NFOIC FOI Friday for November 4 2011

A few items selected from many of interest recently.

Justice Department drops non-disclosure proposal for FOIA requests

The United States Justice Department announced, yesterday, that it was dropping a proposed controversial rule that would allow it to deny the existence of sensitive documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Visit NPR for the rest.

Justice Department denies FOIA request for Awlaki assassination memo

In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by POGO, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) "neither confirms nor denies the existence of the" OLC memo that describes the legal justification for its killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen.

The U.S. government alleges that Awlaki was a "regional commander" with al Qaeda.

Visit Project on Government Oversight for the rest.

Websites proliferate to generate FOI requests

These names reflect six new websites that allow requesters to draft and file freedom of information requests online. Plus, they they track the requests and archive the answers.

Visit freedominfo.org for the rest.