Read the best published op-eds on the need for open government and threats to information access collected by OMB Watch, OpenTheGovernment.org, and our allies. Permission is granted for free reprinting of any of these articles, provided it credits the author and includes this attribution: "© 2004, distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services." Let's live up to America's principles By Daniel Alcorn, a freedom of information attorney in Washington. Findings of the 9/11 Commission demonstrate that our government's long-standing secrecy-oriented national security system failed us leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Here's a proposal to remedy that problem by returning to the principle of disclosure to the public of government information on which our democracy was founded. This openness principle was enacted into law as the Freedom of Information Act, and is also reflected in many of our customary democratic practices such as judicial proceedings that are open to the public, and a free press closely covering the activities of government officials. Nov/11/2004 Download Secrecy proposal would harm government's ability to fight terrorism By Nick Schwellenbach, Program on Government Oversight/POGO In 1997, former FBI Director Louis Freeh called the FBI "potentially the most dangerous agency in the country" if it is "not scrutinized carefully." Freeh also called for more congressional oversight. His warning is prescient. The jury is still out on how post-9/11 developments such as the Patriot Act and secret detentions of American citizens have affected civil liberties and the government's ability to fight terrorism. However, decades of experience have already shown that abuses and incompetence fester under a blanket of excessive government secrecy. Nov/3/2004 Download Too much secrecy going on in government By Nick Schwellenbach, Program on Government Oversight/POGO There is too much secrecy. That's what a new report by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., takes the Bush administration to task on. Yet this report should not be construed as a narrow partisan attack but rather as the latest salvo in a debate where advocates of open government span the ideological spectrum. And there's a good reason. Inordinate secrecy hampers the non-partisan values of both national security and democracy.Sept/21/2004 Download High secrecy comes at a high price in dollars and democracy By Rick Blum, OpenTheGovernment.org Last year our government spent $6.5 billion — or $22 for every woman, man and child in the United States — to classify and secure its millions of accumulated secrets. That is 60 percent more than it spent just two years before, and the most it has spent on secrecy for at least the past decade — not even counting the cost of keeping the CIAís extensive records secret. Sorry, the CIA keeps that figure classified. Sept/15/2004 Download Contractors reap benefits of government secrecy By Scott Amey, Program on Government Oversight/POGO The recent news that Halliburton could not account for $1.8 billion on a military support contract has left the public scratching its head. Where did the money go? What goods or services did the public receive? Unfortunately, answering those and many more questions proves difficult for the American taxpayer. Contractors have, in recent years, launched a multi-pronged assault on the public's right to know about government check writing to large corporations. This assault has been fueled by campaign contributions, a spawning industry of lobbyists plying their political influence, and growing coziness with federal officials. Sept/09/2004 Download Public access to publicly funded science By Peter Suber This fall, Congress will have the chance to accelerate medical research and give taxpayers more value for their money. But the prospect is opposed by an industry that likes things just the way they are. At issue is whether the results of publicly funded medical research should be made available free, online, to the public, or whether these results should only be available to paying customers of expensive private publications. Sept/08/2004 Download Time to upgrade the national security secrecy program By Meredith Fuchs, National Security Archive When the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on pre-war intelligence concerning the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction program was released this past July, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., declared: "The initial thing that came back was absolutely an insult, and it would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting, because they redacted half of what we had. A lot of it was to redact a word that revealed nothing." Aug/05/2004 Download Relic of pre-Revolutionary America raises its ugly head By Charles N. Davis, Freedom of Information Center Two simple words — 'seditious libel' — invoke images of redcoats, Whigs and Tories, tar and feathers. We fought the War for Independence in part to rid ourselves of sedition, that odious threat through which monarchies stifled any expression, true or false, which dared challenge the omnipotence of the throne. Now, as photographs of military coffins draped in the stars and stripes, photos of Iraqi prisoners humiliated by American GIs and photos of the war dead are subject to criticism, repression and in the case of the war dead, an outright government ban, it is worth remembering seditious libel's inglorious role in our nation's history. Aug/02/2004 Download American leadership and open government By Lawrence Repeta, National Security Archive Once upon a time, Americans could proclaim with confidence that we had created the world`s most open government, subject to the strictest standards of accountability in the world. In reaction to Watergate, the Congress of the 1970s adopted a series of open government laws to ensure that the "plumbers," the "enemies list," the runaway FBI with its "black bag jobs," illegal CIA surveillance of domestic political activists and other abuses common in the Nixon years, would never come back. Aug/02/2004 Download Waking up to the costs of secrecy By Eric R. Biel, Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights). This week's final report of the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks offers a time for reflection on what went wrong -- and rededication to move beyond assessing blame and make the fixes needed to lessen the chance of another disastrous intelligence failure. One achievement of the 9/11 commission is that it has opened at least a small window on how the government does -- and at times fails to do -- its most important business. In no small part because of the advocacy of the victims' families, it pushed for the release of a number of important documents that help clarify what officials knew before that fateful day. But there is much more to do. Nearly three years after 9/11, it is more difficult than ever to be an informed citizen -- even if you happen to be a member of Congress. July/21/2004 Download Public's right to know about toxic pollution being compromised By Carol Andress, Environmental Defense Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that after years of steady decline releases of toxic chemicals to the air, water and land increased in 2002 by 5 percent. A day earlier, the Environmental Integrity Project documented that companies may be failing to report 15 percent of their total toxic air emissions. In some cases, levels of specific toxic chemicals may be four to five times higher than is reported to EPA. July/19/2004 Download Post 9-11 secrecy hits home By George Sorvalis and Paul Orum, Working Group on Community Right-to-Know in Washington To prevent pollution, people need adequate information. With adequate information, communities can better demand accountability from industry and government. However, new government secrecy is eroding citizens' right-to-know about toxic pollution and hindering once-productive relationships between the government and citizens. July/06/2004 Download Bush and Ashcroft: A pattern of stonewalling and secrecy By Gary D. Bass, OMB Watch Executive Director As Congress investigates U.S. abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq, a 50-page Justice Department memo has surfaced that says torture ìmay be justifiedî and legal. While this is shocking news, Attorney General John Ashcroft's refusal to release it to Congress is not. Rather it is only the latest affront in a three-year pattern of stonewalling and withholding of information -- business as usual for the Bush administration -- where the lack of public disclosure does serious harm to public safety and trust in our government. June/17/2004 Download Public access to vital information is victim of war on terror By Chellie Pingree, Common Cause Much of the nation's attention lately has been focused on the "war on terror" being fought on many fronts worldwide. News and images of the fighting under way in Iraq and Afghanistan are familiar to many citizens, as well as news of the recent attacks against contractors in Saudi Arabia and Iraq and the terrorist bombings of Spanish commuter trains last March. America is also a front in that war. But the battle here is not quite what you would expect. Our government agencies are using two different approaches to make the country more secure, with wildly varying results. June/24/2004 Download Keep spotlight on government action By Tom Curley, Associated Press General Counsel You could hardly ask for better proof of the toxic effects of unwatched and unchecked power than the parade of horrors now spilling out from behind the closed iron doors of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. The images of U.S. guards brutalizing Iraqi inmates have been deeply disheartening to those who believe that the best reason for demolishing the Saddam Hussein regime was to bring to Iraq the benefits of democratic government. May/17/2004 Download