Obama Regime Not Quite “the Most Open and Transparent Ever”
Transparency is easy to promise when everyone thinks you’re squeaky clean; it’s tough to deliver, however, when you’re rotten to the core.
(POLITICO) — The Obama administration, which famously pledged to be the most transparent in American history, is pursuing an unexpectedly aggressive legal offensive against federal workers who leak secret information to expose wrongdoing, highlight national security threats or pursue a personal agenda.
In just over two years since President Barack Obama took office, prosecutors have filed criminal charges in five separate cases involving unauthorized distribution of classified national security information to the media. And the government is now mulling what would be the most high-profile case of them all — prosecuting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
That’s a sharp break from recent history, when the U.S. government brought such cases on three occasions in roughly 40 years.
The government insists it’s only pursuing individuals who act with reckless disregard for national security, and that it has an obligation to protect the nation’s most sensitive secrets from being revealed. Anyone seeking to expose malfeasance has ample opportunity to do so through proper channels, government lawyers say.
But legal experts and good-government advocates say the hard-line approach to leaks has a chilling effect on whistleblowers, who fear harsh legal reprisals if they dare to speak up.
Not only that, these advocates say, it runs counter to Obama’s pledges of openness by making it a crime to shine a light on the inner workings of government — especially when there are measures that could protect the nation’s interests without hauling journalists into court and government officials off to jail.
“It is not to me a good sign when government chooses to go after leakers using the full force of criminal law when there are other ways to handle these situations,” said Jane Kirtley, a University of Minnesota law professor and former executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “Of course, the government has to have some kind of remedy, [but] I’d certainly hope they’re being very selective about these prosecutions.”
Jesselyn Radack, a former Justice Department attorney now with the Government Accountability Project, said it’s “very destructive and damaging to be going after people for leaks that embarrass the government.” The policy, she said, is “a disturbing one particularly from a president who got elected pledging openness and transparency — and someone who also got elected thanks to a lot of [Bush-era] scandals that were revealed by whistleblowers.”
Posted by WM on Monday, March 7, 2011, at 9:51 am | 
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I just HOPE that there will be CHANGE in government once dear leader is gone and these corrupt dickheads will be brought up on charges for their crimes against the American people!
pursuing individuals who act with reckless disregard for national security
BO and Hillary for starters?
Why should it be, it is merely using the White House and the rest of the Federal Government to cover up crimes they commit. Like being an accessory to murder. They provided a weapon to the Mexican drug cartel they knew would be used in the commission of a crime. One of the ATFs guns smuggled into the drug cartel was used to murder agent Brian Terry. They figure if they call it a sting, it becomes something different. He should be charged as an accessory to murder. It makes me sick. I have to mute the video, I can’t even listen a second time.
Whistleblower ATF Agent John Dodson Exposes Deadly Operation “Fast and Furious”http://youtu.be/SvRzrSXota8
Since obama and his administration knew about Wikileaks in advance and had the opportunity to stop it, does that make them all complicite in a crime?
Napolitano is failing to protect and defend this country and has permitted the CIA to send AK-47′s into Mexico with the full knowledge of our government, does that make her and her CnC complicite in a crime?
The most corrupt administration also happens to be the first one filled with communists and socialists. Is it a coinkydink that this is also the administration who is now threatening whistle-blowers? So they are pursuing “federal workers who leak secret information to expose wrongdoing, highlight national security threats or pursue a personal agenda.” ?
Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Eric Holder? Do they and others not need to be exposed? Obviously going through proper channels did not work for J. Christian Adams who resigned his post in the Department of Justice in protest over the Obama Administration’s perceived mishandling of the case, and by his former supervisor Christopher Coates. Could/should he be prosecuted for leaking secret agendas of the DOJ?
Oh, I think the Obama regime is very transparent. It’s quite clear they are corrupt Marxist sons of bitches hell bent on molding America to their own vision, the will of the people be damned.
The transparency of this administration is so great that we can see right through them…………………