Ethics

Testing Obama's Commitment to Transparency

By Ed Brayton

Daphne Eviatar, who appeared on my radio show recently, has an interesting article at the Washington Independent about some upcoming court cases that will tell us just how seriously Barack Obama is about restoring transparency and accountability to our anti-terrorism programs.

The test of those commitments will come soon in key court cases involving CIA "black sites" and torture that the Bush administration had quashed by claiming they would reveal state secrets and endanger national security. Legal experts say that the Bush Department of Justice used what's known as the "state secrets privilege" - created originally as a narrow evidentiary privilege for sensitive national security information -- as a broad shield to protect the government from exposure of its own misconduct.

One such case, dealing with the gruesome realities of the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" program, is scheduled for oral argument before a federal appeals court in early February. The position the Obama administration takes in this case may be the first major test of its new policies on transparency in government.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).