A Victory for Democracy and Open Government

Thursday night we learned that a provision banning the release of prisoner abuse photos was dropped from the supplemental war spending bill. At its core, this is a major victory for democracy and open government because it means that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) will be left intact.

For the past weeks, I have been fighting to preserve FOIA. For me this was not about the photos but upholding one of the strongest pieces of legislation our government has ever passed to guard against abusive government secrecy.

With specified exceptions, FOIA grants access to federal agency records and disputes over this access should be settled in court. Simply put, by granting access to government information, FOIA ensures transparency in our government. At the same time, if there is good reason for information not to be released publicly, then the Administration can win in court for the information to be withheld.

What happened recently, however, is that there was a proposal to circumvent this process by attempting to insert a provision into a supplemental spending bill that would retroactively change FOIA by allowing the government to suppress any pictures taken between September 2001 and January 2009 relating to the treatment of war detainees. To suspend FOIA for this period of time could have far reaching implications and inhibit our ability to look into the conduct of the war.

Over the past weeks, we have heard many reasons for why these pictures should not be released publicly. Under our law, it is up to the Administration to argue these reasons and for the courts to decide if they are valid.

Regardless of what an individual legislator believes, myself included, about the release of these images, congressional intervention is inappropriate and undermines government transparency standards that have been in place for over 40 years.

Let me be clear -- I am immensely proud of our troops and have a long history of backing initiatives to protect them overseas and provide for them when they return home. But I also respect what they are fighting for -- our country and our country's values.

Resorting to extreme measures to get around the judicial process is a terrible precedent to set and not in line with the values we hold dear.

Comments

[JustifiablyParanoid]

Talk about dodging a bullet. Thank goodness.

[dsws]

The FOIA is a good law, and it should be kept intact. Shouting to the world "We don't torture, but we do lie about whether we torture!" would be a horrible decision.

But FOIA is still only a statute, not a section of the Constitution. Congress would be within its authority to revise or completely reverse it, and Obama is within his rights to publicly favor doing so.

[Dredd]

Onward toward moderation, one victory like this at a time. Moderation is a good thing.

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2009/06/military-moderation-not-modernizing.html

[Doofus]

Prohibiting the pictures from 'getting out' would only seem to
increase the pressure for doing exactly that, while getting
them out isn't going to do US any good at all, is it?

Yeah, when we abuse prisoners, we put the photos
on the internet. Is this a great country or what?

If there's a saving grace here (but there isn't),
this was all done as part of an ongoing Fool's
Errand perpetrated years ago by Total Idiots,
only re-elected once & then swiftly forgotten.

Bushy/Rumm­y/Cheney/C­ondi WHO?

[Seldon]

Thank you

[serena1313]

Perhaps Obama does believe releasing the photos would cause a violent reaction against our soldiers, but his argument seems shallow considering the rest of the world already knows what took place. Furthermore if the US is no longer practicing those methods, releasing those photographs would show the world that the US is earnest in keeping that promise.

Just days before they were to be released Maliki heavily pressured Hill, the US Ambassador to Iraq, and Army General Odierno, top US military commander in Iraq, not to release them. Yet neither Gates nor Obama mentioned that. They simply said the commanders on the ground adamantly opposed it because it would endanger the troops. Maliki's objections are inexplicable unless Iraqi soldiers are implicated somehow or it would open a new can of worms. However I tend to believe this has more to do with the military brass CYA and the defense contractors hired to carry-out Bush/Cheney's "enhanced" interrogations.

The attempts to suppress the photographs effectively reinforces the notion the US is untrustworthy. Therein it becomes all that much more difficult to prove otherwise. Words alone will not convince a skeptical world the US is earnest in keeping its promise. Releasing the photographs will, notwithstanding. IMHO.

[buckbuck11]

Thank you for fighting for Upstate, NY, Rep. Slaughter. I wish you were my rep down here in Wyoming County!

[Marnie1]

Best thing Obama can do is release the photos and other Bushie memoribilia. The storm of reaction will be vioilent but he will get it over with and past early in his administration.
The longer he holds on to them the more their repercussion becomes his issue and not Bush's issue.

[texanna]

Terrific! Now get to work on eliminating the IMF funding, please.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"Thursday night we learned that a provision banning the release of prisoner abuse photos was dropped from the supplemental war spending bill."

On Friday, we learned that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a one-paragraph order blocking the release of the photos. The origional ruling by the U.S. District Court and the successive ruling by the Court of Appeals is now being taken to the U.S. Supreme Court. This, of course, is the same court that put Bush-43 into office.

This is victory?

Or even the proper procedure?

[NowWhatFolks]

Yes, it IS proper procedure. The fact that the court is conservative-biases is the fault of Bush being in office. That's how democracy works. Our country made very bad decisions, and let Bush in office twice. We now have to deal with those bad decisions. If the SCOTUS was made up of more liberal leaning judges, you probably wouldn't be so worked up at the procedure, and be assuming that they would more than likely make the correct ruling, from your point of view.

[bayside]

Thank you Rep. Slaughter.­.This is good news..

[madisonhack]

See previous post, bayside.

[progressiveconnie]

GOOD MORNING!!! MY FELLOW HOMO SAPIENS WHICH MEANS THE SPECIES WHO IS WISE.
The following DECLARATION was written by Thomas Jefferson: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; THAT WHENEVER ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR ABOLISH IT. PURR

[jmpurser]

Thank you Representative Slaughter! Defeating that cancerous little amendment was indeed a great day for the health of our nation.

[OliverTwist]

Right On!

[TJCole]

Louise respectfully; we are not a Constitutional nation at this time what so ever...!

The Constitution is in abeyance, suspension, limbo...

We are lost in the woods compounding error upon error....l­eading to mayhem, chaos government by Executive fiat, caprice...

We cannot function as a government with a Constitution of convenience as if a Chinese menu where you can select one from column A and one from Column B...

I appreciate especially as a New Yorker all your great work in the defense of FOIA but until we have a Constitutionalist in the White House our Constitution will remain "just a piece of paper" or prop for photo ops and lip service while grand standing..­.as is record...

As to these photos which are the record of our decent into ignorance and barbarism of course we wish to hide these abominations from the more civilized world...bu­t they must be accessible to a Special Prosecutor and any Commission or Congressional Committee and such for the proper adjudication and restoration someday of the rule of law..

Currently as things stand our President and Attorney General are guilty of Obstruction of Justice just like in the days of Nixon..!

I know you agree...

[mightyhead]

I know I agree...

[TJCole]

Thanks Mhead...

[caterpol]

Why are you stating that these photos must be available to a Special Prosecutor, etc. as if they're being withheld?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the argument is over making them public, and that argument has nothing to do with Obstruction of Justice.

[TJCole]

Yes it does the Lieberman Graham Bill, Obama supports would deny them to even a Special Prosecutor or Commission or Congressional Committee though most of them have seen them...alr­eady, they are said to be terrible disgusting inhuman and a sure grounds for major prosecutio­n...of all involved including Dick Cheney..