DOJ blocking Obama transition team from reviewing documents on wiretapping and torture.
By on Dec 12th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
DOJ blocking Obama transition team from reviewing documents on wiretapping and torture.
According to the Blog of Legal Times, the Justice Department is blocking President-elect Obama’s agency review team’s request “to review classified legal opinions related to secret CIA and National Security Agency programs.” Included in these documents are the “legal rationale of the NSA’s warrantless spying program and the CIA’s detention and interrogation policies, among other intelligence initiatives.” According to a senior Justice Department official, they are “reluctant to provide the opinions to Obama’s team without permission from the two intelligence agencies whose activities they address.” (HT: Daily Kos and Talk Left)
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Boy… what did I say? Kicking and screaming to the last minute…
First NASA, now the DoJ.
It’s not like Obama’s the incoming President or anything, huh?
Gee, I wonder when these obstreperous fools will decide it’s okay to cooperate w/ the WH’s requests for information?
December 12th, 2008 at 4:57 pmSo, remind me who won the election and will be the next president?
What possible purpose is there in denying President Obama access to documents now, that he will have full access to in just over a month?
Sounds like a desperate cover-up to me.
December 12th, 2008 at 4:58 pmDoes this mean Bush doesn’t have his plane tickets to Paraguay yet?
December 12th, 2008 at 5:00 pmYeah, having our new president review all that stuff has *got* to be a HUGE threat to our national security…..
/snark
December 12th, 2008 at 5:01 pmOh dear, sounds like a lot of people don’t want to keep their jobs. Or maybe they just don’t understand that he won the election and will be in charge of them soon. Those people are toast.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:05 pmPay to play isn’t the only game being played. Look the Auto Industry will get the money but by play the game of you can’t have it and Bush steps in to save the day is the way this will play out. It’s old school Politics when you have a current number of friends block a bill knowing once the President is allowed to save the day and rebuild his reputation in the public eye. Check out how much money the Auto Makers have given to Republican candidates. Now Bush will be made to look good for his leagcy and Americans were fooled again. It’s all a game where taxpayers money is the chips their playing with. Watch as this movie is a rerun.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:06 pmRuh-row.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:06 pmIf “we” don’t torture, then why the hesitation to show the next commander-in-chief how well-disciplined this commander’s administration was?
NASA, DoJ, even the Blair House availability — the Bushies are going out defiant as can be.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:07 pmWrong posting sorry here’s the right one,
All will be exposed after Jan 20th. As much as possible is beiing destroyed or retyped to cover up the facts. It will take little time to figure out the truth. People always seem to make mistakes when their in a rush. Senator Specter is doing his part at trying to stall the confirmation of Eric Holder. It’s good to see the corrupt Republicans working so well together.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:10 pmI’m not sure I understand why they are being obstructive now when the Obama team will have full access on January 20. What difference does another 39 days make?
Oh, right. They can’t get their shredders to work any faster…
December 12th, 2008 at 5:10 pmTranslation: The Transition Team will be able to permitted to see the shredded remains of any documents through the clear trash bags as they’re being loaded into the incinerator.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pmObfuscate. Delay. Deny. Destroy.
Bet it will be one heck of a shredding party over at the Department of Justice for the better part of the next few weeks…
‘Evidence? What evidence. I am afraid it’s all been lost in the transition.’ Or, something.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pmOne good thing may come out of all this madness: Obama will realize that he can’t go “Bi-Partisan” with these jerks, and he should just kick their ass and do what he really wants to do.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:14 pmAnd to think that the worst thing the Bush Crime family could complain about at the end of Bill Clinton’s Administration was the heavily debunked story about ripping off the W’s from keyboards.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:15 pmThe White House has turned down a request from the family of President-elect Barack Obama to move into Blair House in early January so that his daughters can start school on
Jan. 5.
The Obamas were told that Blair House, where incoming presidents usually stay in the five days before Inauguration Day, is booked in early January, a spokesperson to the Obama transition said. The spokesperson said, “But, there were previously scheduled events and guests that couldn’t be displaced.”
It remained unclear who on Bushes guest list outranked the incoming President.
