[Infowarrior] - A closed meeting on openness

[Richard Forno]

PROMISES, PROMISES: A closed meeting on openness
By SHARON THEIMER (AP) – 5 hours ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5joOOsTVD57lFwm_InpZY_nRbg4KQD9CDRVOO0

WASHINGTON — It's hardly the image of transparency the Obama  
administration wants to project: A workshop on government openness is  
closed to the public.

The event Monday for federal employees is a fitting symbol of  
President Barack Obama's uneven record so far on the Freedom of  
Information Act, a big part of keeping his campaign promise to make  
his administration the most transparent ever. As Obama's first year in  
office ends, the government's actions when the public and press seek  
information are not yet matching up with the president's words.

"The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear  
presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails," Obama told  
government offices on his first full day as president. "The government  
should not keep information confidential merely because public  
officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and  
failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract  
fears."

Obama scored points on his pledge by requiring the release of detailed  
information about $787 billion in economic stimulus spending. It's now  
available on a Web site, http://www.recovery.gov. Other notable  
disclosures include waivers that the White House has granted from  
Obama's conflict-of-interest rules and reports detailing Obama's and  
top appointees' personal finances.

Yet on some important issues, his administration produced information  
only after government watchdogs and reporters spent weeks or months  
pressing, in some cases suing.

Those include what cars people were buying using the $3 billion Cash  
for Clunkers program (it turned out the most frequent trades involved  
pickups for pickups with only slightly better gas mileage); how many  
times airplanes have collided with birds (a lot); whether lobbyists  
and donors meet with the Obama White House (they do); rules about the  
interrogation of terror suspects (the FBI and CIA disagreed over what  
was permitted); and who was speaking in private with Treasury  
Secretary Timothy Geithner (he has close relationships with a cadre of  
Wall Street executives whose multibillion-dollar companies survived  
the economic crisis with his help).

The administration has refused to turn over important records. Obama  
signed a law that let the Pentagon refuse to release photographs  
showing U.S. troops abusing detainees, and Defense Secretary Robert  
Gates then did so. The Obama administration, like the Bush  
administration before it, has refused to release details about the  
CIA's "black site" rendition program. The Federal Aviation  
Administration wouldn't turn over letters and e-mails among FAA  
officials about reporters' efforts to learn more about planes that  
crash into birds.

Just last week, a State Department deputy assistant secretary,  
Llewellyn Hedgbeth, said at a public conference that "as much as we  
want to promote transparency," her agency will work just as hard to  
protect classified materials or information that would put the United  
States in a bad light.

People who routinely request government records said they don't see  
much progress on Obama's transparency pledge.

"It's either smoke and mirrors or it was done for the media," said  
Jeff Stachewicz, founder of Washington-based FOIA Group Inc., which  
files hundreds of requests every month across the government on behalf  
of companies, law firms and news organizations. "This administration,  
when it wants something done, there are no excuses. You just don't see  
a big movement toward transparency."

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil  
liberties group, said it filed 45 requests for records since Obama  
became president, and that agencies such as NASA and the Energy  
Department have been mostly cooperative in the spirit of Obama's  
promises. But the FBI and Justice Department? Not so much, said Nate  
Cardozo, working for the foundation on a project to expose new  
government surveillance technologies.

The FBI resisted turning over copies of reports to a White House  
intelligence oversight board about possible bureau legal violations.  
The FBI said it's so far behind reviewing other, unrelated requests  
that it can't turn over the reports until May 2014.

"This administration started with a bang, saying this was going to be  
a new day, and we had really high expectations," Cardozo said. "We  
haven't seen much of a change. The Justice Department said there would  
be a stronger presumption in favor of disclosure, but that hasn't been  
the case."

Obama has approved startup money for a new office taking part in  
Monday's closed conference, the Office of Government Information  
Services. It was created to resolve disputes involving people who ask  
for records and government agencies. But as evidenced by the open- 
records event behind closed doors, there is a long way to go.

"We'd like to know, when they're training agencies, are they telling  
them the same thing they're saying in public, that they're committed  
to making the Freedom of Information Act work well and make sure that  
agencies are releasing information whenever possible while protecting  
important issues like individual privacy and national security," said  
Rick Blum, coordinator of the Sunshine in Government Initiative, of  
which The Associated Press is a member.

The closed conference will provide tips for FOIA public liaisons on  
communicating and negotiating with people who make requests, and  
introduce the new Office of Government Information Services to them,  
said Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Justice Department's Office  
of Information Policy, which takes the lead on government openness  
issues.

Pustay said she planned to say the same things at the private workshop  
that she would say publicly. She offered these reasons to explain why  
it was closed: She wanted government employees to be able to speak  
candidly, and the conference would be in an auditorium at the Commerce  
Department, where she said a government ID was required to be  
admitted. The AP and others news organizations routinely enter  
government buildings to cover the government.

Pustay said she is looking for ways to improve how the government  
responds to information requests, which costs roughly $400 million  
each year.

The director of the new Office of Government Information Services,  
Miriam Nisbet, said the event was closed to make sure there would be  
room for all the government employees attending.

"I can understand skepticism anytime a meeting for government people  
is not necessarily open to the public," Nisbet said. "However,  
everything that is discussed there is absolutely available for the  
public to know about."

Associated Press writer Ted Bridis contributed to this report.

On the Net:

	• Office of Government Information Services: http://www.archives.gov/ogis/
	• Obama memo on the Freedom of Information Act: http://tinyurl.com/yhjgqfm
	• Holder memo on FOIA: http://tinyurl.com/ygbdxzp
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.