- Three years after 9/11, the shroud of government secrecy
is spreading as agencies strip information from their Web sites and withhold
public information on the grounds it could help terrorists.
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- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for instance, announced
on its Web site this month that it will no longer provide its public scorecard
of security at U.S. power plants.
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- The agency has traditionally withheld details of security
problems that federal inspectors find during routine inspections of power
plants. But it used the scorecard every three months to provide the public
a measurement of how power plants were doing. However, the panel decided
even that limited information will no longer be published.
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- "In the post-9/11 environment, we continue to review
all information," said commission spokesman Scott Burnell.
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- Having cable TV problems? Cell phone blacking out? Don't
look to the Federal Communications Commission for reasons why.
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- It voted to withhold from the public any news of communication
blackouts involving cable TV operators, satellite operators and telephone
companies on the grounds that such information could provide "a road
map for terrorists."
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- Releasing such information, the FCC said, would "seriously
undermine national defense and public safety."
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- Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says he is considering
removing hazardous-material signs from trains and trucks because the placards
"could help a criminal or a terrorist identify a target." In
a notice published in the Aug. 16 Federal Register, Ridge asked the industry
and other interested parties to comment on that plan and on other changes
in security measures they would like to see.
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- Steven Aftergood, who monitors government secrecy for
the American Federation of Scientists, said that taking hazmat signs from
containers is a particularly silly idea.
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- "It's poorly conceived because it places at risk
the lives of millions of Americans," said Aftergood. The hazardous-material
signs are there to alert police and firemen to take precautions if the
trucks or trains are in an accident.
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- Congress is considering even more sweeping transportation
security measures.
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- As part of a highway bill now in a House-Senate conference
committee, lawmakers are pushing Senate-passed language that would allow
the government to withhold any information from the public that would be
"detrimental to the security of transportation, transportation facilities
or infrastructure, or transportation employees."
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- Karla Garrett Harshaw, president of the American Society
of Newspaper Editors, says that the provision is so broadly drafted it
could lead to the withholding of any information on contracts involving
taxpayer-funded highway projects.
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- The Environmental Defense organization protests that
the Department of Transportation could use the provision to withhold information
on hazardous-waste spills on the basis that it might provide information
to terrorists about system vulnerabilities, and to restrict information
about rail and transportation routes for nuclear waste.
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- Moves to keep secret more government information come
in the wake of the report by the 9/11 Commission, which found the government
already had too much information that was over-classified. The Information
and Security Oversight Office, an arm of the National Archives that oversees
government classification programs, reported that the classification of
government documents is increasing.
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- In its first two years, the Bush administration made
44.5 million decisions to classify material, about the same number made
in the last four years of President Bill Clinton's term in office.
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- A coalition of Washington watchdog groups, led by the
Project on Government Oversight, said in a new report that government over-classification
costs taxpayers $6.5 billion a year. Each document costs $459 to secure
and store.
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- "Openness both preserves democracy and saves money,"
said Richard Blum, author of the report, who contends secrecy is often
used to hide government mistakes and embarrassing information voters are
entitled to know.
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- Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service http://www.shns.com
- http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_5115.shtml
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