Obama pledged during his first week in office to make government more transparent and open. The nation's signature open-records law, he said in a memo to his Cabinet, would be “administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Yet, another LIE!
The Associated Press has discovered that top officials in the Obama administration have secret e-mail accounts that allow them to operate clandestinely, and that even the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) demands don’t pierce the secrecy!
Many Obama appointees are using SECRET email accounts, the Associated Press has reported.
Under the law, citizens and foreigners may use the FOIA to compel the government to turn over copies of federal records for zero or little cost. Anyone who seeks information through the law is generally supposed to receive it unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making in certain areas. YET, MONTHS LATER MANY ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS HAVE NOT TURNED OVER THEIR EMAILS THAT WERE REQUESTED BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS!
The Obama Administration is violating the FOIA. We must ask Congress why?
Some of President Barack Obama’s political appointees, including the Secretary for Health and Human Services, are using secret government email accounts they say are “necessary to prevent their inboxes from being overwhelmed with unwanted messages.” Are they serious? Do you mean to tell us that Secretary Kathleen Sebelius personally opens hundreds of emails every morning? Of course not! She has a large staff to handle her communications.
The secret accounts in the Obama Administration violate any kind of supposed “openness”.
Most U.S. agencies have failed to turn over lists of political appointees’ email addresses, which the AP sought under the Freedom of Information Act more than three months ago.
The Obama administration told the AP that there’s nothing wrong about the practice. They claim that any records produced via inquiries by Congress include the secret e-mail accounts, but the AP found only ONE instance where that proved to be true.
However, most Congressional oversight committee members have never heard about this practice until now!
The bottom line: WHY DO THESE PUBLIC SERVANTS HAVE PRIVATE ACCOUNTS AND WHY ARE THEY NOT BEING TURNED OVER?
Obama administration officials claim it’s because e-mail gets too difficult to handle when the addresses are made public. Ludicrous! This secrecy from the supposedly “most transparent administration ever” is yet another troubling piece of evidence about the nature of this White House and unaccountable government in general.
At least ten agencies have not yet turned over lists of email addresses, including the Environmental Protection Agency; the Pentagon; and the departments of Veterans Affairs, Transportation, Treasury, Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security, Commerce and Agriculture. All have said they are working on a response to the AP.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz declined to comment.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman, Marissa Hopkins Secreto, referred inquiries to the agency's FOIA office, which said its technology department was still searching for the email addresses. Other departments, including Homeland Security, did not respond to questions from the AP about the delays of over three months. The Pentagon said it may have an answer by later this summer.
Join the conversation on Facebook
Quite frankly, the Obama Administration is NOT abiding by the rules of the Freedom of Information Act. But does that really surprise you?
Now get this for an Obama government “extortion” plot against our freedom of press:
The Labor Department initially asked the AP to pay just over $1.03 million when the AP asked for email addresses of political appointees there. It said it needed pull 2,236 computer backup tapes from its archives and pay 50 people to pore over old records. Those costs included three weeks to identify tapes and ship them to a vendor, and pay each person $2,500 for nearly a month's work. But under the department's own FOIA rules – which it cited in its letter to the AP – it is prohibited from charging news organizations any costs except for photocopies after the first 100 pages. The department said it would take 14 weeks to find the emails if the AP had paid the money.
The Labor Department later acknowledged that the $1.03 million bill was a mistake and provided the AP with email addresses for the agency's Senate-confirmed appointees.
In our books, that is OUTRIGHT EXTORTION!
But we believe that the Associated Press has only touched the tip of the iceberg.
What other secretive, non-transparent actions has the administration done against its own citizens?
Will you please insist that Congress gets to the very bottom of these secret emails, that the requested departments turn over those emails as required by law, and that the Administration follow the law—the Freedom of Information Act!
Sincerely,
Conservative-Daily
No comments yet - make the first one!