Talk:Copper Green

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I removed some of the "alleges;" when it is clear from context that we are referring to Hersh's report, I don't think they're necessary.

I used this wording:

DoD Spokesperson Mr. Lawrence DiRita immediately issued a statement about the accusations, referring to them as "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture." Press accounts have generally characterized DiRita's statement as a "denial."

Here's why:

Although the press has generally been calling the statement a "denial," I think it is quite possible to read it as a "non-denial denial," see my remarks at Talk:Non-denial denial. For example, is DiRita saying that all the claims in Hersh's article are false, or only that certain claims are "dramatically false?" Since he doesn't say which claims are being denied, that leaves many loopholes open. The phrase "outlandish, conspiratorial, and filled with error and anonymous conjecture" certainly, to me, has the flavor of some of the Watergate non-denial denials. The specific one's I'm trying to think of are Mitchell's remarks along the lines of the Woodward-Bernstein stories being "ridiculous" and "the Washington Post's sources are a fount of misinformation." Dpbsmith 00:50, 18 May 2004 (UTC)