No Evidence for Prize-Winning Story

By Cliff Kincaid | May 1, 2006

Based on a careful reading of the story and the facts surrounding the case, it seems clear that the allegation of "secret prisons" was embellished, either by Priest or her "sources"…

Washington Post reporter Dana Priest won a Pulitzer Prize for a story about CIA "secret prisons" in Europe that cannot be confirmed and appears to be essentially false. This puts the paper in a very difficult position. It gave back one Pulitzer, a story about a child heroin addict by Janet Cooke, after it was exposed as a fraud. So far, the only evidence that the Priest story is true is her insistence that her secret sources were telling the truth. But Priest isn't talking about the nature of those "sources" and whether fired CIA officer and John Kerry campaign contributor Mary O. McCarthy was one of them.

On April 27, during an on-line discussion, Priest said she was doubtful that any evidence proving the existence of the "secret prisons" would come from the European investigators looking into the controversy. "I will be very surprised if the EU [European Union] commissions find evidence of the prisons," she said. She made the comments in response to a question about returning the Pulitzer "until the truth is finally determined."

Priest also said, "I suggest going to the newspapers today, which carried stories about the status of the investigations."

We followed her suggestion. Those stories concerned an investigation conducted by Socialist Giovanni Fava of Italy on behalf of the European Parliament. He said he found evidence of the CIA transferring terrorists through Europe. But the stories about his investigation in the Post and New York Times did not say that he had verified the existence of "secret prisons." In fact, the Times story stated, "As for the question of secret CIA detention centers in Europe, the new report offered no hard evidence." An Associated Press story said that "Fava provided no evidence of secret CIA prisons on EU territory…"

Fava is the third European investigator who has failed to confirm the existence of the "secret prisons." Priest's ludicrous response seems to be that this is why they are (or were) "secret." This circular argument is desperation on her part to hold on to her controversial Pulitzer Prize. But with all the journalism scandals that have occurred over the years, ranging from the Janet Cooke fiasco to Jayson Blair's lying and plagiarism at the New York Times, there's just no reason for the public to accept what the media are telling us, especially when their "sources" remain anonymous and the public evidence contradicts what they have reported.

Based on a careful reading of the story and the facts surrounding the case, it seems clear that the allegation of "secret prisons" was embellished, either by Priest or her "sources," into something that sounded sensational and was more likely to make headlines across the world and win journalism prizes. The story that the CIA transferred and even detained terrorists across Europe wasn't sexy enough. So Priest or her "sources" came up with the idea that the agency maintained "secret prisons," comparable to the Soviet gulags. This was designed to get attention and it also had the effect of inciting our enemies. Priest's husband, William Goodfellow, is an official of a far-left organization, the Center for International Policy, which works with many of the liberal "human rights" groups that have exploited the "secret prisons" story abroad to make America look bad. But don't look for the Post to run any stories about that...............