Senator Says State Sponsor of Sept 11th

December 19, 2002 10:06 AM

On PBS last week, Senator Bob Graham said that there is "evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States," but that "It will become public at some point when it's turned over to the archives, but that's 20 or 30 years from now. And, we need to have this information now because it's relevant to the threat that the people of the United States are facing today." Do you trust the government to keep the right informatin classified, or do we need to know?
posted by cell divide (16 comments total)

Do you trust the government to keep the right informatin classified, or do we need to know?

No and yes. I still want to see the Cheney energy bill papers.
posted by nofundy at 10:43 AM on December 19, 2002

Well, it wouldn't be the first time government officials have told lies which can't be exposed until the potential force of the revelation has long since withered. Perhaps someone more optimistic than I could believe that official deception of the sort we now read about in history books ended with the fall of the Iron Curtain, but I do not find "national security" a particularly convincing shield these days.

No, of course I don't trust the government. If they want to convince me their decisions are sensible, they can lay out all of their data so I can see it. If they aren't willing to do that, they can deal with my disapproval.

Clearly, my disapproval doesn't mean all that much.
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:44 AM on December 19, 2002

Yes, I trust the government to keep the right information classified, and I also "trust" them to keep the "wrong" information classified along with it.

In other words, I doubt like hell they'll inadvertently declassify anything they obviously shouldn't -- even as they keep classfied some stuff that's merely inconvenient or embarrassing but not truly sensitive to national security.
posted by alumshubby at 10:56 AM on December 19, 2002

My thought was that they don't want it to distract people from Iraq, but they might bring the information out (presuming it damns, say, Saudi Arabia) after the war and use it as pretext for the next military/diplomatic action.
posted by cell divide at 11:02 AM on December 19, 2002

I trust the government as an institution, but if we, as an educated public, continue to elect parties instead of candidates, then any faith in the system will evaporate. Clinton had shady dealings; Bush has shady dealings. I think that instead of bitching about those currently in power, we should understand why they were elected in the first place.
posted by BlueTrain at 11:56 AM on December 19, 2002

If this government involved was Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or any nation we dislike.. why would we keep it under lock for 20 years?

it's probably some ally nation of ours.. mmm.. either Saudi Arabia or Israel
posted by RobbieFal at 12:29 PM on December 19, 2002

Or... one can talk about hypothetical 'foreign governments' and let le peuple draw their own, paranoid conclusions. Result - fuel on the hawk's fire without a shred of evidence.
posted by RokkitNite at 1:14 PM on December 19, 2002

I would trust the government to release things but they have a nasty habit of continual postponement. For example, all the Kennedy assassinations files won't be released until 2017, a full 54(!) years after the man died. And even then, that might not be enough: The Act requires that all assassination-related records be opened by 2017, with the exception of documents certified for continued postponement by the President.
JFK Assassination Records
posted by haqspan at 1:39 PM on December 19, 2002

I wouldn't worry too much about those JFK assassination records. Anything worthwhile and revelatory in there has already been "sanitized" anyway. Might as well go on believing a loser with a crummy bolt-action rifle got three really good shots off in five and a half seconds.
posted by alumshubby at 3:41 PM on December 19, 2002

The government in question is probably Israel and there is ample information on the internet to support this. Unfortunately, the good Senator cannot mention the country by name or he'll be out of a job by monday.
posted by GrooveJedi at 5:00 PM on December 19, 2002

In this WaPo article from last week, Graham specifically said that there is classified information connecting Saudi Arabia to U.S.-based terrorists. He again complained about the information possibly not being declassified for 20-30 years. I assume he had the Saudis in mind in his NewsHour interview.

Mark Steyn recently wrote a good column on Bush and the Saudis.

The complete lack of outrage by the American public over Bush's kissing Saudi ass in the face of this kind of news never ceases to amaze me. If Gore were president and acting this way, I have no doubt most Republicans would be accussing him of treason.
posted by homunculus at 6:01 PM on December 19, 2002

Wow, GrooveJedi. Information on the internet. Damn. You got me.
posted by stonerose at 6:40 PM on December 19, 2002

The government in question is probably Israel and there is ample information on the internet to support this.

There is ample information on the internet to support a lot of things, many of them patently stupid.
posted by eddydamascene at 6:42 PM on December 19, 2002

I have no doubt most Republicans would be accussing him of treason.

Republican pundits and politicians, I meant to say. Namely the same bunch who went after Clinton over Monica.
posted by homunculus at 7:18 PM on December 19, 2002

It is probably Saudi Arabia, and after Bush has Iraq's oil, he can release the info, and can end the business deals.
posted by chaz at 11:35 PM on December 19, 2002

Attack me and ignore the facts all you want. Keep getting your news from CNN and the NY Times. :)
posted by GrooveJedi at 4:15 AM on December 23, 2002