• Home
  • About Off The Grid
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
No Result
View All Result
Off The Grid News
Home How-To

Obama Unresponsive To Own Party Members’ Requests For Greater Drone Strike Transparency

by Off The Grid Editor
in How-To
Print Print
Obama Unresponsive To Own Party Members’ Requests For Greater Drone Strike Transparency
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on TruthEmail Article

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Jay Rockefeller (WV) and Pat Leahy (VT), both Democrats, found a deaf ear in President Obama when they expressed renewed calls for more government transparency in regard to drone activity.

In spite of calling for greater transparency when he ran against George W. Bush, the president argued executive privilege to keep such information classified and therefore secret from lawmakers. Both Leahy and Rockefeller said they are deeply troubled that the White House refuses to share memos from the Office of Legal Counsel concerning the killing of Americans by drones.

Sources say that Rockefeller was especially dissatisfied with the Obama’s stance but the president refused to concede. “It was a reasonable conversation. [Obama] basically said it was privileged information and that the president is entitled to confidential discussions with his advisers,” said one source.

While the conversation appears to have been mostly civil, it is an extraordinary development in a disagreement that was dramatically highlighted last week when Senator Rand Paul (R – KY) staged a 13-hour filibuster in an effort to get the administration to state that it would not use drones to attack an American inside the United States. Attorney General Eric Holder ultimately said it would not, as long as the American was not actively engaged in combat against the United States.

Another source said this isn’t the first time a Democrat has pushed the president on the drone issue. A senator also asked about the drone strikes at the Democrats’ retreat in February. Such retreats are usually reserved for party strategy and a show of unity rather than policy statements.

A Rockefeller spokesman referred to the senator’s questioning of the administration’s Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. Rockefeller has complained that the administration’s refusal to share data was a “threat” to a functioning relationship with the Senate.

Clapper responded by saying, “When there are documents that are elsewhere in the executive branch— OLC opinions just to name one example—or when we are attempting to abide by a long-standing practice, which has been practiced by both Republican and Democratic administrations, of executive privilege, I think that’s where we begin to have problems.”

Civil liberties advocates say this subject is significantly weightier than run-of-mill partisan squabbles. “It’s as serious as it gets,” said Raha Wala, a lawyer with the group Human Rights First. “The president promised more transparency on this in his State of the Union address and we’re waiting. A stand-off with Congress on congressional oversight would be a big step backwards.”

Wala says there are no grounds for the White House to assert privilege anyway, even in the unlikely event of a Democrat Senate pushing a Democrat president into a high-stakes legal showdown. “What we’re talking about is essentially the official legal and policy position of the government on when it thinks it can kill people suspected of terrorism,” Wala said. “This shouldn’t be the subject of an executive privilege claim. We’re not talking about pre-decisional advice or interagency deliberations.”

ShareTweetShareSend

Related Posts

Supercharge Your Pepper Plants… Mid-Season Secrets for Explosive Growth and Dynamic Flavor

Supercharge Your Pepper Plants… Mid-Season Secrets for Explosive Growth and Dynamic Flavor

by Bill Heid

The Mid-Season Window: Your Last, Best Shot Mid-summer is a critical turning point for pepper growers. Whether you started late...

Heatstroke Can Kill Your Dog in Minutes… Here’s How to Spot It And What You Can Do

Heatstroke Can Kill Your Dog in Minutes… Here’s How to Spot It And What You Can Do

by Bill Heid

Learning From My Mishap I made a huge mistake late Monday afternoon. I have three labs. My oldest, Moose, is...

How to Safely Eliminate Poison Ivy from Your Yard or Farm

How to Safely Eliminate Poison Ivy from Your Yard or Farm

by Bill Heid

Beating the Blisters Poison ivy is more than just a backyard nuisance. This toxic plant, known for its notorious oil...

Next Post
How Your No-Risk World Is Slowly Killing You with Brian Brawdy – Episode 148

How Your No-Risk World Is Slowly Killing You with Brian Brawdy – Episode 148

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

What Is The Iowa Caucus And Why Does It Matter?

What Is The Iowa Caucus And Why Does It Matter?

NSA The Tip Of The Iceberg with Joe Wolverton II – Episode 180

Top Ten Garden Secrets – #1 Compost, How and Why

Top Ten Garden Secrets – #1 Compost, How and Why

TRENDING STORIES

  • bubonic plague

    Is Another Bubonic Plague Pandemic On The Horizon?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion & A Look Back On The “Waco Massacre”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Make Yourself 3 Times More Likely To Survive A Heart Attack

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • AI Surveillance Of Shoppers: Walmart’s Newest Tool To Grab Your Data

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Apocalyptic’ Microchip Implants Are Here – And Being Inserted Into People’s Hands

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Subscribe to our Insider Newsletter

Huge discounts on off-the-grid gear and life saving supplements.






‘Off The Grid News’ is an independent, weekly email newsletter and website that is crammed full of practical information on living and surviving off the grid. Advice you’ll never hear from the mainstream media.

  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Extreme Survival
  • Survival Gardening
  • Off-Grid Foods
  • Worldview
  • Natural Health
  • Survival Hunting
  • Privacy
  • Financial
  • Current Events
  • Self Defense
  • Home Defense
  • Pain-Free Living
  • Miscellaneous
  • Off Grid Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.

Privacy Policy   Terms & Conditions
No Result
View All Result
  • How-To
  • Grid Threats
  • Survival
  • Gardening
  • Food
  • Worldview
  • Health
  • Privacy
  • Hunting
  • Defense
  • Financial
  • News
  • Misc
  • Videos

© Copyright 2025 Off The Grid News.  All Rights Reserved.