People’s right to know is sacred

By LINDA P. CAMPBELL

Tom Blanton wasn’t nuts when he told a room full of open-government fans to act squirrely.

Scientists have found, he informed us last Friday, that “squirrels have no idea where they’ve dug that hole and put that nut.” They survive the winter by planting enough nuts that “wherever they go, they’re likely to uncover a couple of buried items,” he explained. “But if not enough squirrels plant not enough nuts, they’re all going to starve.”

Then he drove the point home: “As news gatherers, as news publishers and as citizens, we’re going to starve — our democracy, our accountable government, our information flows — unless we get out there and plant some FOIA requests, write some stories and get the story out.” Blanton and the research organization he heads, the National Security Archive, have made it their mission to plant Freedom of Information Act requests all across the federal government to shed light on what agencies are doing in our name. FOIA is the 1966 federal law that requires agencies to give people records they ask for (with certain exceptions), supposedly in timely fashion and without regard to why the information is being sought.

Through FOIA, the archive has uncovered fascinating nuggets of history as well as documentary treasure troves of insight into how government operates.

Right now, the archive’s Web page, www.nsarchive.org, links to:

UDeclassified histories compiled by the Air Force that show CIA involvement in combat air attacks during the Vietnam War.

UStories about the archive’s continuing lawsuit seeking to force the Bush White House to preserve and restore thousands of missing e-mails.

UAn analysis of open records practices in Mexico.

UThe CIA’s “family jewels” — a 693-page file detailing years of domestic spying and other improper practices by the CIA.

UAnd there’s “Nixon meets Elvis.” It turned out, archive staffers discovered, that the document that people most wanted to see at the National Archives — home of our nation’s founding documents and other precious papers — was a photo of President Nixon hosting Elvis Presley at the White House on Dec. 21, 1970.

National Security Archive staff filed a FOIA request for all related documents and received a file that included Elvis’ letter on American Airlines stationery seeking a meeting with Nixon; talking points recommending that the president ask the singer to create a TV special about getting high on life, not drugs; and a photo of Nixon inspecting Elvis’ cufflinks. (You can see these on the group’s site.)

During its history, the privately funded group has filed more than 35,000 open records requests and collected 8 million to 10 million documents, Blanton told an audience at the First Amendment Awards banquet sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Fort Worth chapter last Friday.

Release of the “family jewels” last year came about after the archive had asked a range of federal agencies for their 10 oldest pending FOIA requests. Though the law sets specific deadlines for turning over information requested by the public, they often aren’t met — sometimes for years. A request for the “family jewels” had sat unfilled for 15 years, Blanton said.

Because of a 2005 executive order signed by President Bush and because of FOIA changes pushed into law last year by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, many agencies are reducing their backlogs of old open-records requests. But the two senators are continuing to try to strengthen FOIA.

The law never has been really popular with those who must comply with it, Blanton said. President Lyndon Johnson signed it grudgingly.

Presidential veto

In 1974, President Ford vetoed a bill designed to put teeth into it, on the advice of two key aides and a Justice Department lawyer: Dick Cheney (now vice president), Donald Rumsfeld (later defense secretary) and Antonin Scalia (now a Supreme Court justice).

Congress overrode Ford — to the enduring public benefit.

There’s no doubt that the U.S. government is among the world’s most open. But it helps that nosy reporters ask questions and that courageous government employees are willing to blow the whistle when they see questionable practices and wrongdoing.

X Campbell is a columnist and editorial writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.