Government Secrecy
Speaking to the Newspaper Association of America on April 15, 2008, Senator Clinton said:
"When I am president, the era of Bush/Cheney secrecy will be over. ...the Bush administration has dramatically widened the definition of classified information to shield more and more materials from public scrutiny, has widened the scope of the state secrets privilege to shield this program from judicial review, and has widened the reach of executive privilege to shield its activaties from Congress. From warrantless wiretaps at home to secret prisons overseas, the Bush administration has conducted illegal activities and stonewalled efforts of the people and the Congress to discover them and to hold the administration accountable.
When I am president I will empower the federal government to operate from a presumption of openness, not secrecy. That's why I am a co-sponsor of the Free Flow of Information Act, allowing reporters to protect sources, help insure that whistle blowers can blow the whistle, and you can keep the public informed and keep office holders accountable.
I will direct my administration to prevent needless classification of information that ought to be shared with the public. We will adopt a presumption of openness and Freedom of Information Act requests and urge agencies to release information quickly if disclosure will do no harm. It was Attorney General Janet Reno's approach, and it will be my Attorney General's approach, as well."
Reacting to whistleblower site WikiLeaks and the 2010 U.S. diplomatic cables release, Hillary Clinton expressed her condemnation of any disclosure that puts lives at risk and threatens national security.
Read more about this topic: Political Positions Of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Civil Liberties and Democracy
Other articles related to "government secrecy, secrecy, government, governments":
... enacted legislation directing an inquiry into the uses of government secrecy ... The Committee studied and made recommendations on the "culture of secrecy" that pervaded the United States government and its intelligence community for 80 years, beginning with the Espionage ... After release of the information, Moynihan authored Secrecy The American Experience where he discussed the impact government secrecy has had on the domestic politics of America ...
... Governments often attempt to conceal information from other governments and the public ... of keeping Critical Nuclear Weapon Design Information secret, but many believe government secrecy to be excessive and too often employed for political purposes ... Many countries have laws that attempt to limit government secrecy, such as the U.S ...
Famous quotes containing the words secrecy and/or government:
“Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance. There is as much secrecy about the cooking as if he had a design to poison you.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859)