Who let the docs out?(White House urged to release Saddam tapes)

Yahoo.com ^ | 3-13-06 | Stephen F hayes

[digger48]

Yahoo reported this? Whoa!!!

[jla]

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.'...And as the briefing ended, he approached Pence, poked a finger in the congressman's chest, and thanked him for raising the issue. When Pence began to restate his view that the documents should be released, Bush put his hand up, as if to say, "I hear you. It will be taken care of."

[theworkersarefew]

Mike Pence and The President make a heck of a team.We are lucky to have them both.

[jveritas]

The docs are out. President Bush ordered their release and very soon it will be posted on the Internet :)

[lexington minuteman 1775]

Sounds like GW needs to call Negroponte and give a brief order, release the documents, or submit your resgination.

[Marine_Uncle]

Hayes article was reported hear days ago, but thats OK in this case. More Freepers should have a chance to read it.
Allies? Frigen Negroponte. The POTUS had better sit down and have a little talk with this man. At this point, it is clear they are no allie. Who is sh*ting who. Frigen Department of State mentality. This crap has to stop. Why should we protect French, German, Dutch, Russian integrity after all the crap they pulled off. Let alone Russian and Europeans building up the Iraqi war machine during those years after the first gulf war. GWB had better start getting tough on these clowns. I really have been having my doubts about this guy. He was assigned to clean up the intel agencies, and work for the president. What the hell is he doing anyways.

[airborne]

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.

EXCUSE ME?????

[RicocheT]

I love GW, but he is in a stall and can't seem to get the plane flying again.

He should use his last 2 years to get his federal judge candidates in and get the tax cuts he did made permanent. Plus, he has to keep up the present level of troops and support for Iraq and Afghanistan. The rest of his agenda is down the tubes.

He has to get his people to keep on top of the bureaucracy, CIA and State Dept. as fools there are tossing him problems like the ports deal which hit him like a cream pie in the face.

[Fraxinus]

Slightly different suggestion.

why don't Pence and Hoeksta(sp?) attach a rider that the holds the State dept budget monies untill the documents are released.

[CyberAnt]

Maybe the President needs to remind Negroponte who the BOSS is .. and Negroponte serves at the pleasure of the President. It took Powell a while to learn that - I hope Negroponte doesn't take that long!

[lepton]

bookmark bump

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Who's side is the CIA on anyway?

[FreedomNeocon]

JUST THE BEST PARTS (condensed qutoes) ;)

---

On February 16, President George W. Bush assembled a small group of congressional Republicans for a briefing on Iraq.

"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

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."

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."

Officials involved with DOCEX--as the U.S. government's document exploitation project is known to insiders--tell The Weekly Standard that only some 3 percent of the 2 million captured documents have been fully translated and analyzed.

Perhaps anticipating the weakness of his "mere history" argument, Negroponte abruptly shifted his position last week. He still opposes releasing the documents, only now he claims that the information in these documents is so valuable that it cannot be made public. Negroponte gave a statement to Fox News responding to Hoekstra's call to release the captured documents. "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."

This new position raises two obvious questions: If the documents have provided actionable intelligence, why has the intelligence community exploited so few of them? And why hasn't Negroponte demanded more money and manpower for the DOCEX program?

Sadly, these obvious questions have an obvious answer. The intelligence community is not interested in releasing documents captured in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. Why this is we can't be sure. But Pete Hoekstra offers one distinct possibility.

"They are State Department people who want to make no waves and don't want to do anything that would upset anyone," he says.

This is not idle speculation. In meetings with Hoekstra, Negroponte and his staff have repeatedly expressed concern that releasing this information might embarrass our allies.

Although Negroponte continues to argue against releasing the documents in internal discussions, on March 9, he approached Hoekstra with a counterproposal. Negroponte offered to release some documents labeled "No Intelligence Value," and indicated his willingness to review other documents for potential release, subject to a scrub for sensitive material.

And there, of course, is the potential problem. Negroponte could have been releasing this information all along, but chose not to. So, in a way, nothing really changes. Hoekstra is not going away. "We're going to ride herd on this. This is a step in the right direction, but I am in no way claiming victory. I want these documents out."

So does President Bush. You'd think that would settle it.

[BARLF]

I didn't like the idea of putting one man over all intel. Now I like this Negroponte even less.

The tax payers of this country have a right to study these documents and make up our own mind about what they contain. President Bush needs to kick some backsides.

I'll have to take a better look at Pence. I'm beginning to like him.

[Leofl]

ping....bookmark for later

[theworkersarefew]

pence08.com

[BARLF]

Thank you

[Louis Foxwell]

It is time to impeach Negroponte. He is acting the role of a foreign agent mole. Such intransigence in the face of a direct order from the President can not be tolerated.

[Mo1]

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