Katie Couric Questions Freeh's Credibility -- and Objectivity

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh wasn't on this morning's Today show for very long before his credibility was immediately questioned by Couric. After her introduction and a generic 'why did you want to write this book?' query Couric pounced in just her second question:

Couric: "You know many people have viewed this book in reviews and, and newspaper accounts so far as your effort to settle scores with the President. Do you think, you obviously, there's no love lost between the two of you, that's very, very clear. Do you think your personal animus might be coloring your professional perspective so much that you can't be objective about what was really going on during the administration?"

While the buzz around Freeh's book surrounds his account of the Clinton scandals Couric managed to ask just two questions about them before to asking about the FBI's pre-9/11 preparedness.

As for the other bombshell of the book, that Clinton was too busy hitting up the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia for a presidential libarary donation, too ask for his help in the Khobar Tower investigation? Well Couric dissmissed the criticism in the very same question in which she raised the issue:

Couric: "I know that you also make an accusation in the aftermath of the Khobar bombings in Saudi Arabia which killed 19 Americans in 1996 and was an act of terrorism that foreshadowed this current war on, on terrorism. That instead of pushing the Saudis for access to prisoners President Clinton was asking for money for his library. But a lot of people say you were never in those meetings and in fact the President did push the Saudis and you really don't know what you're talking about basically, has been some of the response to this."

[Freeh: "Sure I've heard the response. Well let me say this. He didn't push the Saudis and the proof in the pudding is that we asked the administration, the Clinton administration, my administration for three-and-a-half years to intercede with the Saudis. Nothing happened. We asked President Bush 41 to help us. He met with the Crown Prince on a Saturday afternoon in McLean, Virginia. Monday morning, 48 hours later, the Crown Prince invited myself, the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the head of my criminal, the head of my counterterrorism division and gave us access to the prisoners. So that fact is an unassailable fact."]

Couric concluded the interview with a parting shot from a Clinton toady:

Couric: "Well I know that the Clintons spokesperson Jay Carson said your book was, 'a total work of fiction and written by a man who's desperate to clear his name and sell books.'"

When Bill and Hillary Clinton released their respective memoirs the Today show swallowed their fish tales whole but Clinton critics always get the third degree.