA Director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Colin Powell. — Posted at 1:39 pm

U.S. PULLOUT OF IRAQ LOOKS A LONG WAY OFF, ARTICLE SAYS. Using two different government reports, an article posted Tuesday on Slate.com speculated that Americans should not expect our military to be out of Iraq anytime soon. The developing Iraqi government faces a catch-22 when it comes to political and social stabilization, the article said, which is that security remains contingent on the restoration of essential services such as roads and electricity, but essential services cannot be restored until security is achieved. Appropriation of aid continues at a snail's pace, the article said, because roads are blocked by insurgents and oil pipelines due to be modernized keep getting blown up. — Posted at 1:37 pm

HALLIBURTON BONUSES UNDESERVED, SENATOR SAYS. The U.S. Army has given Halliburton $72 million in bonuses for its reconstruction work in Iraq, despite numerous reports about overcharges and poor accounting, Yahoo.com reported Tuesday. "Giving Halliburton a bonus is like giving your worst employee a raise," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ. — Posted at 1:35 pm

May. 10, 2005

POLICY ON INFECTIOUS ACCIDENTS MUST BE NAILED DOWN, CRITICS SAY. A new center for the study of infectious diseases in Galveston, Texas, does not have a concrete policy for informing its neighbors of accidents, the Houston Chronicle reported yesterday. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has promised neighboring citizens that it would report accidents involving its research, but the entity has yet to nail down its communications strategy, inviting sharp criticism. The issue's importance is highlighted by a recent incident in Boston where university and government officials kept a viral accident under wraps from the public for months. — Posted at 12:23 pm

CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENAS ENJOINED BY FEDERAL JUDGE. A congressional committee's investigation into the United Nation's oil-for-food program in Iraq has been slowed by U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina's temporary injunction against the committee's subpoenas of a former UN investigator's documents, The New York Times reported today. Former UN investigator Robert Parton, who defected from the Paul A. Volcker-chaired inquiry into the oil-for-food program in April, saved records to document why he disagreed with the investigation's direction. After Congress subpoenaed those records, Volcker himself intervened, saying that their release would jeopardize his inquiry and witnesses' safety. — Posted at 12:21 pm

COLOR-BASED TERROR WARNING SYSTEM\'S DAYS MAY BE NUMBERED. The Homeland Security Department may scrap the color-based terror warning system in lieu of a more understandable one, The Washington Post reported. Despite the system's goal of communicating risk to the public, it has largely been "ignored or disdained because many people had little idea how to use it." Now that there is a new Homeland Security chief, Michael Chertoff, officials are more seriously considering a change from the old system, which was so closely identified with Tom Ridge. — Posted at 11:16 am

REPORTING ON IRAQ INSURGENCY LACKING, SAYS PHOTOJOURNALIST. Journalists aren't doing a great job covering the insurgency in Iraq, in part because the U.S. military will detain or even kill "any journalist who happens to be caught covering the Iraqi side of the militant resistance," photojournalist Molly Bingham told a Western Kentucky University audience last month. Her comments were adopted in a piece run Sunday by The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. If you look closely, you will notice there is very little, maybe even no direct reporting on the resistance in Iraq. We do, however, as journalists report what the Americans say about the resistance. Is this really anything more than stenography? The Middle East correspondent for Newsday and The New York Times' Baghdad correspondent dispute Bingham's contentions. — Posted at 11:11 am

APPEALS COURT AFFIRMS FBI\'S INVOCATION OF STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE. The lower court dismissal of former government translator Sibel Edmonds's whistleblower retaliation lawsuit has been affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on the grounds that its prosecution would reveal sensitive state secrets, The New York Times reported. Edmonds said that she would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The state secrets privilege makes us all less safe, said Ann Beeson, Edmonds's counsel from the ACLU: "If government employees cannot report security breaches without retaliation, then American national security suffers." — Posted at 11:10 am

May. 9, 2005

SOLDIER DISCIPLINE AT GUANTANAMO BAY REVEALED. In addition to summarizing military disciplinary proceedings coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, a new State Department report reveals for the first time disciplinary actions taken against American soldiers at Guantanamo Bay, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. The report, compiled for the United Nations Committee on Torture, says that 11 soldiers have been the subject of some sort of discipline corresponding to recent allegations of abuse at the camp. Only one soldier - accused of improperly using pepper spray on a prisoner - has been court-martialed, and he was later acquitted. — Posted at 1:57 pm

