Worse than Nixon? FOIA officers say Obama White House thwarting release of public information
By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro | The Washington Times
Though President Obama vowed to run the most transparent administration in history, his White House has quietly empowered itself to censor or delay the release of information in ways that not even Richard Nixon envisioned during the Watergate scandal, according to federal workers on the front lines of processing open records requests.
The workers, who spoke to The Washington Times only on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said that an April 15, 2009, memo from White House Counsel Gregory Craig to all federal agencies has slowed, and in some cases nixed, the public release of government documents that would have been released under prior administrations.
It also has given the White House the ability to track in real time who is asking for derogatory information about the Obama administration, the workers said.
