Air and water. Some of the Bush
administration's initiatives have been well
chronicled. Its secret deportation of immigrants
suspected as terrorists, its refusal to name
detainees at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
and the new surveillance powers granted under the
post-9/11 U.S.A. Patriot Act have all been debated
at length by the administration and its critics. The
clandestine workings of an energy task force headed
by Vice President Dick Cheney have also been the
subject of litigation, now before the Supreme
Court.
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But the administration's efforts to
shield the actions of, and the information obtained
by, the executive branch are far more extensive than
has been previously documented. A five-month
investigation by U.S. News detailed a series of
initiatives by administration officials to
effectively place large amounts of information out
of the reach of ordinary citizens. The
magazine's inquiry is based on a detailed
review of government reports and regulations,
federal agency Web sites, and legislation pressed by
the White House. U.S. News also analyzed
information from public interest groups and others
that monitor the administration's activities,
and interviewed more than 100 people, including many
familiar with the new secrecy initiatives. That
information was supplemented by a review of
materials provided in response to more than 200
Freedom of Information Act requests filed by the
magazine seeking details of federal agencies'
practices in providing public access to government
information.
The principal findings:
Important business and consumer information is
increasingly being withheld from the public. The
Bush administration is denying access to auto and
tire safety information, for instance, that
manufacturers are required to provide under a new
"early-warning" system created following
the Ford-Firestone tire scandal four years ago. The
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, meanwhile,
is more frequently withholding information that
would allow the public to scrutinize its product
safety findings and product recall actions.
New
administration initiatives have effectively placed
off limits critical health and safety information
potentially affecting millions of Americans. The
information includes data on quality and
vulnerability of drinking-water supplies, potential
chemical hazards in communities, and safety of
airline travel and other forms of transportation. In
Aberdeen, Md., families who live near an Army
weapons base are suing the Army for details of toxic
pollution fouling the town's drinking-water
supplies. Citing security, the Army has refused to
provide information that could help residents locate
and track the pollution.
Beyond the
well-publicized cases involving terrorism suspects,
the administration is aggressively pursuing secrecy
claims in the federal courts in ways little
understood--even by some in the legal system. The
administration is increasingly invoking a
"state secrets" privilege (box, Page 24)
that allows government lawyers to request that civil
and criminal cases be effectively closed by
asserting that national security would be
compromised if they proceed. It is impossible to say
how often government lawyers have invoked the
privilege. But William Weaver, a professor at the
University of Texas-El Paso, who recently completed
a study of the historical use of the privilege, says
the Bush administration is asserting it "with
offhanded abandon." In one case, Weaver says,
the government invoked the privilege 245 times. In
another, involving allegations of racial
discrimination, the Central Intelligence Agency
demanded, and won, return of information it had
provided to a former employee's attorneys--only
to later disclose the very information that it
claimed would jeopardize national security.
"Veil of Secrecy," a 
