It's a little scary how jazzed NPR reporters get for the CIA and its "colorful" employees.On Friday morning JJ Sutherland is on to
"...he was once a controversial Cold War spy, now he's considered a wise man of national security and something of a rock star."JJ Sutherland then jumps in with, "In his two years at the Pentagon the reviews have been good." To back this up we hear from
- Brent Scowcroft, "close friend" and former National Security Advisor : "He's a professional to the core. He is a devoted patriot and someone that I thing everyone can respect."
- William Cohen, former Defense Department head under Clinton: "Secretary Gates has brought the Pentagon some distance back towards where it optimally would be."
- And Richard Danzig, former Secretary of the Navy and Obama advisor: "The building collectively heaved a huge sigh of relief after Bob came, and they saw how he worked and how he dealt with them."
As far as Gates CIA career is concerned, Sutherland tells us that Gates "was tough, ambitious and didn't suffer fools...Also an unapologetic Cold Warrior." Sutherland mentions that Gates was associated with the Iran-Contra scandal, and we do get to hear from Mel Goodman a former "close friend" and CIA colleague who alleges that Gates "fixed" intelligence regarding the Soviets and the assasination attempt on the Pope in the 80s.
In the report Sutherland manages to put in a plug for the idea that the US is "winning" in Iraq. He notes that Gates, in his confirmation hearing in 2006, stated that the US was not winning in Iraq. Sutherland then conjectures "Today, Gates might answer differently."
So what is missing?
Notably, there's not one non-Pentagon, non-CIA affiliated source in Sutherland's piece. This guarantees that we'd never guess that Gates accomplishments since 2006 might make him worthy of war crimes indictments.
We never hear from an investigative reporter like Robert Parry, one of the reporters who broke the Iran-Contra scandal back in the 1980s. Parry has some interesting tidbits about Gates, particularly his involvement in delaying the Iran hostage release in 1980.
It would have been fascinating to hear from John Prados of the National Security Archives regarding details of Gates role in the Iran Contra scandal and in Latin American drug dealing, death squads, and mercenaries.
To contact and include sources such as these would require reporters such as Sutherland to have an interest in providing a diversity of opinion on US foreign, military and intelligence policies - as opposed the endorsement of such policies that a story like this represents.
4 comments:
But, is it any wonder that NO contrasting or even mildly critical sources are consulted in such a story? To do so, even on a modest level, would be to expose BushCorp & Associates' essentially fascist/imperialist program (even at this preposterously late stage) as it is, and as we know it to be. And if the program is to remain viable into an Obama Administration, manufactured publicity and proactive damage control have to take place NOW in order to keep the good little NPR listeners properly informed. What better bullhorn to use than Nationalist Propaganda Radio? Bobby the Gates-keeper is the perfect kind of NPR personality to admire.NPR: keeping up its great tradition in providing you with easy-to-take, always-reliable propaganda, yet again.
The CIA and NPR are like family.
Quite literally.
At least one NPR "journalist' (Anne Garrels**) is even married to a former CIA agent (J. Vinton Lawrence one of two CIA agents stationed in Laos in the early 1960s, working with the Hmong tribesman and the CIA-owned airline Air America*" -- wikipedia)
Not the same Air America Media that Al Franken worked for. If you want to read about CIA's Air America (including allegations of heroin smuggling during the Vietnam war), click here
**"On October 26, 2007 NPR aired a story by Garrels that was mainly based on information extracted via torture.[5] Garrels herself described the victims as "blood-soaked" and "sobbing", but used the information anyway," -- wikipedia
inasmuch as mr.o's diplomatic, military and intelligence hires so far would have to be considered and understood as unapologetic globalist 'hawks,' the program is well on track to viability...
obama does NOT intend to project any change in foreign policy.
Gagz! Can we PLEEEEEEZ dispense with the "rock star" metaphor?!? (especially when applied to folks with the charisma of a coat rack?)
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