ƒc Most people are aware that Bush changed the Presidential Records Act of 1978 to allow him to seal Poppy's records.   The information in his and Reagan's papers could be very telling about the true nature of their administrations.   It was general knowledge that the Iran-Contra papers from Ronnie Raygun's reign were to be declassified and released after the 12 years mandated by this law.

Where we did not fill in the blanks well enough was why this would be so important.   A few weeks after 9-11 Bush re-wrote the Records Act to kill info about some of the NeoCon Felons of the Reagan Iran-Contra Affair who he was in the process of appointing to high level positions in his administration.

Of course he was covering his own ass for his hijacking of our country and our Constitution as well.   He was being the Fixer as well as the Decider.   More likely it was Dick Cheney, David Addington, Sparky Gonzales and the NeoCons (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Pearle, Abrams, etc...) who laid down the law to him and Bush just signed on the dotted line.

The info from the article below fills in the blanks.   What pisses me off is that this law was written because of Nixon and his illegal cabal of White House crooks and here it is an even bigger criminal just washes it away with the stroke of a pen.   If allowed to continue his Reign of Terror, Bush will have done more harm to our country than any other President in American History and a hell of a lot more damage than Bin Laden or any terrorist could ever do.   He must be removed from his throne and the sooner the better...

Dallas News.com

SMU pressed to fight Bush's secrecy
Historians ask school to reject presidential library unless Bush voids privacy order

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – Archivists and historians are urging Southern Methodist University to reject the Bush presidential library unless the administration reverses an executive order that gives former presidents and their heirs the right to keep White House papers secret in perpetuity.

In November 2001, a little more than a month after terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and two months before the 12-year clock would have run out for Reagan-era records, Mr. Bush changed the rules. Former chief executives, starting with President Reagan, could block release of any records for any reason and any length of time.

Within a month, watchdog group Public Citizen had gone to federal court in Washington. The American Historical Association joined the lawsuit, along with the Organization of American Historians, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the American Political Science Association.

Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University – another plaintiff in the lawsuit – noted that although the Reagan library released more than 4 million pages in the 1990s, it declassified fewer than 4,000 pages since Mr. Bush signed the order.

"The net effect of the Bush order has been to throw sand in the already rusty gears of the presidential libraries," Mr. Blanton said by e-mail. "It's not just our history at stake, it's how and whether we will ever be able to hold our presidents accountable."

 ±  Click To Expand    What Bush Changed in The Presidential Records Act...

Congress passed the Presidential Records Act in 1978 after the Watergate scandal so that former presidents couldn't keep full control of their papers, as Richard Nixon had tried to do in 1974. Its provisions:

• Presidential records were formally declared government property, not private property.
• The National Archives was assigned to make those records available to the public as soon as practicable.
• To balance the public right to know and the legitimate need for secrecy, records involving confidential policy advice would be withheld for 12 years.
• Records involving national security, trade secrets and personal privacy could remain sealed longer.

What Bush changed

President Bush signed an executive order Nov. 1, 2001, that limited the 1978 law. The order treats presidential privilege as a property right that legally can be bequeathed to heirs – a concept legal scholars deem extraordinary, since privilege attaches to the office, not the individual occupying it. The order includes:

• Former presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan, would have the authority to block access to their records, in any policy area, for as long as they wished.
• A current president could block release of a former president's records.
• A former president could "designate a representative" who could continue to assert a presidential privilege after the former president dies, with no time limit.
• "In the absence of any designated representative after the former president's death or disability, the family of the former president may designate a representative."

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Tags ::  Politics • Presidential Records Act • Transparent Government • Bush