Report: Political Appointees Vetted DHS Public Records Requests

Contrary to the Obama administration's promised commitment to open government, the Department of Homeland Security, in a highly irregular move, filtered hundreds of public records requests through political appointees, allowing them to examine what was being requested and delay releasing sensitive material, according to internal e-mails obtained by the Associated Press. The political appointees were allowed to vet records requests that were deemed politically sensitive and require career employees to provide them with information about who requested records -- for example, where the requester lived and worked, whether the requester was a private citizen or journalist and, in the case of congressional representatives, whether they were Republican or Democrat. The DHS issued a directive to employees in July 2009 requiring a wide range of public records requests to pass through political appointees for vetting. "All this article points out is that senior leadership had visibility into FOIA releases to enable the department to be as responsive as possible to requests from the press and other stakeholders, especially as it pertained to documents generated during the previous administration," DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa told Threat Level in an e-mail statement.