Electrolite: Government as Monty Python sketch.

September 27, 2002

Government as Monty Python sketch. No, really. These lead paragraphs are from a story on the web site of noted Administration critics Fox News.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. 97 Accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was inadvertently given classified FBI interview reports by the government, and authorities had to go into his cell and recover them, according to court papers released Thursday.
The government initially said two classified documents were in Moussaoui’s possession, then acknowledged there were seven before finally determining there were 48.

[10:00 AM]

Welcome to Electrolite's comments section.
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.

Comments on Government as Monty Python sketch.:

Christian Claiborn ::: (view all by) ::: September 27, 2002, 10:56 AM:

I think the link you actually want is:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64203,00.html

Patrick Nielsen Hayden ::: (view all by) ::: September 27, 2002, 11:17 AM:

Oops! Fixed. Thanks.

Christopher Hatton ::: (view all by) ::: September 27, 2002, 11:46 AM:

Even worse: according to NPR's story this morning, he wasn't even aware he had classified documents until they sent him a legal document informing him of the fact. This was done some time before they asked the judge to let them get them back.

Gary Farber ::: (view all by) ::: September 27, 2002, 01:24 PM:

Yes, but have they given him his bug fan yet?

Chuck Divine ::: (view all by) ::: September 27, 2002, 04:12 PM:

You do know FBI really stands for Feeble Brained Incompetents, don't you?

Robert L ::: (view all by) ::: September 28, 2002, 01:05 AM:

There's more on this at

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/27/national/27TERR.html

Now let me see if I have this straight...here is this guy in a jail cell, obviously a very heavily guarded one. They give him these documents, then realize they're classified, even though they aren't marked as such. Then they conduct a ~two-day~ search of his jail cell...and they can't find some of them. One official is quoted as saying they've given him "literally millions" of documents.
His cell must be quite a sight.
What'd he do, trade them to one of the other detainees for cigarettes?

Nancy Lebovitz ::: (view all by) ::: September 28, 2002, 08:37 AM:

I wonder what Bruce Schneier would say about the best security possible in a system with a substantial proportion of blithering idiots.

So far as finding the documents is concerned--they should have done it, but I can easily believe that someone putting a complex court case together would have a *lot* of documents.

Barry ::: (view all by) ::: October 01, 2002, 01:41 PM:

And they should have a number of people checking things like classification. They probably aren't giving him anything that the court hasn't made them give him. He's his own counsel; his skill at discovery and extracting evidence for his defense should be minimal.