Reducing Secrecy
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...
View ArticleSSCI Chairman to CIA: We'll Hide Your Documents if You Hide Ours
Shortly after he became chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in January, Senator Richard Burr told reporters in his home state that he had no intention of trying to rewrite the...
View ArticleGroups to President Obama: Stop Ignoring the Torture Report
On January 28, OpenTheGovernment.org and 8 other groups wrote to President Obama, asking his administration to stop ignoring the nearly 7000-page torture report by the Senate Select Committee on...
View ArticleThe GTMO Military Commissions Are Starting to Move Away from Censorship
Two months ago today, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the Executive Summary of its report on the CIA’s detention and torture program.read more
View ArticleCISA is Back, and It’s Still Terrible on Transparency
Cybersecurity legislation is much needed, but previous versions of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) all had one thing in common: harsh blows to government transparency. In July, OTG...
View ArticleSunshine Week’s Transparency Legislation; CISA Threats Move Forward
This Sunshine Week, members of Congress stepped up to introduce legislation to increase openness and accountability in all branches of the federal government. Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley...
View ArticleACLU v. Clapper Shows that Secret Courts are No Substitute for Real Judicial...
A unanimous panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday ruled that the NSA’s nationwide collection of Americans’ phone records is illegal, unauthorized by section 215 of the PATRIOT Act or...
View ArticleOpenTheGovernment.org Statement on the Passage of The USA Freedom Act
Yesterday the Senate passed the USA Freedom Act by a 67-32 vote, after rejecting several attempts to weaken it. President Obama signed the bill into law last night.read more
View ArticleOpenTheGovernment.org's Statement on the McCain-Feinstein Anti-Torture Amendment
OpenTheGovernment.org strongly supports passage of Amendment 1889 to the NDAA, the McCain-Feinstein amendment. The amendment would seek to prevent the United States government from ever again engaging...
View ArticleThe Classified Classification Guidance on Torture, and President Obama’s Legacy
This June, OpenTheGovernment.org filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the classification guidance that now governs the CIA’s rendition, detention and interrogation (RDI) program, to...
View ArticleAdministration Must Address Restrictive Media Policies and Practices
OpenTheGovernment.org joined the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and 51 other groups in a second letter urging President Obama to address the White House and agencies' restrictive public...
View ArticleOpenTheGovernment.org Challenges Ongoing Classification of the CIA Torture...
Earlier this week, OpenTheGovernment.org filed a detailed complaint with the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), arguing that even after the release of the Senate torture report’s read more
View ArticleNew Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act being drafted in secret
Background: Over the past year, the openness community has joined privacy and civil liberties groups in fighting the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), legislation that undermines...
View ArticleDeath toll from violent cops is a guessing game
By: Patrice McDermottOriginally published by USA TodayAdd two more killings to the Chicago police death toll from this weekend in a familiar story. Unarmed people, mostly black men, shot by police....
View ArticleFlint water crisis resurfaces familiar federal transparency problems
As the devastating full story of the Flint water scandal unfolds, it has become clear that the Flint city and Michigan state governments were not alone in covering up crucial public health...
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