Obama: Dialing Back the Bush-era Secrets Rules
EmailABC News' Jon Garcia reports:
President Obama, in a move meant to show he's committed to government transparency, has issued a new executive order designed to take a first whack at simplifying the information classification system.
Foremost, the order limits appeals by agencies to keep documents classified and stops agencies from keeping documents classified indefinitely. It also sets a deadline: Agencies must clear a backlog of some 400 million pages of classified material by the end of 2013 — and all documents deemed OK to declassify must be made available to the public by that date, too.
Obama has also streamlined the list of who can classify information and at what level and makes provisions to update and install technology to help the declassification board process materials faster.
Obama has often said he campaigned on making government more transparent and last May, while laying out his reasons for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, he also announced a plan for overhauling the "state secrets" privilege.
"I will never hide the truth because it's uncomfortable. … I will tell the American people what I know and don't know, and when I release something publicly or keep something secret, I will tell you why," Obama said at the time.
"All too often our government made decisions based on fear rather than foresight; that all too often our government trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions. Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, too often we set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And during this season of fear, too many of us — Democrats and Republicans, politicians, journalists, and citizens — fell silent. In other words, we went off course," he said.
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What about the Executive Order he issued quietly and with no media involvement that completely destroys our soverignty?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Obama-gives-Interpol-free-hand-in-U_S_-8697583-80291137.html
This man is trying to destroy every part of America that he can as fast as possible.
Posted by: PatF | December 30, 2009, 12:36 am 12:36 am
Why did he issue the Interpol executive order?
Posted by: Chris | December 30, 2009, 12:38 am 12:38 am
“he also announced a plan for overhauling the “state secrets” privilege.”
C’mon, Jon Garcia. I know you read Jake’s blog and he has called out the Obama Admin. for continued use of “state secrets”….yet you make no mention of this.
Same old, same old: Obama makes a splash with a public announcement while continuing business as usual (or even accelerating the practice he is claiming to reduce, e.g., deficit spending) behind closed doors. And the MSM Obamabots lap it all up.
Posted by: tjp612 | December 30, 2009, 1:10 am 1:10 am
I raalized your comment in this commenting site about the topic of the Obama: Dialing Back the Bush-era Secrets Rules its a really nice information.
Posted by: Lean Muscle X | December 30, 2009, 4:10 am 4:10 am
“I will never hide the truth because it’s uncomfortable. … I will tell the American people what I know and don’t know, and when I release something publicly or keep something secret, I will tell you why,”
I guess this doesn’t include the Health care Bill?
That said, we have heard all these platitudes from this President way too often. These are words and words are cheap currency to this President.
The jury is out.
Posted by: Lone Star Rules | December 30, 2009, 6:12 am 6:12 am
Lets have some transparency when the house comes back in Jan. So we can see who has to be bribed to pass the health overhaul. Not more of this behind closed doors stuff.
Posted by: earl | December 30, 2009, 7:20 am 7:20 am
let’s make transparency and point fingers at previous presidents…as for Nobama same closed door politics, sneaking in on weekends for votes politics as usual
Posted by: s | December 30, 2009, 7:25 am 7:25 am
Whenever someone repeatedly says how honest and “transparent” they are….I wonder…and always find that they are liars and sneaks….
Applies here.
Bush in 3, 2, 1,……
Posted by: mjishernameo | December 30, 2009, 7:46 am 7:46 am
“overhauling the state secrets privilege”….I guess he is just talking about past administration, not current ones…
Posted by: Randy the AC guy | December 30, 2009, 7:57 am 7:57 am
Sooooo, when a staff member decides to change long-standing protocol that permits gate-crashers to put their hands on the POTUS and VP, they will have to appear before Congress?
Posted by: malcat | December 30, 2009, 8:44 am 8:44 am
What about the Executive Order he issued quietly and with no media involvement that completely destroys our soverignty?
