Posted on 11/17/2001 9:11:28 AM PST by Red Jones
11:30 2001-11-17
BUSH PERFORMS COSMETIC SURGERY
Clinical alterations to a law giving the public the right to access official files in effect protects the country's administrations, past and present, from the public eye. President George Bush has approved an order which makes it more difficult to get access to the documents relating to the activity of ex-presidents. Under the US Constitution, by the 1978 Presidential Registry Act, these documents belong to the US citizens but the alterations approved by George Bush will enable officials to stall and impede revelation of sensitive material.
The Presidential Registry Act was brought in after Watergate, to make the US Presidency appear more transparent. The original idea was that documents related to the presidency would be accessible to the public 5 years after the president left office, and the more sensitive documents, 12 years after.
The 68,000 documents of the Reagan Administration (Ronald Reagan was President for eight years between 1984 and 1992, George Bush Senior was his Vice President) were due to become public in January, 2002. However, the White House had previously declared that it needed more time to handle the growing number of requests to view the documents and the order signed by George Bush makes it extremely difficult to gain access to them.
Under the new order, either the President to whose term in office the documents refer, or the serving President, have the right to revise the documents before they are made public. There is no time limit for this
revision period and the party who requested access to the documents will have to take the case to court if he wants the process to move faster.
The White House claims that this "simple complements na organised process", according to Alberto Gonzales, advisor to the White House who prepared the order signed by George Bush. Critics declare that this order was made to save George Bush Senior from embarrassing revelations.
Either way, those who suffer will be historians and researchers who will in this way be deprived of material which does not pose a threat to national security.
The US Congress has the right to propose a law to overturn the order.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
It is also no surprise that president Bush seeks to cover up for previous presidents. What is shocking to me is that in the order by Bush both the current president and the previous president who produced the document will have the legal right to alter the document before the historians get to see it. Isn't that a bit sick? We're not merely talking about delaying the release of documents, we're talking about altering them to mislead the historians. We're talking about falsification and cover-up. They are going to give us a sanitized history. I'm sure the Republican cheerleaders will like that.
Congratulations go to the Democrats for passing the Freedom of Information Act 30 years ago. I hope there are enough honest Democrats and honest Republicans in Congress to over-ride this bad order by King George.
One of the purposes for a free people making laws that force government documents to be made public is to discourage executive branch officials from misbehaving. If Bush' order stands, then there will apparently never be a time when independent historians will be allowed to look at these documents.
Is Bush covering up for Clinton's corruption or for his father's abuses of power? Is this also part of the War On Terrorism that documents made by either Bush or Clinton while president will be altered before they are released to the historians?
Lets see some evidence he has altered ONE document.
So does the National Inquirer.
Pravda isn't Pravda any more. It's a web site of the same name that features stories like Old Lady Sucked To Death in Bed by Giant Ticks. It can be fun, but it seldom can be taken seriously.
(sound of shortcircuit, followed by smoke)
What are you talking about? Pravda.ru is the same old Pravda its always been?
Either English or one of those liberal whipped Americans who hyphenated his name with his wife's.
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