MEGATRENDS: FOIA Trumps ARMY    
 FOIA Trumps ARMY3 comments
ARMY SAYS IT WILL RESTORE PUBLIC ACCESS TO ONLINE LIBRARY

The U.S. Army said today that it would restore public access to the
online Reimer Digital Library of Army publications, after having
blocked the site on February 6.

Last week, the Federation of American Scientists filed a Freedom of
Information Act request asking for a copy of the entire Reimer
collection for publication on the FAS website or, alternatively, for
renewed public access to the site (Secrecy News, Feb. 13).

The Army chose the latter option.

"TRADOC [U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command] is currently in the
process of making it available to the public again," said Mrs. Alverita
Mack, a Freedom of Information Act officer at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

"The Army has seen the error of its ways," said another Defense
Department FOIA officer. "Also, they want you to withdraw your FOIA
request."

The dispute over the shuttered website was reported today in the
Washington Post. See "Army Blocks Public's Access to Documents in
Web-Based Library" by Christopher Lee, February 21:


[link]

By moving the Reimer site behind the password-protected Army Knowledge
Online (AKO) firewall, the Army placed the public at a disadvantage,
but not only the public.

"The Army has not only restricted access to the public but to everyone
else in DoD as well," one Navy correspondent explained to Secrecy News.
"So... those working for the AF, Navy, Marines, etc will not be able to
access these documents -- unless they are able to get an AKO account --
which isn't a given."

"I happen to have an AKO account but only because I know someone who
was willing to sponsor me," the Navy official wrote. "It is getting
harder and harder to access information within DoD let alone from
outside it!"

The Freedom of Information Act is not often an effective mechanism for
changing government policy, nor was it intended to be. But in this
case, where the Army had moved to block public access to thousands of
releasable documents, the FOIA proved to be the optimal tool for
compelling a change in policy.

Mrs. Mack, the Army FOIA officer, said today that she did not know
exactly when the Reimer Digital Library would again be accessible.
And, she said, it might end up at a different URL than before. We
indicated that we would withdraw our FOIA request after public access
is fully restored.


JUSTICE SEES NO MISCONDUCT IN CONFLICT BETWEEN VP AND ISOO

The Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility has
declined to open an investigation into allegations that Justice
Department attorneys improperly refused to respond to the Information
Security Oversight Office when it challenged the Office of the Vice
President's failure to cooperate with ISOO's oversight of the
classification system.

In a January 2, 2008 complaint, the Federation of American Scientists
had argued that, under the terms of the President's executive order,
the Justice Department was obliged to render an opinion on the
executive order's applicability to the Office of the Vice President
when ISOO asked for it. Yet Justice attorneys at the Office of Legal
Counsel refused to do so. (Secrecy News, Jan. 3).

The Office of Professional Responsibility was not persuaded.

"We have concluded that the facts do not raise an issue of attorney
misconduct that requires an investigation by this office," wrote H.
Marshall Jarrett, OPR Counsel.

"This matter does not involve an allegation of affirmative malfeasance,
but rather, the alleged improper failure to perform an act," he wrote.

Furthermore, the Justice Department's handling of the matter appeared
to be consistent with the support of the Vice President's position
against oversight that was expressed by the White House counsel, Mr.
Jarrett said.

Finally, he suggested, if there are still questions of interpretation
of the executive order that remain unresolved, "the ISOO may request an
opinion from the Department clarifying the matter."

The Department's prior refusal to render such an opinion was the basis
of the original complaint.

See the February 14, 2008 letter from H. Marshall Jarrett, Office of
Professional Responsibility, Department of Justice, here:

[link]

The FAS complaint to which Mr. Jarrett responded may be found here:

[link]


US ARMED FORCES ABROAD, 1798-2007, AND MORE FROM CRS

Noteworthy new reports from the Congressional Research Service that
have not been made readily available to the public include these.

"Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2007,"
updated January 14, 2008:

[link]

"The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror
Operations Since 9/11," updated February 8, 2008:

[link]

"Defense: FY2008 Authorization and Appropriations," updated January 23,
2008:

[link]

"U.N. Convention Against Torture (CAT): Overview and Application to
Interrogation Techniques," updated January 25, 2008:

[link]

"Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons," updated January 16, 2008:

[link]

"Securing General Aviation," updated January 24, 2008:

[link]



_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

The Secrecy News Blog is at:
[link]

To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to:
[link]

To UNSUBSCRIBE, go to
[link]

OR email your request to saftergood@fas.org

Secrecy News is archived at:
[link]


_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web: www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email: saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202) 454-4691



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3 comments

22 Feb 2008 @ 07:53 by vaxen : Bending the atmosphere...
This seems as good a place as any within which to hide this little bit of agitprop...

