Is anyone scrutinizing the CIA? Nah!

[babylonsister]

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/pelosis-claims-getting-much-more-media-scrutiny-than-cias-assertions/

Pelosi’s Claims Getting Much More Media Scrutiny Than CIA’s Assertions


Whichever side of the torture debate you’re on, it’s a simple matter of fact that Nancy Pelosi’s claims about what she was told and when about torture are getting far more intense media scrutiny than the CIA’s claims are.

Simple fairness demands that both side’s claims get treated with a similar level of skepticism. And they’re not.

Multiple news accounts this morning report that Pelosi’s credibility is in question after yesterday’s press conference, in which she accused the CIA of lying about what they told members of Congress about the agency’s use of torture. This theme was sounded by MSNBC, WaPo’s Dan Balz, the New York Times write-up, and many others.

That’s as it should be. But I challenge you to find a news account that stated with equal prominence that the CIA’s credibility is also in question.

Let’s briefly recap. Three senior Democrats — Pelosi, Bob Graham, and Jay Rockefeller — have all publicly claimed that the CIA didn’t brief them about the use of torture in the manner the agency has claimed. Meanwhile, the CIA itself has conceded that its own accounting may not be accurate.

Yet key facts that cast doubt on the CIA’s claims have been buried or completely omitted from multiple news reports. The Times’s first mention of Graham’s claims came today, five days after he first made them, and they were buried in the 22nd paragraph of the paper’s write-up. Neither The Time nor The Post have even mentioned Rockefeller’s claims once. The networks have refused across the board to mention the CIA’s own unwillingness to vouch for the accuracy of its information.

There are notable exceptions. McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay, for instance, has talked up the importance of the CIA’s caveats. And to its credit, The Politico has shined a spotlight on the dissents of Graham and Rockefeller and on some of the contradictions in the GOP’s criticism of Pelosi.

This is not only about Pelosi. It is a dispute. One side is claiming one thing, and the other is claiming the opposite. Simple fairness demands that equal levels of skepticism are applied to people on both sides of this argument. And that isn’t happening. There’s no way around it.

[eleny]

1. I was glad to see Lawrence O'Donnell on tv yesterday

He pointed out how Barry Goldwater was furious over not being informed by the CIA about the approval for the mining of harbors of Central america.

Goldwater's letter to Casey is here --> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jksonc/docs/US-mining-nicaragua-harbors.html

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. The CIA is a COVERT agency

LYING is part of their job description and there is nobody anywhere, in or out of the CIA, who is above lying about something if they know that their butt is on the line. Have we all forgot about Tenet's "slam dunk" case for invading Iraq? Now, I will say that I believe that they were pressured by Bushco into making a lot of these claims about Iraq but there should NEVER be a reason to completely discount the possibility of somebody lying about something.

[ThomWV]

4. The CIA is the President's private army, now days devoid of any restraints at all.

[bobthedrummer]

3. The CIA was militarized during BUSH/CHENEY, extreme ideologues, Straussians aka the crazies ruled

and the crazies gave people like Frederick Fleitz a lot of authority

Frederick Fleitz (Right Web page)
http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Fleitz_Frederick

Frederick Fleitz (Source Watch profile)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Frederick_Fleitz