In an effort to sidestep Alaska's public records laws, HockeyMom-slash-MooseHunter-slash-Governor Sarah Palin sometimes used a Yahoo! e-mail account to conduct official state business.

If it's legal (and plenty of public records experts say it's not) that might not be a bad way to keep a secret -- unless, say, you've decided to run for the office of vice president of The United States of America, in which case you might start getting a bit more attention from Internet ruffians such as the hacker group known as "Anonymous."

Anonymous hacked into Palin's account this week. And although the booty wasn't substantial -- most of the messages in the guv's inbox were of a personal (and in some cases prayerful) nature -- the Palin-McCain campaign...

... er, sorry, I mean the McCain-Palin campaign, of course...

... quickly released a statement asking that "anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them."

Um.

Yeah.

Right.

And hey, while you're at it, would you kindly return any unauthorized copies of Pamela Anderson's infamous honeymoon video?

But in what may have been an even more audacious request, the U.S. Secret Service contacted The Associated Press on Wednesday and asked for copies of the leaked e-mails. As proof that the AP values its membership (in good standing) in "the media elite," the news-gathering organization declined to comply -- but did kindly point agents from the nation's premier investigative and protective service to a relatively new research tool known as "Google."

Where, as of Wednesday evening, you could find 1,780 Webpages featuring Palin's e-mails.

-mdl

Labels: secrecy

A story in Sunday’s New York Times, doesn't hold out much hope for Sarah Palin being an advocate of open government.

The story can be found here.

Let me quote from the pertinent part:

"Interviews show that Ms. Palin runs an administration that puts a premium on loyalty and secrecy. The governor and her top officials sometimes use personal e-mail accounts for state business; dozens of e-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that her staff members studied whether that could allow them to circumvent subpoenas seeking public records.

Rick Steiner, a University of Alaska professor, sought the e-mail messages of state scientists who had examined the effect of global warming on polar bears. (Ms. Palin said the scientists had found no ill effects, and she has sued the federal government to block the listing of the bears as endangered.) An administration official told Mr. Steiner that his request would cost $468,784 to process.

When Mr. Steiner finally obtained the e-mail messages — through a federal records request — he discovered that state scientists had in fact agreed that the bears were in danger, records show.

'Their secrecy is off the charts,' Mr. Steiner said."

-- dh

Labels: Candidates, secrecy

Everybody knows that newspapers and other traditional media are facing a financial crunch like never before. But why does that translate to more government secrets?

A couple of reasons.

True, journalists aren't the only ones that can act as government watchdogs. But most normal people just don't have time to follow government that closely. And the non-profit groups that used to also play that role have diminished and-- in the case of Utah -- all but disappeared.
As news organizations tighten their budgets, they not only put fewer reporters in the field, they don't engage in as many fights over public records because of the possible legal costs involved.

Check out this blog post from a recent National Press Club forum on the topic. Industry downturn spurs government pushback on information.

Not only do news organizations have less money to fight the battles, but government agencies know it and are taking the opportunity to limit public access to records.

-- DH

Labels: secrecy

Holy sunshine! And I thought there were just philosophical and legal arguments for government transparency. Check out this financial fact.

It cost the federal government $9.5 billion to protect classified information in fiscal year 2006, according to Patrick Radden Keefe. His new policy brief calls for rolling back some Bush Administration practices and installing more transparency in the federal government. One of Keefe's points is that secrecy is expensive because you have to classify, store and protect the information.

I wondered how Keefe reached that figure so I followed his end notes. The $9.5 billion estimate came from a federal agency required to make a report to the president. And if you read the section of that report discussing the cost, you notice a sentence saying the estimate does not include the classification costs of a handful of military and defense intelligence agencies, including the CIA. A PDF of the 2006 classification report can be found here.

By the way, there also is a government report for classification costs in fiscal year 2007. That report estimates the cost was $9.91 billion in that year. A PDF of the 2007 report can be downloaded by clicking here.

— NC

Labels: secrecy

The OpenTheGovernment.org has released its annual report on government secrecy.

For a PDF of the full report, click here. A press release with a short summary is below.

But in a sign that maybe things aren't so bad at the local level, there's an interesting story in The Washington Post about expenses submitted by Sarah Palin during her time as Alaska governor. The article represents a good use of public records.

