Community | November 01, 2011 | 18 comments

US government wants to legally lie - Shocking Information for Every American

source: http://OpenTheGovernment.org

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MotherForTruth
The article that you have inquired about does not exist. That’s the message that the US government could be sending out to citizens seeking documents currently available through the Freedom of Information Act.

Under a new proposed plan, the government would be able to defer FOIA requests for certain documents not just by refusing them, but by making claims that the files don’t even exist. A report this week from ProPublica reveals that certain documents pertaining to law-enforcement matters or issues of national security could be just shrugged off with officials being able to lie about the existence of documents that they decide to deem as imaginary.

According to the actual wording of the proposal that the Department of Justice recently offered, agencies would be able to respond to requests “as if the excluded records did not exist." Politicians, journalists, researchers and any concerned citizen hoping to dig deep into certain matters would thus not just hit a road block, but be posed with a detour altogether. With the government denying the existence of potentially crucial materials, the public could only be expected to take their word for it and go on assuming they were simply on a path to something that never was.

“The problem is, if you’re a FOIA requester and the agency says they don’t have the records, you have no reason to doubt that,” Anne Weismann, the chief counsel of CREW, tells the Daily Caller. She adds that she believes that the government has a responsibility at times to protect sensitive information from certain audience, but this proposal “is an overbroad and improper response.”

In a joint response from the ACLU, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and OpenTheGovernment.org, they say that this revision to FOIA rules “will dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government information to be twisted to permit federal law enforcement agencies to actively lie to the American people.”

Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica writes in her report that some advocacy groups have already offered a different revision to the FOIA rules, insisting that rather than the government deny the existence of files, simply offer a statement saying that they might not be available to interested parties, something she suggests along the lines of “You have requested ‘…records which, if they exist, would not be subject to the disclosure requirements of FOIA…” In an instance such as that, the applicant interested in obtaining files could move to sue the government if they’d like to challenge their decision. From there, she cites a previous ruling from US District Judge Cormac Carney in that the "Government cannot, under any circumstance, affirmatively mislead the Court."
http://rt.com/usa/news/us-government-exist-foia-737/
  1. groups:
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18 comments // US government wants to legally lie - Shocking Information for Every American

  • lunaticrichard
  • MotherForTruth
  • Wyley_Wombat
  • attilatheblond
    • 0
      attilatheblond  
    • Image

    • FOIA, like the Bill of Rights, seems to have been recycled and re-puroposed as toilet paper for high ranking officials

      From: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-secrets-20111031,0,273702.st...

      "...

      At present, if the government doesn't want to admit the existence of a document it believes to be exempt from FOIA, it may advise the person making the request that it can neither confirm nor deny the document's existence. Under the proposed regulation, an agency that withholds a document "will respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist."

      ..."

      This is NOT change. This is more of the SSDD and it seems to be getting worse all the time. Where is the transparency CANDIDATE Obama was so gung ho about?

      I understand the need for some secrecy in what governments do, I really do. But FOIA has an app for necessary secrecy. A court considers requests for information and weighs the right to know against the need for secrecy on a case by case basis. This business of government flat out deciding 'If we think it's important for you not to know, we can deny it even exists should you file a FOIA request for it' is NOT what the laws were written for.

      Is we is or is we isn't a NATION of laws? Guess not. Laws are just harnesses for the 99%. The 1% and their henchmen, and I put Obama squarely in that henchmen column, don't seem to think laws are any sort of a mediating factor in what they can and can't do.

      I have had it with this administration. This is one outrage too far.

    • 7 months ago
  • AmericanStandard
  • MotherForTruth
  • MotherForTruth
  • alexandrek
  • AmericanStandard
  • lunaticrichard
    • 0
      lunaticrichard  

    • So, what else is new ? Governements lie to us on adaily bases . Everybody with any commen sense knows you cant trust politicians . Even worse for american politicians, they lie constantly or distort the truth about everything ! If you think they are in office for your rights ,you need to get your head examined !

    • 7 months ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • lunaticrichard
    • 0
      lunaticrichard  
    • MotherForTruth:

      wel , it is the norm ! whether you accept it or not ! like the rest of the world, you can stick your head in the sand if you think that will make life better .
      only when we rise up and start to take democracy and human rights and human dignity
      serious , then we will have a better life . when we put people before money and possessions . when we will no longer except black children starving in ghetto's and in slums . especially in america where blacks are still second hand citizens , even if we act like the are not . and that is also true for europe .still we look away when a new famine strike's people who have nothing , and we pride ourselves on how good we are when we give to charity .
      i know it's hard . and i am in no way different then the rest , but we need to change and
      stop the lies they tell and enrich themselves , and foremost stop the lobbyist's and corporate power over our live's . they are the true rulers of modern society .
      my country is on it's way to become the next u.s.a and i hate it ! Don't get me wrong ; i don't hate americans as a people , but i hate the so called liberty and how it treats it's people.
      a wise person once said ; you can judge a society by how it treats it's prisoners and it's poor !
      20 years ago i wouldn't in my wildest dreams have believed what my country has come to .
      we where the shining example of humanity,decency and standard's that where worth fighting for .
      Now we are known for sending children without parents back to the poorest country's in the world , because we have a dude named Geert Wilders that bring's out the worst in people .
      if you don't know , he is a white supremacist and racist and is in a minority cabinet now .
      and i am ashamed of my country for the first time in my life .
      but the worst is that our politicians look at the american model for everything ! and take the absolute worse ! even cuba now has a better healthcare system then we do ! ( and better then the u.s as well ) .
      i hate what america is doing to the world . it has become a source of pain , when it once was a source of hope and freedom.
      and it's all down to politics . they are the cause for all this and still the majority of americans believe they are free and are the best in the world . and we all should be like them .
      i am by no means a saint or better then anybody else . but i hope i will be a better person and learn from my mistake's . and not moan and do nothing to change the way the world is today . even if that means it doesn't amount to shit . but at least i tried .....

      p.s ; please don't take this as a personal attack on americans or on you as a private person . i have nothing against you or any other american in general .
      i just hate the politics and the people on top . that 1 % that own more then the rest of us combined . i do have a problem with them !

    • 7 months ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • JohnA
  • MotherForTruth
  • KB723
    • 0
      KB723  

    • LOL!!! They just want us to know that we cannot Trust them, so what else is new, are we supposed to feel Better now????

    • 7 months ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • trut
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