Nominee for Director of National Intelligence retired Gen. James Clapper speaks alongside President Barack Obama in the White House Rose Garden Saturday June 5. NewscomThe Hill: Preliminary decision on secret 9/11 pages expected this week
The nation’s top intelligence official will tell the White House this week whether or not he supports declassifying 28 secret pages from a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he told lawmakers on Tuesday evening.
Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), one of two sitting House lawmakers and a former senator to attend the 50-minute meeting, appeared hopeful that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper would move to declassify the 28 pages, which are believed to detail suspected links between the government of Saudi Arabia and the al Qaeda hijackers.
“He is going to, at the end of the week, send his recommendation to the White House,” Jones told The Hill in an interview in the Capitol on Wednesday.
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WNU Editor: A preliminary decision ?!?!? The decision is either a yes or no .... and if yes the next point that needs to be discussed is when will it be released. But "preliminary" .... what does that mean?
2 comments:
The problem with "28 pages" is while it is catchy and it makes for good sound bites is our relations with any country much less one a complex as the relationship with Saudi Arabia has been over many decades can be summed in only 28 pages nor can anything as complex or of the magnitude of 9/11 be summed in a mere 28 pages.
This sounds like someone is "cherry picking" information to serve a political purpose. As I recall, the Bush Administration was accused of doing this with regards to the Iraq war and Iraqi WMD and was (perhaps justifiably) roundly criticized for these actions. It looks like some people never learn.
This is NOT to defend Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia appears to be an enemy of the United States or at the very least an unreliable ally. As such, extricating ourselves from them would very likely be a good idea. Developing more of our own oil and gas reserves would be a good start here along with building more refining capacity.
I meant "cannot be summarized." To expand upon that, if the "28 pages" get released more will likely need to be released to provide the full context. Perhaps this is the idea to completely gut the American intelligence community. If we have to release everything, at some point no one is going to trust us, assuming anyone still does. Then we really would be totally blind, deaf, and dumb when it comes to foreign threats.
For what it's worth, I think "preliminary" means we need to think through decisions such as this carefully weighing the interests of all affected parties to ensure equitable treatment is received by all involved and American national security as well as intelligence gathering capabilities are not further compromised. As such, if the preliminary decision is "no", this would not be final and likewise if the decision is "yes" the same rules apply.
While I think some would like to be circumspect on such things weighing the ramifications carefully, others are doing this for sheer politics. I predict those who are playing politics with this will win out and the 28 pages will be released with the consequences being ignored.
Furthermore I neither trust the basic intelligence of the people in the US government to make sound decisions nor do I trust their integrity. Truly a bad situation all the way around.
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