Another intemperate adviser?
It is at least a little noteworthy that Senator Obama often seems surrounded by intemperate friends and advisers. Joseph Cirincione, said by the New Republic to have “agreed last spring to advise the candidate on nonproliferation,” wrote this about the original stories of the September 6, 2007 raid on the Syrian nuclear facility:
This story is nonsense. The Washington Post story should have been headlined “White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection.” This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq. It is a sad commentary on how selective leaks from administration officials who have repeatedly misled the press are still treated as if they were absolute truth.
Once again, this appears to be the work of a small group of officials leaking cherry-picked, unvetted “intelligence” to key reporters in order to promote a preexisting political agenda. If this sounds like the run-up to the war in Iraq, it should. This time it appears aimed at derailing the U.S.-North Korean agreement that administration hardliners think is appeasement. Some Israelis want to thwart any dialogue between the U.S. and Syria.
Calling the Post’s accurate stories “nonsense” would appear to be at a minimum intemperate, and perhaps something else as well. In any event, Mr. Cirincione now says: “I am not a top advisor to Senator Obama. I have never met the Senator.” How odd. Is this another Austan Goolsbee moment for the Obama campaign? (Final question: will Mr. Cirincione disappear as quickly or completely as Hatem El-Hady?)