Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs–’I Was Told Not To Acknowledge Drone Program’
Former White House press
secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that he was told not to “acknowledge”
or “discuss” the secret drone program when becoming the government’s
top spokesman.
Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s
“Up,” played a video clip of Gibbs and current press secretary Jay
Carney dodging questions about drones in the White House briefing room
before asking if the Obama administration has been sufficiently
forthcoming about the controversial targeted killing program. Gibbs, who
recently became an MSNBC contributor, recalled the instructions he was given upon taking the job.
“When I went through the process
of becoming press secretary,” Gibbs said, “one of the things, one of the
first things they told me was, ‘You’re not even to acknowledge the
drone program. You’re not even to discuss that it exists.’”
The national media was slow covering the secret drone war in
Pakistan and Yemen during Obama’s first term, which has been difficult
to track given both the government’s secrecy and that strikes often take
place in remote areas. But the drone media debate has gained steam early
in Obama’s second term, alongside questions for top counter-terror
official John Brennan upon his nomination to become CIA director.
Gibbs said that once he figured
out a reporter’s question was about the drone program, “I realized I’m
not supposed to talk about it.”
“Here’s what’s inherently crazy
about that proposition,” Gibbs said. “You’re being asked a question
based on reporting of a program that exists. So you’re the official
government spokesperson acting as if the entire program — pay no
attention to the man behind the curtain.”
While Gibbs referenced the “Wizard of Oz” on Sunday, a federal judge last month described the “Alice-in-Wonderland nature” of
the Obama administration’s secrecy over drones in a decision against
The New York Times’ request for legal memos outlining the rationale for
targeting a U.S. citizen suspected of terrorist ties. The White House
has not publicly released the legal memos, but Carney made several referencesto the legal rationale in a 16-page Department of Justice white paper — but only after it was leaked to NBC News.
Gibbs said he hasn’t talked to
Obama recently about transparency and the drone program, but said he
thinks the president has seen that the White House’s denial of the
program “when it’s obviously happening, undermines people’s confidence
overall in the decisions that their government makes.
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