[Dialogue] Emailing: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) Federal Wildlife Report Censored.htm

[Harry Wainwright]

  <http://www.commondreams.org/images/newswireprint.gif> 



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 23, 2008
9:48 AM 


CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

 	

Federal Wildlife Report Censored
Highly Redacted Inspector General Report Posted on Official Website 
 	
WASHINGTON, DC - June 23 -A large portion of an Inspector General evaluation
of federal wildlife programs has been blacked out prior to publication,
according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Even
data tables have been excised from a report on Endangered Species Act
implementation, with cutouts so extensive that the core section of the
report is virtually unreadable. 


The June 2008 "Progress Evaluation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Endangered Species Program" by the Interior Office of Inspector General (IG)
and posted on the agency website offers only a single, cryptic legal
reference as the reason for the wholesale text deletions:

"Portions of this report have been redacted pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5)
of the Freedom of Information Act." 

That exemption reads:

"(5) inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be
available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the
agency." 

"Well, that clears it up," remarked PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, who
was unable to get anyone from the IG office to explain why it published a
report that was bowdlerized into incomprehensibility. "How well we are
protecting endangered wildlife should not be classified a state secret." 

By contrast, the same IG website displays reports on seemingly far more
sensitive subjects, such as an assessment of security on the National Mall
and criminal wildlife enforcement, without a single redaction.

Besides its excessive secrecy, the Bush administration has also been harshly
criticized for scientific suppression and political interference in its
application of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In fact, the Interior
Department has lost so many legal challenges brought by conservation groups,
including PEER, that agency administrators complain the program is being run
by lawsuits. 

The most heavily excised portion of the IG report concerns the need for
strategic planning in ESA but the report offers little substantive guidance.
For example, one uncensored "Suggestion" urges -

"Convene a working group, including an individual or individuals with logic
modeling expertise, to develop a high-level logic model for the ESA and a
detailed one for the Endangered Species Program ." 

"Perhaps this report was blacked out because it is so inane," added Ruch,
whose organization has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for
the deleted portions. "The performance of the Inspector General suggests we
have the blind leading the blind over at the Interior Department."

Look at the heavy redactions from the IG report on the Endangered Species
Act 

See the full report as displayed on the Interior IG website

View the IG report on U.S. Park Police and National Mall Security 

Visit Interior IG website and scan other reports 

Look at scientific manipulation of ESA by the Bush administration 


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