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Censorship Government United States Politics

Secret Gov't Documents Will be Declassified 12/31 301

mozzwald writes "This New Year's Eve, at midnight on the dot, hundreds of millions of pages of U.S. government secrets will be revealed. Or at least they'll no longer be official secrets — it may actually take months or more for the National Archives and Records Administration to make those pages available for public consumption."
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Secret Gov't Documents Will be Declassified 12/31

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  • Too many exeptions. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by packeteer ( 566398 ) <packeteer AT subdimension DOT com> on Thursday December 28, 2006 @08:21AM (#17386174)
    The least of acceptable exceptions is too long. If a document involves multiple agencies it wont be free. This will do nothing to calm down conspiracy theories, but it will be interesting for historians.
  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @09:04AM (#17386410)
    You point is taken, and I agree is usually the case. However you are overlooking the stunning arrogance and self deluded incompetence of the Bush administration. These are people who believe the world is the way they say it is and not the way reality dictates. When they said Iraq had WMD that was enough for it to be true and explains why no supporting evidence was needed or produced and in all likelyhood does not currrently exist in reality of forgery.
  • by paganizer ( 566360 ) <thegrove1@hotmail . c om> on Thursday December 28, 2006 @09:21AM (#17386530) Homepage Journal
    I'll be pretty shocked if anything actually of use turns up. I'll definitely try to take a look myself; I've been searching for years for some of the info on the nuclear tests done in the late 50's, as my dad was in 13 of them.
    Hearing him talking about how much fun it was being in a foxhole 1.5 miles from ground zero, and digging out the rad badges and other stuff he kept as a souveneir, then seeing that there is no record to be found ANYWHERE that his unit was anywhere near where the tests were done has always fascinated me with the subject; hopefully someone will slip up and release a unit list for the Guinea Pig troops.
  • UFOs!!!!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by curtisk ( 191737 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @09:30AM (#17386606) Homepage Journal
    Wow. The 25 most used search terms in the last month [ucia.gov] at the CIA's FOIA document request.

    UFOs are at the top!

    Considering the rest of that list, its very interesting how pervasive the questions around UFOs are. Sadly, sasquatch has fallen out of public favor...

  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @09:43AM (#17386700) Journal
    Nothing of interest will be there. The interesting info would be in Reagan's term. But just before the info was to be release, W. did an executive order that allows a president or their heir or a current admin to redact any info that they think would damage their reputation. Hopefully the next president will have some morals and allow us none people to see exactly what what past presidents have been and done. That should include ALL of the reagan info including his irangate as well as his work in having Iran hold our hostages before the election and his dealings with Sadaam as well as OBL.
  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dbcad7 ( 771464 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @11:50AM (#17387764)
    So religious nutjobs want to come here and kill me, and the best solution is for us to send people over there to kill them first... I see.

    I served in the Army. I was ready to defend my country. I am thankful, that I was not in the military when this all went down, because it's a mistake and wrong. To perpetuate it is even more wrong.

    If a cop was given information that a van was stolen, sure he has a right to stop it and arrest the people in it. When it is determined that it ISN'T stolen, then you say oop's sorry, you don't seize the van and keep the passengers in jail. Yes the passengers and the driver are going to be pissed, but to keep fucking with them is not going to fix the mistake. The continuing problem with this whole thing is that people REFUSE to believe that we can make a mistake... and be wrong ?, just never happen. It's like a driver going down a road reufusing to admit he's lost.

    But everyone should have expected this. When Bush debated Kerry and was asked "What mistakes have you made ?" He couldn't think of a thing. Did he not understand the question ? or the concept of being wrong ?

  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by A beautiful mind ( 821714 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @12:13PM (#17388102)
    He had gassed his own people, killing far more than have died in this current 'war'.
    What crack are you on? There were reports coming out even years ago saying that in 2003 alone, the US led invasion on Iraq killed more people than Saddam killed in the last 20(!) years combined!

    I don't think it's worth a single American life to help people who are not among our own
    Your own what? Race? A more important human?
  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by q-the-impaler ( 708563 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @12:18PM (#17388184)
    Conrete is VERY dusty. Take a small chunk of conrete and throw it on the ground. Examine the dust that fell off. Now imagine a Beowulf cluster of these, and there's your frickin cloud.

    I only slightly jest. The concept is the same. Potential energy is a lot stronger than you think. I've been next to an avalanche and I could see how a landslide as such can make you think there was an explosion. The sound is spectacular. Probably a similar idea, only there was no slide, just buckling girders wrapped in concrete falling straight down 1300 ft.
  • by freedom_india ( 780002 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @01:17PM (#17388962) Homepage Journal
    The public can't be trusted with everything. This is the very same reason why the US doesn't use a popular vote to elect its president. The electoral college was put into place to keep too much power being placed on the layman.

