Govt Wants More Time to Respond to CIA Drone FOIA Case
Government attorneys yesterday asked a court for an extension of time to respond to two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits seeking disclosure of records pertaining to “alleged targeted lethal operations” conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency, including the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.
The attorneys’ request seems to portend a possible change in the government’s persistent refusal to acknowledge the widely reported fact of the CIA’s use of drones in targeted killing operations.
“Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. has personally directed us to seek this additional time to allow the Government to finalize its position with regard to the sensitive national security matters presented in this case,” the Justice Department attorneys told the judge.
“Given the significance of the matters presented in this case, the Government’s position is being deliberated at the highest level of the Executive Branch.”
At issue are two FOIA lawsuits brought by the New York Times and the American Civil Liberties Union. The request for an extension until May 21, 2012 was granted by Judge Colleen McMahon.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has just released its 2011 report on FOIA litigation and compliance. Among other things, the report notes that the so-called “Glomar” response — by which an agency refuses to confirm or deny the existence of responsive records — was invoked by the government in three cases that were decided in 2011. In each of those cases, the court ruled in favor of the government.
In anticipation of future known and unknown health security threats, including new pandemics, biothreats, and climate-related health emergencies, our answers need to be much faster, cheaper, and less disruptive to other operations.
To unlock the full potential of artificial intelligence within the Department of Health and Human Services, an AI Corps should be established, embedding specialized AI experts within each of the department’s 10 agencies.
Investing in interventions behind the walls is not just a matter of improving conditions for incarcerated individuals—it is a public safety and economic imperative. By reducing recidivism through education and family contact, we can improve reentry outcomes and save billions in taxpayer dollars.
The U.S. government should establish a public-private National Exposome Project (NEP) to generate benchmark human exposure levels for the ~80,000 chemicals to which Americans are regularly exposed.