AP: Obama administration censors records, denies FOIA requests, at a record rate

You remember the promise. Should he be elected, Obama's administration would be the "most transparent in history." That was 2008, when a relatively unknown Senator promised that a hypothetical President Obama would correct the transgressions of his predecessor.

George W. Bush was, according to Democrats, a monster whose administration bordered on dictatorship as it did everything in its power to keep its secrets. President Obama would, they promised, reverse all that. So how does the AP think it going?

The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

Uh-oh. A new record?

The administration cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. Most agencies also took longer to answer records requests, the analysis found.

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The government's own figures from 99 federal agencies covering six years show that half way through its second term, the administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it releases records despite its promises from Day 1 to become the most transparent administration in history. In category after category — except for reducing numbers of old requests and a slight increase in how often it waived copying fees — the government's efforts to be more open about its activities last year were their worst since President Barack Obama took office. How could that be? The President made a promise. He wouldn't break his oft-repeated oath, would he? After all, this is a man who bemoaned the surveillance state, complained about extra-constitutional federal overreach, and swore that he would uphold Americans' civil liberties. What could possibly make him abandon such a principled stance?

In a year of intense public interest over the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, the government cited national security to withhold information a record 8,496 times — a 57 percent increase over a year earlier and more than double Obama's first year, when it cited that reason 3,658 times. The Defense Department, including the NSA, and the CIA accounted for nearly all those. The Agriculture Department's Farm Service Agency cited national security six times, the Environmental Protection Agency did twice and the National Park Service once.

Oh. Well, we wouldn't want anyone watching the watchmen, would we? Honestly, nothing about this is particularly surprising. When you have a President running a scandal-plagued administration that relies on a host of constitutional transgressions for its day-to-day operation, no one should really expect anything more than what we've gotten. As the administration flounders, secrecy is all they have left. The interesting thing here is that the once-slavish AP has actually decided to do some reporting on the White House they helped create. Apparently, someone doesn't like to see their reporters being spied on....