Obama releases a quarter of a million pages of White House records

[ProSense]

Obama releases a quarter of a million pages of White House records

by Nuisance Industry

Dick Cheney spent much of the past decade classifying administration records -- not just Bush administration records, but also records of past administrations.

We are starting to see this policy undone. On Monday, President Obama will release a quarter of a million pages of the Reagan administration's records, including presidential briefing papers, speechwriting research materials and declassified foreign policy records.

Records from George H. W. Bush's administration, including 797 pages relating to Saudi Arabia, were already released this week.

It is possible we may not find much that is controversial in the released documents. It is even possible that diligent researchers who kept good notes had access to all of this information before it was classified earlier this decade.

Why this is important is it is a reversal of the destructive policies to our nation's collective memory that the past administration pursued. From funding the National Archives and Records Adminstration to acting on Freedom of Information Act requests, the Bush administration was dismal about allowing citizens to see the documents of our own government.

This is good news.

In recent years, historians and open-government groups complained bitterly that the review process President George W. Bush instituted was causing a backlog that was stalling the release of tens of thousands of pages of presidential records. "The cynical view is that the process is deliberately inefficient," Thomas Blanton of the National Security Archive testified at a Congressional hearing on the issue in 2007.

One advocate for greater disclosure hailed Obama's move.

"This is a great development," Scott Nelson of the Public Citizen Litigation Group said. "It's very encouraging that the Bush order and the burden it imposes on the White House to do a page-by-page review apparently won't be taking place under this administration. We won't have this additional layer of delays."

We shall see whether more controversial documents get released in the years ahead. Now, though, seems as good a time to file a FOIA request as any in the 21st century.

[FrenchieCat]

1. Good on Prez Barack! Give those GOP asshats something to do!

:rofl:

[vaberella]

2. Huh...Yet so many on this site have said O is supporting Bush policy and pushing the agenda.

It seems to me with this article that he's doing something different, which he's done in the past. Reactionists...~sigh~

Thanks O for being the President I hoped for.

K*R
:kick:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. How many trees is that, Mr. Obama?

How dare you!

[firedupdem]

4. Very good! n/t

[AtomicKitten]

5. Great news.

And while you're at it, Mr. President, please release the torture memos from BushCo so we can bury them in their own shit!

K&R

[Cha]

6. Let the Sunshine

in on the last 8 deadly moldy years.

[ZombieHorde]

7. K&R&B&nt

[Arkana]

8. Those papers on Saudi Arabia will be rather illuminating, I'll bet.

[Occam Bandage]

9. He's just trying to drown us in so much transparency we can't see what he's hiding! nt

[Spazito]

10. LOL!

:rofl: and :thumbsup:

[Adelante]

12. Heh

:D

[NYC_SKP]

11. Hopefully, I'll stop seeing "Meet the New Boss" in threads here.

Hey, I can hope, can't I?

:P

Recommended, another fine ProSense post.

:patriot: