It's easy! If the CIA says 1 thing & Sen Graham says another, then the CIA is lying- (James Fallows)

[kpete]

The CIA vs. Sen. Bob Graham: how to keep score at home

14 May 2009 07:49 pm
It's easy! If the CIA says one thing and former Sen. Graham says another, then the CIA is lying. Or, "in error," if you prefer.

...........Graham says that some of the briefings in which he was allegedly filled in about waterboarding and related techniques never occurred. This matters, because the CIA's claims are part of the same argument that Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress had known about and acquiesced to waterboarding all the way along.)

Part of the payoff of reaching age 72 and having spent 38 years in public office, as Graham has, is that people have had a chance to judge your reputation. Graham has a general reputation for honesty. In my eyes he has a specific reputation for very good judgment: he was one of a handful of Senators actually to read the full classified intelligence report about the "threats" posed by Saddam Hussein. On the basis of reading it, despite a career as a conservative/centrist Democrat, he voted against the war and fervently urged his colleagues to do the same. "Blood is going to be on your hands," he warned those who voted yes.

More relevant in this case, Graham also has a specific reputation for keeping detailed daily records of people he met and things they said. He's sometimes been mocked for this compulsive practice, but he's never been doubted about the completeness or accuracy of what he compiles. (In the fine print of those records would be an indication that I had interviewed him about Iraq war policy while he was in the Senate and recently spent time with him when he was on this side of the world.)

So if he says he never got the briefing, he didn't. And if the CIA or anyone acting on its behalf challenges him, they are stupid and incompetent as well as being untrustworthy. This doesn't prove that the accounts of briefing Pelosi are also inaccurate. But it shifts the burden of proof.

more at:
http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/05/the_cia_vs_sen_bob_graham_how.php

[emulatorloo]

1. Beautiful. Doing my part to put this on the front page.

So many willing to believe Boehner and the Cheney crowd at the CIA.

[ejpoeta]

5. funny, i wouldn't believe a word they say....

past behavior is the best indicator of present behavior.

[malaise]

2. Nice article

Just the truth. They're messing with the wrong man.

[tsuki]

3. So true. I read Sen. Graham's account, and as a native Floridian I know

his notebooks are accurate. He could never write his memoirs, he would be to weighed down by minutiae.

[ejpoeta]

4. yeah, its easy to mock someone for that... but it sounds like a good practice

considering the people he is dealing with. and i tend not to believe the CIA on much of anything.... their job is to lie.

[roguevalley]

6. everyone who works should do that.

rv, giving away union advice from 28 years as a rights person. no he said, she said possible when you do. (use something with a spine for writing, not something with tear out pages)

[glitch]

7. That's the problem with "creating your own reality" - people don't have to "follow along"

Good for Senator Graham, who appears to be dedicated to Reality. Thanks for posting K & R

[immoderate]

8. My name is in one of Senator Graham's notebooks.

We met at Ft. Lauderdale airport. I offered to give him computer lessons. He wrote down my name and number. I never heard from him :(

--imm

[mia]

9. K&R I'm listening to the NPR broadcast with Graham right now,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104196363

[spanone]

13. i heard that. if he hadn't had those notes, they would be calling him a liar, like they are pelosi

but, they wouldn't lie about a woman congress member, now would they?

[Wednesdays]

10. K&R

:kick:

[lamp_shade]

11. K&R

[wryter2000]

12. Yup. It's a no-brainer

Another K&R

[newspeak]

14. some people ask, why would the CIA lie?

How about to cover their asses. How about all those photos, files that were shredded by the CIA? Remember, this is *'s CIA (or is it Cheney's)--remember the CIA purges, where agents were replaced with * loyalists.

It's CYA for the CIA and they've got help from those who were more complicit than Pelosi--it's the Republicans. All of those secret little meetings that they conducted without the Democrats, as the Democrats were basically shut out. Unlike Poppy Bush who was very much in the loop on the Iran-Contra deal, the Democrats were basically out of the loop.

[Piewhacket]

15. Even easier. How about "The CIA says.." = this isn't true.

First, find out who is saying that someone is saying it is true.
You can't. Why? Because no one is saying anyone is saying it is true,
they are saying someone said someone was saying it was said.

And when you trace it back. Faux news is "just" "reporting" the "story",
without sources, of course.

Disinformation.

[Vinca]

16. Even Boehner complained about being misinformed by the CIA in 2007.

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R

:thumbsup: