Reducing Secrecy

Combating Government Secrecy through Freedom of Information

In response to a growing culture of government secrecy, people are seeking new ways to defend their right to information and combat intensifying threats to transparency and accountability. Openness advocates, journalists, litigators and grassroots organizations working on a range of policy issues are increasingly looking to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to shine light on government actions carried out in our name, but without our knowledge. Today, Open the Government released a Best Practices Guide to FOIA Collaboration, highlighting cases where FOIA collaboration is successfully being used to fuel advocacy campaigns and advance openness policies.

Excessive secrecy has long been a problem in the fields of national and homeland security because it limits information sharing and leaves us less safe as a nation. Both the 9/11 Commission and the congressional Joint Inquiry into 9/11 recommended reforms to reduce unnecessary secrets. OpenTheGovernment.org works with our partners, the Administration, and Congress to put policies in place that both protect constitutional rights and ensure national security by better protecting real secrets and improving information sharing.

Open the Government Applauds Requirement in Defense Bill Stipulating Better Reporting on Civilian Casualties Caused by U.S. Military Forces

Harmful FOIA Exemption Also Stripped from Bill, Says OTG

Be wary of selective disclosures

Last week, the CIA announced that it was declassifying and releasing a new trove of documents from the government’s files on Osama bin Laden, ostensibly in the interest of transparency and public education.

To ensure accountability for use of lethal force, advocates look to Congress

So far, the Trump Administration has shown a willingness to accelerate the use of military force overseas, while continuing and sometimes expanding on the excessive secrecy of its predecessors. As the number of civilian casualties from U.S. strikes grows at a shocking pace, government transparency and Congressional oversight may be the surest way to advance accountability in U.S. use of military force.

OTG Statement on Removal of AUMF Repeal Amendment from NDAA

Speaker Paul Ryan this week secretly removed a provision from the House version of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have reinstated a degree of Congressional oversight on military engagement authorized by the White House.

Join OTG for a Town Hall on Advancing Accountability for the Use of Military Force

Excessive secrecy has been a hallmark of the use of lethal force by the United States since the September 11th attacks, both in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in drone strikes and other operations outside areas of active hostilities. The Trump Administration has so far continued to reject transparency around military actions, in some ways further shrouding the military and the drone program in secrecy.

ICE secrecy on immigration enforcement stokes fear, prevents accountability

An internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) memo obtained by ProPublica appears to confirm what advocates and immigrant communities have suspected for months; the Trump administration is targeting all undocumented immigrants for deportation, rather than a subset with criminal backgrounds as the White House has claimed.

OTG: Torture Report Must Be Released, Not Buried

In a troubling rejection of transparency and accountability, the Trump administration has reportedly begun returning federal agency copies of the Senate Torture Report to Congress. At the request of Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the CIA, the CIA Inspector General, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have all sent their copies to Congress.

Senators push Justice Department nominee for answers on secret law

After missing an important opportunity to demand greater transparency from the White House nominee picked to oversee the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee submitted questions for the record to get answers from Steven A. Engel on how he would approach disclosure policies as head of an office plagued with secrecy.