-- NC

Press Release

Contact: Amy Fuller or Patrice McDermott, 202-332-6736

Report: Continued Expansion of Federal Government Secrecy Seen in 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2008 — Government secrecy increased across a wide spectrum of indicators in 2007, according to a report released today by a coalition of over 70 open government advocates. At the same time, the 110th Congress has moved toward increasing openness and accountability.

The findings of the 2008 Secrecy Report Card, produced annually by OpenTheGovernment.org to identify trends in public access to government information, include:

• Almost 22 million FOIA requests were received, an increase of nearly 2 percent over last year;

• The 25 departments and agencies that handle the bulk of FOIA requests failed to make a dent in their backlogs, although they received the fewest requests since reporting began in 1998; and

• The number of original classification decisions increased slightly after dropping two consecutive years, and the number of derivative classifications increased by almost 13 percent.

• According to Patrice McDermott, Director of OpenTheGovernment.org, “These trends indicate that citizens will have to wait even longer to know what their government is doing.” The report also cites indicators of growing secrecy, including:

• The government spent $195 maintaining the secrets already on the books for every one dollar the government spent declassifying documents, a 5 percent increase in one year.

• 18 percent of the requested Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition funding is for classified, or “black,” programs. Classified acquisition funding has more than doubled in real terms since FY 1995.

• $114.1 billion of federal contract funding was given out without any competition. On average since 2000, fully and openly competed contracts have dropped by almost 25 percent

• Federal surveillance activity under the jurisdiction of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has risen for the 9th consecutive year—more than double the amount in 2000.

“The current administration continues to refuse to be held accountable to the public,” said McDermott. “In recent years, polls have shown that a growing number of Americans believe the federal government is secretive—terrible news for our democracy. Until we restore openness and accountability to the federal government, it will be impossible to win back the
public’s trust.”

Labels: Candidates, FOIA, secrecy

The Utah Department of Corrections and some county jails did not come off well in a legislative audit released today. Among other things, the department did a poor job overseeing county jails where it keeps inmates, the audit says.

Meanwhile, journalists and the public aren't allowed to oversee much of what Corrections or the jails are doing. Earlier this year, Corrections denied a records request I made for inspection reports of county jails.

The State Records Committee sided with Corrections. The committee agreed a state statute preventing the release of "security measures" applied to the inspection reports. The theory is an inmate could use the information in the inspection to plot an escape. That the public should be informed of dangers at a jail is not to be considered, Corrections and the committee decided.

And while today's audit recommended improving the jail inspection process and documentation, Correction's non-disclosure policy and the records committee's ruling stands. So Utah could have the best and safest penitentiaries and jails in the world — or the worst — and we aren't allowed to know.

— NC

Labels: GRAMA, jail/prisons, secrecy, State Records Committee

Goodness gracious. No wonder we have such a hard time getting information from the government. Not only do government officials not know the law, apparently neither do some of my colleagues.

Take an article in Friday's Standard-Examiner about the Davis County Library Board clarifying its privacy policies on lending. The first sentence reads:

Library reading and information records are as private as medical records.

Uh, no. There is no federal regulation of public library records. In Utah, library records can be classified as private and in some circumstances the release of private information can be considered a misdemeanor offense. I have not seen such a prosecution in my three-plus years reporting on Utah crime.

Medical records are safeguarded by state and federal law. Any health provider who violates the rules face the real possibility of fines from the federal government. Plus the provider is vulnerable to lawsuits from the victim. On the whole, there are a lot more teeth in protections for medical records.

So the deputy county attorney who gave the briefing was wrong when he said:

...the law is no different than the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPPA.

No G-Man will knock on your door if you tell people I once checked out a Danielle Steel novel, guys.

Here's one that really blew me away and I wish the reporter had challenged. The deputy county attorney said the move to keep private the library records are "important because it protects a person's First Amendment rights...."

What? I make my living off the First Amendment and I have never heard it applied to secretly checking out Kama Sutra from the library. Some courts have cited the First Amendment to prevent banning books from libraries, but if you want a constitutional right to check out in privacy, I suggest looking farther down the Bill of Rights.

-- nc

Labels: GRAMA, secrecy

As you might expect, prisons are kind of particular about who they let enter. (Or let exit, for that matter.)

