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Public records sometimes say the darnedest things. One example: A declassified memo from 1977 shows that the NSA wondered if psychics could nuke cities so that they became lost in time and space (yes, like in the post-apocalyptic anime Akira). Other times, it’s what they don’t say — like when the FBI found it necessary to redact the name of Superman’s alter-ego, Clark Kent. We know about these great tidbits thanks to the work of MuckRock, a nonprofit organization (and GIJN member) that helps journalists, researchers, activists and regular citizens file records requests in the United States. While there few things sweeter than a successful request for government records, making these requests be complicated and time-consuming — not to mention, well, tedious. MuckRock, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been working for the past nine years to make the process a lot more fun.
Global Investigative Journalism Network
Local election officials in the two unnamed Florida counties where Russian agents hacked voter rolls in 2016 are able to publicly disclose whether they had been attacked. But the bureaucrats are clamming up instead. And voters in those counties have no right to know that information, according to the FBI. Nor is the state’s governor or its congressional delegation allowed to tell the public the names of those counties. That’s because the FBI made the governor sign a non-disclosure agreement in order to receive a classified briefing about the hack, along with the members of Congress. Some lawmakers are outraged at what they see as bizarre reasoning from the agency. For now, the information about the two counties is being kept officially secret — even though the identity of one of the hacking “victims,” Washington County’s election office, has leaked out.
Politico
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 “A declassified memo from 1977 shows that the NSA wondered if psychics could nuke cities so that they became lost in time and space.”
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