Happy 46th Birthday FOIA! It was on this wonderful date back in 1966, that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act into law. While the law took another year to go into effect, another "shot heard 'round the world" was fired from the cannon of freedom.
Please join me in congratulating Congress on creating such a wonderful law that encourages Transparency in Government, and giving American citizens a tool to hold their leaders accountable. I'll be sure to help blow out the 46 candles on FOIA's cake!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Friday, September 16, 2011
Disaster on Green Ramp - Pope AFB/Fort Bragg
This first link to a FOIA document is completely arbitrary - I found some really good FOIA releases on Scribd.com.
"Disaster on Green Ramp" is the accident investigation board results of a 1994 crash at Pope Air Force Base involving an F-16, C-130 transport, and a C-141 in the process of loading up with Airborne troops. The report may be a bit dry in parts, but it covers the disaster and heroic efforts in the aftermath very well.
"Disaster on Green Ramp" is the accident investigation board results of a 1994 crash at Pope Air Force Base involving an F-16, C-130 transport, and a C-141 in the process of loading up with Airborne troops. The report may be a bit dry in parts, but it covers the disaster and heroic efforts in the aftermath very well.
Freedom of Information Act... its a wonderful thing
Did you know that the United States government creates millions of pages of information a month? And most of this information is not requested nor disseminated outside of normal processing channels. The government takes your tax dollars, does its job by creating information, and does NOT usually let you see what they've done.
I'm not talking classified information on the Roswell UFO crash or Bin Laden's daily meals - just normal day-to-day reports, forms, introductory briefings, historical information, etc. You name it, and it is probably out there in some government drone's desk waiting to be shredded or deleted off their desktop computer.
Some forward-thinking individuals have used FOIA to unearth the mountain of information Uncle Sam has stored away. Websites such as Governmentattic.org and TheMemoryHole.org, list the documents that they've requested through FOIA (or its less understood cousin MDR - mandatory declassification review). I am not attempting to recreate what they've done - just put to words describing what has been unearthed. It might strike your fancy or make your blood boil - I don't care which, as long as it gets a reaction...
This law was created during a time where people were being taken advantage of - this was meant to be a "great equalizer." But how powerful an equalizer can it be if a fraction of the nation's citizens are taking advantage of it?
I'm not talking classified information on the Roswell UFO crash or Bin Laden's daily meals - just normal day-to-day reports, forms, introductory briefings, historical information, etc. You name it, and it is probably out there in some government drone's desk waiting to be shredded or deleted off their desktop computer.
Some forward-thinking individuals have used FOIA to unearth the mountain of information Uncle Sam has stored away. Websites such as Governmentattic.org and TheMemoryHole.org, list the documents that they've requested through FOIA (or its less understood cousin MDR - mandatory declassification review). I am not attempting to recreate what they've done - just put to words describing what has been unearthed. It might strike your fancy or make your blood boil - I don't care which, as long as it gets a reaction...
This law was created during a time where people were being taken advantage of - this was meant to be a "great equalizer." But how powerful an equalizer can it be if a fraction of the nation's citizens are taking advantage of it?
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