Obama Closes Doors on Openness

by Roy C | June 21, 2009 at 12:25 pm

300 views | 24 Recommendations | 8 comments

Obama has reverted to a Bush policy that he had decried as a senator and that is in apparent violation of his stated policy 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.

Oil company executives had met with then vice-president Cheney in "secret meetings". When Bush refused Freedom of Information requests for White House visitor logs, many protested, from Obama, then senator, to the likes of Bill O'Reilly of Fox News.

Obama has had a recent string of campaign promise annulments, which began with his first stimulus package. He failed to put the bill on-line, refused to take out so-called "earmarks", spending provisions, usually pork barrel, refused to consult in a bi-partisan way about the package, which was written almost entirely by Nancy Pelosi's staff.

Now, we have the latest broken promise, of openness.

Obama Closes Doors on Openness

By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding "secret energy meetings" with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama's "clean coal" policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged "presidential communications." The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig's office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure. Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a "new era" of openness, "nothing has changed," says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. "For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies."

The hard line appears to be no accident. After Obama's much-publicized Jan. 21 "transparency" memo, administration lawyers crafted a key directive implementing the new policy that contained a major loophole, according to FOIA experts. The directive, signed by Attorney General Eric Holder, instructed federal agencies to adopt a "presumption" of disclosure for FOIA requests. This reversal of Bush policy was intended to restore a standard set by President Clinton's attorney general, Janet Reno. But in a little-noticed passage, the Holder memo also said the new standard applies "if practicable" for cases involving "pending litigation." Dan Metcalfe, the former longtime chief of FOIA policy at Justice, says the passage and other "lawyerly hedges" means the Holder memo is now "astonishingly weaker" than the Reno policy. (The visitor-log request falls in this category because of a pending Bush-era lawsuit for such records.)

Administration officials say the Holder memo was drafted by senior Justice lawyers in consultation with Craig's office. The separate standard for "pending" lawsuits was inserted because of the "burden" it would impose on officials to go "backward" and reprocess hundreds of old cases, says Melanie Ann Pustay, who now heads the FOIA office. White House spokesman Ben LaBolt says Obama "has backed up his promise" with actions including the broadcast of White House meetings on the Web. (Others cite the release of the so-called torture memos.) As for the visitor logs, LaBolt says the policy is now "under review."

The Society of Environmental Journalists also has decried the lack of openness.

In an article entitled, "Analysis: Obama Openness Has Yet To Fulfill Promise", they had the following to say:

May 20, 2009

This week's Appeals Court decision on White House e-mails is a reminder that there is still a vast gulf between the glittering promises of open government President Obama made his first day in office and performance where it counts.

"The appeals court in Washington ruled that the White House Office of Administration is not an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act," the Associated Press' Nedra Pickler wrote, "allowing the White House to keep secret documents about an e-mail system that has been plagued with problems."

It was just one of many missed opportunities for the administration to make good on its declarations that it would foster government transparency.

Several watchdog groups evaluated the Obama administration's performance in the First Amendment and openness arena after its first 100 days, and gave it decidedly mixed grades.

The coalition known as the "21st Century Right-To-Know Agenda" found that many federal agencies were still dragging their feet in carrying out Obama's openness and FOIA decrees. The groups found that the administration had not made clear progress in cutting through the burgeoning secrecy stamps known as "Controlled Unclassified Information" (CUI). Many of these Bush-era secrecy stamps lack any foundation in statute and they especially impact the subjects environmental reporters cover.

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jazzyzazzy

at 00:48 on June 22nd, 2009

Opening any goverment, will only result in a massive can of worms, For the public to digest in total disbelief. Then when all the fuss dies down they go and do it again and again.......cheat.

QueensHart

at 15:38 on June 21st, 2009

John Kusumi here on Now Public has an excellent review of the movie The Obama Deception

http://my.nowpublic.com/culture/movie-review-obama-deception#comment-392792

Here are some of my favorites which illustrate he is going to far surpass Bush

Obama is a brilliant reformer, then he is aware of how compromised he is by surrounding himself with corrupt people. Twenty years ago, Nancy Pelosi was a new Congresswoman, and she became a hero to Chinese dissidents right after the Tiananmen Square massacre by going to bat for them on Capitol Hill. Now as I watched The Obama Deception, it was saddening to see how corrupt Pelosi has become. Also I was amazed at how off base and unrealistic is the thinking of Rahm Emanuel." (JK)

"Jones' point is that Obama is NOT a brilliant reformer; just a brilliant liar. He may or may not be right. Thus far, I have seen no cessation of American kleptocracy. In fact, Obama took up crusading against the intellectually-dishonest shibboleth of "protectionism." The word protectionism is used by sell outs to avoid and evade sanity in trade policy." (JK)

"There are parts in the movie that are absolutely brilliant. Complex material was covered at a level for general understanding. I'm thinking of one scene where the "Burger King analogy" is presented. It's more easily watched than described." (JK)

"In the mildest formulation, Barack Obama is at least sold out. With his harsher and more scathing formulations, Alex Jones will be accused of twisting the truth. But there are many grains of truth included, and these naturally invite analysis. Alex Jones is standing on solid ground, but his "analysis" becomes the full throated tirade that wrinkles my nose and seems wearing. "(JK

Movie Review: The Obama DeceptioShare: by JohnKusumi | March 20, 2009 at 04:52 am

Has anyone noticed that no mention is ever made of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan?

