Sunday, December 7, 2014

Sharyl Attkisson: Why I’m Suing the Justice Dept.: Its Unlawful Freedom of Info. Response

Sharyl Attkisson

Sharyl Attkisson  "On Nov. 19, I filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) lawsuit against the Department of Justice, which oversees the F.B.I.. For over a year, I had been pursuing public information that the F.B.I. holds—about me. Something any U.S. citizen has the right to do.

"The response I got was typical of the response federal agencies provide to FOI requests today.

"The F.B.I. first said it didn’t have any information that mentioned me.
I appealed, reiterating the information in my original request, which outlined a great deal of information that the F.B.I. is known to have regarding me (at the very least through my dealings with the F.B.I. as a reporter over more than 20 years)." ...
FBI
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... "On his first day in office, President Obama said he was instructing federal agencies to err on the side of disclosure in answering Freedom of Information requests. The record under Clinton and Bush had been abysmal. Obama was promising unprecedented transparency. Only the most sensitive material, such as that which could directly harm national security, should be kept from the public that owns it.

"In reality, there is now a consensus among many journalists and open government groups that the Obama administration has been the least transparent in recent times, and the worst at properly responding to FOI requests."   Via IOTWReport

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