Mixed results for national security agencies in FOIA sniff test

Several key agencies involved with national security reported progress in meeting the agency level enhancements to the federal Freedom of Information Act sought by the Obama administration, but others didn’t even respond to a request for information on progress made, a study released this week shows.

The CIA, Department of Energy, Department of Justice and Department of State did not give a final response to a request from the Knight Open Government Survey for an update on FOIA enhancements.

The Department of Defense and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had taken “concrete action” on at least two of the steps sought by the Obama administration. The Department of Homeland Security had taken one step, as had the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board and the Director of National Intelligence.

Overall, 49 of the 90 agencies surveyed in the study had made progress in the FOIA changes, compared to a year ago. “At this rate, the president’s first term in office may be over by the time federal agencies do what he asked them to do on his first day in office,” said Eric Newton, of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

President Obama in an executive order on Jan. 21, 2009 ordered “presumption in favor of disclosure” and asked agencies to “harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public.” Continue reading →

Video overview: the global-warning.org project

A video overview of the National Security Journalism Initiative student reporting project examining the impact of global warming on national security. [field name=”aboutvid”] Produced by Jessica Binsch

Student showcase

Try out two new interactive features from Medill students: A timeline of the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, left, which is tied to the Twitter-Wikileaks controversy; and the pop culture spy tour, right, which goes with a story epxloring the underpinnings … Continue reading →

Quote This

Real ID is Real Delayed ID

The Feb. 23 arrest of Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari on federal weapons of mass destruction charges in Texas sparked pressure in recent days to let a controversial 2005 national ID law take effect as planned on May 11 rather than give it yet another extension.

The pressure didn’t make a difference. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today (3/4/2011) decided to add another 21 months (PDF of the rule that was filed). State budget woes and the fact that “most states simply cannot fulfill the REAL ID requirements at present” were cited by a DHS spokesman today.

Without extension of the Real ID Act compliance date, residents of 24 states challenging the law and not in compliance with the standards for issuing and verifying drivers’ licenses and ID cards would not be able to board planes after May 11 without other types of ID or visit federal facilities and nuclear plants. Another state — Iowa — on Thursday took a legislative step to join those 24.

Since it passed in 2005, Real ID has become something like Real IDead, as nearly half of the states have have opted out, voted against it or passed resolutions against it because of compliance costs and constitutional and civil rights issues. Continue reading →

And now, Twitterplomacy

Social media and diplomacy are growing enmeshed — shall we call it Twitterplomacy? Tweetoplomacy? — with the U.S. State Department in recent days launching Twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today announcing more to follow in Chinese, Hindi and Russian.

“As you’ve seen, we are making more significant use of social media. It’s a key element of our plan to – and our strategy to engage people-to-people around the world,” State Dept. Spokesman Philip Crowley said in his daily media briefing on Monday. “As the Secretary has made clear, we do engage governments, but we also want to engage people directly. And as we use social media, we’re also employing – using languages in key parts of the world. So last week we began Tweeting in Arabic, and this week we begin Tweeting in Farsi.”

As of mid-day today, @USAdarFarsi had 3,340 followers and had been added to 81 lists; @USAbilAraby had 1,236 followers and was on 61 lists. Continue reading →

Free speech, national security and the Internet ‘kill switch’

The historic unrest in Egypt has exposed the raw nerve endings of several issues related to U.S. national security and civil liberties, among them, whether Internet access is a fundamental right, not a privilege, and whether shutting down access to it as Egypt did is an assault on free speech in the name of national security. The obvious question: Could that happen here?

From a reporter’s standpoint, what unfolded in Egypt “should prompt journalists around the world to take a closer look at their government’s attitude toward controlling the Internet,” Robert Niles wrote on ORJ.org today (2/4/11). He noted federal legislation “that would allow the government to shut down parts of the Internet in a ‘national emergency.’ ”

That proposed legislation from the last Congress (and reportedly set to be teed up in the new Congress) is shadowed by the spectre of so-called “Internet kill switch” that some believe would give the U.S. government the authority to do what the Mubarek government did: Cut the Internet off at the knees. Continue reading →