[lit-ideas] Bird Flu, SCOTUS, Covers LIbby
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:15:15 -0500
Huffington mentions bird flu hooplah as part of the
administration's strategic misdirection. -EY
extract of:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/chris-matthews-and-the-po_b_10039.html
Sunday Sept. 8, 2002 was a red letter day in the White House Iraq
Group’s efforts to market the war. That was the day the
administration’s war salesmen scored one of their biggest
propaganda coups.
That morning, the New York Times ran a front page story
co-written by Judy Miller about how Saddam was trying to get a
hold of aluminum tubes to be used in building nuclear weapons.
Perfectly timed to coincide with this planted (and bogus) info,
the administration blanketed the Sunday shows with its big guns
-- who all used the New York Times’ credibility to bolster their
case against Saddam and scare the American people.
Dick Cheney did Meet the Press, citing the Times story as
evidence that Saddam was “actively and aggressively seeking to
acquire nuclear weapons”. Condi Rice went on Wolf Blitzer and
warned that the "smoking gun” in Iraq could turn out to be “a
mushroom cloud”. Colin Powell on Fox News Sunday, Don Rumsfeld on
Face the Nation, and Richard Meyers on This Week all made similar
points, raising the specter of a nuked up Saddam. A month later,
the House and Senate hastily authorized the administration to go
to war.
Of course, the Plamegate investigation has revealed the political
alchemy of turning crap into gold via a deadly game of neocon
telephone tag. Cheney to Libby to Chalabi to Miller back to Libby
for confirmation by “a senior administration official” (or is it
“former Hill staffer”?)… then right to the front pages of the
Times, which Cheney and Rice and Powell and Meyers and Rummy can
wave around as “proof”.
<snip>
Over the last two weeks, Hardball’s Chris Matthews has been
relentless in repeatedly bringing the significance of Sept. 8,
2002 -- and its larger implications -- home to his audience.
It’s been crusading journalism at its best. Making a crucial
point by repeating the story -- and the facts -- again and again
and again.
The GOP message machine would have us believe that the Libby
indictment has nothing to do with the selling of the war -- and
that the American people aren’t really interested in re-examining
the run-up to the war. “The American people,” Ken Mehlman told
Matthews last night in response to Harry Reid’s efforts, “want
their leaders to respond to this war on terror with seriousness,
not political stunts.” You mean like announcing the new Supreme
Court nominee the Monday after the VP’s chief of staff is
indicted, Ken? Or heralding a $7 billion plan to battle bird flu
the day after that?
<snip>
So there was Matthews last night, laying it out for his viewers:
MATTHEWS: One of the things we learned in this long
investigation regarding the CIA leak was the way in which the
Vice President’s office, Scooter Libby, in particular, was able
to use the press. He leaked to the New York Times the story that
there were aluminum tubes; there was, in fact, a case for a
nuclear weapons program by Saddam Hussein.
And then the three major figures in the administration, the
Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, went on Sunday
television, all pointed to that story that had been planted there
by Scooter Libby.
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