http://www.propublica.org/special/missing-memos

Lists and provides some information about memos from the Office of Legal Counsel of the Justice Department during the Bush administration. The memos, most of which have not been made public, related to controversial policies on detentions, interrogations, and warrantless wiretapping. From Pro Publica.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/obama/foia012109.html

Statement of policy about the Freedom of Information Act which instructs agencies to adopt a presumption of disclosure and directs the Attorney General to issue new guidelines reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency for federal executive agencies. Reverses the policy of the previous eight years that agencies should use a presumption of nondisclosure. From the White House, posted by the Federation of American Scientists.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ExecutiveOrderPresidentialRecords/

Provides text of executive order of President Obama relating to openness of presidential records. Restricts to the incumbent president the power to assert constitutional privileges to restrict presidential information from the public. Reverses executive order of President Bush which provided broad discretion to former presidents and vice presidents and their heirs to withhold presidential records from the public. From the White House

http://www.archives.gov/isoo/reports/2008-annual-report.pdf

Provides latest annual information on the status of the security classification program of the federal government, including statistics on the quantity of document classification and analysis of key components of the system. Reports that federal agencies declassified 31 million pages of historically valuable records in 2008. From the Information Security Oversight Office.

http://www.openthegovernment.org/otg/SecrecyReportCard08.pdf

Annual report on federal government secrecy, including the Freedom of Information Act functioning, from Open the Government.org and other private organizations.

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-02023.pdf

Sets out the historical background to the current laws on official secrecy in the United Kingdom. Also provides a brief summary of notable cases which have involved official information legislation.

http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20081215153517.pdf

Report from a congressional committee concluding that the assertion of executive privilege by President Bush in refusing to disclose documents relating to leaks of the identity of a CIA official was legally unprecedented and an inappropriate use of executive privilege. From the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/crew092008.pdf

Ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that requires the preservation of all records of the Office of the Vice President. The lawsuit had alleged that the Vice President had improperly limited the scope of records that would be preserved under the Presidential Records Act. Posted by the Federation of American Scientists.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB257/index.htm

A collection of 32 declassified documents which reveal the policy process behind the decision to disclose the existence of the National Reconnaissance Office, established in 1961 to coordinate satellite spying activities of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Air Force. From the National Security Archive.

http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/s0809/final.pdf

Reports the results of an investigation that found former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had violated Justice Department security requirements when he mishandled classified materials regarding two highly sensitive programs, including the National Security Agency surveillance program. From the Office of the Inspector General of the Justice Department.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB254/index.htm

Analysis with links to declassified documents that argues that intelligence reports, relied on as justification for launching the Iraq War, were not simply incorrect but politicized by the U.S. and British administrations. From the National Security Archive.