Originally published February 7 2006
Bush holds secret meetings with newspaper editors
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
To prevent stories the administration thinks are damaging to national security, President Bush has met with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times. Stories that uncovered supposed secret prisons have received mixed reactions.
President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors in recent weeks in an effort to prevent publication of stories the administration deems damaging to national security.
The muffling efforts have failed with editors opting to publish stories they see fit with few if any concessions.
Rare White House meetings with executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times lead some to believe how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics and interrogation measures.
Leonard Downie Jr., The Post's executive editor, would not confirm the meeting with Bush before publishing reporter Dana Priest's Nov. 2 article disclosing the existence of secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe used to interrogate terror suspects.
However, Downie does say, "When senior administration officials raised national security questions about details in Dana's story during her reporting, at their request we met with them on more than one occasion."
He goes on to say, "The meetings were off the record for the purpose of discussing national security issues in her story."
Allegedly at least one of the meetings involved John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, and CIA Director Porter Goss.
Intelligence officials remaining unnamed say, "This was a matter of concern for intelligence officials, and they sought to address their concerns."
While some are grateful for the initial story uncovering the supposed secret prisons, some readers criticized The Post for withholding the location of the prisons at the administration's request.
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