Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

U.S. Workers' Names Withheld Greater Secrecy Surrounds Civilian Employees, Suit Says

By Michael J. Sniffen Associated Press Wednesday, December 14, 2005; Page A27

Breaking a tradition of openness that began in 1816, the Bush administration has without explanation withheld the names and work locations of about 900,000 of its civilian workers, according to a lawsuit filed last week . "Citizens have a right to know who is working for the government," said Adina Rosenbaum, attorney for the co-directors of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research group at Syracuse University, which sued under the Freedom of Information Act to get the data.

So why is this a problem? Simple, how better to hide your failures than to deny access to those overseeing it. Without the ability to know who works for the government we would never know that:

Recently, the Union of Concerned Scientists and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility used the database to identify and locate U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service scientists for a survey. Many of the scientists complained of political intervention into their research.

OR

TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse) used the data to monitor the Bush administration's promise to increase security along the Canadian border after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Six months later, TRAC found Border Patrol agents on that border were up from 331 to just 346. A year later, the number had reached 515, but not one was assigned to the Canada-Alaska border despite Alaska's potential strategic targets.

It is imperative that a democratic/republican form of government remain open to the scrutiny of its citizens. When government is allowed to hide things in the shadows bad things will always happen, much like the court room mockery that was the Star Chamber in Stuart England. By nature those that support free and democratic government are naturally suspicious of that government. We hand over a great deal of power to Senators, Reps, and the Executive. We give them the right to prosecute and execute their police powers over the rest of society. A responsible society balances these officials' natural propensity to seek more power by forcing transparency and cultivating a certain level of suspicion.

"Secret governors are incompatible with a free government," the TRAC co-directors wrote the federal Office of Personnel Management on Feb. 2 when the agency withheld the data. "Basic information about the employees who carry out the day-to-day actions of government is critical for meaningful public oversight."