What the hey?

This morning, the New York Times published an article about a memo from new CIA chief Porter Goss in which he said he was trying "to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road." The article was headlined "New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies."

But by this afternoon, CNN reported, CIA officials were "angrily" denying the memo said any such thing.

"It is false," said one official, "quite baffling." The official called the New York Times headline "dopey."

A CIA spokesman said the memo was "a statement about the nonpartisan nature of what this agency does," rather than the opposite."

Quite a contradiction there. Well, let's see. What does the memo actually say? As quoted by both sources, it said

"We support the administration, and its policies in our work as agency employees. We do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies."

Now, just how in hell is that not a call for partisan support for the administration and its policies? One of the few things on which I agree with Rush Limbaugh is his contention in one of his books that "words mean things." So just how does a demand that CIA "support the administration" and "not identify with ... opposition to the administration" constitute an avowal of the "nonpartisan nature" of the work?

Consider, too, that as the Times notes,

[i]n recent weeks, White House officials have complained that some C.I.A. officials have sought to undermine President Bush and his policies. ...

Mr. Goss's memorandum included a reminder that C.I.A. employees should "scrupulously honor our secrecy oath" by allowing the agency's public affairs office and its Congressional relations branch to take the lead in all contacts with the media and with Congress.

So CIA employees are being told to support administration policies, don't "identify" with opposition to those policies, and keep their mouths shut at a time when the White House is griping about lack of support and Shrub's boy is cleaning house. And we're still supposed to believe in the face of fact and logic that Goss is calling for a "nonpartisan" CIA.

We truly have taken leave of reality. We have passed through the looking glass into a strange land where words simply mean whatever the purveyors of power choose them to mean. And woe be unto the unbelievers.