- CDC's Katrina critique is secret - A career as a secrecy watchdog - Traveling abroad? DHS has its eyes on you Patrice McDermott, Director OpenTheGovernment.org 202-332-OPEN (6736) www.openthegovernment.org - CDC's KATRINA CRITIQUE IS SECRET http://www.ajc.com/services/content/news/stories/2006/11/07/1107cdckatrina.html Published on: 11/07/06 By ALISON YOUNG / ayoung@xxxxxxx The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has critiqued its response to Hurricane Katrina and says it's taking actions to ensure that the agency is better prepared in the future. But the Atlanta-based CDC is keeping secret the report analyzing its performance, and is talking only generally about the problems it identified, saying they are being addressed with better plans, communication and training. {...] The CDC has repeatedly refused since August to release a copy of its Katrina after-action report, which could put these e-mails in a broader context. In denying an AJC request under the Freedom of Information Act, the CDC said the Katrina report is only a "draft" and that making it public would "interfere with the agency's deliberative process." [...] Last month, Gerberding said the federal government is debating whether after-action reports should be made public. ...she said Monday that she's still waiting for that decision to be made. Michael Greenberger, director of the Center for Health and Homeland Security at the University of Maryland, said the CDC has largely escaped scrutiny of its Katrina response because it played a small role and because problems at other agencies - notably the Federal Emergency Management Agency - dwarfed anything that may have gone wrong at the CDC. He questioned, therefore, why the CDC is keeping its Katrina after-action report secret. "The White House after-action report was made public; the congressional after-action reports were made public," he said. [...] *** - A CAREER AS A SECRECY WATCHDOG Steven Aftergood condemns the abuses of overclassification, excessive secrecy http://www.fcw.com/article96769-11-13-06-Print BY Aliya Sternstein Published on Nov. 13, 2006 Researcher Steven Aftergood's shelves are crammed with books on government secrecy and thick binders filled with government documents. Daniel Ellsberg's "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers" occupies a prominent position on one shelf. One particular set of papers that came to him in 1991 caused him to question the criteria that the government used to classify documents. Someone whose identity Aftergood learned only later - and still won't reveal - mailed him documents about a classified program code-named Timber Wind. At the time, he had been researching nuclear reactor safety for the Federation of American Scientists, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. He is now FAS' director of the Project on Government Secrecy. [...] *** Traveling abroad? DHS has its eyes on you http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42565-1.html 11/10/06 -- 12:13 PM By Alice Lipowicz Terrorism risk assessments will be assigned to any individuals seeking to enter or leave the United States, according to a Homeland Security Department announcement. The records are excluded from public review and maintained for up to 40 years. In a Federal Register notice, DHS said the Automated Targeting System passenger screening is not new, but the agency does not identify when the program began. The purpose of the Nov. 2 announcement is to provide additional notice to the public of the system's existence and what functions it performs, DHS said. Public comments are due by Dec. 4. Travelers leaving the United States by airline since Sept. 11, 2001, have been screened against a terrorist watch list. The newly disclosed assessments apply to travelers who leave by foot and by automobile as well, the Federal Register notice said. Privacy groups describe the risk assessments as intrusive. [...] All data in the new system will be exempt from the access and correction requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974. The risk assessment records are stored electronically at the National Data Center. *** SPECIAL COUNSEL POSTS AND THEN RETRACTS POOR REPORT CARD - Growing Reports of White House Calls for Bloch's Resignation http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=781 Washington, DC - Seeking to deflect public attention, the Office of Special Counsel posted an overdue annual report to Congress on its website this past Tuesday, Election Day, but removed the link for the report the next day, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This elusive report, obtained by PEER, http://www.peer.org/docs/osc/06_9_11_osc_fy2005.pdf paints a dismal picture of declining performance in the federal agency whose chief mission is advocacy for whistleblowers. At the same time, right-wing columnists are writing that the Bush White House has twice asked for the resignation of its own appointee as Special Counsel, Scott Bloch. The Special Counsel has a fixed five-year term and can be removed only for cause. [
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