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
August 06, 2008
Suskind's Sources Deny Book's Forgery Charge; Suskind Has Sources On Tape?
Last night Countdown read statements from Ron Suskind's two main named sources for the charge in his new book that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a letter from Iraq's intelligence chief to Saddam Hussein. Rob Richer, the former head of the CIA's Near East Division, spoke for both himself and John Maguire:
“I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document from Habbush as outlined in Mr. Suskind‘s book.Further, today, I talked with John Maguire, who has given me the permission to state the following on his behalf, ‘I never receive any instruction from then Chief/NE Rob Richer or any other officer in my chain of command instructing me to fabricate such a letter. Further, I have no knowledge to the origins of the letter and as to how it circulated in Iraq.”
And here's some of Suskind's response:
OLBERMANN: Why do you believe they‘re backtracking now?...SUSKIND: You know, I‘m sympathetic in a way to all these guys. They‘re under acute pressure. They‘re individuals. They‘ve got to feed their families. They really survive off the government, both of them, they‘re contractors and whatnot...
[T]hey may still stand up—and Maguire, I think, will still stand up in daylight...
You know, these guys, though, are feeling now great pressure. And, you know, what you realize in this process is that there is a limit to what a journalist can do even with taped interviews, people talking for hours at a time, when they can be brought into a moment of crisis by the government saying, “You‘ll never work again, you‘ll never earn a living.” That‘s the kind of thing that mostly happens in terms of what congressional hearings do testimony under subpoena with threat of perjury.
OLBERMANN: Well—and that‘s what we need. But in the interview, I presume the Maguire and Richer interviews are on tape, is that right?
SUSKIND: You bet, yes. And there‘s a lot of them. They‘re very detailed.
The obvious questions now are whether Suskind will release any of his interview tapes, and whether there will be any congressional investigation with witnesses testifying under oath.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at August 6, 2008 03:54 PMLet's hope he has those tapes in a secure location.
Posted by: geoff at August 6, 2008 04:38 PMLet's hope he has those tapes in a secure location.
One part wants me to laugh hysterically at this.
But another part sees a conspiracy in play -- one that says, "You know it's not that we're really like this -- it's just a few bad seeds. That in this case happens to include the entire executive branch. But outside of this we're really OK."
Except that we are really just like that, and this is not an exception.
Go McCain!
Posted by: Labiche at August 6, 2008 05:13 PMThat was my first thought too: do you suppose there might be a break-in, or the tapes might be mysteriously "lost"? It doesn't seem as far out as I'd like it too.
Conspiracies are supposed to be hidden, I think, so these affairs don't count. The information's all available for anyone who cares. But no one does.
"Weeding out" the bad seeds of the executive branch would do nothing, and the same for Congress. As the anarchists discovered, you can't blow up an ideology. The Consensus is pandemic
Uh, go McCain. And preemptively: CALL NAN 202-225-4965
Ahem, like it to.
And a period after "pandemic."
Posted by: StO at August 6, 2008 06:19 PMwhen they can be brought into a moment of crisis by the government saying, “You‘ll never work again, you‘ll never earn a living.”
Can I get some whistle-blower protection!?!?
Also, it's these types of leaks that the Bushies are trying to prevent by surveilling/intimidating reporters.
Posted by: scudbucket at August 6, 2008 07:29 PMCan I get some whistle-blower protection!?!?
No you can't.
This was undoubtedly a classified operation, and peons can't declassify at will, even if they think it's wrong. They only see one small picture at the time, and they may not know of the larger operational picture their little piece supports.
It would be surprising if they were told, "Well, we'd like to invent this shit because nitwits at the WH want to use use it as causus beli." More likely, they would understand that it would be used in other ways to support various covert operations.
People disclose secret shit because it serves some concrete function. A good question would be, "Why would apparatchiks disclose sensitive operations at this time? Whose needs does it serve?"
Did they suddenly conclude that they eat way too much, live way too well, and would like to lose their jobs, their homes, access to fine cuisine, etc.
Uh, probably not.
And, uh, Go McCain!
Posted by: Labiche at August 6, 2008 07:43 PMPeople disclose secret shit because it serves some concrete function.
Like exposing government corruption, for example.
Posted by: scudbucket at August 6, 2008 07:57 PMLike exposing government corruption, for example.
Dude, these people feed at the trough.
After leaving the CIA, Richer “immediately” took a job with Blackwater USA as Vice President of Intelligence. In February 2007, Richer and Vice Chairman of Blackwater, Cofer Black, started a new company, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS). That company reportedly operates “under the purview of its secretive founder” and Blackwater owner, Erik Prince.
Are you suggesting that Richer had some sort of epiphany? Remorse?
Posted by: Labiche at August 6, 2008 08:41 PMWhy would apparatchiks disclose sensitive operations at this time? Whose needs does it serve?
Option 1: To hit back. They've been doublecrossed or stabbed in the back, so they release this and then go on the air and smugly deny everything.
Option 2: To sow misinformation. They're still part of the team and their assignment today is to provide a respected reporter with a load of BS, let him report it and write a book on it, then deny everything and muddy the waters with tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.
Posted by: Mr. Conspiracy at August 7, 2008 09:42 AM"The obvious questions now are whether Suskind will release any of his interview tapes, and whether there will be any congressional investigation with witnesses testifying under oath."
That first question may be obvious, but probably fruitless. It seems that Richer and Maguire don't deny saying to Suskind what they did, they simply want to also publicly make contradictory claims. The Suskind tapes would only "prove" what Richer and Maguire are already willing to concede: "We might say anything -- who knows if we're telling you the truth?"
But your second question isn't obvious -- it's hilarious!
Posted by: ROYT at August 7, 2008 11:57 AMJust heard NPR 'Fresh Air' interview Mr Suskind and things are even worse than they appear. Apparently CIA involved ISI of Pakistan in their dirty trick without heads up to MI6 ( allegedly USA ally ) and was stalled by CIA and never given some information and CIA interfered with their operations. The worst thing was, MI6 did not know what had happened till the book came out!! It is an interview worth listening to and it should be archived in a few hours.
And a call was made to the speaker of the house to send GWB to his Crawford Ranch!
The CIA has been in bed with the ISI for a long time; when will MI6 ever learn?
Posted by: geoff at August 7, 2008 05:31 PMHe should but the audio on his website NOW.
Posted by: Tom at August 12, 2008 09:03 PM
