Looks like the source used by former camp guard Jeffrey Goldberg to try to smear Max Blumenthal’s investigative article is proving unreliable. Karen Greenberg has already completely changed her story from a clear-cut denial that she had ever said the words attributed to her… to telling a different reporter that Blumenthal got the “sense” wrong, but not the words.

First, let’s go back to what Karen Greenberg allegedly told Jeffrey Goldberg about the quotes attributed to her in Blumenthal’s story:

“I never made such a statement. I’ve never seen any proof of this.”

It’s clear as day: Ms. Greenberg accuses Blumenthal of making up the words. In other words, she never said the words that Blumenthal attributed to her in his story. No question about it.

But then the same Karen Greenberg told a different story to Adam Sewrer of Mother Jones. Instead of accusing Blumenthal of making up quotes attributed to her, she now claims that Blumenthal’s crime was getting the “sense of the quote” wrong. In other words, she’s not sure what she’s not sure about.

Here is what Greenberg told Mother Jones:

“What I remembered saying to him was you ought to look at these allegations that others have made about Israeli training in interrogation techniques. I did not intend to assert these allegations as fact…the entire sense of the quote is inaccurate.”

So which one is it, Ms. Greenberg? First, she tells Jeffrey Goldberg that she “never made such a statement” and therefore Blumenthal flat-out lied. No two ways about it. Then Greenberg tells another reporter that Blumenthal’s mistake wasn’t that she “never made such a statement” but rather, that, like, you know, the sense of the quote was inaccurate–you dig, baby?

By changing her story like this, Karen Greenberg has thoroughly discredited herself. If you can’t even get your own story straight, what use are you to Jeffrey Goldberg as a tool to discredit Blumenthal’s article?

This looks like a classic case of a squeamish source who regretted giving the interview, tried to backpedal, but lacks the sort of experience in sleazy dissembling that a real pro, a Jeffrey Goldberg for example, has down like a motor function.

Sorry Jeffrey, back to the smear-drawingboard for you.

Update: Holy shit folks, you can’t make this up: Jeffrey Goldberg’s smear-monkey, blogger Adam Serwer, got into a sort of Twitter-discussion with The eXiled that he’s regretting now, and hiding in shame from.

(UPDATE NEW: Adam Sewrer just admitted on twitter that he published this anonymous, bizarre smear-attack on Max Blumenthal in 2008, under the name “dnA,” accusing Max of being a racist for not supporting Obama. Why does Mother Jones pay a smear-monkey creep like this, who smears fellow-leftists and uses Mother Jones to continue a bizarre personal campaign against Max Blumenthal?)

It turns out that Adam Sewrer has a quote-mashing problem. He can’t decide what Karen Greenberg actually told him, and his erratic behavior suggests he still doesn’t have a clue. At last count, Adam Serwer offered four different versions of the same quote by Karen Greenberg—each quote he insists is word-for-word reported directly, yet each of the four quotes posted or tweeted out is different. Not sure about you folks out there, but I’ve never conducted an interview according to quantum laws, in which one quote exists as four different quotes at the same time.

All of this came out in a brief Twitter exchange, part of which we are reposting here for your reading pleasure:

Would you like to know more? Read Max Blumenthal’s “How Israeli Occupation Forces, Bahraini Monarchy Guards Trained U.S. Police For Coordinated Crackdown On ‘Occupy’ Protests” and “Max Blumenthal Responds To Sleaze Campaign By Atlantic Monthly’s Ex-Detention Camp Guard Jeffrey Goldberg”.