So there was not much recourse last year when the Arizona Department of Corrections said I could not attend the parole hearing for Adam Swapp. Swapp is remembered for the bombing of an LDS stake center in Kamas followed by a standoff during which officer Fred House was killed. Swapp has been incarcerated in Arizona so not to create a conflict for Utah law enforcement.

And that means Arizona makes the rules for Swapp, as it does for all its prisoners. I begged, pleaded and complained to attend the parole hearing, but Arizona claimed no reporters — ever — are allowed into its prisons.

So imagine my surprise Tuesday night when I was watching the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer —my favorite nightly newscast — and saw a segment on Arizona prisons. NewsHour camera crews were allowed into the prisons and even spoke with inmates. (I saw no sign of Swapp, who was denied parole and remains in Arizona.)

Maybe the wardens down south saw the light and have made a policy change in the last year. Or maybe, since the NewsHour segment was pretty good P.R. for the prison program in Arizona, the jailers found it in their hearts to make an exception. Below is an e-mail I sent asking what is up. I'll post any response I receive.

In case you're wondering, the Utah Department of Corrections, while not putting a turnstile at the front door of its prisons, allows for journalists and cameras to enter its facilities with some regulations.

-- nc

From: "Nate Carlisle"
Date: July 22, 2008 6:50:36 PM MDT
To: media@azcorrections.gov
Subject: NewHour in prison

Arizona Corrections, I'm watching the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer -- my favorite TV news program. I see it was allowed entry into AZ Corrections facilities. Yet I remember distinctly being denied access last year when a Utah inmate in your custody was up for a parole hearing.

Has there been a policy change? Can you please explain the discrepancy? Thank you.

Sincerely,
Nate Carlisle
Reporter
The Salt Lake Tribune

Labels: secrecy

A subpoena from the Davis County Attorney's office, made public today by KSL, is demanding the station turn over "edited and unedited versions of interviews with Mark Walker, Richard Ellis and Greg Curtis."

Davis County and Weber County prosecutors are handling an investigation into an allegation that Walker, a former state legislator, promised Ellis a job and a big pay increase if he would drop out of the state treasurer's race.

The interviews were conducted on June 23 on the Doug Wright radio program and on July 10 by TV reporter Richard Piatt.

We at The Vault will be closely watching the case, as a government request for TV and radio out-takes is generally considered akin to asking for a print reporter's notes.

-- mdl

Labels: Candidates, Crime, KSL, secrecy

Monday was rough for public disclosure in Utah.

First, a judge excluded reporters from a court hearing discussing a buyout involving Usana Health Sciences Inc. (Maybe there's something in the water at Utah courthouses.)

Then we heard about a lawsuit filed by the city of Murray. The city does not want to disclose the names of disciplined police officer, even though there is a state statute specifically saying it must.

63G-2-301. Records that must be disclosed...
...(o) records that would disclose information relating to formal charges or disciplinary actions against a past or present governmental entity employee if:
(i) the disciplinary action has been completed and all time periods for administrative appeal have expired; and
...(ii) the charges on which the disciplinary action was based were sustained;

This strategy sure worked great for Sandy.

-- nc

Labels: GRAMA, Sandy, secrecy

Twice this week, Tribune justice reporters had problems obtaining the most basic information about a victim: a name.

These weren't any victims. They were children. The respective police agencies thought that meant they should not just give out the information.

In the first case, a 17-year-old girl died in an ATV crash in Sanpete County. The sheriff's office declined to release her name and suggested we watch the obituaries. A central Utah radio station reported the name and I confirmed it with a telephone call to the teenager's family.


The second case was a 17-month-old girl who drowned in Sugar House Park. Salt Lake City police declined to give us the girl's name over the telephone, as they do most adult victims, and suggested we file an open-records request. I then spoke with an attorney for the city who told me I should file a record request when it's suggested I do so, but read me the name in this instance.


Government agencies are reluctant to discuss children, and I understand why. It's human nature to protect kids. Lawmakers in Utah and most states have codified the instinct by closing to the public documents in child welfare matters and some juvenile court cases. News outlets are protective, too. The Tribune typically does not name child victims or even criminal suspects who are children as the newspaper would adults.

But it's a different matter when a child dies. Utah law does not require a dead child name's be kept secret. Neither does federal law.

