“When you carefully consider FOIA requests and decide to withhold records, in whole or in part, you can be assured that the Department of Justice will defend your decisions unless they lack a sound legal basis or present an unwarranted risk of adverse impact on the ability of other agencies to protect other important records.”
—Attorney General John Ashcroft
News you may have missed: Newly declassified documents reveal that Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger gave Indonesian dictator Suharto their explicit permission to invade and take over East Timor in 1975, after a visit there. Kissinger wrote: “We understand your problem and the need to move quickly, but I am only saying that it would be better if it were done after we returned.” [The invasion resulted in the death of 200,000 people, mostly civilians; the military regime ruled East Timor by force until a revolt in 1999 eventually led to elections being reinstated, and independence.]
Kissinger had long claimed that he did not approve of the invasion plan.