Obama Administration: To the Best of Our Knowledge, We Have No Plan To Release the Blind Sheikh, The Mastermind of the 1993 WTC Bombing

I just saw this on FoxNews.

This is a denial?

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland denied the report.

"Let me say as clearly as I can there is no plan to release the blind sheikh, there is no plan. To my knowledge we have not been approached about it recently by any senior Egyptians," she said Wednesday.

"There is no plan" does not preclude a plan arising in the future, or steps short of a plan -- such as "talks" -- occurring in the present.

This is not a denial. This is virtually a confirmation.

A denial would be a categorical statement: "No State Department personnel would entertain such a request, and no president, including this one, would ever release a major terrorist."

But everything is caveated as "according to my knowledge."

Get more senior people and put them under oath. Ask detailed questions. Refuse conclusory answers such as this -- ask about specific things and events, not for a broad characterization of things. If you allow them to broadly characterize things, they can always later claim, "Well, there was no plan at the time. But sure, there were some discussions."

posted by Ace at 06:54 PM

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