Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Beating Irony To Death

A headline on the last page of the front section of today's Post & Courier caught my eye. The headline claimed that 2 former CIA officials denied telling Ron Suskind that they had been told to fabricate intelligence linking Iraq to the 9/11 Hijackers. So naturally I read the article.

It was an AP article under Brett J. Blackledge's byline. I couldn't find a link to the article on charleston.net but here is a link to it at Newsweek with a headline similar to the Post & Courier headline.

One of the first things I read in the article was not that two former CIA officials deny Suskind's claims, but that the White House issued a statement on their behalf. Then I read further that itself wasn't really true. The White House issued a statement on behalf of one of the former CIA officials who himself was claiming to speak on behalf of the other.

But the entirety of the story revolves around accusations that the White House is fabricating communications for people.

So, you know, maybe it might be better to not use the White House as a source for communications it claims were made by others!

Update: To be clear, the former CIA officials in question are named Robert Richer and John Maquire. The White House allegedly issued a statement on behalf of them both. It actually was only Richer allegedly making the statement. In the statement Richer alleges that he spoke with Maquire who authorized Richer to say that Richer never order him, Maquire, to fabricate evidence. It is all very self-serving from beginning to end.

Update II: Suskind is standing by his book and says it is all on record in his notes and recordings. Suskind also claims that Maquire was pressured to make a statement based on misleading information.

1 comment:

Principessa of Cervesa said...

just watched Suskind on Washington Journal. Very good, he has actual sources with names but he declined to say if he had sources in the WH.
His account of his contacts with Benazir Bhutto, was, I thought very moving. In the weeks before her death, maybe even days before, she was asking Suskind why Dick Cheney wouldn't call Mousharif to demand he protect her. Bastards.