Obama's "Openness" and Deceit

Though Gordon included no Russian response to these charges, he did mention that Russia had complained about what Gordon called "a modest program" of 300 American troops in Ukraine training national guard units, a program that Russian officials said could "destabilize the situation." Gordon wrote that the Obama administration, in response to this Russian complaint. "declassified intelligence describing a range of Russian military activities in and near Ukraine."

But the intelligence appeared to be just U.S. accusations. In Kiev, U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt tweeted about "the highest concentration of Russia air defense systems in eastern Ukraine since August" and illustrated his claim by showing a photo of a BUK anti-aircraft missile system. But the photo appeared to be an Associated Press photograph taken of a BUK system on display at an air show near Moscow two years ago, as the Russian network RT noted.

Gordon, who co-authored with Judith Miller the famously bogus Times' expose in 2002 about Iraq procuring aluminum tubes for building nuclear bombs, has been an eager conduit for U.S. government propaganda over the years, including his role last year in a page-one Times scoop that cited State Department and Ukrainian government claims about photographs that proved Russian troops were in Ukraine but turned out to be false. [See Consortiumnews.com's "NYT Retracts Russian Photo Scoop."]

Yet, while Russia is not supposed to mind the forced ouster of a friendly government on its borders or the presence of U.S. and NATO forces supporting the successor regime, a more sympathetic view is taken when Saudi Arabia intervenes in Yemen's civil war by bombing the country indiscriminately, reportedly killing hundreds of civilians and devastating ancient cities with priceless historical sites that date back thousands of years.

"They're worried about their own security -- and of course we've supported them," stated White House communications director Jen Psaki. "But, again, we're trying to redirect this to a political discussion here." (The New York Times article about this "Saudi resolve" -- with a similarly understanding tone toward the Saudis -- was co-authored by Gordon.)

This pattern of perverting U.S. intelligence information to bolster some U.S. foreign policy agenda has become a trademark of the Obama administration -- along with an unprecedented number of prosecutions of U.S. government whistleblowers who release real information that exposes government wrongdoing or waste. This double standard belies President Obama's assertion that he values openness in a democracy.

[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com's "President Gollum's 'Precious' Secrets."]