Snow: O'Neill Given Classified Documents

[Missy Vixen]

It's Friday afternoon, watch the spin...It's also from FAUX.

Friday, February 06, 2004

>WASHINGTON — Documents given to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill (search) for a book contained classified information, according to a letter his successor John Snow (search) sent to Congress on Friday.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, said that a preliminary investigation conducted by the Treasury Department's inspector general found that sensitive information was released in the documents given to O'Neill when he left the department.<

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110708,00.html

Drudge strikes again.

Julie

[Robb]

1. Er...

...does "sensitive" mean the same thing as "classified"? :shrug:

(on edit): Here's the Chronicle article. The quote:


Snow's letter said, "We have identified a number of documents that contain classified information and we are taking corrective action concerning those documents."

"Documents that contain classified information" does not mean the same thing as "documents that were classified". Sloppy Treasury Department, and O'Neill will get the ass end of this story. :eyes:

[benfranklin1776]

4. Sensitive equals politically embarassing for this maladministration.

Wrapping their misdeeds in the shroud of official secrecy. SOP.

[qanda]

2. I guess I better go get my book before they pull it

You know they wouldn't want to jeopardize national security and all.

[Missy Vixen]

5. I'll do the same

I recently heard Paul O'Neill interviewed. He insists that all documents were 'cleared' before he even left, let alone cooperated with the author of the book.

Julie

[eaprez]

3. Useless Info!

Seems all the "classified" info in Washington isn't worth the paper its written on anyway....the intelligence data was completely wrong, and what Paul O'Neill said was completely wrong....so they should just leave him alone -- unless they are going to appoint a panel to investigate the misinformation contained in the classified documments!

[buycitgo]

7. so..can't WAIT to have you cite some examples of "completely wrong" info

from Paul ONeill?

the contradiction by Greenspan?

what else?

NOTHING has been refuted so far by any admin spokesgeek.

problem, you see, is that, along with all those documents, ONeill kept copious notes of his conversations, and I'll believe him over Greenspan or any of those other lying shills in a heartbeat.

but, PLEASE, PLEASE enlighten us as to what he was "completely wrong" about.

holding breath...oof

[eaprez]

9. NOT ME!

I don't think ONeills info is wrong...I was paraphrasing the spin outta Washington...the CIA got it wrong, ONeill got it wrong..the Guard got it wrong......everyone is wrong......so the documents must be wrong as well.

[wryter2000]

11. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[eaprez]

15. Thanks!

Thank you so very much for the welcome. Its refreshing to be amongst like minded people.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

6. naked response to Suskind's 'net dump

Is it any coincidence that Snow says this only 24 hrs. after author Ron Suskind went public via the Web with the docs?

[buycitgo]

8. the funniest thing about this is that it once again demonstrates......

this admin's UTTER incompetence!

THEY're the ones who vetted EVERY SINGLE bit of info on the DISK that they GAVE to Suskind and ONeill!

It wasn't like they even submitted stuff for Treasury to check out, so that ONeill can be accused of trying to sneak something past him....they GAVE it to HIM!

is that going to come out?

[Stephanie]

14. I hope everyone's downloading those docs ASAP

Better grab them while they're hot - they might not be up next week. Shades of Diebold - a treasure trove of pages to go over.

[Pax Argent]

10. This is just retributive harassment!!

Do the Bushco asswipes ever not try to screw over anyone who tells the truth about their lies and bullshit?

For the record, O'Neill's book is fantastic. It really gives great insight into the dangerously one-sided dogmatics that run the current White House. It also tells why Christy Whitman left after being low-bridged by the Bushco appartchiks and how O'Neill, after years of dedicated service to several other Republican presidents and our nation as a whole, was finally put out to pasture because he couldn't accept the party line over well thought out fiscal policy.

I highly recommend his book to all who would know at least part of the truth.

[wryter2000]

12. It's a great book

Belated welcome to DU. :hi:

[Robb]

13. Ah, but Bush* codified "retributive harassment":

To wit, Executive Order 13292, March 25, 2003:

1.1(b): Classified information shall not be declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure of identical or similar information.

[truth2power]

16. Anyone have a link

to the documents? I saw them here a few days ago but didn't bookmark the thread.

Also, there was some discussion about trying to copy them to disk--something about being .tiff files and...well, I didn't understand how that could be done. Seems like it needed special software or something.

Can anyone tell me how they can be copied to a CD? (The "...for Dummies" version please. Thanks.

[mike1963]

17. Well, even if it WAS classified, who's fault is it that somebody gave it

to him?

[Robb]

18. Check out my other post on the EO

Here's the trick: Inadvertant release of classified information doesn't affect that information's status as "classified".

So sure, someone in the TD is at fault for a bad job of vetting the release; but they've still got Snow for disclosing classified information to a reporter.

Neat trick, huh?