Posted on 03/13/2006 8:14:37 PM PST by Carl/NewsMax
President Bush has ordered that critical evidence confiscated by U.S. forces after they liberated Iraq be made public - including 3,000 hours of audiotapes of Saddam Hussein chairing his Revolutionary Command Council before the war and 48,000 boxes of records documenting his regime's military activities.
"This stuff ought to be out," Bush told National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley last month, according to the Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes. "Put this stuff out," the president reiterated.
The president made similar statements during three separate meetings with congressional Republicans and several senior national security officials, the Standard said.
Bush's initial order came on Feb. 16, the day after ABC News broadcast snippets from 12 hours of Saddam audiotapes obtained by FBI translator and former U.N. weapons inspector Bill Tierney.
The recordings released so far strongly suggest that Saddam had hidden his weapons of mass destruction from weapons inspectors - and show the Iraqi dictator discussing previously unknown plans to enrich uranium as recently as 2000.
The Bush directive met with the enthusiastic approval of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra.
"This is a bold decision in favor of openness that will go a long way towards improving our understanding of prewar Iraq," Hoekstra told the Standard. "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."
Hoesktra said that while National Intelligence Director John Negroponte had resisted the document release, his opposition softened in recent weeks.
The top Intelligence Committee Republican said Negroponte approached him during the Gridiron Dinner in Washington on Saturday to inform him that the new Saddam evidence would be made public.
Hoekstra told the Standard that Negroponte made it clear that he wants to release all the documents, particularly those concerning weapons of mass destruction, links to terrorism, and Saddam's violence against his own people.
And he wants those documents released soon, Hoeksta added, according to the magazine.
"Some of the captured files should be available to the public and journalists within weeks if not days," said Hayes.
Thanks! We're going to have to drag the Old Media kicking and screaming to give this any coverage.
I guess this means no more coddling of our allies.
From your post it appears this will not be an all out document dump, but rather an initial release within "weeks if not days" to quote Hayes.
What's your take on this,Carl?
Any word yet on the reaction of the Libs to this move by the Prez? Will they play the National Security Card?
Dan Rather will contend they are all fakes.
Our President grows a set of mice nuts. Andy Card must be on his way out.
I'm not holding my breath. Even if any documents are released, they will be so sanitized it will be worthless.
(crickets)
It's their only shot, It's all they've got.
LMAO.... Did you try the link?
They shouldn't have released it all at once. It should have been released in pieces over a period of time. The media will be able to bury more of it with a huge document dump like this.
This could be the most imporant development in the Iraq debate since the war started.
It's the first report I can think of that shows Bush taking control of the intelligence establishment, and ordering it to do the right thing.
Hayes must have received the news about Negropone's flip flop late this afternoon. Prior to this posting on the Standard website at 5:20 pm ET, he had a different version of the story under the headline: "Who'll Let the Docs Out?"
It had a much more detailed description of Negroponte's intransigience - minus the news that he'd changed his mind.
That version was confusing because it contained the same Bush quotes (Release the docs) - but made it look like Negrponte was blantantly ignoring a presidential directive.
Political machinations aside, I cannot conceive of the possibility that 3,000 hours of audiotapes of Saddam meeting with his top military advisors do not contain damning evidence about weapons of mass destruction.
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