Too many secrets

Mpls (red)Star Tribune(online) / Scripps Howard News Service. ^ | 6/28/02 | Dan K. Thomasson

[Valin]

WASHINGTON If information has been published, does the government have a right, months later when it surfaces again, to contend that the information is still a secret vital to national security?

That's what seems to be occurring in the case of recent reports that the National Security Agency had intercepted a coded conversation between al-Qaida operatives the day before Sept. 11. The conversation that clearly pointed to a terrorist operation scheduled for the next day wasn't examined until Sept. 12.

[Boonie Rat]

So the intrepid FBI agents who missed every clue leading up to the attack on America will now try to ferret out who on the committee - member or staff person - apparently made an unauthorized report of what already had been reported.

Putting the FiBbIes in charge of the investigation does tend to lend them some undeserved credibility. Had they been focusing their efforts where it should have been instead of looking for "militia terrorists" under every rock, perhaps Sept. 11 would have been discovered and averted.

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

[Valin]

looking for "militia terrorists" under every rock,

Really?

[B4Ranch]

The performance of our law enforcement/intelligence agencies is almost as low as the performance of the media. The National Security Agency has an annual budget of $8+ BILLION, tie that in with the Secret Service and FBI budgets, then add our military intelligence and the CIA budgets, then add the state, county and city police force budgets. I would have presumed with that type of money being spent that we should have the worlds most effective intelligence/law enforcement system. They should be able to locate Osama bin Laden, the Smart kidnapper or any other person that they were looking for in less than one hour. That is one helluva lot of OUR money being used under the title of National and local security.