Sunshine Week Events Aim to Promote Open Government
This week is Sunshine Week, an annual effort sponsored by journalism advocacy and civil society organizations to promote values of open government, freedom of information, and public participation. A rich variety of events are scheduled around the country, most of which are free and many of which will be webcast.
I will be participating in several programs, including these: Open Government in the Second Term, sponsored by the Center for Effective Government and the Electronic Privacy Information Center on March 12.
The Future of Classification Reform, sponsored by the Brennan Center for Justice on March 14
Freedom of Information Day at the Newseum on March 15
Freedom of Information Day at the Washington College of Law Collaboration on Government Secrecy on March 18
A new report from the Center for Effective Government found reason to praise the Obama Administration’s openness in some areas of government but not in national security, which it said has been a “glaring exception” to progress in other domains.
Among numerous recommendations for future progress, the Center report urged the Department of Justice to renounce the use of criminal prosecution for leaks to the media. “Unauthorized disclosures of restricted information to the media should be handled through administrative channels, not criminal prosecution.” See Delivering on Open Government: The Obama Administration’s Unfinished Legacy, March 10.
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 […]