Sometimes, government has a legitimate reason not to make certain information public. It would be disastrous, for instance, if Washington revealed specifics of our nation’s military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. And local governments risk scaring away economic development prospects if they divulge too early that a particular company is interested in investing in the area.
But with a few exceptions, the government’s business should be conducted in the open, and government information that is not covered by those exceptions ought to be available within a reasonable period of time after it is requested. Most certainly, political considerations should not delay the release of information.
But the Obama administration has been delaying release of publicly available records depending on the political views of those who request the records.
The Associated Press went through 1,000 pages of government e-mail and found that requests for federal records were routed through top political advisers, and that government officials looked closely at the political viewpoints of the people or organizations seeking the information.
“(I)n July 2009, (the Department of) Homeland Security introduced an uncommon directive requiring a wide range of information to be vetted by political appointees for ‘awareness purposes,'” the AP reported. “These special reviews at times delayed the release of information to Congress, watchdog groups and the news media for weeks beyond the usual wait … .”
The breadth of information requests that had to go through political filters is astounding.
“Anything that related to an Obama policy priority was pegged for this review,” the AP reported. “So was anything that touched on a ‘controversial or sensitive subject,’ that could attract media attention or that dealt with meetings involving business and elected leaders. Anything requested by lawmakers, journalists, activist groups or watchdog organizations had to go to the political appointees.”
Federal workers had to specify “Democrat” or “Republican” if a member of Congress asked for public records, and the White House itself reviewed a number of the information requests. Ironically, even the AP’s request for e-mail to investigate the review policy was subjected to political review.
Does that sound like the “open” and “transparent” administration that Mr. Obama has pledged?