This is not an exit.

This is un-freakining-believable:

The White House confirmed on Thursday that it had withheld a variety of classified documents from Mr. Clinton's files . . . from the [9-11] commission . . . . .

The commission and the White House were reacting to public complaints from former aides to Mr. Clinton, who said they had been surprised to learn in recent months that three-quarters of the nearly 11,000 pages of files the former president was ready to offer the commission had been withheld by the Bush administration. The former aides said the files contained highly classified documents about the Clinton administration's efforts against Al Qaeda.

The purported explanation (at least today) is that the documents are "duplicative or unrelated," or contain "highly sensitive" information that "could be relayed to the commission in other ways."

With all due respect, bullshit.* The 9-11 Commission is entitled to see the original documents, and draw their own conclusions -- not be fed the information in another way. If some of the documents are "sensitive," then procedures can be put in place to protect them. If some of the documents happen to duplicate other documents, so be it. (Though it appears that the number of possible "duplicates" is low.) Better to provide full disclosure to the 9-11 Commission, than risk withholding an important document that appears to be a duplicate at first glance, but isn't. (And, from personal experience, I can tell you that a small difference between seemingly identical draft and final documents can speak legions.)

I find it impossible to defend the Bush Administration's policies with respect to the 9-11 Commission. They've foot-dragged, they've denied, they've delayed, and they've selectively withheld information from the Commission and the public. They've acted in every way other than in the country's best interests. They are endangering your and my safety with their game-playing.

von

UPDATED 11:11 a.m. EST: For clarity.

*In fact, the technical legal term.

Comments

[Edward]

My understanding is that the Clinton folks believed these materials were "unsensitive" enough to hand over to the commission, so the Bush Administration's decision seems all the more questionable.

[bob mcmanus]

Haven't yet looked for a cite, but may we agree that some version of "We are being fully cooperative with the commission" has passed this White House's compulsively lying lips?

[Slartibartfast]

They just need to read in someone on the commission to whatever compartmentalization is in the documents, and let that person have at it. It's been long enough, already. And for the love of pete, let that person decide what's duplicate material; all of this preprocessing, if not manipulative, at least has the appearance of being so.

[Gary Farber]

"Haven't yet looked for a cite, but may we agree that some version of 'We are being fully cooperative with the commission' has passed this White House's compulsively lying lips?"

Ya think?