The “National Security” Apparatus Has Been Hijacked to Serve the Needs of Big Business

Washington's Blog: The “National Security” Apparatus Has Been Hijacked to Serve the Needs of Big Business

As I noted yesterday:

Claims of "national security" are ... used to keep basic financial information - such as who got bailout money - secret. That might not bode for particularly warm and friendly treatment for someone persistently demanding the release of such information.

I gave the following two examples:

• Reuters noted in January:

  U.S. securities regulators originally treated the New York Federal Reserve's bid to keep secret many of the details of the American International Group bailout like a request to protect matters of national security, according to emails obtained by Reuters.

• And Business Week wrote on May 23, 2006:

  President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations
  

Continued . . .