Court ruling shields public safety info due to potential ‘terrorists’

rt.com...

A US appellate court decision this week could allow federal agencies to withhold public safety information related to crucial infrastructure concerns or environmental disasters because of potential nefarious use by “terrorists or criminals.”

A US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia panel ruled this week that such information can be concealed from the public by US government entities for “law enforcement purposes” because “terrorists or criminals could use that information to determine whether attacking a dam would be worthwhile.”

While this bill's selling point is it keeps US citizens safer from terrorist attacks and criminals, I think most of us on ATS can see right through that male bovine feces.

It allows the government to withhold public safety information related to environmental disasters. Interesting how this ruling came shortly after the West Virginia chemical spill and it has not been covered by the major US news networks.

reply to post by jrod


"We can't tell you about the safety status in order to keep you safe."

That is what I am getting out of this, am I way out in left field here?

-FBB

reply to post by jrod


For those that want to delve into the actual opinion from the Appellate Court....Case PDF

As always, I post the source documents so that we are not swayed by RT (or any other reporting agency; as they are all biased). Make up your own minds people...

More evidence of the comming police state thats taking over in America.....
The paranoia is rampant and used for an excuse every time they want to obfuscate their own mistakes and shortcommings.....
The paranoid state of the US agencies is contrived to facilitate the cover up of the creeping nazism thats grasping for total control of America.

reply to post by jrod


Story after story......Day after day. Thankfully for the PTB apathy and indifference is so strong nothing will ever come from any of it. Personally I think they can do just about anything and get a away with it. Don't believe me ? How many stories that should have been a scandal or wake up call have come and gone over the last 2 years.




It is so bad they are not even hiding it anymore. They finally figured out the people could care less and after a few weeks at most of talking about it the story will fade away. This is the new normal and stories will keep coming faster and faster as the tentacles wind themselves into everything.

If I didn't see so many of these ridiculous rulings and other lunatic stunts by officials, I would say it just isn't possible that this many people in official roles can be this stupid and incompetent. This stuff goes beyond mass delusion, but who knows.. It's like all of them were secretly taken and mentally reprogrammed to be morons, but favoring the police state persona.

This is a nationwide pandemic of mental incompetence. Euthanasia is the humane thing to do with these people.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Thanks. It is tough to for the lay person to make any sense of the actual court rulings.

The fact is tap-water all over the country is poisoned. It appears to me that this ruling will enable those who pollute our waters, those who spill chemicals and create Haz-Mat situations, a legal precedent in covering up those disasters in the name of public safety. The reality is the ruling will keep the public in the dark so we are not outraged when it happens.

reply to post by jrod


Having been on this side of the fence I understand the merits behind the legislation. The critical infrastructure of the US is actually vulnerable simply because we have had the mindset for the longest time that no one would be stupid enough to attack the US directly and from within, and on the off chance it occurred the mindset was civilian areas are not valid targets (cold war / normal war mentality). The latest threat shows that civilians are valid targets, along with infrastructure the civilians depend on.

Critical infrastructure goes beyond what most people think, and to release these reports would provided information that could be used to cause major damage. Critical infrastructure is dependent on individual factors as well as reliance upon other critical infrastructure areas in order to effectively operate. All it takes is to damage one low level category to cause mass issues in other areas (domino effect).

I would support releasing reports however I would like to see a lag time in the release. 5 years or so to release reports and only when the information cannot be used as a blue print.

Just my 2 cents.

The original link does not go to the story.

rt.com...

Just because there are some good merits of the bill does not mean there are not possible alarming consequences.

Dinerstein pointed to recent spills in West Virginia and the Gulf of Mexico as examples where nearby residents would be left in the dark regarding actions to take in an emergency, all for the sake of shielding such information from those who might exploit it for nefarious purposes.

“Basic emergency planning should not be treated as a state secret,” said Dinerstein. “By the court’s incredibly deferential standards, virtually every federal agency could withhold maps, assessments and even phonebooks if an official can imagine a potential nefarious use for them. A vigilant public will lose access to much of the information needed to protect itself and to agitate for changes that prevent these man-made disasters from occurring.”

reply to post by jrod


And just because a court decides to apply common sense to certain information does not mean there is a conspiracy or illegal actions by the government / business.

I feel the proper response to this thread is simple, patriot act, NSA, Secret courts,
the breaking of even the secret courts rulings and on and on and on..... this will
be abused just as every other law that allows many secrets to be kept from the
public.

