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12 Kan. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 671 (2002-2003)
Withold and Control: Information in the Bush Administration

handle is hein.journals/kjpp12 and id is 681 raw text is: Withhold and Control: Information in the Bush Administration Patrice McDermott The current Bush Administration has frequently been characterized as the most secretive in recent history. They are, undoubtedly, very focused on controlling the message and clearly appreciate that information is power. This Administration appears to understand even more clearly, moreover, that lack of information leads to lack of power. The tendency to control does not fit neatly under the usual attribution of secrecy, however. Rather, there are four different threads to the Bush Administration's approach to public access to government information. These are secrecy; a resistance to accountability to the public and, even more pointedly, to Congress; a belief in a need-to-know approach to information, in other words, that access should depend on who you are and whether the government considers you fit to receive the information; and, finally, what I characterize as ideological purity. I. SECRECY Patrice McDermott is the Assistant Director of the Office of Government The Administration has Relations at the American Library responded to the events of September Association-Washington Office. 11, 2001 with directives and actions aimed at closely controlling information Dr. McDermott received her doctorate about its campaign against terrorism- in political science from the University both domestically and internationally- of Arizona and her master's in library and controlling information that it and information studies from Emory asserts could be used by terrorists. University. Some examination of the information openly disseminated by the federal This article draws from and builds on government prior to September 1 l the work of her colleagues in the library was, doubtless, warranted. The community and in the public interest response of the Administration, community in D.C. who fight for however, has been blanket withholding openness every day. and removal. 671

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