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Blog Administration
Saturday, August 14. 2004
Secrecy
This interview took place on the balcony, overlooking the lake, at WegoWeb, Inc.'s International Headquarters, a "secret, secure, undisclosed location" in northern Wisconsin. The venue was suggested by Senator Fawghourne because it offered him an opportunity to indulge in one of his culinary favorites, deep fried fresh Lake Superior White Fish.
We can neither confirm nor deny that this article is brought to you by a generous contribution from the cafeteria workers union at the CIA headquarters at Langley, or where ever it is.
| WegoWeb | Hi, Senator. What's on your mind? |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | Hi. I've been reading about some of the secrecy of the White House and I am getting concerned. I read on one website
|
| WegoWeb | I suspect that you have accidentally gotten onto one of the satire sites. |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | Well, you might laugh, but this is no more outrageous than classifying testimony given to members of a Congressional Committtee. I read about it at The New Republic. . |
| WegoWeb | Yes, the flap about the CIA whistle blower that talked to Senators... and then her information, after having spent years in the public domain, was classified. She had access to classified information. Is there something wrong with classifying her comments? |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | The point is that the information was already out to the public. What we are now asked to believe is that there is a national security interest in its not being REPEATED. How could saying it again damage national security? I suspect that the problem is that it is an embarrassment, not that it is information that we either do not want enemies to know or enemies to know that we know. |
| WegoWeb | So you are saying the classification is about embarrassment, not about national security? |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | Well, think about some of the other examples of secrecy. Bush's gubernatorial papers are required, by Texas law, to be open and available to the press, the people, and researchers, but they are not. Upon becoming president, they were shipped to his father's Presidential Library where they are protected and unavailable by federal laws? Are we to conclude that, if open and available, Al Quebong operatives would scan them looking for ways to attack US nuclear facilities? |
| WegoWeb | I thought you were going to go towards the Texas Air National Guard records. |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | That's a whole 'nother story that we can take up at a different time. I'm sticking with secrecy, which is an important consideration for national security as opposed to secrecy to prevent embarrassment. Think about the Cheney energy meetings. Do you really think that Bin Laden has plans for terrorist attacks that are just waiting for a list of oil industry executives who were consulted regarding the national energy policy? Try to imagine Bin Laden, in his lonely cave in Afghanistan saying, "Well, which port we attack with a dirty bomb is dependent upon whether Ken Lay was asked about drilling in Alaska." |
| WegoWeb | What about the reports on intelligence about 9-11 and Iraq? |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | Twenty eight pages redacted from the Intelligence Committee report... all of it, coincidentally about Saudi Arabia. I suspect that the twenty eight pages would embarrass the Saudis and that is why "We the People" don't see them. And yet, at the same time, this administration seems to have no respect for the privacy of others. |
| WegoWeb | Is this about the outing of the CIA operative by Bob Novak in the Tribune? |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | Good example, but the administration also outted an agent in Pakistan when they increased the alert level from orange to orange in New York Ctity before the Democratic convention. They increased the level from what it already was to what it already was based on computer files that were dated prior to 9-11... and when called on it they revealed the identity of a double agent in Pakistan who provided them, the day after the ono-change, with information which which would justify the change they had already sorta made. |
| WegoWeb | You don't want your records at the public library checked? Don't worry. AG John Asscroft has stated that no library has been investigated. |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | And two weeks after he said that, they then used that provision of the Patriot Act. No, what I want is this whole secrecy thing looked at. Information should be held secret if it could affect national security. It should never be used to shield people from embarrassment. |
| WegoWeb | Hey, gotta go. Can we take this up further tomorrow. I'm concerned about the idea of a Senator reading web misinformation and not knowing that it is false. |
| Sen. Fawghourne: | Yeah... I'll have my people touch base with your people. |
| WegoWeb | Shhhhhhh. Loose lips sink ships. |