A former high-ranking official in the CIA, Glenn L. Carle, says that in 2005 the Bush White House asked intelligence agents to gather damaging personal information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who was a well-known blogger and critic of the administration’s policies in Iraq, The New York Times reported today. Mr. Carle alleges that his supervisors wrote a memorandum that included derogatory details about Mr. Cole’s personal life and told him to look for more information that could be used to discredit the professor. This is not the only time Mr. Cole, a longtime contributor to The Chronicle Review, has drawn controversy over his blog. In 2006, Yale University denied him a teaching post after faculty in the sociology and history departments had voted to hire him, a move that many supporters alleged was the result of divisive political opinions on his blog, Informed Comment.
