Obama Blocks Visitor List Access, Echoing Bush

The Obama administration has denied requests from both reporters and government watchdogs to reveal the names of White House guests, echoing Bush administration policy.

MSNBC.com reports that their attempt to get visitor logs was denied:

The Obama administration is arguing that the White House visitor logs are presidential records -- not Secret Service agency records, which would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The administration ought to be able to hold secret meetings in the White House, "such as an elected official interviewing for an administration position or an ambassador coming for a discussion on issues that would affect international negotiations," said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.

These same arguments, made by the Bush administration, were rejected twice by a federal judge. The visitor logs are created by the Secret Service and maintained by the Secret Service, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in 2007 and again this January. CREW had requested records of visits to the Bush White House, as well as the residence of Vice President Dick Cheney, by leaders of Religious Right organizations.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan watchdog focused on special interests, was also rebuffed.

CREW sought records of visits by top coal executives in an effort to learn the extent to which these individuals may have influenced the administration's energy policy. Taking the exact same position as the Bush administration, the Obama administration claimed the records are presidential, not agency records, and otherwise exempt in their entirety because of the possibility in some instances they could reveal information protected by the presidential communications privilege. In prior litigation U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth agreed with CREW that the records are agency records that must be disclosed under the FOIA.

The group is filing a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security.

We are deeply disappointed," CREW attorney Anne L. Weismann told MSNBC, "that the Obama administration is following the same anti-transparency policy as the Bush administration when it comes to White House visitor records. Refusing to let the public know who visits the White House is not the action of a pro-transparency, pro-accountability administration."

President Bush fought for years to keep White House visitor logs private, arguing that they should fall under the presidential communications privilege. In January of this year a judge rejected that argument.

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Comments

[WrongwayFeldman]

How can the guy hold a secret meeting when he's on TV every 5 minutes?

[Mikeeee]

Last I looked it was the peoples house. The people are entitled to know who visits their house AND for what purpose. Too much secrecy is how we landed in the mess we're in now.

[kuhlmey1966]

this is a very simple situation !
MR PRESIDENT you are a resident in the white house,a guest .
We the people own it ,its our house so we should know who comes and goes.
If you need to classify some OK.

please remember we the people-not we the lobbiest

[1088]

I agree with the President! He's learning that these people are looking for anything to start a scandal with the President. Yes indeed, imagine mickey house name on the list? The Republicants party would complain that he wants to take over Disney Land, for that is low these s cums would go.

[morgan1]

Obama is leaving a trail of secrecy behind him that belies his words of transparency and change. It appears he may be worse than Cheney and Bush. I am already looking at '12 to get him out of office but as the two parties have become one, options don't look good for us as Americans.

[slowtospeak]

This must be part of the Open Government Initiative. Making the government more transparent, participatory and collaborative. I hope this changes...

[kotexbarbie]

Is Jeff Gannon visiting the White House again? ;-)

[mergina]

Following in the footsteps of Bush and Cheney ey Obama?

[LaughingMan]

I thought that's what Bill Maher and the far-Leftists were saying he should do.

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

[FrozenNorthObserver]

well its off to bed for me "misty" but not to worry I'll be back to gr ab you by the belt again. It's just too much fun not too.

[WhatDaBleep]

Hey - the Republicans did it so it must be okay!

[Troyxx]

This is no surprise. Remember Big Brother (powerful wealthy elite i.e. corporations,etc.) calls all the shots and if they say 'jump' you say 'how high'. If you don't, they perforate your head. What a bunch of subhumans! Yech, they all make my skin crawl! They belong in cages where one can poke at them occasionally with a very long pointed stick.

[FrozenNorthObserver]

it's been a bad day to be "misty",,

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress
Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17nsa.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/16/aclu-lawyer-obama-not-keeping-transparency-promises/
“I think what’s going on here is very, very clear,” Wizner said. “This is information, the release of which would increase calls for cri m inal acco untab ility. And that is something that the Ob a ma admi nistration has been fig hting to avoid.”

