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Memory Hole Un-Redacts Redacted DOJ Memo
DrDNA writes "After a Freedom of Information Act request, the US Justice Department released a study on workplace diversity. However, nearly half of the memo was blacked-out. In what was apparently an incredible goof, it was posted in a PDF format called Image+Text. The folks at The Memory Hole simply removed the image, revealing the redacted text. The redacted text was highly critical of the DOJ's diversity efforts, as the New York Times reports." Folks, if you're going to be sneaky, at least do enough research to make sure you're really being sneaky.
yep, in fact it's actually happened several times before. One time names of undercover agents were revealed. Now we just need to get some improperly redacted FOIA responses about area51, roswell, and all the stuff out there that makes me wear this tinfoil hat all the time.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
I bootleg Fizzy Lifting Drinks.
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
The NYT article stated that these documents were edited before release by career lawyers at the DOJ and that Bush-appointed employees of DOJ made no changes at all.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
Umm, they just diappeared?
They were destroyed between 1991 and 2003, as required by the UN resolutions after the end of the Kuwait war. Amazingly, biological and chemical weapons do not last forever, and many agents simply decompose after only three or four years. So in effect yes, they did actually simply cease to be.
The government doesn't have to say a damned thing about it. People have to ask for it first.
The people who are replying to this story are some of the most immature idiots with zero knowledge of government. Has NOBODY worked for our legal or justice system? Anybody ever graduate high school civics?
Information is blacked out and the black marks are LEFT there intentionally to SHOW that something was blacked out. If they wanted to "hide" the information, they would excise it. They don't. They *want* you to know that something was taken out.
The reason information is blacked out is because it was found to be factually incorrect or otherwise not reliable to be placed into public record and used as a cite for future legal uses. If I was a clerk and started filing things that said "Senator Smith is a satan worshiper who kills cats" and it turns out that I just have an axe to grind and am making up bullshit, then everywhere I filed that information is blacked out. If a witness on a stand says "Oh, and he rapes puppies too", and it turns out that the witness was lying, the information is "stricken from the record", but a *note* is make that it was strinken, and how much was stricken.
It's not to hide anything - if you want the original report, subpoena, etc., the easiest thing to do is go back to the original author and ask for the original filing. Reporters and historians do it all the time (since the press does not have to have the same standards that the legal and legislative system does).
Jebus - has nobody reading this entire site ever read a subpoena?
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
yes, the definition in proper English is merely to edit, but in the jargon of the "Intelligence Community" redaction is the process of editing out anything you don't want the world to see.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
While I agree this is "absolutely appaling," re "Notice that the blacked out text is always negative, where positive text is left in:"
(from the article)
Did DOJ follow its own published guide to Exemption 5? Slog through DOJ Guide to FOIA Exemption 5 and decide for yourself.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
From the ACLU Freedom Network. The following are exempt from FOIA requests.
1. National Security
2. Internal Agency Rules
3. Governed By Other Statutes
4. Business Information
5. Internal Government Memos
6. Private Matters
7. Law Enforcement Investigations
8. Regulation Of Financial Institutions
9. Oil Wells
Nowhere does it state 'items embarrassing to the government.' This is a federal violation on the part of the DOJ. Maybe we can get Ashcroft to investigate himself.
I don't think the slashdot poster was fully able to highlight the gravity of this:
O ct ober/000143.html
r ney-div ersity-unredacted.pdf
...
http://politechbot.com/pipermail/politech/2003-
Subject: DoJ uses Word's "Highlight" tool to redact, doesn't work
Hi Declan, Dave:
A HARD LESSON TO LEARN: don't use Microsoft Word's "Highlight tool"
with the color set to black to redact documents--one can still copy
and paste "highlighted" text!
The really interesting part about this DoJ case is reading the
un-redacted document and seeing what was "blacked out" under FOIA
exemptions (un-redacted document is here:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/feds/doj-atto
).
I wonder how many other electronic FOIA-released documents are out
there where a simple copy and paste will reveal redactions?
