Washington Post publisher Donald Graham (left) and editor Fred Hiatt: yet another case of their deceptive and fraudulent "reporting" in yesterday's paper..
Click here for the Washington Post's classic "disinformation" 'news' story, written by "Steno Sue" Susan Schmidt in JULY of 2004. Note how this story clouds the facts of the illegal "outing" of undercover, "NOC" spy VALERIE PLAME WILSON by the Libby-Rove-Cheney White House. ("Non-official cover" spies may be arrested and tried for espionage in foreign countries... they have NO official cover or protection from the US government in the event of arrest by a hostile foreign government, and in all countries, conviction of espionage carries a death penalty.)
We now know that Ms. Plame had NO influence over the selection of her husband to the "verify or reject the Niger yellowcake uranium for Iraq WMD program" mission in late 2002, but Steno Sue Schmidt, in classic Washington Post GENUFLECTION to the lies and administrative bullying of the Bush-Cheney White House, wrote the opposite: that Ms. Plame did "select" her husband - who was at any rate imminently qualified - for the mission.
CAUGHT IN THE ACT: The WASHINGTON POST of Fred Hiatt, Don Graham, and Steno Sue Schmidt LYING to UNDERCUT THE CREDIBILITY of lies-to-war critic Joseph Wilson; and in EMPOWERING the classic Rove smear-job from the Bush White House, putting dozens of CIA agents and foreign "assetts" at risk.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html
----------------------------------------
We salute Mr. Robert Parry for his decades of genuine service to the cause of American freedom (specifically, American journalism); which has seen him be hounded from the top-tiers of "mainstream reporting" (aka the corporate press/media) and forced to write his own news service and books from journalistic Siberia - underfunded, under appreciated, but always light-years ahead of the NY Times, Washington Post, and other major "news" services when it comes to reporting to American readers the facts of important stories that impact our lives in ways big and small.
And we FINALLY can salute Mr. Parry for MAKING IT PERSONAL. In a world where celebrity bimbos become overnight multimillionaires.... and, worse, soak up millions and millions and millions of dollars worth of TV and media exposure for overdosing on drugs or shaving their hair off - Mr. Parry has always been the Joe Canon of investigative journalism, "JUST THE FACTS, ma'am."
Well, Mr. Parry finally unleashes on DONALD GRAHAM and FRED HIATT, the publisher and editorial editor for the Washington Post. These are the men in power who daily BELITTLE THE TRUTH and WHITEWASH LIES... from Bush's fraudulent "385 vote winning margin" in the 2000 Florida election vote count (that saw Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, Choicepoint data corporation, and other Republican thugs STEAL thousands of legal votes in mostly minority districts; 20,000 illegally "DISQUALIFIED" votes in Florida's Duval County, alone) to LIES to drum up momentum for the Iraq war, to the "Diebold electronic election fix" in the 2002 (midterm Georgia, Minnesota) election tallies, 2004 Ohio vote count, and AGAIN in 2006, where Katherine Harris' old Congressional seat (Florida District 13) saw ANOTHER 300-400 vote "winning majority" - after an astounding 18,000 District 13 voters were electronically computed to NOT have cast a vote in the congressional race after going to the polls in an off-year (congressional) election - an "UNDERVOTE" total that was vastly, orders-of-magnitude larger than in neighboring Florida districts!
In short, Mr. GRAHAM and Mr. HIATT are paid professional liars; their job is to MISINFORM and DECEIVE the public, and thus justify the systematic LOOTING of America's national resources by the Bush-Cheney administration and other government thugs, such as TOM DeLAY, "Duke" CUNNINGHAM, BOB NEY, JACK ABRAMOFF, and others... ALL of whom were brought to justice NOT by the "investigative reporting" of the Washington Post, but by the determined, dogged efforts of government prosecutors who hadn't yet been PURGED by the corrupt and shameless Bush-Cheney administration... as their new sinister Attorney General, ALBERTO GONZALES, is trying to do all across America. (Six federal District Attorneys purged already, and counting.)
