Are Bush's secrets safe with Obama?


Josh Gerstein – Tue Feb 10, 4:52 am ET

For years, Democrats in Congress and open government groups battled, with little success, to expose many of the most closely guarded secrets of President George W. Bush's time in office.

Now President Barack Obama holds the power to reveal them, but some of his allies may be disappointed when he doesn't pull back the curtain as far — or as fast — as they would like.

The documents still under wraps stem from the hottest scandals and controversies of the Bush era: warrantless wiretapping, alleged torture of prisoners in the war on terror, the abrupt dismissal of a batch of U.S. attorneys in 2006 and a criminal investigation into the White House's involvement in the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

Obama signed two orders calling for government openness but also said he'd rather turn the page on some Bush-era fights than rehash them. Still, he and his aides may feel pressure to lay the cupboards bare — all in the name of transparency, the mantra of his presidential campaign.

But what Obama must remember is this: Whatever he releases retroactively about Bush might well be released someday about his own administration's inner workings and private debates. And that's enough to give any president pause.

"A president that sets the tone of openness and demands it of others would be held ultimately, I think, to the same standards," said Douglas Kmiec, a former Justice Department official under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He backed Obama in November. "I'd hope the new president would say, 'Amen.' Of course, it's easier to say, 'Amen' in the abstract when you're not at issue."


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