[SLA-SF] Intersect Alert, May 3, 2006

Wed May 3 20:16:50 PDT 2006

Freedom of Information

States struggling to deal with digital documents

"Most state governments are not actively tackling the creeping problem of digital archives and long-term access to public documents, according to the head of an industry group. Apart from a handful of cases, states have not devised comprehensive strategies for retaining "born digital" documents, said Doug Robinson, the executive director of the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO). Such documents are created in electronic format and do not exist on paper."

http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-6064793.html

Federal Court Finds Air Force Engages in a
Pattern or Practice of Violating the FOIA

"A federal court today granted partial summary judgment to the National Security Archive finding that the Air Force has violated the Freedom of Information Act and has engaged in a pattern or practice of violating the FOIA. In a suit brought by the Archive in March 2005, seeking to compel responses to 82 FOIA requests that had been pending between one and eighteen years, the court ordered the Air Force to provide the Archive with detailed information regarding each requested record and its FOIA processing, resolve each request with immediacy of attention and result, notify all agencies to which it has referred requests that it is operating under court order, and appear in court to discuss how to achieve results."

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20060419a/index.htm

DoE Intelligence Embraces Discredited Budget Secrecy Policy

"The Department of Energy Office of Intelligence has reverted to a policy of budget secrecy that it rejected more than a decade ago. For as long as anyone can remember, the small DOE intelligence unit always had an unclassified budget (around $40 million in recent years). . . In 2004, the 9/11 Commission recommended that all U.S. intelligence agencies should do what INR and DOE Intelligence had long done, and disclose their annual budget totals. . . Other agencies simply ignored the 9/11 Commission's recommendation. But amazingly, DOE responded by doing the exact opposite of what the 9/11 Commission said was necessary. Boldly striving for mediocrity, DOE began to classify its intelligence budget figure in Fiscal Year 2005."

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/04/doe_intelligence_embraces_disc.html

Lobbying Database

Find data on expenditures of lobbying firms and lobbyists to Congress and other government agencies. Search by lobby firm or lobbyist name, industry (such as defense or agribusiness), issue (budget, trade, and others), or government agency. Data goes back to 1998. From the Center for Responsive Politics, "a non-partisan, non-profit research group ... that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy." 

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobbyists/index.asp

DoD Seeks New FOIA Exemption for Unclassified WMD Info

"The Department of Defense is seeking a broad new exemption from the Freedom of Information Act for unclassified information relating to weapons of mass destruction. According to the proposed legislation, "Examples of such information could include ... formulas and design descriptions of lethal and incapacitating materials; maps, designs, security/emergency response plans, and vulnerability assessments for facilities containing weapons of mass destruction materials."

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2006/04/dod_seeks_new_foia_exemption_f.html

GAO Report on Sensitive But Unclassified Info

"More than 4 years after September 11, the nation still lacks governmentwide policies and processes to help agencies integrate the myriad of ongoing efforts, including the agency initiatives we identified, to improve the sharing of terrorism-related information that is critical to protecting our homeland. . . The agencies that GAO reviewed are using 56 different sensitive but unclassified designations (16 of which belong to one agency) to protect information that they deem critical to their missions-for example, sensitive law or drug enforcement information or controlled nuclear information. For most designations there are no governmentwide policies or procedures that describe the basis on which an agency should assign a given designation and ensure that it will be used consistently from one agency to another."

http://www.fas.org/sgp/gao/sensitive2.pdf

Orwellian

CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs

"President Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did, senior intelligence officials said. The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide and is developing new methods to gauge the reliability of the content, said OSC Director Douglas J. Naquin."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20060418-110124-3694r.htm

Congress may consider mandatory ISP snooping

"It didn't take long for the idea of forcing Internet providers to retain records of their users' activities to gain traction in the U.S. Congress. Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a Republican, gave a speech saying that data retention by Internet service providers is an "issue that must be addressed." Child pornography investigations have been "hampered" because data may be routinely deleted, Gonzales warned. Now, in a demonstration of bipartisan unity, a Democratic member of the Congressional Internet Caucus is preparing to introduce an amendment--perhaps during a U.S. House of Representatives floor vote next week--that would make such data deletion illegal." 

