Avant ou après 9/11 : suivez cette affaire

L’article de Jason Leopold concernant l’espionnage domestique de la NSA avant 9/11, édité par le site Truthout, a été suivi par une contestation du site dailykos.com, mettant en doute le contenu de l’article. Jason Leopold a publié un second article sur le même thème, le 17 janvier, également sur Truthout.

Cette publication a été accompagnée d’un commentaire du rédacteur en chef de Truthout, prenant la défense de Leopold, partageant la responsabilité de l’article et assurant que Truthout suivrait cette affaire : « There is a story here. We are reporting it, and will continue to do so. »

Voici la défense de Leopold par Marc Ash. Sans aucun doute, cette affaire est importante parce qu’elle contient une dimension totalement nouvelle de la crise ouverte le 11 septembre. Elle fait dater cette crise d’avant l’attaque du 11 septembre et en oriente le centre nerveux du terrorisme vers l’administration GW Bush. C’est pour cette raison que cette affaire doit être suivie.

Marc Ash : « Recently we published an investigative piece by Jason Leopold titled “Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11.”» The piece has come under attack by a left-side blog community, I believe unfairly. I played a direct role in crafting the piece with Jason. Specifically, I wrote the title.

» The core of the complaint is an exhaustive point by point analysis of the piece that attempts to prove or disprove the article's proof. I will not rebut the issues raised one by one. Frankly it would just be too time-consuming.

» Jason Leopold was quite correct: A significant re-defining of the rules under which the NSA handled domestic data mined during surveillance operations did in fact occur almost immediately after Mr. Bush took control of the White House. Not, as Mr. Bush contends, only after September 11th. Those changes did involve what appears to be a breach of both US law and NSA procedures.

» Jason Leopold's Sources

» Anytime “unnamed sources” are quoted, credibility suffers, and fairly so. I know who Jason Leopold's sources are, and they are well known former and current high-ranking government and law enforcement officials, who prefer to speak off the record. Our editorial staff is aware of the identities of the sources and we are certain that they would be able to provide the information quoted.

» Because of the nature of Jason's report, it generated a lot of legitimate questions, enough to warrant a follow-up piece that provides substantial clarification. Again I wrote the headline.

» There is a story here. We are reporting it, and will continue to do so. »

Mis en ligne le 20 janvier 2006 à 15H57