The Media…
After the CIA frogmarched (definition #2 is best) the $9,500 Democratic donor from the General’s Office last week, the Associated Press was so excited that there was actually a leak story with a leaker and a leak that they felt it only appropriate to publish a picture of Cheney aide Scooter Libby in its coverage of the Democratic donating CIA leaker.
(Picture from MM)
** Well, we now know that Dana Priest did not get her information from “Hobbyist plane spotters” **
From Jet Is an Open Secret in Terror War:
“Since Sept. 11, 2001, secret renditions have become a principal weapon in the CIA’s arsenal against suspected al Qaeda terrorists, according to congressional testimony by CIA officials. But as the practice has grown, the agency has had significantly more difficulty keeping it secret.
According to airport officials, public documents and hobbyist plane spotters, the Gulfstream V, with tail number N379P, has been used to whisk detainees into or out of Jakarta, Indonesia; Pakistan; Egypt; and Sweden, usually at night, and has landed at well-known U.S. government refueling stops.”
Hat Tip EDH
Chicago Tribune
Via Strata-sphere
Some doubt CIA analyst talked
Uh-huh.
New York Times
Colleagues Say C.I.A. Analyst Played by the Rules
Except when she leaked classified intelligence.
The Washington Post
Via NRO
“…Richard Kerr, a deputy director of the CIA from 1989 to 1992 who worked with McCarthy at one point, described her as “a good, solid intelligence officer,” based on his own experience.”
And, of course the the Leftist bloggers are marching lockstep in defending the leaker because Scooter, sort of, kinda-like leaked something:
The Whistleblower Gets Whacked – updated
All Right, Not All Right
Lucianne:
Dana Priest’s Tainted Pulitzer
American Digest:
In This Post-Modern “Culture of Treason,”** Judas is a Woman
Some say throw away the key.
More thoughts on how the media is handling this security leak.
You’ve got to love this…
Dana Priest interviewing a farmer(?) in Afghanistan.
(To the Left, they’re all farmers!)
The CIA…
Flopping Aces has this from Security Watchtower:
The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the administration by former Democratic officeholders. The agency allowed an employee, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book containing classified information, as long as, in Scheuer’s words, “the book was being used to bash the president.” However, the agency’s preferred weapon has been the leak. In one leak after another, generally to the New York Times or the Washington Post, CIA officials have sought to undermine America’s foreign policy.
Ms. McCarthy was a Big Gun!
Spook 86 via Stata-Sphere:
Ms. McCarthy had been an agency employee for 22 years at the time of her dismissal. She had strong ties to the Clinton Administration; disgraced former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger (of “Secrets Down My Pants” fame) engineered her appointment as Special Assistant to the President for Intelligence Programs in 1998. Before that, she held a similar post at the National Intelligence Council (NIC), and previously served as National Intelligence Officer (NIO) for Warning (1994-1996), and the Deputy NIO for Warning (1991-1994).
You’ll note that many media accounts describe the leaker as an “analyst,” suggesting that she was, at best, a mid-level staffer. That was hardly the case; few analysts make the jump from a regional desk at Langley to the White House. A “National Intelligence Officer” is the equivalent of a four-star general in the military, or a cardinal in the Catholic Church.
More CIA via GroupIntel:
I hesitate to call it “proof” but if you ever wanted a strong indication that our intelligence services have been penetrated, the McCarthy case is it. I don’t mean penetrated by a foreign intelligence service (forgive me JJA) but by something worse: politics.
The Democrats…
Right Wing Nuthouse asks:
Is it coincidence or conspiracy that Mary McCarthy, partisan Democrat, was placed in exactly the right position to scan a massive amount of intelligence about a wide variety of political hot button topics that, if selectively leaked, could cause the Bush Administration enormous embarrassment and d
amage?
