INDCJournal: Another Unimpeachable Source

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September 22, 2004

Another Unimpeachable Source

Posted by Bill

Remember those ex-green berets that were recently found guilty of running a private jail and torture chamber in Afghanistan? They may have been a CBS source:

In a week in which it was burnt by at least one high-profile source, CBS News is being accused by another of having used and abandoned him. The Observer has learned that CBS News and Dan Rather made use of Jonathan (Jack) Idema, a former Green Beret, mercenary and rogue soldier, who was tried and sentenced on Sept. 15 to 10 years in an Afghan prison for operating a private jail and torturing civilians he claimed were Al Qaeda operatives.

Mr. Idema is now accusing CBS News of abandoning him after having what appears to have been an ad hoc arrangement with the mercenary soldier in which he used CBS equipment and personnel to transmit information to Mr. Rather for possible use in CBS broadcasts.
...
Mr. Tiffany claimed that his client had an active role as a source for Mr. Rather, and network sources said that Mr. Rather had hoped to get access to suspected Al Qaeda operatives�and, possibly, Osama bin Laden, whom Mr. Idema has attempted to capture in the past.

In 2002, Mr. Rather interviewed Mr. Idema for 60 Minutes II as an expert on Al Qaeda and the Taliban. His financial arrangement with CBS was undisclosed.

Between this and Mary Mapes' previous disregard for federal regulations during her aggressive pursuit of another story, it looks likes the hits on CBS just keep coming ...

UPDATE: More on Mapes and the TxANG story:

According to sources, Mapes told "60 Minutes" bosses that the questionable memos at the heart of the controversy were authenticated by four document experts.

In fact, only two experts authenticated them � and could not vouch for the documents themselves, only the signature, the sources said.

Mapes is said also to have told her bosses that her source for the memos � Bill Burkett, the former guardsman � wanted to be put in touch with high-level officials at the Kerry campaign, apparently as payback for providing the documents to CBS.

She was denied permission � but went ahead and did it on her own, the insiders contend.

(Via blogicus)

Posted by Bill at September 22, 2004 11:07 PM | TrackBack (5)

Comments

The guy's lawyer is named "JOHN EDWARDS TIFFANY?" What's up with that. CNN reports his name as John Tiffany. JOHN EDWARDS... TIFFANY... c'mon.

Posted by: gabe at September 22, 2004 11:48 PM

That does in fact appear to be his real name. I just Googled his name and it came up in all sorts of news reports.

Posted by: Alex at September 23, 2004 12:43 AM

Instapundit has a report now that Thornburg was sued by Karl Rove after Thornburg lost a Senate race in 1991. To all appearances Thornburg is a Republican with a Republican mindset, thus soothing any fears that CBS used a liberal committee to investigate. In reality Dickie has a big axe to grind with Karl Rove (he lost the suit and was "humiliated" in Texas). CBS is now guilty of stacking the deck in its' favor while appearing non-partisan.

Posted by: Roundguy at September 23, 2004 01:47 AM

*No* expert "authenticated" them.
Matley said one signature was consistent with other exemplars of Killian's signatures. He did not authenticate it as Killians original handwriting, and in fact said he (obviously) could not, because it was a copy. He denies giving an opinion on other elements of the document.

Pierce states he had not concluded his examination of the documents.

Posted by: Sarahw at September 23, 2004 08:24 AM

With the kind of aggressive, investigative reporting going on all over the net lately, I'm sure a whole list of things will come out about Mapes, and I'm prepared to be pretty unsurprised. A person doesn't have the history and career that she does and suddenly make a single mistake. Like the folks at Enron and AA, this smacks of habitual behavior.

Posted by: Sciszor at September 23, 2004 10:12 AM

I'm with Sarahw.

We _have_ the statements of the experts. None of them are what I would want before I said "This is authenticated."

That is, not one expert made this statement:
"In my expert opinion, these four documents were produced in 1972 and 1973 by J. Killian on a model X typewriter."

THAT is authentication.

The core foul-up in getting this story to air is sufficiently outrageous - and known. Focusing on that point implicates _everyone_ involved.

Posted by: Al at September 23, 2004 10:40 AM

Overthrow the liberal media! We need another revolution (of course a peaceful revolution) in this country, this time to take back the media...

The liberal media must be crushed...nothing would be healthier for the state of our country and our democracy. Imagine how much better things would be if we had a media that really aimed to be unbiased...

Posted by: Another Thought at September 23, 2004 10:43 AM

Dear CBS,
Please don't digress.
You need to confess
To get out of this mess.

Tom Paine
.

Posted by: Tom Paine at September 23, 2004 01:07 PM