UDATE: I was wrong. Mea culpa. A whole group of new documents seem to have been released. Many of the new documents are actually collections of photographs showing Saddam with various dignitaries. These photos may be in and of themselves revealing.
MORE: Power Line spoke with Senator Rick Santorum today, who echoed some of my misgivings below. Perhaps pressure is helping force these documents out into the air. Let’s keep it up.
DISREGARD THE FOLLOWING AS THE MAUNDERINGS OF A HYPER-NERVOUS BLOGGER:
The first release by the Pentagon of the myriad Saddam-era documents and media captured during Operation Iraqi Freedom seems to have ground to a halt as abruptly as it started. The last update of the Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center website was on the March 17. This suggests dissension within the government. Who are the likely culprits in this snafu? The CIA, always anxious to protect its interests, and overly-cautious lawyers come to mind, but there are undoubtedly others. Nevertheless, not to release these documents is ultimately self-destructive and actually naive. The Adminstration has already shown itself to be incompetent in the area of public relations and this only underscores that perception. The release of these documents could achieve tremendous things in changing public understanding of the Saddam regime, its ties to terrorism, its interest in WMDs and, ultimately, the public’s feelings about the war itself and the salvation of Iraq. At the moment this appears to be being blocked by bureaucrats – the same ones, I wouldn’t be surprised, who are likely to be whispering anonymously in the ears of our media. Let’s hope the winds shift again toward full disclosure and that the rest of the documents be released for translation. We’re ready.
PJM Home
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
15 Comments
1. Terrye:Roger:
I think it is a tad premature to start talking about snafus. As far as public relations is concerned as far as I can tell the public could care less.
Mar 20, 2006 - 2:15 pm 2. RBMN:Can you imagine all the things that we didn’t recover? Do you remember all the looting and burning of Iraqi government office buildings, after Baghdad fell? I don’t think most of those “looters” were there just to steal the office supplies and furniture. I recall some cases where the “looters” stole hard drives and left the computers behind. I hope the CIA showed up at that flea market, but I kind of doubt the hard drives ever ended up in a flea market.
Mar 20, 2006 - 2:29 pm 3. Alec Rawls:Well yes, the public always cares less about what it DOESN’T KNOW. The point, I believe, is that the public might care about crucial facts if they were made public.
But Roger does not mention his grounds for thinking that there is a delay in the works. Was there reason to expect continuous posting, rather than increments?
Given the history of trying to withold this information, suspicion seems warranted, but then an instanlanche always brings visitors like me who don’t know all the background.
Mar 20, 2006 - 2:30 pm 4. andrewdb:March 17 was a FRIDAY. Today is a MONDAY. Perhaps the weekend had something to do with the delay? Do we expect a bunch of civil servants to update that site hourly? If this goes a few more days then I am prepared to be upset, but not yet. Jeeze.
Mar 20, 2006 - 2:36 pm 5. JY:I need the basics.
How many documents are there altogether?
How many have been released?
Mar 20, 2006 - 3:25 pm 6. S Duerr:The gov’s site has been “updated” (er, reformatted anyway). No new docs yet, but with work noticeably being done on the site, I’d bet more is coming… stay tuned.
Mar 20, 2006 - 4:09 pm 7. GoodyWife:Quick comment – I realize the bloggers and pundit class have the interests of the country at heart — and their narrative runs thus: At maximum, we will get the goods on WMD, torture, connections to terrorism, Osama, etc; at minimum we will benefit from reminding the American people of the heinous nature of the regime.
Mar 20, 2006 - 6:57 pm 8. Charlie (Colorado):But the counter narrative runs thus: look how pathetic (and weapon stripped) Saddam was. Terrifed of Iran (and now we don’t have that buffer!), corrupt, close to toppling through force of his own incompetence.
Conjoined with the growing hue and cry — What business was it of ours!
Besides which perhaps the government has good reasons not to release all the flotsam into the blogosphere.
But you guys know better, right?
Last update was at 15:30 Monday (Eastern time, I presume.)
I think a day or two of keeping your shirt on is warranted.
Mar 20, 2006 - 7:01 pm 9. hud:Roger,
This is one time I’m glad you were wrong. Let the documents FLOW,
Hud
Mar 20, 2006 - 8:59 pm 10. Rick Ballard:“We’re ready.”
Not until the mob is organized into a militia. “Army” would be asking a bit much but a militia might be doable.
Mar 20, 2006 - 9:12 pm 11. gk:Uh, dear Goodywife Iraq as a “buffer” against Iran? Exsqueeze me, baking powder? You’re joking, yes? Is Syria also another buffer state we should be thanking our lucky stars?
Mar 20, 2006 - 9:23 pm 12. Lastango:The resumption of publication doesn’t by itself erase concerns about omission and redaction. There’s a long list of people who have nothing to gain by full disclosure, and Roger’s suspicions remain directionally correct. Memories of the dirty, high-level attempt to bury the inquiry into Able Danger and damage the people involved should be enough to keep us on our toes.
Mar 20, 2006 - 11:05 pm 13. Rhod:The Iraq-as-buffer argument is as sound as the Saddam-was-contained argument.
Mar 21, 2006 - 4:14 am 14. Tom Grey - Liberty Dad:GREAT great job, Roger — both in complaining (possibly becoming a self-negating prophecy) and especially in admitting you made a mistake!
Plus, release of the documents is what the gov’t should be doing anyway.
Also the video — the torture videos made by Saddam wherever the gov’t has found any.
Wretchard notes that the pro-Bush folk might have some complaining/ looking bad — but the Bush-haters will be worse off.
Mar 21, 2006 - 7:19 am 15. Kevin Peters:Roger:
The more that is released about Saddam’s regime the better. Could there be some embarrising nuggets in the mass of docs? Yes. But I have faith that the evil nature of this pig’s rule and exposing it totally will be of a greater benifit. You have to know that the revisionist history is already starting to be written and the theme will be that Saddam’s rule was “not great but not that bad’ and it will become conventional wisdom for partisan gain. Put it all out there, warts and all.
Mar 21, 2006 - 11:08 am