Thomas S. Blanton Quotes
No one really knows how many [SBU] records are covered or for how long, and there are practically none of the limits that we do have in the security classification world.
The SBU’s were invented by executive agencies without any congressional authorization and used to keep things from public view that did not meet the criteria of the security classification system. Many just saved the agencies from answering many questions but many were just cover ups for embarrassing government actions or incompetence.
Thomas S. Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, Describing the findings of a massive study done by the National Security Archive, the General Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service on the increasing use of Sensitive But Unclassified categories (SBU) of government information, March 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The main reason that the English or American Freedom of Information Act is not used so much by individuals is that the executive agencies make the process of obtaining documents very difficult and then when the government stonewalls, the requestor has to spend a great deal of time and often engage an attorney. The result is that few individuals can spend the time or money and the field consists mostly of media and non profit organizations which have staff and resources.
He was the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had released an unclassified Summary of the Committee Report on the CIA using torture and perverse treatment of suspect terrorists in the aftermath of the 9-11 attack on New York. Most Republicans argued vehemently that the Report should be classified and kept secret as the CIA behavior was so egregious, unpalatable, and morally reprehensible that there would be negative consequences including perhaps demonstrations and attacks against Americans in foreign countries. Moreover, Terrorist organizations would use the heinous CIA behavior as a recruiting tool for anti-American terrorists. McCain, who had himself been the victim of North Vietnamese torture cited the moral and ethical reasons to prohibit torture but also explained what has been proven over and over again that torture victims will tell the torturer any nonsense that they think the torturer might believe just to get obtain relief from the agony of the torture.
The executive order to which this statement referred was the then new President’s first—Executive Order 13489. It was enthusiastically received by the public, historians, researchers and the media. However at the end of Obama’s two administrations, the system was a little better than when George W. Bush, blocked much of the Freedom of Information Act from being implemented. However, the agencies who want to operate in secrecy without having to deal with public criticism, had developed even more sophisticated techniques of avoiding transparency and when they must disclose, they have developed techniques to delay the process, sometimes even for years, while they study whether the material should be disclosed. The president personally declassified a few CIA files from decades ago that the agency maintained should be secret, but he did nothing else systemic so solve the problem of declassifying and material and nothing to control the over classification which virtually everyone agrees is a major problem. More material is being classified than ever.
Who does and does not get parole often depends more on politics and political contributions than on any issue of merit. Keeping all the records secret and the meetings closed allows much of this to happen. In Georgia, the politicians are so desperate to be sure that no one can determine the truth about parole decisions that they have passed a law that even the highest judges of the state cannot subpoena parole board records even if they are material and necessary for criminal or civil trials.
As hard as it is for us to imagine today, while her husband was President of the United States, the First Lady wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column every single day with politics frequently the subject. While she usually agreed with the President, there were occasions where they seemed to not see things exactly the same. She tended to be more liberal than he. However, there were those who believed that when she criticized politicians, it was with FDR’s knowledge and blessing and she sometimes did his “dirty work.” Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the most influential people in the country—certainly more-so than any First Lady before and since.
He was criticizing the George W. Bush Administration of his own party.
The Green Party and The Socialist Party had combined in an alliance. This was their publication. In addition to showing that the right to know and freedom of information was a major issue in other industrial democracies as well as the United States, the quotation is particularly interesting because the title of the article was used over 200 years before by none other than the American patriot, Patrick Henry. See {60328}. The phrase has been used many times in many lands since.
See Louis D. Brandeis for an earlier phraseology.
