Secrecy

Leaked CIA Memo Suggests Spinning War Messaging

by Anne Landman — April 6, 2010 - 12:44pm

A classified CIA memo (pdf) obtained by Wikileaks.org outlines public relations strategies that could be used to shore up French and German support for continuing the war in Afghanistan

Main Source: 
Wikileaks.org , March 26, 2010

Corporations Hide Flight Records From Public View

by Anne Landman — March 1, 2010 - 1:30pm

A federal district court ruled that the public interest journalism group ProPublica can obtain a list of corporate-owned airplanes whose flight information was blocked from public view.

Main Source: 
ProPublica, February 26, 2010

Here's Looking at You, Kids

by Anne Landman — February 21, 2010 - 9:26pm

Few cell phone users know that mobile phone companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint can track the locations of cell phones in real time, thanks to small global positioning sensors (GPS) placed inside phones. They can also analyze how a call is routed through towers, to pinpoint a phone's location to an area the size of a city block.

Main Source: 
Newsweek, February 19, 2010

Lessons in Legislative Manipulation From the Tobacco Industry

by Anne Landman — November 19, 2009 - 4:33pm
  • Topics: Democracy, Politics, Secrecy

    • The article in the November 14 issue of the New York Times about the extent to which the biotech firm Genetech was able to put their own words into legislators' mouths raises the next logical question: To what extent are corporations in the U.S. actually drafting laws and getting them passed?

    Knock Knock, Who Was There?

    by Bob Burton — June 23, 2009 - 2:46pm

    The Obama administration has denied a request made under the Freedom of Information Act for the names of all visitors to the White House visitors between January 20 and May.

    Main Source: 
    MSNBC.com, June 16, 2009

    Forward Movement in FOIA Office

    by Judith Siers-Poisson — June 15, 2009 - 9:40pm

    According to the The National Archives and Records Administration, Miriam Nisbet will be the first director of the Office of Government Information Services. She was previously legislative counsel for the American Librarian Association.

    Main Source: 
    Columbia Journalism Review, June 10, 2009

    From Cell to Sell: Police Recruit Activists as Spies

    by Diane Farsetta — May 5, 2009 - 1:36pm

    In Scotland, police have been offering environmentalists money in return for information about activist groups. "They said 'if you help us, we will help you,'" one anti-nuclear activist stated, referring to military police officers. The Guardian reports that "a network of hundreds of informants ...

    Main Source: 
    The Guardian (UK), April 27, 2009

    Courage, Bayer CropScience Style

    by Bob Burton — April 1, 2009 - 3:52am

    Bayer CropScience has invoked the specter of terrorism in a bid to limit what information the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board can release at a public hearing into a chemical plant explosion in West Virginia that killed two employees. Bayer is claiming that "because it has a dock for barge shipments on the adjacent Kanawha River, its entire 400-acre site qualifies under the 2002 federal Maritime Transportation Security Act," reports Sean D.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, March 28, 2009
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