TPM Reader SB responds to my post below …
I agree that under normal circumstances, Woodward would have had no obligation to reveal this info to the public. But the actual circumstances in this case are different. Woodward was about to publish (or had just published) a book purporting to give an accurate picture of the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. The fact that Woodward kept all of this secret under these circumstances just destroys his integrity as a journalist.
Woodward gives a strong impression that the CIA should bear a great deal, if not most, of the blame for the Iraq invasion in his oft repeated interview quoting George Tennet as saying âSlam Dunkâ on the issue of WMDs in Iraq. The revelation about Woodwardâs secret knowledge destroys Woodwardâs credibility in my view because Woodward never did anything to correct the information in his book. The independent CIA investigation of the Iraq/Niger yellowcake story and Tennetâs repeated refusal to sanction the accuracy of the yellowcake story just doesnât fit with the âSlam Dunkâ picture. Now we know that Woodward had early inside information of the smear campaign against Wilson (and possibly the CIA). A credible journalist wouldnât have kept this information concealed when the information tends to undercut information in the journalistâs just published book.
SB broadens out the picture from Woodward’s public stance about the Fitzgerald investigation, which I note below. I’ll give the matter more thought.
