Operative Tom Gjelten is back on the beat, reporting on Jose Rodriguez recent head of the CIA's clandestine service. Rodriguez is under investigation for destroying CIA torture tapes ("videotapes of tough interrogations" as Michele Norris genteelly calls them.).If you've been living in a cave for the past 50 years or so, and don't have a clue about the CIA's disgusting history of training, installing and maintaining murder/torture states in Latin America then just Google "CIA in Latin America" (even the CIA has documents online!) Knowing this bloody, sadistic history of the CIA, one can only marvel at Gjelten's description of Rodriguez:
"...he spent much of his clandestine career in Latin America establishing a reputation as a colorful and aggressive operative."
The rest of the report is mostly a paean to Rodriguez for his role in setting the stage for the 1989 US Invasion of Panama. Gjelten tells us that "One of his more dramatic assignments was in Panama in 1989 when the dictator Manuel Noriega was fighting to hold on to power." Gjelten does mention the uncomfortable fact that "for many years Noriega worked with the CIA" but then implies that he became too nasty for the squeaky clean US foreign policy: "the U.S. government had turned against Noriega and his increasingly oppressive and corrupt regime."
A few other tidbits that Gjelten includes are that "Rodriguez worked in Panama at considerable personal risk, with no diplomatic status or official cover...." and that "Rodriquez was bold in his intelligence work....known for his devotion to the intelligence mission." Come to think of it, one could say the same for Tom Gjelten, too.
(The graphic is a drawing by Fernando Botero, Colombian artist who created the Abu Ghraib paintings.)
4 comments:
NPR at its most irresponsible! Proof positive that they're 'in' with the in-crowd. And to lend this story credibility, they give it to Tom Gelatin, with his 'trustworthy' voice and supposed 'careful' approach. What a fake! It's very hard to be the slightest bit patient even in critiquing this blatant propaganda. It's like saying, well, just give Goebbels another chance to get his message across. Maybe he was just tired that day...
Thanks for the Botero add-on. Always a gutsy artist, he's the only one I can think of who's made such statements about Abu Ghraib. It's right up there with Goya's 'Horrors of War', which no doubt inspired him.
Thank you, Mytwords! How sick can they get??? I am glad I did not catch this NPR piece--my Grundig radio would be in little pieces on the floor.
And it is a very good shortwave/am/fm radio and cost me a pretty penny.
We need an alternative public radio (now!) to counter National Propaganda Radio.
What we could stand to have more of is an overswell of citizen outrage when these so-called "trusted" news "services" squander precious airtime with such trivialities as the bozo circus as witnessed in the now-famous Philly debate this week - which to my delight ABC rightly got its fanny spanked blood-red! In my mind's ear, since I'm pretty well weaned off NoPR though the contempt doth remain alive in me core, I imagined their probable coverage of the night - as that of one naughty schoolkid gloating over another 'cuz he got into twubble).
With enough discontented viewers and listener backlash to shock the suits enough to put them on notice, perhaps - though I'll not turn purple from holding my breath - they'll get back to where they once belonged. But ever the cynic am I in this regard.
I thought they were snuff films.
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