Tag: secrecy

CDC Ordered To Disclose Crucial Information From COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance System

The top U.S. public health agency must disclose information provided by people who experienced problems following COVID-19 vaccination, a federal court has ruled.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is being ordered to produce 7.8 million free-text entries from V-safe, one of its vaccine surveillance systems.

Data from the system released under court order in 2022 showed that 25 percent of V-safe participants missed school, work, or other normal activities due to post-vaccination issues, and nearly 8 percent of participants reported seeking medical attention, such as hospitalization after receiving a shot. That data, from boxes checked by users, came through an order in a case that started as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

But the CDC resisted releasing the free-text entries, arguing that many of them include information that should remain private.

“CDC determined that many of these responses contain personally identifiable information, the disclosure of which would publicly link participants to highly sensitive health information,” government lawyers representing the agency said in one brief. “And because it would take tens of thousands of workhours to manually review and redact millions of free-text responses, CDC determined that segregating the non-exempt information within these responses would be unreasonably burdensome and was therefore beyond its FOIA obligations.”

The CDC said it would take one worker 59 years to complete the work if it were ordered.

The government’s arguments were rejected by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, in response to a fresh lawsuit.

“While the burden to produce the requested free-text responses may be heavy, this court does not find that it is unreasonable,” he said in the new ruling.

The CDC can go through the records and redact personally identifiable information as allowed by FOIA but must do the work and produce the records with the redactions, he added later. Evidence produced in the case indicates that about 93 percent of the records will require no redactions.

The materials will be important for people who experienced problems following vaccination, the judge said.

“Production of the free-text data will permit independent researchers to put the government agencies to their proof by considering all of the available data,” he said. He noted that CDC studies on v-safe data only covered data from the first week or two after vaccination but that the surveys collected data for up to one year after receipt of a shot.

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Lawmakers investigating UAPs, or UFOs, remain frustrated after closed-door briefing with government watchdog

House lawmakers emerging from a classified, closed-door briefing with an internal government watchdog on Friday said they remained frustrated in their attempts to get more information about explosive whistleblower claims made about unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs.

Thomas Monheim, the inspector general of the intelligence community, briefed members of the House Oversight Committee’s national security subcommittee on Capitol Hill. The meeting came months after the subcommittee held a high-profile public hearing that featured tantalizing testimony from a former military intelligence officer-turned-whistleblower named David Grusch.

At the hearing in July, Grusch said he was informed of “a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse-engineering program” and accused the military of misappropriating funds to shield these operations from congressional oversight. He claimed he had interviewed officials who had direct knowledge of aircraft with “nonhuman” origins, and that so-called “biologics” were recovered from some craft. The Pentagon denied his claims.

The subcommittee has been leading the charge to improve transparency about what the government knows about anomalous phenomena. Rep. Glenn Grothman, a Republican from Wisconsin and the subcommittee’s chairman, said before Friday’s meeting that lawmakers were looking “to track down exactly what the military thinks of individual instances of these objects flying around.”

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Biden was only told TODAY that Lloyd Austin, 70, had prostate cancer – a month after he was diagnosed: Details of communication failure over secret ICU trip spark more questions for the White House and Pentagon

President Joe Biden was told that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had prostate cancer on Tuesday – the same day the public was informed, sparking more questions about the transparency of the administration and whether the public can trust their government.

‘Nobody at the White House knew that Secretary Austin had prostate cancer until this morning and the President was informed immediately after we were,’ White House spokesman John Kirby said at the daily press briefing. 

Kirby got defensive as he was repeatedly queried about why the commander-in-chief didn’t know the conditions or the where abouts of his top military officer. Austin was diagnosised with cancer a month before his Dec. 22 surgery. He was released the next day and returned to the hosptial via ambulance on Jan. 1 for complications. Biden was told Austin was in the hospital on Jan. 4. 

‘We all recognize that this didn’t unfold the way it should, on so many levels, not just the notification process of the chain of command, but the transparency issue. We all recognize that. And I think we all want to make sure we learn from that,’ Kirby said. 

