The fortieth anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, signed into law by President Johnson on July 4, 1966, was marked with the release of several interesting and informative publications.
The colorful and contentious history behind the adoption of the Act was described by Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive based on documents obtained from the Johnson Library. See “Freedom of Information at 40.” The legislative history of the Freedom of Information Act is newly available from the National Security Archive here.
The FOIA improvement plans that were recently developed by executive branch agencies were critically assessed by OpenTheGovernment.org in a new report. See “FOIA’s 40th Anniversary: Agencies Respond to the President’s Call for Improved Disclosure of Information.”
“The federal government continues to fall further behind in getting information to people seeking public records under the Freedom of Information Act,” according to a study (pdf) by the Coalition of Journalists for Open Government. “By far the heaviest use of the Freedom of Information Act comes from the nation’s businesses, seeking government records on contracts or for a host of other commercial uses,” another Coalition report found.
Sixty-eight countries now have freedom of information statutes, according to an updated survey by David Banisar published by freedominfo.org. See “Freedom of Information Around the World 2006.”
I chatted yesterday with reporter Julie Corwin of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty about “40 Years Of The Freedom Of Information Act”.
The FAS Nuclear Notebook is one of the most widely sourced reference materials worldwide for reliable information about the status of nuclear weapons, and has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987.. The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project: Director Hans […]
On 14 April 2023, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence released a short video of a Su-25 pilot explaining his new role in delivering “special [nuclear] munitions” following his training in Russia. The features seen in the video, as well as several other open-source clues, suggest that Lida Air Base––located only 40 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and the […]
A photo in a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) student briefing from 2022 shows four people inspecting what appears to be a damaged B61 nuclear bomb.
In early-February 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) had informed Congress that China now has more launchers for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) than the United States. The report is the latest in a serious of revelations over the past four years about China’s growing nuclear weapons arsenal and the deepening […]