By Staff, McClatchy DC's "Planet Washington" Blog, January 27, 2009

27 Jan 2009 // A liberal-leaning watchdog group Tuesday seized on President Barack Obama's twin executive orders proclaiming a new era in government openness to demand the release of a broad spectrum of secret Bush administration documents.

"Signing an executive order is one thing; actually releasing documents is another," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "This the perfect opportunity for the Obama administration to back up its words with concrete action."

Obama signed the executive orders signaling a new era in government openness and accountability on his first day in office. In a press release Tuesday, the start of his second week as president, Crew asked him to carry out his own orders by releasing these records that the Bush administration withheld from the public:

1. Justice Department documents related to the interview of former Vice President Cheney provided to the FBI as part of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into the leak of former CIA official Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert identity -- an inquiry that led to the conviction of Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis Libby.

2. Secret Service records of White House visitors to help remove the veil of secrecy that currently surrounds the White House.

3. White House documents relating to the Bush administration's alleged failure for years to trace the mysterious disappearance of millions of emails from White House servers even despite an internal report confirming they were missing.

4. White House documents that explain why the Bush administration refused to implement an effective electronic record keeping system in the face of evidence that its current system was an abysmal failure, notwithstanding the development of two other workable systems.

5. White House documents requested by Congress that might explain the full role of President Bush and his White House aides in the firings of nine U.S. attorneys, whose ousters triggered a smajor candal over politicization of the Justice Department.

6. Department of Homeland Security documents that might explain why the Bush administration decided to bypass property of Ray L. Hunt, a major contributor to the Bush presidential library, in proceeding with plans to build a 700-mile fence along the border between the United States and Mexico.

7. All documents of the White House Council on Environmental Quality that might show the extent to which the Bush administration sought to distort scientific conclusions, warning, and predictions on climate change.