The Political Chase

White House Rebukes NYT Report

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino issued a statement strongly rebuking the New York Times’ report of substantial involvement by the White House in the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes. In her statement, Perino described the piece as “”pernicious and troubling” and demanded the Times issue a correction.

The New York Times today implies that the White House has been misleading in publicly acknowledging or discussing details related to the CIA’s decision to destroy interrogation tapes.

The sub-headline of the story inaccurately says that the “White House Role Was Wider Than It Said”, and the story states that “…the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes…was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged.”

Under direction from the White House General Counsel while the Department of Justice and the CIA Inspector General conduct a preliminary inquiry, we have not publicly commented on facts relating to this issue, except to note President Bush’s immediate reaction upon being briefed on the matter. Furthermore, we have not described - neither to highlight, nor to minimize — the role or deliberations of White House officials in this matter.

The New York Times’ inference that there is an effort to mislead in this matter is pernicious and troubling, and we are formally requesting that NYT correct the sub-headline of this story.

It will not be surprising that this matter will be reported with a reliance on un-named sources and individuals lacking a full availability of the facts — and, as the New York Times story itself acknowledges, some of these sources will have wildly conflicting accounts of the facts. We will instead focus our efforts on supporting the preliminary inquiry underway, where facts can be gathered without bias or influence and later disseminated in an appropriate fashion.

We will continue to decline to comment on this issue, and in response to misleading press reports.

(emphasis added)

Perino’s statements focus on the White House not misleading the public in its statements, and was accompanied by a long list of “no comments” issued by the White House, but Perino makes no attempt to deny involvement by the White House.

Moreover, Perino flat out lied in her statement, “we have not publicly commented on facts relating to this issue, except to note President Bush’s immediate reaction upon being briefed on the matter.” But in her December 10th press briefing she specifically stated she was not allowed to comment on the matter including the president’s reaction.

QUESTION: Dana, is the President concerned about the impact on the CIA’s reputation and its integrity, not just here but around the world…

MS. PERINO: Well, one, I haven’t – I’m not allowed to characterize the President’s reaction to this, but what I can tell you is that he — as I said Friday, he has complete confidence in General Hayden, and that remains.

QUESTION: But why can’t you characterize his concern, if there is one, about the integrity of a key governmental agency that operates around the world?

MS. PERINO: Well, I think I — pressed on that, I would say that I think the President feels very highly about all of the members of the intelligence community, and at the CIA. He knows that they work extremely hard in order to keep all of us protected, that they try to do everything that they possibly can. There’s — in regards to this specific issue, regarding these tapes, that the President said that he does not recall being made aware of their existence or their destruction until last Thursday’s briefing. There’s not much more I can say.

QUESTION: But he’s not concerned about the facts as we know them now?

MS. PERINO: In terms of — I can’t talk about that particular — I can’t characterize the President’s thinking on that.

It is patently obvious nothing the White House Press Secretary says can be taken as credible. The current Press Secretary is lying as have her predecessors.