The European Union’s anti-terrorism chief, Gijs de Vries, reported before a panel on Thursday that he has not been able to prove that secret C.I.A. prisons existed in Europe. This is the second European investigation that has failed to have turn up any evidence on the alleged prisons. According to the New York Times:
Mr. de Vries said the European Parliament investigation had not uncovered rights abuses despite more than 50 hours of testimony by rights advocates and people who say they were abducted by C.I.A. agents. A similar investigation by the Council of Europe, the European human rights agency, came to the same conclusion in January — though the leader of that inquiry, Dick Marty, a Swiss senator, said then that there were enough “indications” to justify continuing the investigation.
It’s interesting that this story, now determined false, was the one leaked to the Washington Post by Mary McCarthy. Captain’s Quarters and Right Wing Nuthouse wonder whether the story about secret CIA prisons in Europe was a sting operation designed by CIA Chief Porter Goss to catch leakers — or, as I prefer to call them, traitors.
How do intel agencies find leakers and spies? They pass around carefully designed misinformation to selected individuals considered likely suspects, and see what winds up exposed as a result. It’s possible that after Porter Goss took over as DCI when George Tenet left, he began mole hunting in a big way. It’s certain that the administration would have demanded some action on leaks, and Goss would have been of a similar mind. It appears that the story she gave Dana Priest has a lot less substance than first thought. Two separate investigations by Europe turned up nothing. They have reported on both occasions that no evidence exists to substantiate the story, either of the detention centers or of European cooperation.
McCarthy would have been a classic candidate for this kind of mole hunt. A favorite of the previous administration, having reached the National Security Council, her loss of influence in the new administration could have prompted bitterness and antagonism. The New York Times in a new report says she contributed to John Kerry’s campaign, perhaps on the basis of her past work with Kerry advisors Richard Clarke and Sandy Berger.
John at Powerlline has some good news:
Meanwhile, the Justice Department says that “there [are] dozens of leak investigations under way.” It seems likely that one of them relates to the leak of the NSA’s terrorist surveillance program.
The evidence points to the conclusion that Mary McCarthy donated more to the Democratic Party than money. She was willingly used by the mainstream media to undermine the Bush administration and our country’s war on terror. I suspect that she will be sitting in the Graybar Hotel within a year.
It also looks like Dana Priest may have to return her Pulitzer Prize.
If the CIA prisons were a leak investigation, they started long before Porter Goss got into the CIA. Newsweek's February 28th, 2005 edition had a story on them (“Aboard Air CIA”).Furthermore, the investigations so far have hardly “proved” anything if there are “enough 'indications' to justify continuing the investigation.” By this logic Osama bin Laden doesn't exist, because he hasn't been captured after >4 years.
“The evidence points to the conclusion that Mary McCarthy donated more to the Democratic Party than money.”Revealing the existence of illegal prisons is hardly a service to the Democrats; it's a service to the country. Should she lose her job? Sure; the CIA has no reason to want her any longer. But calling people traitors for revealing immoral practices in a War that must be moral at all levels is foolish at best and self-defeating at worst.