5 ms·

I hope someone downloads the contents quickly, before another administration takes it offline or 'reclassifies' the information.

0xcde4c3db 10y ago
I wonder if that's actually the motivation behind opening it up now rather than weeks or months from now. There are apparently efforts underway at other federal and federally-funded bodies (e.g. EPA, NOAA, NASA, some federally-funded college departments) to get backups of raw data into safe places in case Congress or the Trump administration orders it taken offline or even deleted [1]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/13/scientists-are-frantically-copying-u-s-climate-data-fearing-it-might-vanish-under-trump/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...
- leereeves 10y ago
  Funny that they only worry about that now that Republicans are taking over. Reportedly, Obama ordered just such a deletion of records. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/268282-dhs-ordered-me-to-scrub-records-of-muslims-with-terror http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/268...
  - knz 10y ago
    Is there anything in this article that actually links the deletion to President Obama or explains why the deletion was ordered? Or even any evidence that this happened? Edit to be clear: I'm not implying the Obama administration did not do things like this but this read more like an anecdote by someone with political leanings. We also have no information about why they were deleted or modified and don't know if the author had access to the full picture. Perhaps they were merged with another record, therefore improving the "haystack" etc.
    - leereeves 10y ago
      The author made that connection: "the Obama administration was ordering they be wiped away." I haven't seen any followup on this story. Liberal media seems to have ignored it entirely, conservative media reports it without further details. The author, Philip Haney, has been a vocal critic, appearing on Fox and writing numerous articles, so there's been ample opportunity for the Obama administration to respond if there was indeed an explanation such as you suggest, but I haven't seen any response.
      - wavefunction 10y ago
        I'm sure the Obama administration is just far too busy with finally getting around to the FEMA camps and gun confiscation to answer every little conservative conspiracy claim.
        mistermann 10y ago
        Maybe he's too busy closing down Gitmo right?
        1024core 10y ago
        You can't say he didn't try. But the Republican response was so over the top, portraying the prisoners as some sort of supervillains with superpowers, that it never happened. I don't know why the Republicans are so scared of these prisoners.
        leereeves 10y ago
        And sharing NSA data (obtained without a warrant) with the Justice Department? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/01/obama-expands-surveillance-powers-his-way-out https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/01/obama-expands-surveill... Can't blame that one on Republicans.
        willstrafach 10y ago
  - bb611 10y ago
    There is no equivalency between deleting criminal justice records, which should and normally do remain private unless used in a court of law, and removing information that's been released the public sphere.
    - leereeves 10y ago
      "After leaving my 15 year career at DHS, I can no longer be silent about the dangerous state of America’s counter-terror strategy, our leaders’ willingness to compromise the security of citizens for the ideological rigidity of political correctness—and, consequently, our vulnerability to devastating, mass-casualty attack." Both are stories about deleting information that doesn't fit a political agenda. There's an option between releasing and deleting information about suspected terrorists. Unless you're saying the suspected terrorists were cleared? If so, what's your source?
      - bb611 10y ago
        > Both are stories about deleting information that doesn't fit a political agenda. One set of information is public, one is private. The information we're discussing is public - this recently released trove of CIA documents and NOAA & NASA climate data for instance. The DHS' internal database of terrorism suspects is private unless used specifically to prosecute individuals for crimes. If your claim is that the DHS should publicly release data about terrorism suspects, that's another debate, although a spurious one. We've done that before, it was called McCarthyism, and it left an indelible negative mark on the US government. If DHS were to engage in such behavior it would likely be challenged and reversed on 6th amendment grounds.
        leereeves 10y ago
        My claim is that tracking terrorists is important, not that such information should be made public. Information about terrorists should remain private, but it shouldn't be deleted.
        10y ago
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    Remember how loud Obama screamed when the CIA "lost" that torture report. Oh wait. He was silent on that one. Both parties love secrets. If the public knew what they were up to they would all be out on their asses next election cycle.
  - boomboomsubban 10y ago
    ... How can someone work at the DHS for fifteen years in February 2016?
- lb1lf 10y ago
  Would it even be legal to delete existing data sets? Surely it belongs to the US public, as it was collected using taxpayer money? (A more likely scenario would be that the programs collecting data the new administration doesn't like gets the budget axe, creating a hole in the data series for posterity to wonder at. ("Say, ma, how come we have climate records from 1870-2017 and then again from 2021 onwards?")
harpiaharpyja 10y ago
How would one go about mirroring these documents?

