Transparency – Apparently only Semi-transparent

Senator Obama admonished the Bush administration for having secret meetings with oil company executives and yet another veil was pulled down to block the transparency of his own administration just last week. Obama met with coal executives to discuss clean coal technology but he refused to release the names of those those that participated. They Even denied a Freedom of Information Act request for the names. President Obama promised that he would “usher in a era of openness”, when’s it going to start?
Is Obama really serious about transparency? Well, lets take a look. His administration released the CIA reports on the interrogation techniques used by CIA operatives in the war on terror but refused to release reports on the valuable intelligence that was gained through those techniques. If he was really interested in openness and not political gain, he would have.
I think a more serious issue than Obama playing politics with this information is the message it is sending to the intelligence community. They follow the directives from the top and when the next administration comes in, they get hung out to dry. Obama demonized CIA operatives for following instructions and made it clear that even if techniques are approved by the highest elected leaders, they will be taking their careers in their own hands if they dare engage in operations that could be considered close to the edge. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that our intelligence officers are most likely going to be a lot more conservative in their approach. Do you think we will be safer? I sure don’t.
The openness that Democrats and the main stream media are exuberant about has nothing to do with where our trillions of dollars are going to save us from the financial crisis, the the health crisis or whatever the next great crisis will be – no, they are celebrating the openness of airing out national security secrets in the name of restoring America’s relationship with the world and in the process compromising our national security.
Technorati Tags: Transparency,Obama,Bush administration,coal,Freedom of Information Act,President Obama,reports,CIA interrogation,terror,intelligence,politics,wrong message,leaders,Democrats,financial crisis,health crisis,America,world,interrogation techniques,intelligence officers