Will ‘Still Interested’ Letters Surge as End of FY 2017 Approaches? The Office of Government Information Services has a timely blog on the use of “still interested” letters, reminding agencies of the most recent Department of Justice Office of Information Policy guidance on the use of these letters as the end of Fiscal Year 2017 […]
FOIA Helps Show How Conservative TV Giant Could Find its Way Into 7 out of 10 Homes FOIA requests to the Federal Communications Commission won the release of hundreds of pages of documents showing how the TV giant Sinclair Broadcast Group stands to benefit from the agency’s “deregulatory blitz.” Most important is a deregulation that […]
Federally-Funded Private Prisons Should be Subject to FOIA The National Security Archive joined a large coalition of open government groups calling for the passage of legislation that would apply FOIA to federally-funded private prisons, closing a routinely abused loophole. The Private Prison Information Act of 2017 (S. 1728) was introduced by Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) […]
CBP Response to Travel Ban Under Renewed Scrutiny Thanks to FOIA Request Documents released through the FOIA confirm that the agency ordered its employees to stonewall members of Congress and lawyers during the first hours of the travel ban. The released emails show a number of reactions from Customs and Border Protection to the ban, […]
FCC Says No Written Documentation on Claimed DDoS Attack that Crashed Public Comments System during Net Neutrality Controversy The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is in Unredacted’s hot seat again for the second week in a row concerning its responses to FOIA requests on proposed net neutrality rollbacks. This time the FCC is under fire for […]
Washington D.C., July 20, 2017 – During a frank conversation with Washington Post reporter Murrey Marder in early 1967, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey said that “he is no longer sure he was right” when he initially supported decisions to bomb North Vietnam in 1965. The bombing of North Vietnam had “poisoned the atmosphere” by alienating people who would otherwise be supportive of the Vietnam War and by substantiating North Vietnamese propaganda.
Washington, D.C., July 17, 2017 – The Department of Homeland Security will release the visitor logs for President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort by September 8, according to a court order filed on July 14, 2017, by federal judge Katherine Polk Failla.
Public Access to CRS Reports Public access to Congressional Research Service reports is mandated in the House’s Legislative Branch Appropriations Committee bill for 2018, which passed out of committee this morning. The act, if enacted, directs the Library of Congress’ CRS to make all non-confidential reports public. The topic has been subject of debate for […]
Survey results analyzed in a Secret December 20, 2012, FBI Counterterrorism Division report shed some light on the Bureau’s insights about homegrown violent extremists. The report, released to the National Security Archive’s Dr. Jeffrey Richelson in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, specifically focuses on radicalization. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to […]
Drastic Cuts Coming to State’s FOIA Shop The State Department’s FOIA shop, which is heavily reliant on Limited Non-Career Appointment (LNA) Foreign Service Officers with decades of experience in foreign policy, is poised to undergo a radical – and disruptive – shift. The National Security Archive has been contacted by sources within the department warning […]