Bush Clamping Down On
Presidential Papers
Incumbent Could Lock Up Predecessor's Records
The Bush White House has drafted an executive order that would usher
in a new era
of secrecy for presidential records and allow an incumbent president
to withhold a
former president's papers even if the former president wanted to
make them public.
The five-page draft would also require members of the public seeking
particular documents
to show "at least a 'demonstrated, specific need' " for them before
they would be considered for release.
Historians and others who have seen the proposed order called it unprecedented
and said it would
turn the 1978 Presidential Records Act on its head by allowing such
materials to be kept secret "in perpetuity."
Under the order, incumbent and former presidents "could keep their records
locked up for as long as they want,"
said Bruce Craig, executive director of the National Coordinating Committee
for the Promotion of History.
"It reverses the very premise of the Presidential Records Act, which
provides for a systematic release
of presidential records after 12 years." Other critics
voiced concern about the impact of the order
"in the post-September 11 world," with its wartime atmosphere."
The executive branch is moving heavily into the nether world of dirty
tricks, very likely including
directed assassinations overseas and other violations of American norms
and the U.N. charter,"
said Vanderbilt University historian Hugh Graham. "There is going to
be so much to hide."