Transparency

Ford White House Altered Rockefeller Commission Report

March 6, 2016 John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, www.nsarchive.gwu.edu Educate! CIA, Government, NSA, Transparency

By John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi for National Security Archive. Washington, DC, February 29, 2016 – The Gerald Ford White House significantly altered the final report of the supposedly independent 1975 Rockefeller Commission investigating CIA domestic activities, over the objections of senior Commission staff, according to internal White House and Commission documents posted today by the National Security Archive at The George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org). The changes included removal of an entire 86-page section on CIA assassination plots and numerous edits to the report by then-deputy White House Chief of Staff Richard Cheney. Today’s posting includes the entire suppressed section on assassination attempts, Cheney’s handwritten marginal notes, staff memos warning of the fallout of deleting the controversial section, and White House strategies for presenting the edited report to the public.

Welcome To The Pirate Bay Of Science

February 14, 2016 Fiona MacDonald, www.sciencealert.com Create! Knowledge, Open Source, Science, Transparency

By Fiona MacDonald for Science Alert. A researcher in Russia has made more than 48 million journal articles - almost every single peer-reviewed paper every published - freely available online. And she's now refusing to shut the site down, despite a court injunction and a lawsuit from Elsevier, one of the world's biggest publishers. For those of you who aren't already using it, the site in question is Sci-Hub, and it's sort of like a Pirate Bay of the science world. It was established in 2011 by neuroscientist Alexandra Elbakyan, who was frustrated that she couldn't afford to access the articles needed for her research, and it's since gone viral, with hundreds of thousands of papers being downloaded daily. But at the end of last year, the site was ordered to be taken down by a New York district court - a ruling that Elbakyan has decided to fight, triggering a debate over who really owns science.

NYPD Kelly’s Emails Deleted Before He Left Office

January 2, 2016 Stephen Rex Brown, www.nydailynews.com Educate! Accountability, Criminal Justice, NYPD, Transparency

By Stephen Rex Brown for Daily News - Press delete. Then repeat. Most of former NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s emails on his desktop computer were deleted at the end of his tenure despite an order they be preserved for a high-stakes class-action suit alleging a summons quota system within the department. New filings in Manhattan Federal Court show the city backtracking in an ongoing fight over Kelly’s missing electronic correspondence. “The majority of former Commissioner Kelly’s locally stored emails were inadvertently deleted at the conclusion of his tenure,” city attorney Curt Beck wrote to Manhattan Federal Judge Robert Sweet.

Monsanto And Its Promoters vs. Freedom Of Information

October 4, 2015 Ralph Nader, www.blog.nader.org Create! Democracy, FOIA, Monsanto, Ralph Nader, Transparency

By Ralph Nader for The Nader Page - As the FOIA approaches its 50th year, it faces a disturbing backlash from scientists tied to the agrichemical company Monsanto and its allies. Here are some examples. On March 9th, three former presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science – all with ties to Monsanto or the biotech industry – wrote in the pages of the Guardian to criticize the use of the state FOIA laws to investigate taxpayer-funded scientists who vocally defend Monsanto, the agrichemical industry, their pesticides, and genetically engineered food. They called the FOIAs an “organized attack on science.” The super-secretive Monsanto has stated, regarding the FOIAs, that “agenda-driven groups often take individual documents or quotes out of context in an attempt to distort the facts, advance their agenda, and stop legitimate research.” Food safety, public health, the commercialization of public universities, corporate control of science, and the research produced by taxpayer-funded scientists to promote commercial products are all appropriate subjects for FOIA requests.

Open Government Groups Call For New USTR ‘Transparency Officer’

October 1, 2015 Staff, www.openthegovernment.org Resist! TPP, Transparency

By Staff of Open Government - In a letter sent today, OTG joined 22 groups and individuals committed to government openness and accountability to urge the USTR to reconsider the recent decision to appoint the USTR General Counsel as its new, congressionally-mandated “transparency officer.” The letter emphasizes the inherent structural conflict of interest between the role of general counsel, and the intended role of the new USTR transparency officer – a position that Congress established in the Fast Track legislation to alter and improve what many in Congress consider an unacceptable lack of transparency by this Administration with respect to trade policy in general and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) specifically.

Judge Shields TPP From Freedom Of Information Act

October 1, 2015 Adam Klasfeld, www.courthousenews.com Educate! Secrecy, TPP, Trade, Transparency

By Adam Klasfeld in Courthouse News. MANHATTAN (CN) – Drafts of the “vast, sweeping” trade agreement that the United States is secretly negotiating with 11 other world powers are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge ruled. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a proposed trade agreement between 12 countries bordering the Pacific Rim setting international standards over labor, the environment, agriculture, medicine, labor, the Internet, human rights, intellectual property rights and many other issues. By Adam Klasfeld for Courthouse News Service. Though first announced to Congress in 2009, a confidentiality agreement that the participating countries reached protects their proposals from public disclosure until there is a final agreement. Most information about the deal has come to light through leaks to the press.

Illumination Project Asks Where The Money Went

September 20, 2015 Tom Tresser, www.tifreports.com Organize! Austerity, Chicago, Taxes, Transparency

By Tom Tresser for TIF Illumination Project. Chicago, IL - What a night at Malcolm X College. About 300 people showed up for the first 2016 Budget Town Hall presided over by Mayor Emanuel and attended by all his department heads on September 1. Dozens of folks got one minute to ask a question or make a statement. The room was filled with supporters of the Dyett High School hunger strikers. People young and old expressed their anger and aspirations, stepping up to the mike and demanding that the mayor first meet with the hunger strikers and accept the community-development proposal to transform Dyett into a global leadership and green technology academy.

