Defense Secretary Robert Gates has used powers granted to him by a controversial new law to block the court-ordered release of numerous photos of deta...
Harut Sassounian | Posted 11.04.2009 | World
A prominent legal expert, Mr. Geoffrey Robertson, exposed this week the false and inaccurate statements on the Armenian Genocide made by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
AP | Posted 10.16.2009 | Politics
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Friday in a case on detainees at Guantanamo Bay that the government can maintain the secrecy of portions of s...
AP | MARK SHERMAN | Posted 10.10.2009 | Politics
WASHINGTON — Congress is set to allow the Pentagon to keep new pictures of foreign detainees abused by their U.S. captors from the public, a mov...
Wired | Ryan Singel | Posted 10.09.2009 | Politics
The Department of Justice has finally admitted it in court papers: the nation's telecom companies are an arm of the government -- at least when it co...
AP | LAURIE KELLMAN | Posted 09.30.2009 | Politics
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's new standards for government openness have not trickled down to some agencies, where officials have used special statutes slipped into bills to skirt the Freedom of Information Act, open government advocates said Wednesday.
Efforts to strengthen the 42-year-old law "have been hampered by the increasing use of legislative exemptions that are often sneaked into legislation without debate or public scrutiny," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said.
News organizations and media groups said new legislation was needed to limit the information agencies may keep secret and for how long.
"The secrecy reflex at some agencies remains firmly in place," said Tom Curley, president and chief executive of The Associated Press. And FOIA still contains relatively weak penalties for those that don't meet their disclosure obligations, he said.
"We appreciate the change in policy direction, but the change hasn't yet reached the street," said Curley, testifying on behalf of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, a coalition of media groups.
Jameel Jaffer | Posted 09.24.2009 | Politics
Five years after Abu Ghraib, the Defense Department is still withholding photographs showing prisoners being abused at other facilities, as well as interrogation directives used by special forces.
USA Today | Matt Kelley | Posted 09.23.2009 | Media
A search of the agency's main index of the subjects of FBI investigations found some records tied to Cronkite's name were destroyed in October 2007, t...
HuffingtonPost.com | Shahien Nasiripour | Posted 11.17.2009 | Business
For over a year, the Federal Reserve has refused to publicly identify the companies that received over two trillion dollars through its emergency lend...
Reuters | Posted 11.10.2009 | Media
Fox News Network LLC on Wednesday appealed a U.S. judge's decision not to force the U.S. Federal Reserve to reveal the names of participants in its em...
Lloyd Chapman | Posted 09.21.2009 | Business
Under Obama, the same Fortune 500 firms that were allowed to receive small business contracts during the Bush Administration continue to receive federal small business contracts.
mpetrelis.blogspot.com | Posted 09.17.2009 | Entertainment
When I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for any records they may have in their archive on Michael...
Andy Worthington | Posted 09.15.2009 | Politics
From what I have been able to gather about the workings of Bagram, I have no reason to conclude that the prison is now being run according to the Geneva Conventions.
ProPublica | Posted 07.18.2009 | Media
That got ProPublica interested in how many other companies had asked the FAA to excise their planes' tail numbers from records tracking private flight...
Rep. Louise Slaughter | Posted 07.13.2009 | Politics
Thursday night we learned that a provision banning the release of prisoner abuse photos was dropped from the supplemental war spending bill.
HuffingtonPost.com | Jeff Muskus | Posted 07.09.2009 | Politics
With the war supplemental under fire from some unlikely allies in the House, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) threatened Mond...
John W. Whitehead | Posted 06.26.2009 | Politics
Releasing new Abu-Ghraib photos will not aid the cause of justice or increase government transparency.
Matthew Filipowicz | Posted 06.14.2009 | Politics
Until we take off our blindfolds, until we truly hold accountable those who authorized these heinous acts, we will continue to endanger not only ourselves, but our troops.
HuffingtonPost.com | Danny Shea | Posted 05.23.2009 | Media
The Huffington Post has obtained a letter from Fox News to the Department of Homeland Security requesting they release the entire report on the right-...
Murray Fromson | Posted 04.25.2009 | World
Until the widespread usage of drugs in the United States is curtailed sharply, there can be no realistic or substantive solution to the problem inside Mexico.
Leslie Harris | Posted 04.18.2009 | Politics
One of President Obama's first official acts in office was taking the power of the presidential pen and shredding the cloak of secrecy the Bush Admini...
Associated Press | Posted 03.28.2009 | Chicago
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Gov. Pat Quinn has some new instructions on releasing public information: Do it. Quinn sent a memo to state agencies Wednesday t...
Associated Press | Posted 03.21.2009 | Chicago
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan wants to slap governments with up to a $1,000 fine for denying citizens the right to ...
Washington Independent | Posted 03.13.2009 | Politics
This week, the Obama administration will face its second significant courtroom test of the president's pledges to end unwarranted secrecy about the wo...
Linda Stone | Posted 03.04.2009 | Politics
When I see Obama using his Blackberry, the message I get is, "I'm on the job. Right now. And I'm using today's tools."
Mother Jones | Nick Baumann | Posted 11.14.2009 | Politics