Posted on 01/21/2009 6:56:37 PM PST by Red Steel
Barack Obama's first acts as president included signing three orders today that could open public access to documents and records that had been closed off during the Bush administration.
Obama reversed George W. Bush's restrictions on access to records of former presidents. He also told the Justice Department to write new guidance to agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to improve transparency, and gave top officials in his administration four months to create a new "Open Government Directive" that he said would go beyond the requirements of the open records law.
If the new rules are followed within the government, they could open scores of records that have been closed for years to the public and reporters. Some agencies, with the encouragement of the Bush administration's legal advisers in the Justice Department, have reached deep into FOIA's exemptions to withhold information.
During the military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, for example, the names of drugs forcibly administered to prisoners were withheld, claiming they would create "an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy" -- one of the law's reasons for rejection. News organizations and local citizen groups have had little access to information on toxic chemical spills that used to be readily available on the Internet. And agencies have tried to rebuff The Post and other news organizations on such requests as the schedules of high-level officials, the names and salaries of political appointees, and inspection results for government-owned or subsidized housing.
-snip-
The two memoranda to agency heads reverse the Bush administration's policy of rejecting requests for records whenever there is a justification in the loosely worded Freedom of Information Act.
One of Obama's memos says: "The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.
(Excerpt) Read more at voices.washingtonpost.com ...
How ‘bout the emails and phone records of calls between Clinton and Richardson during the Monica Lewinski investigation. Remember Richardson was at the UN and offered Lewinski a job, there?
why didn’t the administration produce them...unless there WAS something damaging?
It was a matter of presidential powers. The president has a right to consult anyone that he wants without disclosing what advice was given or who was talked to. Bush and Cheney claim that the president would be extremely isolated if everyone that he wanted to talk to felt that their words were going to be repeated and demonized by the opposition media.
I should have added that I don’t think that the emails that the judge wanted are in existence at this time. The judge’s order said that he did not believe that the Bush administration had been diligent enough in their search.
I guess diligent enough is a matter of interpretation.
hmmm...well we’ll see if obama “interprets” this “transparency” to include himself as well?? doubt it.
Rose Law Firm records? Vince Foster?
John Kerry’s discharge records?
Chris Dodd’s Countrywide Mortgage Papers?
how right you are! :)
Hehehe...maybe Roberts had that quote in the back of his mind when he administered the oath.
What a effing loon
Google still has it in the cache.
Save the page for future use:
What about the evidence in the Ford building during the klinton impeachment?
Hell we heard the same thing through the previous administration (Clinton). WMD’s were repeated left and right. Bush was going with what the intelligence reports that he received which was the same with the Clintons, Bush before Clinton and Reagan.
“One of Obama’s memos says: “The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.”
With the exception to valid birth certificates of course
I and many other FReepers were quite angry about Bush sealing Clintinoid documents until Bill said, “Okay, you can see them.”
It was a stupid idea to begin with. It still is.
Classified documents don’t have to be turned over. Sensitive documents concerning violations of U.S. law should see the light of day.
I’d have to know the particulars here, but I encourage more light on documents from the Clinton administration. As long as that is part of the plan, great!
If this is a Bush witch hunt, Obama is a bigger ass than I thought.
And that White House web sight should be cleaned up. Any guy that can’t release his birth certificate, shouldn’t be talking about anyone else’s transgressions.
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