GITMO WHISTLEBLOWER PLUGS BOOK, REVEALS SECRETS. Erik Saar, author of the new book Inside the Wire , an account of his experiences as an Army translator at Guantanamo Bay, told Amy Goodman that he believed the U.S.'s interrogations on the island are "counterproductive in the war on terrorism," according to a transcript of a recent edition of Goodman's radio program Democracy Now! He also discussed how faux-interrogations, with especially cooperative detainees, would be convened when observers such as a congressional delegation visited the island. "This concept of creating this fictitious world completely undermined" what the intelligence professionals were trying to do, he said. — Posted at 1:54 pm

NO INFORMATION, NO MONEY. The House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee has cut more than $485 million in funding for the department due to its failure to provide sufficient information on its programs, GovExec.com reported last week. "No information equals no money," said subcommittee chairman Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky. Some appropriations have been made contingent on the appropriations panel receiving reports on the performance of various Homeland Security programs. "I'm glad somebody pulls the government's chain when they are as contemptuous as [the department] has been towards the legislature," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. — Posted at 11:23 am

May. 6, 2005

\'NO-FLY\' PASSENGER ASKED TO CHAIR REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISER. Although the government refuses to give Muslim nuclear engineer Syed Maswood any explanation as to why his name is on the "no-fly" list, he was recently invited to be the honorary chairman of a Republican fundraiser in Washington that will be attended by President Bush, Yahoo reported on its Web site today. He doesn't know if he'll attend, though, due to the delays he and his wife will face at the airport. — Posted at 11:49 pm

May. 5, 2005

DC SAFETY-MOTIVATED RAIL BAN ENJOINED. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the federal government's request for a temporary injunction against the D.C. ban on hazardous rail traffic on Tuesday, despite federal refusal to fully share its rail security plans with the city, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan who agreed with the city's desire to err on the side of its citizens' safety. — Posted at 6:01 pm

INTEL ANALYST GETS PINK SLIP FOR SPEAKING OUT. Intelligence analyst Russ Tice lost his security clearance and his job at the National Security Agency this week due to what he alleges is whistleblower retaliation, The Village Voice reported Wednesday. Tice, who has done award-winning intelligence work for the U.S. for the past 20 years, recently told his superiors that he feared a co-worker might be a spy. Their response? Tice was called in for a psychological examination, promptly demoted to loading dock worker and car mechanic, and now, has been fired. — Posted at 5:16 pm

$90 MILLION OUT THERE SOMEWHERE. The hallmark of a U.S.-led disbursement of U.N. collected funds for Iraq reconstruction has been sloppy bookkeeping, according to a recent audit of the program, The Washington Post reported today. The audit, from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, said there is insufficient documentation to explain how nearly $90 million in funds were spent. — Posted at 4:43 pm

May. 4, 2005

TILLMAN DEATH DETAILS INITIALLY OBSCURED. An Army report reveals that the military initially concealed information that Cpl. Pat Tillman died in a barrage of friendly fire, and promoted the idea that he was killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan, The Washington Post reported today. "We can do better," an Army spokesperson said, emphasizing a commitment to "completeness in providing information as it is known" to soldiers' families. — Posted at 4:39 pm

May. 3, 2005

RECRUITER \'FUDGING AND FINAGLING\' ON RISE. Army statistics show a rise in disciplinary proceedings against recruiters who bend or break enlistment rules "because they know there is no other way" to meet strict quotas, The New York Times reported today. According to military figures, in 2004 - when the Army missed its recruitment goal - there were 320 substantiated recruitment improprieties versus 213 in 2002. Hiding police records or mental or physical health problems are typical "fudging" techniques. — Posted at 11:20 am

