Bush and Kerry on Government Secrecy: Compare the Candidates, People! | |
Anonymous Coward 12/08/2005 10:17 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
dude h homeslice ix 12/08/2005 10:17 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | FEEDBACK ON KERRY AND BUSH AND SECRECY Secrecy News was perhaps too hasty in proclaiming the healing power of declassification when it concerns the POW/MIA issue (SN, 10/30/04). Quite a few readers wrote to express their dissatisfaction with the Senate investigation of the matter led by Senator John F. Kerry. "There are thousands of documents still withheld and many still classified and hidden," according to one researcher. "The POW/MIA Select Committee [chaired by Sen. Kerry] was a miserable failure in accomplishing its objective in determining the fate of America´s POW/MIAs.... Please have your research assistants make a less superficial inquiry into the subject matter you report on." "Opening up classified files does more harm than good because it presents a flood of stuff that creates the impression of a great release of information," contended another writer. "[The Select Committee material] was great in terms of volume, but a total fraud in terms of quality. Little information of real value was released. Just stuff to keep people occupied and out of the way." "I admire your work, enjoy your email missives, and I am also a strong advocate of open and accountable government," wrote another. "However, I have to call you on your mention of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs as an example of government transparency. It was in fact an egregious example of a well orchestrated cover-up-in- plain-sight used to obfuscate the fact that our government forsook thousands of POWs." Others wrote in to express their agreement with Secrecy News. "This one was excellent," affirmed one reader. "Kerry deserves credit for that work which only he and McCain could do. The POW/MIA issue was, indeed, a perfect issue for sunshine policies and the point you have made is one that no one else would make." "I´d endorse what you say about Kerry´s record as an investigator," wrote another, "both for the POW/MIA report and also for his report with Senator Hank Brown on the Bank of Credit and Commerce International which remains the single most thorough and comprehensive document about what remains (for the moment) the world´s largest ever banking scandal." The text of that 1992 report on the BCCI affair is here: [link to www.fas.org] On the other hand, "I thought you were too kind to Bush," wrote another correspondent. "I would take exception to your characterization of his policies as within the parameters of the law and Constitution. I think the Supreme Court said clearly that his detention of Hamdi and even the prisoners at Guantanamo was beyond any constitutional or legal authority. This administration has been quick to come up with novel but unsupported legal theories to justify whatever actions they want to take. We have seen this with their memos on the Geneva convention (the most recent thing about allowing the CIA to take prisoners out of Iraq for detention and interrogation). And Bush´s ´re-write´ of the Presidential Records Act can only be read as the work of someone who doesn´t care what the statute says." "Well, we know how you´re voting," wrote one psychic reader. |