Our advice to Mr. Parry: MAKE IT PERSONAL! America LOVES a GOOD SCANDAL, one that wraps up arrogance and hubris with corruption and a spectacular downfall. Mr. Graham, Mr. Hiatt, and other professional Washington Post LIARS may not be the sexiest celebrity newsmakers in America, but there are millions of Americans who would like to see the curtain drawn from behind the Post's veil of "moral values" propriety and big-media arrogance.
And to Mr. Graham and Mr. Hiatt... THANKS for NOT noticing all those THOUSANDS of wounded and traumatized Iraq war combat veterans.. UNTIL March of 2007! Now of course the Post is going to be lauded for their "Veterans Neglected at Walter Reed" series of articles, even though any high-school journalist could have hoped aboard a DC bus, and written the same series of reports two or three years ago. (Much less at some of the even more neglected, out-of-the-way locations disabled veterans have been placed, such as rural Georgia Army bases.)
We remind, that domestic terrorist TIMMY McVEIGH was a COMBAT DECORATED Gulf War1 veteran, until his army career collapsed and he faced unemployment and back-charges for Army overpayment when he was discharged from the Army with honors following the end of the first Gulf War. McVeigh's suppressed rage, when it finally exploded, killed dozens of Americans, and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, when he finally acted on the Radical Right talking points that were dominating hate-radio in 1995 - the very sort of HATE RADIO talking points that Mr. Hiatt and MR. GRAHAM TACITLY SUPPORT this dozen years after McVeigh's murderous bombing.
(On the very day the Libby GUILTY verdict was being read, Mr. BOB NOVAK was sitting on-camera at FOX 'news' telling viewers that "NO CRIME HAS BEEN COMMITTED in this woeful prosecution of Mr. Libby" and of course hate-radio generalissimo supremo RUSH LIMBAUGH was also repeating the canard that Mr. Libby was as innocent as pre-bronze age driven snow.) (Novak was the Chicago Sun-Times 'reporter' who took the bait being offered by Cheney, Libby, and Karl Rove from the Bush White House; it was Novak who first put Valerie Plame's name in public circulation as a CIA employee in a syndicated Sun-Times column, and it was Novak who, the very next day, compounded his "outing" of Ms. Plame, by disclosing the name of the entire undercover CIA operation that was her spy cover in foreign nations, Brewster-Jennings Energy Consultants. Mr. Novak, Mr. Libby, and almost certainly Vice President Dick Cheney and Presidential politics advisor Karl Rove deserve the "credit" for DESTROYING AN ENTIRE CIA COVER ORGANIZATION.)
==================================
WPost's Editorial Fantasyland
By Robert Parry
March 8, 2007
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/030707a.html
Fred Hiatt’s Washington Post editorial page and George W. Bush’s presidency have a lot in common – most notably an arrogance of power so extreme that they believe their very words can alter reality.
With Bush, that record has been well established, from asserting that Saddam Hussein never let the U.N. inspectors in to hyping progress in the Iraq War. But editorial page editor Hiatt – in league with Post publisher Donald Graham – is not far behind.
After the conviction of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying about and covering up the Bush administration's outing of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, the Post’s lead editorial continues to manufacture a false history of the case, again slamming Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
The real reality of the case is that in 2003, a hubristic administration sought to damage a critic, Wilson, who had offended Vice President Dick Cheney by accusing the White House of having "twisted" Iraq War intelligence. The anti-Wilson operation ended up exposing Wilson’s CIA wife. Then, recognizing the potential criminality – not to mention the political dangers – the White House launched a cover-up.
But that is not what the Post’s editorial page wants you to understand. It pins much of the blame for the scandal on Joe Wilson, whom the Post says “will be remembered as a blowhard.” The Post also distorts Wilson’s statements in a way that parrots long-discredited White House talking points.
