Saturday, January 30, 2010

Pelosi uses military as her personal chauffeur service

http://tinyurl.com/y9sdtlc
Un-frickin-believable: U.S. Military Serving as Chauffeurs, Babysitters for the Pelosi Kids: Receipts That Will Blow Your Mind
Meet the Pelosi family! Using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, Judicial Watch uncovered thousands of pages of travel documents related to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's use of military aircraft.What hasn't been revealed so far is that military aircraft are being used to shuttle Pelosi's kids and grandkids between DC and San Francisco without any Congressional representatives even onboard! ...****But don't worry, they reimbursed the government...for the price of a commercial coach class ticket! ****//
Pentagon Tipped Pelosi on FOIA Request
The Washington, D.C.-based newspaper Roll Call asked the Pentagon five months ago for documents related to travel on military aircraft by members of Congress.
The Defense Department hasn’t yet responded to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. But Roll Call discloses that a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has contacted the newspaper to ask about the “FOIA request on the Speaker” — apparently indicating that the Pentagon notified Pelosi that the travel records being sought involve her office.
FOIA experts say there is “probably nothing illegal” about the military tipping off members of Congress that “a reporter is snooping around, as long as it is clear that a [member] has no role in deciding what information the military is required to release,” Roll Call reported on Tuesday.
And Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill wrote: “The Speaker strongly supports the Freedom of Information Act. It is not unusual for agencies to provide such information, nor is it particularly newsworthy to be notified that an agency is following the law by responding to a request under FOIA.”
But Hammill did acknowledge that the Pentagon generally does not alert the speaker when a FOIA request is submitted for records involving her.
And Meredith Fuchs, general counsel at the National Security Archive — which focuses on government transparency — said it appears inappropriate that the Defense Department would provide information to a member about a FOIA request before providing information to the person who made the request.
Roll Call noted that its FOIA request was not limited to Pelosi, and the newspaper does not know if the Pentagon contacted other members about the request.

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