U.S. releases FEMA storm documents
Papers show early response to '04 hurricanes
By Melanie Payne
and Jeff Cull
THE FORT MYERS NEWS PRESS
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''We're not just talking about laws that were created for one administration. They must be protected over many administrations,'' she said.But this administration uses the laws in a different way than some past administrations have, according to Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota.
In 2001, then Attorney General John Ashcroft directed government agencies to withhold documents even if releasing the information caused no harm, Kirtley said.
''The current climate within the executive branch is that if they have any basis to claim an exemption (to the Freedom of Information Act), they will cite it and hope that you, the requester, will back off,'' Kirtley said.
Indeed the documents showed that FEMA appeared to prepare early for the Florida hurricanes and to advocate on behalf of the state throughout the hurricane season.
On Aug. 13, 2004, before Hurricane Charley had made landfall, then undersecretary Michael D. Brown, the head of FEMA, wrote a ''Memorandum for the President'' supporting Gov. Jeb Bush's request for a disaster declaration for the state of Florida.
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http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051203/NEWS01/512030329/1010