Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid complains in a Sept. 5 Accuracy in Media column that a Washington Post series on "Top Secret America" is hiding "the real secrets." But in the course of his attack, Kincaid makes it clear he's keeping his own secrets.
Kincaid dredges up an attack on Leon Panetta, claiming that he was involved with the "Marxist" Institute for Policy Studies." But as Media Matters detailed, Kincaid's previous attempts to sabotage Panetta's nomination as secretary of defense by portraying him as a secret communist failed spectacularly after Kincaid and his partner, foreigner Trevor Loudon, vastly overstated the significance of constitutent correspondence between Panetta, a congressman in the 1980s, and a resident of his district.
Meanwhile, Kincaid whines about the anthrax case, whining that "Post reporter Marilyn Thompson covered and wrote a book, The Killer Strain, on the anthrax case and unfairly pointed the finger at Dr. Steven Hatfill, who was labeled a 'person of interest' but never charged and was later officially exonerated, to the point where he collected $6 million in damages from the Department of Justice and the FBI for using the media to finger him."
But as Thompson herself pointed out when her book was released: "There is such a strong circumstantial trail surrounding Steven Hatfill that the FBI would have been completely lax not to pursue it vigorously. He remains the key "person of interest" in this case because of an inconclusive polygraph and the fact that FBI bloodhounds I.D.'ed him. But the circumstantial links are compelling and need to be conclusively nailed."
Kincaid went on to declare:
The anthrax case, which was prematurely closed by the FBI when another persecuted suspect killed himself rather than fight for his reputation, was the work of al-Qaeda operatives on U.S. soil, according to the most authoritative book on the subject, Anthrax and Al Qaeda: The Infiltration of US Biodefense. This evidence suggests that the real problem facing the “National Security State” is infiltration and penetration by enemies of the U.S. and not enough safeguards against the internal subversive threat.
As we've previously noted, Kincaid has previously come to the defense of Bruce Ivins, the suspect he curiously won't name here. He has yet to address the recent evidence presented against Ivins, particularly a book strongly implicating Ivins in the anthrax attacks.
