FC: Should the U.S. government ever lie to its citizens?

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 19:54:14 PST

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    Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 13:19:43 -0700 (MST)
    From: Tramm Hudson <hudsonat_private>
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: Government lying to citizens
    
    Declan,
    
    I would have expected this issue of the ability of the US
    government to lie to its citizens to receive more press:
    
    	http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59291-2002Mar20.html
    
    # Never, says the secretary of defense. Infinitely, says the
    # solicitor general. And the question is: When do government officials
    # lie to the American people? [...]
    #
    # Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pledged a few weeks ago never to
    # lie to the American public [...]
    #
    # It is "easy to imagine an infinite number of situations . . . where
    # government officials might quite legitimately have reasons to give
    # false information out," the Justice Department's senior trial lawyer
    # said to the [Supreme Court] justices.
    
    The court case deals with the widow of a Guatemalan revolutionary
    tortured by CIA-funded soldiers.  The Clinton administration refused
    to tell her about the status of her husband despite full knowledge
    of his plight.
    
    They also take a stab at the current President's manipulation
    of the media:
    
    # The White House wants to feed into the media's maw every scrap of
    # information that gives George W. Bush political advantage and/or glory.
    # But this White House also clutches the cloak of secrecy more tightly
    # than have other presidencies. [...]
    
    -- 
       -----|----- hudsonat_private                         H 240-476-1373
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