-Caveat Lector-
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EDITORIALS
On the Public's Right to Know
The day Ashcroft censored Freedom of Information
Sunday, January 6, 2002
�2002 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/01/06/ED125108.DTL
THE PRESIDENT DIDN't ask the networks for television time. The
attorney general didn't hold a press conference. The media didn't
report any dramatic change in governmental policy. As a result, most
Americans had no idea that one of their most precious freedoms
disappeared on Oct. 12.
Yet it happened. In a memo that slipped beneath the political radar,
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft vigorously urged federal agencies
to resist most Freedom of Information Act requests made by American
citizens.
Passed in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Freedom of
Information Act has been hailed as one of our greatest democratic
reforms. It allows ordinary citizens to hold the government
accountable by requesting and scrutinizing public documents and
records. Without it, journalists, newspapers,
historians and watchdog groups would never be able to keep the
government honest. It was our post-Watergate reward, the act that
allows us to know what our elected officials do, rather than what
they say. It is our national sunshine law, legislation that forces
agencies to disclose their public records and documents.
Yet without fanfare, the attorney general simply quashed the FOIA.
The Department of Justice did not respond to numerous calls from The
Chronicle to comment on the memo.
So, rather than asking federal officials to pay special attention when the public's
right to know might collide with the government's need to safeguard our security,
Ashcroft instead asked them to consider whether "instit
utional, commercial and personal privacy interests could be implicated by disclosure
of the information." Even more disturbing, he wrote:
"When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or
in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions
unless they lack a sound legal basis or present
an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect
other important records."
Somehow, this memo never surfaced. When coupled with President Bush's Nov. 1 executive
order that allows him to seal all presidential records since 1980, the effect is
positively chilling.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, we have witnessed a flurry of federal orders designed to
beef up the nation's security. Many anti-terrorist measures have carefully balanced
the public's right to know with the government's r
esponsibility to protect its citizens.
Who, for example, would argue against taking detailed plans of nuclear reactors, oil
refineries or reservoirs off the Web?
No one. Almost all Americans agree that the nation's security is our highest priority.
Yet half the country is also worried that the government might use the fear of
terrorism as a pretext for protecting officials from public scrutiny.
Now we know that they have good reason to worry. For more than a quarter of a century,
the Freedom of Information Act has ratified the public's right to know what the
government, its agencies and its officials have done.
It has substituted transparency for secrecy and we, as a democracy, have benefited
from the truths that been extracted from public records.
Consider, for example, just a few of the recent revelations -- obtained through FOIA
requests -- that newspapers and nonprofit watchdog groups have been able to publicize
during the last few months:
-- The Washington-based Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization, has
been able to publish lists of recipients who have received billions of dollars in
federal farm subsidies. Their Web site, www.ewg.org, has
not only embarrassed the agricultural industry, but also allowed the public to
realize that federal money -- intended to support small family farmers -- has mostly
enhanced the profits of large agricultural corporations.
-- The Charlotte Observer has been able to reveal how the Duke Power Co., an electric
utility, cooked its books so that it avoided exceeding its profit limits. This
creative accounting scheme prevented the utility from gi
ving lower rates to 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina.
-- USA Today was able to uncover and publicize a widespread pattern of misconduct
among the National Guard's upper echelon that has continued for more than a decade.
Among the abuses documented in public records are the i
nflation of troop strength, the misuse of taxpayer money, incidents of sexual
harassment and the theft of life-insurance payments intended for the widows and
children of Guardsmen.
-- The National Security Archive, a private Washington-based research group,
has been able to obtain records that document an unpublicized event in our history. It
turns out that in 1975, President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
gave Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light
to invade East Timor, an incursion that left 200,000 people dead.
-- By examining tens of thousands of public records, the Associated Press has been
able to substantiate the long-held African American allegation that white people --
through threats of violence, even murder -- cheated th
em out of their land. In many cases, government officials simply approved the transfer
of property deeds. Valued at tens of million of dollars, some 24,000 acres of farm and
timber lands, once the property of 406 black fa
milies, are now owned by whites or corporations.
These are but a sample of the revelations made possible by recent FOIA requests. None
of them endanger the national security. It is important to remember that all
classified documents are protected from FOIA requests and
unavailable to the public.
Yet these secrets have exposed all kinds of official skullduggery, some of which even
violated the law. True, such revelations may disgrace public officials or even result
in criminal charges, but that is the consequence
-- or shall we say, the punishment -- for violating the public trust.
No one disputes that we must safeguard our national security. All of
us want to protect our nation from further acts of terrorism. But we
must never allow the public's right to know, enshrined in the Freedom
of Information Act, to be suppressed for the sake of official
convenience.
�2002 San Francisco Chronicle Page D - 4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
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"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
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A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
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It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
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"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
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