Goldsmith: "Extreme secrecy...led to a lot of mistakes"

In October, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a riveting hearing with
Jack Goldsmith, the former head of the Justice Department Office of
Legal Counsel.  The record of that hearing has just been published.

As was widely reported at the time, Mr. Goldsmith challenged the
legality of certain aspects of the President's warrantless surveillance
program and raised questions about other policies and procedures in the
"war on terrorism."

"There's no doubt that the extreme secrecy [surrounding the Terrorist
Surveillance Program] -- not getting feedback from experts, and not
showing it to experts, and not getting a variety of views, even inside
the executive branch -- led to a lot of mistakes," he said.

The PDF version of the hearing record includes Mr. Goldsmith's answers
to questions for the record from the Senate Committee members (pp.
38-49).  In most cases, he deflected the Senators' pointed questions.
But several of the exchanges are interesting nevertheless.

Asked about the Administration's refusal to disclose to Congress the
legal memoranda justifying its interrogation program, Mr. Goldsmith
stated:

"I believe it is the President's prerogative not to disclose these
opinions.  And I believe it is the Congress's prerogative to use
political pressure to try to force the Executive to disclose the
opinions."

See "Preserving the Rule of Law in the Fight Against Terrorism,"
hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, October 2, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2007_hr/ruleoflaw.html

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2007, Issue No. 125
December 20, 2007

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/