{"id":839,"date":"2008-03-21T12:09:30","date_gmt":"2008-03-21T19:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=839"},"modified":"2008-03-21T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2008-03-21T20:15:26","slug":"passport-gate-secrets-in-the-house-of-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=839","title":{"rendered":"Passport-Gate: Secrets In The House Of Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In less than 24 hours, a story that began with the disclosure that State Department employees were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=20601087&#038;sid=a.sAG1LCpnuo&#038;refer=home\" target=\"_blank\">peeking into<\/a> the passport records of Barack Obama, it has come to light that the snooping also extended to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. While there is still much that is unknown, these revelations are being treated by the victims as a serious breach of privacy and security.<\/p>\n<p>The Bush administration has developed a reputation as the most <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=105\" target=\"_blank\">secrecy obsessed<\/a> administration in history. Over the past seven years they have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>sought to withhold public records like those of Dick Cheney&#8217;s meetings with lobbyists<\/li>\n<li>reclassified thousands of documents that were previously available<\/li>\n<li>banned photos of military caskets being returned from Iraq<\/li>\n<li>thrown roadblocks in front of legislation to enhance the Freedom of Information Act<\/li>\n<li>opposed investigations into Iraq, 9\/11, Katrina, wiretapping, intelligence failures, U.S. attorney firings, etc.<\/li>\n<li>instructed aides to defy Congressional subpoenas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, Bush signed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=819\" target=\"_blank\">Executive Order 13233<\/a> which allows presidents, and former presidents, to restrict historians&#8217; access to presidential records. And they have been pushing relentlessly for the right to access private records of American citizens without warrants.<\/p>\n<p>Yet it is the Bush administration that has been leaking like a sieve when it comes to prejudicial (and often false) data about Iraq and terrorism. It is BushCo that outed Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative. And now it is the Bush State Department that has opened confidential files of presidential candidates to unauthorized persons and, at this time, has no idea whether the stolen data has been disseminated to others. How can we possibly trust them with any personal data or permit them to bypass legal requirements for access to it?<\/p>\n<p>These are the actions of a corrupt enterprise that puts information for which there is a legitimate public interest behind lock and key, while surreptitiously publishing information for which it can realize a propaganda benefit. It is shameful behavior that must be investigated, punished, and prohibited in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In less than 24 hours, a story that began with the disclosure that State Department employees were peeking into the passport records of Barack Obama, it has come to light that the snooping also extended to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. While there is still much that is unknown, these revelations are being treated by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-propaganda","category-scandalous"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-dx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1182,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1182","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":0},"title":"Obama Already Undoing The Bush Era Of Secrecy","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/21\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"One week ago I wrote that the Bush Era Of Secrecy May Be Coming To An End, noting that: George W. Bush has presided over the most secrecy-obsessed administration in the history of the country. Well, on his first full day as president, Barack Obama has issued a series of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Free Press&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1176","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":1},"title":"Bush Era Of Secrecy May Be Coming To An End","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/14\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"George W. Bush has presided over the most secrecy-obsessed administration in the history of the country. More documents have been classified than at any other time. White House officials have defied court orders to disclose data, calendars, and emails. They even claimed that the vice-president was not subject to Congressional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Censorship&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":379,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=379","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":2},"title":"Let The Sunshine In","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/15\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"For those who may have missed it, this is Sunshine Week. What is Sunshine Week? \"A national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Free Press&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1585,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1585","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":3},"title":"Dana Perino And Fox News On Repressive Regimes And Propaganda","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/10\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Ed Brayton at Science Blogs has caught a classic example of hypocrisy from a member of the class that made an art of it: the Bush administration. Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino was on Fox News this weekend and commented on a video produced for the White House web\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":105,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=105","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":4},"title":"The Memory Hole Gets Deeper","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/21\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The legacy of the Bush administration may turn out to be that its greatest contribution to American productivity is its unparalleled production of secrets. It has long been readily observed that BushCo wants nothing more than to keep its own affairs private while, ironically, digging more into the affairs of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Free Press&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14503,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=14503","url_meta":{"origin":839,"position":5},"title":"Faux Outrage From Fox News Ignores GOP Role In Veterans Administration Scandal","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/19\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The news that Veterans Administration facilities in Arizona were allegedly falsifying records to hide extensive backlogs in patient care has roiled both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. If the allegations are proven, this would be a monumental abdication of the government's obligations to the men and women who have sacrificed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Right-Wing Media Circus","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/right-wing-media-circus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/right-wing-media-circus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/right-wing-media-circus.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}