Lubbock
07-10-2006, 02:36 PM
The CIA Is Still After Bush
By Cliff Kincaid | July 10, 2006
The Washington Post on July 9 published an article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701146_pf.html), "When in Doubt, Publish," which began by saying that, "It is the business—and the responsibility—of the press to reveal secrets." It was signed by five major figures involved in the field of journalism education. In fact, however, it attempted to justify the publication of some—but not all—"secret" information. In the process of trying to sound like guardians of the public's right to know, they disclosed their preference for keeping the American people in the dark about what the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says is a major faction of the CIA that is deliberately subverting the foreign policy of the Bush Administration.
While the New York Times' violation of the law barring publication of classified communications intelligence information was justified by these titans of modern-day American journalism, there was said to be "no justification" at all for conservative columnist Bob Novak to have written a column identifying Valerie Plame as a "covert CIA officer." Claiming she had been "unmasked" by Novak, they implied that her employment status in the agency was a closely held secret and that revealing this information about her was a major threat to the national security of the U.S.
The Times is being excused for compromising secret programs to apprehend terrorists, while Novak is excoriated for writing about a CIA employee working a desk job and running a "front" company. This attitude helps explain why the media went into a feeding frenzy over the Novak column about Plame but defend the New York Times for publishing stories that facilitate the murder of Americans.
In contrast to the conduct of the Times, which disclosed a highly classified NSA program in clear violation of Section 798 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Novak's publication of Valerie Plame's name and affiliation with the CIA was not a violation of the law. The law which drove the investigation of the case did not apply to Novak, who was simply passing on information from administration officials about her role in getting her husband Joseph Wilson sent on a CIA mission to Africa. The law covered those who deliberately exposed a CIA officer's secret identity for the purpose of damaging U.S. intelligence. That was not the case here, and no charges in that regard have been filed.
Novak should be praised, not criticized, for bringing forth information that is still critically important to understanding the nature of the Wilson mission and the rogue CIA elements behind it. It is a story that we still need to know if U.S. intelligence agencies are to remain under the clear control of elected officials.
The signers of this Post column were Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California; John Lavine, dean, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University; Nicholas Lemann, dean, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; Orville Schell, dean, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley; and Alex S. Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center, Harvard University.
http://www.aim.org/special_report_print/4703_0_8_0/
By Cliff Kincaid | July 10, 2006
The Washington Post on July 9 published an article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701146_pf.html), "When in Doubt, Publish," which began by saying that, "It is the business—and the responsibility—of the press to reveal secrets." It was signed by five major figures involved in the field of journalism education. In fact, however, it attempted to justify the publication of some—but not all—"secret" information. In the process of trying to sound like guardians of the public's right to know, they disclosed their preference for keeping the American people in the dark about what the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says is a major faction of the CIA that is deliberately subverting the foreign policy of the Bush Administration.
While the New York Times' violation of the law barring publication of classified communications intelligence information was justified by these titans of modern-day American journalism, there was said to be "no justification" at all for conservative columnist Bob Novak to have written a column identifying Valerie Plame as a "covert CIA officer." Claiming she had been "unmasked" by Novak, they implied that her employment status in the agency was a closely held secret and that revealing this information about her was a major threat to the national security of the U.S.
The Times is being excused for compromising secret programs to apprehend terrorists, while Novak is excoriated for writing about a CIA employee working a desk job and running a "front" company. This attitude helps explain why the media went into a feeding frenzy over the Novak column about Plame but defend the New York Times for publishing stories that facilitate the murder of Americans.
In contrast to the conduct of the Times, which disclosed a highly classified NSA program in clear violation of Section 798 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, Novak's publication of Valerie Plame's name and affiliation with the CIA was not a violation of the law. The law which drove the investigation of the case did not apply to Novak, who was simply passing on information from administration officials about her role in getting her husband Joseph Wilson sent on a CIA mission to Africa. The law covered those who deliberately exposed a CIA officer's secret identity for the purpose of damaging U.S. intelligence. That was not the case here, and no charges in that regard have been filed.
Novak should be praised, not criticized, for bringing forth information that is still critically important to understanding the nature of the Wilson mission and the rogue CIA elements behind it. It is a story that we still need to know if U.S. intelligence agencies are to remain under the clear control of elected officials.
The signers of this Post column were Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California; John Lavine, dean, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University; Nicholas Lemann, dean, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; Orville Schell, dean, Graduate School of Journalism, University of California at Berkeley; and Alex S. Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center, Harvard University.
http://www.aim.org/special_report_print/4703_0_8_0/