Bush accused of gagging critic of Iran policy

[cal04]

The White House yesterday faced fresh accusations of tailoring intelligence to suit its political viewpoint from a former CIA analyst barred from publishing a critical newspaper commentary on American policy towards Iran.

Flynt Leverett, a former Middle East analyst at the CIA and the National Security Council who has criticised the Bush administration for going to war with Iraq and for its handling of Iran, accuses the White House of pressing the CIA to demand sweeping cuts to an opinion piece he wrote for the New York Times on Washington's policy towards Tehran.

Mr Leverett, who now works at the New America Foundation, a thinktank in Washington, is the latest in a series of analysts and agents to accuse the CIA publication review board of stifling criticism of the administration or the intelligence-gathering operations in the run-up to the war in Iraq. However, Mr Leverett goes a step further in accusing the White House of putting pressure on the CIA to prevent the distribution of views which do not conform to its policy of refusing any diplomatic discussions with Iran.

His 1,000-word article was based on a longer published piece that the CIA had cleared without demanding any changes, and that is available on the net. At the website talkingpointsmemo.com, Mr Leverett wrote: "The White House inserted itself into the prepublication review process for an op-ed on the administration's bungling of the Iran portfolio."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1974216,00.html

[Kagemusha]

1. Compared with fmr ambassador Wilson he's getting off easy

Who knows what dirt they have on Mr. Leverett's wife, assuming he has one.

[havocmom]

2. How long before the WH tries Putin's method of dealing with critics?

If they haven't already? Seems some people who were hard on some bushes got anthrax in the mail a while back, didn't they?

What the hell are the newspapers doing, going along with this crap? New York Times should switch to publishing phone books for all the backbone they have shown.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. 'Polonium' too hard to pronounce, Bu**sh** critics safe for now. nt

[havocmom]

5. He can say anthrax

And didn't some tabloids that ran unflattering articles of members of the clan in FL get anthrax in the mail

Brokaw sure quieted down immediately following the arrival of the stuff in his offices early on in the malAdministration.

Anthrax leaves less of a trail, evidently.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. If you can't prounce Polonium, then call it Putinium

If that stats happening, we'll really know what Bush meant by being able to see Putin's soul. They are soulmates after all.

[left is right]

4. he makes me gag everytime I hear his voice

but you probably meant something else