Hoekstra: Bloggers can help digest Iraq documents ("Saddam Papers")

[sabra]

http://www.wwmt.com/engine.pl?station=wwmt&id=24602&template=breakout_local.html

Hoekstra: Bloggers can help digest Iraq documents

(NEWS 3) - Millions of pre-Iraq war intelligence documents are now being posted online, and two Republican lawmakers want bloggers' help in digesting them.

Senator Rick Santorum and Michigan Congressman Peter Hoekstra (R-Holland) say they lobbied the White House and intelligence leaders to release the material. It includes millions of pages of documents and audio recordings captured during U.S. military operations in Iraq.

Hoekstra chairs the House Intelligence Committee. He says most of the information is three to 15 years old -- and intelligence analysts should be looking for current and future threats instead of studying the past.

“This is a bold decision in favor of openness that will go a long way towards improving our understanding of prewar Iraq,” Hoekstra said in an online statement. “By placing these documents online and allowing the public the opportunity to review them, we can cut years off the time it will take to gain knowledge from this potential treasure trove of information. This decision effectively places a collar on the bureaucracy and unleashes the power of people and the Internet to help speed this process.”

[seriousstan]

1. This is great.

[Robb]

2. Yeah, if you trust Hoekstra and Santorum.

I wouldn't waste five minutes working on anything they approved for release. Authenticity aside, it's a nice distractor for left-wing bloggers to sit around and translate nonsense these clowns put online.

[54anickel]

3. Great! When do the Bushco papers come out? I thought not.

[fliesincircles]

4. Negroponte starts a blog.

"In releasing the material, intelligence officials added an unusual warning:

“The U.S. government has made no determination regarding the authenticity of the documents, validity or factual accuracy of the information contained therein.”"

link:

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?Category=23&ID=275241&r=2

[greenman3610]

5. problem is,

there are just a bunch of raw documents there, with no
context to them.

For example, Cheney could truthfully say
"we have reports" that Atta met with Iraqi
intel in Prague pre 911.

What he didn't say is we also had Atta's
rental car receipts, and hotel bills in the
US from the same dates he was supposed to
be in Praque.

I foresee a flood of "smoking gun" documents
from purported, unnamed sources "proving"
whatever bullshit the right wingers want to
prove.
Santorum and Hoekstra are interested in
continuing to create more clouds of
confusion to keep their followers in the dark.