Posted by: PatF
right, he’s canceling BOSCO chocolate syrup distribution…… you guys are funny…. yawn
Posted by: XX | December 30, 2009, 10:02 am 10:02 am
‘secrets’ exposed this year by republicans:
The president is a Kenyan racist who hates white people and white culture.
The first Hispanic American to become a Supreme Court Justice is a “reverse-racist.”
It’s okay to call the president a liar as he’s saying something true while addressing a joint session of Congress.
Making health care more accessible and affordable is a Nazi policy.
Death panels led by Barney Frank will convene in the middle of the night to decide if Grandma lives or dies.
Government-run healthcare programs are evil…and don’t you dare put the government in charge of my Medicare!
The attacks of 9/11 didn’t happen on Bush and Cheney’s watch.
Norm Coleman’s senate seat was stolen by Al Franken and John McCain’s presidency was stolen by ACORN.
Whoever shouts the loudest and angriest at a town hall meeting is a better American than people who don’t.
The biggest environmental threat to the planet is global cooling.
Posted by: XX | December 30, 2009, 10:06 am 10:06 am
How are these “Bush Era” secrecy rules?
There has been classified information under every president, Democrat and Republican.
There have been efforts to reform the system and release information under every president, even Mr. Bush.
This is just more hype to distract the media, and it’s working.
The end result will be that more bureaucrats will have jobs, people trying to protect the US will spend too much time trying to keep things that should be classified, classified.
It will end in a series of blunders where some reformer releases information that either does harm the US, or that embarrasses the Obama administration, probably by posting it on the internet.
We’ve seen all this before…
Posted by: tj | December 30, 2009, 10:18 am 10:18 am
The idiot makes all our secrets public and we wonder how a bomb gets on the NW flight on Christmas day?????????????
Posted by: HH | December 30, 2009, 10:18 am 10:18 am
right, he’s canceling BOSCO chocolate syrup distribution…… you guys are funny…. yawn
Posted by: XX | Dec 30, 2009 10:02:12 AM
I’m not sure what THAT means (are you sure you’re on the right web site?), but as National Review Online’s Andy McCarthy put it, the White House must answer these questions:
“Why should we elevate an international police force above American law?
“Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies?
“Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files that will be beyond the scrutiny of Congress, American law enforcement, the media, and the American people?”
Posted by: Live! From DC! It's Sat Night! | December 30, 2009, 10:24 am 10:24 am
worth mentioning again….. hypocrisy, thy name is republican..
what happened to all the righty’s worried about trying terrorists on american soil?
AbdulMutallab case is virtually identical to the Richard Reid “Shoe Bomber” case from December 2001, Reid was tried in civilian courts and is now serving a life sentence. Seemed to work fine in his case…anybody criticizing this approach at the time…..?
Posted by: Rightwing Denial | December 30, 2009, 10:30 am 10:30 am
a President who thinks he is above the very Constitution this country is based upon
Posted by: Shoe
coming from the right, a statement like the above would be humorous, if it wasn’t so pathetic based on actual reality from 8 years of Bush/Cheney and Gonzo’s ‘justice’ dept.
Posted by: XX | December 30, 2009, 10:41 am 10:41 am
Posted by: Live! From DC! It’s Sat Night! | Dec 30, 2009 10:24:19 AM
Imagine the Left-wing howling and frothing if Bush had pulled this…
Posted by: tjp612 | December 30, 2009, 11:13 am 11:13 am
So, is Obama working on his stand-up comedy routine? Was this tongue in cheek or does he only think he is effective when he is attempting to bash Bush? Even Maureen Dowd is catching on…
Posted by: The Audacity of Golf | December 30, 2009, 11:21 am 11:21 am
AbdulMutallab case is virtually identical to the Richard Reid “Shoe Bomber” case from December 2001, Reid was tried in civilian courts and is now serving a life sentence. Seemed to work fine in his case…anybody criticizing this approach at the time…..?
