al-Jazeera Memo? What al-Jazeera memo...?
Spotted by the eagle eyed rimone from Dateline:Bristol: this exerpt from a Whitehouse Press Briefing last week on the subject of the al-Jazeera memo:
MR. McCLELLAN: Can I assure them what?
Q. That if the President really did make those comments, he was doing so in jest?
MR. McCLELLAN: Make what comments?
Q. About allegedly bombing al Jazeera --
MR. McCLELLAN: Any such notion that we would engage in that kind of activity is just absurd.
Q. Well, do you know if the comments were made?
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what comments you're referring to. I haven't seen any comments quoted.
Q. Somebody said that they had a memo, or that they took notes during --
MR. McCLELLAN: Let me just repeat for you, Connie. Any such notion that America would do something like that is absurd.
Q. They bomb them in Afghanistan then -- their office.
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry? Whose offices? The terrorist offices.
Q. We bombed their office in Afghanistan, and killed their -- some of their people in --
MR. McCLELLAN: And the military talked about that. What are you suggesting? I hope you're not suggesting that they're targeting civilians, because that's just flat-out wrong.
As Polizeros suggests below, the stench of desperation and panic from the Whitehouse is overpowering.
And from Friday 2/12's
And from Friday 2/12's briefing:
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you're talking about allegations of so-called secret prisons, and I'm not going to get into talk about national security matters. But what I will talk about is the war on terrorism that we're engaged in. We're sitting here talking about the war on terrorism. We remain a nation at war. And the President's highest responsibility is the safety and security of the American people. And he is going to continue to act in a way to better protect the American people, but he's going to do so consistent with our laws and our values and our international obligations. We made that very clear. And Secretary Rice has indicated that she will be responding to the letter from Foreign Secretary Straw in due course.
We are glad to talk about these issues. There are sometimes difficult issues you have to address when it comes to a war like this, because we face a different kind of enemy, an enemy that abides by no laws, that abides by no treaties, and an enemy that wears no uniform, and an enemy that seeks to kill innocent men, women and children throughout the civilized world. We're all engaged in the global war on terrorism. We all have a responsibility to take the fight to the terrorists and defeat them and prevent attacks from happening. All of us in elected office have a responsibility to do everything we can to protect our people.
But we also have a responsibility to respect the laws and the values and the treaty obligations that we have agreed to.
Q Is what you've just said -- do you anticipate that that will be her answer to the criticism that she'll face in Europe over these alleged secret --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, she'll be responding in due course. There's been an interagency input into her response, and that --
Q What is that?
MR. McCLELLAN: What's that?
Q What is that interagency response?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you'll hear more from her in due course.
source
i think McLellan's use of
i think McLellan's use of the phrase 'the terrorist offices' speaks volumes... (i'm just sayin').
Remember, there's
Remember, there's Saddamists, Rejectionists, terrorists, journalist-terrorists, Rejectionist journalist-terrorists ... we just can't kill 'em fast enough!