White House Web Site Off to a Slow Start

Many of the most substantive and significant documents generated by the Obama Administration to date are surprisingly absent from the White House web site.

President Obama recently ordered the reorganization of the National Security Council through a Presidential Policy Directive.  But the unclassified Directive is not even mentioned on the White House web site, much less posted there.  Secrecy News obtained a copy of the signed directive PPD-1 (pdf).

Another directive, Presidential Study Directive-1, mandated a review of the organization of homeland security and counterterrrorism activities.  Its existence is likewise unreflected on the White House web site.  A signed copy is here (pdf).

A new White House report on the interdiction of aircraft engaged in drug trafficking is similarly unmentioned on the White House web site.  It was published by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and is available here (pdf).

The White House web site does notify Americans that the First Lady visited Miriam’s Kitchen last week to help feed the homeless, which is good to know.  But its web page about the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board does not provide meaningful information about the Board, not even a list of members.

In short, the current White House web site does not present a reliable or complete record of Presidential actions or activities.  For that, one still has to turn elsewhere.