Material Given to Congress in 2002 Is Now Classified (Sibel Edmonds) NYT

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WASHINGTON, May 19 - The Justice Department has taken the unusual step of retroactively classifying information it gave to Congress nearly two years ago regarding a former F.B.I. translator who charged that the bureau had missed critical terrorist warnings, officials said Wednesday.

Law enforcement officials say the secrecy surrounding the translator, Sibel Edmonds, is essential to protecting information that could reveal intelligence-gathering operations. But some members of Congress and Congressional aides said they were troubled by the move, which comes as critics have accused the Bush administration of excessive secrecy.

"What the F.B.I. is up to here is ludicrous," Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said in an interview. "To classify something that's already been out in the public domain, what do you accomplish? It does harm to transparency in government, and it looks like an attempt to cover up the F.B.I.'s problems in translating intelligence."

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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/politics/20classify.html

We REALLY have become a Banana Republic!!!

Jesus...

:grr::nuke::mad:

From the article:

An F.B.I. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the decision to classify the material was made by the Justice Department, which oversees the bureau. The Justice Department declined to comment on Wednesday.

Apparently they feel what any of us think is simply unimportant, as long as they can "disappear" problems any time they want, without any agency or organization able to prevent it.

...that information in public now that it's retroactively classified??

Good grief. I ran a Classified Materials Vault as a collateral duty for a couple of years while I was an officer in the service, and what the DOJ is doing runs counter to everything I ever learned about the materials classification system.

This causes me to start asking what else are they trying to hide?

the Gorelick memo just to be vindictive.

These people better leave the WH when they lose. We assume they will. I'm not so sure.

"What the F.B.I. is up to here is ludicrous," Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said in an interview.

This is the most damning of all. Hard for them to cry partisan politics now.

Russert, re the newly released photos, claimed that Repubs like McCain and Graham are taking care of the investigations re prisoner "abuse."

Yes, we can all trust the Repubs to fully investigate. Phew! No need to worry now!

:kick: