Commentary:

"Fixed," means Fixed!

"Fixed" means Fixed!

From Blue Collar Politics

Michael Smith, the Sunday Times reporter who broke he story thinks he knows what "fixed" means. On June 16, he told the Washington Post:

"There are a number of people asking about 'fixed' and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed, as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed...the head of MI-6 has just been to Washington. He has just talked with George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq."

I contacted a number of British friends who are close observers of the political scene, to get their opinion. Here is one recent email reply:

"Nobody that I have come across here in London interprets the term 'fixed' in this context as other than cooked/manipulated/selected. Fixed refers to trickery—as in 'the fix is in.' What Woolsey and Co. may think...that is completely irrelevant. It is what we British think that counts. The memo was written to be read by us British, not by Woolsey. It appears that he and his "neoconservative" friends are getting a bit desperate. He would probably be one of the people to go to jail at the end of this, given the key role he has played."

Or, from VIPS colleague Col. Patrick Lang, USA (ret), who tends to be more succinct:

"Fixed is fixed, man."

And Spin means Spin...

And lies my friends... Are lies...

We are not going away...

Crossposted to ISOU