[Ed. Note: This report should be read from its website location at
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1073.htm as this email copy does not
contain the links embedded in the original report.]

February 20, 2008

US ‘Bending’ Of Atmosphere In Satellite Shootdown Raises Russia-China
Concerns

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

A most frightening report is circulating in the Kremlin today that
states that the ongoing swarm of earthquakes occurring near the giant US
Naval Base in San Diego, California, and the giant 7.6 magnitude
earthquake hitting in Indonesia today, are ‘direct consequences’ of the
United States effort to ‘bend’ our Earth’s atmosphere in an effort to
destroy one of their spy satellites.

According to these reports from the Russian Academy of Sciences
Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics in Siberia, and where Russian and
Chinese scientists monitor the activities of the United States The High
Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) in Alaska [pictured
top left], the American’s intend upon their becoming the first Nation in
the World to use the abilities of the potentially catastrophic quantum
particle beam accelerators now being developed, but never tested, in
‘real-time’ experiments.

The exact ‘plan’ of the United States, these reports state, is to use
what is termed as a ‘triangulation’ of quantum particle beams
originating from their HARRP facility in Alaska, their vast Naval Base
in California, and their secretive Indian Ocean base on the Diego Garcia
atoll, to ‘alter the space-time continuum’ of our Earth’s electro plasma
sheathing in order to ‘lift’ the magnetosphere into the orbit of their
orbiting spay satellite so that it will cease its space orbiting and be
destroyed.

It must be understood that complexities of these new quantum weapons
systems stagger the human mind in trying to understand them, but to
their potential to cause horrific destruction there is no doubt, and as
previously warned about by the former United States Security Advisor
Zbigniew Brzezinski, and who stated in his book, "Between Two Ages",
that:

"Technology will make available, to the leaders of major nations,
techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum
of the security forces need be appraised... Techniques of weather
modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought
or storm."

To the success of this United States attempt to use these new types of
quantum weapons systems it is not in our knowing, but many Chinese
Scientists are already blaming these American experiments with these
weapons as being responsible for the catastrophic snow storms to hit
their Nation, and which many of them state were in retaliation for
China’s threat to dump all of their US Dollar holdings.

Chinese and Russian Leaders have also issued ‘warnings’ to the Americans
against conducting these tests, but with both of these Nations knowing
that their own quantum weapons systems, though not tested, could be used
against the US in retaliation should the Americans not heed their
growing concerns.

It is also interesting to note that the exact timing of this quantum
weapons test, by the Americans, is coinciding with the last Total Lunar
Eclipse until 2010, and which these reports state the US is dependent
upon in their belief that the ‘pull’ being exerted upon our Earth from
the Moon during this eclipse will ‘mitigate’ any potentially
catastrophic effects that may occur.

It is also being reported in the United States that their Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued to all of their local
police and fire departments, Nationwide, a "First Responder Guide for
Space Object Re-Entry”, though these reports state that the ‘most
likely’ catastrophic effects of this quantum weapons test would be
earthquakes, volcanic activity and strange storms.

© February 20, 2008 EU and US all rights reserved.
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1073.htm
--
Sorcha Faal
sorchafaal@fastmail.fm

SSRT links...

http://ssrt.iszf.irk.ru/links.shtml

Incidentally Sorcha Faal appears to be the Nom De Plume of David Booth a retired computer programmer who...blewrm, blewrm, blewrm.  



22 Feb 2008 @ 17:39 by mortimer : Hmmm ....
After the US fired weapon system at the satellite, Norway experienced their worst earthquake in history in their Svalbard archipelago ~ http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event/world_norway.html
The U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program ~ http://earthquake.usgs.gov/  



22 Feb 2008 @ 19:28 by vaxen : Yes!
Glad you caught that, mortimer. HAARP was tri-angulated with Diego Garcia and San Diego...much more, of course, that isn't getting ot. Svalbard is where the 'Doomsday Seeds' are stored. Goes right over the heads of those addicted to the dog and pony show going on where the so called presidential primaries are concerned. What a farce! Thanks for the GSEHP link...

This all bears watching very closely so I'd appreciate anything you discover. G'day m...

Ah, during the night of the eclipse, when they chose to down the sat, at the onset around 9:30 PM EST our living room light went out and so did our huge outside yardlight. Everything else, including my Computers, stayed on! I went out to check and immediately noticed a horrid Sub Delta humming which stayed around all night and appeared to be coming from deep underground. Made me nauseus too which is a sign of ULF activity.

ALso there was a noticeable wuff, wuff, wuff, sound and pressure on the ear...my balance was affected as well. A really nasty eclipse. Muddy, dark, ugly...  



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