The Justice Department reversed its position on documents related to FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, resulting in a victory for advocates of open government. Some information from an unclassified briefing was classified after letters based on this briefing were publicly available for two years. Essentially, the Justice Department tried to kill public debate on Edmond's allegations of serious problems in the FBI by attempting to yank documents out of the public's hands. Yet it's hard to make a case for classification once information is already out of the box. In a Washington Post article today, "Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft had strongly defended the practice in this case by likening it to putting 'spilt milk' back in a jar instead of simply saying, 'well, it's spilt.'"
Retroactive classification in this case seems to have been abused for dubious political ends--to hide government corruption that goes unheeded. POGO is looking for additional cases of classification of government information in the public's hands by any government agency. You can send your tips in to POGO here or if you wish to remain anonymous and send us a tip go here. In either case, do not use a government computer when you send in tips.
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