Bradley Manning Hearing: Judge Refuses To Dismiss 'Aiding The Enemy' Charge

In February 2012, several frequent FOIA requesters filed a class-action lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency, alleging that it unlawfully impedes requesters by requiring them to agree to pay all fees without providing any cost estimate, by imposing new fees for declassification and by refusing to release records in electronic form.  Also in February, five nonprofit groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, asserted that the Department of Homeland Security was demanding thousands of dollars in “exorbitant fees” to process FOIA requests, even though the groups regularly obtained waivers in the past.




The Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and EFF have filed suit against the US Department of Homeland Security for denying access to public records on the questioning and searches of travelers at US borders.  The suit responds to growing complaints by U.S. citizens and immigrants of excessive or repeated screenings by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. ALC a San Francisco-based civil rights organization received more than 20 complaints from Northern California residents last year who said they were grilled about their families religious practices volunteer activities political beliefs or associations when returning to the United States from travels abroad. In addition customs agents examined travelers' books business cards collected from friends and colleagues handwritten notes personal photos laptop computer files and cell phone directories and sometimes made copies of this information.


Lawsuit Forces Release of Obama Vacation Records

Or this, or this.

A year ago, representatives of four open-government groups visited the Oval Office to give Obama an award for his “deep commitment to transparency.” (The event prompted some snickering because it was closed to the press and was omitted from Obama’s public schedule.)

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Bradley Manning Hearing: Judge Refuses To Dismiss 'Aiding The Enemy' Charge

Even if that was true, that it was being done on sincere concerns for national security, there's no 'transparency' or openness about it.  There's stalling, misdirection, and outright deception being employed to avoid the issue altogether.

But the Obama administration's transparency failure goes way beyond national security matters:

The Office of Management and Budget has stalled for more than a year the proposals of the chief FOIA ombudsman’s office to improve governmentwide FOIA operations

Obama Administration Refuses to Release Milestones Missed by Fisker Under Conditions of Auto Manufacturer's $528.7 Million Government Loan

Thanks to a FOIA lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation: FAA Reveals List of Colleges and Police Departments That Can Fly Drones

Administration ignores FOIA request, Electronic Frontier Foundation forced to sue - The Intelligence Oversight Board Has Members - But We Had to Sue the Government to Find Out:

The Intelligence Oversight Board, or IOB, is a Presidentially appointed, independent, civilian oversight board charged with ensuring that intelligence investigations comply with laws, executive orders, and internal agency procedures. Toward the end of the Bush Administration, the IOB’s oversight responsibilities were largely gutted, shifting primary responsibility to the Director of National Intelligence. However, shortly after taking office, President Obama rolled back those changes, restoring many of the IOB’s important oversight functions.

In February 2011, following the White House’s failure to respond to a reporter’s questions concerning the IOB, we submitted a FOIA request to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to determine if, in fact, the IOB had members. We didn’t hear anything for 8 months.

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Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Little Evidence That Harsh Treatment Used By CIA Produced Any Counter-Terrorism Breakthroughs

It had nothing to do with retaliation.  Nothing.

Click on this.
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Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Little Evidence That Harsh Treatment Used By CIA Produced Any Counter-Terrorism Breakthroughs

We were taken to war on lies.

We were taken to war and it's destroyed us, fiscally and legally and morally.

We were taken to war and it continues and expands under Obama.

It will continue, our lives will get worse, much worse, until We The People stop it.
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Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Little Evidence That Harsh Treatment Used By CIA Produced Any Counter-Terrorism Breakthroughs

What you should be reading instead of this article.
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Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Little Evidence That Harsh Treatment Used By CIA Produced Any Counter-Terrorism Breakthroughs

What Leon Panetta said about enhanced interrogation techniques:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: I'd like to ask you about the sourcing on the intel that ultimately led to this successful attack. Can you confirm that it was -- as a result of water boarding that we learned what we needed to learn to go after Bin Laden? 

PANETTA: It-- you know, Brian, in the intelligence business you work from a lot of sources of information and that was true here. We had a multiple source-- a multiple series of-- sources that provided information with regards to the situation. Clearly some of it came from detainees and the interrogation of detainees but we also had information from other sources as well. From Sigent intelligence, from imagery, from other sources that we had-- assets on the ground. And it was a combination of all of that that ultimately we were able to put together that led us to that compound. So-- it's-- it's a little difficult to say it was due just to one source of information that we got.
WILLIAMS: Turned around the other way, are you denying that waterboarding was, in part, among the tactics used to extract the intelligence that led to this successful mission? 
PANETTA: No, I think some of the detainees clearly were, you know, they used these enhanced interrogation techniques against some of these detainees. But I'm also saying that, you know, the debate about whether-- whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always gonna be an open question. 

WILLIAMS: So finer point, one final time, enhanced interrogation techniques -- which has always been kind of a handy euphemism in these post-9/11 years -- that -- 

PANETTA: Right. 

WILLIAMS: -- includes water boarding?     

PANETTA: That's correct.

What does it confirm? We know that Gitmo detainees and KSM were among the sources who, at some points, produced information useful to the bin Laden hunt. But what we don't know -- what has actually been denied -- is that the information that led directly to OBL was obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques. We actually know it was chased down by other means.

This is why Panetta says "whether we would have gotten the same information through other approaches I think is always gonna be an open question." This wasn't the "ticking time bomb" scenario that has been used to justify waterboarding or torture. That fact shouldn't get lost.
About Torture
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Enhanced Interrogation Techniques: Little Evidence That Harsh Treatment Used By CIA Produced Any Counter-Terrorism Breakthroughs

"Torture Is Ongoing Under Obama"
About Torture
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