White House visitor records closed

[sabra]

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/breaking_news/16392915.htm

White House visitor records closed
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House complex are not subject to public disclosure.

The Bush administration didn't reveal the existence of the memorandum of understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration's lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge's ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.

The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

[babylonsister]

1. Isn't that 'our' house? I hope the WaPo prevails. nt

[fooj]

2. F*ck that. The White House is OUR house.

We have every right to know who is coming and going.

[rodeodance]

48. How will we know who is sleeping in Lincoln'sbed??

[Captain Hilts]

3. The president is a tenant, not an owner. nt

[Phredicles]

4. They don't want us to know about any more of Jeff Gannon's

back-door visits?

[me b zola]

41. I think that this may have more to do with who was @ the energy meetings...

...and other scandels of the impeachable and/or imprisonable kind. ;)

[jazzjunkysue]

44. "Back-door visits. " You had to say that, didn't you?

HYSTERICAL!
:rofl:

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. Why would they do this if they had nothing to hide?

Answer: They wouldn't.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Mafia approach to everything. Next thing, they'll have a fire.

"Oh, we can't find those logs. They were burned up, see?"

They're so desperate now they don't care about appearances in any way, shape, or form. This is the very last-gasp actions of a totally failed presidency... dumping the US Treasury into friendly hands as fast as humanly possible so they can gather it up later to hole up in some far-off place and pay off every person who might charge them with something.

[Warpy]

7. They can still be subject to subpoena

in any investigation the Democrats care to pursue.

[durtee librul]

49. and do what - - plead

the 5th.

[Judi Lynn]

8. This seems literally impossible to me. How can they possibly defend it?

If ANYONE in the past had tried this there would have been an unholy uproar. My God.

[notadmblnd]

9. the WH isn't a private residence owend wholly by GWB

it's the peoples house. That's such bullshit.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Yet he reserves the right to violate OUR private houses, snoop through our mail,

listen to our phone conversations, squint at our internet transactions, etc., etc., etc. while slamming the door shut on us in the house he DOES NOT own.

[nashville_brook]

15. damn good point!

[notadmblnd]

To use a phrase from the novel Animal Farm...

all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others. I guess?:shrug:

[midnight]

27. This is the most important argument to this nonsense.

I agree completely with your post.

[me b zola]

42. You should write an OP or an article on this topic

I believe that you have hit the nail on the head and should expand upon it.

[displacedtexan]

10. Sure sang a different tune when it was about Monica, didn't they?

[Judi Lynn]

14. Before Monica happened, never knew they can seize your computer,

or demand to be told what books you had read.

Republicans have been after the American public a long time.

[midnight]

29. I forgot about Monica. Full speed ahead.

Hand over those documents.

[LiberalinNC]

11. Sounds like one of Carl Rove's plan.

[Ian David]

12. Wonder why...

[xchrom]

16. why it's Miss Mary Moran!

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Excuse me, but if not even the notes of a White House counselor

are considered private, how can a visitor log be private?

[RedEarth]

18. Impeach these mf........ I'm so damn sick of these crooked sobs

[SoCalDem]

19. Wonder what a SCOTUS challenge would end in..

Alito & Roberts might be worth their weight in gold to *²

[Judi Lynn]

20. If Bush needs help in persuading Alito, he might prevail on the Mrs. to tear up,

and threaten to squall, just as she did during the confirmation questioning.



Hoooooo, hoooooooo.

[struggle4progress]

21. Bush Fund-Raisers Among Overnight Guests in the Lincoln Bedroom (2004)

Published on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 by the Associated Press
by Sharon Theimer

... In a debate with Vice President Al Gore in October 2000, Bush said: "I believe they've moved that sign, `The buck stops here,' from the Oval Office desk to `The buck stops here' on the Lincoln Bedroom. And that's not good for the country" ...

At least nine of Bush's biggest fund-raisers appear on the latest list of White House overnight guests, covering June 2002 through December 2003, and-or on the Camp David list, which covers last year. They include: <list follows>

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0310-04.htm

[rebel with a cause]

36. But those are heads of corporations

not movie stars. That's what makes this different than when Clinton did it. :eyes: :sarcasm:

(edited to add sarcasm sign just in case)

[struggle4progress]

37. *slaps forehead* eom

[TexasLawyer]

22. Ah, bringing decency and morality back to the White House!

NOT!

