[CTRL] Goodbye FOIA

[William Shannon]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/10/26/107.html Global Eye -- Lights Out By Chris Floyd Let us thank YHWH (and YHWH Jr. too), praise Allah and raise hecatombs of oxen unto Zeus, that his nostrils might be filled with the savor of burning fat, all in gratitude for the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, 35 years old this year. But we'd better scoot those oxen along double-quick, because the act -- one of the most remarkable instruments of liberty ever wrung from a government -- is being cast into outer darkness by none other than that divinely appointed defender of "enduring freedom," George W. Bush. For almost four decades, the FOIA has allowed U.S. citizens to piece together a partial record of some of the monkeyshines their government has gotten up to in their name. To be sure, material released under the act is usually censored for "security reasons," and thus often resembles a work of abstract art -- massive blocks of impenetrable black ink randomly interposed between snippets of meaningless typescript. But the American bureaucracy is vast, and in its nooks and crannies there are many dedicated public servants who, unlike their betters at the top, believe in executing -- no, not mentally retarded prisoners -- but the laws of the land. These patriots have acted in the true FOIA spirit, guarding legitimate secrets but declining to cloak crimes, fraud and moral idiocy with fake "security" concerns. Over the years a mountain of malfeasance has been unearthed by the act, to the greater glory of American freedom -- and the teeth-grinding chagrin of the nation's leaders. But now the Divine Defender has decided enough is enough. Last week, he took time out from bombing the bejesus out of his fellow fundamentalists in Afghanistan and ordered his fellow fundamentalist in the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft, to gut the FOIA. Ashcroft -- yes, the same man who anointed himself with cooking oil when he was elected to the Senate, to signify that the Lord had given him "dominion" over the masses; the same man who proclaimed that Jesus was the King of America -- says that he alone must now pass judgment on any "significant" FOIA requests: i.e., anything that might prove embarrassing to the Divine Defender or his patrons. The act must be curtailed, says the Oily One, to protect "threats to the national security, the effectiveness of law enforcement" and -- here's the money shot -- "commercial interests." Given the fact that national security and criminal investigations were already well-protected under the FOIA, it's not too hard to see which particular lily is being gilded with this authoritarian gloss. Or as the Defender himself once said, just days after the Supreme Court mullahs anointed his head with Oval Oil: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier -- just as long as I'm the dictator." And they say wishes never come true.