Greater Government Control of Information

  • Number of documents classified in 2001: 8 million;
    Number of documents classified in 2005: 14 million1
  • Average number of pages declassified annually from historical records during the fiscal years 1997-2001: 140 million
    Average number of pages declassified during fiscal years 2002-2006: 36 million.2
  • Increase in overall federal work force 2000-2004: 6%
    Increase in public affairs officials during this time: 9%
    Extra cost of packaging information via hiring an additional 376 public affairs officials: $50 million3

Pre 9/11

  • 2000:

    Congress passed the "Official Secrets Act," which President Clinton vetoed in his final days. CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Newspaper Association of America, among others, asked Clinton to veto the bill because the measure would silence whistle-blowers and stop the news media from getting information to the public.4

  • 2001:

    Newly-elected Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force, formed to examine and create a national energy policy, refused to reveal information about its meetings in public buildings with campaign contributors from the oil, gas and coal industries over the objections of the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Various federal court decisions subsequently affirmed Cheney's refusal to cooperate.5

  • 2001:

    Four flatbed trucks delivered George W. Bush's gubernatorial records to his father's Presidential Library in Texas in an attempt to evade Texas sunshine laws and effectively seal them from the public.6

Post 9/11

  • 2001:

    The USA Patriot Act, signed into law just six weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, provided authorities more power to access personal records, eavesdrop on private information and detain American citizens without the requirement of probable cause.7

  • 2001:

    Attorney General Ashcroft issued a chilling memorandum concerning the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The memo revoked earlier openness directives established by former Attorney General Janet Reno and advised federal agencies that "when you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records." 8

  • 2001:

    President Bush signed the unprecedented executive order 13233, which sharply restricted public access to the papers of former presidents. According to Steven L. Henson, president of the Society of American Archivists, "The order effectively blocks access to information that enables Americans to hold our presidents accountable for their actions." 9

  • 2001:

    President Bush signed a presidential directive that enabled military tribunals for non-U.S. citizens arrested in the United States or abroad to be administered by the White House. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld appointed each panel that set its rules and procedures, including the level of proof needed for conviction. The presidential directive was not subject to judicial review.10

  • 2001:

    Reporters were confined by military officials to a Marine base warehouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan. For five days the media pool was not able to report on the friendly-fire fatalities that occurred less than 100 feet from them and were barred from reporting details, even after the information was leaked.11

  • 2001-2002:

    Within six months of September 11, 2001, there were over 300 new cases of restricted access to records at the federal, state and local levels.12

  • 2002:

    President Bush secretly created a "shadow government" and dispatched 100 senior civilian officers from federal agencies to live and work in two secret locations outside of Washington, DC. The "Continuity of Operations Plan" was withheld from Congress and the American public for over half a year.13

  • 2002:

    The Homeland Security Act passed Congress, creating a new federal department exempt from FOIA requirements.14

  • 2002:

    The Protected Critical Infrastructure Information section of the Homeland Security Act created an entirely new level of classification and a system of very binding nondisclosure agreements. Ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee Patrick Leahy called it "the single greatest rollback of FOIA in history." 15

  • 2002:

    A federal court ruled that The Office of Homeland Security has to answer questions about its operations after the Office argued that it was not a government agency and therefore did not have to abide by FOIA requests.16

  • 2003:

    Pentagon officials refused access to filming or photographing prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.17

  • 2003:

    The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (Patriot Act II), secretly written by the Justice Department without informing Congress, was obtained and posted online. The draft legislation would increase intelligence gathering and decrease public access to information.18

  • 2004:

    The Department of Homeland Security began requiring employees to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Employees who disclose unclassified information could face "administrative, disciplinary, civil or criminal action." 19

  • 2005:

    Six months after a professor at the University of Delaware filed a lawsuit demanding that the Pentagon respond to his 2004 FOIA request for all still and filmed images of American caskets, the Pentagon finally released hundreds of photos.20

  • 2006:

    The 2006 congressionally mandated report by the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor produced 1,800 pages detailing violations and improvements in 196 countries. While the report acknowledges the fallibility of the United States, Assistant Secretary Barry Lowenkron told reporters 2006 was “the year of the pushback” because a surprising number of countries selectively applied regulations against NGOs and the mass media. A recurring complaint: continued restrictions by nations of the Internet, particularly China as a prime example.59