Last week, we discovered that the Bush administration was refusing to declassify data on violence in Iraq. Soon after that the Pentagon released a report which cut the data in its own ways but didn’t provide raw numbers. Unfortunately, the violence is so bad there’s no way to hide it. Still, we know that numbers showing the real levels of violence in Iraq aren’t available.
It made us wonder: how many times has the administration attempted to suppress government studies, statistics or other forms of once-public information that don’t jibe with its policy? We put out the call — and readers responded.
We’ve tallied over 20 examples so far from the past six years, and we’ll likely break two dozen by the end of the day. Suggestions keep coming in. In areas as diverse as unemployment, health, climate change and the Iraq war, the administration has defunded, classified, or otherwise killed the release of facts that run contrary to its endorsed policies.
Do you know of others? Let us know.