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Looking back at the week in news

By Staff | Mar 26, 2016

Administration sets new record for unfound records

President Barack Obama’s administration has set new records in failing to turn over documents to journalists and in dragging its feet, sometimes for years, when it does comply.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the administration also has set a record for the number of times people asking for records were told that those records could not be located.

During the president’s seven years in office, the response to 128,825 requests for documents was that they could not be found. That amounts to one-sixth of the number of queries for federal government records during that period, according to The Associated Press.

Few private citizens seek access to government records. Most of the time, Freedom of Information Act filings are by journalists. That, some may think, means failure to comply is not their problem.

But it is. Most news media requests for documents are made because journalists think the records contain information the public needs to know. Frequently, FOIA filings are prompted by suspicion of wrongdoing. So when the government says no – by whatever method – it is the public being kept in the dark.

How unacceptable is the excuse that many records could not be found? Ask yourself this: What would happen if the Internal Revenue Service demanded documents from you – and you responded that you couldn’t find them?

Cuba claims no knowledge
of any political prisoners

Cuban President Raul Castro is never asked embarrassing questions by those in his country’s state-run "news" media. But during a joint appearance Monday with U.S. President Barack Obama in Havana, an American reporter asked Castro about political prisoners held by the regime.

Even criticizing Castro can land a Cuban in custody. It happens thousands of times a year, according to The Associated Press.

Castro denied it. His reaction to the U.S. reporter was "What political prisoners?"

Obama has said normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations should improve human rights in that country. We hope that’s the case, but don’t count on it.

After being embarrassed by U.S. reporters, Castro abruptly ended the appearance with Obama. "I think this is enough," he said.

Actually, it isn’t.

FBI gets unexpected help in
opening encrypted iPhone

We’re glad the FBI appears to have found a way into the encrypted iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino terrorists. We think Americans should still be worried that the government went after Apple and sought to force the iPhone maker to furnish the FBI with a key to unlock the device. The problem with that approach, Apple CEO Tim Cook maintained, is that such a key would have also ultimately allowed the FBI to open any other phone.

Now come reports that a third party may have provided an answer that will allow the phone in question to be opened without Apple’s help.

But there’s a certain irony to the way the matter seems to have worked itself out. After the issue became public, the FBI got lots of suggestions from people who wouldn’t ordinarily have known about the case had the agency kept the thing under wraps. At least one of those ideas looks promising, Justice Department officials have said.

In other words, the FBI appears to have relied on crowdsourcing.

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