CJR talks to two experts on problems with Freedom of Information Act requests:
It’s hard to figure out how to say this, but it often feels like the way that the Obama administration is handling FOIA requests is worse than the Bush administration. And it’s hard to know if that’s because we were so excited by Obama’s and Holder’s statements on transparency at the beginning of the administration—then it was business as usual. In my opinion, there definitely hasn’t been any change. It hasn’t gotten any better. The Obama administration has held on to a lot of the justifications that the Bush administration used to withhold records. The agencies are still applying the exemptions pretty liberally to try to withhold as much information as they can.
The Pentagon has finally made a public break with the neo-cons (Zionists like McCain, Hillary, Lieberman, Levin, Graham, etc.) over the use of the military in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, etc. The commanders in the field and the miltary brass no longer trusts any of these people. That’s because the neo-con answer to every international problem is ‘more war’. By refusing to release documents under the FOIA, Obama is trying to protect people like Hillary from standing before the ICC as a war criminal. Most of the FOIA requests being ignored by the Obama administration are related to what the State Department and the Pentagon have been up to in places like Libya, Syria and MEK support in Iran.
NOT to mention, we have OVER 737 military bases in Foreign countries, there NOT for defense, but there to justify the bloated military budget. WHY do we need 80 bases in Italy alone. SOME info can be gotten, but often, when you attempt to research, a ‘dead end’ blocks much information…
Imhotep — I think Obama is protecting himself. He’s the one in charge.
Also, while Hillary may be enacting Obama policies, I think NeoLib fits much better than NeoCon.