Leaking at all costs
Powerline
Yesterday Rush Limbaugh recalled John's Standard column of this past November: "Leaking at all costs." It's time for another another look. The column opens:
"THE CIA'S WAR against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years. It is, perhaps, the agency's most successful covert action of recent times. The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the administration by former Democratic officeholders. The agency allowed an employee, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book containing classified information, as long as, in Scheuer's words, "the book was being used to bash the president." However, the agency's preferred weapon has been the leak. In one leak after another, generally to the New York Times or the Washington Post, CIA officials have sought to undermine America's foreign policy. Usually this is done by leaking reports or memos critical of administration policies or skeptical of their prospects. Through it all, our principal news outlets, which share the agency's agenda and profit from its torrent of leaks, have maintained a discreet silence about what should be a major scandal."
John's column remains timely and on point. I think that, standing alone, it exceeds the quality and insight of the commentary for which New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof won the Pulitzer Prize last week.
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