Because Guantanamo didn’t exist back in Dec-01…because the term enemy combatant wasn’t applied outside of those caught in Afghanistan back in Dec’01….but don’t let facts get in the way of your Bush derangement Syndrome
Posted by: HobokenJohn | December 30, 2009, 11:29 am 11:29 am
Deranged
sociopathic ranting.
Fear,
fear,
fear – white privilege,
threatened!
Stockholm syndrome
oh those poor stockbrokers
Black
helicopters
black
planet
FEAR!
Posted by: Flash Override | December 30, 2009, 11:30 am 11:30 am
Hey, what happened to my earlier post, stating that this is payback for President Obama’s financial backers? Check out the non-government organization dedicated to the release of cherry-picked intelligence files, the “National Security Archives” and that entity’s connection to the “Open Society Institute”
I’ll not post the link to more info, in case that is the reason my prior post disappeared.
Posted by: Louie | December 30, 2009, 11:35 am 11:35 am
What is transparent is that we have
elected the most inept bunch of
naive, smug,arrogant and clueless
leaders in years. Say what you want
about Bush and Cheney. They were
tough and willing to stand up to
anyone and we were safe for 8 years.
I do prefer someone with a spine and
convictions rather than a bunch who
find it more important to be politically
correct and trying to be loved in
the world. They find it more appealing
to prosecute the CIA and our leaders who
did what they could to keep us safe then
to offend the radical muslim community.
You cannot defend that stance.
Posted by: wis134 | December 30, 2009, 11:36 am 11:36 am
Transparency you can believe in. “Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities.”
Posted by: Axey | December 30, 2009, 12:02 pm 12:02 pm
Because Guantanamo didn’t exist back in Dec-01.
Posted by: HobokenJohn
so you deny that Reid was tried in civilian courts and nothing ‘bad’ happened, along with no republican outrage..
republicans, gotta love em’, no amount of reality will get in the way of their rants….
Posted by: Rightwing Denial | December 30, 2009, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
You cannot defend that stance.
Posted by: wis134
don’t have to, it’s republican nonsense
Posted by: XX | December 30, 2009, 12:09 pm 12:09 pm
so you deny that Reid was tried in civilian courts and nothing ‘bad’ happened, along with no republican outrage..
republicans, gotta love em’, no amount of reality will get in the way of their rants….
So true. I’ll never forget what Pelosi (R) and Reid (R) said about Brooks Brothers…
Posted by: French Cuffs | December 30, 2009, 12:10 pm 12:10 pm
Posted by: HobokenJohn | Dec 30, 2009 11:29:59 AM
Bush is still POTUS, just letting you know.
Posted by: Cheney | December 30, 2009, 12:12 pm 12:12 pm
Unbelieveable! This guy cant accept responsiblity for ANYTHING. It is HIS people in the system. . man up Obama and quit blaming Bush for your failures
Posted by: Scott | December 30, 2009, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm
so you deny that Reid was tried in civilian courts and nothing ‘bad’ happened, along with no republican outrage..
republicans, gotta love em’, no amount of reality will get in the way of their rants….
You really are slow….The Richard Reid attack came almost immediately after 9/11, long before we figured out that we had other options than handing him over to law enforcement. After that came Jose Padilla, who was arrested at the Chicago airport on a mission from KSM to blow up apartment buildings in the United States. He was taken out of the criminal-justice system, declared an illegal enemy combatant, and transferred to the Charleston brig for interrogation.
Posted by: HobokenJohn | December 30, 2009, 12:14 pm 12:14 pm
“When I release something publicly or keep something secret, I will tell you why…” LOL
Obama went easy on Wall Street and cozyied up with Goldman-Sachs, practically begged for health “reform” to be rammed through Congress with 36% public approval and a gift to the big corporate donors to the party…
Democrats: tax and spend, earmarks, creative accounting, pork, bribes for votes, entitlements which don’t work and break any semblance of a budget…
Broken promises of transparency with secret deals for Big Pharma, AMA, insurance industry, Congress and lobbyists…
Obama appears to only want transparency to apply to previously classified government material. He makes me feel loved and safe and warm.
