The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank had an amusing item today, noting that the Bush White House’s inordinate fondness for secrecy exceeds even that of the Kremlin. It’s gotten to the point that political reporters who want to know what the White House is up to have to go to official sources from other countries.
Americans seeking to know what President Bush said in his phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month went to the obvious place: the Kremlin.
“The presidents exchanged ideas on the situations in the crisis areas of the world: Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, etc.,” the Russian government said in a statement carried by the Interfax news agency. “They expressed serious concerns about the lack of progress in the settlement of regional problems and the escalation of the situation in these areas.”
And what did the White House have to say about this conversation between the world leaders? Not a thing. “White House officials would reveal no details of the conversation,” the Associated Press reported.
It may come as a surprise to some that the Kremlin, symbol of secrecy and repression, has become more transparent than the White House, symbol of freedom and democracy. But such experience has become routine — so routine, in fact, that Agence France-Presse White House correspondent Olivier Knox has proposed a slogan for the Bush team: “When we have something to announce, another country will announce it.”
In fact, Putin, a former KGB agent and a source of criticism for his undemocratic tendencies, is apparently more forthcoming with Russian reporters than Bush is with Americans.
On Jan. 31, 2001, Bush and Putin had their first telephone conversation. A White House spokeswoman would say only that it was a 15-minute “friendly get-acquainted session,” and that the two leaders supported the idea of meeting and “engaging one another in an ongoing dialogue.”
Those wishing to have a more substantive account of the conversation had to turn to the Kremlin news service’s statement on Interfax. The two discussed the arrest in the United States of Pavel Borodin, a former chief property manager for the Kremlin who was jailed in New York on a Swiss money-laundering warrant. Putin’s request for his humane treatment was “met by Bush with understanding,” the Russian government said.
Of course, Russia isn’t the only country helping U.S. journalists with news about the White House. American reporters, for example, learned about Bush’s meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair from British, not White House, officials. Likewise, reporters received word about a visit from Guatemalan President Oscar Berger from Berger’s administration, not Bush’s.
When the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas announced a White House visit, Bush officials refused to confirm the report, even though it was true. When Japan’s government reported that Bush would nominate former senator Howard Baker as ambassador to Japan, the White House would not “speculate about personnel announcements.” Three weeks later, Baker was nominated, just as the Japanese had said.
Worse yet, the White House is even more secretive when it comes to Bush’s own travel plans.
Bush’s trip to Pittsburgh yesterday was divulged not by the White House but by columnist Robert D. Novak, on April 11. And Bush’s trip to Des Moines on April 15 was first announced on April 9 by the Des Moines Register, which cited “Republican congressional sources.”
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The Japanese were more than a month ahead of the White House in announcing Bush’s trip to that country last year. On Sept. 9, Kyodo News, citing Japanese government sources, said Bush would visit Japan on Oct. 17 and 18. The White House waited until Oct. 8 to confirm that Bush would visit Japan on those very days.
Similarly, the Irish government announced in February of this year that Bush would visit Ireland for a European Union summit in the spring — a month before Bush let the word out. And the South Korean presidential office had a three-day jump on the White House last December in announcing a mission to the country by Bush’s special envoy for Iraqi reconstruction, James A. Baker III.
On the home front, Bush’s whereabouts are as likely to be announced by local officials as by the White House; this has happened in Ohio, Wisconsin, Connecticut, California, Georgia, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri and elsewhere — all without White House confirmation.
And while I can appreciate that sometimes the president’s schedule needs to be kept under wraps for security purposes, I can’t think of a reasonable explanation for this one:
In April 2002, for example, the Orlando Sentinel reported that the Apopka Little League team of 11- and 12-year-olds would visit the White House on May 5 to watch a T-ball game. The source: the team manager and parents.
“The White House would not confirm the invitation,” the paper reported.