![]() ![]() I requested most of these documents as part of ongoing research examining how these agencies monitored anthropologists and other academics-sometimes to support them and other times to harass them. I have used FOIA to declassify and release tens of thousands of pages of CIA, FBI, Pentagon and State Department documents. While not removing this roadblock, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) can in some cases temporarily shift it aside, helping release US government documents years before they might otherwise be made available or destroyed. Governments around the world routinely use their power to limit transparency and accountability-and limiting access to documents is a common method of inhibiting the rise of popular opposition. Scholars may accurately understand the behind-the-scenes political machinations of the present, but unless someone leaks the documentary proof, it is left for historians to unearth it later, long after the information could influence the course of events. One obstacle to critical scholarship is that the documents needed to demonstrate a particular government’s actions or motivations are typically, and often intentionally, inaccessible when such information could bring a public response. ![]() The basics of filing a FOIA request are simple and learning how to press for unredacted or withheld documents can sometimes bear fruit. Making FOIA requests for classified government documents can be a powerful way to breach the wall of secrecy regarding state actions that would otherwise stay secret or await future historians to uncover.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |