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White House begins publishing the names of visitors

Who is visiting President Obama at the White House? Starting Friday, it's going to be easier to find out.
Who is visiting President Obama at the White House? Starting Friday, it's going to be easier to find out.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • During his campaign, Barack Obama promised to run a more transparent administration
  • Records of visitors will be available on an ongoing basis beginning in December
  • Up to 100,000 people visit the White House each month
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Washington (CNN) -- The White House on Friday began releasing the names of visitors as part of a Barack Obama campaign promise to run a more transparent administration.

Last month, Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, said records of White House visitors would be made available to the public on an ongoing basis beginning in December.

"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside it," he said. "Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."

As part of that initiative, he offered to look back at records from before the announcement.

Eisen said Friday that 110 disclosure requests from September have been processed, yielding nearly 500 visitor records that have been posted on the White House Web site. Since the release covers only those records that are at least 90 days old, the first records cover January 20 to July 31.

"This first release is only the latest in a series of unprecedented steps by the president to increase openness in government," Eisen said.

Given that up to 100,000 people visit the White House each month, the names published Friday included people with some very familiar names -- including William Ayers, Michael Jordan, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright and R. Kelly -- that did not belong to their more famous counterparts, he said.

"The well-known individuals with those names never actually came to the White House," Eisen said.

The names can be seen at www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records