BRAD BLOG's WH Reporter Confronts McClellan, Who Ducks the Issue...
By Eric Brewer on 4/26/2006, 12:26pm PT  

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

Today at the White House I asked Scott McClellan about this bombshell buried near the end of R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer's article on the firing of Mary McCarthy from the CIA in last Sunday's Washington Post:

The White House also has recently barraged the agency with questions about the political affiliations of some of its senior intelligence officers, according to intelligence officials.

Now why would the White House care about whether a CIA intelligence officer was a Democrat or a Republican? Has Dick Cheney decided that the only way to avoid future embarrassments like Plame and Pillar and Drumheller is to make sure all employees at U.S. intelligence agencies are plugged into the Borg mind? I asked Scott:

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that, according to intelligence officials, the White House has recently been asking the CIA questions about the political affiliations of some of its senior intelligence officers. Has the CIA been complying with the White House's requests?

Naturally, Scott knew nothing:

I know nothing about that report. Maybe I missed it when we were in California. Peter, go ahead.

As David Corn and Dan Froomkin have noted, we need to get some better answers.

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