More signs of intelligence?

Yesterday, Foreign Affairs minister Peter Mackay couldn't hold back and said this:

The latest intelligence suggests four Christian Peacemaker Teams members, including two Canadians, are "very much" alive, MacKay said Monday.
The men were kidnapped in November and their captors threatened to kill them last month in what they called a final warning. But there is still reason for optimism, MacKay said.
"The most up-to-date information that we have leads us to believe that there will be - and we remain very optimistic - a safe release of these individuals," he said in an interview.

Today, he's in a little more pensive mood and now says this:

"Sadly, we do not have any more recent information," MacKay told a news conference Tuesday.

And some of the real professionals are saying this:

Two Liberals who once were top Foreign Affairs officials said MacKay invited trouble by publicly discussing the hostage crisis.

It is dangerous to express optimism too boldly because it gives kidnappers additional leverage, said one former official who worked on the hostage file.

This all confirms one thing. Mackay is a bloody idiot.