From: Email - Natural News
Sunday, March 03, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) It doesn't happen often but every now and then a former government official has an attack of conscience - either that, or they are so arrogant as to believe no matter what they confess to, they're not going to be held responsible.
Robert Gibbs, the one-time White House Press Secretary for President Barack Obama, told reporters Feb. 24 he was ordered to keep the United States' active drone attack program under wraps.
"When I went through the process of becoming press secretary," he told MSNBC's "Up with Chris Hayes" program, "one of the first things they told me was, 'you're not even to acknowledge the drone program.'"
He added that he was told, "'you're not even to discuss that it exists.'"
'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain'
Such a notion was "inherently crazy," Gibbs said.
"You're being asked a question based on reporting of a program that exists. So you're the government spokesperson acting as if the entire program - pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," Gibbs, who served as press secretary from the time of Obama's first inauguration in January 2009 to 2011, when Jay Carney took over.
The Obama administration, as has been well-documented, has been heavily criticized for inhibiting the release of information related to its overseas drone assassination program and has yet to officially even acknowledge that it exists, though there have been a number of public references to the program, along with the disclosure of an official Obama-controlled "kill list."
Despite all that, Gibbs says he expects much of the program to remain a secret, even though some in Congress are moving for more transparency.
"I have not talked to (the president) about this, so I want to be careful, but I think what the president has seen is, our denial of the existence of the program when it's obviously happening undermines people's confidence overall in the decisions that their government make," Gibbs said.
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