Posted by Tina
Remember back in 2008 when the Pesident promised America that his administration would be transparent. Once elected he even sent a memorandum to all of the department heads on transparency and open government:
My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.
Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.
The public began to doubt the truth behind the president’s promise after revelations of expanded NSA spying leaked to the public. Today’s revelations (see below) will surley be most interesting to Julian Sanchez whose request for information on this subject was denied.
The explanation for denial of FOI request might be quite simple as explained in the Washington Examiner this morning. Mark Tapscott reports that the Obama administration rewrote the Freedom of Information Act back in April of 2009:
How serious an attack on the public’s right to know is the Obama administration’s invention of the “White House equities” exception?
“FOIA is designed to inform the public on government behavior; White House equities allow the government to withhold information from the media, and therefore the public, by having media requests forwarded for review. This not only politicizes federal agencies, it impairs fundamental First Amendment liberties,” Cause of Action explains in its report.
Equities are everything
The equities exception is breathtaking in its breadth. As the Greg memo put it, any document request is covered, including “congressional committee requests, GAO requests, judicial subpoenas and FOIA requests.”
And it doesn’t matter what format the documents happen to be in because, according to Greg, the equities exception “applies to all documents and records, whether in oral, paper, or electronic form, that relate to communications to and from the White House, including preparations for such communications.”
The longer this administration is in office the more his promises reveal a shady back story.