The Bush administration was marked by secrecy and a lack of respect for core principles of democratic governance. And so far, the Obama administration is on rather the same page:
The CIA argued yesterday that Bush-era documents detailing the videotaped interrogations of detainees should not be released, citing national security concerns, reports the Washington Post
…
CIA director Leon Panetta argued in a statement that releasing the material “could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security by informing our enemies of what we knew about them, and when, and in some instances, how we obtained the intelligence we possessed.”
Panetta wrote that the “disclosure of explicit details of specific interrogations” would give al-Qaeda “propaganda it could use to recruit and raise funds.” He called it “ready-made ammunition.”
An ACLU lawyer told the Post that Panetta is in effect arguing: “The greater the abuse, the more important it is that it should remain secret.”