Posted on 03/15/2006 9:02:25 PM PST by bnelson44
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has created a website where it will post documents captured in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. The website is hosted by the Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center at Fort Leavenworth and will be updated continuously with new documents.
The first batch of materials, released late Wednesday, includes nine documents captured in connection with Operation Iraqi Freedom and 28 documents previously released on February 14, 2006, in conjunction with a study of those documents conducted by analysts at West Point. Sources on Capitol Hill and within the intelligence community tell The Weekly Standard that hundreds of new documents will be made available in the coming days, including 50-60 hours of audiotapes from the Iraqi regime.
ODNI officials will concentrate their early efforts on making available audiotapes and videotapes that have come from the former Iraqi regime. Twenty-five Arabic language translators will be hired to review these recordings for potentially sensitive information before they are posted. According to officials familiar with the DOCEX program, the U.S. government has in its possession more than 3,000 hours of recordings from the Iraqi regime. Among the collection: recordings of meetings between Saddam Hussein and other regime leaders; videotapes of speeches that Saddam thought would be important; audio and video of Saddam's meetings with foreign leaders; videotapes from conferences sponsored by the regime; and even videotapes of regime-sponsored brutality.
Materials made public in the first wave of the release will be those least likely to raise objections from the intelligence community and U.S. allies. Negroponte plans to include many of the documents labeled "NIV"--for No Intelligence Value--in this first group of materials.
But Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, insists that documents relevant to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 will be released in short order. "There may be many documents that relate to their WMD programs. Those should be released," says Hoekstra. "Same thing with links to terrorism."
Among that next batch may be the approximately 700 documents that served as the foundation for a fascinating study by the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia. Analysts from the Institute for Defense Analysis reviewed thousands of documents for that two-year study of the Iraq War from the perspective of Iraqis. Declassified excerpts of their final report were published in a highly illuminating article in the forthcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. And the full report will be published as a book in the coming months.
It is hard to say what, exactly, to expect with the coming release of documents. There will be documents that lend support to those who opposed the war in Iraq and, to be sure, documents that bolster the case for those who supported the war.
Importantly, after years of questions about the threat from the Iraqi regime, we will now be able to get some answers. How close were the French and the Russians to the former Iraqi regime? What kind of information was being passed to the Iraqis on the eve of war in early 2003? What is the real story of Iraq's WMD programs? Why did Saddam's military leaders and scientists fabricate their reports on the progress of those programs? Which terrorist groups had an active presence in Baghdad? How many Palestinian Liberation Front jihadists did the Iraqi regime train each year? How effective was Saddam Hussein in deceiving UN inspectors throughout the 1990s? What did Saddam Hussein privately tell Yasser Arafat when the Palestinian leader came to Baghdad? And what were the Western targets of the "Blessed July" martyrdom operation that was being planned as U.S. troops crossed into Iraq in March 2003?
There are still outstanding process questions that must be answered, too. Who determines which documents will be released and which ones will be kept secret? And what are the criteria for blocking the release of material thought to be sensitive?
Another critical issue is authenticity. A caveat on the website reads: "The US Government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein, or the quality of any translations, when available." Determining which documents are authentic and which are not will be an incredibly important task. This will be difficult task too, since many of the documents have no known chain of custody. There was a bustling black market for forged documents in Baghdad after the war. How will we determine which documents are real and which documents are not? Some documents listed in the HARMONY database have warnings: "DIA suspects inauthentic." Will those documents be included in the release? Will the warnings? Will we learn why the DIA suspected that the document might not be authentic? Has forensic document authentication been done on any of the documents? Which ones?
In the end, the Iraqis themselves will provide answers to many of those questions. And Iraqis will probably be central to our understanding of these documents and the history they represent. This is true not only because they understand the language of the documents, but also because they understand better than anyone the culture that produced them.
In that spirit, we will be eager to hear from the "Army of Analysts"--particularly those who read Arabic--that former intelligence officer Michael Tanji wrote about here two days ago. If John Negroponte makes good on his promise of a comprehensive document release, then millions of papers, audiotapes, and other media will be posted in the coming months. As we've seen, that's an overwhelming amount for the U.S. government, to say nothing of a magazine.
Let's get started.
Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard.
Oh...to be able to read and understand Arabic right now..
as good as we can hope for I think
OK, I've downloaded them all.
If anyone makes a ping list for when new docs are released I'd appreciate being added.
If not, I'm willing to make one.
bump
he considers himself above the president - does not want the release the docs - and you can bet he'll be careful not to release any that would prove Bush right -
and - releasing enough innocuous ones until th public doesn't pay any attention anymore
ummm - got the site and the lists - but can't open them>????Just get that dang little box
Bush has lied to the American people, he has had proof of AQ in Iraq pre-war, has had proof of the existence of WMD in Iraq and has waited until just before mid-term elections to release it.
Oh yeah, Karl Rove planned the whole thing.
Also, attorney from Texas was going to spill the beans so Dick Chaney shot him in the face....with a shotgun made by halliburton.
This one doesn't seem "innocuous". Looks like one that might give the "Saddam had no links to Al Qaida" crowd get their knickers in a knot.
