Olbermann Claims Counter-terrorism Report 'Created' to Give Chertoff Credibility

Does Keith Olbermann even read the MSNBC website ?

On Thursday’s Countdown (as well as his blog “The News Hole”), MSNBC host Keith Olbermann continued his attack on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “gut feeling” about increased terrorist vulnerability.

In his expert analysis, Olbermann theorized that Chertoff’s comment was a mistake, and that the Bush administration hurriedly (actually in one day) “created” a counter-terrorism report, indicating increased Al Qeada strength, to cover Chertoff’s supposed mis-statement. Olbermann claims of Chertoff: “You shot off your bazoo, and then this National Counter-Terrorism Center report was rushed out -- even created -- to cover you, to give you credibility.” Olbermann later described the sequence of events as: “a gaffe backfilled by an ‘instant report.’"

There’s just one problem with this theory. Olbermann’s own network ran an AP story hours earlier in which it was pointed out that the couter-terrorism report is the collaborative effort of 16 separate spy agencies, and are “the most authoritative written judgments that reflect the consensus long-term thinking of senior intelligence analysts.” (emphasis added)

While Olbermann is usually predisposed to call the Bush administration incompetent, he now wants you to believe that a politically-driven multi-agency National Intelligence Estimate was created literally overnight. Olbermann should know that this type of governmental efficiency exists only on “24.”

[Originally posted at 14:08 EDT]