Friday, 3:00PM
Time to put out news you want to bury:
May 23, 2008
Ottawa, OntarioToday, the Prime Minister’s Office issued the following statement:
Upon receipt of the Report on the Investigation into Unauthorized Disclosure of Sensitive Diplomatic Information, the following conclusions are noted:
Any comments Mr. Brodie may have made during the lock-up did not reveal any information tied to the diplomatic report, of which he was made aware only on February 28. There is no evidence that Mr. Brodie disclosed any classified information.
Based on the findings of this investigation, there is no evidence that Ambassador Wilson revealed any information tied to the diplomatic report or to any U.S. presidential candidate’s position with respect to NAFTA, though his comments likely helped lead the reporter to the Senator Obama campaign. There is no evidence that Ambassador Wilson disclosed any classified information.
The original diplomatic report was incorrectly classified and had an inappropriately broad distribution list. pmo
Given that the report fully cleared both Wilson and Brodie why release it in the Friday afternoon deadzone? Likely because the PMO does not want the press to re-report a story which they are happy to have fade away. Nothing wrong with that.
I wonder if the CHRC will be floating any decisions, news releases, resignations….
Written by jay on May 24th, 2008 with
3 comments.
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jay
WL Mackenzie Redux
#1. May 24th, 2008, at 7:49 AM.
Jay-
As you may know, it’s a holiday weekend south of the border. Releasing this now means that it will be buried in the U.S. press - or at the very least, read by very few.
Diplomatically, it makes sense not to rock the boat south of the border over the Obama NAFTA allegations again, especially when he will most likely be the Democrat nominee. That’s even though Obama would be a disaster who would openly negotiate with dictators without preconditions while (at least publicly) claiming he would dictate trade terms with one of the U.S.’ most important allies.