DHS scrambles to cover up FOIA scandal
papersplease.org
papersplease.org
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iz_vYVn2EG...
Basically, out of 103,000 FoIA requests last year, DHS delayed about 500 more than the customary 3 days, because Janet Napolitano's staff wanted to find out more about the people making those requests.
From the article you cited:
"Career employees were ordered to provide Secretary Janet Napolitano's political staff with information about the people who asked for records — such as where they lived, whether they were private citizens or reporters — and about the organizations where they worked. If a member of Congress sought such documents, employees were told to specify Democrat or Republican."
That's a dangerous politicization of DHS and the FOIA process and certainly goes against the spirit of "transparency" the Obama administration was voted in on.
But as for policy put in place by a given administration.. citation? Are you alleging with a straight face that the Bush administration wasn't doing this? Remember that whole "Department of Justice actually frickin prosecuting people on poltiical grounds" thing?
I just reread his post, and it doesn't look like it.
And if both administrations that have presided over a DHS practiced similar policies, then it's still a scandal but it's not about only one of them.
So yes - the Obama administration "PUT IN PLACE" this policy. It's not a long article. Read it.
Bush did have issues with FOIA, though, but they were quite different from investigating the politics of people making requests. Specifically, under Bush, agencies were supposed to deny as many requests as possible. I don't believe Bush ever had the DHS looking into who was requesting what (at least, not that we know of). After all, the DHS had no permanent leadership until Obama appointed Napolitano.
It's highly debatable that "transparency" was the main or even significant part of Obama's platform that people voted for.
It should just be expected by all of government and not something that differentiates candidates.
If the terrorists can read bid proposals from competing vendors after DHS buys 50 million paperclips, they win.
[1] One glaring example is the ocean ports. Did you know something like 1 out of every 100 containers is actually checked? I believe that was at the request of Walmart, among others. They must be working with the "terrorists"!!!