Washington, D.C. ? The Bush administration’s decision to shutter a Web site that contains documents from Saddam Hussein’s covert nuclear program has renewed debate over the threat posed by Iraq and the question of which political party can best guard U.S. secrets.

On Friday, Republicans said the documents, which predated the 1991 Gulf war, provided a reminder that Saddam was a major risk. Democrats said release of the information in the first place had been nothing more than a dangerous political ploy.

Established in March, the government Web site – called the “Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal” – was intended to be a repository for millions of pages of documents seized in Iraq over the past 15 years.

It’s not clear how many documents might contain potentially dangerous material. But National Intelligence Director John Negroponte’s office suspended public access to the site on Thursday, after The New York Times questioned whether some materials provided too much information about making atomic bombs.