Photo from Huffington Post
As a civil libertarian, as well as a believer that an Obama presidency would have brought about greater government transparency with regard to the affairs of the Executive branch, President Obama's decision to exert executive privilege in order to deny requests in Congressman Darrell Issa's (R-CA) investigation into the Fast and Furious gun running program is a complete disappointment. First, in case you don't know what the Fast and Furious program was:
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran a series of "gunwalking" sting operations[2][3] between 2006[4] and 2011.[2][5] This was done under the umbrella of Project Gunrunner, a project intended to stem the flow of firearms into Mexico by interdicting straw purchasers and gun traffickers within the United States.[6] "Gunwalking" or "letting guns walk" was a tactic whereby the ATF knowingly allowed thousands of guns to be bought by suspected arms traffickers ("gunrunners") working through straw purchasers on behalf of Mexican drug cartels.[7]
The stated goal of allowing these purchases was to continue to track the firearms as they were transferred to higher-level traffickers and key figures in Mexican cartels, in theory leading to their arrests and the dismantling of the cartels.[8][9] The tactic was questioned during the operations by a number of people, including ATF field agents and cooperating licensed gun dealers.[10][11][12][13][14] Operation Fast and Furious, by far the largest "gunwalking" probe, led to the sale of over 2,000 firearms, of which around 700 were recovered as of October 20, 2011.[15] A number of straw purchasers have been arrested and indicted; however, as of October 2011, none of the targeted high-level cartel figures have been arrested.[7]
Firearms "walked" by the ATF have been found at violent crime scenes on both sides of the Mexico–United States border, including scenes involving the deaths of many Mexicans and at least one U.S. federal agent, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. The "gunwalking" operations became public in the aftermath of Terry's murder.[2] Dissident ATF agents came forward to Congress in response.[16][17] As investigations have continued, the operations have become increasingly controversial in both countries, and diplomatic relations have been damaged as a result.[2]Representative Issa has been hovering over this issue like a vulture whenever he first became Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He has submitted numerous document requests, has engaged in some cantankerous questioning of Attorney General Eric Holder in the committee hearings, and is now pushing to hold Mr Holder in contempt. I have no doubt that one of his main motivations, if not his main motivation, in taking such a publicly strident interest in this case is politically calculated.
But as far as I can tell, Representative Issa also happens to be absolutely correct in the being so stringent in his requests.
Could he, perhaps, scale back on the sullen-tone during committee hearings? Or to put it another way, could he not be such a dick when talking to Mr. Holder? Absolutely. His interactions with Mr. Holder in the Committee hearings are nothing more than cheap political theater.
But Representative Issa is absolutely doing the right thing is his insistence on investigating the Fast and Furious fun-running program, as his duties require that he does as the Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It is with significant disappointment that I am aligning myself on the side of Congressman Issa over the Obama Administration on this, or any issue.
It is also disappointing that Obama is once again fighting steps for a more transparent executive branch. The Atlantic's
There is no way that this can possibly turn out well for anyone who values transparency. Either President Obama will get away with dispensing classified information in a way that advantages his side in various national-security policy debates, or there will be a crackdown, and Americans will be even less likely to get even the small amount of information we now have about U.S. actions abroad.As a liberal who voted for Obama in 2008 (and who hopes he wins again in 2012), I am deeply ashamed with Obama's record regarding transparency (not to mention issues surrounding civil liberties and the military, which I will address another day). Below is a video of Obama shortly after becoming President regarding the issue of government transparency entitled "Obama: Transparency Will Be Touchstone"
My, how things do change.
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