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Latest Freedom Of Information Auctions
QUEDOS Launch Panel – Government: Transparency and Freedom of Information [Part 1 of 4]
Sir Nicholas Montagu [Chair], Professor Michele Barrett and Professor Wayne Parsons
Specific Problems With the Freedom of Information Act
The freedom of information act has made it possible for all of us to enjoy a greater degree of freedom, by making government oppression harder to get away with. By creating the statutory requirement that every government department operates with full disclosure given, an atmosphere of mutual trust is developed.
However, the act is not without its downsides. In this article, I will covre some of the specific problems which have arisen.
Secret Service Files:
In past testimony before Congress, the Secret Service has revealed that many local police departments no longer share information with them because they believe that the Service will not be able to protect the information from mandatory disclosure under the FOIA. By 1977, this problem had grown to such an extent that the Secret Service testified that it recommended against President Carter visiting two cities because of fears that the Service could not protect the President’s personal safety. Moreover, in 1981 the Secret Service testified that its informant information had dropped by 75% since the passage of the 1974 amendments to the FOIA.
Commercial Information:
Every year, thousands of businesses submit to the government many of their most important and confidential trade secrets and business records. However, there is no requirement in the FOIA that the government must notify these companies when it intends to release this information to the public. The seriousness of this shortcoming is shown by the recent, unhappy experience of the Monsanto Corporation, As required by law, Monsanto provided to the EPA the formula it had developed for one of its most successful herbicides. Roundup. Though an error of judgment, employees of the EPA disclosed the formula to another company under the FOIA, without even notifying Monsanto. It appears that the FOIA did not actually require the EPA to turn over Monsanto’ s secret formula to the requester. However, the fact that Monsanto never received notice of the impending disclosure prevented it from opposing the release either before the EPA or in court. Although the Monsanto matter arose after the Judiciary Committee reported out S. 1730, it shows the wisdom of the bill’s provisions requiring government agencies to notify businesses in advance whenever the agency intends to publicly release trade secrets or sensitive commercial information under the FOIA.
Manuals And Examination Materials:
The FOIA often compels the government to release the internal manuals and instructions that government agencies give to their investigators, auditors, and negotiators. Frequently, these materials set forth the government’s confidential investigatory techniques and guidelines. Public disclosure of these manuals significantly hampers the government’s ability to enforce the law, detect fraud, or acquire goods and services at competitive prices, since subjects of investigations or government suppliers may learn in advance what the government intends to do. Because of the crucial role that manuals and guidelines play in the government’s law enforcement and acquisition programs, we strongly believe that they deserve more complete protection.
Personal Privacy:
One can point to many laws Congress has enacted – notably the Privacy Act of 1974 – that exemplify the importance all of us attach to the interest in personal privacy. Anomalously, however, the FOIA often permits a complete stranger to obtain access to government files that contain personal information about us. Often a requester’s purpose is chiefly commercial – credit bureaus, employment agencies, and life insurance companies rank among the most common users of the FOIA for this purpose – but disclosure of personal information about us is an invasion of privacy nonetheless. Any system providing for the public disclosure of government records must necessarily provide that information the government compiles about its citizens should be protected from those who would use it to invade our personal privacy.
Sammy is constantly researching interesting information and writing articles to make it easy for his readers to understand.
To see more of his writing, visit his articles about criminal court record searches and social security death records sites.
The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Freedom of Information Act
The DEA undertook a detailed analysis of the effect of the Freedom of Information Act on DEA’s investigative operations. Since 1977, reports had been received from various DEA field offices suggesting that the Freedom of Information Act was adversely affecting various types of DEA investigations. Nearly all of these reports indicated that the Freedom of Information Act-related effect on criminal investigations, on DEA’s relations with the private sector, and on the relationship between DEA and state and local police departments was primarily the result of the inability of the Federal government to offer credible assurances of confidentiality.
The Freedom of Information Act was enacted in 1966 to allow any person to request any record from a Federal agency. The statute, however, included nine exemptions which were intended to serve the protectable interests of the Federal government, private financial interests, and individual privacy rights. In 1974, the law was significantly amended to require Federal agencies to comply with strict procedures in the administrative handling of Freedom of Information Act requests and to make available certain previously exempt information relating to national defense and foreign policy as well as Federal law enforcement operations.
As currently written, the Freedom of Information Act allows Federal law enforcement agencies to withhold information if it is part of an investigative record compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that its disclosure would:
* Interfere with enforcement proceedings.
* Deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or an impartial Juris- diction.
* Constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
* Disclose the identity of a confidential source and, in the case of a record compiled by a criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation, or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, confidential information furnished only by the confidential source.
* Disclose investigative techniques and procedures.
* Endanger the life or physicsd safety of law enforcement personnel.
However, reports received from DEA field offices suggested that the law was having a detrimental effect on enforcement efforts. DEA then initiated a study to measure the impact of the Freedom of Information Act to the agency’s overall enforcement efforts.
DEA Agents participating in the study clearly indicated that information disclosures made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act are adversely affecting their investigative efforts. Agents reported that intelligence information is not nearly so forthcoming as similar information prior to the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act.
Sammy is constantly researching interesting information and writing articles to make it easy for his readers to understand.
To see more of his writing, visit his articles about social security number search sites.
How do I obtain my FBI profile via the freedom of information act?
I have heard that I am legally allowed to view my personal FBI profile ,if it exists, via the freedom of information act. Is this true? And if so, how would I go about doing so?
NATIONAL SECURITY ALERT – SENSITIVE INFORMATION
Visit the home site of the investigators: www.citizeninvestigationteam.com Subscribe to receive email updates concerning their investigation here cli.gs Endorsements for the presentation can be read here: www.citizeninvestigationteam.com A step-by-step strategy as to how you can…
Latest Freedom Of Information Auctions
Hey, check out these auctions:
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Cool, arent they?
How can i get freedom of information concerning creditors ?
Concerning a syndicated UK company (now liquidated) that i was a member of.
Why won’t the liquidator specify what the creditors dealing were in the syndicated UK company ?
Is it legal for the liquidator to do this ?
How can i find out (through freedom of information) what these creditors dealings/sevices were… they have just appeared out of the woodwork from nowhere.
Training Managers for Freedom of Information
Go inside a Freedom Of Information (FOI) training session to see how government’s information managers are gearing up for January 2009.