Documents for O'Neill Book Were Classified

[Desperadoe]

By JEANNINE AVERSA

WASHINGTON (AP) - Documents given to former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill for an insider book on his two years in President Bush's Cabinet contained classified information, successor John Snow told Congress in a letter on Friday.

Snow's 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 after he was ousted in late 2002.

The "documents were not properly reviewed before their release," said the letter.

Treasury began an inquiry into the documents last month after a TV segment on CBS'"60 Minutes" during which O'Neill was promoting the book "The Price of Loyalty" showed a document marked "secret."<snip>

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040207/D80I2SU83.html

[Terwilliger]

1. LIAR!!!

Sussking and O'Neill have BOTH said the documents weren't classified!

[Blitz]

3. Did you read the whole article?

At best, Suskind and O'Neill expressed their understanding as to the status of the documents, which they did before the investigation. Neither one is necessarily in a position to make a definitive judgment on this issue. Also, the letter does not necessarily assign blame to either O'Neill or Suskind.

[Terwilliger]

11. who else are trying to blame it on?

Neil Bush?

No...either O'Neill is disgruntled, or Sussking is disseminating "sensitive" documents.

[Blitz]

12. Again, did you read the article?

I suspect, in light of your "LIAR!!!" post, that you may not have at that time ... or now, in light of this question.

Edited for typo.

[Terwilliger]

16. I was saying exactly what I thought

and now I've read the article twice. Why are you disagreeing with anything I've said?

[mac2]

18. Classified documents?

They've been re-classified like a lot of information that they let slip through.

Mr. O'Neill is a very careful man. I don't think he would do that. Well..if he did..thank you.

All government documents should be available to citizens...unless they have military plans in them...for a few days away, etc. Remember the Freedom of Information Act? He asked for them...and they were released.

We passed this FIA law to prevent our government from doing things behind our backs. Now they are!!!

They are lying. Mr. Snow does a "Snow job" on a lot of things. The Neo Cons are so symbolic.

[arcane1]

2. only took them a month, huh?

9/11 was nearly THREE GODDAMNED YEARS AGO and we are STILL waiting!

:grr:

[Mz Pip]

5. And less than

24 hours to get an investigation of Superbowl halftime Nipplegate going! Janet's boob - a weapon of mass distraction.

MzPip
:dem:

[NashVegas]

4. OOPS! Too Late

A shame they're online and before us all, now.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. HA Ha, hahahahaha.... who is suprised?

Not I, said the radical.

So, I guess this means we will declare Paul O'Neil an enemy of democracy or a terrorist or something and declare war against him.

Or does this mean he can't travel overseas now, thanks to *'s new executive order which bars entry to the US of "any person or persons accused of corruption or wrongdoing while in public office."?

[mike1963]

7. So whoever gave them to him didn't know they were classfied????

:eyes:
I think these bastards are trying to drive people crazy...it's almost working on me.

:grr:

[KDLarsen]

8. Dupe?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=350828

Though it's a different link this time.

[NashVegas]

9. DUPE

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=350828

OTOH, that one uses a FAUX reference. Hmmmm.

[DuctapeFatwa]

10. LOL It was a secret that the US knew there was no WMD, so whoever

revealed such a secret must be punished?

To say nothing of how easily people accept the principle that WMD is something that only the US may possess, and only the US has the right to allow or forbid other countries to have it, kind of like the right to self-defense.

[scarface2004]

13. were not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sure john, whatever you say asshole!

[grasswire]

14. they set him up

....and he should have seen this coming.

They included a few documents as insurance.

[MGKrebs]

15. This should not be an O'Neill (or Susskind) problem.

Somebody who released those documents to them is at fault. Will the press report it this way?

[Sinistrous]

17. The key phrase in the article:

"None of the documents were properly annotated with the required markings for classified information."

Furthermore, "Sensitive" is not a security classification, although Snow could have been using it as synonym for "classified".

Mr. Snow's comments are butt-covering of the most transparent kind.

[RainDog]

19. semantic yoga posturing

"Suskind, in an interview Friday, said his lawyers have been in contact with government attorneys to try to understand their concerns.

He declined to describe the documents in question or whether he had been asked to return them. He did say, however, that none of the documents with classified material was "released or revealed in the book or on my Web site."

Suskind said the root of the problem was in the government's release of the documents and not O'Neill.

"Paul O'Neill is not involved in this," he said. "He got the documents in good faith and he turned them over to me. It is very important that people understand that.""

--

If you read the accustations are worded, the White House does not say that ANY information which was used was classified.

they do have one concern...that O'Neil said what so many others have been saying for a while now...that the invasion of Iraq was part of a regional/oil takeover with the spoils already divying up Iraq like a carcass in Cheney's Energy Policy meetings.

But this is nothing new. Judicial Watch...did I get the name right on that one? --and the Sierra Club had already sued for access to those Energy Policy Task Force papers.

So why is this seen as anything more than the Bush thugs going after someone who threatens to tell the truth about them?

I haven't read the O'Neil.Susskind book to know of any particular information in there which was unknown.

I know others on this board have read it. I wonder if they recall hearing anything which was not already known via internet news sharing?