Obama Team Asks For Sneak Preview at Docs; DOJ Balks

[BlueJessamine]

Obama Team Asks For Sneak Preview at Docs; DOJ Balks

by Dionne Searcey

Law Blog-WSJ

In the five short weeks since the presidential election, many feel that President-elect Obama’s transition has gone along pretty smoothly. So for all those looking for a little conflict, a little frisson, we bring you the following story from the Legal Times.

According to the story, Obama’s transition team is ruffling feathers at the DOJ by seeking information from the Office of the Legal Counsel on classified legal opinions related to secret programs at the nation’s top clandestine agencies, specifically, the CIA and the NSA. Turns out it seems the DOJ isn’t so interested in full disclosure on these matters.

The story explains that the dispute between Obama’s team and the DOJ over the records has caught the attention of Williams & Connolly’s Greg Craig, who has been named as the incoming White House counsel. The story cites an unnamed justice official as saying the agencies first want to sign off on any information disclosed to their new boss before turning over sensitive records.

The opinions likely contain juicy stuff that has been hotly sought after by privacy advocates among others: the legal rationale of the NSA’s warrantless spying program and the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies, as well as other initiatives, the Legal Times says.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has said he’s waiting for Obama’s team to take the oath of office before he hands over some of the secret items.

WSJ:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/12/10/obama-team-asks-for-sneak-preview-at-docs-doj-balks/


The Blog of Legal Times - Obama Transition Team Pushing for Secret Legal Memos:

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2008/12/obama-transition-team-pushing-for-secret-legal-memos.html

[digimedia]

1. obama team

Obama TEAM: http://www.70news.com/2008/12/10/the-new-team-of-44th-us-president-barack-obama-you-decide/

[NMDemDist2]

2. what an odd link

:shrug:

but welcome to DU :hi:

[DavidDvorkin]

3. The shredders are still at work.

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. Exactly.

[noise]

5. Those opinions should be public

National security classification should not be used to conceal criminal conduct sold as extremely urgent counterterrorism policies. The only reason this garbage is accepted is because Tenet (torture advocate) and Hayden (domestic spying advocate) were protected from accountability for their pre-9/11 conduct. Meaning the failure to prevent 9/11 had nothing to do with the lack of police state tactics. Tenet's CIA sat on urgent intel for 20 months! We still don't know why all these years later. Hayden failed to make use of FISA for reasons we don't know to this day.

The common theme is extreme secrecy. We are simply expected to believe (despite the glaring examples noted above) that officials acted in good faith. Thus, if they (and their advocates at the White House) claim they must have the crutch of police state tactics to prevent terrorist attacks, well the public is expected shut up and accept it.

One expects this sort of crap from the Syrian government. For the US government to pretend this is legal and suggest public support for this is patriotic is disgraceful.