Rahul Sagar Quotes

I believe that the American People have a right to know what was done in their name..

Why does the White House sometimes seem so determined to close the door on the people's right to know what their government is doing?

Most leaks from large bureaucracies are “good” leaks: no danger to national security, no harm to innocent people, information the public ought to know.

I don't think that any government has a right to subvert the truth or to cover up the truth, and all I see WikiLeaks doing is exposing the truth.

Government ought to be all outside and no inside [for] corruption thrives in secret places [and] it [is] a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.

It’s hard to sometimes get information out of the government. It’s really hard. You can’t do it without asking tough questions.

The people have the right to know what their Agents are doing or have done, and it should not be in the option of the Legislature to conceal their proceedings.

Sweeping privilege against disclosure is…contrary to a sound public policy…It is a small step to assert a privilege against any disclosure of records merely because they might prove embarrassing.

National security is like that vague term Executive privilege. Both terms have been abused; both concepts have been damaged; they've been used as shields for secrecy.

The Official Secrets Act is not to protect secrets. It’s to protected officials.

… a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless.

Americans have a right to know what is being done in their name…. These cables tell the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

The U.K. government has a responsibility to keep secrets in some circumstances. It also has a responsibility not to abuse that power for other purposes.

The job of a journalist is to find out stuff. The job of the government - sometimes - is to keep stuff secret. There's a natural tension there.

There should be at least one leak like the Pentagon Papers every year.

The pathological degree to which former Vice President Dick Cheney operated in secrecy led to government abuses that we'll probably spend years learning about.

I far more trust the press than I do the Administration with judgment of what should be secret and what shouldn’t. How many scandals has the Administration uncovered on its own?

There is a veil of secrecy that is descending around the administration which I think is unseemly

The CIA claims that secrecy is necessary to hide what it's doing from enemies of the United States ... the real reason for secrecy is to hide what the CIA is doing from the American people.

Public disclosure is one of the great disinfectants ever invented.

Leaks usually have more value to the public at large than the harm which they occasionally do.

People in power tend to be not as enthusiastic about open records as they were before they came to power.

Can the public business be thus transacted and in secret?

Remember that J. Edgar Hoover’s secret files began in the interests of national security and ended up being used for blackmail.