CLASSIFIED VERSION OF REPORT LIFTED OFF INTERNET. The full classified version of a recent American report on the U.S.'s accidental shooting of an Italian agent in Baghdad has been pieced together and publicized by computer specialists when the military only intended a redacted version for public view, The Washington Post reported yesterday. U.S. military officials posted the classified report on a Web site where hackers could "manipulate it and reveal the deleted portions." The classified portions, whose release is under investigation, detailed, among other things, "the different types of U.S. checkpoints, ranging from permanent, to short-term or 'hasty,' to 'flying' roadblocks erected with little or no planning." — Posted at 11:18 am

ITALIANS OFFER DIFFERENT VERSION OF EVENTS IN FATAL SHOOTING. A 52-page Italian report refutes the U.S.'s exoneration of its troops in the March shooting death of an Italian agent transporting a newly released hostage to the Baghdad airport, The New York Times reported Monday. The report says that the U.S. checkpoint was not readily visible from the road such that when the Italians failed to slow, "inexperienced and stressed" American soldiers operated instinctively in shooting and were not well controlled. The Italian report also contradicts a counterpart American report that claimed the Italian car was speeding at 50 mph - the Italian version claims that the car was more likely traveling at 30 mph. — Posted at 11:17 am

SENATORS CRITICIZE POLITICAL DECLASSIFICATION. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a politically motivated declassification of information in the midst of his recent high-profile pro-Patriot Act testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Federation of American Scientists reported on its Web site yesterday. Democratic Sens. Russell D. Feingold, Richard J. Durbin, and Patrick Leahy have since criticized Gonzales for having originally told them that information about the use of the business records subpoena provision was classified, only to backtrack and release the data when it suited his Patriot Act promotion purposes. — Posted at 11:15 am

IRAQ: SHADES OF VIETNAM FOR JOURNALISTS IN PERIL. The world's most dangerous country for journalists is Iraq, where 56 journalists and media assistants have been killed and 29 kidnapped since the United States started the war in March 2003, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders. A similar report issued by the Committee to Project Journalists also lists Iraq as among the worst countries for journalists. Both reports were issued in observance of World Press Freedom Day. In Arlington, Va., the names of 25 journalists who died in 2004 as a result of the war in Iraq were among 78 names added to the Freedom Forum Journalists Memorial. The two-year total of journalists who died while covering the Iraq war is 45. By comparison, 69 journalists died in all of World War II and 63 died during 20 years of conflict in Vietnam and Cambodia, according to the Freedom Forum. — Posted at 11:13 am

IRAQI JOURNALISTS UNITE. Amid chilling reports of arrests and harassment of Iraqi reporters by Iraqi security forces, a union has formed to investigate the incidents, Knight Ridder Newspapers reports. Iraqi Association to Defend Journalists is investigating allegations that Iraqi police beat and detained a Baghdad newspaper staffer for photographing long lines at gas stations and that Iraqi authories confiscated and detroyed broadcast news tapes. The article shows what U.S. journalists are hindered from covering: Unlike most Western journalists, who are bunkered in hotels because of security concerns, Iraqi reporters still cover bombing scenes and demonstrations, places swarming with authorities. The local journalists make easy targets for several reasons: Police aren't used to press coverage of their activities, authorities aren't well-versed in press freedoms and Iraqi politicians frequently gripe that negative news reports aid the insurgency. — Posted at 11:12 am

May. 2, 2005

\"IT\'S DECLASSIFIED WHEN I SAY IT.\" The number of times that the Department of Justice demanded orders for business records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as expanded by Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act was supposedly continuing "to require protection in the interest of national security" according to a letter from the department on March 21, 2005, to Senate Judiciary Committee members Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.). But in a letter sent Friday, the senators asked how that could be when only two weeks later the attorney general himself had revealed those numbers as well as other information about uses of Section 215 in his own testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Secrecy News, which provides the link to the letter, writes that last year the three senators asked the department to declassify aggregate information on the uses but did not get the denial of their letter until two weeks before Gonzales himself revealed the requested information in the hearing. — Posted at 6:17 pm

JUDGE SUPPRESSES REPORT, DOESN\'T SAY WHY. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, presiding over the Zacarias Moussaoui prosecution, has granted - without explanation - his defense's motion to suppress a Justice Department inspector general's report on the FBI's handling of intelligence prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, The Washington Post reported. Moussaoui has pleaded guilty to conspiring in the Sept. 11 attacks, but plans to fight the death penalty. Justice Department Inspector General Glenn. A. Fine had wanted to publicize the unclassified version of the report. — Posted at 6:15 pm

