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Is The DOJ Using Obsolete Software To Subvert FOIA Requests? (theguardian.com)
"A new lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Department of Justice intentionally conducts inadequate searches of its records using a decades-old computer system when queried by citizens looking for records that should be available to the public," reports The Guardian. Slashdot reader Bruce66423 writes:
An MIT PhD student has filed a suit in Federal court alleging that the use of a 21-year-old, IBM green screen controlled search software to search the Department of Justice databases...constitutes a deliberate failure to provide the data that should be being produced.
Ryan Shapiro's lawsuit alleges "failure by design," saying that the Justice Department records are inadequately indexed -- and that they fail to search the full text of their records when responding to requests "When few or no records are returned, Shapiro said, the FBI effectively responds 'sorry, we tried' without making use of the much more sophisticated search tools at the disposal of internal requestors." The FBI has a $425 million software system to handle FOIA requests, but refuses to use it, saying that would be "needlessly duplicative...and wasteful of Bureau resources."
Ryan Shapiro's lawsuit alleges "failure by design," saying that the Justice Department records are inadequately indexed -- and that they fail to search the full text of their records when responding to requests "When few or no records are returned, Shapiro said, the FBI effectively responds 'sorry, we tried' without making use of the much more sophisticated search tools at the disposal of internal requestors." The FBI has a $425 million software system to handle FOIA requests, but refuses to use it, saying that would be "needlessly duplicative...and wasteful of Bureau resources."
... intentionally...
When the Federal government is invloved, don't blame on intentional malice that which can be explained by consequences of Republican budget cuts.
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Indeed, I've often seen Republicans complain [loudly] about government problems that are a direct consequence of their budget cuts. It is almost as if the Republicans are intentionally crippling government so that they can then criticize government for being crippled.
Your post is a political flame-bait. Why don't you volunteer and pay additional taxes, let's say double of what you are paying now.
Lead by example. And encourage others to pay up.
But you won't. Because, most likely, even if you double your taxes you will not be paying the average.
But most importantly, because you want OTHERS to pay, but you want to keep your own privileges.