Freedom of Information

Billmon points out what someone might almost consider to be BushCo inconsistency. Go figure...

Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.

But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.

New York Times
U.S. Web Archive Is Said to Reveal a Nuclear Primer
November 3, 2006

Last month, a federal judge in Washington, Ricardo Urbina, ordered the Secret Service to disclose two years of visitor logs to [Vice President Cheney's official residence] or explain in detail why the records are exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act. The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to block Judge Urbina's order . . . "Disclosure of the records at issue could reveal an ever-expanding mosaic that would allow observers to chart the course of vice presidential contacts and deliberations in unprecedented fashion," government attorneys argued in a brief filed yesterday.

New York Sun
New Battle Over Executive Privilege Is Looming in Washington
November 1, 2006

So putting atomic bomb plans on the Internet is OK, but releasing official records of visits to the veep's house is not OK.

Who says consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds?