Senate passes bill to limit freedom of information (There is no left/right!)

[PatAndrews]

http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/06/congressional_action.html

The Senate on June 17 passed a bill sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham that would exempt from the Freedom of Information Act certain photographs documenting the abuse of detainees held in U.S. custody.  Senator Graham said that if the bill was not enacted into law, the Obama Administration had assured him it would classify the photos to prevent their release.  “Rahm Emanuel has indicated to me that the President is committed to not ever letting these photos see the light of day,” he said.

Strictly speaking, however, classification alone is not sufficient to exempt any such record from the FOIA.  It must also be “properly classified,” and that is a determination that is to be made by a court of law.

Senate Jay Rockefeller introduced a bill to limit the abuse of the “sensitive security information” (SSI) marking to withhold certain health and safety information from the public.  “When an industrial emergency happens and threatens the lives of residents, workers and first responders, I absolutely believe the public has the right to receive important information about what it means for them and their health,” he said. “Period.”

Strictly speaking, again, the bill (pdf) does not modify the definition of “sensitive security information” nor does it even place public health and safety considerations on an equal footing with security.  Rather, it simply prohibits the deliberate, witting abuse of the SSI control marking.

The Senate Judiciary Committee again postponed its consideration of the State Secrets Protection Act (S.417) that would limit the ability of the executive branch to terminate litigation by invoking the privilege.  Senator Orrin Hatch outlined his opposition to the bill in a floor statement last week.  “Unless serious changes are made to this legislation and the amendments offered by myself and my Republican colleagues are adopted, I cannot in good conscience vote this bill out of committee,” he warned on June 10.

[PatAndrews]

Senate passes Graham measure on detainee photos

http://www.kansascity.com/444/story/1259981.html

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday urged the House to follow the Senate in passing his bill prohibiting the release of classified photos showing abuse and humiliation of terror suspects held by the United States.

The Senate unanimously approved the Graham measure, co-sponsored by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, late Wednesday after a weeklong impasse that compelled President Barack Obama's personal intervention.

"They're embarrassing, they're inappropriate and they would be used by our enemies to put our troops in jeopardy," Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said of the photos.

Graham said the photos were similar to the scandalous photos of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, which caused an international uproar when they were released in 2004.

Graham said he hadn't seen the controversial photos in several years, but he planned to view them again in the next week or two with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who he said had expressed an interest in seeing them.

"Passing this bill is essential to protecting our fighting men and women," Graham and Lieberman said Thursday in a joint statement. "Each one of these photos would be tantamount to a death sentence to those serving our nation in the most dangerous and difficult spots like Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere."

Obama initially supported releasing the photos - most of which Graham said depict detainees being held at U.S. prisons in Afghanistan - but changed course last month.

The Senate passed the Graham-Lieberman legislation banning the photos' release as a standalone bill after Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, called Graham earlier Wednesday and asked him to stop blocking a broader war spending measure.

Graham had vowed to filibuster that $106 million supplemental appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan and hold up other Senate bills after the House Democratic leadership removed from it a Graham-Lieberman amendment barring release of the detainee photos.

The Graham-Lieberman amendment and a separate provision providing $1 billion to the auto industry had delayed passage of the war-spending bill for days.

"Rahm Emanuel called me yesterday about noon," Graham said Thursday in an interview. "He said the president would do whatever is required to prevent these photos from being released. He said, 'Lindsey, the president has told me to tell you that these photos will never see the light of day, but he prefers that Congress deal with this.'"

Graham said Obama promised to issue an executive order if necessary to ensure the controversial photos weren't released.

Graham and Lieberman agreed to remove the photo-release ban from the war-spending bill and to offer it as free-standing legislation, which the Senate approved by voice vote Wednesday evening.

Free of the detainee-photo issue, the Senate on Thursday passed the war spending bill by a 91-5 vote.

Graham voted for the $106 million measure, while Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., voted against it.

DeMint's aides said he opposed the bill because it contains "a $108 billion IMF bailout" and the $1 billion to help automakers.

The measure provides only $5 billion in direct funding to the IMF, as part of a credit line that could go higher.

DeMint's amendment to strip the IMF funding was defeated in the Senate last month by a 64-30 vote.

The Graham-Lieberman bill prohibits the release of the detainee photos for three years, with the defense secretary or the president authorized to extend the ban an additional three years.

Graham said final passage of legislation banning the photos' release would be better than an executive order.

"An executive order has less standing than a congressional enactment, in my view," Graham said. "Courts will look at a bill passed by Congress and signed by the president as a stronger statement than an executive order. That way you get two branches of government saying the same thing."

Graham said Speaker Nancy Pelosi must overcome resistance from Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and other Democrats in order for his measure to gain House passage.

"I just can't imagine our Congress won't act give the information we have received from our military commanders about the dangers to our troops in the field if these photos are released," Graham said.

[Dig]

How much more obvious can it get?

Supposedly the "Democrats" and the "progressive" president control the legislative process.  Supposedly the "left" will do away with the "right's" 8 years of tyranny, secrecy, and outlandish destruction of the constitution.

But now these leftist, progressive democrats just rammed through another anti-constitutional secrecy bill surrounding the illegal war on terror and war crimes committed supposedly only by the evil republicans.

There is no left/right!

Who still believes there are two parties in this country?

This is total proof that it does not exist.

[PatAndrews]

How much more obvious can it get?