The Democrats are now defending Leaking national Security intelligence. Via Newsmax:
The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee complained on Sunday that the fired CIA employee who leaked classified information to the Washington Post about top secret interrogations of al Qaeda suspects was being held to a higher standard than President Bush.
Sandy Berger, the famous pants stuffer, appointed McCarthy to Special Assistant for Intelligence.
One of Time Mags “Best Senators” Faces Polygraph Test for Leaks
More… Senators Rockefeller and Durbin May Take Polygraph Tests for leaking intelligence.
CIP’s Mel Goodman with Washington Post reporter Dana Priest at CIP’s “Cowboy Diplomacy” conference on national security, held in the U.S. Senate, October 2003. Joe Wilson is also pictured at the conference put on by Dana Priest’s husbands Far Left Pro-Castro group, the Center for International Policy. Sweetness and Light has the story.
The Castro Sympathizers…
Front Page News
America’s Red Army
Before 9/11, The Center for International Policy, CIP, a Fenton Communications client, mainly acted as Fidel Castro’s greatest “think tank” ally. Much of its million-dollar budget was spent lobbying to end economic sanctions and travel restrictions against Cuba.
Now, it has another mission. Fenton has established a “war room” with CIP called The Iraq Policy Information Program (IPIP). Its main job is getting the anti-Bush foreign policy message out to the media and providing guests for talk shows. A featured speaker of the IPIP is former ambassador Joe Wilson, one of the Bush administration’s most vocal enemies.
Penraker adds this from a November post:
What else does the Center do? Well it complains bitterly that we did not accept the doctors that Castro offered in the wake of Katrina. Referring to him as “President Castro” (a formulation that appears to give far too much respect to a brutal dictator) the Center issued this statement.
They call Bush “delusional” since he seems to believe that Castro’s government will fall relatively soon, and he has taken the prudent step of appointing a “transition coordinator”. This seems to have inordinately outraged them.
Now, it is not certain that Dana Priest shares any of her husband’s views. She may be a hard-bitten conservative, and her marriage may be of the Carville-Matalin variety.
Yeah, And monkeys might fly out of my….
Babalu’ Blog is very upset.
Don’t leave out Cindy Sheehan:
TrueMajority — an antiwar group founded by Ben Cohen, one of the creators of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream — hired Fenton Communications, a Washington public relations firm that has worked intermittently with Sheehan over the past year to coordinate media coverage.
Hat Tip Black Hat
More on the PR Machine behind Cindy Sheehan
Leading the group is Fenton Communications employee, Michele Mulkey, based in San Francisco. Fenton specializes in public relations for liberal non-profits.
Their bills are being paid for by True Majority, a non-profit set up by Ben Cohen — of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream fame.
Ben Cohen, True Majority: “People are willing to listen to her and we want to do as much as we can to make her voice heard.”
Current Democratic National Party Chair Howard Dean’s organization Democracy for America is also involved, as is the more radical anti-war group Code Pink organized by San Francisco’s Medea Benjamin.
Hat Tip Foreign Devil
Much more On Mr. Dana Priest, William Goodfellow, and his Castro sympathizing.
Odds and Ends…
Did Mary McCarthy Send Joe Wilson To Niger?
Joe Wilson will be leading a daylong teachin at Dana Priest’s alma mater, UC Santa Cruz, tomorrow on “The War on Terror: A Credible Threat.”
Background: The idea for the event grew out of concern over the Pentagon’s spying on antiwar activities by students and a recent report in which UC Santa Cruz was characterized as being a “credible threat” to national security. It was initiated by Faculty Against War—a group of 25 senior UCSC faculty members—and a coalition of student organizations, including Students Against War (SAW).
The teach-in will address such issues as warrantless searches of U.S. citizens, confirmed reports of torture in U.S.-controlled prisons, alleged violations of constitutional and international law in the war on terror, and the deteriorating situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.
From Just One Minute comments.
Hat Tip Larwyn
More on Senator Rockefeller at Macs Mind
