Science Talk

BabaBey the Turk · Guest

Reuters reports of an another big scandal of this G.W.Bush.
One wanders what G.W.Bush tries to hide from the public.
Most propably the Jewish influence on the White House...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070308/pl_nm/congress_bush_secrecy_dc_1
"
House panel reverses Bush on archive secrecy

By Peter Szekely, Thu Mar 8, 2007, 5:43 PM ET

A House panel on Thursday voted to overturn a 2001 order by President
George W. Bush that enables former presidents, including Bush's father,
to keep some of their papers secret indefinitely.

The bipartisan bill, hailed by historians, was passed without objection on
a voice vote by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The full House of Representatives is expected to vote on it next week.

"It will ensure that future historians have access to presidential records as
the Presidential Records Act intended," said committee Chairman Henry
Waxman (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat who is one of
the bill's sponsors.

In November 2001, Bush issued the order, widely criticized by historians,
that allowed either the White House or a former president to block the
release of a former president's papers and put the onus on researchers
to show a "specific need" for many types of records.

"It's slowing down the declassification of presidential documents and
that's obviously a problem," said Lee White, executive director of the
National Coalition for History, which represents 70 historical and archival groups.

"Putting on these kinds of restrictions and delays just pushes back when
history's going to be written," he said.

Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archives at George
Washington University, said the average time to release presidential
documents has grown to 78 months since the Bush order from 18
months. The Bush order directly contributed to one year of the lag, he said.

"The executive order is bad but it's only part of the problem," said
Blanton, adding that the National Archives needs more resources and a
technology upgrade.

When Bush issued his order, then White House Counsel Alberto
Gonzales, who is now attorney general, said it was needed to "provide a
process, an orderly process to ... deal with requests for information."

The order also bestowed on the former vice presidents the right to stop
the release of their papers through a claim of executive privilege that
previously only presidents could use. And it extended to deceased
presidents' designees the right to use executive privilege to keep their
papers secret.

Because Bush acted as the papers of former President Ronald Reagan
were made available some 12 years after he left office, some historians at
the time speculated that the order was meant to benefit Bush's father,
George H.W. Bush, who was vice president for eight years before
becoming president in 1989.

The House bill would give current and former presidents 40 business
days to object to requests to view their papers, allow a sitting president to
override a former president's claim of executive privilege and strip former
vice presidents and the designees of deceased presidents of the power to
use executive privilege to block access to documents.
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Panta Rhei · Guest

Blahblah Bey, the lobotomized Turk, writes: