The U.S. Constitution failed to require the government to obtain an
independent judicial order before concealing information from the
taxpaying public who paid for the salaries, the material and the time of
government employees.
Administrative secrecy became so widespread that Congress approved the
Freedom of Information Act to meet growing protests in the 1960's. It
allowed public access to some records, but still only "on request" if
applicants were fortunate enough to know exactly what they wanted to
uncover. The Attorney General at the time, Ramsey Clark, made clear the
challenge;
"If government is to be truly of, by
and for the people, the people must
know in detail the activities of govern-
ment. Nothing so diminishes democracy
as secrecy."
While Public Government information became somewhat more accessible,
Secret Government (Grievance 2) continued to hide ALL information it
desired behind such labels as "confidential", "sensitive", "secret",
"top secret" and "cosmic top secret", which had no clear definitions by
law and no time limitations.
Americans didn't learn until 34 years after the fact that the government
plotted a lawless bombing of China's nuclear test facilities in 1964 to
prevent China from becoming a nuclear power. Secret Government's
National Security Adviser to President Lyndon Johnson, McGeorge Bundy,
argued in favor of the attack, but other administration officials
successfully opposed it after considerable debate.
Henry Kissinger, while holding the posts of National Security Adviser
and Secretary of State at various times in the 1970's, met secretly with
Chinese officials to give strategic U.S. intelligence information to
China about military forces of the Soviet Union. Public disclosure of
it came in 1999 only after a request was filed for the information, and
long after the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
The government withheld documents for 30 years showing the CIA provided the Tibetan exile movement with $1.7 million yearly for operations against China, which had taken control of Tibet more than a decade earlier. It included payment of $180,000 for the exiled Tibetan
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, all at taxpayers expense.
Many years after U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras were reported involved
in drug trafficking in the 1980's, CIA Inspector General I. Britt Snider
admitted the agency did not fully inform "oversight" committees of
Congress;
"...CIA did not inform Congress of
all allegations."
CIA complicity in drug trafficking, shown in other grievances, has
remained officially hidden from American taxpayers, and Congress has not
been required to review government withholding policies on an ongoing
basis.
A Presidential directive in 1995 to declassify many "old" secrets
exempted not only millions of documents withheld by Secret Government
agencies, but ALL Federal Bureau of Investigation files.
President Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded the assassinated President John
F. Kennedy in 1963, admitted later that he never believed the Warren
Commission report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the killing, and
in 1979, a House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that there
were two gunmen, and a conspiracy was involved, but concealment of much
information continued.
Thirty years after the Kennedy assassination, Congress created the
Assassination Records Review Board to identify and release documents
that could provide more information. Four years later, the Board
disclosed new testimony that a second set of autopsy photos existed that
were never made public and still had not been located;
"One of the main tragedies of the
assassination...has been the in-
completeness of the autopsy record
and the suspicion caused by the
shroud of secrecy that has surrounded
the records that do exist."
The review panel said the government had withheld "millions" of
documents "needlessly and wastefully". Suspicion remained that a
CIA-Mafia alliance was involved in the killing, and the Kennedy Library
was still working 35 years after his death to have various government
agencies release Kennedy's own files on the Mafia.
A half-century after World War II, Congress approved legislation to
force open tens of thousands of documents concerning U.S. government use
of Nazi war criminals in the Cold War against communism, but it was long
after the American people at-large could take informed action on it.
Such examples of government concealment seemed far removed from ideals
expressed by founders of the U.S., such as John Adams, the nations
second President (1797-1801);
"Liberty cannot be preserved without
a general knowledge among the people."
Government withholding of information is tantamount to keeping the
people who pay for it in ignorance.
With an AUTHENTIC CONSTITUTION in harmony with the natural
Cosmic Laws of the universe, and upholding High Moral Values and
Democratic Ideals, all government information is public information
unless qualified otherwise by an independent court of justice.
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