[Infowarrior] - AF will not fund controversial FOIA study

[Richard Forno]

(c/o SecrecyNews)

AIR FORCE LAB WILL NOT FUND CONTROVERSIAL FOIA STUDY

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) said this week that it will not
administer a grant to a San Antonio, Texas law school to study state freedom
of information laws.

In a story that prompted new concerns about official secrecy, USA Today
reported last month that the government was going to pay St. Mary's
University School of Law $1 million to reevaluate state freedom of
information laws in light of the threat of terrorism.
But the proposed freedom of information study "doesn't fit with the
information research and development that we do," said Dan Emlin of the AFRL
Information Directorate in Rome, New York.
That AFRL Directorate focuses on information technology -- including C4I,
artificial intelligence, and surveillance technology -- but not information
policy.
The freedom of information study "was more of a [policy] 'project' than bona
fide research," Mr. Emlin told Secrecy News, and "so the [AFRL] Director
decided 'We're not going to do it'."
Based on news reports and public statements, the proposed freedom of
information study seemed oriented towards new limitations on public
disclosure of information.
So, for example, St. Mary's law school professor Jeffrey Addicott, the lead
investigator, told USA Today that "There's the public's right to know, but
how much?"
"There's too much stuff that's easy to get that shouldn't be," he added.
("And plenty of stuff that should be easy to get that isn't," the Detroit
Free Press objected in a July 26 editorial criticizing the program.)
See "Tax Dollars to Fund Study on Restricting Public Data" by Richard
Willing, July 6:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-05-foia-research_x.htm
But Senator John Cornyn, who sponsored the defense budget earmark of funds
for the St. Mary's project, said its purpose was not to increase secrecy.

"In fact, the exact opposite is true. The research will make certain that
free flow of information is not unnecessarily hindered by security-driven
laws approved by states after Sept. 11, 2001," he said in a statement on the
St. Mary's web site:
http://www.stmarytx.edu/ctl/display.php?go=cornyn
"The study is not designed to assist the Department of Defense, Pentagon or
individual States to weaken either State or Federal Freedom of Information
Act laws," according to another statement from the University.

http://www.stmarytx.edu/ctl/
Since the $1 million grant has already been appropriated by Congress in the
FY 2006 defense appropriations bill, it is possible that another agency will
step forward to administer the award. But with AFRL's refusal to participate
it is not immediately clear which agency that might be.