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February 5, 2004
The Bush Archives
Remember the big flap last month when that book about former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill came out and he was on 60 Minutes talking about how Bush and his people were looking for an excuse to invade Iraq since the earliest days of the administration, etc., and then the administration started investigating him for leaking some memos?
This article in Slate informs us that the author of the book, Ron Suskind, has started "The Bush Files," a website where he's actually posting some of the 17,000 documents from the Bush administration that O'Neill gave him. Suskind adds analysis to each of the documents.
Here's a document from February 2001 that refers to a confidential report titled "Political-Military Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq Crisis." And here's a memo from Christie Todd Whitman, the defanged EPA administrator, asking Bush to take a credible stand on global warming. A few days later, Bush ignored her advice and started constructing the anti-Kyoto position.
These documents provide insight into the Administration's continuing efforts to politicize every issue, no matter how trivial, and punish those who don't hew to the party line. If you don't feel like poring over the files now, just check out the Slate article that explains the highlights. [via BAR]
