The “most transparent” administration in history is being targeted by the Defending Dissent Foundation (DDF) for being anything but.
Formerly known as the National Committee to Abolish HUAC, the group is encouraging citizens to celebrate the 4th of July by filing FOIA requests to “liberate” their personal files from government agencies.
The documents required to request your files from the FBI, CIA, TSA, NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security are available on DDF’s website.
According to DDF, surprises abound in these files, with anti-war activists having discovered that fellow agitators were in fact undercover agents and others uncovering details about tapped phones.
“President Obama and a complicit Congress are intent on restoring the FBI to its former self: a lawless agency free to spy on Americans who dare to question government policies,” warns a Friday email sent by the group’s executive director, Sue Udry. One recent change to FBI policy worrisome to Udry is the increasing ease with which agents can search trash.
Other grievances presented by Urdy include the extension, earlier this year, of sunsetting provisions in the PATRIOT Act and a proposed extension of FBI Director Robert Mueller’s leadership of the agency.
Limits to the director’s tenure were established “to prevent a popular director from consolidating power,” Urdy wrote. “Today, we’re looking at COINTELPRO on steroids — with thousands of agents are empowered to investigate us, armed with incredibly powerful surveillance tools that would make J. Edgar Hoover blush!”
The Freedom of Information Act was signed into law by President Johnson on July 4, 1966.