Truthdigger of the Week: Ed Henry

Truthdig tips its hat this week to CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry, who has doggedly exposed the contradictions between the Bush White House and the U.S. military on Iranian involvement in Iraq.

Here’s what happened: This past weekend, U.S. Defense Dept. officials in Baghdad, speaking anonymously to reporters, claimed they had evidence that the “highest levels” of the Iranian government are supplying bomb-making materials to the Iraqi insurgency.

But then on Monday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace said that he had not seen any such evidence, ” … but I would not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is complicit.”

CNN’s Henry jumped on this contradiction during a press conference with White House spokesperson Tony Snow. Watch it:

The next day, Henry put the contradiction to President Bush himself, asking him, “What assurances can you give the American people that the intelligence this time will be accurate?”

And of course, Bush dodged the question.

Watch that exchange here.

Then, on Thursday, Henry reported that the White House was now saying that — oops — the anonymous U.S. military briefers in Baghdad had misspoken in claiming to have evidence that the “highest levels” of the Iranian government is supplying bomb-making materials to the Iraqis.

Henry’s exchange with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien about this “oops” was appropriately skeptical and snarky. Watch it here.

Biographical info on Ed Henry