The Kissinger Cables: 'The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer."

[Ichingcarpenter]

Macomber: That is illegal.

Kissinger: Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at
meetings, "The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a
little longer." [laughter] But since the Freedom of Information Act,
I'm afraid to say things like that.

We'll make a major effort.






From the wikileaks cables:

http://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/P860114-1573_MC_b.html#efmCS3CUB

[malaise]

1. Get thee to the greatest page

Rec

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. But let’s put WikiLeaks in context.

How big is the trove of US data that we’re not supposed to see? Sorry, that’s classified. But we can produce an educated guess using numbers from the US Information Security Oversight Office.

Last year, the US government made 183,244 original classification decisions, according to the ISOO annual report. That doesn’t sound like a lot, considering what WikiLeaks has. But here’s the kicker – the government also classifies stuff that refers to or discusses or uses parts of original classified information. They call this “derivative classification.” How many derivative classification actions did the United States take in 2009? Oh, only about 55 million.

Plus, each classification action or decision typically involves about 10 pages of stuff, according to experts. Do the math – the US is producing some 560 million pages of classified information a year.

By way of comparison, the Library of Congress and other big document depositories such as Harvard’s library system each add about 60 million pages a year to their holdings.

And those 560 million pages of new secrets represent the work of only 12 months. Peter Galison, a Harvard professor of the history of science and physics, has calculated that since the late 1970s the US may have produced a trillion pages of classified info. That’s an amount of paper equal to the entire holdings of the Library of Congress,

The legendary physicist, Robert J. Oppenheimer, put the matter succinctly. “There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry,” wrote the man who led the Manhattan Project. “There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.”

Oppenheimer, a man of conscience and intellect who straddled the worlds of free inquiry and national security, was in a good position to understand the deep meaning of his words.

[NoMoreWarNow]

5. wow, that's insane.

a lot of paper pushing and secrecy... to what end?

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. He who controls

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future. by George Orwell.

[fasttense]

2. Ah Kissinger our first true American

War Criminal.

[hootinholler]

9. I doubt he was first, but I agree he is noteworthy. n/t

[NoMoreWarNow]

4. sounds about right coming from our evil elites

and I'm afraid that mindset still persists

[MarcoS]

8. Did you know

the trail to where we are now, economically, leads back to the Chinese and other influence peddlers who were present inside both the Nixon and Reagan White House. And to Henry Kissinger who is one of the few remaining perpetrators of this treason. If you haven't already read Tim Weiner's book on the history of our FBI.

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. "The Kissinger Cables": Three Years After "Collateral Murder,"

democracy now ....video at link..




The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has just published "the Kissinger Cables," 1.7 million U.S. diplomatic and intelligence documents from 1973 to 1976 that include many once-secret memos written by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. While the documents have been available to the public at the National Archives, WikiLeaks has created a searchable online database to allow anyone in the world to quickly search them. WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange reportedly did most of the work creating the database from his refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London. WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson joins us to discuss the documents’ release. Hrafnsson also comments on the recent anniversary of the release of the "Collateral Murder" military video, which shows U.S. forces killing 12 people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters employees, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen. After the video’s release, Hrafnsson met with family members of the victims in Iraq. [includes rush transcript]

TRANSCRIPT


http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2013/4/8/the_kissinger_cables_three_years_after

[KoKo]

10. Charming....isn't he...

[Quantess]

12. Really warms the heart.

What a sterling guy.