Bush Administration: Right After All! Again.

The Emily Litella Presidency continues:

The Obama administration insists it has no obligation to provide access to a top secret document in a [warrantless] wiretapping case, setting up a showdown next week with the judge who ordered it released. …

The judge has ordered department lawyers to appear before his court Wednesday to make the case why he should not award damages to the now-defunct Oregon chapter of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation. That group is challenging the wiretapping program.

In its response, the department said that in this case “disclosure of classified information–even under protective order–would create intolerable risks to national security.”

The filing said President Barack Obama has authorized access to classified information on a “need-to-know” basis and argued that the government “cannot be sanctioned for its determination that plaintiffs do not have a need to know classified information.”

It’s one more in a long series of instances in which the Obama administration has backtracked on its campaign promises–fortunately!–by keeping Bush administration anti-terror policies in place. No doubt the administration was motivated in part by the fact that the Treasury Department has designated the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, the plaintiff in the anti-wiretapping case, “an organization that supports terrorism.” Isn’t it about time for Barack Obama to issue an apology to former President Bush?

UPDATE: Facebook friend Pat Wilson writes:

Obama and Cheney are the two biggest supporters of Bush’s policies. Cheney with his vociferous defence and Obama through his actions.

Yes, there’s a lot of truth to that.

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