Free Republic

Agency watchdogs are up in arms over a Justice Department memo questioning the legality of turning documents they say are crucial to their investigations. The new policy protecting certain portions of sensitive documents — announced last month by the DOJ’s office of legal counsel — came under fresh fire from lawmakers during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday. Lawmakers in both parties, including the top Republican and Democrat on the panel, disagree with the policy shift, saying it goes against the specific intent of the Inspector General Act of 1978. The law specifies that inspectors general have access to...

Underequipped, undermanned and underpaid, security guards at three of four nuclear reactors surveyed by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a nonprofit public-interest group, say that they lack confidence in the ability of their own forces to repel a terrorist attack. Low morale frequently was cited as a serious problem by the more than 20 security guards interviewed who protect 24 nuclear reactors at 13 plants. More than one-half of the guards interviewed told POGO that post-Sept. 11 requirements by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that protective-force numbers be increased to more than the five to 10 security guards formerly...