Pertinent paragraph:
"It turns out the [DoJ's] report began its life as a Microsoft Word
document, and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public
release did so by using Word's highlight tool, with the highlight
color set to black, according to an analysis by Tim Sullivan, CEO of
activePDF, a maker of server-side PDF tools. The simple and convenient
technique would have been perfectly effective had the end product been
a printed document, but it was all but useless for an electronic one."
Joe
---
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/7272
Justice e-censorship gaffe sparks controversy
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Oct 22 2003 3:46PM
A government watchdog group Wednesday accused the Justice Department
of improperly censoring portions of a key report on internal workplace
diversity, after online activists successfully unmasked the
blacked-out portions of an electronic copy of the document.
The 186-page report was released to the public under the Freedom of
Information Act last week and posted to Justice Department's website
in Adobe's "Portable Document File" (PDF) format. But the department
blacked out vast portions of the document's text, citing an exemption
to FOIA that permits agencies to keep internal policy deliberations
private.
The text didn't stay concealed for long. On Tuesday a website called
the Memory Hole, dedicated to preserving endangered documents,
published a complete version of the report, with the opaque black
rectangles that once covered half of it completely removed. Memory
Hole publisher Russ Kick won't say how he unmasked it, but
experimentation shows that the concealed text could be selected and
copied using nothing more than Adobe's free Acrobat Reader. Once
copied, the text is easily pasted into another document and read.
It turns out the report began its life as a Microsoft Word document,
and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public release did so
by using Word's highlight tool, with the highlight color set to black,
according to an analysis by Tim Sullivan, CEO of activePDF, a maker of
server-side PDF tools. The simple and convenient technique would have
been perfectly effective had the end product been a printed document,
but it was all but useless for an electronic one. "Using Acrobat, I'm
actually able to move the black boxes around," says Sullivan. "The
text is still there."
When viewing the report supplied by Memory Hole under Adobe Reader 6.0 the redacted parts in yellow show up and all is fine.
Under Preview.app (OS X's PDF viewer, Panther's in my case), all the yellow sections are removed.
It's a conspiracy I tell you!
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
The Bush administration is controlled by neoconservatives (aka neocons). They are mostly superhawks and hence see everything in terms of power. They are the ones that pushed Bush for the war. I don't think they lied but they manipulated the information (although one may say that lying and manipualating information is the same). Recently the US government has been involved in disinformation over Syria (eg. Syria has WMDs, Syrian fighters streaming across the border to Iraq, etc). Syria is the next target on the neocon agenda. Bush is too dumb to figure out what is going on. Bush is a very simplistic person who seems everything as a religious person (eg. good vs bad; either with us or against us; etc).
But due to the mess in Iraq, the neocons are losing power. Bush recently shifted power from Donald Rumsfeld to Condoleeza Rice. Another neocon, a senior advisor to Cheney, was also let go recently. There may be a few more "changes." I still don't think Bush knows what's going on but the Republican Party knows it. Karl Rove is basically trying to clean house.
Having said all this, I think Bush will be re-elected again! The problem with American politics is:
- Executive branch (i.e. white house/president) is too strong. Unlike British systems (eg. Canada), US Presidents are worshipped like Gods by their citizens, opponents, etc.
- Two party system: This basically means that there really isn't much dissent. You either go with one guy or another. To make matters worse, both the Republicans and Democrats are very similar.
- Too much control by capitalists. The capitalists, such as corporations, control US politics. This happens everywhere but it is worse in USA. I think it is like that because USA is the flag-bearer of capitalism, and hence the most powerful corporations, wealthy, etc reside there. This essentially means that they will be more powerful than anywhere else. This isn't just the Republicans either; the Democrats are controlled by corporations too.
Sivaram VelauthapillaiSivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
People detained in Guantonimo have NO rights, even those given to non-citizens.
:) )
Yes, they do. They have obtained the right to gun privacy. (My original source for this is the book by Michael Moore called "Dude, where's my country?", but the above link was the first I could find on google.