Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Why Won't the White House Turn Over the Bolton Documents
Douglas Jehl in the International Herald Tribune (via leftcoaster.com):
Some of the information that the White House has refused to provide to Congress for its review of the nomination of John Bolton includes the names of American companies mentioned in intelligence reports on commerce with China and other countries covered by export restrictions, say government officials who have been briefed on the documents.
It had previously been reported only that the White House was refusing to hand over the names of 19 American persons mentioned in 10 intelligence reports by the National Security Agency.
The fact that the documents also included the names of American companies, and that the subject had to do with possible violations of American export restrictions, provides a new clue as to why the White House might be rebuffing the congressional requests.
The names of the Americans and the companies remain highly classified but they were prvoided to Bolton by the National Security Agency in response to special requests he made as under secretary of state for arms control. The Democrats who forced the postponement last week of a vote on Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations argued that the Senate should insist on access to the same information that was provided to Bolton.
Hmm. I wonder which American companies were doing business with China and other countries under export restrictions, like North Korea and Iran? The White House has provided much of the information from these reports to the top Republican (Pat Roberts) and top Democrat (Jay Rockefeller) on the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the names of the American individuals and the American companies were deleted from the reports. The White House says Congress does not need to know those names.
Why? Who was doing business with China, North Korea, or Iran that the Bush Administration doesn't want the Senate Intelligence Committee to know about it? And what kind of business were these American individuals and companies doing with these nations? Arms deals? Oil? Nuclear-related?
On the day after Deep Throat was revealed to be Mark Felt, # 2 FBI man under L. Patrick Gray in the Nixon Administration, wouldn't it be nice to have a person with some ethics inside this administration begin to reveal all of the corruption, cheating, bullshitting, and stealing going on by the "accountability administration"?
And wouldn't it be nice if they started with the NSA documents? Because I bet there are some high level Texas businessmen and Republican campaign donors on the list of individuals or companies doing business with all of those terrible nations under export restrictions.
Maybe even a Halliburton exec or two.
Some of the information that the White House has refused to provide to Congress for its review of the nomination of John Bolton includes the names of American companies mentioned in intelligence reports on commerce with China and other countries covered by export restrictions, say government officials who have been briefed on the documents.
It had previously been reported only that the White House was refusing to hand over the names of 19 American persons mentioned in 10 intelligence reports by the National Security Agency.
The fact that the documents also included the names of American companies, and that the subject had to do with possible violations of American export restrictions, provides a new clue as to why the White House might be rebuffing the congressional requests.
The names of the Americans and the companies remain highly classified but they were prvoided to Bolton by the National Security Agency in response to special requests he made as under secretary of state for arms control. The Democrats who forced the postponement last week of a vote on Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations argued that the Senate should insist on access to the same information that was provided to Bolton.
Hmm. I wonder which American companies were doing business with China and other countries under export restrictions, like North Korea and Iran? The White House has provided much of the information from these reports to the top Republican (Pat Roberts) and top Democrat (Jay Rockefeller) on the Senate Intelligence Committee, but the names of the American individuals and the American companies were deleted from the reports. The White House says Congress does not need to know those names.
Why? Who was doing business with China, North Korea, or Iran that the Bush Administration doesn't want the Senate Intelligence Committee to know about it? And what kind of business were these American individuals and companies doing with these nations? Arms deals? Oil? Nuclear-related?
On the day after Deep Throat was revealed to be Mark Felt, # 2 FBI man under L. Patrick Gray in the Nixon Administration, wouldn't it be nice to have a person with some ethics inside this administration begin to reveal all of the corruption, cheating, bullshitting, and stealing going on by the "accountability administration"?
And wouldn't it be nice if they started with the NSA documents? Because I bet there are some high level Texas businessmen and Republican campaign donors on the list of individuals or companies doing business with all of those terrible nations under export restrictions.
Maybe even a Halliburton exec or two.
