The New York Times called Mitt Romney a liar today, but not CIA Director Michael Hayden.
What was Romney’s big one? He ran an ad in New Hampshire this week saying Sen. John McCain had called for allowing illegal workers in the US to collect Social Security, and the the paper of record said he was lying. That’s not what McCain had said. But When Gen. Hayden told a much bigger whopper, saying that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of the “interrogations” of two suspected Al Qaeda leaders because of concerns that the tapes might disclose the identities of CIA agents, thus exposing them and their families to danger, the Times, in the same issue of the paper, let it pass.
Near the end of the lengthy half-page, one-jump article, the paper did quote Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Righst Watch, as saying that Hayden’s explanation “wasn’t credible,” which indeed it wasn’t. But you’d have to read a lot of verbiage to get to that gentle challenge.
The truth is that the CIA is full of documents that if leaked would disclose agents’ identities, and the CIA doesn’t destroy those records.
The truth is also that if the CIA wanted to keep the tapes, and even make them available if asked to, it has the means to easily wipe away the identities of any agency assets or agents who appear in the film, and even to mask their voices. News programs do that all the time. So the excuse doesn’t wash.
The reason the Agency destroyed those tapes is not because of concerns about agent safety, but because those tapes are the CIA’s Abu Ghraib moment. They are incontrovertible documentary evidence of the CIA’s blatant use of torture, which it was authorized and instructed to use against terror suspects by President Bush after 9-11, in what is clearly an impeachable act. And in Hayden’s view, and the view of the agency heads before him, it was better to break the law and destroy the evidence than to turn it over to Congressional investigators, defense attorneys for terrorism suspects on trial, and the 9-11 Commission, all of which groups had asked about the existence of such tapes, and about those tapes in particular. And all of which were lied to by the Agency.
So let’s at least call a lie a lie.
Chisled into the marble entranceway to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency is the phrase: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Right.
Obviously that line is meant ironically. The CIA is not about truth. It is about shadows, secrecy and deceit.
The question is why someone like Hayden is accorded any credibility at all by the news media.
I’m past expecting Congress to do anything about this torture scandal, or about Hayden’s lies, since it hasn’t done anything about any of the other scandals of this administration. But it would be nice if the media, including the New York Times, would at least call a lie a lie.
We can only hope that some person of character at the CIA , or someone with a grudge or a problem who needs some insurance or payback potential, has kept a copy of those tapes, and that at some point they will see the light of day. (If you’re out there, please mail it to me at PO Box 846, Ambler, PA 19002. Confidentiality guaranteed.)
Maybe many Americans think torturing our enemies is a good thing. But they’re wrong. Torture not only is a poor and perhaps even a useless tool for learning anything of value (since the victim clearly will say anything, true or false, to get the torture to stop, and thus can send people on endless wild goose chases, wasting resources and time), but it is inevitable that some of the people who get tortured wil be innocent. Besides, once it is known that torture is the fate of those who are captured by American forces, people will go to much greater lengths to avoid capture, which means more fights to the death, and inevitably more casualties on our side. Better to let our enemies know that if they give up, they’ll be treated fairly, with respect and in accordance with the law.
Besides, if we torture, how are we any better than the terrorists and the rogue nations?
For that matter, if we have an agency that is founded and built on lies, what does that have to do with a democracy?
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http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books ("This Can't Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy" and "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal"). His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is "The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (St. Martin's Press, May 2006). His writing is available at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
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Richard Mynick is a US citizen who, despite the best efforts of the corporate media, noticed something disturbing about how the 2000 election was decided, & felt it augured poorly for democracy. |
The media accords credibility to a Michael Hayden because the function of the news media in a capitalist society is basically no different than in totalitarian society. The precise mechanisms are different; the style & degree of subtlety are different -- but the aim is exactly the same. In neither case is the goal to neutrally & objectively "report the news" -- ie, to simply distribute factual information. In both cases, rather, the object is to enhance & consolidate the power of society's ruling groups. Any media portrayal which might seriously damage the perceived legitimacy of "the powers that be" is essentially verboten. Spinning news is an easily-learned art form. Just watch any White House Press Secretary at work, or any Meet the Press "roundtable" discussion. Depending on what result you want, you can take any given news item & spin it to make the good guys seem evil, or vice-versa. It's the media's job, to ensure that news stories are presented in such a way that powerful people (those directly representing the interests of society's ruling groups) never come off looking like liars and criminals. Therefore, Michael Hayden cannot be portrayed as a liar, and the CIA cannot be portrayed as the thugs and lawless sociopaths that they are. It's OK to call Mitt Romney a liar, because his candidacy is not vital to society's ruling elite. But to call the CIA, or Bush or Cheney liars -- that's an attack on far more than just the named individuals. Society's powerful groups are deeply invested in Bush, Cheney, & the CIA. These groups will not tolerate attacks on the perceived legitimacy of those who represent them. The people who control the media are core members of society's power elite. Accordingly, the media predictably spins every story to portray the representatives of society's powerful in a favorable light. What's most remarkable about the US corporate media (ie, the American propaganda system) is not how dishonest & systemically corrupt it is. Rather, it's that it has almost always been like this -- yet the system was so diabolically effective that few of us ever saw it for what it really was. It's much easier to see it now, of course, as the whole society has sunk deeper into blatant degradation & degeneracy under Bush. But the fact is, going back through the McCarthy era and to the Palmer raids of the 1920's, the US media has always been vile, chauvinist-nationalist, & protective of ruling class interests. by
Richard Mynick (2 articles, 3 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 1162 comments)
on Friday, December 7, 2007 at 10:45:05 PM
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Nothing New just the latest version of the same forces
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Sleeper (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 276 comments)
on Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 11:06:48 AM
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On an up-note Perino spent 95% of the news briefing today on the tapes - there was no let-up from the press - this might have legs - but I'll believe it when I see it and I'll still be suspicious. by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1398 comments)
on Friday, December 7, 2007 at 11:14:18 PM
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My name it means nothing, my age it means less. My deeds of activism are mine to enjoy and share as I feel necesary, not as some clown in a small forum's administration thinks I must..This place gets worse each and every visit.
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Irony abounds It seems that, in almost every case, the cover up is worse than the actual crime. Or at least it is that cover up that leads to exposing the slimy mess beneath. Does anyone believe that this is the first instance of the use of torture by the CIA? The second, or the one hundreth? The system is toppling of its own weight, it would seem. The only thing that has kept it propped up for this long is the ennui of our citizenry. The only hope we who care have is that our electorate awakens to the morass we find ourselves mired within and the myth of a democracy under which we live. by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 6:39:08 AM
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HELP THE SPOON-FED! It might help those who habitually get their news/information from media "entertainment" sources found on TV, radio, magazines and newspapers to be LAUGHED AT WITH SCORN, when they start espousing their "thoughts". Sort of an INTERVENTION for the those addicted to LIES. For the most part, these Pipelines of Propaganda provide only ONE-WAY movement of information -- into the heads of listeners and readers. The lack of interaction, and the active exchange of ideas and positions you find on the NET in forums like THIS; assists in THINKING and formulating thoughtful positions on topics. No barrage of advertising either. So HELP A FRIEND! Tell them you're so sorry they are still being SPOON-FED. They need to grow up, and stop being told what to think and what to do. SEND THEM TO YOUR FAVORITE SITES ON THE NET! by
boomerang (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 267 comments)
on Saturday, December 8, 2007 at 10:02:06 AM
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