Posted on 09/08/2009 7:03:04 PM PDT by bd476
The Obama administration wants to maintain the secrecy of terrorist watch-list information it routinely shares with federal, state and local agencies, a move that rights groups say would make it difficult for people who have been improperly included on such lists to challenge the government.
Intelligence officials in the administration are pressing for legislation that would exempt "terrorist identity information" from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Such information--which includes names, aliases, fingerprints and other biometric identifiers--is widely shared with law enforcement agencies and intelligence "fusion centers," which combine state and federal counterterrorism resources.
Still, some officials say public disclosure of watch-list data risks alerting terrorism suspects that they are being tracked and may help them evade surveillance.
Advocates for civil liberties and open government argue that the administration has not proved the secrecy is necessary and that the proposed changes could make the government less accountable for errors on watch lists. The proposed FOIA exemption has been included in pending House and Senate intelligence authorization bills at the administration's request.
"Instead of enhancing accountability, this would remove accountability one or two steps further away," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.
When the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center disseminates data from watch lists to state and federal agencies, the information is unclassified, though marked "for official use only." Officials said that the information could be obtained under a FOIA request and that such data has been released under FOIA.
Michael G. Birmingham, a spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said that the intelligence community is seeking "adequate protection from disclosing terrorist identity information" to the public because "no [such] exemption currently exists under FOIA." He said the goal...was to keep sensitive unclassified information from unintended recipients...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ping.
Right cause all those against Obama’s policies are named on list, likely including us FReepers.
At least we’ll be in good company! :D
Well it's easy to reach that conclusion considering all the other fascist works in play right now.
Didn’t Obongo oppose this secret list under Bush?
Actually, probably most of his cronies are on the list.
Actually, he supports it behind the scenes.
There is no difference between a DemospLabRat or Respukelican president, because he has to follow the globalist agenda of implementing a police state.
I see no controversy here. Terrorist watch list data should be considered “sensitive but unclassified”, which does exclude it from FOIA requests, and the like. Frankly, there is a case to be made that it should probably be classified, but the business processes that use the watch lists would be negatively impacted by the restrictions of classified systems.
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