Apr 25 2006
McCarthy Defense V2.0
Now the McCarthy defense, all lawyered up with scandal lawyer Ty Cobb, has a new angle on her defense: she was authorized to talk (i.e., leak) to reporters!
Associates, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of her sensitive legal situation, say the CIA authorized McCarthy on a number of occasions to talk with reporters. However, the details and timing remain unclear, including whether that was ever true after Goss took over in September 2004.
But in the same story, the reporters note the CIA position, which is not in conflict with at one time having the authority to talk to the press:
In a statement to CIA employees, Goss said that “a CIA officer has acknowledged having unauthorized discussions with the media, in which the officer knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information.”
McCarthy’s hired-gun lawyer is playing a strange PR game. The propaganda game is on full, which means the stakes are really high. And a compliant press is turning into a partisan ally of some of the worst political dirty tricks since Nixon. The misinformation and misreporting is stunning:
Allegations of a Soviet-style gulag in Eastern Europe and other facilities sparked international condemnation and investigations.
Actually the allegation was, in case any reporter wanted to READ about it, that old soviet gulags were being used by the CIA to hold prisoners in transit. Not that the prisons were gulag style prisons with forced manual labor, etc. Just the sites used to be gulags. That’s like saying trains running through Auschwitz are holocaust style trains. Yes, they are trains on the same track in the same place that saw millions of people gassed to death. But that is where the analogy ends.
But, if we are going to play the loose analogy game, the CIA is re-affirming Nixonian acts:
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano reaffirmed the agency’s position Tuesday, saying “an officer was fired for unauthorized contact with the media and the improper disclosure of classified information.” The agency has not named that officer.
On a side note, Tom Maguire is going to be ecstatic that the media is finally accurately reporting McCarthy’s donations to the Democrats:
McCarthy has given $7,700 to Democratic campaigns in the past three election cycles; her husband has donated $2,500, according to public records.
Well, that’s some major progress for the antique media. But back to McCarhty’s new defense angle. Is she now going to claim the CIA made her do it? This get’s stranger by the day. on thing is for sure, the liberal defenses are up in spades with Johnson and Beers and McGovern and others all out making noise. Something has them all spooked on this one.
Addendum: I have said this is a risky move on the part of McCarthy because she may want a deal before too long. But the political risks to the Democrats is really pretty bad as well, as this editorial in the Delco Times (Delaware County Times) points out:
Last week’s firing of a CIA official who allegedly leaked highly classified information to the news media provides a bit of a conundrum to those who wish to be taken seriously on matters of national security.
…
Instead, she allegedly pretended to be upholding her oath while she was breaking it. It took a failed polygraph test before she finally admitted what she had done.
If this is the Democrat’s idea of National Security, I am looking forward to November.
Update: One has to wonder when someone in the media isgiving others the media advise how to hide their incriminating information. just like spies and Al Qaeda does:
So, as long as you’re prepared to defy a court order and go to jail on a contempt charge, here are some privacy techniques proven in the field by mobsters, spies, al-Qaida, and tobacco companies.
…
Don’t Write Down Anything
…
Destroy Your Notes After Publication
…
Use Prepaid Cell Phones
Yes, I am quite aware this is tongue-in-cheek. Too bad it seems more real than made up. If the media and left feel they are at war with us, do they also feel the enemy of their enemy is their friend?
AJ,
If you wanted to water down the news that McCarthy gave $7,500 in the year 2004, how would you do it? By stating she gave $7,700 in the last 3 election cycles. Why don’t they want us to know she gave $7,500 in one, single year?
Sue,
I hope you are not expecting me to disagree with you. I simply said it was progress.
Associates, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of her sensitive legal situation, say the CIA authorized McCarthy on a number of occasions to talk with reporters. However, the details and timing remain unclear, including whether that was ever true after Goss took over in September 2004.
Maybe she was authorized to give information to a CIA sponsored media. The CIA has a history of funding media around the world.
The CIA and the Cultural Cold War Revisited
U.S. and European anticommunist publications receiving direct or indirect funding included Partisan Review, Kenyon Review, New Leader, Encounter and many others. Among the intellectuals who were funded and promoted by the CIA were Irving Kristol, Melvin Lasky, Isaiah Berlin, Stephen Spender, Sidney Hook, Daniel Bell, Dwight MacDonald, Robert Lowell, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy[not same as current Mary McCarthy], and numerous others in the United States and Europe. In Europe, the CIA was particularly interested in and promoted the “Democratic Left” and ex-leftists, including Ignacio Silone, Stephen Spender, Arthur Koestler, Raymond Aron, Anthony Crosland, Michael Josselson, and George Orwell.
