Zachary Stieber, a reporter with the Epoch Times, released the CDC report on the frequency of myocarditis following the COVID vaccines.
Zachary posted the FOIAed documents here.
Every single page was redacted!
EVERY SINGLE WORD!
Tag: secrecy
Without More Accountability, Sunshine Laws Are Toothless
This week is Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of transparency laws, which means that government press offices across the country are hard at work pretending they don’t spend the other 51 weeks a year undermining those transparency laws.
If you want to see what your leaders really think of you and your statutory right to know what they’re up to, just ask them to comply with the open government laws on the books.
Two Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers claimed earlier this month that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office blocked the release of DeSantis’ publicly-funded travel records and retaliated against them for arguing that the records were public under the state’s Sunshine Law.
As I wrote last year for Reason‘s special issue on Florida, politicians have been chipping away at the state’s vaunted public records law for decades, but DeSantis and his allies in the Florida Legislature are taking a sledgehammer to it.
Elsewhere in the Sunshine State, a fire chief called the police because a local reporter had the temerity to insist, correctly, that he had a legal right to inspect public records in person. Tampa Bay Times reporter Jason Garcia showed up at the headquarters of the Tampa Fire Rescue Department asking to see paperwork related to a firefighter’s termination. Florida’s Sunshine Law law is unambiguous on this point: “All state, county and municipal records are open for personal inspection and copying by any person.”
Nevertheless, two department employees, one of whom was the personnel chief, argued Garcia had no right to see the records since he’d already filed a records request online. Eventually, Tampa fire chief Barbara Tripp called the police to report Garcia for causing a disturbance, although he left by the time reinforcements arrived to end his reign of terror.
The personnel chief claimed in a memo that Garcia “persisted in being argumentative and repetitive and refused to accept the answer and leave.”
“No matter how you want to spin it, though, journalists are supposed to ask questions and seek explanations,” the Tampa Bay Times wrote in an editorial about the alleged hullabaloo. “That may rankle people in power, but it doesn’t constitute an unruly disturbance.”
CIA Document Talks About “Flying Saucers” Traveling 7,400+MPH in 1955; More Information Discovered Yet Withheld By Agency
The Black Vault attempted to get a CIA document that has been shrouded in secrecy for decades further declassified. Although no redactions were lifted in the process, it revealed that even more information by the CIA is withheld on a UFO case that suggests a technology beyond known human capability at the time.
Originally disclosed in 1978, the “Information Report” originally classified “Confidential” has a subject header of “Unusual Flying Object Sightings and Attendant Scientific Activity”. It had multiple, but relatively minimal, redactions when the single page was originally released. In January 2020, The Black Vault filed a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) case, seeking to uncover more details and get those redactions lifted.
The document, identified as REPORT NO. 00-B-93674, details an intriguing account from a source in Hungary, who in the winter of 1955 received a letter mentioning the mysterious “flying saucers”. These objects, described as “very fast speeding flyers,” were estimated to be traveling at a speed of “12,000 kilometers per hour,” or in excess of 7,400 miles per hour.
COULD GERMANY START WWIII? Leaked Audio Unveils Military Bombshell
A shocking revelation about Germany’s military plans is shaking the geopolitical landscape: A leaked audio recording exposes a chilling conversation among top-ranking military officials regarding a potential operation to bomb the Crimean Bridge in Russia with Taurus missiles.
Worse yet, the recorded voices, one of whom is Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz – the commander of the national Air Force himself, stress that Germany’s involvement in the attack must be concealed from the public.
The recording, initially dismissed by some as mere propaganda, has been confirmed as authentic by the highest echelons of the German government.
Russian officials demand swift answers from Berlin, labeling the leaked conversation as evidence of direct German complicity in acts of aggression against Russia. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov scorns NATO, suggesting a glaring betrayal of trust, while former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev condemns Germany as a resurfaced adversary. He released a brutal statement on Telegram:
“After all, our eternal opponents, the Germans, have again turned into sworn enemies.“
China wants to rid itself of Western tech by 2027 — outlines domestic alternatives in ‘Document 79’
The WSJ reports that China is on an extensive push to drive out Western tech companies from the country and replace them with domestic alternatives. China reportedly started its domestic expansion in 2022 with a highly secretive “Document 79,” an initiative focused on deleting Western tech companies from the country. Since then, China’s new plan has been in full effect — domestic alternatives have replaced most Western software providers.
When initiated two years ago, Document 79 was a super sensitive document that only high-ranking officials were purportedly shown. Security was so paramount that copies of the document were not allowed to be made. The initiative set out by Document 79 is to replace foreign software in China’s IT systems by 2027, with state-owned firms required to provide quarterly updates on their progress in replacing foreign software with domestic alternatives.
