Secrets and lies
by digby
Dana Milbank brought up an good point the other day when discussing the administration’s unwillingness to share the information that would prove Assad was responsible for the sarin attack:
Officials say the evidence is incontrovertible that Assad used sarin gas against his people. Lawmakers emerging from secret, classified briefings seem to agree. But while members of Congress are coming around to an attack on Syria, the American public remains skeptical. Why? Maybe it’s because the government won’t let them in on the secret.
The public heard about another “slam dunk” case a decade ago and, then as now, Democratic and Republican lawmakers agreed that the secret evidence was compelling. And it turned out to be wrong. Now, administration officials are telling Americans to trust their assurances that the secret evidence is convincing and that their war planning is solid. But they won’t provide details.
Estimates of collateral damage? “Lower than a certain number which I would rather share with you in a classified setting,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey told lawmakers.
Response of the Arab and Muslim countries? “This is something I’d be happier discussing in greater detail with you in the closed session,” Kerry said.
Safeguards to keep military action limited? “We can talk about that in a closed session,” Dempsey said.
How would Russia and other Syrian allies respond to a U.S. strike? “We all agree that that would be best handled in a classified session,” Kerry said.
No, we don’t all agree.
The administration’s case against Assad may well be airtight. Walter Pincus, The Post’s longtime intelligence correspondent, tells me he hasn’t heard the sort of doubts from the intelligence community that he heard during the run-up to the Iraq war. The problem is that the refusal to declassify evidence helps opponents such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin cast doubt on the intelligence.
The administration is hiding behind the protection of “sources and methods,” but is any foe still unaware of the National Security Agency’s satellite and intercept capabilities?
Nobody is unaware that the US Big Brother is all up in everybody’s business and I’m sure that Assad has no illusions that he is immune. The knowledge of this surveillance capability should make the US more willing to openly share this kind of information. The cat is definitely out of the bag.
And I would guess that on some level people feel the illogic of their refusal and wonder why they’re doing it, particularly after the history of US government lying about these things. You can’t blame people for being skeptical. And now that we know the full scope of US capability you really do have to wonder why the government still persists in saying “trust us” instead of just putting out the information that would put all these questions to rest.
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