More Classification Games

by emptywheel

Nico at TP links to this story about the Senate's thus far unsuccessful attempt to declassify two of SSCI's reports on WMD. The basic story is that the White House is trying to prevent an effort, supported by both our too-genteel SSCI Chair Jay Rockefeller and by the partisan Pat Roberts, to declassify last fall's Phase II SSCI reports, the one that compared pre-war assessments and the one that showed the influence of Chalabi and the INC. Now, most of the declassifications must be really simple moves. But the White House is almost certainly most interested in the "declassification" of a bunch of things that were classified in the reports contrary to normal guidance on classification (which makes this a perfect report for an appeals board). One of these, significantly, was "classified" at the direction of OVP.

So here's some detail on what they're preventing you from reading:

The Still-Classified Information

If you look at the pre-war assessment report, for example, the only things redacted are:

• One December 2002 detail on centrifuges
• Details about two papers assessing the IAEA support (or not) on centrifuges
• A large paragraph presumably about the IAEA centrifuge report
• A paragraph about the follow-up assessments of the Mobile Bioweapons Labs
• Half a paragraph about UAV claims
• A few details about Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi (mostly protecing a foreign intelligence service; the corresponding info in the conclusion is also redacted)
• What appears to be a reference to Major Harith's story appearing in Vanity Fair (a magazine name is redacted)
• Thee paragraphs relating to presidential (or vice-presidential) use of the Atta-in-Prague canard between January and March 2003
• Another paragraph on Atta
• A summary of how badly the NIE predicted ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq (with corresponding info in the conclusions)

Out of 150 pages, only about 4 pages redacted. And most of the substantive redactions pertain to BushCo claims of a tie between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

Tellingly, the redactions in the INC report are much more significant. For example, there's an entire section at the beginning that has been re-written for public consumption that describes CIA's early relationship with Chalabi--all of this, as far as I can tell, is available in Bob Baer's See No Evil. But then, this section would remain as it is, I imagine, in substitute form.

Some of the other somewhat innocuous redactions are:

• A passage on DIA's intentions for the INC data-collection (that is, propaganda) program
• News of the arrest of a senior INC official (not sure if this is Kareem Aras or not)
• Some damning information about INC sources (pertaining, for example, to failed polygraph tests), as well as identifying information
• Information on the use of intelligence from INC's defectors
• One long paragraph about Haideri's actions, and another long paragraph about whether the INC coached him or not
• A paragraph in a conclusion about how the NSC shouldn't continue to fund the propaganda from dissident groups that have raised counter-intelligence concerns
• Two conclusions from the INC fans--this one, I'd like to see declassified--do it for the stoopid

So in general, these reports would be easy to declassify.

The Embarrassing Redactions

There are some more interesting redactions in the Additional Views endorsed by the Democrats (in case someone like Bob Novak cares, these views were adopted with unanimity by the minority--that's the kind of detail he just doesn't understand). For example, an entire paragraph about the way the Administration used Haideri's intelligence is redacted, much later, a passage on the purported Mohammed Atta meeting in Prague. Below the redactions, a note appears each time:

The intelligence community's decision to classify the information in the above paragraph is not consistent with its decision to declassify similar information described elsewhere in the report.

On the following page, a paragraph about the Mobile Bioweapons Labs is redacted. This note appears:

Certain information redacted in the above paragraph is unclassified and drawn from a prewar document prepared by the White House but not cleared by the intelligence community before its release to the public. We find the intelligence community's decision to classify this information to be without justification.

Under a larger section on Mohammed Atta, this longer paragraph appears:

We have concluded that the intelligence community's decision to classify the CIA document about the alleged Atta-al-Ani meeting in Prague discussed in the three paragraphs above and the underlying Committee report to be without justification. The intelligence community is unable to demonstrate to the Committee that disclosing the information would reveal sources and methods or otherwise harm national security. We believe the decision to keep from the public this revealing information about the use of intelligence information prior to the war represents an improper use of classification authority by the intelligence community to shield the White House.

And finally, there's the doozy, regarding something that happened in May 2002 with the Mobile Bioweapons story (which is, IIRC, when Major Harith's story was laundered through Vanity Fair, just before he was branded a fabricator):

The Committee was told that the decision to classify the information in the above paragraph explaining the existence of an Intelligence Community document about the claims made by INC Source #2 was made by the Office of the Vice President. We have concluded that there is no justifiable basis for classifying this information.

In other words, Dick intervened in a discussion between CIA and SSCI to make sure this little detail wouldn't see the light of day. I'm sure he justified his intervention by saying something about the Fourth Branch of government between the Senate and the Executive.

Another Effort to Abolish Classification Regularity

But the real reason this article is interesting is the way it fits into events of the day relating to Cheney's other attempts to abolish any controls on his ability to classify or declassify information. From the article:

The dispute revolves around an obscure federal panel, the nine-member Public Interest Declassification Board.

[snip]

In a move that surprised some board members, Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s national security adviser, personally got involved negotiating the terms of the review [requested by Rockefeller and Roberts]. He told the board in a private meeting that he wanted the National Security Council staff to write the board’s bylaws, which dictate how they declassify a document.

Hadley’s spokesman did not return a phone and an e-mail message.

In other words, the guy who has been called "Cheney's Sleeper Agent" at the White House intervened to prevent the board to do ... anything.

