So what's the point of this 'anti-secrecy panel' if they cannot

[babylonsister]

act except at the request of the president?

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20061029-115609-8893r.htm


Anti-secrecy panel called 'puppet'
By Shaun Waterman
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
October 30, 2006


A panel set up last year to reduce excessive secrecy in government is being labeled toothless after its chairman told lawmakers that he could not act except at the request of the president.
"The statute under which we operate provides that must request the board undertake such a review before it can proceed," wrote L. Britt Snider, chairman of the Public Interest Declassification Board, to Sen. Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat.
Government transparency advocates say that if the statute is interpreted that way, it makes the board, in the words of Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists, "a White House puppet."
Mr. Aftergood said, "The board needs the capacity for independent action; otherwise it might as well not exist."
The letter from Mr. Snider says it is "an interim response" to a request from Mr. Wyden and a bipartisan group of colleagues for the board to review two reports from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that assessed U.S. intelligence about Iraq before the 2003 invasion, in the light of what has been learned since.
"We believe that portions of these two reports remain unnecessarily classified," wrote committee members Sens. Christopher S. Bond, Missouri Republican; Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat; Mike DeWine, Ohio Republican; Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat; Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican; and Vice Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia Democrat, in a letter last month.

more...

[AndyA]

1. The Dictator has to say its OK before ANYTHING happens in our government.

Oops, strike that...HIS government. Welcome to Fascist America. It's a reality.