Congress Denied Syrian Facts, Too

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/51525/congress-denied-syrian-facts-too

Congress Denied Syrian Facts, Too
by Robert Parry | September 8, 2013 - 8:41am

A U.S. congressman who has read the Obama administration’s classified version of intelligence on the alleged Syrian poison gas attack says the report is only 12 pages – just three times longer than the sketchy unclassified public version – and is supported by no additional hard evidence.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Florida, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also said the House Intelligence Committee had to make a formal request to the administration for “the underlying intelligence reports” and he is unaware if those details have been forthcoming, suggesting that the classified report – like the unclassified version – is more a set of assertions than a presentation of evidence.

“We have reached the point where the classified information system prevents even trusted members of Congress, who have security clearances, from learning essential facts, and then inhibits them from discussing and debating what they do know,” Grayson wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times on Saturday.

“And this extends to matters of war and peace, money and blood. The ‘security state’ is drowning in its own phlegm. My position is simple: if the administration wants me to vote for war, on this occasion or on any other, then I need to know all the facts. And I’m not the only one who feels that way.”

[LibAsHell]

1. Because they aren't there

I guess Kerry and Obama just decided to go all in with this thing, knowing full well their case is weak and their evidence shaky.

What a god-damned disappointment.

[leveymg]

2. If there's any "there" there, it's stupid to withhold it. Every day credibility gets eaten away.

The obsession with secrecy by this Administration is a near-fatal disease.