NoisyRoom.net

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Several days ago, I read a post up at Ace of Spades on another Executive Order signed by Obama:

The Bush “era of secrecy” is over, the Obama “era of freaking weird labyrinthine secrecy” begins (Hat Tip: The Anchoress)

I don’t know a lot about this EO. It is long and complicated, but what it looks like to me is a further gearing up to go back and prosecute US political leaders such as Bush and Cheney, our military and those in the intelligence communities for acts carried out up to 10 years previously. It also appears to give the President the ability to classify anything requested for under The Freedom of Information Act so that it cannot be accessed.

Key points of Executive Order – Classified National Security Information from Ace of Spades:

– There’s a 10 year “default” on declassifying classified info unless a longer time frame was specified and justified.

– Unclassified information may BECOME classified upon submission of a FOIA request for it…thus allowing for a public veneer of openness while reserving the right to clam up if said openness should prove inconvenient when someone actually learns of a document’s existence and has the nerve to request it.

Lee Jorgensen – a reader – puts it succinctly:

With this executive order, section 1.7(d) states:

(d) Information that has not previously been disclosed to the
public under proper authority may be classified or reclassified after an agency has received a request for it under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), the Presidential Records Act, 44 U.S.C. 2204(c)(1), the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) …

So much for transparency of government.

Lee also points out that this would actually make it unnecessary to give Interpol documents to hide information. This could very well prove true, but the Interpol EO is far more reaching than just that – see here and here…

But wait, there’s more…

From Bob McCarty Writes, news come of another EO signed into being:

Though the always-transparent (NOT!) White House web site contains no news of it, President Barack Obama has reportedly signed an executive order — yes, another one. This time, he’s tasked the United States Postal Service to help distribute countermeasures in the event of a biological weapons attack within the United States.

Why the Postal Service? Because, according to a New York Times report, of its ”capacity for rapid residential delivery.”

And when I read this MSNBC article, this caught my attention (Hat Tip: Friends of Mark Fuhrman):

Under the new order, federal agencies must develop a response plan that includes possible law enforcement escorts for Postal Service workers and gives anthrax “primary threat consideration.”

Chew on that for a minute… I don’t think I even need to explain the implications of that one.

Obama is definitely circumventing our checks and balances by utilizing Executive Orders. He is nudging us more and more each day and grabbing more and more power while reducing our rights in the name of security and what is best for Americans. It would behoove us to remember some quotes:

• You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. – Rahm Emanuel
• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin
• Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not
  have, nor do they deserve, either one. – President Thomas Jefferson

Update: Fox Nation – Newt: Holder Thinks Terrorists’ Rights More Important Than American Lives