There's another way to look at the Rumsfeld briefing to the President: It shows how information was parsed to achieve an objective. Rumsfeld's bible citation-parsing mirrors how the US government selectively massaged information and the law.

Rumsfeld bible citations show there were multiple people involved, and this is important when understanding how OSD assigned tasks. The bible citations were selectively cherry picked, as the US government did with intelligence information from POWs or gleaned through FISA violations.
It's important for outside researchers to conduct a detailed analysis of all bible quotes in the Rumsfeld intelligence briefings to the President. The parsing and citation problems shed light on the internal reviews Rumsfeld likely used. This information would be of interest to FOIA researchers reviewing internal deliberations and legal compliance issues.

Also, the quotes in Rumsfeld's briefing do not trace back to a single, consitent version of the bible. This suggests there were multiple people providing inputs. Also, the way the bible quotes are punctuated and capitalized, it suggests there were subsequent administrative review by people who were not familiar with, or did not review, the original source material.

Discussion Questions

What other quotes exist in other briefings that were selectively re-written, as the DOJ OLC memos were, to achieve desired outcomes?

What role, if any, did any DOJ OLC legal counsel or Addington at OVP play in crafting any bible verses provided in these DoD briefings to the President?

Did DoD General Counsel Haynes have any input to the bible quotes?

There appear to have been several phases to this bible quote

Phase 1 appears to have been direction on a bible theme

The Rumsfeld bible quotes do not consistently quote from one English translation. Rather, there are multiple bibles used, suggesting Rumsfeld was working with a group of people who were using different biblical sources.

This suggests that there was, as sub-elements to this phase:

A. a tasking for a theme in the bible;
B. there was subsequent research;
C. a later discussion of those inputs; then
D. a final presentment to Rumsfeld related to that bible theme.

Phase 2: Briefing Presentation Formatting

This part of the presentation appears to have been the post-decision fact checking and final preparation for publication.  We know this because the bible quotes are not consistently traceable to a consistent set of punctuation or capitalization.

Someone, who was not part of Phase I, likely made minor "administrative" changes, but did not fact check the quote to a single source. Is impossible, using some of the SecDef bible quotes to determine which version of the bible he originally used; and how he changed the capitalization of key words.

The above suggests that there were multiple people involved with the briefing review, and the legal compliance review would likely have included the DoD General Counsel.

Some of the bible quotes were constructed from different sources, but presented as from a single source, but there was no fact checking to ensure the presented information was consistent with the original source. This is a problem which Addington regularly made while he crafted the Iran-Contra Minority Report.

It is unlikely that a single staffer would know enough about the bible, but use different translations of the bible when providing different quotes to the SecDef. It is more likely that there was a tasking from OSD to religious personnel with OSD Chaplain's office to find these themes; and then incoming information to the Secretary of Defense before final presentment to the President.

Judgments

References to Persia, modern day Iran, would strike the President as alarming and would suggest American defeat, and the risk that Iran would benefit.

The selective parsing of the Bible quotes is similar to concerns raised at the Senate Judiciary Committee. The commitee heard testimoney about what went wrong within DOJ OLC. The SecDef briefings to the President, and selective cherry picking from the bible mirror concerns witnesses raised about cherry picking from the law to achieve desired political objectives.

A. Cherry Picking

The Secretary of Defense removed the language related to Persia -- and the Bible references to the King's uncomfortable reaction -- because he did not want to upset the President with a complete, accurate picture of what the Bible really said. The briefings, like the DoD propaganda and DOJ OLC memos, were designed to achieve a political objective, regardless contradictory information.
 
It was the goal of Rumsfeld to build a bridge with the President, even if that bridge was as unstable as the DOJ OLC legal arguments on Geneva and FISA. Rumsfeld's briefing and bible quotes provide another example of how information, like the Iraq WMD data and information gleaned from illegal POW abuse (re Iraq-Al Qaeda links), was selectively parsed to achieve a political objective.

B. Incomplete Disclosures About Internal Deliberations

The deceptions continue. The publicly stated reasons for "alarm" about the use of bible quotes is not the full picture. There were internal deliberations about how the selectively quoted bible quotations would mislead the President.

Selectively parsing information and explanations, as with illegal data mining

The concerns about the bible quotes relate to a selective use of information, without regard to the complete picture. The NSA has likely selectively created a patchwork of information collection on the back of equally dubious original sources.

The (incompletely) disclosed concerns with the bible quotes indirecty mirrors the internal deliberations of American government officials were alarmed that a patchwork of incomplete informaiton was used to "justify" illeal FISA violations against American civilians.

Calling Attention To Information Management Within DoD Propaganda, Emails

There remains a concern within DoD that the disclosed Rumsfeld bible quotes -- when taken in the context of WMD data, POW abuse, selective parsing on interrogation information -- would raise additional questions about the broader (dubious) basis for warfare against Iraq on the back of the AUMF.

C. Multiple Reviews and Phases to this tasking

The bible quotations within the Secretary of Defense's briefing to the President illustrate some of the reviews and taskings which OSD would have been involved, and provides a legal basis to seek additional OSD work products through the FOIA process.

The difference between the quoted bible citation and the original citation shows there was an administrative review, unrelated to the original tasking to find a bible theme.

The bible quotations establish there were multiple people involved, and at least two phases to prepare the presentation. The Congressional committees should use the bible quotes to ask witnesses about the internal deliberations related to the selective parsing of the key passages from the bible.

The differences in how the bible quotations are cited in different version of the bible illustrates the scope of the number of people involved: More than one.

D. Alleged Legal Counsel Connection To Briefings To President

Selective parsing of inconvenient language raises the prospect DoD General Counsel Haynes was aware, or should have been aware of these briefings; and that DOJ OLC, OVP, and other legal counsel reviews knew enough to selectively parse inconvenient language from the biblical quotes.

Recommendations

We recommend outside researchers review the nexus: The relationship between the internal meetings to discuss religious issues, and the timing and phasing of DoD reviews for SecDef.