Two years later, the fruits of Document 79 are now apparent. Microsoft, HP Enterprise, and Cisco’s market share in China has fallen drastically in the past several years. In 2018, HP Enterprise had a 14.1% market share in China, but in 2023, that has fallen to just 4%. Cisco’s market share has halved in the past five years down to just 8%. Microsoft’s Chinese sales today account for just 1.5% of the company’s overall sales.
Most government institutions in China are now buying domestic technology over Western solutions, even if the Western solutions are superior due to Document 79. This includes everything from software to hardware solutions. Chinese customers who were buying IBM-powered rack-mount servers five years ago are now requesting Chinese-made rack-mount servers utilizing Huawei chips.
Chinese Rocket’s Moon Collision in 2022 Carried Mystery Object, Experts Say
The surface of the Moon is littered with defunct hardware from past missions that are now buried amongst the lunar regolith. A recent crash site left a distinct and curious mark, creating two impact craters of equal size. Scientists examining the collision believe that there may have been an undisclosed object that crashed on the Moon, the origins of which will remain a mystery.
On March 4, 2022, a wayward rocket booster slammed onto the Moon’s surface. Prior to impact, it was believed to belong to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that was left in high orbit in 2015, but further investigation revealed that it was actually a booster launched by China in 2014 as part of its lunar exploration program. That said, the space mystery continued as the booster created two craters upon impact, causing scientists to question what exactly crashed on the Moon that day.
A group of researchers from the University of Arizona had been tracking the object’s trajectory for seven years prior to its unfortunate crash, as well as its impact site on the Moon. In a paper published Thursday in The Planetary Science Journal, researchers analyzed the rocket’s light reflection signature and its movement through space. Based on the observed characteristics, the researchers propose it was indeed a booster from China’s Chang’e 5-T1 mission, but one carrying a mystery payload that also met its demise on the lunar surface.
Biden administration ADMITS flying 320,000 migrants secretly into the U.S. to reduce the number of crossings at the border has national security ‘vulnerabilities’
Joe Biden‘s administration has admitted transporting migrants on secret flights into the U.S. and lawyers for its immigration agencies claim revealing the locations could create national security ‘vulnerabilities’.
Customs and Border Protection has refused to disclose information about a program last year secretly arranging flights for thousands of undocumented immigrants from foreign airports directly to U.S. cities.
It means that while record numbers of migrants were flowing over the southern border last year, the Biden White House was also directly transporting them into the country.
Use of a cell phone app has allowed for the near undetected arrival by air of 320,000 aliens with no legal rights to enter the United States.
It comes after a controversy over a 2022 transportation program in which the administration used taxpayers money to move migrants throughout the country on overnight flights.
Included in details of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit first reported by Todd Bensman, the Center for Immigration Studies found Biden’s CBP approved the latest secretive flights that transported hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from foreign countries into at least 43 different American airports from January through December 2023.
The program was part of Biden’s expansion of the CBP One app, which kicked off at the start of last year.
Migrants were able, under Biden’s expansion, to apply for asylum using the app from their home countries.
But the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) notes that the transportation of these migrants directly to the U.S. is one of the lesser known uses of the app.
Aliens who cannot legally enter the U.S. use CBP One to apply for travel authorization and temporary humanitarian release from those airports.
Botched execution of serial killer in Idaho puts focus on capital punishment secrecy laws
In 2012, two Idaho prison officials chartered a private plane and flew to Washington state with thousands of dollars in cash.
They met with a pharmacist behind closed doors and bought the drug for a convicted murderer’s lethal injection.
Only a years-long public records lawsuit revealed the pharmacist’s name, the pharmacy and other details of the exchange. After prison officials said the pharmacist’s exposure had scared away other lethal drug suppliers, Idaho lawmakers barred such information from getting out again.
Idaho tried and failed Wednesday to execute Thomas Eugene Creech, a 73-year-old serial killer who had been in prison for 50 years. Neither his attorneys nor the public knew where the state obtained the drug or the exact qualifications of his executioners.
Opponents say secrecy laws are are a significant hurdle to accountability and make it hard to ensure that the procedures aren’t unconstitutionally painful, whether the deaths are carried out successfully — as Texas did Wednesday in the case of Ivan Cantu — or botched like Creech’s.
Idaho long kept the identities of execution team members and drug suppliers secret but judges were still able to force disclosure of the information if it was relevant to lawsuits or appeals. The new law prohibits state officials from disclosing the information, even if under court order.
The law also prevents professional licensing boards from taking disciplinary action against people for participating in executions.
