Justice Dept. proposes lying, hiding existence of records under new FOIA rule

The Daily Caller ^ | 10/24/11 | C.J. Ciaramella

[Nachum]

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist.

The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption.

The proposed rule has alarmed government transparency advocates across the political spectrum, who’ve called it “Orwellian” and say it will “twist” public access to government.

In a public comment regarding the rule change, the ACLU, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and OpenTheGovernment.org, said the move “will dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government information to be twisted to permit federal law enforcement agencies to actively lie to the American people.”

[Nachum]

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice

[Smokin' Joe]

Just hiding the gunrunning other agencies wouldn’t hide...

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[edpc]

This is beyond Orwellian. A new category must be made: Obamian.

[HiTech RedNeck]

What a pickle, with even the ACLU seemingly threatening to bolt on the Rats.

[rolling_stone]

It appears Obama wants a Revolution.

[Cheerio]

It appears Obama wants a Revolution.

Won't happen. We are not the same culture that we were back in the 40s and 50s. We have already lost so many liberties that the revolution should have started a few years back.

[maine-iac7]

They truly do see themselves as hampered by the Constitution, the Congress, our laws - and are and will continue to ignore/circumvent them and RULE, not govern.

Can our country survive another year?

Will there even BE an election?

If anyone is still suffering under the illusion that this CICINO and his illegal czars would not declare an emergency requiring Martial Law - thereby giving them total control for 6 months - and cancel the elections - then they/we/you are dangerously naive.

It has happened in civilizations throughout history. It CAN happen here.

[kalee]

unreal

[Cheerio]

“We don't need no stinkin’ Constitution or laws - we are in such a mess I am gonna have to fix this by myself, and just ignore the GOP run Congress”. /s

[lwoodham]

Now that right there is a good bureaucracy to get rid of. The department of Justice does more harm than good. Just kill it along with the EPA and the dept of education.

[Baynative]

Now who were those republicans who voted for Eric Holder, again?

[shibumi]

And just what makes anyone think they haven't been doing that already?

[The_Reader_David]

Are they sure they really want to do this? Under the proposed rules the denial of a FOIA request for Obama's birth certificate would be prima facia evidence of its nonexistence. (^_^)

[Texas Fossil]

“To market official truth so at variance with reality, or engineer consent to policies that mock American Values, government must so thoroughly misinform the public as to poison the wellspring of Democracy.”

“The Rockets Red Glare” by Richard J Barnet (1990)

[maine-iac7]

The Press isn't going to like this - even the ACLU is up in arms.

Hopefully, this or another action will finally be that straw that breaks the camels back - that one step too far even for his sycophants, who will finally understand that THEY are not safe either - that despots will turn on anyone, loyal to no one...but themselves.

[SpaceBar]

I’d like to see a candidate promise, that if elected, they’ll do everything in their power as President to put Obama in prison.

[Nachum]

I’d like to see a candidate promise, that if elected, they’ll do everything in their power as President to put Obama in prison.

And every slime that is connected to him.

[CatDancer]

Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice

Amen.

And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

[papertyger]

This administration has utterly destroyed any faith I had in the Republican Party.

If they can tolerate what this administration has perpetrated, they can commit it themselves.

[ApplegateRanch]

“Most transparent administration in history!”

Transparently pro-Islamist
Transparently anti-American
Transparently anti-life
Transparently racist
Transparently socialist
Transparently Orwellian
Transparently...

[wiggen]

transparently corrupt.

[DeaconRed]

PROPOSES?

It's been standard operating procedure since day one of ZERO.

[autumnraine]

It’s all being taken away from us while we watch.

Of course, most don’t know what to do about it and neither do I really.

[autumnraine]

Well looky here.

If there is a rule that says they can hide documents and LIE that the documents never even existed... what the heck is the point of the FOIA in the first place??

[Venturer]

Very True. As a matter of fact they said Obama’s birth certificate didn’t exist, then they found it, then they said it wasn’t actually a Birth Certificate then they counterfeited one.

Sounds to me like an extension of the Birth Certificate issue.

[autumnraine]

The journalists might want to, but they like their paycheck even more.

The ones at the tops of most media outlets are just fine with this and THAT is what is scary.

[autumnraine]

YES!!! I have made several posts similar to yours.

I am so frustrated with the Republicans and how they ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. Which makes me not trust them either!

What happened to Libya thing? I thought Congress was all up in arms about and it just went away.

Now we essentially have Al Queda (oh and did you guys know that TWENTY THOUSAND SURFACE TO AIR HEAT SEEKING MISSILES ARE MISSING THERE??? People were just driving up in pick ups and driving off with them!) in charge in Libya and Congress NEVER did anything about it.

Makes me feel hopeless.

[Campion]

I’d like to see a candidate promise, that if elected, they’ll do everything in their power as President to put Obama in prison.

And Holder, and Napolitano.

[EBH]

Someone, not that long ago, said we'd wake up one day and wonder what happened to our country...

I feel like that...today. From 0bama’s speech last night and mass email to this to all of us standing around wondering what to do to the stagnation of the Super Debt Committee that will cause another downgrade to Libya, Uganda, these missing missiles and the 11/9 test...

