Bush hands victory to the terrorists !


The loss of our freedom means they win.

Tax dollars to fund study on restricting public data

By Richard Willing, USA TODAY

The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do
research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available
to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests.

Beginning this month, St. Mary's University School of Law in San
Antonio will analyze recent state laws that place previously available
information, such as site plans of power plants, beyond the reach of
public inquiries.

Jeffrey Addicott, a professor at the law school, said he will use that
research to produce a national "model statute" that state legislatures
and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous
information "stays out of the hands of the bad guys."

"There's the public's right to know, but how much?" said Addicott, a
former legal adviser in the Army's Special Forces.

"There's a strong feeling that the law needs to balance that with the
need to protect the well-being of the nation. ... There's too much
stuff that's easy to get that shouldn't be," he said.

The federal Freedom of Information Act, which became law 40 years ago
this week, has long been a source of tension between the government
and the public and news media.

Critics say the research plan overstates the need for secrecy and is
likely to give state and federal governments too much discretion to
withhold material. "Restricting information (for) security and
efficiency and comfort level, that's the good story," says Paul
McMasters, a specialist in public information law at the First
Amendment Center in Arlington, Va. "The bad story is that it can also
be a great instrument of control. ... To automatically believe that
the less known the better is really not rational."

Congress added the grant to this year's Defense Department budget. It
is being administered through the Air Force Research Laboratory,
Addicott said. The laboratory in Rome, N.Y., specializes in
information technology, according to its website.

The Freedom of Information Act was signed July 4, 1966. All 50 states
and the federal government have "sunshine laws" that allow reporters
and citizens access to many government meetings and to government
records through freedom-of-information requests.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT:Signed documents by President Johnson (.pdf
files)

In the past four years, Congress, the District of Columbia and 41 of
the 50 states have moved to close some meetings and restrict records
for fear of making information available to terrorists, according to
the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in Arlington, Va.

Under a 2002 law, for instance, information submitted to the federal
government by private industry that concerns "critical infrastructure
programs" is exempt from Freedom of Information Act requests or use in
lawsuits.

Since 2004, Virginia has withheld terrorism response plans, as well as
engineering and architectural drawings of government buildings that
are deemed to be possible terrorist targets. Since 2004, Ohio has
required formal requests and fees to access formerly open birth and
death records.

Addicott says the various state plans should "take a more uniform
approach" so that neighboring states and the federal government are
"on the same page."

In 2003, he said, a simulated cyberattack on San Antonio's water and
government information systems showed that computer security data that
was protected under federal law could have been accessed by terrorists
under Texas legislation.

Lucy Dalglish, director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the
Press, says the research program is in keeping with a recent federal
trend to use "homeland security" as an excuse to restrict unrelated
material.

"Decisions (on requests for public information) are being handled in
progressively less friendly ways," she said.

Addicott said he knows of no cases in this country in which public
records or a public meeting were used for a terrorist act. In 2002, a
hacker in Australia breached the data control system of a water
treatment plant and caused 260,000 gallons of sewage to be discharged.

"We're leaning forward in the saddle (and) thinking about this before
it happens," he said.
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