Bush Admin Negligence Results In Publication of Detailed Nuclear Weapons Plans on the Internet [UPDATED BELOW]

Here’s as nakedly clear an example as we’ve ever had of how the Bush administration is an incompetent and megalomaniacal regime that represents a clear and present danger to the American people, and to the world.

In an effort to turn the tide of public opinion by ferreting out [non-existent] evidence of WMD’s, the Bush Administration some time ago established a publicly available Web site containing thousands of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Administration gave a number of right-wing bloggers and other amateurs the responsibility of vetting and translating the documents.

It has recently been discovered that several of the documents contained detailed instructions on the construction of nuclear weapons:

The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.

The director of national intelligence, John D. Negroponte, had resisted setting up the Web site ... But President Bush approved the site’s creation after Congressional Republicans proposed legislation to force the documents’ release.

... [I]n testimony before Congress last spring, a senior official from Mr. Negroponte’s office, Daniel Butler, described a “triage” system used to sort out material that should remain classified. Even so, he said, the policy was to “be biased towards release if at all possible.”

This account focuses on the use of amateur bloggers. This one (from which the excerpt above is taken) is a more general overview. Please read both.

UPDATE: Former WH Chief of Staff Andrew Card, while attempting to blame the New York Times for the Bush Administration's publication of detailed nuclear weapons plans on the Internet, flatly admits that (a) the administration did not fully know the contents of these captured enemy documents and (b) was warned that it was dangerous to publish them:

"Well, you know, this is one of those things that John Negroponte warned us that we don’t know what’s in these documents, so these are being put out at some risk."