[ISN] DHS & Your Tax Dollars

[InfoSec News]

Forwarded from: Marjorie Simmons <lawyer at carpereslegalis.com>

FOIA requires records disclosure unless the records fall within one of
the nine exemptions to the Act. Two of those enumerated exemptions
are:

1)	Those specifically authorized under criteria established 
	by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest 
	of national defense or foreign policy, and are classified 
	as such; and 
2)	Records or information compiled for law enforcement 
	purposes.

Therefore, I do not find it surprising at all that FOIA requests are
taking a year and longer and that some are never granted at all.
Executive Orders for such secrecy are themselves not always disclosed.  
Related legality investigations are being consistently waylaid and
stymied by some dubious claims of executive privilege and national
security, and have been since this President first took the office.

Consider that the present state of any helpful information coming from
this administration will continue as long as those persons who make up
this particular administration and its milieu are persons of power in
DC and Virginia, and for as long as Henry Kissinger's' "useless
eaters" believe in the inherent integrity of the holder of the Office
of the President, no matter how baldfaced its lies.

   "Let the people know the truth and the country is safe."
     -- Abraham Lincoln

Marjorie Simmons

 -----Original Message-----
Forwarded from: security curmudgeon <jericho at attrition.org>
http://www.osvdb.org/blog/?p=83

<snip>

Why exactly do my tax dollars pay for the commercial development 
of tools that are not released to the public? 
<snip>

This also makes me wonder what legal and ethical questions should be 
asked about tax dollars being spent by the DHS, for a university to 
fund the development of a security tool that could potentially do great 
good if released for all to use.

Its too bad there is more than a year long wait for FOIA requests made to 
the DHS.

<snip>