GENEVA CONVENTION DOES APPLY, SOMETIMES. The Defense Department has refused to turn over photographic evidence of U.S. detainee abuse in Iraq pursuant to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, saying that to do so would violate American obligations to provide prisoners with privacy under the Geneva Convention, the non-profit's Web site reported last week. "Until now, this administration has shown only contempt for the Geneva Conventions, and it has built its policies dismissing the application of international humanitarian law," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, ridiculing the government's "newfound concern." — Posted at 6:14 pm

ITALIAN JOURNALIST\'S DRIVER IGNORED WARNINGS, U.S. REPORT SAYS. The car whisking Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to freedom March 4 was hit with gunfire because its driver ignored warnings from American soldiers who used a spotlight, a green laser pointer and warning shots to try to stop it as it approached a checkpoint, The New York Times reported, citing an American military report released over the weekend. An uncensored version of the report obtained by the Los Angeles Times cites lack of training and poor communication in the incident, which killed agent Nicola Calipari and wounded Sgrena. — Posted at 6:02 pm

BLACK BOXES OBSCURE SOLDIERS\' IDENTITIES. The faces of soldiers participating in honor guard ceremonies have been blacked out by the Pentagon "to protect privacy or security information" before releasing photos of flag-draped coffins containing fallen American soldiers, ArmyTimes.com reported last week. "Frankly, I've always understood that soldiers consider it a great honor to participate in an honor guard ceremony," Meredith Fuchs of the National Security Archives said. — Posted at 6:01 pm

ITALIAN AGENT\'S KILLING JUST ONE OF MANY SIMILAR INCIDENTS. The high-profile shooting of an Italian agent by American troops at a highway checkpoint in Iraq is just one of many accidental civilian checkpoint deaths, Reuters reported in an article published today. U.S. forces' apprehensions about suicide bombers contribute to the "many mistakes" that have been made, the article said, listing some additional examples. Of these, "few are registered by Iraq's thinly spread media, and no statistics are available." — Posted at 6:00 pm

DIVIDE TO CONQUER. Subpoenaed reporters Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller are now pursuing separate appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to present more varied arguments, Editor & Publisher reports. Miller and Cooper are appealing court orders to testify about their confidential sources in the grand jury investigation into who leaked undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to columnist Bob Novak. Former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson is now representing Cooper in the appeal, while Floyd Abrams continues to represent Miller. "For us to be able to file petitions of appeal to the Supreme Court from not one but two of the nation's great lawyers -- Floyd Abrams and Ted Olson -- and their teams is an incredible one-two punch," Cooper told E&P in an e-mail. "Why wouldn't you want to double your strength and arguments at this important moment?" Olson speculated that he will base Cooper's defense on a reporter's privilege based in the common law and the federal rules of evidence, while Abrams will argue for the traditional privilege rooted in the First Amendment. Briefs asking the Court to hear the case will be filed later this month, and if accepted, it could be heard and decided before the Court ends its current session in June. — Posted at 5:57 pm

U.S. THWARTED U.N. ACCESS, FORMER INVESTIGATOR CLAIMS. Former U.N. human rights investigator in Afghanistan Cherif Bassiouni said that his work in that country was hampered when he was denied access to U.S.-run military prisons, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday. "When the U.N. says to monitor human rights in a country, they're not saying 'except for what the U.S. is doing there,'" he complained. When his two-year term expired it was not renewed, and Bassiouni believed that the U.S. lobbied for its elimination in order to facilitate transfering Guantanamo prisoners to Afghanistan as international pressure mounts for inspection of the Cuban prison. — Posted at 5:55 pm

CHEMICAL PLANT VULNERABILITIES ARE NOT A PUBLIC CONCERN, SENATE WITNESS SAYS. The Senate Homeland Security Committee heard testimony last week from a Brookings Institute fellow that citizens should not have the right to publicly discuss America's chemical plants' vulnerabilities, according to transcripts posted on the committee's Web site. Richard A. Falkenrath, a former Homeland Security Adviser to President Bush said, "I believe that information related to these vulnerabilities should be carefully guarded... because of the possibility that it will be used against us. Knowledgeable citizens should discuss this information in public only when the government manifestly fails to address a pressing danger and even then should do so with great care." — Posted at 12:30 pm

