This statement was posted on the DOD website on Saturday - and I took a computer photo of it on Sunday - to catch them if they changed it. Well, they went back and doctored it - improved it - without giving any indication of their meddling. Check what is posted today. Note the date is May 15 - but it was changed today. I made the computer photo at 11 pm Sunday evening, 2 am Monday Pentagon time. Maybe they will change it again next week. Compare them side by side and see for yourself.

If government documents are modified for the protection and convenience of government agencies and employees, then the idea of documents goes out the window. We cannot trust government documents to be what they say they are. In the old days of paper, this could not be done once documents were released to the public. Now, with electronic documents on the Internet, it is very tempting. Too tempting, apparently.

So - they lie and twist the truth to suit their needs. It is not a question of if they do it, but rather a question of how often. Why am I not surprised? I first looked at this DOD press release via a link from the blog of Josh Marshall on Sunday, and then today Josh noticed the change. In the right side column under War & Peace is a link to his website.

Sy Hersh has exposed some serious military scandals in the past - and the Pentagon accused Hersh of false reporting then. Sy was proved correct. His story in the New Yorker asserts that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld authorized the torture of prisoners.

A careful reading of the Pentagon statement shows they do not actually deny the story is correct. The statement rants and insults Sy Hersh and his magazine, but does not actually deny the main charge that Rumsfeld authorized the torture.

Oh, and yeah, I made another screen dump just now. Will it be doctored again?