The Dana Priest deception

Cliff Kincaid:

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“Washington, D.C.: Cliff Kincaid writing in ‘Accuracy in Media’ says that your story on secret prisons yesterday ‘reflects the view of a faction in the agency (CIA) that opposes this policy and wants to use The Post to convey its view publicly. Once again, the secret war against the Bush administration is on display for all to see.’ While I don’t expect you to reveal your sources to us—although go ahead if you want to do so—you should at least be able to tell us if there is any truth to the notion that currently serving CIA officers are trying to undermine the Bushies. Are they?

“Dana Priest: I’ve always found this view amusing, and rather convenient for the White House, which likes to point to someone else when its own policy decisions don’t work out right or fail to achieve the stated goals (like other administrations, I would add). Most CIA people I’ve met probably voted for George Bush. And the CIA is responsible for executing the war on terror and capturing the vast majority of the terrorist suspects around the world. No one from the CIA and no one who used to be in the CIA proposed that I write the article I did. On the contrary.”

If McCarthy was a Priest source, as has been reported, then it is absolutely clear that Priest deliberately deceived the public about where she got the story. Talking about CIA officers voting for Bush was a diversion. She was covering up.

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When is Priest going to come clean on her source for this story? Did McCarthy also suggest other sources to back up what she was saying? Who were they? McCarthy has made every Deomcrat contributer who works at the CIA a suspect, but most of the media is avoiding the donkey in the room issue.

This Newsweek article claims through hearsay statements that McCarthy denys being Priest's source for the story. Apparently she talked with former boss Rand Beers who also worked on the Kerry campaign.