The Central Intelligence Agency continues to make a mockery of its legal obligations under the Freedom of Information Act and the national security classification system.
The Project on Government Oversight recently asked the CIA to undertake a declassification review of the Iraqi declaration on weapons of mass destruction that was presented to the United Nations Security Council in December 2002.
Incredibly, CIA official Scott Koch rejected the request by claiming that “the CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request.”
See “We Know That You Know” on the POGO blog.
A copy of the Table of Contents from the 12,000 page Iraqi declaration, which plainly does exist, was obtained by Secrecy News.
There is no question this is a Big Deal. If you are a university or research lab, or aspire to work in one, or are simply an enthusiast of federally-funded research, what’s next will matter.
The emerging federal metascience community is asking fascinating questions that are equally vital for democratic legitimacy: beyond “did this program work” to “how does the federal R&D enterprise itself work, and how could it work better?”
If you’re new to the climate intervention space, welcome! The TL;DR: if we can’t stop the most catastrophic impacts of climate change with current tools quickly enough, then we need a bigger toolbox.
After months of delay, the council tasked by President Trump to review the FEMA released its final report. Our disaster policy nerds have thoughts.