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Democracy 0, Terrorism 1:
The Bush Administration's Secrecy Policies

At the height of the Cold War, the United States argued that the truth would set people free. In fact, many scholars have attributed the growth of democracy in some foreign countries precisely to the free flow of information. We have touted the impact of the Internet on China and Russia because that information flow is presumed to have a liberating effect. Yet one of the consequences of the September 11 attacks in our own country has been the attempt to halt the free flow of information.

An account of a number of the things that have been done in less than two months since September 11 shows the pattern very clearly:

In his first statement on the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush called the terrorist perpetrators "folks." Other declarations Bush made that day as Air Force One flew around the country also reflected poorly on the President. There is a U.S. government publication, the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, which is the official record of public statements by the President. The government produced no edition of the Weekly Compilation covering September 11. This is the first time in memory that this publication has not appeared.
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thanks to wood s lot