“During calendar year 2006, the Government made 2,181 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for authority to conduct electronic surveillance and physical search for foreign intelligence purposes,” according to the latest Justice Department report to Congress on implementation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (pdf). The court approved 2,176 applications, making substantive modifications to 73 of them, and denying one, in part.
The Open Government Act of 2007, which would strengthen several access provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, was favorably reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration by the full Senate. Much of the Committee report on the bill was devoted to a lengthy critique by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who unsuccessfully opposed it, and a letter from the Justice Department, likewise in opposition.
The responsibilities of various Pentagon components in dealing with the threat of weapons of mass destruction are delineated in a new directive. See “Department of Defense (DoD) Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Policy” (pdf), DoD Directive 2060.02, April 19, 2007.
“Sudan: The Crisis in Darfur and Status of the North-South Peace Agreement” (pdf) is the subject of a report from the Congressional Research Service, updated March 27, 2007.
The clearinghouse will also neutrally mediate the assignment of auditors to audits—strengthening independence, trust, and ethical governance across the AI ecosystem.
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.