Washington Post: White House Secrecy Starts to Give

[Hissyspit]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/12/AR2008011202308.html?wpisrc=_rsspolitics

White House Secrecy Starts to Give
As Congress Intensifies Efforts for Openness, Administration Accedes

After years of hammering on the walls of secrecy surrounding the Bush White House, activists and Congress have begun, slowly, to open some cracks.

A federal magistrate on Tuesday ordered the administration to reveal by this week whether it has backup copies of millions of missing White House e-mails, which may describe decisions related to the Iraq war.

Last month, a federal judge ruled that lists of presidential visitors that President Bush has kept secret are in fact public records.

On New Year's Eve, Bush bowed to lawmakers in his own party and signed a bill speeding the release of millions of government documents requested by Americans under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), a measure he has opposed.

In the waning days of an administration marked by a penchant for confidentiality, open government groups and Congress have redoubled efforts to ensure that the written record of the Bush presidency is not lost to history. They say recent developments show growing irritation with a president who has used national security concerns to draw a veil over the workings of the executive branch and to hoard power for the White House.

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[rfranklin]

1. It has all been erased, shredded and incinerated....

So there's nothing incriminating to be released.

[malaise]

2. You know why?

They know Dems are winning in November and will ensure that no Dem President escapes with the criminality of Bush and Cheney.

[Didereaux]

3. futile, completely futile...they are gone, gone, gone....just like the CIA tapes

[tanyev]

4. Do we have the list of visitors yet? Do we have information on the emails?

This headline of this article seems quite premature.

[L. Coyote]

5. Everyone but the White House seems more the case. They are not changing one iota yet

in the face of demands. What we have today is a lot of evidence and no access to it. To change the rules a bit and get past executive privilege, we need an impeachment resolution against Bush. This article does artfully debate against that view without mentioning it.