Sunday, May 15, 2005

Ambassador Rey 'meant to say' no Szlajfer probe is warranted

President Clinton's former ambassador to Poland, Nicholas Rey, denies in harsh terms our Friday the 13th report that he agreed that the Szlajfer "case needs to be researched thoroughly."

Rey says in an e-mail circulated over the weekend, "Nothing could be further from the truth. I find the blog a despicable effort at character assassination reminiscent of the techniques used in the Soviet era. My comment in the Gazeta was merely meant to say: do not believe this bzdura [absurdity] until you check the facts, certainly not that an 'investigation' in any official sense was warranted."

That's quite a bit of backtracking. While accusing this blog and its partner of "Soviet" behavior, he doesn't deny he said what we reported him as saying, and he doesn't allege that we innacurately presented his quote, which was: "The case needs to be researched thoroughly, of course, and see what Szlajfer has to say."

Instead, he indicates - inaccurately - that this blog was calling for an "official" investigation. He concludes in his note by saying such a probe is "unwarranted," which has been his consistent position since the 1990s.