CynicalPatriot has an article currently on the BROKEN PROMISES!

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/top-10-obama-broken-campaign-promises-breach-public-trust

duo

at 16:29 on June 21st, 2009

I will soon be able to tell you whether we actually have an administration that is interested in equal justice and open disclosure, or whether it is more interested in protecting the previous administration.

On May 7, I sent a FIOA Request to the USDOJ regarding that agency helping Shelby Co. Jail to cover-up the SECRET arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal in 2003. He was a physically and mentally ill American citizen. He was treated much like the War on Terror camp detainees - arrested and held in secret, then returned to his family DEAD without any eplanation. Official records and investigation regarding his murder have been DENIED for nearly 6 years.

So far, all I have gotten from Eric Holder's DOJ is a runaround - no records. The DOJ answered my previous requests about USA v. Shelby County Jail in 2007, but only after an 18-month delay and intervention by my senator. This time, I asked the DOJ why it conspired with Shelby Co. Jail in Memphis to hide Larry's death by allowing the jail to enter perjury into federal court proceedings that were conducted in '05. The jail ommitted mention of Larry's death in hearings to be released from federal overview (which made their reports to the feds fraudulent). Since the DOJ and I had already corresponded on same extensively, why would the DOJ accept the jail's testimony that omitted Larry's demise?

I hope the DOJ does not plan to lie about any of this, because the hearings were public record. In fact, they were public hearings!. The jail even got an inmate to testify how terrific Shelby Co. Jail had become. A reporter already found the Release for me that the jail was issued after those hearings, and I was told the Release seemed hidden.

The DOJ actually wrote to me this month and asked where the agency should look for the records on that federal lawsuit in their offices. Isn't that amazing? Sounds like a stall. I will try to stay home until the DOJ answers our FOIA request, since my family was sent fraudulent attorneys who did not file the wrongful death suit against Shelby Co. Jail and later had judges act as though The Cochran Firm firm did not exist in Georgia when we sued the attorneys for their part in the fraud and cover-up of Larry's death. I have been stalked and accosted before at neighborhood businesses last year for asking "WHAT HAPPENED TO LARRY NEAL?" See the FIOA Request at this link:

FIO Request to USDOJ from Mary Neal
http://my.nowpublic.com/health/foi-request-usdoj-re-larry-neal-and-cochran-firm-fraud

I will soon let you know about this administration's commitment to open government. We would like for that agency to do its job and investigate Larry's murder and the subsequent cover-up, take a look at the apparent denial of due process we endured in civil cases against The Cochran Firm, and protect our rights to proceed in legal actions without being stalked online and in person in violation of U.S. Code 18, Sections 242 and 245. So far the police won't even investigate my stalking by four cars. A US DOT truck was with them once (affidavits by witnesses filed in the USDC case against The Cochran Firm). I don't think that law firms can order federal vehicles to be out following folks and waylaying them at neighborhood stores at 10:30 on weekend nights.

nyctuber

at 17:09 on June 21st, 2009

Ah yes, another sweeping generalization by the desperate Right, disregarding (as always) the openness which Obama has indeed brought to government since taking office. No wonder Republicans lost their majority and then the Presidency. Learn from mistakes and keep proper perspective? Nah.

Roy C

at 20:48 on June 21st, 2009

Well, except that the Society of Environmental Journalists are on the left, and the Newsweek journalist is on the left and that disproves your point, though it does make the point that you need to read the story carefully, attentive to details, so that you may have a basis for your argument.

When Newsweek complains, just to repeat the point, NYC Tuber, because it is absolutely amazing that you don't know this, Newsweek comes from the left, the slobbering over Obama left, to boot.

"Environmental Journalists" sounds right-wing to you? Try again. See if facts support your hypothesis Consider what you believe to be possibly wrong and then check if it is wrong.

That way you can spare yourself the embarassment.

Roy C

at 16:08 on June 21st, 2009

Good luck.

duo

at 16:16 on June 21st, 2009

Thanks, Roy. We've had a criminal government long enough, and many people suffered needlessly. I wish us all good luck and that the new administration is actually what it says - champions for open disclosure and equal justice.