[Infowarrior] - Army to restore public access to Reimer Library website

[Richard Forno]

ARMY SAYS IT WILL RESTORE PUBLIC ACCESS TO ONLINE LIBRARY
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/2008/02/022108.html#1

The U.S. Army said today that it would restore public access to the online
Reimer Digital Library of Army publications, after having blocked the site
on February 6.

Last week, the Federation of American Scientists filed a Freedom of
Information Act request asking for a copy of the entire Reimer collection
for publication on the FAS website or, alternatively, for renewed public
access to the site (Secrecy News, Feb. 13).

The Army chose the latter option.

"TRADOC [U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command] is currently in the
process of making it available to the public again," said Mrs. Alverita
Mack, a Freedom of Information Act officer at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

"The Army has seen the error of its ways," said another Defense Department
FOIA officer. "Also, they want you to withdraw your FOIA request."

The dispute over the shuttered website was reported today in the Washington
Post. See "Army Blocks Public's Access to Documents in Web-Based Library" by
Christopher Lee, February 21:

      
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/20/AR2008022002
830.html

By moving the Reimer site behind the password-protected Army Knowledge
Online (AKO) firewall, the Army placed the public at a disadvantage, but not
only the public.

"The Army has not only restricted access to the public but to everyone else
in DoD as well," one Navy correspondent explained to Secrecy News. "So...
those working for the AF, Navy, Marines, etc will not be able to access
these documents -- unless they are able to get an AKO account -- which isn't
a given."

"I happen to have an AKO account but only because I know someone who was
willing to sponsor me," the Navy official wrote. "It is getting harder and
harder to access information within DoD let alone from outside it!"

The Freedom of Information Act is not often an effective mechanism for
changing government policy, nor was it intended to be. But in this case,
where the Army had moved to block public access to thousands of releasable
documents, the FOIA proved to be the optimal tool for compelling a change in
policy.

Mrs. Mack, the Army FOIA officer, said today that she did not know exactly
when the Reimer Digital Library would again be accessible. And, she said, it
might end up at a different URL than before. We indicated that we would
withdraw our FOIA request after public access is fully restored.