“It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.”

“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of it’s powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the State.”

“The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.”

The source for the above quotes — Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propagand Minister, 1933-1945

Any of this sound familiar?

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
-Harry S Truman

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
-John F. Kennedy

“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.”

“War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.”

GEORGE ORWELL

the Bloods and the Crips have a common enemy..the police..this means exactly nothing as far as logical inferences that they are cooperative with one another..

Comment by Dr. Matt — March 12, 2008 @ 7:01 pm

Does arming Fatah militants to fight Hamas militants count as “invading?”

shortest report ever report reads : there were none.

The big news here is that the Pentagon is concluding what everyone outside of the Pentagon has known for several years. They are rejoining the reality-based society even while some parts of government, notably Dick Cheney’s office, are still making an effort to shape public opinion around their revisionist version of events.
Comment by fletc3her — March 12, 2008 @ 6:39 pm

Yep. This has Cheney/Addington/OLC written all over it.

well when the going gets tough…

Comment by joe cantwell — March 12, 2008 @ 8:14 pm

Who woulda thunk it? Our trolls are embarrassed. Priceless!

well when the going gets tough…

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Spoken like a true doubleplusgood Inner Party member. Thank you, O’Brien, for reminding us that Knowledge Is Slavery and Ignorance Is Strength…

“The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Title 5 of the United States Code, section 552, generally provides that any person has the right to request access to federal agency records or information. All agencies of the U.S. Government are required to disclose records upon receiving a written request, except those records that are protected from disclosure pursuant to nine exemptions and three exclusions.”
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Nine Exemptions
Exemption One: Classified national defense and foreign relations information.
Exemption Two: Internal agency personnel rules and practices.
Exemption Three: Information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law.
Exemption Four: Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person that is privileged or confidential.
Exemption Five: Inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters that are protected by legal privileges.
Exemption Six: Personnel, medical, financial, and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
Exemption Seven: Certain types of information compiled for law enforcement purposes.
Exemption Eight: Records that are contained in or related to examination, operating, or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of any agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions.
Exemption Nine: Geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.

Three Exclusions
(c)(1) Exclusion: Subject of a criminal investigation or proceeding is unaware of the existence of records concerning the pending investigation or proceeding and disclosure of such records would interfere with the investigation or proceeding.
(c)(2) Exclusion: Informant records maintained by a criminal law enforcement agency and the individual’s status as an informant is not known.
(c)(3) Exclusion: Existence of FBI foreign intelligence, counterintelligence or international terrorism records are classified fact.

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Translation: Even though we know that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, letting you know that could make things — *ahem* — inconvenient and uncomfortable for us…so we’ve decided on your behalf that you have no right to know that.

Typical Bush administration response — when the facts don’t go the way you want them to go, suppress them in order to prevent your opponents from confronting you with the evidence that you were wrong.

And the home of the ……..wha?????? bamboozled?

For those who want it, though, the truth will out. A good synthesis of the classified study can be found in the report of the Iraqi Perspectives Project which was conducted by Joint Forces Command and used the same document data-set as this forthcoming (?) report. The link below will download the document for you (it’s long — 200+ pages).

http://www.jfcom.mil/newslink/storyarchive/2006/ipp.pdf