3 weeks ago CNN reported on the “July Surpise” theory. That the Bush Administration was pressuring Pakistan to capture a “High Value Target” sometime during the Democratic National Convention.
Yesterday, such an arrest was announced, but while CNN mentioned the arrest, they made no reference to their story of three weeks ago.
Even though, apparently, the arrest was made on Sunday, three days before the convention began, and wasn’t made public until yesterday, the day Kerry spoke.
QURAISHI: Pakistani officials confirming to us tonight that they have arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. He’s somebody listed by the FBI as one of the most wanted terrorists. Now Ghailani was picked up in weekend raids that were conducted in central Pakistan early on Sunday. Over a dozen suspects were picked up in those raids. They say over the last few days they have been working on identifying those people. One of them they say is one of the most wanted listed by the FBI — this Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani. Now this operation lasted more than twelve hours, they say, a shoot-out ensured, and then the security forces were able to go in and arrest these people. Now we understand from officials that the interrogations are continuing here in Pakistan by security forces. At some point we expect, however, that Ghailani will be handed over to the United States. Wolf.
BLITZER: Ash-har Quraishi reporting for us on this late-breaking story. Thanks very much Ash-har, very much. Let’s get back to the convention now.
Just to clarify – I didn’t mention the story about the “July Surprise” because we at CNN did not have any information to corroborate the idea that the Bush administration was pressuing Pakistan to deliver a “high value target” during the DNC. What you are referring to is an interview conducted on NewsNight with Aaron Brown – in which he interviewed a reporter from the New Republic who said “unnamed” sources in the Bush administration were putting that pressure on Pakistan. Since my sources would not confirm the pressure – I did not report it.
Thank you for the clarification, that does sound like a journalistically responsible rationale.