----- Original Message ----- From: Chuck Grimes To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 10:59 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Re: Pentagon rebuts Hersh Iran story
``By his own admission, Mr. Hersh evidently is working on an "alternative history" novel. He is well along in that work, given the high quality of "alternative present" that he has developed in several recent articles.''
I wonder if they set him up for a fall... Leigh Meyers -------------
Well, after going through the article it doesn't sound like an alternate history novel to me. It sounds just like the kind over-inflated grandiose power moves that GWB, Rumsfeld and his neocons do all the time. It is long and rambling, but here are key parts: <> ~~
Oops, misattribution... no big thing, but it was an:
-----Original Message----- From: Eubulides <paraconsistent at comcast.net> On Behalf Of Leigh Meyers
<>
I wonder if they set him up for a fall...
<>
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Here's my thoughts on the topic:
< from a post to newsroom-l ostensibly about "Rathergate". >
I think the document was planted with the specific intent to discredit Rather, et al... with a spin (subtle forgery) that caused it to become the "Mother of all red herrings".
Hell, there isn't even unaminity that it *was* a forgery.
I think it was *set up* that way on purpose.
I think they gambled on the media's response to the crisis and they gambled correctly, self flagellation, and paralysis.
Slightly OT, here's what's happenning in the Sy Hersh story.
<Pentagon rebuttal press release>
Something tells me they may have just done the same thing to him, or there might be document fabrication coming up.
I think Hersh caught them red-handed, which may be why this reads more like a review, than a rebuttal. The Pentagon is stunned, like that Great Norwegian Blue parrot in the Monty Python skit, and they are hanging onto the perch by one dead claw.
They don't know what they can say... so denial is the order of the day. They say Hersh is wrong but they aren't waving any papers around to prove those denials
(Heh... denial is a feeder creek of the Potomac river.)
They'll say it's all secret... "We cannot confirm nor deny..." when the hard questions and demands for documentation come around from the Committees in Congress and the Senate.
I'll bet it's a bluff (and a stall).
I'd be concerned with document fabrications that prove the Pentagon's statement, but that would be a risky attempt to bring down a world respected reporter.
Sy Hersh is no Dan Rather, Dan rolled over years ago for that "anchor", but Sy Hersh? Unrepentant journalist.
(Also, he knows who he's messing with... been there before.)
Big risk for the Pentagon if he calls their bluff.
L
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