Fresh Skirmishes in the Information Wars
...the 2002 Homeland Security Act (HSA), "granted an extraordinarily broad exemption to FOIA in exchange for the cooperation of private companies in sharing information with the government regarding vulnerabilities in the nation's critical infrastructure."
...– such as that pertaining to privately operated power plants, bridges, dams, ports, or chemical plants, which might be targeted for a terrorist attack. The administration promoted language they said would encourage owners of such facilities to identify vulnerabilities in their operations and share that information with DHS.
But (Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee) says these provisions "shield from FOIA almost any voluntarily submitted document stamped by the facility owner as 'critical infrastructure.'
"Rather than increasing security by encouraging private sector disclosure to the government, it guts FOIA at the expense of our national security and the safety and health of the American people."
story by William Fisher
~related...
Army Refuses to Give Reason for Expanding Dugway Proving Ground
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Army has refused to say why it wants to expand Dugway Proving Ground, and now it has rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on the proposal.
...Louise, Douglas and Allan Cannon jointly own land in the area and hold numerous mining claims there. They have suggested the military may be trying to forcibly obtain their lands, where contamination occurred but the military has refused to clean.
Court documents from Cannon lawsuits said that the Army attacked the Cannon's old family mines with 3,000 rounds of chemical arms for tests at the end of World War II. It also bombed the surface of 1,425 acres of Cannon family-owned land above the mines with more than 23 tons of chemical arms, including deadly mustard agent, hydrogen cyanide and Phosgene.
The Army said it had permission from the Cannons' grandfather for that testing.
The younger Cannons said contracts only recently found required cleaning of the land.
They contended the failure to do that has prevented working potentially lucrative gold mines.
~The army's not interested in mining gold is it?
Posted by Cieciel at April 1, 2005 01:03 AM