“Transparency” and the Citigroup Bailout
October 25th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
The late Bloomberg News reporter Mark Pittman asked the U.S. Treasury in January 2009 to identify $301 billion of securities owned by Citigroup Inc. that the government had agreed to guarantee. He made the request on the grounds that taxpayers ought to know how their money was being used.
More than 20 months later, after saying at least five times that a response was imminent, Treasury officials responded with 560 pages of printed-out e-mails — none of which Pittman requested. They were so heavily redacted that most of what’s left are everyday messages such as “Did you just try to call me?” and “Monday will be a busy day!”
None of the documents answers Pittman’s request for “records sufficient to show the names of the relevant securities” or the dates and terms of the guarantees. Even so, the U.S. government considers the collection of e-mails a partial response to an official request under the federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. The Justice Department in July cited an increase in such responses as evidence that “more information is being released” under the law.
President Barack Obama vowed to usher in a new era of open government. On Jan. 21, 2009, the day after his inauguration and a week before Pittman submitted his FOIA request, Obama directed agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure, in order to renew their commitment to the principles embodied in FOIA.”
Limits of Transparency
The saga of Pittman’s request shows that the promise of transparency has its limits when it comes to the government’s intervention in the financial industry, which at its peak reached $12.8 trillion in commitments. From the 2008 Bear Stearns Cos. rescue to the Federal Reserve’s policy of quantitative easing in 2010, the Obama administration has delayed disclosures and defended its right to secrecy in court, said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch Inc., which describes itself as a conservative foundation.
The current administration INHERITED a LOT of Bushitas. Period.
Obama also didn’t bailout the banks. Bush did. How we forget.
Freedom of Information Act requests, in the U.S. government are replied to by GS 13’s who make about $100K a year, and they are VERY HARD TO FIRE.
Now if a Senior Executive of the Treasury who would be in the direct line of fire from Obama tried to pull this CRAP OFF – this would be something under Obama’s control. This BULLSHIT should be a firing offense. This action, redacting all but the must mundane bullshit – is against the FOIA law. It’s against the LAW.
It has NOTHING TO DO WITH TRANSPARENCY and OBAMA!
It’s just against the flucking LAW.
Pittman has just cause to take this to court. And good luck to this tenacious trying to exert his “freedoms.” File a freaking lawsuit already.
There are people stonewalling this Pittman who HAVE NO BUSINESS DRAWING A SALARY AT THE U.S. TAXPAYER’S EXPENSE.
NO ETHICS, NO MORALS, IN MY BOOK, ARE A FIRING OFFENSE AND I HOPE THESE SCOWMS, E.G. MORONS, ARE KICKED OFF THE DOLE. PERIOD!