Obama threatens to veto law decreasing White House secrecy

Obama threatens to veto law decreasing White House secrecy

rawstory.com

President Barack Obama has told Congress he’ll veto the House Intelligence authorization bill if they include a provision expanding secret congressional briefings to include the full intelligence committees from the current “Gang of 8″ congressmembers now.

Under current law, the President’s surrogates must brief the House and Senate leaders of both parties and the chambers’ respective intelligence committees (the “Gang of 8″) when covert government activity takes place.

(visit the link for the full news article)

After a recent brouhaha in which Democratic congressmembers were briefed about President Bush’s detainee interrogation program but were unable to express their concern or speak with others about it, Democratic leaders indicated they’ve move to change the law. A new proposal would require briefings of the full intelligence committees, though the Gang of 8 would still be allowed to limit clandestine briefings to their eyes only.

Despite the outrage from his party over what many viewed as the Bush Administration’s abuse of secrecy laws, President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget issued a little-noticed Statement of Administration policy Wednesday saying the current Gang of 8 arrangement has “for decades has balanced congressional oversight responsibilities with the President’s responsibility to protect sensitive national security information.”

There is a tough balance to strike here if you are working within the Executive branch of government. You want to be able to debrief your nation's own Congressional leaders, but not at the risk of divulging confidential information that poses a threat to our national security. But, this secrecy also gives the Executive branch great, covert powers.

rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, making laws about secrets is fine, except the 'secret makers' are politicians. They tend to make 'political' secrets.

That's the real issue, isn't it?