Near certainty is in the eye of the beholder
by digby
Mr. Weinstein’s death caused some in the White House to question whether the president’s policy was being followed. “It makes you wonder whether the intelligence community’s definition of near certainty is the same as everybody else’s,” said a senior administration official. “But the near certainty standard is the best possible standard.”
I don’t even know what to say to that. Don’t they have any criteria or do they just ask the analyst what his gut tells him? And how can you call something a “standard” if you don’t even know how it’s defined?
.