Bush Admin Hiding Iraq Attack Data: Pentagon Responds

[RedEarth]

Iraq Attack Data Hiding: Pentagon Responds
By Justin Rood - December 18, 2006, 3:18 PM
I just got a call from Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a spokesman for the Defense Department. I relayed to him my conversation with the GAO official, who said the Pentagon was refusing to declassify data showing the number of enemy attacks in Iraq for the months of September, October and November.

"That's an interesting accusation from your source," Ballesteros said. As it happens, the Pentagon is releasing a report today at 5 p.m. on "back trends in violence" in Iraq.

Does it contain the three-month attack data the Pentagon declined to allow the GAO to include in its report?

Ballesteros paused. "There's information about attacks. Okay?" he replied. "Why don't you wait until 5 o'clock?"

According to another official, the report will be posted to the DoD Web site, at http://www.defenselink.mil.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002177.php

....why did it take so long????.....


......here is the previous article on TPM


Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us
By Paul Kiel - December 18, 2006, 11:46 AM
Just how many different ways has the Bush Administration tried to hide once-public information sources from the public record? Help us count the ways.

On Friday, Justin discovered that the Department of Defense has suddenly classified the numbers of attacks in Iraq for September through November of this year -- after providing the figures for every month since the war began. Why classify the information now? If there's a good explanation, we don't know it, and the Pentagon isn't returning our calls.

As others have noted, it's far from the first time that the administration has tried to deep-six data that was unhelpful to its goals. Over the years, they've discontinued annual reports, classified normally public data, de-funded studies, quieted underlings, and generally done whatever was necessary to keep bad information under wraps.

Wouldn't it be great to have all those examples in one place? Thankfully, Steve Benen at the Carpetbagger Report has started us off on that goal. But we're pretty confident there are more examples, so please use the comments to make suggestions, and we'll update the list as we verify the specifics. Please, include links where possible.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002175.php

[NVMojo]

1. A corporate Bush war: private agenda with your public dollars!