or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 08, 2007
Oversighteriffic
What is Jose Rodriguez, the former CIA Deputy Director of Operations who ordered the destruction of the interrogation tapes of two al Qaeda members, doing now? According to Ken Silverstein at Harper's, he's in business with one of the brothers of Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Moreover, says Silverstein, Rodriguez is very close friends with Reyes, who praised him at his retirement by saying Rodriguez was "was really the genesis" of 24.
—Jonathan Schwarz
UPDATE: Ken Silverstein has retracted the most important part of this:
A Reyes staffer has told me that the story “is absolute fiction” and that Rodriguez has never had any discussions about doing business with any member of Reyes’s family. “There’s absolutely no truth to” the story, the staffer said. He said Reyes’s planned a “rigorous inquiry” into the destruction of the videotapes and that, “We are going to follow the facts wherever they may lead.”I have retraced my steps in reporting the story and it’s clear that what I wrote was wrong...I regret the error and apologize for it.
For what it's worth, the part about Reyes comparing Rodriguez to Jack Bauer is right.
Posted at December 8, 2007 03:26 PMWell now WE know who he is and where he is. If a crime has been committed then the Attorney General has the ball in his court.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at December 8, 2007 07:00 PMBooman suggests that the powers that be are throwing Jose under the bus, a la Ollie North, because the decision to destroy the tapes must have been made higher up.
Posted by: Don Bacon at December 8, 2007 07:18 PMPlease note that Silverstein has issues a retraction for this story. He says he was completely wrong. If he's your only source for this, you might want to correct/apologize for/change/update your post here and at thismodernworld. Otherwise, of course, Debbie Howell's gonna get ya.
Posted by: anon at December 10, 2007 11:39 AMThanks for the correction.
Posted by: anon at December 10, 2007 12:45 PMThanks for mentioning it -- I hadn't seen it.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at December 10, 2007 12:57 PM
