Politico’s Josh Gerstein looks at the Obama White House and transparency. He writes:
The Obama administration also seems to be in no hurry to release security-related records that might disrupt its own plans. One report on released Guantanamo detainees who allegedly returned to fight was expected to come out last month – but never surfaced, notes Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff. Publishing that report could complicate Obama’s attempt to close Guantanamo and farm out many of the detainees to other countries. “It’s easy to release stuff that makes your predecessor look bad,” Isikoff said at the AU meeting. “The real test of openness of an administration is when you’re willing to release material that might not let you look good.”
Indeed. See here and here. And Obama is thinking about releasing War-on-Terror documents that will make his predecessor look bad. Isikoff broke that story, too. He writes:
Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify-and publicly release-three internal memos that will lay out, for the first time, details of the “enhanced” interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration for use against “high value” Qaeda detainees. The memos, written by Justice Department lawyers in May 2005, provide the legal rationale for waterboarding, head slapping and other rough tactics used by the CIA. One senior Obama official, who like others interviewed for this story requested anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity, said the memos were “ugly” and could embarrass the CIA. Other officials predicted they would fuel demands for a “truth commission” on torture. Because of an executive order signed by President Obama on Jan. 22 banning such aggressive tactics, deputies to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. concluded there was no longer any reason to keep the interrogation memos classified. But current and former intel officials pushed back, arguing that any public release might still compromise “sources and methods.” According to the administration official, ex-CIA director Michael Hayden was “furious” about the prospect of disclosure and tried to intervene directly with Obama officials. But the White House has sided with Holder. Faced with a court deadline in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit regarding the memos filed by the ACLU, Justice lawyers asked for a two-week extension “because the memoranda are being reviewed for possible release.” (White House, Justice and CIA spokesmen all declined to comment.)
Got it? So, the Obama administration has buried a report on recidivist Guantanamo Bay detainees that would cause political problems but it is seeking to release “torture” memos that could prove politically beneficial. Those Bush-era memos, according to Newsweek, would be released “over objections from the U.S. intelligence community.” Surely we will read stories in the Washington Post and New York Times this week about the Obama administration “politicizing intelligence,” no? Especially because Obama advisers have overruled “intelligence professionals” before, right? As the old journalism axiom has it: Three is a trend. It would be most interesting to see Obama explain the double-standard tonight.
