Bigger than Watergate

Mark Steyn says the CIA scandal is important not because it put an agent’s life at risk — it didn’t — but because it shows that US Intelligence is either obstructive or inept

New Hampshire

America now has its own version of l’affaire Gilligan. As in Britain, the story involves journalists, and sources, and the leaking of the name of a government employee, and an investigation into which high-up did the leaking, and how badly the country’s leaders will be damaged, etc. The details of the Kelly/Gilligan business never really held anybody’s attention over here: most people I’ve spoken to heard about the ‘sexed-up’ accusation and the suicide, decided it confirmed their low view of the BBC and then moved on to other things. Incredible as it may seem, it proved impossible to sex up Alastair Campbell into a topic of interest to an American audience. Alone in this Doughty Street hotbed of fanatical Gilliganistas, I took the line of reasonably informed US observers that Gilligan and the BBC were at fault, which may be why I didn’t get invited to any of The Spectator’s 175th birthday celebrations.