This was an attempt by Congress to counter-act over-classification of materials that Congress is now being forced to try to reauthorize in such a fashion so that it can do its job. Bush is starving it for funds. In the end, this board created to put some more rationality to the declassification process has never once been able to declassify anything.

All because Cheney doesn't want us to know about the source of fanciful story he spun about Mohammed Atta.

Comments

[jdm]

This crap should become the de-facto canned response next time Bushco cites "Robb Silverman" having investigated WH use of pre-invasion intel.

[Jodi]

I like Jay Rockefeller.

Since when is genteel bad?

[JEP]

Redactions in issues of this magnitude are only acceptable when national security is at risk, but in most of these cases it's a matter of readaction = cover-up.

They aren't protecting the national security, they're protected their own sorry posteriors.

Once more, the sheer and cavalier transparency of their deception belies a pre-November 06' over-confidence, their misguided belief that a Republican majority would continue ad-infinitum.

They never expected to be held accountable for what had obviously become habitual corruption, or they would have covered their tracks better.

[freepatriot]

dead eye dick has to be the dumbest person on this fucking planet

all of that work can be undone with a single signature

or does dead eye dick figure he'll be the last veep ever ???

kkkarl rove may have the numbers, but I've actually TALKED to voters

and I can't find a single person who will admit to being a repuglican lately

and some of those people KNOW that I know their political affiliation

repuglicans denying their political affiliation has become the "rage de jure" in America

chicken noodle network doesn't say it, just dancing around the obvious without being able to state the obvious, but the next President Of The United States is going to be a Democrat

the next Veep is gonna be a Democrat

The Next Congress is gonna be dominated by an overwhelming Democratic Majority

so will somebody splain to me how dead eye dick is gonna keep a Democratic Administation from releasing all of this dirty laundry ???

short term thinking can be the stupidest form of thinking, and dick cheney proves it

[Slothrop]

"The too-genteel Jay Rockefeller..."

I believe this understates the problem to the point of misrepresentation. Jay doesn't know what leadership is because he never earned any leadership, it was always, always handed to him on a silver plate with a big red rose next to it by a servant in a pressed uniform who bowed and then clicked heels on the way back to the downstairs quarters.

[Canuck Stuck in Muck]

Yo! America! Dude! Dick Cheney, before he dicks you (again)!
Cheney must be getting a real kick out of his latest effort to demean his loyal subjects. Otherwise, why else would he expect us to take seriously the claim that he's not in the Executive Branch or the Legilative Branch. If not, then wtf is he? The Grand Poohbah? An Oracle? A Temple Virgin? Dicktater? I think he's probably laughing his ass off at us, cause it all feels like a giant prank. If not, and, in the unlikely event that he's actually serious, he's way crazier than I thought, and we're in way worse trouble than I ever could have imagined. So, given that he's either mad as a hatter or just a friggin bully who loves pulling the wings offa flies (and shootin his friends in the face with buckshot), at what point does someone request a psych evaluation for the guy? He has, whether wittingly or un-, created a laughing stock of those few in the US who support him, and of the rest of us who're paying through the nose for his criminal behavior. And he's acting like the Laugher in Chief. Here's Cheney talking to an unsuspecting constituent... "Noogie, noogie, I got you to accept torture! Bwahahaha. Punch you in the arm, I got you to give up your access to the legal system! Nyah, nyah, ne nyah, nyah, I made YOU ALL pay for me to steal somebody else's oil and make squillions of dollars in the deal! Peek-a-boo! I see you, and hear you, and know what you're doing on the internet, and who you're cheating on, and with whom! You don't have a liiiife! You've got a police state!!!! Gimme your lunch money. I'm not done with you, yet. I want all YOUR kids dead in Iraq so my kid'll be able to collect social security even though she'll inherit everything Halliburton or I ever stole from you! Oh, yeah, one last thing. I knew all along that Bin Laden was gonna throw jet planes at those buildings, and I did squat! And you wanna know why? 'Cause then you'd eat any shit I fed you 'cause you were so scared it'd happen again. What a bunch o' stupid fucks you people are! And here's the mortal irony.... You voted for me! Twice! Losers!

[Seamus]

"Genteel" Jay Rockerfeller would be a sorry excuse for any Senate Chair, and for the Intelligence Committee, he's a total disaster. I don't know if, as is said, that's he just too nice a guy, or if he is serially incompetent; Pat Roberts, and now Kit Bond, have been mugging him since the 911 Commission started up, and he has not learned one fucking lesson from the dozens of ass-whippings they have administered. He's been back-doored, ambushed, and just plain lied to, all without getting a clue. Genteel, maybe, but how about dumb as a box of rocks? He needs to be replaced, pronto.

[sponson]

JEP just hit on one of my favorite subjects for speculation, as well as freepatriot. Everyone wonders, how could they do things so stupid and short-sighted, knowing someone else would be in office in 2009? Well, what if they were so certain of not only "the math" but of the success of their total transformation of everything from Lurita Doan's GSA to Abu G's Justice Department into an election "lock" that 2009 didn't matter to them? Rove has been saying "Permanent Republican Majority" for a long time; perhaps their philosophy was that in order to achieve it they had to "boldly dare" to act as if it were inevitable. From this angle, whether they have something to worry about in 2009 would have depended on whether "someone else" was expected to be in office, after all.