Boston Globe Takes Steps Towards Greater Transparency

August 26, 2015 Eric Hananoki, www.mediamatters.org Educate! Boston, Media, Transparency

By Eric Hananoki in Media Matters - The Boston Globe says columnist John E. Sununu will no longer write about cable and Internet issues because of his financial conflict of interest. Media Matters criticized the paper after it allowed the former Republican senator to complain about the "unnecessary regulation of the internet" without disclosing he has been paid over $750,000 by broadband interests. In an August 17 column, Sununu attacked the Obama administration for reaching "ever deeper into the economy, pursuing expensive and unnecessary regulation of the internet, carbon emissions, and even car loans." Sununu serves on the board of directors for Time Warner Cable, and is a paid "honorary co-chair" for Broadband for America, which has been supported by broadband providers and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Take Action Now: Demand Congress Release Trade Texts

June 5, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Petitions and Online Actions fast track, TPP, Transparency

By Staff at Popular Resistance, Popular Resistance has joined with a coalition of groups to demand that Congress use its power to publish the text of the Trans-Pacific Partrnership. This month is the key moment to stop Fast Track for the TPP and other rigged trade agreements. Secrecy is at the heart of the strategy to turn these abusive agreements into law. We can highlight this by demanding the text is made public. Please take action now: Sign the petition. Share this link and urge everyone you know to sign the petition. One of the most controversial aspects of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is that it’s secret from the public. If the proponents of the agreement have their way, the text will still be secret from the public when the House votes on Fast Track trade negotiating authority, essentially a vote to pre-approve the agreement.

White House Ends Transparency During Sunshine Week

March 26, 2015 Lee Camp, www.rt.com/shows/redacted-tonight/ Resistance Report Media, Obama, Transparency

Redacted Tonight host Lee Camp sheds light on Washington's shadows in honor of Sunshine Week- a week where activists push for more government transparency. Unfortunately, there were several back-steps this past week with regards to transparency. The White House put into law the ability of one government department to avoid FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests. White House Director of Communications Jen Psaki omitted the long list of US-backed violent coups throughout our recent history. And the NYPD began altering Wikipedia articles in several recent cases of police brutality. Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp airs Fridays at 8pm on RT America. You can watch full episodes subscribing to youtube.com/RedactedTonight

Assange Interview: ‘Obvious And Conspicuous’ Injustice

March 25, 2015 Chris Spannos and Julian Assange, www.telesurtv.net/english Educate! Julian Assange, Media, Transparency, Wikileaks

What the U.S. is claiming is that any information about the United States gives it jurisdiction and if we publish information that came from the U.S. government, therefore it has jurisdiction to prosecute publishers that exist outside the United States, because of their connection. Now, the way journalists and publishers work is that some journalists get something from a source and then communicate it to other journalists in the organization; the editors and subeditors, the publisher, the distributor, the tech guys, and so on. What the U.S. government is saying is that this flow of information, that occurred within WikiLeaks as a media organization, is a conspiracy. So they have worked out a way to embroil an entire media organization in the U.S. jurisdiction based on any information coming in through one journalist working for that media organization.

Court Decides To Keep Eric Garner Grand Jury Secret

March 21, 2015 NYCLU, www.nyclu.org Educate! Eric Garner, Law, NYPD, Transparency

In response to a Staten Island judge’s decision to keep secret records from the Grand Jury which failed to indict an NYPD officer in the death of Eric Garner, the New York Civil Liberties Union issued the following statement. The NYCLU in December petitioned the court to release to the public the Grand Jury’s transcript, as well as the evidence presented and instructions the jury was given. Judge William E. Garnett rejected requests from the NYCLU, the Legal Aid Society, the public advocate’s office, The New York Post and the NAACP .

Obama Admin Sets Record (Again) For Most FOIA Requests Denied

March 20, 2015 Ted Bridis, www.ap.org Educate! FOIA, Freedom of the Press, Obama, Secrecy, Transparency

The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged. Its backlog of unanswered requests at year's end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000. It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.

US Trade Rep Threatens Congress With Prosecution

March 18, 2015 Mike Masnick, www.techdirt.com Educate! Congress, Democracy, Law, Transparency

For years now, we've been trying to understand why the US Trade Rep (USTR) is so anti-transparency with its trade negotiations. It insists that everything it's negotiating be kept in near total secrecy until everything is settled, and the public can no longer give input to fix the problems in the agreement. It's a highly questionable stance. Whenever this criticism is put to the USTR directly, it responds by saying that it will listen to anyone who wants to come and talk to the USTR. But, as we've explained multiple times, "listening" is about information going into the USTR. "Transparency" is about information coming out of the USTR. They're not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination.

A Victory For Fracking Transparency

February 14, 2015 Wayne Lax, www.trib.com Organize! Environment, Fracking, Law, Transparency, Wyoming

This week, under pressure from public interest groups, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and energy giant Halliburton agreed to reform the state’s policies for disclosing fracking chemicals to the public. As a result of an Earthjustice lawsuit (representing Powder River Basin Resource Council, Wyoming Outdoor Council, Earthworks and the Center for Effective Government), oil and gas companies face a heavier burden of proof. Under the new policies, if they want to keep fracking chemicals confidential as trade secrets under state law, they will be required to submit detailed information in support of such requests.

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