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That cartoon bubble above Obama’s head now reads … “I HOPE you’ll understand, I CHANGED my mind.”

Obama’s Transparency Promise: We’re Still Waiting

David L. Sobel  |   Electronic Frontier Foundation

When President Obama – in one of his first official acts – committed his new administration to an “unprecedented” level of transparency, EFF applauded the change in policy. Likewise, when Attorney General Holder, at the President’s direction, issued new guidelines liberalizing agency implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), we welcomed it as a “particularly promising development.” But we also noted that it remained to be seen whether reality would match the rhetoric as the new policy was applied, particularly in the context of pending lawsuits – several of which EFF is pursuing – that challenge Bush-era decisions to withhold requested information.

Unfortunately, the early indicators are not encouraging.

Since this is unlikely to CHANGE any time soon, there’s no need to HOPE that things will get better. Y’all should probably put this on your, “Move along people, there’s nothing happening here” list. That’s what President Obama did with all his past affiliations.

Obama Nation, Politics, Technology Beat EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Freedom of Information Act, Political accountability, Transparency promise

Via Electronic Frontier Foundation

Hat tip: Claudia

We had hoped this would go differently.

Essentially, the Obama Adminstration has claimed that the government cannot be held accountable for illegal surveillance under any federal statutes.

Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF’s litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration’s made two deeply troubling arguments.

First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue “would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.” As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence.

It’s an especially disappointing argument to hear from the Obama Administration. As a candidate, Senator Obama lamented that the Bush Administration “invoked a legal tool known as the ’state secrets’ privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court.” He was right then, and we’re dismayed that he and his team seem to have forgotten.

Well gang … looks as though the only change we get is the rear end that occupies the oval office chair. Affectionately speaking, of course.

Obama Nation EFF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Illegal Surveillance, National Security, National Security Agency, Obama Administration, State Secrets Privilege, Wiretapping