63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read - Jesse Ventura [38]
*OPENLEAKS: This is a new website scheduled to be up-and-running in 2011. Its founders have been closely linked to WikiLeaks in the past, but have since parted ways and are describing themselves as more of a technological service provider to media organizations than as a central hub for leaks. Go to: www.openleaks.org.
*DOCUMENTCLOUD: Program Director Amanda Hickman tells us: “DocumentCloud (http://www.documentcloud.org) is a catalog of primary source documents and a free and open-source tool that reporters use to annotate, analyze, organize, and publish documents they’re reporting on. DocumentCloud’s catalog, assembled by reporters, archivists, and researchers, includes everything from FBI files to sample ballots, Coast Guard logs to legistation, and court filings. The project is designed to help reporters publish more of their primary source documents online, and to make those documents accessible to the general public in an indexed catalog.”
*CIA: The Central Intelligence Agency has a digital database called CREST that consists entirely of declassified documents. A finding aid is located at: www.foia.cia.gov/search_archive.asp.
*OPEN SECRETS: This is your prime resource for tracking money in American politics and how it affects elections and public policy. It’s part of the Center for Responsive Politics. Go to: www.opensecrets.org.
*THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS (www.fas.org) offers a rich archive of resources on national security policy. The Federation’s Secrecy News blog (www.fas.org/blog/secrecy) produces original reporting on U.S. government secret policy and provides direct access to valuable official records that have been withheld, withdrawn or are otherwise hard to find.
*THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES (www.archives.gov) is the repository for millions of government documents, and their Archive-It FOIA Collection lists sites that deal with FOIA requests at: www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-records.html.
Now get this—there are 407 million pages of classified documents waiting to be opened to the public at the National Archives. Mostly these consist of a backlog of historical records more than twenty-five years old and it’s a slow-moving process. But they do have a National Declassification Center that was created by President Obama’s Executive Order at the end of 2009. For example, the CIA still has around 50,000 pages of classified records related to the Kennedy assassination. What could the CIA still be protecting after almost fifty years?
Of course, you can always file Freedom of Information Act requests yourself, and this is an important tool of democracy. There’s a report called “Rummaging in the Government’s Attic: Lessons Learned from 1,000 FOIA Requests” from 2010, available at: www.governmentattic.org/3docs/Rummaging_2010.pdf.
And just in case you’re wondering what the feds might have on you, check out www.GetMyFBIfile.com.