Posted by: The Audacity of Golf | December 30, 2009, 12:21 pm 12:21 pm
Dateline 2020 – White House cites Bush for problems.
Posted by: jamescbuilder | December 30, 2009, 12:27 pm 12:27 pm
–Obama went easy on Wall Street and cozyied up with Goldman-Sachs, practically begged for health “reform” to be rammed through Congress with 36% public approval and a gift to the big corporate donors to the party… –
I can’t wait for Cap and Trade to get passed too. I’ll get another nice bonus…For you guys, well…but hey, great for the planet, right? Gotta call Timmy G. now, he never lets his phone ring more than twice.
Posted by: GS Rulz | December 30, 2009, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
before we figured out that we had other options than handing him over to law enforcement
Posted by: HobokenJohn
well, it’s no mystery or surprise, that the Bushies and their ‘justice’ dept. were stumbling around in the dark..
like Dana Perino proudly stated:
‘”We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”
Padilla was held for three-and-a-half years as an “enemy combatant” after his arrest in 2002 on suspicion of plotting a radioactive “dirty bomb” attack. That charge was dropped and his case was moved to a civilian court
On January 3, 2006, he was transferred to a Miami, Florida, jail to face criminal conspiracy charges. On August 16, 2007, José Padilla was found guilty, by a federal jury, of charges against him that he conspired to kill people in an overseas jihad and to fund and support overseas terrorism. He was widely described in media as a suspect of planning to build and explode a “dirty bomb” in the United States, but he was not convicted on this charge.
On January 22, 2008, Padilla was sentenced by Judge Marcia G. Cooke of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida to 17 years and four months in prison.
Posted by: Rightwing Denial | December 30, 2009, 1:05 pm 1:05 pm
“Obama: Dialing Back the Bush-era Security Measures”
There. FIFY
Posted by: The Audacity of Golf | December 30, 2009, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Do you know what you would put on Obama’s list? No one is perfect, but I do have to give him credit for beginning the damage control after the last 8 years.
Posted by: Kenn | December 30, 2009, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm
Whew! That makes me feel better! I fault myself for not tuning into C-SPAN to watch all the health care negotiations that occurred in Harry Reid’s office. Thank goodness it will be on C-SPAN again when the House and Senate go to conference on the two bills.
Posted by: Mike in Costa Mesa | December 30, 2009, 4:05 pm 4:05 pm
Another bad joke!! This from a group who promised transparency on everything Bush, but not on what they are doing–for instance: the stimulus package, the health care bill, the probe into Fort Hood, (they have told the people involved not to cooperate with Congress), this Christmas Day fiasco(they did the same thing as in the Fort Hood, not to cooperate), the firing of AG Walpin, the Black Panther suit being dropped, the fiasco at the White House Dinner with the crashers…I could go on and on—this crowd is much more secretive than the Bush or Clinton Administration—Liberals can not understand truth, not their truth, but the real truth. More lies were told on Pres. Bush than any President in History!!
Posted by: S Smith | December 31, 2009, 1:10 pm 1:10 pm
PRESIDENT BUSH IS RETIRED. OBAMA IS IN CHARGE NOW. HE NEEDS TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND DO HIS JOB. OBAMA BASED HIS ENTIRE CAMPAIGN ON LIES. WE NEED TO REPLACE ALL LIBERALS IN CONGRESS ASAP. HOPEFULLY, THE BIASED MEDIA WILL WAKE UP IN 2010.
Posted by: 1CAROLINAUNC | January 1, 2010, 1:47 am 1:47 am
Gee, let’s expose Bush secrets while things much harder to find about Obama. What a surprise.
Did you mention that the new EO allows Obama to make something a secret as soon as someone makes an FOIA request?
Posted by: drjohn | January 3, 2010, 2:31 pm 2:31 pm