"ISGZ-2004-019920 2002 Iraqi Intelligence Correspondence concerning the presence of al-Qaida Members in Iraq. Correspondence between IRS members on a suspicion, later confirmed, of the presence of an Al-Qaeda terrorist group. Moreover, it includes photos and names."
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has created a website where it will post documents captured in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. The website is hosted by the Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center at Fort Leavenworth and will be updated continuously with new documents.
Bump and bookmark
If you make one please put me on it.
Are there no computer programs that translate?
If you do make a ping list for this, please include me. Thanks so much, chena
They are in PDF format. If you don't have Acrobat you won't be able to open them.
I'm sure there are, what they are I don't know.
One of the many things I don't know. :-)
Former Iraqi General Georges Sada, who was a military adviser to Saddam Hussein appeared on The Mike Rosen Show (850 AM KOA) Tuesday March 14th, 2006. He is described as an expert airforce pilot who played a large part in saving coalition pilots' lives in Gulf War I. Sada explains what happened to the WMDs prior to the US led invasion of Iraq in 2003, stopping Saddam’s planned all-out chemical weapons attack on Israel, saving the downed coalition pilots of Gulf War 1 from execution among other interesting topics.
See these two articles at 'Expose The Left' for the audio and all related links.
---
Saddam General Explains Saddam’s ‘Secrets’ — WMDs, Bombing Israel, and Genocide (AUDIO) (Part 1) http://exposetheleft.com/2006/03/15/sada-interview/
---
MORE: Fmr. Saddam General Sada Talks About Attack Against Israel and Use of WMD (Parts 2 and 3)
http://exposetheleft.com/2006/03/15/sada-interview-2/
Each audio segment is about 20 minutes in duration.
Title - Political Speculation
AFGP-2002-602181
Synopsis: This document is a response to issues raised in a previous correspondence. It appears to be addressed to Al-Sahal Al-Mumtan’, but this could be the author’s name. The author is analyzing the impact of the destruction of the Buddha statues, the fall of the Taliban regime, and speculates on future U.S. steps in the Middle East.
My honorable brother, I disagree with you on another point, which forms the basis for your analyses about Iran and the Shiites (al-Shi’ah), who are likely to be candidates for the leading role and the organization’s successors in the near future.
However, I think that this won’t happen. I believe the next conflict in the Middle East after Iraq will involve Iran, because it has proved its inability and failure to handle the Islamic influx and bring it under its blind banner. Iran had a major failure on this issue; however, it is not attempting to achieve this by attacking Israel and America.
How can it fulfill the leadership role when it is incapable of guiding the Islamic insurgency?
[Looks like Al-Qa'ida was expecting the Iranian Mullahs to attack Israel and the US. And apparently the Mullahs of Iran were not very good at managing the 'Islamic insurgency' into Iraq from Iran.]
Yet Iran should prove its merit to the Muslim generation by attacking Israel, which was created by America. However, this is not suitable for these serious times with so many international infidels making plans. My suspicion is that the greatest achievement of the international infidels at this time is the crazy gyrations of Islamic groups that threaten their very existence to their roots. Whirling around like the Sufi doctrine movement, backward and fanatical, it lacks a clearly-defined doctrine and has taken from the world those who are loyal and honest. Also, its legal basis is shaky.
[Very difficult to figure this one out, but apparently Al-Qa'ida has concluded that Iran cannot attack Israel now. Perhaps this is because of the 'infidel' US military now sitting in between Iran and Israel.]
Isn’t a movement like this the hope of the Islamic nation, the objective of revolutionary youth and the protector of Jihad as long as the Nation is accustomed to its protector and its thief…? (TC: Arabic saying.)
I think the next stage is directing a strong blow at Iran to protect Israel from its missiles. The waiting heroes will be found in the staunch Taliban movement… why not? It did show legendary heroism in protecting Osama bin Laden and in destroying the Buddha idols (this heroism didn’t cost America anything but some of Mr. Buddha’s stones).
[Al-Qa'ida expects the US to strike Iran to protect Israel from its missiles. Al-Qa'ida also expects the 'Taliban Movement' (perhaps the collection of islamic terrorist groups) to help protect Iran.]
It appears that the Taliban movement will participate in destroying the thrones of the rejectionists in Iran. The soldiers of the movement are the Islamic groups, which will achieve great victories for U.S. policy (as long as the battle is under the Mythical Banner).
[It appears that the Islamic Taliban groups are expecting to destroy US forces when they move into Iran. I guess they have to come up with some type of plan. The phrase 'Mythical Banner' is difficult to figure.]
It doesn’t matter if the Nation is in existence for ten years before it understands the danger of delivering the leadership to those who avoided God’s law.
[Yikes ! Don't have a clue as to what that means.]
However, I think that this won’t happen. I believe the next conflict in the Middle East after Iraq will involve Iran, because it has proved its inability and failure to handle the Islamic influx and bring it under its blind banner. Iran had a major failure on this issue; however, it is not attempting to achieve this by attacking Israel and America.
It appears that the Taliban movement will participate in destroying the thrones of the rejectionists in Iran. The soldiers of the movement are the Islamic groups, which will achieve great victories for U.S. policy (as long as the battle is under the Mythical Banner).
'Blind Banner' and 'Mythical Banner' both used in reference to: a coming battle in Iran; and Islamic influx (insurgency) from Iran to Iraq. Interesting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.