White House Refuses to Release Email From Monsanto-Linked Lobbyist

[paulk]

"The White House is withholding documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by an environmental group that suspects the Obama administration of working with Monsanto-linked lobbyists to defend the planting of genetically engineered (GE) crops in wildlife refuges across the country.

The information currently being withheld includes a portion of a January 2011 email that a top White House policy analyst received from a lobbyist with the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), which represents GE seed companies such as Monsanto and Syngenta.

According to legal filings, the White House withheld the portion of the email because it accidentally contained information on BIO's lobbying strategy that, if released, would cause competitive harm to the group and the companies it represents.

"We suspect the reason an industry lobbyist so cavalierly shared strategy is that the White House is part of that strategy," stated Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) staff counsel Kathryn Douglass, who is arguing the email should be a public record. "The White House's legal posture is as credible as claiming Coca Cola's secret formula was 'inadvertently' left in a duffel bag at the bus station.""

more at link

http://www.truth-out.org/white-house-refuses-release-email-monsanto-linked-lobbyist/1329857360


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sure hope this isn't true, but given the Obama administration's past actions regarding GE crops, it's hard to believe the White House here...

[Angry Dragon]

1. I was promised transparency

[cleanhippie]

3. We were promised many things.

And have had very few of those promises fulfilled.

Still, its better than the alternative.

[Angry Dragon]

4. Yes

[truedelphi]

6. Sadly it has become pretty "transparently" obvious that

We the American Public are Screwn.

Our choice in November is between a fascist, Corporate Sponsored, Billionaire Enabling guy who once promised us many things, and a group of RW Corporate Sponsored Billionaire Enabling Right Wing Religious Fundies!

So much for democracy! (Except in Eygpt.)

[Lint Head]

2. "..competitive harm.."? What about harm to human beings?

[truedelphi]

5. I voted for Obama in part becausse he stated that he would see to it tha GM foods were

Labelled as such. A promise he hasn't kept. And now he is in bed with these f___kwads.

Already my body cannot tolerate the wheat that has been GM-created. And my fellow citizens are gulping anti acids, and Prilosec and other drugs in record numbers to keep their esophagal reflux problems to a minimum. And stomach cancer numbers are going off the charts.

[paulk]

10. it's discouraging, isn't it?

both the Republican and Democratic parties are in bed with Monsanto.

We're eating poison.

[EFerrari]

11. Cablegate revealed the State Department shilling for GMOs

all over the world. I don't have the link any more but it shouldn't be too hard to find. What they do here is likely the least of it.

[paulk]

14. I know.

[glinda]

7. I will vote for Obama but

I want someone better than Obama. Same goes for many of the Dems holding office.

[bigwillq]

8. Now THAT's what I call transparency!

LOL

[midnight]

9. K&R

[Bonobo]

12. Oh boy, not ANOTHER pony demand! nt

[Quantess]

15. that better have been sarcasm...

[woo me with science]

13. Every damned day. There's a new one every damned day,

and there will continue to be a new one every damned day until we get the corporate money out of our political system.

Occupy. We don't have representation anymore.