    Who decides who is the Public? The elected president, or the King? You seem to be like Dick Cheney, who thinks Executive power is absolute and anything NOT specified in the constituion belongs to the President by Right. Which includes detention of US citizens without trial in Gitmo, and saying to Geneva Conventions : "Screw you!"

    It is the paranoid and powerless and weak who think like you and Dick Cheney.

    During the second world war, just before the Normandy Invasion, Allied reporters were briefed in FULL by Eisinowher (the then commanding C-in-C). He told them exactly when and where the invastion would happen, but told them it is their responsibility to keep it secret. The reporters cried "dirty pool", but kept their mouths shut UNTIL the invasion had taken place. No One, i mean NO ONE sold the secrets to the Enemy. FFW to 3 years ago, and the families of the troops were offiically NOT told about their spouses deployment to Iraq. They were just told (even though it was WELL known) that they are going to fight abroad.

    Switzerland is a land of direct votings and so are a few EU countries. They don't hide anything from the public. If you decide the public is a bunch of loose tongues, then remember three of the five fingers point at yourself when you say that.

    May God bless your corrupt republican soul. No wonder you guys had your asses whipped (to full froth) in the past election.

  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by A beautiful mind ( 821714 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @01:50PM (#17389374)
    The best methods available for surveying casualties tells us [bbc.co.uk] that the body count is around the most probable number of 655 thousand, which is backed by the statistical community. The iraqi body count page only operates from news reports, it is bound to be only the fraction of the real number.

    So, I stand by my original post.

    Also, it have to be noted that the 182k figure that you're quoting came up in the Saddam trial, which is not impartial by any standards and I wouldn't rely on it. The internationally accepted version of history attributes much less casualties to Saddam, around 55k.

    I don't feel this country owes anybody else a thing.
    Actually you do owe some things to the world: the USA needs to obey the international/universal human rights agreements.

    IMO, if we're to go out and be the world's police, the world should pay us back (and more than just buying our Gov't bonds).
    The world police expression is an extremely stupid phrase. It implies that you're doing a service, while in reality all you do is look out for your own interests aggressively - hence the world's police expression. I don't see why the world should be grateful and even supportive of the USA given the events of the last century of cowboy politics and waging wars of self interest.
  • Re:Can't wait... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland&yahoo,com> on Thursday December 28, 2006 @04:45PM (#17391678) Homepage Journal
    Not to mention the force of the air being shoved down as the building collapsed.
    Substantially more force the a cat 5.

    Peopelalso neglect to relize that the weight is designed onlt to be in specific points, want ot shifter a certien number of degree beyond it's design, it will fall STRAIGHT down.

    I have seen computer simmulations of many different types of building collapses, there all pretty much the same visually.

    But the most telling way that there is nothing wrong with the way it fell is all the simulations done by engineers in other countries, some of which would love to point out any discrepencies in the collapse.

    This is also the number one laymans way of proving the moon landing was not a hoax: Russia would have ratted us out in a heart beat if the radio transmission were off.
    Don't underestimate the desire of other countries to call us out.

  • by Rone ( 46994 ) on Thursday December 28, 2006 @06:24PM (#17392834)
    Seriously, after 9/11 the push was to Afghanistan and NO ONE protested.

    What version of CNN were you watching?

    IIRC, most of the pundits at the time were doom-and-glooming the US' plans to take Bin Laden from Afghanistan by force. Although they tried to hide it through sheer quantity of verbiage, the underlying message seemed to be, "How can the lowly US POSSIBLY succeed where the mighty Soviets failed for so many years?"

    In fact, the pre-Afghanistan protests were what enabled GW to get a free pass (initially) on Iraq from his marginally-committed supporters (e.g. me). Their reaction to seeing the moaning and wailing over Afghanistan soured them so completely to anti-war arguments (i.e. "What war won't these idiots protest against?") that they stopped listening to EVERY anti-Iraq argument, even those that might have been backed up by pragmatism and solid reasoning. That in turn contributed (if not caused) Kerry to lose his bid for the presidency in 2004. If he'd said, "Many wars are just, but THIS one (Iraq) is not", then he probably would have gotten enough votes to flip the balance in his favor. Instead, he let the election get turned into yet another referendum on Vietnam and war in general, and was defeated for it.

    Bah. Bush went into both Afghanistan and Iraq without a good understanding of the distinct cultural pressures involved in each country. He got lucky in Afghanistan (taking out the Taliban "regulars" enabled the masses to establish a sort-of-democratic government), but had his ass handed to him in Iraq, where the masses appear to be more interested in killing each other (Shi'a) or continuing their own private apartheid (Sunni) than establishing an even remotely democratic government.

The moon is made of green cheese. -- John Heywood

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