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First President Obama flip-flopped on release of the torture pictures, which are likely to come out anyway. Now, the White House is blocking access to visitor records. They are using the same argument BushCo used, that the White House doesn’t have to reveal who is coming through its gates who might also influence public policy.
Despite President Barack Obama’s pledge to introduce a new era of transparency to Washington, and despite two rulings by a federal judge that the records are public, the Secret Service has denied msnbc.com’s request for the names of all White House visitors from Jan. 20 to the present. It also denied a narrower request by the nonpartisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sought logs of visits by executives of coal companies.
White House officials say the policy is “under review.”
The White House is arguing that it should have the right to hold secret meetings “such as an elected official interviewing for an administration position or an ambassador coming for a discussion on issues that would affect international negotiations.”
