Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
April 9, 2008
Pg. 17
In The Loop
By Al Kamen
The Bush administration has developed a well-deserved reputation for secrecy -- generally when it comes to Freedom of Information Act requests involving the Pentagon, most specifically for those related to the Iraq war.
Even as the administration begins packing up, the Pentagon is holding tight to every page of a six-year-old prewar study of Iraq's oil industry, a 500-plus-page report that might back both its initial claims that Iraq oil money would pay for the war. More important, rebut charges by critics -- and former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan -- that the war really was all about oil.
Oddly, former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth, who filed suit in federal court here yesterday seeking the documents, wrote about the study in 2003 after conducting a telephone interview, with a major general listening in, of a top Pentagon official involved in the oil industry assessment.
In the suit, Gerth says that Michael Mobbs, a top deputy to then-Undersecretary Douglas Feith, denied the FOIA request, even though that Pentagon official on the phone, whoever that may have been, had no problem talking about a lot of its contents.
After the article appeared, the general sent Gerth an e-mail "praising the 'good job' he said I had done," Gerth said in an appeal of the Pentagon's initial denial.
Well, maybe they're worried about protecting sources and methods? Or maybe if Gerth gets the whole document, the Pentagon won't think what he'll write will be so good.
April 9, 2008
Pg. 17
In The Loop
By Al Kamen
The Bush administration has developed a well-deserved reputation for secrecy -- generally when it comes to Freedom of Information Act requests involving the Pentagon, most specifically for those related to the Iraq war.
Even as the administration begins packing up, the Pentagon is holding tight to every page of a six-year-old prewar study of Iraq's oil industry, a 500-plus-page report that might back both its initial claims that Iraq oil money would pay for the war. More important, rebut charges by critics -- and former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan -- that the war really was all about oil.
Oddly, former New York Times reporter Jeff Gerth, who filed suit in federal court here yesterday seeking the documents, wrote about the study in 2003 after conducting a telephone interview, with a major general listening in, of a top Pentagon official involved in the oil industry assessment.
In the suit, Gerth says that Michael Mobbs, a top deputy to then-Undersecretary Douglas Feith, denied the FOIA request, even though that Pentagon official on the phone, whoever that may have been, had no problem talking about a lot of its contents.
After the article appeared, the general sent Gerth an e-mail "praising the 'good job' he said I had done," Gerth said in an appeal of the Pentagon's initial denial.
Well, maybe they're worried about protecting sources and methods? Or maybe if Gerth gets the whole document, the Pentagon won't think what he'll write will be so good.