Secrecy News for 04/18/05: "The President responded to questions about public access to government information, freedom of information policy including pending legislation to strengthen the FOIA, and related issues. See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/04/wh041405.html

He pointed to the recent report of the Silberman-Robb WMD Commission, ninety percent of which was declassified, as an openness success story.

That report, he said, is 'an example... of how I hope that we're becoming balanced between that which the public ought to know and that which, if we were to expose, would jeopardize our capacity to do our job, which is to defend America.' Others dispute that assessment. The Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation filed a lawsuit this month arguing that the WMD Commission was and remains out of compliance with the disclosure requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (noted by Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post White House Briefing). See the Center's April 6 complaint here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/wmdfaca.pdf

(Via Secrecy News.)