But G.I. Joe told me "knowing was half the battle"

reply to post by jrod


Did terrorists need to be told flying aircraft into buildings or planting bombs could be bad for the publics health then?

Or am i missing something.

It seems Terrorists are quite able to determine what might be a high value target on their own, whereas the public rely on public safety information to remain safe, don't they?

reply to post by Xcathdra


One definition of common sense is another's definition of cover up and lets never buy into these fantasy land schemes to block the public from information. Now it's Criminals *AND* Terrorists, by the way. In other words, between those two designations, basically ANYONE not carrying a Government ID and clearance is a potential enemy to be treated as such for the release of previously available information.

Has it ever occurred to them tho....people HAVE gotten much of this data for years prior to this day and those who WANT it for evil operational purposes....? They built libraries of this crap many many years ago. It's basic logic and our enemies ..the REAL ones...aren't babbling buffoons, as they'd have us believe.

Go ahead.. block this info from law abiding citizens who won't put out the shoe leather to read tree-ware copies that DO still exist, if one knows where to find them, and people risking their lives to kill us *DO* know where to find those. This just blocked it from people who didn't have evil intent. That's all.

Congrats to Uncle Sam. Another brick in the wall of transparency and freedom has fallen and shattered. The wall isn't as big as it once was...to be sure.

So meanwhile, the people affected start dying off from not being told anything about it. So either way the terrorist win ? Hmmm ...

I feel that classifying things like dam inundation maps is in no one's interest. The public has the right to know if they are at risk of a dam break and someone who wanted to do harm could figure out what the flooded area would be by scouting the area and looking at satellite pictures. It does not make us any safer.

The real alarming part to me is this ruling can be used to keep the public in the dark in the event of the next chemical spill or radiation leak, that is unacceptable. While the intent of the ruling maybe to keep the public safer from terrorist and criminals, I do not think it does either. It gives corporations a precedent when they cause an environmental disaster to keep that hidden from the public. No common citizen benefits from that.

Also it is interesting that the Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act bill also recently passed in the house:
House Republicans Just Quietly Passed A Bill Gutting Hazardous Waste Legislation

rt.com...

jrod
I feel that classifying things like dam inundation maps is in no one's interest. The public has the right to know if they are at risk of a dam break and someone who wanted to do harm could figure out what the flooded area would be by scouting the area and looking at satellite pictures. It does not make us any safer.

The real alarming part to me is this ruling can be used to keep the public in the dark in the event of the next chemical spill or radiation leak, that is unacceptable. While the intent of the ruling maybe to keep the public safer from terrorist and criminals, I do not think it does either. It gives corporations a precedent when they cause an environmental disaster to keep that hidden from the public. No common citizen benefits from that.

Also it is interesting that the Reducing Excessive Deadline Obligations Act bill also recently passed in the house:
House Republicans Just Quietly Passed A Bill Gutting Hazardous Waste Legislation

rt.com...

I know there has been more then one spill but the current one in WV might have something to do with this.

[story]

I can visualize it now.

The volume knob on the bullhorns are set all the way up to 10.

The voices tell us to head in the direction of the trucks.

They say an emergency requires you to be relocated.

People ask why and what. The chatter is loud.

The voices from the bullhorns say it's for your protection as well as ours.

The relocation district is 100 miles away.

As a precautionary measure, the trucks have enough fuel for the one way trip.

Thousands of hands cling to the chicken wire encasing the trucks.

People lunge for the water bottles on the trucks.

The trucks move slowly on the crowded interstates.

3 hours later a muffled announcement says this was a drill - stand down now.

The people are told there is no fuel left in the trucks.

The helicopters are for the evacuation of responding personnel only.

[/story]

alienreality
If I didn't see so many of these ridiculous rulings and other lunatic stunts by officials, I would say it just isn't possible that this many people in official roles can be this stupid and incompetent. This stuff goes beyond mass delusion, but who knows.. It's like all of them were secretly taken and mentally reprogrammed to be morons, but favoring the police state persona.

This is a nationwide pandemic of mental incompetence. Euthanasia is the humane thing to do with these people.

Sadly, we as the human race have been at these crossroads before. Back before the grid was up and running people did not have devices to keep them so well subdued. People use to rise up against this kind of stuff, and put peoples heads on pikes, and tear down the walls that oppress them.