Guest guest Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/2/17/85035/7270 Find the Cost of Freedom By WilliamPitt, Thu Feb 17th, 2005 at 08:50:35 AM EST :: War on Terror :: n an FYI discussion on Gannon and mainstream media fears of bloggers, FYI member Pascale http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/2/16/0155/44946 posted some information on the cost of Freedom of Information Act requests that deserves a wider airing. Frankly, the information floored me. Maybe I'm behind the curve, but I'm not sure it is widely known that Freedom of Information Act requests now carry a pricetag of $400,000. Three stories: Freedom of Information Comes at a $372,799 Cost Dan Christensen Daily Business Review 01-31-2005 A Washington public interest group's attempt to discover the extent to which the government has sought to hide legal proceedings involving immigrant detainees since Sept. 11 has been stymied by a huge, upfront tab for research. People for the American Way Foundation has been told it must pay nearly $400,000 before the Department of Justice will process its Freedom of Information Act request. The general counsel for the group, which hopes to publish a public report about government secrecy efforts against hundreds of unidentified detainees, called the unusually large fee requirement " outrageous. " " The government should not be able to levy that kind of fee as a precondition for getting information, " said Elliot Mincberg. " We regularly file these requests against not only the Department of Justice but other federal agencies, and we've never had a situation like this before. It's hard to reach any other conclusion than they're stonewalling. " The rest. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1106573749323 ===== Freedom of Information Far From Free The Justice Department has informed the People for the American Way (PFAW) that responding to the group's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for all records related to the decision to seal the records of immigrants detained in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will cost nearly $400,000. The unusually large price tag appears to be the agency's latest move in an ongoing struggle to withhold the information. PFAW, a leading civil rights organization, filed the FOIA request more than a year ago on Nov. 25, 2003. The Justice Department immediately denied the request on the grounds of privacy and then denied the organization's appeal. PFAW, unsatisfied with the Justice Department's claims, filed a lawsuit in August 2004 seeking the records. Then on Jan. 11, two days before the deadline for arguing why the lawsuit should be summarily denied, the Justice Department reported that it had changed its position and would search for the requested records. The organization was told that an initial canvass of U.S. Attorneys' offices led to an estimated search time of 13,314 hours, which at $28 an hour, would make the total search fee approximately $373,000. Justice also cautioned that this was only an estimate and the final cost could be higher. The rest. http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/2647/1/1?TopicID=1 ===== Denying the public access to information a danger to democracy Paul K. McMasters The Daily Herald " The first casualty when war comes is truth, " thundered Hiram Johnson, senator from California, on the floor of the Senate in 1917. But the essential component of truth, information, is so heavily guarded these days that truth, if not a casualty in the war on terrorism, certainly goes missing in action all too often. In a war setting, of course, the right information in the wrong hands can be lethal. The same is true for homeland security. But there's also this: The right information in the public's hands can prove embarrassing, inconvenient or worse for our elected and appointed leaders. It is no wonder, then, that information is heavy on the minds of government officials. First and foremost, it is a kind of currency, used for bartering, brokering, managing, safeguarding, hoarding. It is used to purchase influence. It even comes in various denominations: " raw data, " described in a recent government report as having no assessment of its accuracy or implications; " knowledge, " having " a high degree of reliability or validity " ; and " intelligence, " which has been " carefully evaluated concerning its accuracy and significance, and may sometimes be credited in terms of its source. " However it's categorized or utilized within the government, only a pathetic amount of the total makes its way to the public. Just a few days' worth of news illustrates how quickly new and improved barriers to public access to government information are springing up all over the nation's capital. Perhaps the most troubling recent development was the decision of the Justice Department to require a public interest group to pay almost $400,000 upfront if it wanted to take a peek at records that might reveal how many secret legal proceedings the department had initiated against immigrant detainees rounded up after 9/11. Department officials initially denied the Freedom of Information request by People for the American Way filed in November 2003, saying that it would violate the detainees' privacy. Now, it has decided that it could comply with the request if PFAW would pay the $400,000 for the cost of searching its files. " To say it would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to look for something that should be obvious in any U.S. attorney's office -- cases that are filed under seal -- is very difficult to credit, " said Elliot Mincberg, the organization's general counsel. The rest. http://www.newutah.com/modules.php?op=modload & name=News & file=article & sid=47400 & m\ ode=thread & order=0 & thold=0 ===== The Justice Department is requiring a $400,000 down-payment on the truth. How unutterably disgusting. The truth will set you free but it sure costs an awful lot these days. This is the sort of " freedom " W. wants to wage on the world. Only for those who can pay. More evidence we, the people, need to pull together. by Hazel Catkin (kathmalen) on Thu Feb 17th, 2005 at 11:09:29 http://forum.truthout.org/blog/user/Hazel%20Catkin AM EST http://www.alexanderway.blogspot.com Find the Cost of Freedom http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/2/17/85035/7270 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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