The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that FBI officials want to be the first ones to plow through the 200 boxes of documents and papers the late investigative columnist Jack Anderson left to George Washington University.
According to the article, the FBI plan is to have its agents go through the papers even before academics take a look at them, remove any documents they deem sensitive, then leave the rest for posterity. As you can imagine, that idea is not receiving a positive reception from academics or from Mr. Anderson's family.
With recent revelations that the National Archives are classifying materials that have been declassified for decades, it appears freedom of information is truly under attack by the Bush administration.
Perhaps the feds should post an FOI (Freedom of Information Act) request with the academics. After all, turnabout is fair play. And the academics should take the same amount of time to respond as federal requests take. They could have several months to look through the documents before the feds censor, ahem, remove sensitive papers.
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