The intelligence leaks by Edward Snowden were “staggering,” a secret Pentagon report has concluded. Here is what multiple pages of the 12 pages it declassified from that report look like, naturally. (Via The Guardian)
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The National Security Archive today bestowed its 2013 “Rosemary Award” for worst open government performance to National Intelligence Director James Clapper over the “whopper” he told to Congress.
Despite heavy competition, Clapper’s “No, sir” lie to Senator Ron Wyden’s question: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” sealed his receipt of the dubious achievement award, which cites the vastly excessive secrecy of the entire U.S. surveillance establishment.
The award is named after Rose Mary Woods, Richard Nixon’s secretary who famously erased 18-1/2 key minutes of her boss’s secret White House tapes and as famously re-created how she did it.
Others joined Clapper in accolades as Clapper’s “fellow secrecy fetishists and enablers,” including NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander; FBI Director Robert Mueller; and National Security Division Lawyers.
Previous Rosemary winners include the Justice Department (back-to-back 2011 and 2012); FBI; Federal Chief Information Officers’ Council; the Department of Treasury; the Air Force and the CIA.
P.S. OTB wonders this every year: Why is it the “Rosemary” Award when it is named after Rose Mary (two words) Woods?
SOURCE: Center for Effective Government.
“The results are sobering,” the report said. “The low scores are not due to impossibly high expectations. In each of three performance areas, at least one agency earned an A, showing that excellence is possible. But the fact that no agency was able to demonstrate excellence across all three areas illustrates the difficulty agencies seem to be having in consistently combining all the elements of an effective disclosure policy.”
The agencies studied received 9 in every 10 FOIA request made, the report said. The analysis focused on three areas:
The five agencies with national security responsibilities only received five scores (out of 20) higher than a D. (See below).
Among the comments for each agency:
SOURCE: Center for Effective Government
Download PDF | Read the full report right here after the jump. Continue reading
Same headline as a year ago, unfortunately. The latest annual audit of federal agency compliance with updated Freedom of Information Act regulations showed no change among those involved in national security.
One national security related agency was added to the list for the first time — the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board — and it entered the charts in the top category, compliant with guidelines issued by the attorney general five years ago.
In its annual FOIA audit, the National Security Archive said only half of all agencies have made an updates since the end of 2007, when the OPEN Government Act was passed.
Below is the status of regulations at 14 agencies with national security responsibilities.
Data extracted from latest audit by the National Security Archive.
Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the National Security Agency have boomed since Edward Snowden began leaking top-secret documents in June.
An internal document released last week to MuckRock showed 3,382 FOIA requests between June 6 and Sept, 14 of this year — nearly 12 times the 293 filed in that same period a year ago.
The requests have leveled off somewhat from earlier in the summer when the first media leaks appeared, although they continue to be much higher than normal. For perspective, for all of FY12 we received only 1809 requests,” the NSA said in its memo.
The Department of Homeland Security FOIA office has updated its reports, including these two, which will help you see what your competition is up to and/or help give you some ideas to go after yourself.
After learning from Cause of Action that the Pentagon now pulls out FOIA requests deemed “significant” (juicy enough to generate media attention, basically) and needing Big Cheese approval, Jason Leopold of The Public Record took the logical next step — asked to see the list.
Here’s what Cause of Action said was the policy:
A “significant” request is defined by the policy document as one where, in the judgment of a FOIA office, “the subject matter of the released documents may generate media interest and/or may be of interest or potential interest to DoD senior leadership.” This can include requests regarding “the current administration (including request for information on Senator Obama) previous administrations, and current or previous DoD leadership.”
Below, the list of “95 undated FOIA requests filed with the Army, Navy, Air Force, NSA, Defense Logistics Agency, Secretary of Defense, United States Southern Command, National Guard Bureau and other offices that had “Department Level Interest,” as Leopold put it.