Today the New York Times runs a very unusual op-ed: Censored. An essay by former CIA official Flynt Leverett has been thoroughly redacted by the White House. The censored essay — titled "Redacted Version of Original Op-Ed" in case you missed the chunks of blacked-out text throughout — is what remains of an essay criticizing Bush's policies toward Iran. According to the Times, it elected to run the redacted version after the White House claimed that portions were classified (this, please note, is after the CIA, which has cleared over 20 other pieces by Leverett, cleared the entire piece). Wednesday, Rep. Louise Slaughter sent a letter to Bush asking whether the redactions were politically motivated.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
DAR
I watched a clip of the CIA guy who wrote the article explaining in a press conference that all of the redacted material had already been discussed in public by such people as Rice and Rumsfeld. He said the WH claims were fraudulent. He was pissed.
I read the same thing on the Huffington Post - that all the claims, arguments, etc were already in the public domain, so to speak, and the Bushies were being their usual "you can't talk bad about us" selves. Good (if unusual) for the NYT & even better for Rep. Schafer.
