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Open Government
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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
According to Sidebar:
“The largest online library of U.S. Army manuals and publications will restore public access to its site within the next two weeks, after it was put behind a password-protected firewall Feb. 6.
A major from the U.S. Army said in a Feb. 21 e-mail to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) that service to the Reimer Digital Library will resume to the way it was before Feb. 6 when a system security upgrade was installed.”
This comes in light of a Feb. 21 article in the Washington Post which explained “’Almost everything connected to the Army is reflected in some way in the Reimer collection,' said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the nonprofit Federation of American Scientists. ‘It provides the public with an unparalleled window into Army policy. It provides unclassified resources on military planning and doctrine.’"
“Aftergood, a daily user of the library until he was shut out by the new firewall two weeks ago, said the collection offers specialized military manuscripts that do not appear on the shelves of local libraries,” the Post article continues. “These include documents on the Army's use of unmanned aircraft; tactics and techniques for the use of nonlethal weapons; a field manual for non-engineers on the fundamentals of flight; and a manual on working dogs in the military.”
[Sidebar, Federation of American Scientists, Washington Post, Reimer Digital Library]
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Free Speech
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Tuesday, 26 February 2008 |
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists: “The Belarusian Supreme Court has ordered the early release of Aleksandr Sdvizhkov, former deputy editor of the now-shuttered independent newspaper Zgoda, who was sentenced in January to three years in a high-security prison for reprinting controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006.”
[Committee to Protect Journalists]
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Open Government
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Sunday, 09 December 2007 |
According to the New York Times:
The Central Intelligence Agency in 2005 destroyed at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Al Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody, a step it took in the midst of Congressional and legal scrutiny about the C.I.A’s secret detention program, according to current and former government officials.
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.
So when Congress is investigating CIA detentions, the CIA destroys evidence of wrongdoing (or, alternatively, evidence that would clear the agency of wrongdoing) to avoid legal consequences for the agents involved in the taped interrogations. It’s like dropping the murder weapon in the river, its called destroying evidence and its usually illegal.
But we can’t go around subjecting our CIA officers to the rule of law, now can we? Anyway, if the tapes contained evidence that wrongdoing occurred, those tapes certainly would have been turned over to law enforcement, right? And, finally, the families of those interrogated may see the tapes and get sad; we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I mean, haven’t we done enough to their loved ones?
Updates: Hundreds of hours of tapes were destroyed ... Officials both in Congress and the White House knew these tapes may be destroyed, recommended against the destruction and then did nothing to actually prevent it ... Pres. Bush allegedly didn’t now about the destroyed tapes ... Congress and the Justice Department are considering inquiries into the matter ... Destruction of tapes could complicate prosecution of key terror suspects.
[NYTimes No. 1, AP, Reuters, NYTimes No. 2, Opinionator, ABCNews, NYTimes No. 3, NYTimes No. 4]
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Open Government
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Sunday, 09 December 2007 |
FOI FYI reports that the Senate Judicary Committee voted in favor of allowing video coverage of Supreme Court arguments unless “a majority of justices believes that the coverage would infringe on an appellant's right to a fair trial.”
FOI FYI also reports that the “House Committee on Natural Resources will hold a hearing on "New fees for Filming and Photography on Public lands" Wednesday, Dec. 12, and you can tune in to the live webcast, starting 10 a.m. at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/.” The hearing is to discuss proposed new “fees on documentaries, audio taping, commercial photography, and any still photography [on public land] that the [Department of Interior] feels is ‘inappropriate.’"
[FOI FYI No. 1, FOI FYI No. 2] |
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Free Speech
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Sunday, 09 December 2007 |
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This Andy Marlette cartoon on Gillian Gibbons, the British schoolteacher who allowed her Sudanese class to name a bear Mohammad, is priceless. Naturally, the infamous Mohammad bear is depicted in the cartoon. I suppose that makes this a bona fide Mohammad cartoon!
 Cartoon by Andy Marlette/AndyMarlette.com Check out Andy Marlette cartoons every day at TheSequitur.com. |
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Law
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Sunday, 09 December 2007 |
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According to AP, “a growing number of U.S. cities [are] enacting laws that ban low-slung pants.” That’s right, Baggy Pants Bans. Put on a belt, sir, or come with me to the station.
“Critics say the bans amount to government attacks on youthful fashion that some find offensive. And constitutional scholars say they may not be lawful,” the AP article continued. “Besides possibly violating the First Amendment . . . saggy pants bans raise serious concerns under the 14th Amendment's due process clause guaranteeing life, liberty and property interests.”
A third grader merely armed with a civics textbook could tell you baggy pants bans are unconstitutional. That’s easy. But that’s not all. The laws are stupid, too.
If showing a bit of underwear is now a punishable offense in some areas, will the Panties Puritans now close the pools, the beaches and the basketball courts? Will they demand the prosecution of a homeless person for wearing badly tailored outfit?
The government simply has no place in the fashion police business.
[AP]
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Fire in a Theater compiles the most important and most interesting world news on free speech, open government, Big Brother, media rights and other topics First Amendment freaks care about.
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