Wikileaks Publishes $1B of Public Domain Research Reports

laird writes "Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress. The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to abortion legislation. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress's analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year. Although all CRS reports are legally in the public domain, they are quasi-secret because the CRS, as a matter of policy, makes the reports available only to members of Congress, Congressional committees and select sister agencies such as the GAO. Members of Congress are free to selectively release CRS reports to the public but are only motivated to do so when they feel the results would assist them politically. Universally embarrassing reports are kept quiet."

Re:Saddening

[kitsunewarlock]

Wait...Ron Paul won?

Re:Say goodbye to "Wikileaks"

[canajin56]

Pelosi will Rickroll them into submission?

Re:The U.S. government is extremely corrupt.

[hobbit]

It is also true that those who are ethically unencumbered are more likely to win the races they enter than anyone who tries to follow the rules.

Apparently if you smoke a little weed every now and again you can kick ass in the swimming pool.

Re:So, what's so interesting?

[Eil]

So now that these reports are "released", how many of you, slashdot readers that post in this thread, actually read at least 1 of them in its entirety? How many read 2? 5? Hands, anyone?

Um, this is Slashdot. To RTFA is practically a sin, imagine how verboten it would be to read research reports?

(Actually, I'm off to see if I can find anything interesting right now. I just wanted to read the comments first.)

Re:For the .01% of the people who would read it...

[David Gerard]

Indeed. Hopefully he can get back to being the necessary dose of principled asshole.

Re:Why not under FOIA?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the purpose of writing "shi-"?

Saves bandwidth. You know, one horizontal line for a dash instead of a horizontal line and a vertical line for a t.

Re:The U.S. government is extremely corrupt.

[Tubal-Cain]

And the geek shall inherit the Earth.

Re:The U.S. government is extremely corrupt.

[syntaxglitch]

Don't forget the classic Douglas Adams quote!

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.