Such secrecy is typical among states that impose capital punishment, including Texas, where lawmakers passed a similar measure in 2015 to ensure drug suppliers did not face retaliation or harassment for cooperating with executions.
“States are saying, ‘We don’t need to show you the information about … how we find or drugs or the training of the prison staff,’” said Robin Maher, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that tracks executions. “And then, when things go wrong, they can’t be held accountable.”
Creech was convicted of five murders in three states and suspected of several more. He has been in custody since 1974 and was already serving a life term when he beat a fellow inmate, 22-year-old David Dale Jensen, to death in 1981 — the crime for which he was to be executed.
When his appointed hour came at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Creech was wheeled into the execution chamber and strapped to a table. Medical personnel poked and prodded at his arms, legs, hands and feet for nearly an hour, making eight attempts, but they couldn’t find a vein they thought would hold up long enough to deliver the fatal dose. He was returned to his cell.
It is unclear whether or when the state might try again, or how. Like other states concerned about the availability of lethal injection, Idaho recently passed a law allowing for firing squads as a backup, but the state has yet to write protocols for using that method or build a facility where it could shoot people to death. It has not approved the use of nitrogen gas, a method used for the first time early this year in Alabama.
Creech’s execution team comprised volunteers who, according to Idaho execution protocols, were required to have at least three years of medical experience, such as having been a paramedic, and to have “current venous access proficiency.” They were not necessarily doctors, who famously take an oath to “do no harm” — though Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt later told lawmakers that the executioners regularly use their IV skills to save lives in their day jobs. They wore white balaclava-style coverings to conceal their faces.
Tewalt defended the state’s approach, saying the department ensures execution drugs are acquired lawfully, provides test results showing their authenticity, and ensures medical members of the execution team meet or exceed required qualifications.
“I would argue we are very transparent about any information that speaks to the integrity of the process,” said Tewalt. “What we won’t do is tell you their names.”
Tewalt also disagreed with characterizing the attempt as “botched” — stopping the execution after the failed IVs prevented the process from truly going awry, he said.
Creech, according to his attorneys, suffers from several conditions that could have made vein accessibility challenging: Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and edema. It can also be more difficult for older people to have IVs inserted, as their veins can be less stable.
“This is precisely the kind of mishap we warned the State and the Courts could happen when attempting to execute one of the country’s oldest death-row inmates in circumstances completely shielded in secrecy,” Creech’s attorneys, with the nonprofit Federal Defender Services of Idaho, said in a written statement.
Among the arguments they made in their unsuccessful last-minute petitions to the U.S. Supreme Court was that the secrecy violated Creech’s due-process rights and could constitute cruel and unusual punishment if the lethal drug, the sedative pentobarbital, was of poor quality and caused unnecessary pain or complications.
Ron DeSantis to Sign Bill Into Law Allowing Release of Jeffrey Epstein’s Grand Jury Documents from 2006 Investigation
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is slated to sign a bill that would enable the release of grand jury documents related to the 2006 investigation of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.
For context, in July 2006, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, under the codename “Operation Leap Year“. The probe culminated in a 53-page indictment by June 2007, exposing the depths of Epstein’s alleged sex crimes involving minors.
However, the case took an unexpected turn when Alexander Acosta, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida at the time, brokered a plea deal. This agreement, negotiated with the assistance of attorney Alan Dershowitz, effectively granted Epstein immunity from all federal criminal charges, along with four named co-conspirators and any potential unnamed accomplices.
The Miami Herald reported that the non-prosecution agreement “essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe” into the possibility of more victims and powerful individuals involved in Epstein’s crimes. The deal, which was kept secret from the victims in violation of federal law, halted further investigations and sealed the indictment.
Acosta later justified the leniency of the deal by claiming he was informed that Epstein “belonged to intelligence” and that the issue was above his “pay grade,” the Daily Beast reported.
The Somewhat Lost Top Secret 1948 UFO Report: A Glimpse into America’s Early Encounter with the Unknown
The “Air Intelligence Division Study: Analysis of Flying Object Incidents in the United States,” dated December 10, 1948, is a crucial document in the history of UFO research. Originally classified as Top Secret, it was ordered to be destroyed in 1950, but surviving declassified copies have been obtained and studied by researchers such as Michael Swords, Jan Aldrich with Project 1947, the late Clifford Stone, and many others.
This document provides an early analysis of UFO sightings and the government’s approach to understanding these phenomena. Its survival has made it a valuable resource for understanding the initial stages of official UFO investigations.
One of the key aspects of the document is its detailed examination of various UFO sightings across the United States. It includes descriptions of the objects’ appearance, behavior, explores patterns or trends observed in the sightings.
Hellbound and Down 
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