24 January 2018 — National Security Archive
SecDef Said Biggest Threat on 9/10/2001: Pentagon Bureaucracy
Archive FOIA Lawsuit Wins Monthly Releases Thanks to Pro Bono Representation by Skadden Arps
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 615
Washington D.C., January 24, 2018 – On the day before September 11, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld believed the gravest threat to American national security was Pentagon bureaucracy, according to “snowflakes” he wrote that were released by the Defense Department after a five-year Freedom of Information Act fight and lawsuit by the National Security Archive.
At 10:15 AM on September 10, Rumsfeld authored a snowflake – the term used to describe his usually one-page, often one-sentence, memos that he sent to his underlings to ask a question or issue an instruction – bemoaning the quantity of DOD agencies, surgeons general, inspectors general, judge advocates general, Congressional Relations functions, and Public Affairs functions. He concluded the memo by asking, “Is this all really necessary?” In a separate September 10 item, he pondered abolishing the Army Forces Staff College.
Rumsfeld eschewed modern email communication and used paper and ink instead, because he believed it was much easier to keep paper on file and track the progress of his dictums and queries. Though quick for Rumsfeld to dictate or type, these memos requesting actions, position papers, or research were a significant burden on Pentagon employees, growing, in Rumsfeld’s own words, “from mere flurries to a veritable blizzard.”
The September 10 memo is one page out of an estimated 59,000 pages that the Pentagon has begun to provide in segments to the Archive after the Department of Defense attorney confessed, “As far as the delay in the initial response to the request, all I can do is fall on our sword; that was too long.” Judge Tanya S. Chutkan agreed, calling the DOD six-year delay “unconscionably long.”
Special thanks to the Archive’s pro bono lawyers Melissa Smith, Cliff Sloan, and Greg Craig at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom.
Check out today’s posting at the National Security Archive
THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE is an independent non-governmental research institute and library located at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals.
The New Dark Age 
Leave a comment