Ethics

Obama continuing Bush secrecy in FOIA cases

By Ed Brayton

Law.com reports that civil liberties attorneys in a range of cases seeking to get documents from the government are complaining that the Obama administration is continuing to maintain the same position that Bush had on releasing documents related to warrantless wiretapping, detainee treatment and other controversial policies.

Despite President Obama's promise of more open government, the Justice Department is resisting pressure to release documents the Bush administration kept secret about domestic wiretapping, data collection on travelers and U.S. citizens, and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

In half a dozen lawsuits, Justice lawyers are defending Bush administration decisions to withhold records from the public. They have opposed formal motions or spurned out-of-court offers to merely delay these cases until the new administration rewrites Freedom of Information Act guidelines and decides whether the new rules might allow the public to see more.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 19, 2009 (boomark / email).