Supposedly the "Democrats" and the "progressive" president control the legislative process.  Supposedly the "left" will do away with the "right's" 8 years of tyranny, secrecy, and outlandish destruction of the constitution.

But now these leftist, progressive democrats just rammed through another anti-constitutional secrecy bill surrounding the illegal war on terror and war crimes committed supposedly only by the evil republicans.

There is no left/right!

Who still believes there are two parties in this country?

This is total proof that it does not exist.

Absolutely, and welcome back man.

This is also another attack on the FOIA which they have been out to nullify for years. 

Congress moves to withhold detainee abuse photos

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFUra3y7-ASoeUXBQO2AqyAqpl_AD98E5B680

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN – May 26, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is moving to stop a federal court order that would disclose government information to the public — this time the photos of terrorist detainee abuse that President Barack Obama no longer wants to release.

Just days after Obama reversed his position on the photos, Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., backed him up by adding a rider late Thursday to the Senate's version of a $91.3 billion supplemental appropriation covering the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In a 5-year-old lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, a physicians organization and two veterans groups, a U.S. District Court in New York and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled that 21 of the photos should be released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Earlier this month, Obama said he had reversed his position and would continue to fight the release in court after military commanders persuaded him that the graphic images could stoke anti-American sentiment and endanger U.S. soldiers.

The Lieberman-Graham provision would allow the defense secretary to certify to the president that release of photos or video taken between Sept. 11, 2001, and Jan. 22, 2009, of people captured by U.S. forces outside the United States would endanger lives. In such cases, the release could be prohibited for at least three years.

The House version of the supplemental appropriation bill has no such provision, and the two chambers must still agree on whether to include it in the final bill before it becomes law. Democratic aides say the White House backs the provision.

Freedom of Information groups were not vocally condemning the measure, however, because it also contains another provision, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., which they have long sought: Requiring that bills that exempt government data from the Freedom of Information Act explicitly say so in the future. FOIA advocates have complained that such exemptions have been slipped into bills and have been hard for them and the public to track.

This is at least the third time Congress has moved to overturn specific FOIA court rulings involving a limited set of government records.

In 1981, after losing in the district and appeals courts repeatedly, the government was ordered to turn over to tax researcher Sue Long the results of the Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer compliance measurement program audits. These are the most intense audits the government conducts of taxpayers and are used to set numerical standards for selecting which tax returns to audit.

Late at night, Reagan administration Deputy Attorney General Ed Schmults persuaded Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., to include a provision in the Economic Tax Recovery Act of 1981 to prevent release of any information related to audit standards that the Treasury secretary concludes could impair tax enforcement.

Long, now co-director of the Transactional Records Access Center at Syracuse University, said in an interview the provision was submitted under a closed rule that required members to vote against the entire bill if they opposed that provision.

"It's sad to say but that's how the game is played," Long said. "It would be better to have it done more democratically, rather than in a hushed way without debate."

More recently, Congress inserted into an appropriations bill a provision overturning a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that would have disclosed information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives database on firearm traces.

Also, in a more widely applicable 1974 amendment to FOIA itself, Congress overturned a 1973 Supreme Court ruling that said federal judges couldn't review executive branch classification decisions.

[PatAndrews]

Here's a follow up to this ongoing BS.

Obama administration delays release of CIA report

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iOTk5mUIVTPTRGU5hoR5JJrr38BAD996JRLG0

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Thursday that it needs two more months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation program before making it public, drawing criticism from civil libertarians who say it's past time for Americans to know how its government treated terrorism suspects.

The Justice Department had originally said it intended to release the report in June as part of a lawsuit, but department officials now say they need until the end of August.

The report by the CIA's inspector general questioned the effectiveness of harsh interrogation methods employed by CIA interrogators during the Bush administration, such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued for release of the report, said it's time for President Barack Obama to live up to his promises of greater transparency and release the report instead of making further delays.

"The public has a right to know what took place in the CIA's secret prisons and on whose authority," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the report contains information that overlaps with other CIA documents that they also must review and release by a court-ordered Aug. 31 deadline.

"As we re-reviewed the CIA IG report it was clear that we would not be able to complete it in an expedited manner as we had hoped," Schmaler said. "There are unique processing issues to this review that made it clear to us we would need all the time the court gave us to complete it."

The government published a version of the report in 2008, but its contents were almost entirely blacked out. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for release of all documents related to the interrogation program.

On June 3, a federal judge gave the administration until Aug. 31 to release 319 documents related to the program, but the Justice Department initially said it would expedite review of the inspector general report and turn it over in June. The report, more than 200 pages long, had been expected to be made public two weeks ago but was held back over debates about how much of it should be censored.

Justice Department attorneys said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that they are not able to expedite the release of the report because they first need to review the other 318 documents to determine what needs to be redacted.

"Given the sensitivity of the information at issue, and the need for coordination among multiple components of the government, the review of the remanded documents is a time-consuming and labor-intensive exercise," the government attorneys wrote.

The ACLU wrote Hellerstein saying it objects to further delay of the report's release.

"It is apparent that the CIA report is not being delayed for legitimate reasons but to cover up evidence of the agency's illegal and ineffective interrogation practices," said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. "It is time for the president to hold true to his promise of transparency and once and for all quash the forces of secrecy within the agency. The American public has a right to know the full truth about the torture that was committed in its name."