MORE DECEIT FROM CHENEY

Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine is the best narrative I've read so far about how the Bush regime has bungled the war on terror. He provides this nugget on page 340:

In mid-November 2004, a few weeks after the President's re-election, one of Miscik's [Jami Miscik, chief analytical officer of the CIA] deputies returned from briefing the Vice President. ... Cheney wanted a portion of a particular CIA report declassified and made public. ... The item the Vice President wanted declassified was a small part that might lead one to believe that the war was helping the broader campaign against violent jihadists. The report, she knew, concluded nothing of the sort. ... To release that small segment would be willfully misleading. She told the briefer to tell Cheney that she didn't think that was such a good idea.

The Vice President expressed outrage to Porter Goss. A few days later, a call came from Goss's office. ... The deputy expressed the DCI's displeasure. He urged Miscik to reconsider. He decribed Goss's position succinctly: "Saying no to the Vice President is the wrong answer."

"Actually," she replied, "sometimes saying no to the Vice President is what we get paid for." [She fired off a memo to Goss re-affirming her decision]

A few days later, Miscik got word that, again from a Goss deputy, that the DCI would reluctantly support her decision. A few weeks after that, she was gone.