Public to See Obama's Not-So-Secret Directive

This is a curious story and one which I'd not followed a bit, so it came with some surprise to find the headline among many others on one of my favorite legal related sites. It seems Obama has been holding back a major and widely used policy document for it's specifics by claiming privilege on the overall document.

Well, not so much, says one Judge and Court Decision. The document will have to be released, and I must say I'm quite curious as to what may be in it.

President Barack Obama must release a global development directive that he says is "changing the way we do business" with regard to foreign aid and development, a federal judge ruled.

Though Obama signed the U.S. Global Development Policy, the functional equivalent of an executive order, in 2010 with much publicity, he has never publicly released it.

PPD-6, as it is known, purportedly addresses national security and foreign relations topics, but no part of it is classified and the government never tried to shield it under Exemption 1 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Rather the government has relied on Exemption 5's presidential communications privilege.

Now this is quite odd, because the story here and attached court papers indicate this is a document widely seen, used and relied upon for guiding U.S. policy since it's creation. What details could be of interest to have continued to hold back on?

The Center for Effective Government filed suit to access the document, leading U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle to remark Tuesday that "the application of the presidential communications privilege to an unclassified, widely distributed presidential directive is an issue of first impression."

Huvelle nevertheless relied on Exemption 5 jurisprudence "that teaches that the determination will ultimately turn on the 'factual content and purpose of' the PPD-6."
After reviewing the directive in camera, she deemed expansion of the pri
vilege "unwarranted."

Source: Courthouse News

It's not merely in passing that I wonder on this and will be anxious to see just what is being said in the fine print. In exploring places like Data.gov and others, it's easy to find things like the spreadsheet of aid, both military and general, to every nation in the world over the past half century. It's amazing and startling to see we've grown from selective aid in the 90's to some level of aid to almost every nation on Earth over the course of the first decade of this century, through today.

This seems to deal with aid at all levels and in all forms, so while I'll be the first to note (strongly so, in forum choice....) this is not a situation Obama created in aid and how it's being distributed, it IS an ongoing pattern which has carried into the current administration. This seems to be a major policy decision point from the start (2010) in covering how it's come to be defined in recent years.

I'd encourage everyone that may find this interesting to take a few moments and read through the court transcript of the actual decision as linked above for the PDF. It supports the core of the Courthouse News story but adds a fair bit more in context and "Hmmmm?" factor for making this interesting to keep an eye out for more on, IMO.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Agreed. It will be interesting to see just what has been the reason to hold it back.
And-
Like so much else, not so much has changed between the foreign policies of Bush and Obama.

Interesting find.
I have a feeling the increase in foreign aid corresponds with Global War on Terror and military installations/intelligence/rendition sites.
Places like Syria actually held prisoners we had captured and yet we were ready to declare war on them a few months ago.
In the US' global reach for power we've started treating client states like welfare recipients - do what we say or we cut off the money.
Small wonder the printing presses at the treasury dept have been running full tilt.
We've flooded the world with USD.

We need to see what's in this directive especially if our foreign policy is controlled by it's contents.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

Maybe PPD6 would give us some inkling of what may have been going on in Libya that ended up with the Benghazi debacle. It is a reach, I know, but until we see it, who can say?

The story refers to a "fact sheet"....

some interesting global agenda things contained.

Fact Sheet: U.S. Global Development Policy

The President’s approach to global development addresses the new strategic context faced by the
United States through the following three pillars:

*A policy focused on sustainable development outcomes that places a premium on broad-based economic growth, democratic governance, game - changing innovations, and sustainable systems for meeting basic human needs;

*A new operational model that positions the United States to be a more effective partner and to leverage our leadership; and

*A modern architecture that elevates development and harnesses development capabilities spread across government in support of common objectives.

reply to post by xuenchen


Ah, Agenda 21 ...

ketsuko
reply to post by xuenchen

 

Ah, Agenda 21 ...

Ohhh Yeah.

I can't wait to see the "Hidden" details !!

A real wrecking ball for sure.

He sold the US and all of its slaves to china for a warehouse full of trinkets, and small statues of the great barak Hussien obama.