|
 When
Will CIA Leave Al Qaeda Alone?
… and Get Back To Hunting the President…
[by Mac Johnson] 11/8/05
Let’s
put Valerie Plame in charge of the CIA’s secret Al Qaeda
prisons. That way, when someone leaks the secret, the media
will have to pretend to care about secrecy again, instead of
splashing the story across the front page, complete with private
spy satellite photos of one prison’s layout.
Last week,
the mainstream media wanted to have Karl Rove and Scooter Libby
hanged without trial because of their tangential roles in “outing” Ms.
Plame, who was deep undercover on the Washington, D.C. cocktail
circuit and voluntarily using her administrative position at
the CIA to interject her covert opinions into the national
debate.
Contributor
Mac
Johnson
Mac
Johnson is a freelance writer and biologist in Cambridge,
Mass. Mr. Johnson holds a Doctorate in Molecular and
Cellular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He
is a frequent opinion contributor to Human
Events Online. His website can be found at macjohnson.com [go
to Johnson index]
|
This week,
they are indignantly “exposing” an actual
secret operation of the CIA -- covert detention facilities in
foreign countries at which the most dangerous Al Qaeda suspects
are being held and questioned by agents at least as brave and
worthy as the jet-setting Ms. Plame.
This may seem like
hypocrisy to the casual observer, but that is simply because
such an observer doesn’t realize the
true role of the CIA: collecting and manufacturing information
that could help damage George W. Bush. This is why Valerie Plame
is such a martyr/hero/role model/made-for-TV-movie-waiting-to-happen.
She used her covert position at the CIA to secretly orchestrate
a publicity stunt by her Democrat husband that was designed to
sway public opinion against Bush.
The only way such
a noble plot could possibly have failed was if some pesky whistleblower
in the government leaked to the media
that Plame’s husband, Clinton-appointed Ambassador to Gabon
Joe Wilson, had been sent on his anti-Bush “fact finding
trip” by his wife, not by an uninvolved and unbiased intelligence
operative or the real elected government of the United States,
as he claimed.
Tragically, Plame’s attempt to abuse her CIA position
to influence the outcome of the next Presidential election failed
for exactly this reason, leading to the greatest national security
scandal of all time: “Scootergate.” It is a sad day
for America when a CIA agent cannot even get her hack husband
on national TV to undermine the President without it blowing
her covert status, of which she was obviously very protective.
Compare this “leak” tragedy to the covert prison “expose.” In
the prison story, rogue agents of the CIA have apparently been
diverting resources from the high-priority battle against George
Bush to conduct some sort of private war against someone named “Osama
bin Laden,” who isn’t even a Republican.
Clearly, that is the sort of scandal that deserves to be exposed,
especially when one considers that the operation had not even
been cleared by Amnesty International or MoveOn.org.
Now, a jingoistic fascist could argue that such interrogation
facilities were being kept secret for a reason, and that exposing
them compromised both their mission and their physical security.
But that is just the sort of madman that thinks that terrorists
at Guantanamo should be denied cable TV or who fails to realize
that all news and events must be judged by one simple standard:
does it hurt George W. Bush?
Viewed through that lens, everything makes sense. Exposing secret
operation to manipulate American public opinion -- BAD. Exposing
secret operation to protect democracy from mass murdering fanatics
-- GOOD.
You see? No hypocrisy
at all. Both operations are being held to one consistent standard.
In their war against President Bush,
the mainstream media are willing to accept casualties. If they
have to hand propaganda victories, prison plans, or classified
intelligence operations to Al Qaeda so that they can bring down
President Bush, then that’s a sacrifice they are willing
to make.
And what about the
unknown government official that leaked the CIA prison story?
Why, he’s the biggest hero since Deep
Throat, or Patrick Fitzgerald. Because leaking to the media is
good, or bad. And it deserves to be prosecuted, or not. tOR
copyright
2005 Mac Johnson
§
|
