Justice rejects data request – now this is reaching new levels of ridiculousness:
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Bush administration is offering a novel reason for denying a request seeking the Department of Justice’s database on foreign lobbyists: Copying the information would bring down the computer system.
“Implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and could result in a major loss of data, which would be devastating,” wrote Thomas McIntyre, chief in the justice department.s office for information requests.
Advocates for open government said the government’s assertion that it could not copy data was unprecedented but representative of generally negative responses to Freedom of Information Act requests.
“This was a new one on us. We weren’t aware there were databases that could be destroyed just by copying them,” Bob Williams of the Center for Public Integrity, or CPI, said yesterday. The watchdog group in Washington made the request in January. He said the group expects to appeal the justice department.s decision.
So, if this data can’t be copied out without risking destruction, how do they access their own information? And shouldn’t these people (Ashcroft down) in the Justice Department be dismissed or arrested already? I don’t get how we can claim to be a nation of law when it seems like those in power are able to repeatedly break them with impunity.
(Well, this accurately reflects what our country is, I suppose.)