A highly interesting story in Mother Jones basically follows up the tendency that Wikileaks is supplying information that voters should have to be able to make a true choice when they vote. The story details how the Obama administration has protected the Bush administration officials against criminal investigation in Spain by putting pressure on Spanish officials. Obama has hardly been given any credit for doing this, but it has not exactly been widely known either. The first paragraph in the story reads:
"In its first months in office, the Obama administration sought to protect Bush administration officials facing criminal investigation overseas for their involvement in establishing policies the that governed interrogations of detained terrorist suspects. A "confidential" April 17, 2009, cable sent from the US embassy in Madrid to the State Department—one of the 251,287 cables obtained by WikiLeaks—details how the Obama administration, working with Republicans, leaned on Spain to derail this potential prosecution."
The fact that the administration decided to hide this from the news makes this story merely another example of information that is hidden simply because it would be uncomfortable for certain people if it was to be revealed. There is no security issue involved. It would certainly be difficult to uphold the deal if it wasn't hidden from the media and the real test is whether it can be upheld now that it has been revealed.
On a different note, it is noteworthy that major American newspapers or news broadcaster appear to not publish or run this story. This could be an example of some form of self-censorship on the basis of White House objections to the leaks, an issue I wrote about here.
Read the full story in Mother Jones here.
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