Good for Her, Good for Us
The New York Times reported yesterday that "The Federal Education Department shared personal information on hundreds of student loan applicants with the Federal Bureau of Investigation across a five-year period that began after . . . Sept. 11 . . ." Education Dept. Shared Student Data With F.B.I., NY Times, Sept 1, 2006.
The story was first reported by Laura McGann, a 24 year old graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Ms. McGann noticed what she thought was an unusal reference to"data sharing " in a GAO report that she reviewed for a research project. A little research turned up another mention of the program in a report from the inspector general’s office in the Education Department. On June 6, Ms. McGann interviewed a deputy inspector general at the department. After that she filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the FBI, this data sharing program was intended to track down foreign terrorist who abuse student visas and engage in financial fraud and identity theft. Only federal student aid is generally only available to US citizens and permanent residents. That means the people the FBI was looking for wouldn't be found in the Education Department data. The students whose records were "shared" were mostly, if not all, US citizens being spied upon without warrant or notice.
A review of the files requested by the FBI showed that the reviews have not led to a single prosecution.
Ms. McGann's persistence paid off. Not only did she scoop every newspaper in the country, but when she received the response to her FOIA request, she learned that the program had been terminated on June 16. Exactly ten days after she interviewed the deputy inspector general.
Ms. McGann's persistence and result is the stuff that freedom of the press was designed for. By shining the bright light of day on a disreputable program of governmental invasion of privacy, she brought that same program to a well-deserved halt.
Ms. McGann is moving on to Dow Jones Newswires. Good for her. Good for us.
Hat's off
The story was first reported by Laura McGann, a 24 year old graduate student at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Ms. McGann noticed what she thought was an unusal reference to"data sharing " in a GAO report that she reviewed for a research project. A little research turned up another mention of the program in a report from the inspector general’s office in the Education Department. On June 6, Ms. McGann interviewed a deputy inspector general at the department. After that she filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
According to the FBI, this data sharing program was intended to track down foreign terrorist who abuse student visas and engage in financial fraud and identity theft. Only federal student aid is generally only available to US citizens and permanent residents. That means the people the FBI was looking for wouldn't be found in the Education Department data. The students whose records were "shared" were mostly, if not all, US citizens being spied upon without warrant or notice.
A review of the files requested by the FBI showed that the reviews have not led to a single prosecution.
Ms. McGann's persistence paid off. Not only did she scoop every newspaper in the country, but when she received the response to her FOIA request, she learned that the program had been terminated on June 16. Exactly ten days after she interviewed the deputy inspector general.
Ms. McGann's persistence and result is the stuff that freedom of the press was designed for. By shining the bright light of day on a disreputable program of governmental invasion of privacy, she brought that same program to a well-deserved halt.
Ms. McGann is moving on to Dow Jones Newswires. Good for her. Good for us.
Hat's off
posted by BuddhistAttorney | 9:16 PM
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