[struggle4progress]

23. What the WH has not released about .. Secret Service records (Sept 2006)

September 21, 2006
CREW REVEALS WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE HAS NOT RELEASED ABOUT THE ABRAMOFF SECRET SERVICE RECORDS

Many More Abramoff-Related Visits Took Place Than Have Been Disclosed

... CREW sued the Secret Service on May 9, 2006 for its failure to respond to a CREW FOIA request for Worker And Visitor Entrance System (WAVE), Access Control Records (ACR) and other visitor records for a number of prominent conservative activists, including Jack Abramoff, to the White House, executive office buildings and the Vice President’s house. The DNC sued for a smaller scope of documents.

Once in litigation, the Secret Service took the remarkable position that all records were off-limits. When pressed in similar lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch, the Secret Service acknowledged that the agency had, in fact, destroyed records after making copies for the White House – a practice it discontinued only after the National Archives and Records Administration, the agency charged with ensuring that agencies properly preserve records, intervened in October 2004.

In settlement discussions with the Secret Service, CREW learned that the full body of visitor records shows that Norquist visited the White House far more than the 97 visits disclosed yesterday. The full complement of Secret Service records, including those the Secret Service destroyed (but which are still with the White House), shows that Norquist visited the White House a minimum of 155 times, Similarly, rather than the mere 18 meetings revealed yesterday, Reed visited the White House on at least 49 separate occasions.

The Secret Service is now arguing that the records are not the agency’s to provide. This flatly contradicts the position taken by the agency during the Clinton administration, when the Secret Service provided such records to Judicial Watch in litigation over Filegate. CREW will continue to litigate until the Secret Service explains what records have been destroyed as well as why and at whose direction they were destroyed ...

http://www.citizensforethics.org/press/newsrelease.php?view=157

[The Count]

33. I am sure you got the year wrong. Had to be 1996! Just had to!

:sarcasm:

[David Zephyr]

24. Our little dictator from Texas and his Jeff Gannon male whore.

Overnighters.

[partylessinOhio]

25. Evict Bush and open up our House.

[rodeodance]

26. jr. spending tax money again!

[Straight Shooter]

28. Looks like the water-carriers for the bush administration got a rude awakening.

Maybe if you had been doing your job all along, WaPo, you wouldn't be facing the cold, hard, ugly truth now, that you're just as irrelevant to the bush administration as the rest of us.

[BeHereNow]

30. "Those with nothing to hide, hide nothing..."

Gee what does this tell us about the current White House inhabitants?
BHN

[Rose Siding]

31. No doubt they have back-dated docs ready for every eventuality

This is news to us, even if it happened last year. With Harriet's departure, some of the WH legal crap will be fun to watch. -Just because there seem to be so many bunglers afoot that anything can throw them. (Not fun like "WHEE!!!", more like a horror flick is fun)

[The Count]

32. Lincoln bedroom for sale??? They combed Clinton's guest list with a fine comb

and found teachers and other regular people - with no big money.
The story was never retracted - it's still infesting some areas of the "internets". I wanna see the restoration of the dignitude in the White House!

[daleo]

34. What are they worried about (in particular)

Maybe the Scooter Libby trial?

[brentspeak]

35. Wait -- who is it that owns the White House? I thought the People did.

[rebel with a cause]

38. Didn't you know,

according to the administration (neo cons), the not so "silent majority" is the people. The real majority of people are only peons to the rich corporations and have no ownership or say in this country.

[uppityperson]

39. So they are locking a public record and opening private mail? nt

[Olney Blue]

40. They never stop lying. Never.

[ktlyon]

43. they don't want us to know that Abramoff practically lived there

the legal battles will take years to resolve
Let the games begin!

[VegasWolf]

45. Bush is creating American Fascism! Will this country ever be the same? nt

[classysassy]

46. The gutless,spineless,

congress,remove your heads from the sand,IMPEACH,that clown in the whitehouse.

[Zorra]

47. Hugo Chavez was right. Bu*h really is the devil. n/t

[AndreaCG]

50. Congress should put a stop to this shit

Whether they will succeed is another matter