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FBI Documents To The 9/11 Commission Released by INTELWIRE
INTELWIRE has announced that they've obtained more than 1,700 pages of FBI documents that are cited in the endnotes of the Final Report of the 9/11 Commission. The documents were obtained by Intelwire under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents reveal many new details about the hijacker's movements, possible links between the hijackers and the government of Saudi Arabia, and connections to extremist figures in the United States, including blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. There is a wide variety of information, including the movements of the hijackers over more than 10 years, people who associated with the hijackers in the U.S., FBI interviews with the victims, transcripts of phone calls to the hijacked flights, intelligence obtained by overseas agencies. The documents are listed on the Intelwire website according to the chapter of the 9/11 Report in which they appeared. According to Intelwire, this may be the largest online repository of 9/11 source documents on the Web. Over the next several months these documents will also be posted individually and chronologically at INTELFILES.com with descriptive text, and additional comment and analysis as appropriate. Please note that the documents have been heavily redacted. A chronologically ordered package is available to researchers, including multiple copies of documents with different redactions.
Continue readingHappy Washington’s Birthday, President’s Day, etc.
I'm sitting at my desk at work because today is not a holiday at the University of Pittsburgh. Why not? I remember when I was a small child in Pennsylvania we had no school on Feb. 12, Lincoln's birthday, or Feb. 22, Washington's birthday. Somehow in the 20-odd years during which I didn't live in Pennsylvania that changed.
Here's the scoop on today's holiday. It is a national holiday called "Washington's Birthday" as spelled out in federal law at 5 U.S.C. § 6103(a) . But this holiday status applies only to employees of the federal government - executive departments, independent agencies, and Government corporations, including their field services. Washington's Birthday (Feb. 22) has been a national holiday since 1879 but in 1971 it moved to the third Monday in February instead of Feb. 22.
In my state of Pennsylvania, today is also a state holiday called "Presidents' Day" as spelled out in Pennsylvania state law 44 P.S. § 11 . Both Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays were once state holidays, but in 1968 the Washington's Birthday holiday was moved to the third Monday in February instead of Feb. 22, and in 1978 the Lincoln's Birthday holiday was eliminated. And again, this only applies to state government employees and banks. For the rest of us, employee manuals tell us that companies generally balance internal work requirements and employee morale against federal and state holiday schedules and the prevailing practices among other local employers.
There is an entertaining and informative article on the National Archives website that gives a detailed history of today's holiday.
Global Warming Debate online
The founder of the highly respected Arts & Letters Daily Web site has created a new site Climate Debate Daily - a forum for both sides in the "heated" controversy over global warming. The site's dual format sheds a scholarly light on this heavily politicized battle. According to the website, Climate Debate Daily is intended to deepen our understanding of disputes over climate change and the human contribution to it. The site links to scientific articles, news stories, economic studies, polemics, historical articles, PR releases, editorials, feature commentaries, and blog entries. It includes arguments and evidence generally in support of the IPCC position on the reality of signficant anthropogenic global warming - and also includes material skeptical of the IPCC position and the notion that anthropogenic global warming represents a genuine threat to humanity. As a matter of editorial policy, Climate Debate Daily "maintains a studied neutrality", allowing each side to present its most powerful and persuasive case. The goal is to allow readers to form their own judgments based on the best available information. The issue of climate change will remain important because it is affecting government policies on a variety of issues worldwide.
Continue readingAnd in other news…
Blake over at LIS News has published his "10 Non-librarian Blogs to read in 2008" which were nominated by his blog readers. On the list are many of our own favorites, including BoingBoing, Slashdot, Lifehacker, and Open Access News.
A belated shout out to Prof. Kip Currier and the terrific students in his Government Information Resources and Services class at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Science. I spoke to the class this week about finding federal legislative information and they admitted to being followers of FGI blog - and they knew I'm a guest blogger this month! Keep reading, y'all, and please add your comments, we love to hear from you! Especially since you are learning how to be govdocs librarians in the 21st Century, you have a unique point of view that is valuable to all of us who work with government information.
Continue readingCitizen Media Law Project legal guide
The Citizen Media Law Project states that "knowing your legal rights and responsibilities is important for anyone who publishes online" in the its announcement about its Legal Guide project. The CMLP's legal guide addresses the legal issues you may encounter as you gather information and publish your work. The guide is intended for use by citizen media creators with or without formal legal training, as well as others with an interest in these issues. While a work-in-progress, the Legal Guide already provides useful information in its fairly detailed articles. You can browse the Legal Guide section-by-section or search it.
The same group has an online Legal Threats Database: which contains lawsuits, cease & desist letters, subpoenas, and other legal threats directed at those who engage in online speech. You can view, search, create, and comment on entries in the database.
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