by Teh Nutroots | I mean, look, come on: they're the CIA. Do people really think that they are on close terms at all times with the truth as it might appear to you and me? Don't we all pretty much assume that they lie reflexively, whenever they need to obscure a spot of excess zeal or whatever? Don't we all reckon that they're the ultimate ends-justify-the-means agency in America? Isn't history clear on this point?
Specter didn't go quite that far, acknowledging that it isn't official CIA policy to misrepresent the facts, but he went far enough.
Greg Sargent remarks:
Dday points out that the media has "inexplicably" seemed to have noticed how the shitstorm over Pelosi's statement is diverting attention from the fact that what she said is actually what everyone else thinks, including Republicans.
I don't know who fed the media this point, or maybe they
just couldn't ignore the wealth of hypocrisy surrounding the right-wing hissy
fit over Nancy Pelosi, but they have started to inexplicably push back. It
started last week when Marcy Wheeler noted that Pete Hoekstra, the ranking member of
the House Intelligence Committee, accused the CIA of providing insufficient
briefings and even lying to Congress, regarding a separate investigation.
In the interim, a host of elements of the CIA's story started to fall apart - their briefing record document included people who weren't in the meetings, people who lacked the security clearance to attend, and even stated Porter Goss was briefed in 2005 when he was the Director of the CIA at the time. The invaluable ThinkProgress dug up a copy of the letter Hoekstra sent to the CIA….
Maybe this was simply the easiest way for journalists to understand the emptiness of the hissy fit - Hoekstra said "lied," too - but for some reason they're off and running with this today. Wolf Blitzer confronted John Boehner with this and he had to concede the point. Newt Gingrich tried to play this off when called on it by Diane Sawyer, of all people, but it didn't work out too well for him….
I have no idea why the worm turned today, but this controversy is basically over. The CIA's theory is full of holes, and the Pelosi spat has turned into he said/she said, with the media willing to explore Republican hypocrisy on the issue.
Marcy Wheeler points out that all the people who have called Pelosi a liar have no idea what actually happened during her briefings. "This whole debate has largely been drummed up by people who have no fucking clue how CIA briefed Congress in 2002."
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