Ah, this is just like the good old days. Today James Risen reports in the New York Times that the Bush administration spent some time a few years ago trying to dig up some dirt on Iraq war critic Juan Cole:
In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed.
….Mr. Carle said that sometime that year, he was approached by his supervisor, David Low, about Professor Cole. Mr. Low and Mr. Carle have starkly different recollections of what happened. According to Mr. Carle, Mr. Low returned from a White House meeting one day and inquired who Juan Cole was, making clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to gather information on him. Mr. Carle recalled his boss saying, “The White House wants to get him.”
“ ‘What do you think we might know about him, or could find out that could discredit him?’ ” Mr. Low continued, according to Mr. Carle.
Mr. Carle said that he warned that it would be illegal to spy on Americans and refused to get involved, but that Mr. Low seemed to ignore him.
“But what might we know about him?” he said Mr. Low asked. “Does he drink? What are his views? Is he married?”
On the one hand, this sure sounds like exactly the kind of thing the OVP liked to do. On the other hand, it’s almost too stupid to believe: Juan Cole was never even the remotest kind of threat to the Bush administration’s prosecution of the war. On the third hand, despite the official denials, there are an awful lot of people in this story who admit to being “curious” about Cole or who acknowledge that the White House “did ask” about Cole at one time or another. That’s a bit suspicious sounding, isn’t it?
So who knows? It all sounds pretty dumb, but there was an awful lot of dumb stuff going on in those days. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it all turned out to be true.
