ANGST IST WIEDER DA

Attacks make public data secret
By MARK BENJAMIN AND NICHOLAS M. HORROCK

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government has aggressively scrubbed Web sites and eliminated public reports in an effort to keep previously public data out of the hands of terrorists.

But the uncoordinated decisions to pull data are being made on an ad-hoc basis without much regard for the benefits of making some information public in the first place, government watchdogs said.

"It is a clumsy effort made on an ad-hoc basis," Reece Rushing, a policy analyst at the government watchdog OMB Watch said.

"There has not been any guidance on what goes up and what stays down ... and no public dialogue," Rushing said.

Since Sept. 11, the Environmental Protection Agency has removed "Risk Management Plan" data from its Web site. The data, collected under the Clean Air Act, are designed to let citizens know what chemicals are used in nearby plants and how to respond to an emergency because of a release.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry eliminated a report from its Web site on the relative security of chemical facilities and the Federal Aviation Administration has stripped tools from its Web site that allow users to download databases on accidents and pilot training and maintenance schools.

States have followed suit. New Jersey stripped information from its Web site on chemicals stored at some 30,000 private sector facilities and Florida is withholding data on crop dusters.

OMB Watch compiles an ongoing list that reflects the trend.

The effort reflects continued actions by the government to prevent U.S. freedoms from being used as tools to attack the United States.