Bush wants to release the Saddam files but his intelligence chief stalls

THE WEEKLY STANDARD ^ | 03/20/2006 | Stephen F. Hayes

[kimosabe31]

On February 16, President George W. Bush assembled a small group of congressional Republicans for a briefing on Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley were there, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad participated via teleconference from Baghdad. As the meeting was beginning, Mike Pence spoke up. The Indiana Republican, a leader of conservatives in the House, was seated next to Bush."Yesterday, Mr. President, the war had its best night on the network news since the war ended," Pence said."Is this the tapes thing?" Bush asked, referring to two ABC News reports that included excerpts of recordings Saddam Hussein made of meetings with his war cabinet in the years before the U.S. invasion. Bush had not seen the newscasts but had been briefed on them.

Pence framed his response as a question, quoting Abraham Lincoln: "One of your Republican predecessors said, 'Give the people the facts and the Republic will be saved.' There are 3,000 hours of Saddam tapes and millions of pages of other documents that we captured after the war. When will the American public get to see this information?

"Bush replied that he wanted the documents released. He turned to Hadley and asked for an update. Hadley explained that John Negroponte, Bush's Director of National Intelligence, "owns the documents" and that DNI lawyers were deciding how they might be handled.

Bush extended his arms in exasperation and worried aloud that people who see the documents in 10 years will wonder why they weren't released sooner. "If I knew then what I know now," Bush said in the voice of a war skeptic, "I would have been more supportive of the war.

"Bush told Hadley to expedite the release of the Iraq documents. "This stuff ought to be out. Put this stuff out."

[InterceptPoint]

It should never have been classified in the first place, assuming it even is, rather than just not being released to the public. Now analysis of it is another issue, but the documents themselves should be posted somewhere for everyone to see and draw their own conclusions.(Of course translation would be required, since likely they are in the Arabic of Iraq)

Has there been any reaction from the Dems on this issue? Are they for or against the release or are they just avoiding the issue altogether to avoid drawing attention to the existence of the tapes?

[Americanexpat]

I believe the tapes/documents will prove that french, russians and germans were helping saddam all along. Our allies, what a joke.

_____________

Yes, but we already knew that and I doubt we could embarrass them anymore. I would like to see the stuff released and find out as much as possible about the WMD, which the left says did not exist, and Saddam´s support for terrorists and his culpability for terrorist attacks on the US.

[Rokurota]

Negroponte and his staff have repeatedly expressed concern that releasing this information might embarrass our allies.

Ans since when have our "allies" ever hestitated in a attempt to embarrass us?

[BIGLOOK]

I suppose Hadley and Negroponte are attempting diplomacy.

The info might be UNwelcome in some circles.

[Wolfstar]

The idea that the President of the United States cannot declassify this information is ridiculous. He should fire the DNI staffers who are obviously just clinton shills.

How do you know that anything in this story is true? How many times do members of the media have to be caught making up sources and stories? How many times do they need to be caught manufacturing evidence to support their agenda?

How much lying, cheating and even stealing (plagiarism) must we see from the media before we learn to approach any such story with a healthy skepticism instead of buying the premise hook, line and sinker?

[popdonnelly]

"Negroponte and his staff have repeatedly expressed concern that releasing this information might embarrass our allies."

Oh, you mean our allies like France, Germany, and Russia?

[the anti-liberal]

"The same Russia that's helping Iran with their nuclear plans, yet, Negroponte doesn't want to 'EMBARRASS' them."

This reminds me of a post several weeks back concerning Russia assisting Iraq (Saddam) remove WMD's.

Now Russia is playing nice with Hamas and Iran.

Not to mention Putin is a KGB guy who pines for the days of old.

I'm skeptical of Russia these days. Wouldn't be surprised if China got into the act somehow, in an effort to shore up communism in a country struggling with capitalism...

[prairiebreeze]

However, by doing so we could strain our relationships with their intelligence professionals and jeopardize our long-term interests.

Tell it to the US Congress.

(not disagreeing with you here btw. Just being snarky)

[tsmith130]

It would be nice to embarrass the leaders of our "allies" who have been less than fully supportive of our efforts. However, by doing so we could strain our relationships with their intelligence professionals and jeopardize our long-term interests.

So, we sacrifice American interests and our world image for those that wouldn't pee on us if we were on fire? Funny how that ally thing works.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

President Bush needs tell Negroponte that he has 24 hours to release this data or he will be replaced by someone who will follow through.

[processing please hold]

Here's one article I found. I have an article where two Russian Generals were accepting medals for their help. I have it somewhere. I'll go on another search.

Here's the one I found.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1566036/posts"

[Diplomat]

The problem is Russia. Saddam was so in bed with the duplicitous Russians that it would be impossible to redact this relationship out of the tapes.

The Spetsnaz (Russian military Special Forces) led the removal of WMD materials from Iraq and this will be all over these tapes.

So the problem becomes, how do we pretend Russia is not in a state of war with US? Who is going to answer the question of how Russia is dealt with?

[FBD]

or China?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[Negroponte and his staff have repeatedly expressed concern that releasing this information might embarrass our allies." ]

Heck, just have Dick Cheney declassify it.

Have Dick Cheney take Negroponte hunting...

[processing please hold]

2 Russian Generals given awards in Iraq on war eve.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1262550/posts"

[FreeReign]

Negroponte apparently feels Ted Kennedy, Howard Dan, John Kerry, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and every other loud mouth, duplicitous lib that has accused the POTUS of "lying" about WMD's are his allies.

You're wrong.

This is what Negroponte feels;

"These documents have provided, and continue to provide, actionable intelligence to ongoing operations. . . . It would be ill-advised to release these materials without careful screening because the material includes sensitive and potentially harmful information."

[FreeReign]

What, exactly, is Negroponte's reasoning behind not releasing this information? I don't get it.

It might help for you to read the article.

Article | Excerpt | Negroponte: "These documents have provided, and continue to provide, actionable intelligence to ongoing operations. . . . It would be ill-advised to release these materials without careful screening because the material includes sensitive and potentially harmful information."

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

From the article:

[For months, Negroponte has argued privately that while the documents may be of historical interest, they are not particularly valuable as intelligence product. A statement by his office in response to the recordings aired by ABC said, "Analysts from the CIA and the DIA reviewed the translations and found that, while fascinating from a historical perspective, the tapes do not reveal anything that changes their postwar analysis of Iraq's weapons programs."

Left unanswered was what the analysts made of the Iraqi official who reported to Saddam that components of the regime's nuclear program had been "transported out of Iraq." Who gave this report to Saddam and when did he give it? How were the materials "transported out of Iraq"? Where did they go? Where are they now? And what, if anything, does this tell us about Saddam's nuclear program? It may be that the intelligence community has answers to these questions. If so, they have not shared them. If not, the tapes are far more than "fascinating from a historical perspective."]

This doesn't exactly square with their steadfast refusal to release these 'inconsequential' documents. Doesn't pass the 'smell test'

[FreeReign]

President Bush needs tell Negroponte that he has 24 hours to release this data or he will be replaced by someone who will follow through.

Here's a possibility: Bush talked to Negroponte. Negroponte told Bush that it's not advisable not to realese the documents at this time. Bush then said okay let's not release the documents.