Court Rebuffs FBI Censorship of Manuscript
<http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2009/05/court_rebuffs_fbi_censorship.html>
A federal court last week rejected most of the objections raised by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to publication of a 500-page manuscript
critical of the FBI counterterrorism program that was written by retired FBI
Special Agent Robert G. Wright. The manuscript had been submitted for
pre-publication review in October 2001.
"This is a sad and discouraging tale," wrote Judge Gladys Kessler in a May 6
order (pdf), referring to the FBI's handling of the manuscript.
"In its efforts to suppress this information, the FBI repeatedly changed its
position, presented formalistic objections to release of various portions of
the documents in question, admitted finally that much of the material it
sought to suppress was in fact in the public domain and had been all along,
and now concedes that several of the reasons it originally offered for
censorship no longer have any validity," Judge Kessler observed.
The 41-page, partially redacted court ruling reviewed the facts of the
pre-publication review dispute as well as the legal standards for official
censorship of such materials, and dismissed all but one government objection
to the manuscript. The court also dismissed other government objections to
release of written answers to interview questions submitted by then-New York
Times reporter Judith Miller.
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Mark Perkins MLIS, MCLIP
www.markperkins.info
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