Obama Administration Moves to Block Military Transparency

Obama’s Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, recently created new restrictions limiting the ability of Department of Defense personnel to communicate with the media. Gates published the memo, Interaction with the Media, in response to General McChrystal’s recent public criticism of the Obama administrations mishandling of the conflict in Afghanistan. The new restrictions are yet another Obama administration assault on the principle of government transparency.

The memo prevents DoD personnel from sharing unclassified data with the media, “Revealing unclassified, but sensitive, pre-decisional, or otherwise restricted information is also prohibited unless specifically authorized.”

In the memo, Gates expresses disrespect towards the opinions and viewpoints of our men and women in uniform, “We have far too many people talking to the media outside of channels, sometimes providing information which is simply incorrect, out of proper context, unauthorized or uninformed by the perspective of those who are most knowledgeable about and accountable for inter- and intra-agency policy, processes and activities.”

Most criticism of the memo is concentrated on a new rule that requires the Pentagon’s public affairs office be consulted “prior to any interviews or any other means of media and public engagement with possible national or international implications.” In military terminology, that means before any contact with the news media. No officer with any concern for his or her career will risk an unfavorable media contact from this point forward. This will have a significant chilling effect on the flow of news and information from the front lines to the American people.

Obama the candidate campaigned on a platform of government transparency; Obama the president appears to have completely abandoned the concept.