Was driving along Mission Bay Drive today when one of the talk show guys was interviewing US House Rep Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and immediately fell into a state of delight. That woman doesn't mince her words. Back in Dec 2006, she fired off a letter to Bush:
Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to seek clarification of the processes and policies employed by your Administration in determining whether materials contain classified information and when to withhold information from the public.
According to an article published in the Washington Post today, Flynt Leverett, a former National Security Council Advisory, who left the Administration in 2003, suggested that the White House had redacted substantial passages of an opinion article on Iran. According to Mr. Leverett, this article was "only a summary of a longer paper" he had written a few weeks earlier which the CIA had cleared as "containing no classified information."
I am concerned that your Administration is employing inconsistent policies when classifying information. If, indeed, redacting the information from the op-ed was necessary for national security purposes, then the CIA's failure to deem the information in the previously published version of the article as classified may have put our security at risk. If classifying information in the previously published version of the article was not necessary, then I am left to believe that your Administration redacted information for political purposes.
I would also appreciate an explanation behind your Administration's decision to redact substantial passages from Mr. Leverett's op-ed, even though reportedly the CIA had already cleared the information based on which Mr. Leverett had drafted those passages
Given the questions this incident raises about your Administration's consistency in applying policies and processes to reviewing classified information and your willingness to allow criticism by the national security and intelligence communities that disagree with your policies, I ask that you clarify and explain policies pertaining to how and when information is deemed classified and also your decision to intervene in the publication of the article written by Mr. Leverett.
Thank you for reviewing my request, and I await your response.
Sincerely,
Louise M. Slaughter
Member of Congress
Hah! She is one tough female...and she's also the Chairwoman of the Rules Committee. No sooner did the Dems win Congress and get sworn in, than she came down like a ton of lead on lobbyists' gifts, trips, meals, etc that they showered folks like DeLay and Cunningham with, and forbade any more of that corrupting behavior. Gawd, think of the perks those people aren't going to get any longer to buy a vote.
Had a late lunch today or an early supper, whatever, at Marie Callendar's Restaurant this afternoon. They have the tenderest, most delicious pot roast I've ever encountered. Went there yesterday and had it, and just could not resist having it again today. Consider that I haven't eaten beef for a long time. No particular reason. Just hadn't. Until I saw the photo of that pot roast. Man, it's to kill for, it's so damned good. Don't know how long it will be on their special menu, so get it while it's available!
Ended up having breakfast on the wind tunnel sidewalk patio this morn. The other writer and I damned near froze to death with that icy wind that traveled in after the rain last night, even with the portable heater going full blast. Tomorrow the wind is gonna be heading off shore...a Santa Ana coming straight in off the desert. And it will be blazing sunny, but with that damned wind, it's not gonna be warm.
Meanwhile, the Boat Show is up and running at the Convention Center. Cheapest one is $85,000. Whoa! Which reminds me...they rescued that guy sailing by himself around the tip of South America. Very very lucky man.
Wrap...
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