Just a social F-U to Obamas from Bush.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pmI doubt the Obama team will ever get anything of value from the bush bunch…They will block, tackle and shred everything possible to clear their legacy..Blessings
December 12th, 2008 at 5:28 pmDuring the last administration change only the W’s from the keyboards went missing.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:30 pmThe shredders will be running tonight.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:31 pm#10 Jackie says:Senator Specter is doing his part at trying to stall the confirmation of Eric Holder. It’s good to see the corrupt Republicans working so well together.
****Kudos to you Jackie for making the connection.That’s what it’s all about trying to take out the AG who is most likely to go after Bush’s Constitution violations.I think it’s a lame attempt by Specter to forge a deal:allow Rupukes to go who violated the law or Specter & the repukes will try & obstruct as much as possible.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:45 pmThe democrats need to be shutting down the halls of congress with speeches about this……
December 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pmBlocking the new president. How patriotic of them.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:06 pmIf Obama can’t fire these people, I hope he sends every single one of em to Alaska.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:17 pmThis is not unexpected. That department has been so politicized, so ethically stunted that nothing less then a clean sweep and a new Attorney General can help it.
They are just trying to delay the inevitable. I wonder how much shredding of documents has gone on there and everywhere else in this administration. Those shredders must be red hot by now from all the late night use.
Justice Department? What a joke.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:51 pmWere these documents subpoenaed in any lawsuits? Just because they think they’ll get the lawsuits dismissed is no excuse to destroy those documents. They could also be evidence in a criminal trial. Destroying them would be a crime. It would also destroy any legal justification the administration tried to used for the illegal torture and wiretapping in the first place, leaving them absolutely no justification in writing. That would mean they were flat out unjustifiable crimes.
I can’t figure out why they would delay access.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:35 pmWayne A. Schneider Says: I can’t figure out why they would delay access.
Beee-coz, old chap….a while back George commanded NASA to build him a Mars Rocket, which they have done using bits of space-shuttle tile and all those GM-electric cars that were supposedly ‘killed’ and if Obama knew all that before George could escape to Mars on January 20th, to return 4 years later to rightfully reclaim his throne (like Putin)—backed up by an army of Cat-Women from Venus of course— well then George might be stuck with Laura for the rest of his life.
It’s quite simple really!
December 12th, 2008 at 9:52 pmThey can’t ever be suave about buying extra time to cover their tracks.
-AF
December 12th, 2008 at 10:06 pmAndrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
Maybe Obama’s transition team will ask for the CIA’s after-incident damage assessment report, which determined what damage to our national security had occurred, that was required by federal law after Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert CIA identity was blown by Republicans?
Because this after-incident damage assessment report is being kept hidden, just as strenuously as the torture memos and illegal surveillance documents, I suspect that there must have been major damage to our national security caused by the “loose lips” leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert connections to the CIA.
Otherwise, something would have been released long ago, even in redacted form, but especially at the trial of convicted traitor Scooter Libby.
Just like in the case of Richard Nixon, it is what the Republicans keep trying to hide (or erase) that proves to me how crooked and criminal they really are, and how dangerous they’ve become to our democracy.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:26 pm5th Estate Says:
It’s quite simple really!
__________
T’anks a lot, 5th… you just gave up the plot to my latest film script…
December 12th, 2008 at 10:46 pmWayne A. Schneider Says:
I can’t figure out why they would delay access.
_________
Denial?
Or perhaps, like that dim watt bulb at NASA, they want to be martyred for The Cause.
One of these days, I’m sure we will be treated to the absolutely nauseating sight of of a gang of balding, pudgy, pasty-faced, double-chinned white men marching down the street, arms linked, singing “We shall overcome… we shall overcome…”
December 12th, 2008 at 10:50 pmAs soon as Bush is gone, there will probably be a whole lot of people singing like canaries.
December 13th, 2008 at 12:03 amPaper’s easy. Rather hard to shred a massive building complex though. Like the NSA’s data mining facility they opened in San Antonio, to run a program that really has no legitmate legal basis for operating, not even a plausible excuse.
Then again, they did open it during the election campaign as though no matter who won the election, they still expected it to operate under the next president.
December 13th, 2008 at 1:31 amCRIMES WERE COMMITED. PEOPLE WANT ACCOUNTABILITY!
December 13th, 2008 at 12:52 pm