Hume reported House GOP denunciation of covert ops leak to ABC, but not CIA and White House's lack of objection
On the June 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume reported that "[a] group of House Republicans is calling for an investigation into leaks" to ABC News that led to ABC's May 22 report that "the CIA is conducting covert actions in Iran" with President Bush's approval. Those Republicans, Hume stated, "complain that such leaks about covert operations, quote, 'tip our hand to help our enemies.' " But Hume did not report that, according to a statement by ABC News, the White House and the CIA offered no objections to the ABC report.
From a May 23 entry on the ABC News weblog The Blotter:
In a statement ABC News said, "In the six days since we first contacted the CIA and the White House, at no time did they indicate that broadcasting this report would jeopardize lives or operations on the ground. ABC News management gave them the repeated opportunity to make whatever objection they wanted to regarding our report. They chose not to."
From the June 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
HUME: A group of House Republicans is calling for an investigation into leaks reported by ABC News claiming the CIA is conducting covert actions in Iran. ABC News reported last month that President Bush has ordered a campaign of propaganda, disinformation, and financial manipulation in Iran. The Republicans complain that such leaks about covert operations, quote, "tip our hand to help our enemies."
It may be a case of "Never complain. Never Explain".
I'm not sure I understand your thinking. "Never complain, never explain" might be a logical reaction to a fait accompli. But if I read the ABC statement correctly, the CIA had the chance to kill the story, by telling ABC that it would put lives or methods at risk, and chose not to do so.
i'm sure this is stunning news in tehran. the americans are running covert cia programs in iran? who would have ever guessed that? know what brit? the sun will set in the west this evening. just in case you weren't aware.
Damn you ABC ! Now they'll stop posting their plans for mayhem on the laundromat bulletin board, and they probably won't answer those door-to-door surveys.
aww, don't worry about it. We can now claim victory in the war on terror.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/internet_absurd.html
I read somewhere that the United States carried out a plan to set up a television station in the Middle East to counter stations such as Al Jazeera.
The people who set up the station didn't speak Arabic. A period of time went by before they realized that some of the messages that were being aired where that of a anti American anti Israel rhetoric.
Why would the US want to "counter" Al Jazeera?
Since they hit the air in '96, they've been loudly criticized by the Arab world for being pro-America and by the US for being pro-Al Qaeda. In my experience, it's the most reliably fair news outlet in the world.
(No, I'm not kidding. Watch "Control Room". Educate thyself.)
Been there - my hope is that the NSA doesn't get my "Favorites" list, or that Ms. Diggs tosses it if they do. It is nice to have a non-Euro viewpoint on some things, and Al Jazeera does provide at least that, if not the most objective viewpoint overall (from *my* perch, the only rival for objectivity is the British press, including BBC). But, I'm the kind of nut who reads even Canadian newspapers online, to avoid relying on the NYT and WaPo and LAT for all my info.
Harlequin: Air America covered it a few times. They also told of the militaries discharging close 60 interprters because they investigated them and found they were gay. I can think of some very useful work they could be doing, military or civilian, in Iraq. No chance for a liberal civie side, probably less for them.
Freaking ell man, where's that kool aid?
This is kind of like how when the story broke about the whole wiretapping thing. Terrorists were now going to know that we were wiretapping them, and listening in on their conversations. Come on, seriously? How stupid do you think terrorists are? Some of them, like the NJ five, and the idiots who were going to blow up JFK are indeed stupid. And I don't even worry about those guys, because they are so stupid, they're going to get caught. Unfortunately, most terrorists are smart, and we underestimate them to our own detriment, but I digress. Where was I?
Oh yeah, I just have to agree with what a couple of other folks were saying about Iran not thinking that we would be running such programs in their country. Of course we are. We do it in a lot of countries all over the world where we don't agree with them, or want to try and bring them down from the outside. Programs like this, I'm sure, have been going on inside, outside, and all around Iran for a long time now, and will continue.
Isn't the name Brit European? I think he's a mole. No one could seriously this stupid or dishonest. Maybe I should lower my expectations of fellow humans.
Once again very vague " a group of Republicans". Who Hume, which Republicans?
Why the well meaning Republicans of course. Silly. ;^}
There are enough well meaning Republicans to form a group? Can they walk without assistance?
Brit Hume is notorious, as are other Fox News anchors, not for what they report, but what they don't report. When you watch Fox News and Brit Hume you have to keep in mind you are only getting the Republican side of the story. Fox News is anything but "fair and balanced."