It was first on Drudge (that little dweeb with his silly fedora) -- some major forthcoming NY Times story about Iraq and nukes. And then the blogs lit up. Follow the initial reaction of the
Free Republic goons. They were all atwitter that Rove "that magnificent bastard" (as they weirdly call him) had pulled another October "November" surprise.
And, boy, I was scared too... it didn't look good. I read the Freepers ideas, and they scared me: Hussein had attempted to get nukes after the first Gulf war... etc etc. A major blowup.
But then the story broke. First on Drudge:
SOURCES: NYT: U.S. POSTING OF IRAQ NUKE DOCS ON WEB COULD HAVE HELPED IRAN...
Federal government set up Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war; detailed accounts of Iraq's secret nuclear research; a 'basic guide to building an atom bomb'... Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency fear the information could help Iran develop nuclear arms... contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that the nuclear experts say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums.... Developing...
And, then, soon after, the NY Times article itself. And it was damning. DAMNING of the incompetent fool in the Whitehouse. Damning to his conservative toadies in the House and Senate who retched over our national security for purely political purposes:
Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to "leverage the Internet" to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.
So it is Bush AND Congressional Republicans.
But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq's secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.
Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials.
Oh, this is damning! So damning! The site has been down for a DAY. A DAY! And to those seething Freepers who somehow think that this proves that Hussein was dangerous, take a look at the above passage. Notice the word "BEFORE".
"For the U.S. to toss a match into this flammable area is very irresponsible," said A. Bryan Siebert, a former director of classification at the federal Department of Energy, which runs the nation's nuclear arms program. "There's a lot of things about nuclear weapons that are secret and should remain so."
But President Bush approved the site's creation after Congressional Republicans proposed legislation to force the documents' release.
Bush and his congressional GOP buddies were and are asleep at the wheel. Vote them out! Vote them out! Vote them out!
Oh, and where did Drudge go with this? It is still atop the page, but defocused, small font (of course).
And the Freepers? They are twisting themselves into knots trying to explain this away:
The antiwar crowd is going to have to argue that the information somehow wasn't dangerous in the hands of Saddam Hussein, but was dangerous posted on the Internet...
Oh really?
So the question is... where's CNN, that twiddle twaddle of crap, on this? Will they, say, take a break from the Kerry flub and report? This story is winding its way around... check Google News.
And how do the &*^#&!@ GOP senators and representatives in charge of this program respond:
Yesterday, before the site was shut down, Jamal Ware, a spokesman for Mr. Hoekstra, said the government had "developed a sound process to review the documents to ensure sensitive or dangerous information is not posted." Later, he said the complaints about the site "didn't sound like a big deal," adding, "We were a little surprised when they pulled the plug."
The audacity! The sheer audacity! Who do these people think they are? Consider: we have now potentially ARMED another country with information that they didn't have to make nuclear weapons.
For all of the braggadocio of Bush and his pathetic coterie of liars... well, this is their goal? To put political gain ahead of our national security?!?!
This is not about politics anymore. This really really is about national security. This really really is about protecting American citizens, here and abroad. How dare they!