America's iron curtain descends

Behind the Homefront highlights several articles regarding increased government secrecy in the U.S.

SECRECY PREVENTS FAMILIES FROM KNOWING ABOUT CHEMICAL SPILL DANGERS. An article in Wednesday's edition of The Macon Telegraph reported that selective secrecy at facilities housing hazardous chemicals is sometimes illogical. Families who live in the vicinity of such facilities are denied access to chemical risk management plans, while chemical experts note that information that would be much more useful to terrorists, like where such chemicals are located, remains public.

TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT REGULATION INVITES MORE SECRECY. A new Department of Transportation regulation permits low-level agency employees to classify documents whose publication might leave infrastructure like highways vulnerable to terrorist attack, the Scripps Howard News Service reported on Wednesday. The aim of the new regulation, published in the Jan. 18 Federal Register, is to keep documents "away from those who might try to use such information to hurt innocent people." An analyst with the Federation of American Scientists criticized the new rule, noting that non-government engineers often point out design flaws when public infrastructure information is made widely available.

BILL PROPOSES BLANKET EXEMPTION FOR OKLAHOMA HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT. A law proposed in Oklahoma would completely exempt the state Department of Homeland Security from open government laws, The Oklahoma Daily reported Monday. Without the exemption, private "critical infrastructure" companies are hesitant to share data with the agency, its executive director said. "This just gives us a broader right to go in, talk to people and help them with plans, without them having to fear that those plans will be released."

US CLAIMS 'STATE SECRETS' PRIVILEGE TO BLOCK LAWSUIT. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a federal court in New York to dismiss a lawsuit because litigation would require disclosure of classified information, Secrecy News reports. The government invoked the so called 'state secrets' privilege in a case brought by Maher Ara, a Syrian-Canadian detained by the U.S. and involuntarily sent to Syria, where he claims he was tortured for a year. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will hear the case of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, in whose lawsuit the federal government also claimed the privilege.