{"id":16650,"date":"2022-02-08T20:46:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T16:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/?p=16650"},"modified":"2022-06-11T07:24:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T03:24:11","slug":"looking-for-evidence-trust-us-biden-administration-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/looking-for-evidence-trust-us-biden-administration-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking for evidence? Trust us, Biden administration says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When President Biden\u2019s administration was asked for evidence to back up dramatic claims about national security developments this past week, it demurred with a simple rejoinder: You\u2019ll have to trust us on that.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, they would not reveal what led them to say they knew that Russia was plotting a false flag operation<\/a> as a pretext to invade Ukraine. No, they would not explain their confidence that civilian casualties were caused by a suicide bombing<\/a> rather than U.S. special forces during a raid in Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration\u2019s response took a particularly caustic turn as spokespeople suggested that reporters were buying into foreign propaganda by even asking such questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of transparency strained already depleted reserves of credibility in Washington, a critical resource diminished over the decades by instances of lies, falsehoods and mistakes on everything from extramarital affairs to the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exchanges were also a sign of increased skepticism of the Biden administration when it comes to intelligence and military matters, particularly after officials failed to anticipate how swiftly the Afghan government would fall to the Taliban last year and initially defended a U.S. missile attack in Kabul as a \u201crighteous strike\u201d before\u00a0the Pentagon confirmed the action had killed several civilians but no terrorists.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis administration has made statements in the past that have not proven accurate,\u201d said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. \u201cKabul wasn\u2019t secure. The drone strike did kill civilians. The press is doing its job when it asks, \u2018How do you know that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest scrutiny seemed to have struck a nerve, resulting in barbed interactions with White House press secretary Jen Psaki and State Department spokesman Ned Price that stood out even amid the typically contentious relationship between the government and the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamieson described the responses, which included insinuations that reporters were being disloyal, as \u201ccompletely inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are cases in which the reporters\u2019 role is even more consequential because the matters\u201d \u2014 the use of lethal force by the U.S. military and a potential war in Europe \u2014 \u201care so important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first exchange took place Thursday aboard Air Force One en route to New York as Psaki fielded questions about the U.S. special forces raid in Syria, which resulted in the death of Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. officials said al-Qurayshi killed himself and his family with a suicide bomb, but NPR\u2019s Ayesha Rascoe said there \u201cmay be people that are skeptical of the events that took place and what happened to the civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psaki asked whether the reporter was suggesting that \u201cISIS is providing accurate information\u201d as opposed to the U.S. military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, the U.S. has not always been straightforward about what happens with civilians,\u201d Rascoe responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about her comments, Psaki said Friday that \u201cwe welcome tough questions and good faith scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said officials were committed to providing as much detail as possible about the Syria raid and she was relying on \u201cfirsthand reports from our elite servicemembers\u201d to describe the incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price similarly sparred with a reporter at a State Department briefing<\/a> on Thursday after U.S. officials said Russia was preparing a \u201cfalse flag\u201d operation as the opening act for an invasion of Ukraine. The alleged scheme included a staged explosion and enlisting actors to portray people mourning the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere is the declassified information?\u201d asked Matthew Lee of The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just delivered it,\u201d Price said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, you made a series of allegations,\u201d Lee responded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price said U.S. officials needed to protect \u201csources and methods.\u201d After a contentious back and forth, Price said that if reporters want to \u201cfind solace in information that the Russians are putting out, that is for you to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later walked back his comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Jim Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the administration hoped to prevent Russia from following through on a false flag plot by publicly airing the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis really isn\u2019t a question of winning over the public,\u201d said Himes, D-Conn. \u201cThis is about altering Vladimir Putin\u2019s behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richard Stengel, a former editor of Time magazine and onetime senior State Department official, said the government frequently has to make difficult decisions about balancing sensitive information and the need to be transparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a cost benefit analysis,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the judgment they\u2019re making every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are long-percolating concerns that the scales have tipped too far toward secrecy. Even Biden\u2019s director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, said the government classifies too much information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Jan. 5 letter to Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Haines said that \u201cdeficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added that this \u201cerodes the basic trust that our citizens have in their government,\u201d especially as \u201cthe volume of classified material produced continues to grow exponentially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Politicians have routinely promised to restore trust in Washington, but it remains a scarce commodity ever since the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. Soon afterward, President Jimmy Carter won office by telling voters \u201cI\u2019ll never tell a lie.\u201d He was voted out after one term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scandals have tarnished subsequent administrations, from secretly funding the Contras in Nicaragua by selling weapons to Iran under President Ronald Reagan to President Bill Clinton covering up an affair with a White House intern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush claimed the U.S. needed to invade Iraq to eliminate Saddam Hussein\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, but no such weapons were found and American troops spent years wrestling with a bloody insurgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump routinely misrepresented basic facts about his administration throughout his term and continues to spread falsehoods about the last election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden promised to restore truth in Washington after defeating Trump, but trust appears to be in short supply one year after taking office. Not only did the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan undermine his administration\u2019s credibility, Americans have grown exasperated with shifting public health guidance during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to\u00a0a CNN\/SSRS poll<\/a>\u00a0conducted in December, only 34% of Americans said Biden \u201cis a leader you can trust.\u201d Another 66% said they \u201chave some doubts and reservations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/apnews.com\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When President Biden\u2019s administration was asked for evidence to back up dramatic claims about national security developments this past week, it demurred with a simple rejoinder: You\u2019ll have to trust us on that. No, they would not reveal what led them to say they knew that Russia was plotting a false flag operation as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16650"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16652,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16650\/revisions\/16652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geworld.ge\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}