0xcde4c3db 10y ago

I wonder if that's actually the motivation behind opening it up now rather than weeks or months from now. There are apparently efforts underway at other federal and federally-funded bodies (e.g. EPA, NOAA, NASA, some federally-funded college departments) to get backups of raw data into safe places in case Congress or the Trump administration orders it taken offline or even deleted [1]. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/12/13/scientists-are-frantically-copying-u-s-climate-data-fearing-it-might-vanish-under-trump/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...

leereeves 10y ago
Funny that they only worry about that now that Republicans are taking over. Reportedly, Obama ordered just such a deletion of records. http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/268282-dhs-ordered-me-to-scrub-records-of-muslims-with-terror http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/268...
- knz 10y ago
  Is there anything in this article that actually links the deletion to President Obama or explains why the deletion was ordered? Or even any evidence that this happened? Edit to be clear: I'm not implying the Obama administration did not do things like this but this read more like an anecdote by someone with political leanings. We also have no information about why they were deleted or modified and don't know if the author had access to the full picture. Perhaps they were merged with another record, therefore improving the "haystack" etc.
  - leereeves 10y ago
    The author made that connection: "the Obama administration was ordering they be wiped away." I haven't seen any followup on this story. Liberal media seems to have ignored it entirely, conservative media reports it without further details. The author, Philip Haney, has been a vocal critic, appearing on Fox and writing numerous articles, so there's been ample opportunity for the Obama administration to respond if there was indeed an explanation such as you suggest, but I haven't seen any response.
    - wavefunction 10y ago
      I'm sure the Obama administration is just far too busy with finally getting around to the FEMA camps and gun confiscation to answer every little conservative conspiracy claim.
      - mistermann 10y ago
        Maybe he's too busy closing down Gitmo right?
        1024core 10y ago
        You can't say he didn't try. But the Republican response was so over the top, portraying the prisoners as some sort of supervillains with superpowers, that it never happened. I don't know why the Republicans are so scared of these prisoners.
        leereeves 10y ago
        And sharing NSA data (obtained without a warrant) with the Justice Department? https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/01/obama-expands-surveillance-powers-his-way-out https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/01/obama-expands-surveill... Can't blame that one on Republicans.
        willstrafach 10y ago
- bb611 10y ago
  There is no equivalency between deleting criminal justice records, which should and normally do remain private unless used in a court of law, and removing information that's been released the public sphere.
  - leereeves 10y ago
    "After leaving my 15 year career at DHS, I can no longer be silent about the dangerous state of America’s counter-terror strategy, our leaders’ willingness to compromise the security of citizens for the ideological rigidity of political correctness—and, consequently, our vulnerability to devastating, mass-casualty attack." Both are stories about deleting information that doesn't fit a political agenda. There's an option between releasing and deleting information about suspected terrorists. Unless you're saying the suspected terrorists were cleared? If so, what's your source?
    - bb611 10y ago
      > Both are stories about deleting information that doesn't fit a political agenda. One set of information is public, one is private. The information we're discussing is public - this recently released trove of CIA documents and NOAA & NASA climate data for instance. The DHS' internal database of terrorism suspects is private unless used specifically to prosecute individuals for crimes. If your claim is that the DHS should publicly release data about terrorism suspects, that's another debate, although a spurious one. We've done that before, it was called McCarthyism, and it left an indelible negative mark on the US government. If DHS were to engage in such behavior it would likely be challenged and reversed on 6th amendment grounds.
      - leereeves 10y ago
        My claim is that tracking terrorists is important, not that such information should be made public. Information about terrorists should remain private, but it shouldn't be deleted.
        10y ago
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  Remember how loud Obama screamed when the CIA "lost" that torture report. Oh wait. He was silent on that one. Both parties love secrets. If the public knew what they were up to they would all be out on their asses next election cycle.
- boomboomsubban 10y ago
  ... How can someone work at the DHS for fifteen years in February 2016?
lb1lf 10y ago
Would it even be legal to delete existing data sets? Surely it belongs to the US public, as it was collected using taxpayer money? (A more likely scenario would be that the programs collecting data the new administration doesn't like gets the budget axe, creating a hole in the data series for posterity to wonder at. ("Say, ma, how come we have climate records from 1870-2017 and then again from 2021 onwards?")

harpiaharpyja 10y ago

How would one go about mirroring these documents?