‘It’s certainly not good, which is why we want to learn from this and we want to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.’

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Inside secret tunnel built by ‘extremist Jewish students’ linking historic ‘cleansing bath’ to Brooklyn synagogue that was only discovered when homeowner heard ‘suspicious noises at night’

A new video shows the secret underground tunnel dug by a group of young Orthodox Jewish men that is at the core of a bizarre dispute with religious leaders. 

The tunnel was discovered by rabbis in December, who were horrified that the young men had burrowed it from the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue in Crown Heights. 

Initially, local site Crown Heights Info reported that it led all the way to a women’s mikvah at the end of the street – several houses away. 

However the operators of that women’s mikvah say it does not, and instead connects the synagogue with an out-of-use historic men’s mikvah at 770 Eastern Parkway – the synagogue site. 

The NYPD is yet to confirm exactly where the tunnel leads, what is being used for or what the young men have been charged with.  

After learning about what the young men had done, the Chabad’s rabbis ordered it to be filled, but when construction workers showed up last night to complete the work the young men blocked their way, jumping into the tunnel and sparking a riot that was filmed and broadcast on social media. 

In the end, 12 young men were arrested by the NYPD, who had to be called in. The site has been at the center of a dispute between the rabbis and ‘extremists’ who both stake claim to the property. 

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FBI is demanded to release HUNDREDS of ‘missing’ Jeffrey Epstein documents including tapes, CDs, passports and pictures raided from his $51 million NYC townhouse amid suspicions pedo was linked to Mossad

The FBI is facing fresh calls to release hundreds of ‘missing’ pieces of evidence raided from Jeffrey Epstein‘s $51 million New York townhouse following the release of a new list of his associates.

Among the items said to be missing are tapes, CDs, passports and pictures all located inside a safe within the property during a siege on the home in July 2019, shortly after Epstein was arrested.

It comes as speculation continues to swirl that Epstein was working as an agent for Israeli intelligence agency Mossad prior to his suicide while awaiting trial for child sex offences. 

FBI agent Kelly Maguire previously testified the agency broke open a safe at his home in July 2019 to reveal the cache of evidence, along with ‘loose diamonds’ and ‘large amounts of US currency’.

Speaking at the sex-trafficking trial of Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell, she told the court the agents only photographed the contents as they did not have a warrant for its removal, the Telegraph reports.

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NASA WILL DEBUT ITS MYSTERIOUS X-59 ‘QUIET’ SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT AT FAMOUS LOCKHEED MARTIN SKUNK WORKS FACILITY NEXT WEEK

NASA has announced plans to unveil its X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft next week, the American space agency said in a statement on Friday.

“NASA will provide live coverage as it reveals its X-59 aircraft at 4 p.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 12, as part of the agency’s Quesst mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible,” read a portion of the NASA statement.

The aircraft, which recently received a patriotic paint job, will see its public reveal during a ceremony at the famous Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.

As part of NASA’s Quesst mission, the X-59 will be flown above populated regions of the United States, after which the space agency will collect information from the public about responses to sound the aircraft produces, which will then be supplied to international regulators for assessment.

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2023: The year UFOs descended on Washington, DC (but not like you’d expect)

For those who follow news related to anomalous flying objects, 2023 will be remembered as the year UFOs came to Washington, D.C.

Not in the way we’d all like, though. No, there were no Tic-Tac-shaped UFOs landing on the White House lawn or big black triangles hovering silently in the air above it. Instead, there were new bureaucratic offices and government websites created, pieces of dense legislation deliberated over, and hearings. Lots of hearings.

Throughout the pockets of social media that are most vocal about UFOs, many thought that this year would finally bring about disclosure, the revelation of UFO-related truth in which the U.S. government would finally fess up and reveal what it has allegedly been covering up about unidentified, physics-defying craft and their possible occupants for at least seven decades.

