skippy the bush kangaroo

Saturday, April 23, 2005

portland, oregon takes nostalgic stand for democratic values

in portland, ore., a bid to pull out of terror task force - citing irreconcilable differences with how the federal bureau of investigation has operated in a post-sept. 11 world, city officials in portland, ore., said yesterday that they planned to pull their police officers out of an f.b.i.-run antiterrorism task force. [--snip--]

in a telephone interview after the news conference, mr. potter said his main rationale for this decision was that the f.b.i., in negotiations over the last several weeks, had refused to give him and his police chief the same top secret clearance given to the two officers on the antiterrorism task force. in negotiations, the bureau agreed to give the police chief clearance, officials said, but refused to give it to the mayor, who under portland government tradition is also the police commissioner, with oversight over the department.

this angered mr. potter, he said, adding that his lack of security clearance would effectively render him unable to know, in highly classified investigations or other cases, what his own police officers were doing.
doesn’t mr. potter know that after 9/11 secrecy is the price we must pay for an open society?
posted by Pudentilla at 4:47 AM |

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