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foiac.org Freedom of Information Advocacy Coalition |
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Current FOI Trends & Resource Links
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FBI Fights for Limited Document Searches http://www.bakersfield.com/24hr/politics/story/2037209p-10077910c.html
Court Backs Cheney in FOI Lawsuit It was reported in the Boston Globe, May 11, 2005, that the DC Federal Court of Appeals found in favor of Vice President Dick Cheney in a long-running FOI lawsuit attempting to obtain details about the role of energy company executives in crafting Cheney's national energy policy. There is no doubt that energy executives who had contributed to the Bush administrations political campaigns were treated to scarce positions on Cheney's energy policy committee. The court wrote:"In making decisions on personnel and policy, and in formulating legislative proposals, the president must be free to seek confidential information from many sources, both inside the government and outside." Of course the court missed the point if they really thought that providing a cloak to hide the membership of such committees was more likely to broaden the president's information seeking to "many sources". The whole issue was centered around the apparent narrowness of the energy committee's makeup - substantially big established energy interests and big campaign donors. Shining a light on such cozy dealings and possible conflicts-of-interest would more likely achieve the court's objective of ultimately widening the horizons of the president's sources by making the process a little more transparent. Cheney's task force called for helping the oil, coal and nuclear industries increase energy supplies by subsidizing them with tax breaks, opening more public lands for drilling and relaxing air pollution standards at power plants. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club had sued to open the records of the task force's meetings. "The bottom line of this decision is...the public is being left in the cold, and this energy policy is the best example of what happens when that occurs," said Sanjay Narayan, a lawyer for the Sierra Club. " The ruling fits the trend of increasing secrecy and stonewalling in the Bush administration," said Chris Farrell of Judicial Watch. It seems that given its makeup and the conclusions produced by the task force, the threat of CO2 to global climate, US dependence on foreign oil, and alternative energy strategies did not make much of an appearance if any in the deliberations. More at: www.JudicialWatch.org
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