Is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld an evildoer? If not, then what
is he doing shaking hands with Saddam Hussein?
An innocent person might be forgiven for asking such questions upon
seeing a striking photograph of Rumsfeld making nice with the Iraqi
dictator in 1983.
In a "debate" over U.S. policy towards Iraq that depends largely
on facile slogans and self-dramatization, the Rumsfeld photograph
is a discordant reminder that the official version of events is a
partial account at best.
The photo is among the neglected resources of the not too distant
past that were unearthed and published by the National Security Archive
yesterday.
The new Archive collection, edited by Joyce Battle, helps fill in
gaps in the record, documenting U.S. partnership with Iraq in its
1980-88 war against Iran and the acquiescence of U.S. officials, including
some current Bush Administration figures, in Iraqi abuses. See:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm
"It would be nice... if prominent Bush officials acknowledged their
past moral culpability," wrote The New Republic's Peter Beinart, who
favors military action against Iraq, in the February 24 issue of that
magazine. "Rumsfeld should have trouble sleeping at night given his
role in abetting Saddam's crimes."
But obviously it was never Rumsfeld's intent to abet Saddam's crimes.
That, in a way, is the point. A fuller account of the record of U.S.
policy toward Iraq provides grounds for healthy skepticism about political
ends and means, including the ability of the United States to militarily
compel Iraqi disarmament without incurring significant unintended
consequences.
Last year, Senator Robert Byrd discussed the Reagan Administration's
transfer to Iraq of biological agents including anthrax, bubonic plague
and many others, and placed supporting documentation in the Congressional
Record on September 20:
POWELL: US "NOT PROUD" OF 1973 CHILE COUP
The 1973 CIA covert action against Chile's President Salvador Allende
"is not a part of American history that we're proud of," said Secretary
of State Colin Powell last week in another occasion for reflection
on how U.S. foreign policy can go astray.
The Secretary's remark came in response to a question from a student
at a forum broadcast by Black Entertainment Television on February
20.
"With respect to ... what happened with Mr. Allende, it is not a
part of American history that we're proud of," Powell said. "We now
have a more accountable way of handling such matters and we have worked
with Chile to help it put in place a responsible democracy." See:
http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2003/02/dos022003.html
The statement met with intense interest in Chile, eliciting reactions
ranging from appreciation to contempt. See, for example, "Gobierno
alaba reconocimiento de Powell," El Mercurio, February 22:
http://diario.elmercurio.com/nacional/politica/noticias/2003/2/22/302604
.htm
REPORT ON FISA IMPLEMENTATION
Oversight and implementation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA), the law that governs domestic surveillance of persons
who are suspected agents of foreign powers or international terrorists,
have been hampered by inappropriate secrecy, according to a new Senate
report.
"The secrecy of individual FISA cases is certainly necessary, but
this secrecy has been extended to the most basic legal and procedural
aspects of the FISA, which should not be secret. This unnecessary
secrecy contributed to the deficiencies that have hamstrung the implementation
of the FISA. Much more information, including all unclassified opinions
and operating rules of the FISA Court and Court of Review, should
be made public and/or provided to the Congress," said the bipartisan
report, jointly authored by Senators Arlen Specter, Patrick Leahy
and Charles Grassley.
See "FISA Implementation Failures: Interim Report on FBI Oversight
in the 107th Congress by the Senate Judiciary Committee" here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_rpt/fisa.html
The Senators introduced a new bill, the "Domestic Surveillance Oversight
Act of 2003," to increase official FISA reporting requirements. The
text of the bill (S. 436), along with introductory statements, and
supporting materials introduced into the Congressional Record, may
be found here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_cr/s436.html
FISA AND THE PATRIOT ACT
The Justice Department has continued to slowly respond to congressional
questions about the implementation of the USA Patriot Act. The latest
installment of official responses, dated December 23, 2002, focused
on the changes that were made to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act by the Patriot Act.
The answers, which are often evasive but occasionally interesting,
are contained in three letters from Assistant Attorney General Daniel
J. Bryant to Senators Leahy and Feingold. The letters, which seem
to have gone completely unremarked, may be found here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/index.html#qfr
Out of a series of 93 questions for the record posed by Congress
over the past year concerning the implementation of the USA Patriot
Act, the Justice Department has now answered 56. Thirty-seven questions
remain unanswered.
STATE HISTORICAL ADVISORY COMM MINUTES
The minutes of the December 2002 meeting of the State Department
Historical Advisory Committee meeting were approved for release this
week. The minutes, which provide some interesting gossip and the odd
tidbit of information regarding declassification of historical records,
may be found here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/advisory/state/hac1202.html
PSYOPS: LEAFLETING IRAQ
U.S. Central Command has published a gallery of leaflets that the
U.S. military has dropped on Iraq from November 2002 through as recently
as this week.
The leaflets include verbal messages (e.g., "Military fiber optic
cables have been targeted for destruction. Repairing them places your
life at risk.") together with graphic illustrations.
See the CENTCOM Leaflet Gallery here (thanks to MJR):
http://www.centcom.mil/galleries/leaflets/showleaflets.asp
The U.S. military's psychological operations campaign against Iraq
was described in "Firing Leaflets and Electrons, U.S. Wages Information
War" by Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, February 24:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/24/international/middleeast/24MILI.html
UPDATE ON INTEL BUDGET (NON-)DISCLOSURE
Following a series of postponements, a Freedom of Information Act
lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency seeking declassification
and disclosure of the total intelligence budget figure for 2002 is
now inching forward.
The CIA indicated last week that it will file a motion for summary
judgment, including classified and unclassified declarations to support
dismissal of the case, on March 20. The Federation of American Scientists,
which favors declassification, will respond a month later, and the
Agency will reply a month after that.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/cia021903.html
The continued classification of the intelligence budget total is
perhaps the most enduring example of unwarranted national security
secrecy. Exposing and correcting this erroneous practice could have
an important salutary effect on classification policy generally, or
so we believe.
