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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
Every time I read your work, I get to simultaneous feelings: horror (that these things need to be uncovered at all in my country) and gratefulness (that someone is bothering). I hope Sen. Leahy reads your column.
simultaneous feelings
First paragraph of your post
Thanks for connecting the dots.
I've always had a sharp interest in the anthrax case if for no other reason, for the profound lack of coverage once the FBI stopped running over Hatfill's toes. I always found the lack of interest one of the most troubling aspects of the case.
I'm not fond of conspiracy yarns and I share your interest in confining arguments to those for which good evidence can be attached, but the rotting smell eminating from this particualr episode in history is hard to ignore.
I don't know. He seems more like a fall guy than anything else. I'm going to put on my JFK Mr. X fedora and state that this feels like a false flag operation designed to drive the war into Iraq and targeted, coincidently enough, at people in congress and the press who might have been able to stop the war earlier.
Now what? I guess we'll never get to the bottom of this. How sad. Well played shadowy dark forces who seem to be running things. Of course, we should hope that Obama isn't "partisan" and doesn't demand anything "strident" like making sure a war criminal like George Bush faces impeachment charges and a one way ticket to the Hague.
Philip Shropshire
http://www.threeriversonline.com
PS: By the way, in case you missed my comments yesterday (letter 372 I think), please consider grilling and interviewing election fraud experts Bob Fitrakis, Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller for your new podcast. This is yet another glaring blind spot from both atriots and kossacks in that even after witnessing two national presidential elections stolen they don't want to do anything or demand anything to prevent it from happening again.
PPS: Agree with you about the Blue dogs but go one step further. Consider third party and independent candidates in house and senate races where the choice is between the DLC and the GOP. But be realistic. You need 1 million to fund a viable house campaign and 2 million to fund a viable senate campaign. Take a hard look at Cindy Sheehan's campaign against Pelosi and try to put at least 50 grand into that race by hook or by crook. I might know a way if anyone's curious...
If one of the sources for ABC's story was Ivins or an associate of Ivins, planting this story would have been misdirection designed to cover up a crime.
You don't even have to go as far as Glenn does, and argue that the bentonite story was part of the propaganda campaign against Iraq. What if it was just a plain, old run of the mill cover story devised by Ivins or friends of his to throw suspicion off of Fort Detrick researchers? For no political reason at all? If there's even a possibility that was the case, by protecting their source here ABC is allowing themselves to be duped by a criminal or criminals.
Obviously if the political element here is anything like Glenn's speculations, this is a huge story. But I think it's a major story even if there was no political element at all.
And I was really stunned at the amazing efficiency of our news services in this country, that a guy dying of an obscure illness in a Florida hospital could have his death reported almost in real time on NPR.
From the beginning, there was really wrong with the story -- the reporting was too thorough, too detailed too soon, then it collapsed in confusing contradictory detail about the source of the anthrax.
Glenn, your focus on ABC offers an extraordinary perspective on how this event was clearly used as propaganda.
Cohen wrote: "The attacks were not entirely unexpected. I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it."
By what moral, ethical or legal calculus can a person keep such information secret, either now or (especially) back in 2001? Who was this "high government official", what did he/she say, and what was the mysterious roundabout route this info took to reach Cohen's ear?
If Cohen, Brian Ross & ABC News and others would break their ill-advised and immoral silence on this matter, we might finally know the truth about the anthrax attacks. If, if, if...
I can't believe Richard Cohen's stated reaction to the 9-11 anthrax attacks -- was he really carrying Cipro around with him? He needs to be institutionalized.
I guess what's needed is for a special prosector to put Brian Ross on the stand and make him talk. But it will never happen. There's nobody in the Democratic leadership with the testicular fortitude to go there.
Thanks, Glenn, for another great post. Now that Scott Horton is no longer posting daily, you're all I've got.
I remember that I never bought the whole Iraq link for the simple reason that it seemed to be Democrats or allegedly liberal institutions that were targeted. You’d think Saddam would want to go after the “tough on terror” Neocon hawks and not the terrorist loving Democrats. But what do I know….
Wasn’t it also in May 2001 that Senator Jim Jeffords jumped ship on the Republicans giving the Democrats a majority, though a slim one, in the Senate? I wonder why Saddam would be so eager to assist the Republicans by trying to take down a Democratic senator.
I didn’t buy it then, I never did, and now we know there are folks at ABC news who are traitors plain and simple. That damn liberal media!
I've never subscribed to the 9/11 conspiracies, but this truly gives me pause. Did highly placed government officials, with access to anthrax, decide in the days after 9/11 to take advantage of the climate in the country in order to sow more fear? Did they perhaps even have more involvement with - or at least foreknowledge of - the 9/11 attacks?
At the very least, highly placed government officials used the anthrax attacks to misdirect blame on Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Could the anthrax attacks themselves have been the work of a conspiracy of high government officials?
I think this article makes a very compelling case that ABS News must disclose their sources.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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