Akkam’s Razor

The handful of you that know me in real life are already aware that a significant (but temporary) change has happened in my life, one that will no doubt affect my online life…

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Presidents are incredibly tight-lipped about the contents of their PDBs, or Presidential Daily Briefings.  Very few of them have ever seen the light of day via FOIA request and subsequent declassification, with very few exceptions.  The most recent and notorious example was that of President Bush's August 6, 2001 PDB, pre-9/11, which was titled "Bin Laden determined to strike US", detailing various avenues and methods of attack.  In Scooter Libby's obstruction case, the defense attempted to gain access to PDB-related documents, hoping to use a greymail defense - one that was only partially effective .

The Nixon library just released a bundle of documents, as reported by the Federation of American Scientists at the Secrecy News blog , including some that shed insight on the PDB process, specifically indicating that PDB's are often contain 'intelligence' from newspapers and other journalistic resources. 

As for the selection process that determines what to include in the PDB, Mr. Marshall wrote in his Top Secret Codeword report, "It is derived… to a large extent, I believe, from a sense of what's timely as judged from the New York Times, press, and wire service coverage."

This is particularly troubling, given allegations of partisanship and declining journalistic standards, and especially as there are no safeguards in place to prevent a bad-actor from planting a story to advance the agenda of a group, nation, corporation, or individual.  Who can tell if the same processes are in place today?  We've heard that 'chatter' from blogs has even made it to the PDBs.  And it's not as though this administration has ever indicated that they wouldn't just pay for the news they want.

As a hypothetical, Dick Cheney was the firewall to George W. Bush in the lead-up to the Iraq war.  The neocons are well connected through the press and various think tanks - for example, Judith Miller stenography towards advancing their goals.  When biased reporting, originating from neocon corners and con-men, get laundered in the newspapers, and then get legitimized as actionable intelligence by our government, the consequences are much more dear than journalistic integrity. 

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