United States and Canada

Washington D.C. June 22, 2005 - The senior FBI official now revealed as "Deep Throat" - the Watergate source for Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward - ordered his subordinates to "forcibly remind all agents of the need to be most circumspect in talking about this case with anyone outside the Bureau" according to declassified FBI documents posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University. Many of these documents - which were declassified in 1980 - have been cited in recent articles in The Nation magazine and the Washington Post.

Washington D.C. June 3, 2005 - There are few references in the surreptitiously recorded Nixon Tapes to W. Mark Felt, the former high-level FBI official recently unmasked as "Deep Throat," but the tapes are full of examples of the White House's relationship with the FBI and Nixon's thinking about a successor for J. Edgar Hoover.

Washington, D.C., May 10, 2005 - The D.C. Circuit today issued a unanimous, en banc decision effectively ending the effort by the Sierra Club and Judicial Watch to obtain information about who participated in Vice President Cheney's National Energy Policy Development Group (the "energy task force"). The plaintiffs' goal was to determine whether special interests acted as de facto members of the task force, which would then permit the plaintiffs to obtain further information about the task force's activities and recommendations.

Washington, D.C., March 18, 2005 - The National Security Archive today filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of the Air Force for a pattern and practice of mishandling scores of FOIA requests. The suit alleges that the Air Force fails to acknowledge FOIA requests, loses FOIA requests, fails to process requests, tries to discourage the public from pursuing FOIA requests, fails to respond to inquiries about the status of the requests and lets requests languish while records are destroyed or transferred to other agencies.

Nixon Library to revise exhibits, participate in new Vietnam conference, Donate most pre- and post-presidential materials to National Archives Including "personal/political" 700 hours cut from tapes with razors; No mention of independent review board requested by historians.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you about the Freedom of Information Act and the necessary reforms that would be enacted by the OPEN Government Act of 2005. I wish to commend the co-sponsors of the OPEN Government Act of 2005, Senators Cornyn and Leahy - each of whom has an established record as a defender of open government - for their efforts to ensure that our federal government is accountable and responsive to its citizens. I have extensive experience with the Freedom of Information Act.

March 10, 2005 TO: Members of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Committees on Appropriations, Government Affairs, and Government Reform We are writing to request that Congress suspend the proposed transfer of the Nixon Presidential Materials from their present location at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, to the Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California.

Statement by Thomas S. Blanton, National Security Archive, George Washington University March 2, 2005 Hearing on "Emerging Threats: Overclassification and Pseudo-classification" 2154 Rayburn House Office Building Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations Committee on Government Reform U.S. House of Representatives Click here to download this statement as a PDF file Mr. Chairman, and members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you about the growing problem of government secrecy and the danger it poses to our security.

Washington, D.C., February 10, 2005 - February 10, 2005 - As a result of a Freedom of Information Act appeal filed by the National Security Archive, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) corrected its October 2004 blunder of withholding the names and numbers of aviation warnings known as Information Circulars that were widely cited and quoted in the best-selling 9/11 Commission Report.

"A Comprehensive Strategy to Fight Al-Qaeda"? Rice versus Clinton on January 2001 Clarke Memo Washington, D.C., September 27, 2006 - In a series of recent public statements, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again denied that the Clinton administration presented the incoming administration of President George W. Bush with a "comprehensive strategy" against al-Qaeda.