The Carpenter’s Boatshop was going to conduct a fundraiser by having the former CIA director, John Brennan, speak at The Lincoln Theater on July 29. Former cabinet officials make public appearances all the time but rarely so in Lincoln County and frankly we don’t know if one of the nation’s former top spies has ever made a local appearance.
However, shortly before the event, the organization announced its cancellation, citing, “Law enforcement has raised serious security concerns that we cannot ignore, and we must comply with their guidance.”
Leading up to this fundraiser, there were two letters that were printed in this paper that provided a negative view of the speaker’s service and views.
In the past two weeks, we have received and printed four letters regarding the cancellation. All point to the two original letters as having some bearing on the cancellation, albeit some more subtly than others.
Two letters have been critical of the editorial policy of allowing “attack” letters to run. As the courts have ruled, public figures including those running for office, celebrities, and people in high ranking positions within government or huge corporations are different than the regular populace.
Questioning a public figure’s record relating to politics, decisions made while holding a public office, public statements, or the results of legal trials is not an attack letter.
Upon hearing of the cancellation, citing serious security concerns, a reporter was tasked with digging into the details. The intent was to see where the facts lead, and report on them.
In the process of trying to uncover the security concerns, our staff contacted The Carpenter’s Boatshop, Damariscotta Police Department, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, and representatives from the Maine State Police among others in the community. We also tried twice to contact both the local FBI office in Boston and the person at the CIA who was organizing the security detail, but did not receive a response before press time.
Local law enforcement was not aware of any security concerns, nor did they make the recommendation to cancel. Damariscotta Police was planning on having a detail at The Lincoln Theater to assist with security. Shannon Moss, the public information officer for the Maine State Police and Maine Department of Public Safety stated that neither the state police nor Maine Information and Analysis Center were aware of any threats or safety concerns.
No one has been able to confirm any details about the security concern or any supposed threat. What started as trying to find the cause for the cancellation and reporting the information has left us with nothing to report as no specifics have been provided.
It could be that one or both of the federal agencies has that information, and were not available to call us back. We think its likely that if there was a specific threat related to Lincoln County, details would have been shared with state or local law enforcement agencies.
We believe The Carpenter’s Boatshop is a great institution and is founded on important ideals with dedicated people working to make our great community better. It is one of the reasons we have been working on getting a magazine article about them for over two years. Coincidentally, that piece is running in the Made in Lincoln County edition in this week’s paper.
We say coincidentally because many of the stories for this year’s magazine were selected almost a year ago, with this piece having been on the story board since September of 2023. Initial layout was completed on July 24. We are being upfront about this because we want to get facts out there, this piece was written and is running on its own merits, and the placement in this week’s paper has been planned for quite some time.
It is unfortunate that this fundraiser was cancelled, because of what the funds would mean to help meet the needs of The Carpenter’s Boatshop, and possibly more importantly, those who are impacted by the organization’s work.
