Bush View of Secrecy Is Stirring Frustration

The federal judge who ordered the Bush administration to turn over some records related to Vice President Cheney's energy task force wondered "what in the world" the Energy Department was doing, acting at such a "glacial pace" in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

"The government can offer no legal or practical excuse for its excessive delay," Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court in Washington wrote in an order made public on Wednesday.

But while Kessler expressed amazement at the Energy Department's response to information requests under FOIA, the 36-year-old cornerstone law for government transparency, the reluctance to provide information has become routine throughout the administration, liberal and conservative public interest groups say. They say it is a gathering trend, fed by, but not rooted in, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.