<...> Scientists at a federal lab raised concerns that the site, as a repository for millions of pages the U.S. government found in Iraq the past 15 years, held sensitive nuclear information. Negroponte abruptly shut the site down Thursday night after The New York Times contacted his office for an article published Friday.
[John Negroponte then took a quick, unannounced trip to Baghdad // lcm] His office began reviewing the consequences, including who accessed the documents. [ I recommend <http://anonymouse.org/anonwww.html> for carefree, fed-free browsing.] Four Democratic senators demanded he also tell them why and how the site began, what role members of Congress played and whether the administration ignored U.S. intelligence officials' concerns. "How valuable that information was, I really don't know," Hoekstra said. "Now we release -- or they inadvertently release some of these documents and they show that the Iraqi program may be much further along than anybody ever anticipated." <...> Nope, nothing here to indicate that there WAS any material that was in any way threatening to US national security, except that no one seems to knows what the documents contain... and the possibilty that those papers were not as claimed, but directly from a US nuclear lab, which *is* the ONE bit of information "Scientists at a federal lab..." might discern rapidly. Responding to a previous inquiry, Yoshie I believe... No, I don't think ALL the millions of papers are not as advertised. It only takes a few. The few that they point out. Like a stacked deck of cards. A few that show advanced nuclear weapons planning apparently found in Iraq. But who knows? Except for the people who stacked the deck... A few opportunities to "frame & spin". Think 'Barrage balloon hydrogen generators as CW labs'. Even though it was untrue, and Colin Powell LIED TO THE U.N. as he held those pictures up, it was too late. Even though the British equipment's manufacturer was in the news within 2 days explaining what it was. The information, for reasons similar to why many Americans still believe that Iraq had WMDs, was indelibly imprinted in the US psyche. I still say the only nuclear secret that the papers would reveal is that the US is the ultimate provider of all the nuclear *weapons* information that Saddam Hussein had available, if it was found in Iraq... or that on close examination it would be noted that a minority, but the most damning, 'framable' documents, never were in Iraqi hands. Leigh GOP rep. faults White House on Iraq site November 5, 2006 http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/05/gop_rep_faults_white_house_on_iraq_site/?rss_id=Boston.com+/+News+/+Nation WASHINGTON --House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra criticized the Bush administration on Sunday for its handling of a trove of once-secret documents from Saddam Hussein's covert nuclear program disclosed on a federal Web site. Hoekstra, R-Mich., complained the U.S. intelligence community hadn't properly declassified the documents. "Well, you know, we have a process in place. It looks like they screwed up," he said on CNN's "Late Edition." President Bush's director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, ordered the documents posted on the site last March, at the request of Republicans in Congress who wanted to show Saddam was a real threat. Scientists at a federal lab raised concerns that the site, as a repository for millions of pages the U.S. government found in Iraq the past 15 years, held sensitive nuclear information. Negroponte abruptly shut the site down Thursday night after The New York Times contacted his office for an article published Friday. His office began reviewing the consequences, including who accessed the documents. Four Democratic senators demanded he also tell them why and how the site began, what role members of Congress played and whether the administration ignored U.S. intelligence officials' concerns. "How valuable that information was, I really don't know," Hoekstra said. "Now we release -- or they inadvertently release some of these documents and they show that the Iraqi program may be much further along than anybody ever anticipated." Hoekstra said his committee would review the documents to determine the former Iraqi leader's goals and capabilities before the war in 2003
