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Obama Administration Accused Again of Concealing Bush-Era Crimes
Obama Administration Accused Again of Concealing Bush-Era Crimes
By Matt Renner | Truthout
President Obama promised to usher in a new era of government transparency when he was sworn into office nine months ago.
On January 21, Obama signed an executive order instructing all federal agencies and departments to "adopt a presumption in favor" of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and promised to make the federal government more transparent.
"The government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed or because of speculative or abstract fears," Obama's order said. "In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public."
But since that time, the Obama administration has sought to conceal information in several high-profile court cases, in an effort that civil libertarians say amounts to covering up crimes committed by the Bush administration.
Last week, in a federal courthouse in New York, Obama's Justice Department attorneys again argued in favor of secrecy. The case involved 23 lawyers representing detainees at Guantánamo Bay who alleged in court papers that they were targets of the Bush administration's so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program(TSP), an initiative operated by the National Security Agency (NSA) that Obama called "unlawful and unconstitutional" during his presidential campaign in 2007.
"Our work with our clients may have been deeply compromised by illegal surveillance carried out by the last administration," said Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative, a civil rights organization. "The new administration has no legal basis for refusing to come clean about any violations of attorney-client privilege by the NSA." Read more.
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Their eight years of running roughshod on the Constitution and breaking the laws of the land, including our signed Treaties, have left a trail of credible crimes which are now fully documented with reams of evidence as well.
Following in the cowardly footsteps of the 107th Republican Rubber Stamp Congress (Hastert/Frist) all the way up to the 110th Democratic weakling "Off the Table", "If Anyone Knows of a Crime" Congress (Pelosi/Reid), and the current Democratic 111th "Off The Table", "If Anyone Knows of a Crime", and "Looking Forward Not Back" Congress (Pelosi/Reid), Obama/Holder apparently will carry on this congressional treason and abdication of duties by shielding and protecting the nation's two imperial unitary rulers, Cheney/Bush, these two granted absolute powers by Congress, not authorized by the Constitution, to govern the nation absolutely and they were placed above the nation's rule of law and Constitution by those weakling Congresses', every one of them, and now the Obama/Holder team, keeping their eyes looking forward, without them truly restoring the nation's Constitution and rule of law-that in America no one is above the law, starting with the president, but as long as Cheney/Bush are at large and remain unaccountable for all their credible crimes against the American people and their Constitution the future that Obama/Holder look to may be just a pipe dream for them after all.
"Holding Cheney/Bush Accountable For Their Credible Crimes" Link. Enter your Zip Code and take action.
Cheney ok'd the 9/11 attacks, according to a high level intelligence officer, by "giving the go-ahead to ISI and Al Qaeda, and ordering up a terrorism exercise that allowed him to send all relevant close-in air defense strip alert craft away from the target areas, and to disable the NORTHCOM normal response to flight path diversion", Link.
"Hold Cheney/Bush Accountable For 9/11 Attacks" Link.
“ …that which is clearly known hath less terror than that which is hinted at and guessed.”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'