“Mr. Wilson was embraced by many because he was early in publicly charging that the Bush administration had ‘twisted,’ if not invented, facts in making the case for war against Iraq,” the Post editorial states.
“He claimed to have debunked evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger; suggested that he had been dispatched by Mr. Cheney to look into the matter; and alleged that his report had circulated at the highest levels of the administration.
“A bipartisan investigation by the Senate intelligence committee subsequently established that all of these claims were false – and that Mr. Wilson was recommended for the Niger trip by Ms. Plame, his wife.
“When this fact, along with Ms. Plame’s name, was disclosed in a column by Robert D. Novak, Mr. Wilson advanced yet another sensational charge: that his wife was a covert CIA operative and that senior White House officials had orchestrated the leak of her name to destroy her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson. …
“The [Libby] trial has provided convincing evidence that there was no conspiracy to punish Mr. Wilson by leaking Ms. Plame’s identity – and no evidence that she was, in fact, covert.” [Washington Post, March 7, 2007]
Editorial Lies
Astonishingly, everything in this Post attack on Wilson is either a gross distortion or a lie.
Contrary to the Post’s account, Wilson did debunk suspicions that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger. He was dispatched by the CIA because of questions asked by Cheney. (Wilson never said Cheney personally sent him.) His information did reach the highest levels of the administration, explaining why the CIA kept deleting references to the Niger claims from speeches.
The full Senate Intelligence Committee did not conclude that “all [Wilson’s] claims were false.” That assertion was pulled from “additional views” submitted by three right-wing Republicans – Sens. Pat Roberts, Orrin Hatch and Christopher Bond – who carried the White House’s water in claiming that Wilson’s statements “had no basis in fact.”
As for the CIA selection of Wilson, the Post editorial-page editors know that Wilson was chosen by senior CIA officials in the office of counter-proliferation – not by Valerie Plame – and that Wilson was well qualified for the assignment since he had served in embassies in Iraq and Niger. He also took on this task pro bono, with the CIA only paying for his expenses.
The Post knows, too, that Valerie Plame indeed was a covert CIA officer, despite the endless lying on this topic by right-wing operatives. Plus, Wilson was right again when he alleged that the White House was punishing him for his Iraq War criticism.
Indeed, the Washington Post’s own reporters have described this reality in the news pages. For instance, on Sept. 28, 2003, a Post news article reported that a White House official disclosed that the administration had informed at least six reporters about Plame and did so “purely and simply out of revenge” against Wilson.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald made the same point in a court filing in the Libby case, stating that the investigation had uncovered a “concerted” effort by the White House to “discredit, punish or seek revenge against” Wilson because of his criticism of the administration. Hiatt can look it up. It was on the Post's front page. [Washington Post, April 9, 2006]
As for the lack of evidence at trial about Plame’s covert status, the Post editorial leaves out the context: Libby’s defense attorneys argued against admission of that evidence on the grounds that it would prejudice jurors who might be enflamed by the idea of exposing a covert CIA officer and her spy network. In addition, Plame’s undercover work was not considered essential to a case narrowly constructed about Libby’s lying.
So, what can be said about a newspaper’s editorial board that willfully lies to its readers and slanders an American citizen, Joe Wilson, who took on a difficult assignment for his government at no pay and who later tried to blow the whistle on a White House misleading the public on an issue as important as war?
In a normal world, a newspaper would praise Wilson for his dedication and patriotism. But the Post editorial board can’t seem to get past its own gullibility in buying into the administration’s bogus WMD claims in 2002-03.
Rather than apologize for enabling Bush and Cheney to lead the nation into a disastrous war, Hiatt and Graham apparently have judged that they have the power to continue smearing Joe Wilson and other American citizens who had the foresight and courage to get the facts right.
[For more on the Post’s Iraq War editorials, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Shame on the Post’s Editorial Page,” “Smearing Joe Wilson Again” and “Shame of the WPost, Again.” For a special report on the Libby case, see “Zeroing in on Cheney-Bush.”]
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
No comments:
Post a Comment