Saturday, March 27, 2004

Declassify deslashify The inimitable Bill Frist is calling for declassifying Clarke's earlier testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate the possibility that Mr. Clarke committed perjury, either then, or in his sworn testimony to the 9-11 commission this week. I don't know if Clarke lied in either instance. I imagine that his Senate testimony is pretty much an effort to support the Bush administration's anti-terrorism efforts without wandering too far from the truth. The senators were not, after all, asking him for his ideas on how to pursue al Queda and other terrorist groups. They were grilling him on administration policy and activity. All well and good. What seems to be lost in the debate, however, is that ther is absolutely no need to declassify the earlier testimony to investigate a charge of perjury. The senate surely has the transcripts; anyone with Tivo or a VCR can supply them the 9-11 testimony. They can sit down and compare, and if they find bad, bad things, they can forward it to the Justice Department, which itself can handle classified information. So why declassify? I mean, these guys aren't just looking for a way to get it into the public record so fair and balanced press coverage can nit it and pick it and slime Mr. Clarke? That just wouldn't be right. It would be unpatriotic for our august leaders to behave that way, surely. 11:47:50 AM    Comment []  trackback []

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