White House’s Covert Actions

Thought the Obama administration would be less secretive than its predecessor? Not so fast. “In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote d’Ivoire,” Politico reports. So why haven’t we heard about all this before? The White House press office and website never mentioned the moves; the three executive orders, one presidential memorandum, one presidential notice, and one proclamation came to light only through a diligent scouring of the Federal Register. Strangely, such notices were routinely released by the press office during prior administrations. An Obama spokesman called their omission “a simple oversight.”