A growing opinion among the anonymous

CURRENT EVENTS

If "a growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded" something, I would assume it would be pretty easy to find a few of them to say so on the record. Not so.

McClatchy released a story Thursday positing that "Pakistan is on course to become Islamist state" and asserting that experts were aligning on this conclusion. Yet just two of them are willing to confess their belief. And guess what? Both do so anonymously. Not that this stopped them from getting top billing.

Half of the story's first six paragraphs come right out of the mouth of "U.S. intelligence official," including the article's second. And in a seeming effort to bolster this hollow voice, the quotes from the official are wrapped around a descriptive, almost unrelated quote by Obama counterinsurgency consultant David Kilcullen. Legitimacy by proximity.

The article alludes to the "experts McClatchy interviewed," but doesn't even hint at a number. Instead, we have a "Pentagon advisor" backing up our friend the official, with the only other support--besides Kilcullen's portrait quote--being a few-days-old statement from John Kerry, which menaces but stops well short of endorsing the article's premise.