ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 14, Number 102 October 10, 2005 In This Issue: ALA Joins Amicus Brief in FBI Whistleblower case Today ALA, along with the National Security Archive and other openness advocates filed a "friend of the court" brief with the United States Supreme Court asking the Court to review the summary dismissal, on secrecy grounds, of a lawsuit filed by an FBI whistleblower. The Archive's General Counsel Meredith Fuchs explained: "Potential whistleblowers who work in military, intelligence and law enforcement agencies will almost always come into contact with classified information. The problem is that courts today simply are accepting the government claims that the need for secrecy of such information outweighs strong interests, including constitutional interests, in addressing the claims in the lawsuits. We are asking courts to take a harder look." In the case of Sibel Edmonds, the contract linguist who sought to blow the whistle on improprieties in the FBI's translation unit, there are facts that support her claims of wrongdoing, including a Department of Justice Office of Inspector General Report that concludes that Ms. Edmonds' whistleblowing was "the most significant factor" in her termination. ALA and amici argue that secrecy does not always serve the goal of protecting national security, as the numerous investigations into the September 11 attacks on the United States all concluded. Noting that there has been an upsurge in secrecy over the last four years - and that military and intelligence officials ranging from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to now-Director of the CIA Porter Goss all admit that a significant amount of the secrecy is unnecessary - the brief argues that the judiciary must provide a meaningful review of government claims for secrecy. The brief was filed on behalf of the National Security Archive, the Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists, the National Whistleblower Coalition, the Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen, Inc., The Government Accountability Project, The National Freedom of Information Coalition, American Library Association, the National Air Disaster Alliance, and September 11th Advocates. To see a copy of the amicus brief, please visit www.nsarchive.org More information about the lawsuit is available at www.aclu.org. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Don Essex, Joshua Farrelman, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.