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6066608.html

Specter Wants More Debate on Spying

"New expressions of frustration over how little information the administration has shared about the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans flared yesterday in the Senate, one day after House Republicans barred amendments that would have expanded oversight of the controversial program. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said yesterday that he will file an amendment to block the NSA program's funding -- but said he will not seek a vote on it at this time -- in hope of stirring greater debate on the warrantless surveillance, part of the agency's monitoring of alleged terrorists."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/27/AR2006042700977.html

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

Okay, this one is only peripherally related to information policy, but it does affect aspects of the Patriot Act renewal which had a signing statement.  And it's just so darn scary.  "President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/

A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition

"In an earlier life I spent 20 years as an investigative reporter, getting subpoenaed and sued in the United States, and censored and physically harassed in other parts of the globe. But when I switched careers to academia, I thought such scrapes would come to an end. I was wrong. On March 3 two FBI agents showed up at my home, flashing their badges and demanding to see 25-year-old documents that I have been reading as part of my research for a book I'm writing about Jack Anderson, the crusading investigative columnist who died in December."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801854.html

Public Policy

Colorado Legislator Would Ban Library Purchase of Books in Spanish

"The battle over immigration, and libraries' services to Spanish speakers, has been ratcheted up in Colorado, where Rep. David Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs) wants to ban the state from publishing information in Spanish and ban libraries from purchasing materials a language other than English."

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6328104.html

Bill Seeks Access to Tax-Funded Research

"A smoldering debate over whether taxpayers should have free access to the results of federally financed research intensified yesterday with the introduction of Senate legislation that would mandate that the information be posted on the Internet."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/02/AR2006050201506.html

Internet Access

Senator plans Net taxes but no Net neutrality

"More Americans would be forced to pay taxes subsidizing broadband service in "unserved" locales, and cities would be free to go into the Wi-Fi business under an upcoming U.S. Senate bill. Later this week, Sen. Gordon Smith, an Oregon Republican, plans to introduce a legislative package called the Broadband for America Act of 2006, he said Tuesday morning at a conference here hosted by the National Telecommunications CooperativeAssociation, which represents small and rural carriers. Conspicuously absent from the bill, however, is any mention of Net neutrality, which refers to the idea of the federal government forcibly preventing broadband providers from favoring some Web sites or video streams' connection speeds over others."

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6064743.html

Democrats lose House vote on Net neutrality

"A hotly contested Democratic bid to enshrine extensive Net neutrality regulations in the law books failed Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives. By a 34-22 vote, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected a Democratic-backed Net neutrality amendment that also enjoyed support from Internet and software companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com and Google."

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6065465.html

BBC is criticized over web site plans

"Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate on Wednesday accused the British Broadcasting Corp. of using taxpayers' money to build a "digital empire" that would compete with commercial rivals. The BBC, which receives about 3 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) a year in public funding, has announced plans to relaunch its Web site to incorporate more user-generated content such as blogs and video, as well as developing new broadband portals in areas including sports, music, health and science."

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/14432614.htm

International Outlook

Brazil clashes with Google over user data

"A day after Brazilian police stopped a fight between rival football fans organised on a popular Google website, authorities clashed with the Internet giant over access to user information to prevent crimes. Orkut, a Google online community website that allows friends to keep in touch and network, was at the centre of the debate between Brazilian and Google officials appearing before the Chamber of Deputies' Human Rights Committee."

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw1146200581234A141

Chinese Net activists challenge government censorship

"A coalition of Chinese Web activists has launched a petition decrying censorship of the Internet and challenging the legality of government information controls on China's more than 100 million Net users. Hundreds of citizens signed the petition, along with representatives of 13 local Chinese Web sites recently closed or targeted by censors. It began circulating on Saturday via e-mail and overseas Chinese-language Web sites unaffected by domestic censorship."

http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6067084.html

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