From Mother Jones:

Obama to Bush: I Can Release Your Records. Don't Like It? Sue.

On his first day in office, President Obama put former president Bush on notice. His administration just released an executive order that will make it difficult for Bush to shield his White House records--and those of former Vice President Dick Cheney--from public scrutiny by invoking the doctrine of executive privilege. Shortly after taking office, Bush handed down his own executive order, amending the Presidential Records Act to give current and past presidents, along with their heirs, veto power over the release of presidential records, which are considered the property of the American people.

"[Obama]'s putting former presidents on notice that if you want to continue a claim of executive privilege that [Obama] doesn't think is well-placed, you're going to have to go to court," says Anne Weismann, the chief counsel for Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW).

During the campaign, Obama promised to "nullify attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult." (A transition spokesperson promised Mother Jones essentially the same thing when we asked a few weeks ago.) That was a reference to former president Bush's infamous Executive Order 13233, which gave current and former presidents and vice presidents, along with their heirs, unprecedented authority to block the disclosure of White House records. But Obama's taken his campaign promise a step further. While revoking 13233, Obama has also put forth a far stricter interpretation of executive privilege:

[T]he Executive Order on Presidential Records brings those principles [of openness and transparency] to presidential records by giving the American people greater access to these historic documents. This order ends the practice of having others besides the President assert executive privilege for records after an administration ends. Now, only the President will have that power, limiting its potential for abuse. And the order also requires the Attorney General and the White House Counsel to review claims of executive privilege about covered records to make sure those claims are fully warranted by the Constitution.

Weismann explains:

[Obama]'s basically saying if there's a dispute, and a former president thinks something should be covered by executive privilege and Obama doesn't agree, then Obama would direct the Archivist to release it [despite the former president's claim of privilege]. The only option a former President would have at that point would be to go to court and sue. [Obama]'s set up a process to review these claims which requires the Attorney General and White House Counsel to agree that these claims should be invoked, which indicates that it won't be either casually invoked or casually defended.

In Obama's remarks on Wednesday morning, he said that, "Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former President wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the White House Counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution." The effect of that particular phrase is enormous, as emphasized by the response of a reader over at Talking Points Memo who works for the Justice Department. "That highlighted phrase has signaled a significant discussion around these parts." You can be certain that Obama's early moves to promote government transparency and accountability will be the subject of discussion and debate for a long time to come.

Photo by flickr user Barack Obama used under a Creative Commons license.

Posted by Nick Baumann on 01/21/09
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2009/01/11919_executive_ord...

GW,

This was the point of my latest blog, which didn't get near enough exposure.

It is truly now or never for 9/11 Truth and Justice. If we can't muster a huge effort to alert the new administration about the old (before a whole bunch of new shit goes down) then we are done.

[Contacts:

White House

202-456-1111, 202-456-1414

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Attorney General

202-353-1555,

AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

Inspector General

oig.hotline@usdoj.gov,

inspector.general@usdoj.gov

National Security Division

nsd.public@usdoj.gov

Additional contacts at end.]

COMPLAINT

Notice of High Treason perpetrated by former President George Walker Bush and
other members of his Administration relating to the Terrorist Attacks of September
11th, 2001 ("9/11").

1. Applicable law: US Code Title 18, Chapter 115, § 2382. Misprision
of treason.

"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge
of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as
soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to
some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or
justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall
be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both."

2. The "classification" by the former President, George W. Bush,
of the activities of "certain foreign governments" which assisted
and sponsored the 9/11 hijackers while they lived in the United States, amounts
to "aid and comfort" to the "enemy," and therefore treason
under the U.S. Constitution.

Evidence:

A) Statements by former Senator Bob Graham (FL), the chair of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, made on PBS Newshour, December 11, 2002:

"I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments
involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists
in the United States.

I am stunned that we have not done a better job of pursuing that to determine
if other terrorists received similar support and, even more important, if
the infrastructure of a foreign government assisting terrorists still exists
for the current generation of terrorists who are here planning the next
plots.

To me that is an extremely significant issue and most of that information
is classified, I think overly-classified. I believe the American people
should know the extent of the challenge that we face in terms of foreign
government involvement. That would motivate the government to take action."

B) The FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS

APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004, Amendment No. 1994, from the Congressional Record,
October 28, 2003:

"The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To urge the President to release information regarding

sources of foreign support for the 9-11 hijackers)

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

Sec. . Sense of the Senate on declassifying portions of

the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After
the Terrorist Attacks of September 2001.

(a) Findings.--The Senate finds that--

(1) The President has prevented the release to the American public of 28
pages of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence

Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September
2001.

(2) The contents of the redacted pages discuss sources of foreign support
for some of the September 11th hijackers while they were in the United States.

(3) The Administration's decision to classify this

information prevents the American people from having access to information
about the involvement of certain foreign governments in the terrorist attacks
of September 2001.

(...)