The CIA, under the prodding of Sidney Hook and Melvin Lasky, was instrumental in funding the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a kind of cultural NATO that grouped together all sorts of “anti-Stalinist” leftists and rightists. They were completely free to defend Western cultural and political values, attack “Stalinist totalitarianism” and to tiptoe gently around U.S. racism and imperialism. Occasionally, a piece marginally critical of U.S. mass society was printed in the CIA-subsidized journals.
SBD
I wonder if the current Mary McCarthy is of any relation to the Mary McCarthy listed above??
SBD
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621452/posts
Jed Babbin to grill CIA’s Mary McCarthy on WABC radio tonight!
JohnBatchelorShow.com website ^ | 4/25/06 | Shqipo
Posted on 04/25/2006 4:15:06 PM PDT by Shqipo
According to John Batchelor’s website, Mary McCarthy will be a guest tonight and be interviewed by Jed Babbin along with the host. Larry Kudlow will also serve as co-host. The show is on at 10 pm EDT on WABC radio and WMAL.
Shaping up to be — “It used to be OK defense” eh? Buck passing to Tenet maybe?
If anyone wants to watch Johnson sweat bullets, check out my take-down on his TPMCafe blog here: http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29176
Seixon,
Nice job. But I am afraid it is a waste of time. Trying to explain reality to Crazy Larry is like trying to explain ‘blue’ to someone who is color blind. The guy fears reality. It makes him so inconsequential.
It’s getting deep, really deep.
Oh, but you did it first…..
Is There A Double Standard On Leak Probes?
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0425nj1.htm
“On the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Sen. Pat Roberts was involved in disclosing sensitive intelligence information that, according to four former senior intelligence officers, impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein.”
Per J. Babbin,
“Cobb, is someone you go to, when you know you’re in deep, deep, yogurt.”
Tuesday Night Quick Shots…
Let’s see what’s shaking elsewhere…
AJ has a piece up examining the various defense machinations of the McCarthy team and its allies…
Ryan James notes a call to impeach – but only in states so overwhelmingly blue that it can&…
Jlmadyson,
So the Dims are going to use the old, “But MOM they do it too!” Is that the best they can do! LOL How “former” are the former intelligence officials? Maybe as former as Crazy Larry and his Pal Val?
IMO, This is one of their counters. This means Goss has hit them hard and hit paydirt!
McCarthy Matrix
Mind in the Qatar is on it;
http://homepage.mac.com/cptchaz/iblog/C1200806250/E20060423214856/index.html
It may be a bit interesting to note that her lawyer has had some interesting people in their firm over the years.
One alumni is none other than Sandy Berger
But shock another is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Well it takes all kinds I guess
Ordi,
Oh yea, they’re going to sling mud to get the stench as far a way from them as possible. With Goss and DOJ starting the clean house process it’s going to be jump ship time, real soon.
Per J. Babbin,
“Cobb, is someone you go to, when you know you’re in deep, deep, yogurt.â€
That’s what I said!
The latest;
C.I.A. Defends Officer’s Firing in Leak Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/26/washington/26leak.html
“A C.I.A. spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, said: “The officer was terminated for precisely the reasons we have given: unauthorized contacts with reporters and sharing classified information with reporters. There is no question whatsoever that the officer did both. The officer personally admitted doing both.”
deep, deep, yogurt
check
Jlmadyson
You mean the rats are going to be jumping ship? LOL
deep, deep, yogurt LOL It is an excellent depiction.
Instead, she allegedly pretended to be upholding her oath while she was breaking it.
I see John Kerry is consulting on the defense
check out my take-down on his TPMCafe blog
Yah, that’s a riot… a real howler. Linking to Seixon as a source debunking DRUMHELLER good for a few laughs as well. For example, in trying to deflect NIGER forgeries authorship to (pretty much now forgotten SWIFT BOAT target) France he says:
the fact that Martino was on the payroll of French intelligence at the time he was doing this.
Talk about coolaid. As further “facts” that 60 mins didn’t report Seixon continues:
On January 27, 2003, a CIA intelligence report [redacted] indicated that foreign government service reported that the uranium sodium compound in storage at the warehouse in Cotonou, Benin was destined for France, not Iraq. The same report said that separate foreign government service had information on Iraqi attempts to obtain uranium from Niger, dating from 1999, but had no further information. The foreign government service also indicated that Niger had been looking to sell an old stock of uranium for years to the highest bidder. According to the foreign government service, other countries had expressed interest.
sheesh… he quotes rumours of non-transactions as evidence of fact. Brilliant!!! And France bought yellow cake from NIGER, so SH must have a nuke program?