But disclosure didn’t happen. While many sensational claims were made that would, if true, indeed bring about ontological shock and a rethinking of our place in the universe, in the end none of these was substantiated with little more than hearsay. As is tradition.

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Jeffrey Epstein list WILL be released with first names dropping today: ‘Jane Doe’ 107 and another to remain secret for 30 days

A long-awaited list of 187 of Jeffrey Epstein‘s friends and associates will be released with the first names dropping today, the court which holds the papers has confirmed. 

The list of names is part of a settled lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell.  The case was settled in 2017, but Giuffre – and many others – have long called for the names to become public. 

The process was thrown into chaos by a request by Jane Doe 107, one of the women involved, who has been given a 30 day extension to prove that she will be in danger if she is publicly unmasked. 

She and at least one other – John Doe 110 – will retain their anonymity until January 22nd, but the others on the list will be named between now and then, according to Ed Friedland, the District Executive for the Southern District of New York. 

Doe 110 is a well-known Epstein associate who has been publicly linked to him in the past, and who never objected to being named until now, according to court filings obtained by DailyMail.com.  

The names will be released on a rolling basis. It’s unclear how many will be made public today, or how long it will take for all to become known.  

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NYPD faces backlash as it prepares to encrypt radio communications

The New York police department (NYPD) is facing serious backlash after announcing additional details about its plan to encrypt its radio communications system, which experts warn will limit transparency and accountability.

NYPD radio signals have been publicly accessible since 1932, allowing journalists and civilians to listen to police communications, Gothamist reported. The NYPD will now be encrypting its radio channels for the first time ever. Police radio encryption is already underway in several US cities, including Chicago and Denver.

Since starting in July, 10 precincts have already “gone dark”, or fully encrypted their radio systems. The entire “upgrade” to a new, encrypted radio system will be completed by December 2024 and cost an estimated $400m, a hefty price tag as several city agencies have been forced to swallow major budget cuts.

Critics of encryption say that the public radio channels are necessary for police accountability, press freedom and public safety.

Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (Stop), a New York-based civil rights organization, called planned encryption a “disturbing attack on transparency and public oversight of the police”.

“Radio monitoring is one of the few ways that we can get an unfiltered look at how the NYPD is policing,” Cahn said.

Several police-involved killings have been uncovered by the press after listening to police radios, Cahn said. Video of an NYPD officer killing Eric Garner in 2014 was obtained due to a call on the police radio, Gothamist reported. The police killings of Amadou Diallo in 1999 and Sean Bell in 2006 were also uncovered due to police radio communications.

“Without public radio, we will simply be at the mercy of police to tell us when they killed someone. There’ll be no one else who knows,” Cahn said.

Press freedom advocates have also argued that encrypting police radios will prevent journalists from accurately reporting or covering police misconduct, ultimately allowing the NYPD to decide what should be considered news.

Todd Maisel, founder of New York Media Consortium, a group of eight media organizations against radio encryption, says: “Having the NYPD controlling the narrative is the worst possible scenario.

“They’re not going to tell you stories about anything that didn’t go well,” he added.

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Feds hide anti-white discrimination complaints, names of policy architects from FOIA suits

How many anti-white discrimination complaints have been leveled by employees against the federal watchdog for workplace discrimination? Who is shaping federal policy on “indigenous knowledge” and its implications for scientific research?

The public apparently won’t get those answers unless a judge says so.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and National Science Foundation invoked Freedom of Information Act exemptions on personal privacy to withhold select information from separate FOIA requests by Hans Bader, a former Education Department lawyer under President Trump.

Bader, through his family foundation, has gone on a FOIA tear against various agencies, which sometimes respond with largely unreadable productions. 

The State Department blacked out the vast majority of emails deliberating on how it should respond to reporters asking about its funding of the Global Disinformation Index. A December 2022 report by the entity found the 10-riskiest online news outlets were all conservative leaning, sparking arguments that it is attempted to starve predominantly conservative publishers of advertising revenue.

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