Jay Rockefeller: “first of all, I totally appreciate and totally do not deserve the kind comments of our leader from the State of Nevada…”

“first of all, I totally appreciate and totally do not deserve the kind comments of our leader from the State of Nevada, but I heard them and I won't forget them and I didn't mind them at all. Before the Senate Intelligence Committee was able to release last week two sections of phase II that we have been working on in prewar intelligence in Iraq, we submitted the report to the intelligence community for declassification review. Overall, the declassification process on the phase II report produced a final product that was a substantial improvement, I have to say, over past efforts, including the committee's heavily redacted July 2004 phase I report. Yet there were notable instances of overclassification in the final phase II report released September 8. The committee, in its report, disagreed with the intelligence community's decision to classify certain portions of the report's findings and conclusions. In its decision to keep this information from the public, which is what this is about, the intelligence community was unable to demonstrate to the committee that disclosing the redacted-- that is, what is blacked-out--the redacted information in question would compromise sensitive sources and methods or otherwise harm the national security.…”