But I'm told that some U.S. intelligence analysts now view the MH-17 incident much differently from the first few days, with the possibility that the shoot-down may have been committed by a rogue element of the Ukrainian military, possibly trying to bring down a Russian plane and mistakenly destroying the Malaysian airliner which had similar markings.
Whatever the current thinking about who was to blame, clearly U.S. intelligence has much more data today than was available in July when Kerry went on all five Sunday shows pointing the finger at Russia and was joined in his hasty conclusion by virtually the entire U.S. mainstream media.
Obama owes it to the American people and to the families of the 298 dead to release all available U.S. evidence regarding the guilty parties -- even if that again embarrasses his Secretary of State.
The Tonkin Precedent
Kerry himself should want the full story told regarding both the Syrian sarin case and the Malaysia plane shoot-down, since -- as a young man -- he was drawn into the Vietnam War based on false reporting about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964. A suspected clash between North Vietnamese forces and a U.S. destroyer became the basis for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which provided the legal authorization for the Vietnam War.
In the Gulf of Tonkin case, senior officials of Lyndon Johnson's administration soon realized that the attack probably never happened. But that reality was kept hidden from the American people for years as the slaughter went on, with 58,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese dying. If the factual correction had been made in a timely manner, many of those dead, including servicemen who served with Lt. John Kerry, might have been saved.
However, Kerry, now 70, has become like the older men who sent him and his comrades to fight in Vietnam, more concerned about reputation and pride inside Official Washington than about the blood and suffering of the people affected by misdirected U.S. policies. [See Consortiumnews.com's "What's the Matter with John Kerry?"]
Today, Kerry's State Department appears to see both the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine as battlefields where U.S. "hard power" is limited so a decision has been made to use propaganda or "information warfare" as a "soft power" alternative.
Thus, exploiting these terrible tragedies -- hundreds dying from sarin exposure and 298 dying from a plane attack -- is viewed as a way to put the U.S. "adversaries" -- Assad and Putin, respectively -- on the defensive. In this propaganda world, truth is lost to expediency.
Further following the Tonkin Gulf analogy, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a highly belligerent anti-Russian resolution on Dec. 4, by a 411-10 margin. It cited as one justification for sending U.S. military equipment and trainers to Ukraine the supposed "fact" that "Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a civilian airliner, was destroyed by a Russian-made missile provided by the Russian Federation to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, resulting in the loss of 298 innocent lives."
But the case of MH-17 is far from resolved, although clearly President Obama has access to information about the incident that could either help confirm or refute the congressional assertion. Yet, he continues to hide that knowledge from the American people as the United States and Russia inch toward a possible nuclear confrontation over Ukraine.
So, it may be time for Obama to embrace a "truth agenda." After all, facts have a special place in a democracy, which is dependent on an informed electorate to function, and information should be withheld from the public only in extraordinary circumstances.
However, after the early days of his administration, when Obama did release some important documents relating to the legal opinions that justified Bush's torture policies, the President lost his way regarding respect for the people's right to know.
Obama became immersed in the gamesmanship of Official Washington where control of information is regarded as a measure of one's power. But that allowed the Tea Party and others on the Right to present themselves as "populists" who were standing up against the elites, even though many Republicans were more wedded to secrecy than Obama was.
Now, however, Obama is seeing -- amid the positive reaction to the release of the torture report -- that many Americans are hungry for facts. They, too, understand that information is power and sense that the political leader who trusts them with that power is the one most on their side.
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