Ob a ma plan would cut number of U*S bank regu lators
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE55F7QV20090616

[rich misty]

Awwww... So you go completely off topic, in order to do what? You have no point or purpose outside of as.sas.sin.ating the President.

Republicans are all hate, all the time. So you throw three, completely unrelated topics out to do what? Hurt me???

Get real neocon, get real.

[FrozenNorthObserver]

LO L, your extremely sharp perception skills are astounding. Astoundingly bad. I'm a 40yr left of center CAN AD IAN. L OL. No repubs here. And I believe the topic contains how Bu sh like O has become, the links provide just more proof.

[FrozenNorthObserver]

Oh and I want O to maintain good health because personally I think you deserve everything he is going to sc re w you out of. Do you really think accu sing everyone who critic ises O of being out to as*asin*ate him.?Do realize how cr az ed that makes you sound? Obviously not, I mean who could take that serio usly? Unba lanced and completley del usi onal and just plain ol' bats**t cr azy.

[AngryCitizen]

yep.

[3dtrix]

Fascinating topic - the he-said/she-said not so much. There is necessarily a middle ground to be discovered here - transparency good, but security and strategy also good. There is no higher level of power and intrigue than that which plays out in the White House every single day, and letting the whole world know who's trod across the threshold on that day can't possibly be seen as the wisest thing - in my experience, more business gets settled backstage that at the podium. We have as a nation - and by extension our chief executive has - legitimate strategic and security concerns which do not lend themselves to public display - for me that is a given - no one plays high-stakes poker with all the cards up.

I am as liberal as liberals get, but this planet happens to be in a rough neighborhood - there are those whose interests include subverting ours.

And yet secrecy is the spawning ground of both moral and financial corruption - and the corruption of late has been empire-imploding. One has to be a complete Pollyanna to believe the war in Iraq was not a direct consequence of the notorious Cheney/Big Oil meetings - which have not seen the light of day to this day. We will pay dearly for a generation - if not longer - for this debacle.

I haven't seen anything on these pages that resolves these concerns. My grandfather used to say "Shoot for the moon - you might

[3dtrix]

get upstairs".

[Yermammy]

it's illegal. Case closed. All that rhetoric and for what.

[rich misty]

Republicans say their flying bullets are covered under:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[OldFreddie]

Well, I actually think that's a pretty good post, and my concern is once again the evidence of what and whom this secrecy policy protects i.e. Cheney and the energy companies, and anyone naive enough to argue that what led to some pretty disasterous results in the Bush administration can't lead to the same thing in the Obama administration.

[rich misty]

Fanned and faved.

[wantthetruth]

You are correct. There is a fine line between security and transparency. This article deals with a CREW FOIA request regarding coal executives and the government. The other request was from MSNBC who I am pretty sure isn't going to release any information that would look unfavorably on Obama. I could care less who goes to the White House for slumber parties, but I do think it is the public's best interest to know who is influencing energy policy.

[zanzig]

But wouldn't the names of the children's guests for slumber parties also be disclosed under this open policy? I'd be really concerned if that was the case (just because they are children and should not be subjected to idiotic point scoring between adults)

[Jezreel]

Well said, 3dtrix.

[rich misty]

FrozenNorthObserver : still waiting for your WH to rtu re tri als link. Apparently goo gle knows nothing about it. Perhaps you enlighten them.
-------------

First let's be clear about your goals here: as.sas.sin.ate the President
-------------

I know much more about this subject than you do. I have been in personal contact with the source, and YOU can contact her too.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2009/04/13/090413ta_talk_mayer

I am reposting this link ^ by author Jane Mayer TO THE SAME IDGITS OVER AND OVER

They are in denial.

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Inside-Terror-American/dp/0385526393

Now, what exactly are your complaints NOW? (since you lost your other arguments and now insist on going off-topic).

[Matthew Harrison]

Ahhhh yes-posting New Yorker articles that talk about a book written by a sycophant Britis lawyer who is going to be defending bobbies for their water-boarding of suspects...come on really? Does everyone here just ape what liberal authors and Keith Olberman say?