Hoekstra: U.S. overclassifying Iraq papers

Seattle PI ^ | July 11, 2006 | KATHERINE SHRADER

[FairOpinion]

The government is classifying too many documents confiscated since the 2003 Iraq invasion that might help rewrite the history on Saddam Hussein's rule, the House Intelligence Committee's Republican chairman said Tuesday.

Intelligence agencies also aren't doing enough to study the repository of information, Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., told an audience at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"The bottom line on the documents is that they give us an insight into Saddam's rule that didn't exist before," Hoekstra said. "I would love to be up here giving you a detailed brief of what the intelligence community has found in the documents. I can't do that."

After six months of negotiations, Hoekstra secured an agreement with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to have millions of pages of Iraqi documents - most of which are in Arabic - reviewed for public release. Now, they are sitting in a military-run warehouse in Qatar.

Hoekstra said 4,000 documents - totaling at least 325,000 pages - have been made public, but some 37 percent of those reviewed have been deemed classified. That number is too high to him.

[FairOpinion]

There is no reason anymore to classify most of those papers.

Let the truth be known and I am sure that would vindicate President Bush' decision to remove Saddam, BEFORE he became a "clear and present, imminent danger".

[FairOpinion]

PING

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

some 37 percent of those reviewed have been deemed classified.

Interesting.

[Southack]

Clearly our corrupt CIA knows that Saddam's papers would reveal great betrayals of the U.S.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

There is no reason anymore to classify most of those papers.

Sure there is. It's called saving "our friends", namely Russia, China, France, Germany. The fix was in from day one.

[FairOpinion]

"It's called saving "our friends", namely Russia, China, France, Germany. The fix was in from day one."


===

I am afraid you are right. Some "friends".

[jveritas]

I hope that they will declassify more documents and soon.

[Semper Vigilantis]

Sure there is. It's called saving "our friends", namely Russia, China, France, Germany. The fix was in from day one.

BINGO! We have a winner.

[AliVeritas]

FYI, The Captured Iraqi Intelligence Documents: What Do They Reveal and How Should They Be Handled?

July 11, 2006
Heritage Foundation
Audio and Video
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev071106a.cfm

Tell me what you think after...

[Enchante]

I'm not sure we're primarily protecting the governments of Russia, France, etc. I suspect that there are US intel officers blocking this at every turn, claiming the docs are too sensitive, when in reality what they are afraid of is that THEY will be thoroughly discredited. The DNC moles must be desperate to keep info out of the public arena that would expose them as dupes and worse.

Let's not forget that there are countless Valerie Pflame type "liberal moles" in the intel agencies who are desperate to try to prevent the US public and the world from learning the facts about the full scope of Saddam's activities and the involvement of Russia-France-Germany-China etc. Thus, I would not be at all surprised if a large part of the resistance in the intel agencies to declassification of Iraqi docs is part of a desperate rear-guard action of the lying libs. The Valerie Pflames who have promoted the "Bush lied" mantra will be in a world of hurt if/when they are permanently discredited (as they already should be, if only the MSM would report fully and accurately).