CIA: Like We Said Before, Briefing Document Could Be Wrong

TPM

The CIA has given another indication that the briefing document with which Republicans are trying to attack Nancy Pelosi is unreliable.

Yesterday, Rep. David Obey sent a letter to CIA director Leon Panetta pointing out yet another apparent error in the document. The Washington Independent's Spencer Ackerman asked CIA for a response to Obey's claim, and got the following statement:

While CIA's information has Mr. Juola attending briefings on September 19, 2006 and October 11, 2007, there are different recollections of these events, which Mr. Obey's letter describes. As the agency has pointed out more than once, its list -- compiled in response to congressional requests -- reflects the records it has. These are notes, memos, and recollections, not transcripts and recordings.

In other words, don't hold us to any of this.

And that comes on top of a cover letter that Panetta attached to the document when it was released, noting that it might not be accurate, as well as Panetta's later assertion that Congress would have to figure out the truth of the matter. Not to mention, the fact that, as we noted earlier today, four Democratic lawmakers are now on record disputing concrete facts in the document.