(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate

that in light of these findings the President should declassify the 28-page
section of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before
and After the

Terrorist Attacks of September 2001 that deals with foreign sources of support
for the 9-11 hijackers, and that only

those portions of the report that would directly compromise ongoing investigations
or reveal intelligence sources and

methods should remain classified."

C) FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, and published
by INTELWIRE.COM, reveal that Omar Al Bayoumi, who lived with two of the alleged
9/11 hijackers and supported them financially, was an agent for the government
of Saudi Arabia.

"An FBI memo details the phone records of Omar Al Bayoumi, a Saudi
citizen who assisted hijackers Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Al-Hazmi in relocating
to San Diego in early 2000. Bayoumi helped them find an apartment and pay
their rent and introduced them to people in the local community.

Bayoumi also kept in close contact with his apparent employer, the Saudi
government. The exact nature of Bayoumi's employment has remained unclear,
but numerous associates suspected him of being a Saudi intelligence officer.

Read the document: 2002-04-15: FBI Letterhead Memorandum, Omar Al Bayoumi
Contacts With Saudi Government

http://intelfiles.egoplex.com/2002-04-15-FBI-LHM-omar-al-bayoumi2.pdf

(...)

Bayoumi was "employed by the Saudi government to monitor the activities
of Saudi dissidents that resided in the U.S.," the memo states, according
to "a prominent Islamic leader in San Diego."

Other FBI interviewees said Bayoumi was "an employee of the Saudi
Arabian Government (who) traveled to mosques throughout the world to monitor
and observe Saudi citizens for signs of dissident behavior."

Another source said Bayoumi "was connected with a Saudi Arabian company
that is equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration," and said
he was paid $5,000 a month to be a student.

The memo below details Bayoumi's phone contacts with the Saudi government
over slightly less than two months in 2000, around the time the hijackers
arrived in San Diego. Phone records revealed Bayoumi called local Saudi
officials, including the consulate in San Diego, 34 times. He called Saudi
officials in Washington D.C. 141 times in the same period, according to
the memo -- more than twice a day on average.

Calls appear to be directed to the Saudi Cultural Mission, the Saudi Education
Mission, the Saudi Embassy in Washington, the Saudi Consulate in San Diego,
the Saudi National Guard, and the Saudi Islamic Affairs Department.

Although the notation is unclear due to FBI redactions, it also appears
Bayoumi called a U.S. Department of State diplomat."

D) The intelligence service of Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence, was
accused in the Times of India newspaper, October 9, 2001, ("India helped
FBI trace ISI-terrorist links") of ordering wire transfers in excess
of $100,000 from their agent in Dubai UAE to Mohammad Atta in Florida. The
chief of the Pakistani ISI resigned immediately as these revelations were
made public in the press. This information has also been made "classified"
by the former President, and no full accounting of these activities has been
made available to the citizens of the United States.

"...top sources confirmed here on tuesday, that the [ISI chief] general
lost his job because of the "evidence" india produced to show
his links to one of the suicide bombers that wrecked the world trade centre.
the us authorities sought his removal after confirming the fact that $100,000
were wired to wtc hijacker mohammed atta from pakistan by ahmad umar sheikh
at the instance of gen mahumd. senior government sources have confirmed
that india contributed significantly to establishing the link between the
money transfer and the role played by the dismissed isi chief. while they
did not provide details, they said that indian inputs, including sheikh’s
mobile phone number, helped the fbi in tracing and establishing the link.
a direct link between the isi and the wtc attack could have enormous repercussions.
the us cannot but suspect whether or not there were other senior pakistani
army commanders who were in the know of things. evidence of a larger conspiracy
could shake us confidence in pakistan’s ability to participate in the
anti-terrorism coalition. indian officials say they are vitally interested
in the unravelling of the case since it could link the isi directly to the
hijacking of the indian airlines kathmandu-delhi flight to kandahar last
december. ahmad umar sayeed sheikh is a british national and a london school
of economics graduate who was arrested by the police in delhi following
a bungled 1994 kidnapping of four westerners, including an american citizen."

3) Treason is defined in the U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3:

"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort..."

CONCLUSION

The overt actions of the former President of the United States to make "classified"
the participation of "foreign governments" in the attacks of 9/11
2001 clearly amount to "aid and comfort" to the "enemy"
as per the Constitutional definition of treason. Specifically, the governments
of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and potentially others, have been implicated by credible
evidence and by the statements of high-ranking US officials.

This hiding of the facts by the former President and his Administration amounts
to a cover-up after the fact of the identities of the true sponsors of the September
11th attacks on America.

Therefore, former president George Walker Bush and other responsible members
of his Administration are guilty of high treason according to the laws of this
land. This most serious matter deserves a full investigation and prosecution
immediately. In the words of former Senator Bob Graham:

"I believe the American people should know the extent of the challenge
that we face in terms of foreign government involvement."

#

URGENT ACTION NEEDED: CONTACT THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT AND NOTIFY THEM OF BUSH'S TREASON RELATED TO THE 9/11 ATTACKS (SAMPLE)