A former CIA director on Saturday slammed the Trump administration for a cover-up he predicts is doomed to fail.
In an interview with The Guardian, Leon Panetta laid out how he believes the Pentagon is trying to combat press access amid the war in Iran.
“There’s a deliberate effort here to basically withhold information from the American people,” Panetta said. “And I think it represents in many ways a shameful approach to sharing the responsibility that we all have when it comes to fighting a war.”
The Department of Defense has not held a press briefing in two and a half months, The Guardian reported.
This stands in stark contrast to Panetta’s weekly briefings during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Panetta said that Pentagon officials are “trying to tiptoe past the graveyard.”
The Pentagon has also challenged the press by limiting access with rules requiring reporters to be escorted onto Pentagon grounds and stripping their credentials, The Guardian noted.
“They’re hoping that the less they say, the less controversy they’ll be involved in,” Panetta said about Pentagon officials. “The reality is that the press will only operate that much more aggressively to find out exactly what’s going on.”
However, Panetta held out hope that Pentagon reporters will be able to hold those officials accountable.
“In essence, what they’re doing is challenging the press to find what’s really happening, and they will,” Panetta said. “They can dodge, bob and weave, they can hide it, but my experience is that no matter how much you try to hide it, in the end, the truth comes out.”