OVERSIGHT WITH BLINDERS NOT EFFECTIVE, LEGISLATORS SAY. Senate committee debate on whether to renew provisions of the Patriot Act continues to be cramped by government secrecy on past use of the law's provisions, the Associated Press reported last week. "We need to have a more public disclosure to enhance the public's confidence in the way in which this... authority is being used," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. The Bush administration still hasn't given the Senate a report, for instance, on its use of a provision permitting it to compel Internet service providers to hand over users' records, leading Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, to say that essentially Congress is conducting "oversight in the dark." — Posted at 12:28 pm

ACLU REQUESTS RECORDS ON SECRET SURVEILLANCE OF STUDENT EVENT. The ACLU has submitted open records requests for data on undercover law enforcement presence at a recent student lecture at California State University, Fresno, The San Luis Obispo Tribune reported Wednesday. The FBI and the Fresno Sheriff's Department both reportedly conducted surveillance at the November 2004 animal rights lecture. "If they're there for safety, they should come in their uniforms," a student leader told the newspaper. — Posted at 12:26 pm

FEDS URGE CONGRESS TO CONTINUE LIBRARY-RECORDS LAW. Two of the 9/11 hijackers used a public library computer to review airline reservations, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Kenneth L. Wainstein told Congress, The Los Angeles Times reports. Wainstein testified as part of a Justice Department effort to rebut criticism of the Patriot Act's Section 215, which authorizes broad access to library and other records as part of secret terrorism investigations. The controversial section, along with other parts of the law, will expire Dec. 31 if Congress does not renew it. — Posted at 12:25 pm

MARKEY TO INTRODUCE WHISTLEBLOWER REFORM LEGISLATION. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., will introduce whistleblower protection reform legislation in the near future, he announced as a Capitol Hill news conference last week, The Washington Post reported. The press conference was attended by about 50 government whistleblowers, among them former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who was fired after complaining to the agency about shoddy intelligence work. Markey's bill will allow government whistleblowers to file retaliation complaints with the Department of Labor, and then with a federal court if Labor doesn't act within 6 months. The Project on Government Oversight has compiled a report on government whistleblowers, which details the reprisals public employees have faced for reporting government wrongdoing since 9/11. — Posted at 12:24 pm

NYC FIRE CHIEF CAN TESTIFY BEFORE COUNCIL, MAYOR SAYS. After initially saying that only the commissioner of the Office of Emergency Management could testify before the New York City Council on new emergency protocols that supposedly improve communications and coordination between the city's police and fire departments, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has since agreed to let the fire chief testify, too, The New York Times reported. Fire Chief Peter E. Hayden has publicly blamed the city for the shortcomings of its collaborative emergency response, saying that the police and fire chiefs should have shared command at large-scale emergencies. — Posted at 12:23 pm

SOLDIER CASKET PHOTOS RELEASED. Reversing a policy that was imposed by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney during the Bush I administration, the Pentagon has released photos of Americans soldiers' caskets in response to a University of Delaware professor's FOI Act request, the Los Angeles Times reported. The faces of soldiers carrying the caskets have been blurred "for Privacy Act and security concerns," said the military. Journalists are still not allowed to independently photograph the casket as they arrive from Afghanistan, Iraq, and other overseas locales. More than 700 photos can be viewed on the Web site of the National Security Archive. — Posted at 12:19 pm

BIN LADEN\'S PRIVACY NOT SO IMPORTANT, COLUMNIST SAYS. In a column published on Bloomberg.com, Ann Woolner criticized the recent privacy-based redaction of Osama bid Laden's name from FBI documents produced in response to an FOI Act request. After an FBI spokesman said that you can't just make exceptions to rules in obvious cases, Woolner said the general rule is that an individual's privacy concerns can't justify nondisclosure when the public interest in government information outweighs it. — Posted at 12:18 pm