Do We Send Detainees To Secret Prisons Abroad?

Helen Thomas hits Negroponte over the head with her blunt-cast-iron-fyring pan questions, but of course an honest question is rewarded with no honorable answers:

Q Why did you want Mr. Goss fired? And also, does the CIA send detainees to secret prisons, prisons abroad?

AMBASSADOR NEGROPONTE: I wouldn't characterize Mr. Goss's departure in that way, Helen. Porter had talked for some time about the possibility of leaving public service. I think that the President felt this was an opportune time. He saw Porter, and I think Porter also had talked about himself being a transitional leader, transitioning from the old setup prior to intelligence reform to the new one. And the President just felt that this was a good time to appoint new leadership to carry the agenda forward and consolidate the reforms that Mr. Goss had initiated.

Q How about the second part of my question? Do we send detainees to secret prisons abroad?

AMBASSADOR NEGROPONTE: I'm just not going to comment on that question.

Oh, and here we have another case of you say patato, I say pa-tato regarding the issue of warrantless wiretapping of Americans:

Q Mr. Ambassador, going forward, you're going to, on the Hill, get questions even from Republicans like Arlen Specter on the domestic spying program, or, I should say, General Hayden will. How do you guys plan to prepare to move forward on that?

AMBASSADOR NEGROPONTE: Well, first of all, I wouldn't call it domestic spying. I mean, this is about international terrorism, and telephone calls between people thought to be working for international terrorism and people here in the United States. So that would be my first point...

Oh, an like you care, but by the way, Monday marked Mr. Tony the Snow-job's first outting as the Whitehouse spokesmodel. They only gave him one paragraph. I guess he is starting out slowly:

MR. SNOW: As you know, President Bush, earlier today, nominated General Michael Hayden to become the next Director of Central Intelligence (Agency). A lot of you have questions about the circumstances surrounding that, so I thought we would invite Ambassador John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence, to answer your questions. He has an opening statement, and then will take questions.

Ambassador.