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The drive towards this unprecedented doc dump arose in earnest in late 2005 and early 2006 when the continuing public debate over the justifications for the 2003 Iraq invasion turned towards the possibility of untapped evidence in the captured documents from Iraq. Could they contain, for instance, "smoking gun" evidence of links between Saddam and al-Qaeda? Stephen F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard, for example, had an impressive series of pieces during this period on his attempts to obtain access to some of the captured Iraqi documents both via the Pentagon press office and via repeated FOIA requests.
http://gawker.com/5890975/rick-santorums-wikileaks
Trouble is, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which maintained control over the documents, thought it might be more prudent to assess the documents for intelligence before simply dumping them on the public. But the neocons, apparently still drunk on their blogospheric takedown of Dan Rather, came to the belief that the Iraqi documents would be better analyzed by right-wing bloggers than intelligence professionals.
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.
No less an authority than former Bush chief of staff Andrew Card said at the time that the release was stupid, and that Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte had opposed Santorum's push for release: "John Negroponte warned us that we don't know what's in these documents, so these are being put out at some risk, and that was a warning that he put out right when they first released the documents."
ODNI of course took the documents down, but not before they were grabbed by anyone and everyone who may have been interested in designing a nuclear weapon.
http://gawker.com/5890975/rick-santorums-wikileaks
Trouble is, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which maintained control over the documents, thought it might be more prudent to assess the documents for intelligence before simply dumping them on the public. But the neocons, apparently still drunk on their blogospheric takedown of Dan Rather, came to the belief that the Iraqi documents would be better analyzed by right-wing bloggers than intelligence professionals.
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.
No less an authority than former Bush chief of staff Andrew Card said at the time that the release was stupid, and that Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte had opposed Santorum's push for release: "John Negroponte warned us that we don't know what's in these documents, so these are being put out at some risk, and that was a warning that he put out right when they first released the documents."
ODNI of course took the documents down, but not before they were grabbed by anyone and everyone who may have been interested in designing a nuclear weapon.