Hopeless...no. It is time to understand we are going to have to stop trying to avoid “this.” We are going to go through “this.” 0bama is like Pharaoh.

[liberalh8ter]

The democrats are revealing their, “we're never going to be in power again so we better pass this stuff now” plan. It's a doozy.

[jda]

Well, what do you expect, this IS the administration of integrity and transparency ... except when they’re not.

[sergeantdave]

“We have already lost so many liberties that the revolution should have started a few years back.”

The revolution started back in 2009, and you don’t see it because you’re not paying attention. Take a look past DC.

In 2010, more than 700 patriots were elected to state legislatures, resulting in control of 26 states. These patriots have been setting thousands of brushfires that the federal fascists have neither the manpower nor resources to control.

The Founders left us mechanisms to use and buttons to push to peaceably overthrow a tyrannical government. We are mustering a patriot army out in the hinterlands. You’re invited to join.

[Mouton]

Paraphrase of a Stalin quote is applicable here: It is not the regulations, it is who writes the regulations that is important.

[hal ogen]

nobama hates you, hates your family, hates your success, hates Free America, hates Americans, hates the Constitution and hates the Bill of Rights. nobama is a hate crime foisted upon America. nobama is the Destroyer . Everything nobama does is intentional. God help us all.

[Interesting Times]

Ministry of Truth ping.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Puddleglum]

this is not from The Onion??? What is the USA coming to?

[MinuteGal]

The tentacles of OCaesar's appointed czars are beginning to show almost everywhere, every day, every way in rapid succession.

Between now and the presidential election these commissars will be as busy as spiders replacing webs lost by a housewife's broom handle.

Obama and the czars will be coming from so many angles with executive orders, bureaucratic decrees, fiats, regulations, directives, threats, bypassing Congress completely, that it will be virtually impossible to stop them all.

Thanks is due in major part to comotose GOP "leaders" who are just laying low till November, 2012 while destruction of our country and its economy is being wreaked on a mammoth, unchecked scale.

Perfectly aware of the limited time they have to accomplish as much as they can of their marxist agenda they are becoming bold, frenetic, wildly reckless constitutionally.....and an enormous danger to the Republic.

Leni

[LucyT]

Justice Dept. proposes lying, hiding existence of records under new FOIA rule

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist.

The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption.

The proposed rule has alarmed government transparency advocates across the political spectrum, who’ve called it “Orwellian” and say it will “twist” public access to government.

In a public comment regarding the rule change, the ACLU, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and OpenTheGovernment.org, said the move “will dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government information to be twisted to permit federal law enforcement agencies to actively lie to the American people.”

. . . . Article, then check out # 28.

Thanks, autumnraine.

[MHGinTN]

No doubt the tests of this methodology in Hawaii have encouraged the commie oligarchs to institute it at the federal level. And what did they find out? ... Just that a lying clerk can cancel the law, so Eric the red Holder wants this to be institutionalized for demcorat criminal enterprise use.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[Tunehead54]

Expletive deleted. Ahh ... like a breath of fresh air. How do they get away with it?

X42 Billy Jeff Clinton and his “most ethical administration ever ...” and the Kenyan’s “most transparent administration ever ...”

Makes my head hurt. Bump! ;-)

[mass55th]

Why go to the bother of revising the Act. All they need to do is give Sandy Berger access to the stuff they want to disappear, and their problems are solved.

[ColdOne]

What this administration is doing is really hard to watch.

[thouworm]

From the excerpt:

A proposed revision to Freedom of Information Act rules would allow federal agencies to lie to citizens and reporters seeking certain records, telling them the records don’t exist.

The Justice Department has proposed the change as part of a large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies. Specifically, the rule would direct government agencies who are denying a request under an established FOIA exemption to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist,” rather than citing the relevant exemption.

[snip]

Upon taking office, President Obama released a memorandum declaring his administration was “committed to operating with an unprecedented level of openness. Specifically, he pledged to bolster the strength of the FOIA act, calling it “the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open government.”
~~~~~~~~~

More incremental steps to a totalitarian government:

In this case, first legalize Federal government lying and then, what next,--- expand the list of FOIA exemptions?

The proposed revision has the added benefit of burying all evidence of the Fed's former and current illegal and unconstitutional actions.

What else is lurking is this "large revision of FOIA rules for federal agencies"?

[Smokeyblue]

Butter,

Not sure if you’ve seen this article and a ping to MHGinTN’s comment.

“No doubt the tests of this methodology in Hawaii have encouraged the commie oligarchs to institute it at the federal level. And what did they find out? ... Just that a lying clerk can cancel the law, so Eric the red Holder wants this to be institutionalized for demcorat criminal enterprise use.”

[G Larry]

Just trying to legalize their long standing practice to hide behind it!
And Lib’s complained about Bush’s use of the Patriot Act......

[In Maryland]

PROPOSES? It's been standard operating procedure since day one of ZERO.

Yes, but now they want legal cover so if some pain in the neck like, oh say, Darrell Issa shows up with the documents they can say "We didn't lie ... we followed FOIA guidelines!"

Disgusting!

[TigersEye]

Bump to that.