Ken Silverstein at
The Intercept writes
The CIA's Mop-Up Man: L.A. Times reporter cleared stores with agency before publication:
A prominent national security reporter for the Los Angeles Times routinely submitted drafts and detailed summaries of his stories to CIA press handlers prior to publication, according to documents obtained by The Intercept.
Email exchanges between CIA public affairs officers and Ken Dilanian, now an Associated Press intelligence reporter who previously covered the CIA for the Times, show that Dilanian enjoyed a closely collaborative relationship with the agency, explicitly promising positive news coverage and sometimes sending the press office entire story drafts for review prior to publication. In at least one instance, the CIA’s reaction appears to have led to significant changes in the story that was eventually published in the Times.
“I’m working on a story about congressional oversight of drone strikes that can present a good opportunity for you guys,” Dilanian wrote in one email to a CIA press officer, explaining that what he intended to report would be “reassuring to the public” about CIA drone strikes. In another, after a series of back-and-forth emails about a pending story on CIA operations in Yemen, he sent a full draft of an unpublished report along with the subject line, “does this look better?” In another, he directly asks the flack: “You wouldn’t put out disinformation on this, would you?”
Dilanian’s emails were included in hundreds of pages of documents that the CIA turned over in response to two FOIA requests seeking records on the agency’s interactions with reporters. They include email exchanges with reporters for the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other outlets. In addition to Dilanian’s deferential relationship with the CIA’s press handlers, the documents show that the agency regularly invites journalists to its McLean, Va., headquarters for briefings and other events. Reporters who have addressed the CIA include the Washington Post‘s David Ignatius, the former ombudsmen for the New York Times, NPR, and Washington Post, and Fox News’ Brett Baier, Juan Williams, and Catherine Herridge. […]
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Okay, so WMDs wasn't the issue after all...:
There's moving the goal posts, and then there's moving to an entirely different stadium. In a different city. Playing a different sport.
The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was justified in part because Saddam Hussein retained scientists capable of building nuclear weapons, Washington's top arms control official said Thursday.
In an interview with The Associated Press, John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, said that whether Saddam's regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction "isn't really the issue."
"The issue I think has been the capability that Iraq sought to have ... WMD programs," Bolton said at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
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So apparently, any country with the misfortune of having physicists within its borders may now face the wrath of the US military.
And WMDs aren't "really the issue."
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Tweet of the Day
Is Obama visiting Stonehenge to communicate with his alien overlords? Why won't the White House release what he said with the aliens?
— @TeaPartyCat
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show, today's Twitter chatter included the story of a PA perv busted by the woman he was assaulting, who just happened to be a federal marshal.
Greg Dworkin's roundup gave us food for thought on McDonnell's conviction,
The Economist's slavery gaffe & James Risen's take on ISIS (plus Risen as an issue unto himself). TX school districts get militarized. Scientists break the SciFi barrier, with brain-to-brain interfacing. If Dan Snyder gets public money for a new stadium, "it's time to shut down pro sports." That never pays off.
Gideon flags the "Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act" for our attention. Q: Why GunFAIL? A: Idaho State.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments