> who's going to grass it?
>
What I mean is that the Bushies and their media allies will go after
him with a vengeance to destroy his credibility: "This guy Hersh makes
things up -- nobody should believe him." The Pentagon is doing this
already, and it fits in with the Imhofe thesis that the exposure and
denunciation of the Abu Ghraib tortures were much worse than the events
themselves.
On Sunday, May 16, 2004, at 10:25 AM, Jeffrey Fisher wrote:
> On Sunday, May 16, 2004, at 10:19 AM, snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
> wrote:
>
>>> Is it more than a feud between two agencies of the Imperial
>>> Government?
>>
>> Why should it be?
>
> exactly. divide and conquer . . . cf. lincoln paraphrasing the gospel
> of mark: a house divided against itself cannot stand; the devil
> fighting the devil, this is . . .
Yes, the story Hersh tells could easily be just a CYA tale cooked up by the CIA to put the blame on the Pentagon (specifically the military intelligence), since it purports to tell about a "black" project, the existence of which the Pentagon could easily deny (and is denying). If so, that would mean the CIA and the Pentagon divided from each other and quarreling bitterly over who is to blame for the Abu Ghraib stuff, but this is an old story -- they've been back-biting each other since Noah and the Ark.
But if Hersh's story is really true, it would be much more important. That's why I hope it can be substantiated. Perhaps as the investigations continue, and the court martials, some independent evidence might turn up. But I don't think congressional investigations themselves will help much, despite the brave talk of Sens. Levin, Kennedy, Biden, etc., because congressional committees get very skittish when anything supposedly "black" comes up; they go right into executive session.
This suggests that another "impossible demand" the Left should be making is that Congress start investigating *everything* the Defense Department, CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies are doing -- including the intelligence agencies we have never heard about. And *all* of their budgets should be public, not hidden here and there in obscure budget items the way they are now. Otherwise, our argument would be, more Abu Ghraibs and Guantanamos will continue to pop up forever.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)