Tuesday, March 30, 2004

So Rice is going to testify publicly and under oath. Good. I just wonder when exactly the administration is going to declassify cherry-picked portions of Clarke's 2002 testimony:

U.S. officials told NBC News that the full record of Clarke’s testimony two years ago would not be declassified. They said that at the request of the White House, however, the CIA was going through the transcript to see what could be declassified, with an eye toward pointing out contradictions.

My guess is that the declassification will take place less than 24 hours before Rice testifies -- maybe two or three hours earlier. Enough time for the administration and its allies to paint Clarke as a liar and a perjurer, with all talking points neatly lined up in a row, but not enough time for there to be an effective rebuttal to the highly selective excerpting. And then Rice will testify -- also on message.

(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the NBC link.)

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