Hot Paper Topics
Homeland Security and Open Government

• American Presidency Project -- "is the only online resource that has consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database:
  The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913) The Public Papers of the Presidents: Hoover to Bush (1929-1993) The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents: Clinton - G.W. Bush (1993-2007)
• Audit of the Withdrawal of Records from Public Access at the National Archives and Records Administration for Classification Purposes -- in .pdf format.
• Behind the Homefront -- A daily chronicle of news in homeland security and military operations affecting newsgathering, access to information and the public's right to know.
• Brief History of the NSA -- audio file by Daniel Schorr which also discusses the establishment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
• Bush Administration Documents on Secrecy Policy -- primary source.
• Center for Biosecurity -- from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Full-text articles and reports in .pdf format. Links too.
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Full Text reports. Searchable.
• A Chill Wind is blowing in this Nation -- Transcript of Tim Robbins' Speech to the National Press Club about the attack against our Constitution from within our own borders. A primary source.
• the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency)
• CIA and the War on Terrorism -- the CIA's official take on it all. Primary sources here!
• Dept. of Homeland Security
• Electronic Surveillance Laws -- state by state, enactments and pending..
• Emergency Responders -- The findings of the Council on Foreign Relations' Independent Task Force on Emergency Responders. "This report marks the first time that data from emergency responder communities has been brought together to estimate national needs."
• Fighting Terror -- a special CNN report.
• First Amendment Law: An Overview
• Government Information in the Digital Age -- an article that addresses the acquiring, organizing, preserving, and providing access to and services for government information.
• Homefront Confidential: How the War on Terrorism Affects Access to Information and the Public's Right to Know -- in .pdf format and prepared by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
• Intelligence Literature -- a list of books and also some full-text document links, including titles in the history of intelligence in the U.S.
• Intelligence Systems & Programs -- from the Federation of American Scientists, this includes a selection of official and unofficial resources on intelligence gathering, policy, functions, and operations.
• Is your Printer spying on you?? -- an article with links to this odd form of big brother control.
• Legal Documents on FOIA and Access to Government Information -- FOIA means the Freedom of Information Act.
• The Memory Hole -- where articles, photos and reports go when they mysteriously disappear from public view for political and other reasons
• Missing: Information About Women's Lives -- a report by the National Council for Research on Women on the many substantive fact sheets and federal reporting on women and girls no longer existing on this administration's Women's Bureau Web site.
• NACo: Nat'l Assoc. of Counties -- lots of full-text fact sheets and articles and documents for U.S. counties.
• National Infrastructure Protection Center Web -- news, legal issues and more from the U.S. government.
• National Security Administration -- FAQ, these are the folks who may be spying illegally.
• National Security Archive  -- at George Washington University, "combines a unique range of functions in one non governmental, non-profit institution. The Archive is simultaneously a research institute on international affairs, a library and archive of declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, a public interest law firm defending and expanding public access to government information through the FOIA, and an indexer and publisher of the documents in books, microfiche, and electronic formats. The Archive's approximately $2.3 million yearly budget comes from publication revenues and from private philanthropists such as the Carnegie Corporation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Ford Foundation.  As a matter of policy, the Archive receives no government funding."

• PATRIOT Act, United States -- don't look behind you.

• PATRIOT Act -- the latest news and an examination of the issues surrounding it from the American Library Association.

• the Post September 11th Environment: Access to Government Information -- a list of those Government documents that have been taken off the Web due to security concerns. A good place to go if you have been wondering "Now where was that govdoc site I found just last week?"
• Prospects for Iraq's Stability: A Challenging Road Ahead -- National Intelligence Estimate from the NIC, "The Director of National Intelligence serves as the head of the Intelligence Community (IC), overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters."
• REAL ID -- the dreaded National ID card which states are required to implement the Real ID law by May 11, 2008, at
  considerable uncompensated expense, and some states are resisting. The National Conference of State Legislatures offers the full text of the act
  here, along with related federal and state legislation, critiques by governors, and news stories about it.
• Responding to a Biological or Chemical Threat: A Practical Guide
• Sandia National Lab --" is a national security laboratory involved in a variety of research and development programs to help secure a peaceful and free world through technology. " One of the areas is Homeland Security.
• Scootergate
• Secrecy in the Bush Administration -- The House of Representative's Committee on Government Reform and Rep. Henry A. Waxman has released a comprehensive examination of secrecy in the Bush Administration. full-text, the actual report is in .pdf format, but you can read a summary in html.
• Secrecy News -- from the Federation of American Scientists, Project on Government Secrecy. It provides informal coverage of new developments in secrecy, security and intelligence policies
• The "Taguba Report" on Treatment of Abu Ghraib Prisoners in Iraq
• Understanding the Patriot Act “Sunsets” -- from the ACLU, Click here for the view from the Federation of American Scientists (that one is in .pdf)
• United States Military Medicine in War on Terror Prisons -- database of primary documents
• Using the Freedom of Information Act -- A step-by-step guide
• Waterboarding -- a primary document consisting of U.S. retired general's letter to Congress denouncing waterboarding as an interrogation method.
• Waterboarding - the facts about what exactly it is.
• White House  -- official home page.