The Kean Intimigate Plot Thickens... Washpost Finally Joins Party

The Kean Intimigate Plot Thickens...

In today's Wash Post...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16729-2003Dec19.html

On the Sept. 11 attacks, Kean said that "nobody was focused on an internal threat." Mentioning intelligence clues available before the attacks, Kean said, "There were so many steps along the way, that had they been done differently, could have disrupted the operation."

The Kean remarks were from an interview earlier this month with CBS News. CBS released the transcript to The Washington Post to counter a claim by Kean's spokesman that the interview was about Kean's role as a university president; the transcript shows extended questioning about the commission.

Kean said he considered issuing a subpoena to the White House to force it to provide more information, but a court challenge "would have been a long shot" and the panel would "be out of existence" before it was resolved.

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There is something weird about this story.

This item is brief, innocuously headlined and placed on Page 7... but it speaks volumes.

For starters it is the first coverage from the Post of the Kean remarks.

Reading between the lines it seems that when the Wash Post went to follow up on the CBS story they were spun a complete line of baloney by Kean's spokesman that he was being interviewed about something else. They have now however been embarassed enough by events to acknowledge that they took this bait hook line and sinker. (And that embarassement may account for the poor placement of this story and the headline).

Significantly the final paragraph also shows that they found stuff on the CBS tape that is markedly different from what Kean told ABC.

From the potted transcript in this thread:

What about the WH did you consider subpeonaing them?

I never made that threat personally but they always knew it was there. We are not through yet. We have got an arrangement to see the Presidential Daily Briefings. We are demanding other documents as well. (Note this is not a verbatim transcript, just notes.)

The remarks are similar, but still clearly different.

And then there is the byline... Dana Milbank and wire services... something makes me think that this bit is Dana's work.

Tell me, am I reading too much into this?

:)

They should by right fall just from one of the scandals, but the press
the so called liberal press, will not play along...but every story is part of the drip that adds to the belief that they cannot be trusted,

I mean the administration and the corridors of power and the so called liberal media

The Washington Post will bend over backwards to protect the "integrity of the oval office" - they're still smarting from Watergate. Kathleen Graham said she always regretted it...

*

Compare:

"I never made that threat personally but they always knew it was there. We are not through yet. We have got an arrangement to see the Presidential Daily Briefings. We are demanding other documents as well."

With

Kean said he considered issuing a subpoena to the White House to force it to provide more information, but a court challenge "would have been a long shot" and the panel would "be out of existence" before it was resolved.

Either he considered issuing a subpeona and decided not to, or the White House is under the impression that it is still an option. He can't have it both ways.

Another possibility is that he is a bit of an airhead I suppose.

"On the Sept. 11 attacks, Kean said that "nobody was focused on an internal threat."

Why the hell not? Didn't Clinton prevent terrorists from coming in from Canada? Are they admitting that they didn't heed the warnings of Sandy Berger and Gary Hart? And what about Al Gore's report?

If we had real journalists, this crew would have been hung by now. Instead we are called unpatriotic to cover up their incompetence.

Bull. The "invisible government" was focused on enabling and empowering such a threat.