It had long been established in the Civil Worlds that public business was to be transparent, and personal business opaque; but it was as well recognised that the two would always have a turbulent interface, and that the clique, the caucus, and the conspiracy were as ineradicable features of civility as the council or the committee.
The Freedom of Information Act should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.
The Obama administration has provided almost no public information about the NSA's compliance record.
The Barack Obama Administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined. That's a staggering record. And it comes from a president who said that he's going to have one of the most transparent administrations ever.
We must maintain the integrity of the White House, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the White House.
Interdepartmental memoranda, advisory opinions, recommendations of subordinates, informal working papers, material in personnel files, and the like, cannot be subject to disclosure if there is to be any orderly system of government.
Bureaucracy always seeks the path of least disclosure.
Senator Bernie Sanders saying in effect that he wants Washington to operate under the old rules, where someone like Steve Bannon would never be allowed to visit the White house, never mind work there.
I hope you will respond to the crisis of confidence that Watergate has created by opening up your administration and reaching out to people in a more magnanimous spirit.
I do not feel that this administration would be open to considering the kinds of analyses that I create.... what has never happened with any other administration was to have a political operative sitting on the National Security Council much less having a vote on the Council.... The politicians with little or no National Security experience, are tuning out the professional apolitical views and analyses of the men and women who do.
Colin Powell speaks regularly to high-ranking U.S. officials, he knows a lot about what's going on in the government. And so he's a powerful person who merits transparency, just like any other powerful people do.
Give members of Congress a sense of equity in your administration.
