A curious discrepancy

Speaking about the recent attempted car bombing in Times Square allegedly perpetrated by Faisal Shahzad, Attorney General Eric Holder categorically declared on NBC's Meet The Press -- the Washington elite's long-preferred vehicle for disseminating politically advantageous disinformation -- "that the evidence that we've now developed shows that the Pakistani Taliban has directed this plot."

"We know that they helped facilitate it," Holder added. "They helped direct it, and I suspect that we are going to come up with evidence that shows they helped to finance it.  They were intimately involved in this plot."

On Monday, though, a "senior administration official" clarified Holder's comments in remarks to CNN, saying, "The question is: Did he go there looking for help or did he fall in their lap? It seems the former. It appears he went seeking help for this attack."

"He had an attack in mind when he went there," the official added.

Now, not to jump to a brash conclusion -- I'm a mere blogger, after all, not the U.S. attorney general -- but it almost seems as if the Obama administration, taking a page from its predecessor and basically every government that has ever existed ever, chose to spin events in such a way as to to bolster public support for its policies, namely the president's escalation of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan (even though the attack is likely blowback from said wars, but hey, this is America). And given that one can fairly conclude Eric Holder was privy to the exact same information as the anonymous official who walked back the attorney general's comments in remarks to CNN, it's almost as if the administration chose to tie the failed attack to the Pakistani Taliban without any regard for the actual facts -- retracting the claim only after it made headlines -- preferring instead to exploit it to further a roll back of civil liberties and boost support at home for its belligerent policy abroad.

The inescapable conclusion? Holder -- and the Obama administration in general -- is not to be trusted.

(via Max Fisher)