Where oh where has our govt. information gone???

Since 9/11, there's more secrecy than ever in government information. What do historians think? And who's tracking these changes in what our govt. shares with us?

http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/Issues/2004/0410/0410nch1.cfm

(First two paragraphs of article. To see more, click link above.)

Combating Government Secrecy—An Update
by Bruce Craig

One of the defining characteristics of government in the post-9/11 era is an increased emphasis on secrecy. The Patriot Act, when combined with the Bush administration’s implementation of several executive orders—including one relating to homeland security information sharing (E.O. 13311), another relating to classification of national security information (E.O. 13292), and the draconian order put on the books at the beginning of the current administration restricting access to presidential records (E.O. 13233)—have created impediments to government documents of an almost unprecedented scale. New reports show that federal agencies are classifying documents in record numbers, thus affecting present and future efforts by scholars seeking access to all sorts of government records. Government agencies are, in fact, responding to increasing numbers of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests by clamping down even more on access.
To combat these trends, dozens of organizations including the American Association of Law Libraries, the American Library Association, the Federation of American Scientists, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the National Coalition for History have joined together in a new coalition—OpenTheGovernment.org. The group seeks to promote "the public’s right to know and reduce secrecy in the government."