[WIKILEAKS] Change you can download: a billion in secret Congressional reports

Sat Feb 7 19:34:42 PST 2009

[the first sentence of the previous message was cut off; this is a resend]

WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE
Sat Feb  8 02:27:22 GMT 2009

For immediate release.

"Change you can download"

Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports
commissioned by the United States Congress. 

The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of
material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S.
relationship with Israel to abortion legislation. Nearly 2,300 of the reports
were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1996.
The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service
(CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress's
analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.

Open government lawmakers such as Senators John McCain (R-Arizona) and Patrick
J. Leahy (D-Vermont) have fought for years make the reports public, with bills
being introduced--and rejected--almost every year since 1998.

CRS reports are highly regarded as non-partisan, in-depth, and timely. The
reports top the list of the "10 Most-Wanted Government Documents" compiled by
the Washington based Center for Democracy and Technology[1]. The Federation of
American Scientists, in pushing for the reports to be made public, stated that
the "CRS is Congress' Brain and it's useful for the public to be plugged into
it,"[2]. While Wired magazine called their concealment "The biggest
Congressional scandal of the digital age"[3].

Although all CRS reports are legally in the public domain, they are
quasi-secret because the CRS, as a matter of policy, makes the reports
available only to members of Congress, Congressional committees and select
sister agencies such as the GAO.

Members of Congress are free to selectively release CRS reports to the public
but are only motivated to do so when they feel the results would assist them
politically. Universally embarrassing reports are kept quiet.

Each time the topic of opening up the reports comes up, it runs into walls
erected by opposing lawmakers such as Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who "like
many members of Congress, views CRS as an extension of his staff,". If the
reports were made public, "every time a member requests a particular document,
the public may infer that he's staking out a particular policy position."
(Aaron Saunders, Stevens' spokesman, Washington Post, 2007)[4].

However that hasn't stopped a grey market forming around the documents.
Opportunists smuggle out nearly all reports and sell them to cashed up special
interests--lobbyists, law firms, multi-nationals, and presumably, foreign
governments. Congress has turned a blind eye to special interest access, while
continuing to vote down public access.

Opposition to public availability comes not only from members of Congress but,
also, from within the CRS.

One might think that the CRS, as an agency of the Library of Congress, would
institutionally support having a wider audience. But an internal memo reveals
the CRS lobbying against the idea and opposing bills (S. Res. 54 and H.R. 
3630)
which would have given the public access to its reports (Project on Government
Secrecy, FAS, 2003)[5].

The first line pushed by the CRS is the one that appeals most to Congressional
members--open publication would prevent spin control. The memo states this in
delicate terms, referring to such spin failures as "Impairment of Member
Communication with Constituents".

Of course the CRS doesn't really care about politicians facing much needed
voter discipline, but it does have reasons of its own to avoid public
oversight. Institutionally, the CRS has established an advisory relationship
with members of Congress similar to the oversight-free relationship 
established
between intelligence agencies and the office of the President.

Free from meaningful public oversight of its work, the CRS, as "Congress's
brain", is able to influence Congressional outcomes, even when its reports
contain errors. Arguably, its institutional power over congress is second only
to the parties themselves. Public oversight would reduce its ability to
exercise that influence without criticism. That is why it opposes such
oversight, and that is why such oversight must be established immediately.

In 1913 Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, a forceful proponent for open
government, stated "Sunlight is the best disinfectant; electric light the most
efficient policeman". Those wise words are still true today.

Welcome, Congress, to our generation's electric sun.

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Change_you_can_download:_a_billion_in_secret_Congressional_reports

+--------------------------------------------------
| Why you receive this mail and what to do with it:
|
| You are receiving this mail because you were invited to
| the Wikileaks Press Release list run by the transparency group Sunshine Press.
|
| Releases ensure you are aware, before the rest of the world,
| of significant geopolitical and other disclosures released
| by Wikileaks, an international platform for the first release of
| of classified, confidential or censored materials of political,
| diplomatic, ethical or historical interest.
|
| We rely on you to distribute the content of this mail to your
| community, industry, press and regulators, to defend us in your
| country and to invite people of integrity and commitment via
| via https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/wl-press
|
| Our materials range from secret Guantanamo documents to political
| assassinations to confidential reports of children's hospital
| corruption, and have spawned tens of thousands of press articles,
| many reforms and changed electoral outcomes.
|
| Releases average one per week but can be higher or lower depending on
| events. You can easily set the frequency to monthly or change your
| subscription via https://lists.riseup.net/www/sendpasswd/
|
| If you know people that have access to sensitive documents of public
| interest, tell them about us. We have an unbroken record of protecting
| sensitive sources and defeating censorship attacks from all corners of the globe.
| See https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Submissions
|
| If you are about to release an investigative report or article, we can release the
| underlaying source material concurrently to substantiate the allegations,
| draw attention away from the true source, deflect legal or censorship
| attacks and promote secondary investigations and public awareness.
|
| Live bank-grade encrypted chat to the office is available via
| https://secure.wikileaks.org/chat/irc2.cgi (multiple languages spoken)
|
| Inquiries for speaking engagements, comment, interventions, | investigations, source-protection and censorship consultations
| may be addressed to http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Contact
|
| If you are serious about analysis, translation,
| legal, coding, network, financial or other contributions, please contact
| us via: http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Contact
|
| See http://wikileaks.org for all other information and
| https://secure.wikileaks.org for secure access. 

----- End forwarded message -----
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE