The Zelikow Memo: Internal Critique of Bush Torture Memos Declassified
The State Department has released a February 2006 internal memo from Philip D. Zelikow, counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, opposing Justice Department authorization for "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the CIA. All copies of the memo, which reflect strong internal disagreement within the George W. Bush administration over the constitutionality of such techniques, were thought to have been destroyed. But the State Department located a copy and declassified it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive.
- The Zelikow Memo: Internal Critique of Bush Torture Memos Declassified, National Security Archive, George Washington University (April 3, 2012).
- Approving Torture and Destroying Documents: More Notes on the "Zelikow Memo", by Nate Jones, Unredacted, the National Security Archive blog (April 4, 2012).
- Document Friday: The Torture Memos, We Now Know, by Nate Jones, Unredacted, the National Security Archive blog (April 6, 2012).
- CIA Committed ‘War Crimes,’ Bush Official Says, By Spencer Ackerman, Wired "Danger Room" blog (April 4, 2012).
The Most (And Least) Lucrative Committees In Congress
A fascinating story about how campaign contributions flow to members of the committees that big donors are really interested in and how this makes a huge difference to lawmakers, who need a steady stream of donations to fund their re-election campaigns.
- The Most (And Least) Lucrative Committees In Congress, by Andrea Seabrook and Alex Blumberg, Planet Money, National Public Radio. (originally published on March 30. It was updated on April 6.) Both parties rank each committee for its fundraising potential. There are lists of the A, B, and C committees, and fundraising targets for the members. Those lists aren't public. Many lawmakers say these lists exist, but no one would give one to us. So we created our own list, based on publicly disclosed fundraising numbers. At our request, Lee Drutman of the Sunlight Foundation, crunched data going back to the early '90s.
- Ways and Means, Financial Services, and Energy and Commerce are top House fundraising committees, Lee Drutman, Sunlight Foundation (April 2, 2012). The analysis was conducted at the request of and in collaboration with This American Life and Planet Money public radio programs. It is featured on the March 31, 2012 episode of This American Life.
- Take the Money and Run for Office, This American Life 461. (Originally aired 03.30.2012).
A Roundup of Recent Government Info News and New Resources (April 2, 2012)
More news and new resources via INFOdocket.com. Our site is updated daily. We hope you stop by and/or follow @INFOdocket. 1. U. of Minnesota and Ancestry.com Announce Plans to Create Massive Database of 1940 Census Material 2. Dutch National Archive To Open Data 3. New From Kent College of Law/Oyez Project: Searchable/Shareable Audio of Health Care Reform Act Arguments 4. New iOS App from National Library of Medicine: Recovering Library Collections After a Flood 5. Roundup: U.S. Government Rolls Out a Number of “Big Data” Initiatives, Projects 6. Unpublished Letters Written by Ernest Hemingway Made Available for the First Time by JFK Library 8. UK: New Website for the Archives Sector Launched 9. NARA: Archives Crowdsources Advice on Federal e-Records Management 10. Statistics: IRS Releases FY 2011 Data Book 11. Census Bureau Releases New List/Maps of Urban Areas (Based on 2010 Census) 12. Wolfram|Alpha Adds Plant Data from USDA 13. New iOS App: Consumers Take the Driver’s Seat on Safety with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s SaferBus 14. Australia: New South Wales Government to Open Source Digital Archives Software 16. World Trade Organization Launches New Database on Preferential Trade Arrangements 17. National Archives of Australia Shares Records Digitization Strategy With Release of Digital Continuity Plan 18. MapLight’s Launches Topic Pages, Search for Bills by Issue Area 19. Mass. Court OKs Live, Unedited Court Proceedings 20. Doing Business at a Glance 2012, iOS App from World Bank Group (Free) Continue reading
Who Is Protecting the People’s Property?
April 10, 2012 / Leave a comment
A new article worth reading!
- Who Is Protecting the People's Property?, by Bernadine Abbott Hoduski, SRRT Newsletter, Issue 178, (March 2012).
...Some librarians are discarding the paper Serial Set when they buy the digital version. The publishers were only able to digitize the whole set because missing volumes were provided by libraries... Tax supported libraries and librarians preserved them for several hundred years. But now, preserving them has become a burden and space is needed for the machines needed to read the digital version that libraries will pay for with more tax dollars.
...We need to think and plan like librarians and prepare for the future. Our collections were built by thousands of librarians who cared about future readers. Some of them have retired rather than see their collections destroyed. Some have been persuaded to sign letters of support for policies they do not support. Some are desperately trying to protect their collections. Some have had their collections taken away and some have had their jobs taken away. Most of them are still trying to serve the needs of the American people. Documents librarians need your help to convince library directors and the policy makers of ALA to protect the past to ensure a good information future for all...
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