Obama Says "More Transparency" - While Gates Says "Except When It Comes To Torture Evidence"

You cannot make this stuff up.

On the one hand, you've got the President, traveling to foreign lands and sounding that all-American call for transparency and open government. On the other hand, you've got the President's Department of Defense fighting for just the opposite - less visibility and blocking open government.

President Obama is visiting China and telling folks there that open communication and freedom of speech is a good thing. Meanwhile, back home in Washington, D.C., his administration is filing Supreme Court motions to block the publication of photos sought under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA).

President Obama's remarks at a "town hall" meeting in China, according to an Associated Press report, included a statement that said unfettered access to information "should be available to all people."

(The article also reports the President as saying "We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation." I'm wondering how the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan are reacting to that statement?)http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5isOFwdbq0tsqatW6vJpkDRTI1gMgD9C0GJ400

Unfortunately, unfettered access to information is just what the Defense Department does not want. Thanks to a compliant Congress and President Obama's signature - which passed a law circumventing the FOIA for just this circumstance - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has barred the release of 21 photos showing American soldiers torturing and humiliating Iraqi detainees.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/15/scotus.detainee.photos/index.html

According to press reports, the Obama administration filed a brief with the Supreme Court late Friday supporting Gates' blocking the release of the photos. The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking publication of the photos, and promises to keep working towards that end.

President Obama had initially indicated he would not stop the release of the photos, many taken at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison by soldiers in charge of prisoners. But he later reversed course and supported suppression of the documents.

So Mr. President, which is it? Freedom of information for all citizens is good for the Chinese, but not so much for Americans? How can you urge other countries to practice transparency and open dissemination of information while simultaneously shielding documents proving evidence of government law-breaking from publication at home?

How do these guys stand up on the world stage and say this stuff with a straight face?

Two Torturous Tales

Investigating and analyzing the role of torture as a legitimate tool of a democratic society has taken different paths in the USA and the UK - apparently the Bush and Blair governments collaborated on many aspects of the practice on many occasions since 2003.

In the USA, the President has openly admitted that some malicious "enhanced interrogation techniques" were utilized, but all that is history now. The President said "stop that!", so of course torture has ceased. In accordance with his forward looking attitude, Mr. Obama's government has decided not go mucking around in the past to discover who ordered what and when. And for good measure, the government pardoned all CIA involvement even before it was fully identified and proven. Shades of Gerald Ford.

In the UK, the government is pretty steadfastly denying any complicity in "war on terror" torture. Well, maybe some renditioned detainees were flown over the country, and perhaps a couple of British citizens were arrested and taken to a third country to be interrogated. But that's all really, you can trust us. Fortunately, intelligence and war investigation committees in Parliament keep releasing reports detailing the obstruction and refusal to answer questions on the part of the government, and the papers keep reporting it. Sooner or later, the British government will have to answer to the people's representatives in Parliament.

If only the US Congress had the guts to ask the same questions, and many more. Mr. Obama does not seem to realize that he would be hailed as a hero if he would push to expose the past, identify the transgressors and make the future honorable. So far, the President is no hero. The sad truth is the occupations and wars in Iraq & Afghanistan are major, major money makers for many corporations, companies who have most of Congress bought and paid for. Same as it ever was? Keep looking forward!

Here's a story on the latest Parliament committee report on the UK government's role in illegal extraditions, renditions, and torture.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5726A620090803