Mary McCarthy fights back

The Bush faithful already have former CIA analyst Mary McCarthy convicted of treason and standing on a platform with a rope around her neck for allegedly leaking classified information to the press. However, McCarthy says she did no such thing.

Fired CIA officer Mary McCarthy has “categorically” denied to NBC News through her lawyer that she leaked classified information. In addition, McCarthy's attorney tells NBC News that she did not have access to the information she is accused of leaking. The CIA has said that the officer — whom the agency wouldn't identify — had “confessed” to leaking.

A defense source tells NBC News that while McCarthy may have failed her polygraph on the issue of having unauthorized contacts with reporters, she did not fail the question about leaking information on the secret prison system.

CIA officials said that having unauthorized contacts with reporters is sufficient as a firing offense, although friends of McCarthy say no one has ever been fired for that before.

It is interesting that, having very publicly and loudly dismissed McCarthy for allegedly leaking classified information, the CIA now defends the firing on the basis of her having had "unauthorized contacts with reporters."

If what McCarthy says is true, it reaffirms this blog's theorem that, with the Bush administration, the first answer to any question, or the first statement on any issue, can be presumed to be a lie.