Ales Rarus

The Freedom of Information Act doesn't do a lot of good if all the facts in a document are redacted. This article, about the ACLU's fight against certain provisions of the Patriot Act, suggests that much of what is redacted is quite innocent and need not be kept secret for national security purposes. This may well be true since this administration has displayed a frightening level of paranoia. However, it may be that there is an important connection to be made from such seemingly innocent information. One might find, with significant effort, a worrisome connection that the feds discovered and saw fit to hit. Such a connection might even reflect badly on someone in the intelligence community or even the federal government. Then again, maybe I'm just being paranoid myself

Anyhow, I think it's far too easy to hide information with the flimsy excuse that it's a matter of national security. I don't doubt that a great many things are, but I find it hard to swallow that everything hidden truly qualifies.