Among the untold official resources that have been removed from public access in recent years is the Army’s Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, a quarterly journal on Army intelligence policy and practice.
We have made a commitment to restoring access to the Bulletin, including current and past issues. The latest issue (pdf), dated April-June 2009, has just been released to us under the Freedom of Information Act. It is entitled “Operations in OEF: Afghanistan.”
Possibly annoyed by our repeated FOIA requests for the Bulletin over a period of years, an Army official at Fort Huachuca informed us this week that “the Bulletin will soon be published on public web pages again.”
The potential implication of these evidence gaps becomes more consequential when you look at how institutions actually make decisions day to day.
Every new institution inherits something – existing incentives, existing staff, decades of prior investment that shaped what’s possible.
This is not the first time Google has agreed to censor imagery at the behest of governments, but be warned: obfuscation at this broad level poses a direct threat to the public’s ability to monitor and scrutinize government operations.
America’s affordability problem is bigger than home prices and rents. The best housing policies make it easier to build homes, and recognize how housing connects to other domains.