FBI Wants To Limit Document Searches

An anonymous reader writes "In what seems to be in opposition to the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI is seeking to limit document searches. It seems since now that a lot of documents are in electronic form, searching them is much easier than before, and for that reason the FBI is taking this action."

Comments

Re:Not what you think

[quarkscat]

Unfortunately, TFA is a bunch of cow huey.

This is only an effort to justify what has
become a top-to-bottom Bush directive since
first taking office in 2001. Secrecy for
secrecy's sake. If a potential press release
has not been vetted by the appointed "political
officers" for the department, that press release
gets squashed. What the USA Patriot Act (I)
and subsequent directives have done is to raise
the secrecy bar (to cover their political message)
for all information. This is why government
whistleblowers now are threatened with criminal
charges (and some have gone to jail), rather than
just having problems with their (1) annual review
or (2) keeping their job.

This is just one more brick in the wall that
Bush & Co. have erected between the oversight
of government and the rights of the people to
know what their government is doing. Look (for
example) at the Bush administration's response
was to (1) the initial formation of the 9-11
commission, and then (2) providing all requested
information in a timely manner. It is a pretty
sad state of affairs when Congressional oversight
committees are given the cold shoulder by the
Executive branch -- and under Bush's reign this
has happened repeatedly.

IMHO, the Bush administration represents (in the
absolute worst way) the erosion of democracy in
the USA. It neither started with the USA Patriot
Act (I), nor will it end with the end of the
second Bush term. Bureaucracies have a tendency
abide by the physical law of the conservation
of energy. The inertia right now is toward a
more secretive government that is unresponsive
to the will of the poeple (as opposed to the
will of the corporations).

Slightly OT, but does anyone out there in /.land
know of any FOIA inquiries regarding the total
Executive branch expenditures aimed at the flood
of propaganda that has hit the 4th estate to
promote Bush administration "agendas"?

Re:Not so bad, but not so good either

[strikethree]

Not to be nitpicking or anything, but I would not call what happened at Abu Ghraib torture. Torture is a bit more severe: branding irons, severe electrical shocks, mutilation, etc. Let's call it abuse so we do not under-react when real torture occurs. This watering down of terms is getting quite annoying.

strike