SECRECY WARS: National Security, Privacy, and the Public's Right to Know

Since the passage of the Freedom of Information Act in 1966, the U.S. government has had an official policy of providing public access to its internal files. But as Melanson argues in this scathing indictment of Washington's culture of secrecy, this official policy rarely matches reality; the FBI, CIA and other agencies have fought the FOIA tooth and nail since its inception. Claiming national security, they've successfully kept millions of documents, on subjects ranging from the Martin Luther King assassination to the CIA's coup against Allende in Chile, hidden from public view. Melanson, who has previously written books on Lee Harvey Oswald and the RFK assassination, believes that the national security claims are largely intended to cover up embarrassing or illegal activities, such as the FBI's COINTELPRO project against civil rights and antiwar groups in the 1960s and '70s. Furthermore, Melanson alleges, documents have been known to turn up "missing" when it suits the government's agenda—witness the suspicious disappearance of chemical weapons logs from the Pentagon after veterans' groups began investigating Gulf War syndrome. This is heady stuff for conspiracy buffs, but it can be found elsewhere in greater detail. The real value in Melanson's book is its practical advice for researchers and the general public in unraveling the bureaucratic intricacies of the FOIA. Case studies show successful investigations; an appendix reprints sample information requests; one chapter profiles other knowledgeable lawyers and researchers. The overall goal is to help readers understand and circumvent the roadblocks that keep them from learning what the government's files have to say about, say, Marilyn Monroe—or readers themselves. (Dec. 1)