Clarke part XXXVIII
Classified: for focus group eyes only

The Bush administration's use of the classification system to spin has reached comic proportions. From the NYT "It also came as the White House, in an effort to bolster Ms. Rice's credibility before the hearing, released SOME of the language of a presidential directive awaiting Mr. Bush's signature on Sept. 11, 2001." (emphasis mine) The times neglects to mention that they released none of the language of Richard Clarke's Jan 2001 "laundry list" memo.

But, of course, the main point of the article is in the headline "Bush Aides Block Clinton's Papers From 9/11 Panel." Yes I guess one way to try to convince the panel that the Clinton administration didn't do enough to fight al Qaeda is to suppress 3/4ths of the pages of documents recording, among other things, what the Clinton administration did to fight al Qaeda.

One really dramatic point is "Another Democrat on the panel, Timothy J. Roemer, a former House member from Indiana, said he learned only on Thursday that so many documents had been withheld." The commission heard about the over 7,000 page gap from Bruce Lindsey, not, as far as I can tell, from the Bush administration.

Remember when a president got in a whole lot of trouble over a littly tiny 18.5 minute gap ?

I'm sure the Bush administration said that they were sending documents that they considered relevant and which did not reveal sources and methods etc etc etc but it sure doesn't sound as if they mentioned page totals.