In 2006, the National Park Service refused to release the names of child drowning victims on Lake Powell. The Tribune made administrative appeals and it resulted in the Park Service making agency-wide regulations requiring name disclosure.


************************

And now some easy news

A few weeks ago, I wrote the city governments of Salt Lake City, Ogden, Logan, Orem, Provo, Cedar City and St. George and asked for any audits, conducted within the last two years, on their respective fire and police departments.

The requests were answered on time with the cities providing me the documents or telling me where I could find them. Yeah, so I didn't exactly ask for the Pentagon Papers, but with that many towns, I figured there would be one holdout and there was not.

-- nc

Labels: FOIA, GRAMA, secrecy, SLC

Dozens of newspapers, including this one (read the story here) participated in a project this past weekend that shined light on earmarks in Congress.

And this gave me an opportunity to fill a gap in the public record.

Utah Rep. Jim Matheson complied grudgingly. His staff handed over the names of defense contractors that would benefit from the pet projects he is seeking. But they wouldn’t part with the information easily.

For many this may seem a bit confusing. Isn’t the government supposed to operate in the open?

When your representative sponsors a bill that would spend your tax dollars, the proposal is public. Anyone can read the bill, attend the committee hearings and watch the vote.

But when your representative seeks an earmark that would spend your tax dollars, that process is largely clouded in secrecy. Congress doesn’t release earmark requests, and even when projects are funded, the information is limited.

About 100 elected officials have opened up on their own, releasing lists of what pet projects they support.

The only one from Utah is Rep. Jim Matheson, but even in releasing his earmark requests, his office originally excluded the intended recipients of his defense earmarks. Defense earmarks are different from most other requests because they can easily reach into the millions of dollars, generally go to private companies and often these companies are big campaign contributors.

Still Matheson provided more information than the rest of the delegation.

Click below to see Matheson’s original earmark requests.

Matheson%20Earmark%20Requests2008.pdf

Reps. Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop refused to release their requests. So did Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett. They said making the information public may offend companies or local governments that don’t ultimately get the money they seek, and they don’t want to deal with the angry phone calls. They also said releasing their earmark requests puts them at a competitive disadvantage because other members of Congress will know what they asked for.

Matheson spokesman Alyson Heyrend said at the time: "Congressman Matheson has said from day one that his requests are based on the merits of the project and the overall benefits to Utahns. He's comfortable sharing that with the public."

This quote appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune on March 30. Two months later, and after repeated requests, his office followed through, providing the information on the defense contractors. Though they were still working to identify the company connected with the third project listed below.

Here is the info:

1. L-3 Communications would receive $7.3 million to develop a handheld video reciever known as the ROVER, which can help with surveillance and picking out military targets.

2. The Mathematical Science Research Institute would receive $3 million to support its TranSim driver’s training program, which is a simulator the military can use to train drivers of heavy equipment.

3. An unidentified company would receive $5 million for a system that would identify and locate electrical signals of interest for air and ground commanders. It is part of the Senior Scout program. Previous defense earmarks have gone to L-3 Communications.

4. Ceramatec would receive $3 million for an alternative pain medication delivery system.

5. Cyberkinetics would receive $2.2 million to fund a technology that allows a human brain to interface with a computer.

6. Kennecott would receive $5.8 million to develop a copper-rotor induction motor that could be used in weapons of the future.

7. LiveWire Test Labs would receive $5.3 million to develop arc fault circuit breakers that would help eliminate intermittent electrical faults that cause in-flight problems.

8. EDO Corporation would receive $3.5 million to fund the development of a new navigation system for ships.

Matheson has received $25,000 in campaign contributions for his current reelection campaign from L-3, Ceramatec, Kennecott and EDO, according to financial disclosure forms.

-- mc

Labels: Candidates, secrecy

Daniel Ellsberg, admired/notorious whiste-blower of Pentagon Papers fame, will be in Salt Lake City to speak to a gathering of ACLU members. In an interview with The Tribune, Ellberg offered advice for would-be government tattle-tales.

"Don’t wait until a new war has started before you tell the truth," he said. "When you realize that keeping promises of secrecy involves breaking your promise to protect and uphold the Constitution," it's time to leak.

-mdl

Labels: DOD, leaks, secrecy