C.U.ANON ...

© 2001-2012 MBI – All  Rights Reserved  

'Zero Dark Thirty' Ignites a Torture Debate - But Is It the Right One?

By Alexander C. Kaufman
Published: January 28, 2013 @ 12:43 p

 Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" has inspired passionate debate about whether the waterboarding it depicts really helped lead Navy SEALS to a secret Pakistani compound where they killed Osama bin Laden.

But the film has also -- almost imperceptibly -- changed our national debate about toture by illustrating waterboarding for a mass audience for the first time.

TimeThe debate over the practice was largely tabled after President Obama banned its use quickly after coming into office in January 2009. But "Zero Dark Thirty" has revived it, and the film has gained enough attention to land Bigelow on the cover of Time.

Whether or not the film's depiciton of waterboarding is accurate, Americans can now discuss the same set of images instead of relying on their own perceptions of what it looks like. And almost everyone who sees it, from the right and left, agrees the version of waterboarding seen in the film looks like torture.

At the height of the war on terror, Americans were deeply divided on whether waterboarding was truly horrific or merely another unpleasant indignity inflicted on people being interrogated, like uncomfortable chairs or loud music.

Also read: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Hits the U.K.: Did Critics Zero in on Torture Scenes? [4]

A few years ago, varied perspectives on what waterboarding was colored the strikingly different perspectives of what happened to prisoners at CIA black sites. A July 2005 poll of 1,500 people by the Pew Research Center found that 43 percent were in favor of the use of waterboarding, with 53 percent opposed.

The next year, Vice President Dick Cheney went along with a questioner who characterized waterboarding as "a dunk in water," saying the issue was "a no-brainer."

That was just one attempt by the Bush administration to reframe what opponents called torture, using phrases like "enhanced interrogation techniques."

Years later, there is nothing resembling consensus on whether torture works. And "Zero Dark Thirty" has only inflamed opinons on the subject.

But at least it has framed a debate.

"The torture debate certainly shifted as a result, with conservatives pointing to the end game (we got Osama) and liberals shaking their fingers at how we caught him," Christian Toto, an editor and movie reviewer for the conservative site Breitbart.com, told TheWrap. "Great movies provoke these kinds of discussions. Ideological films, which Hollywood all too often delivers, tell us what to think."

Also read: Kathryn Bigelow on 'Zero Dark Thirty' Torture Scenes: 'Depiction Is Not Endorsement' [5]

But the question remains: Did the movie provide the right frame?

"The depiction has contributed to what is a distorted and incomplete debate about torture, and that's because the film starts off by claiming that it is based on first-hand accounts of facts," said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's national security project. "It's a story that's about people who tortured, that humanizes the torturers. I don't think it glorifies torture, but it goes a long way toward justifying it."

She said the film's long opening scene, in which a detainee has water dumped on his cloth-covered face, leaves audiences believing it was a necessary evil. Pultizer Prize-winner Steve Coll to Sen. Dianne Feinstein are among those who say waterboarding did not, in fact, lead to bin Laden's death.

So far, Bigelow has said little about the accusations. She claimed artistic license with the film, and said more than once that "depiction is not endorsement."

"If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time," she wrote in an essay in the Los Angeles Times earlier this month.

But Shamsi said the narrative, which focuses on a young, female C.I.A. agent hellbent on finding bin Laden, makes a hero of the wrong character.

"Ms. Bigelow talks about how the Jessica Chastain character was courageous -- what was courageous about what she did? The fact that she crossed the line into illegality and immorality?" she said of Bigelow's Time interview. "What I thought was truly courageous in those years were the heroes within the CIA and the military who objected despite the tremendous pressure they were under from their political leaders."

The Heritage Foundation's James Carafano also takes issue with the film, but for a different reason: He said actual waterboarding is conducted within the confines of the Geneva Convention, with a physician present. That keeps it from crossing the line into torture, he said.

"They portrayed the public perception of what they think waterboarding looks like, but not how it works," Carafano, vice president of foreign policy and defense studies and a retired Army officer, told TheWrap. "Hollywood is just giving people what they expect."

He said "Zero Dark Thirty" did nothing to change the waterboarding debate and has just "momentarily struck a raw nerve because it's so brutal."

"The torture scenes -- they're not torture scenes," he said, and quickly rephrased: "The enhanced interrogation scenes, they're not accurate."

Related Articles: 
'Zero Dark Thirty' Blasts Past Controversy, 'Gangster Squad' at Box Office [6]
'Zero Dark Thirty' Adds Washington, Boston, New York Online Honors to its Awards Haul (Updated) [7]

Tags: debate [8], Movies [9], torture [10], waterboarding [11], zdt [12], zero dark thirty [13]
Source URL: http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/zero-dark-thirty-sparks-torture-debate-it-right-one-74666
Links:
[1] http://www.thewrap.com/movies
[2] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/brooke-shields-signs-hitch-lifetimes-army-wives-74661
[3] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/coachella-2013-red-hot-chili-peppers-blur-phoenix-headline-lineup-74681
[4] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/zero-dark-thirty-hits-uk-did-critics-zero-torture-scenes-74696
[5] http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/kathryn-bigelow-toes-familiar-line-la-times-op-ed-73286
[6] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/zero-dark-thirty-blasts-past-controversy-gangster-squad-box-office-72691
[7] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/zero-dark-thirty-adds-boston-new-york-online-honors-68516
[8] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articles/debate
[9] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articles/movies
[10] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articles/torture
[11] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articles/waterboarding
[12] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articles/zdt
[13] http://www.thewrap.com/movies/articles/zero%20dark%20thirty{--------------------------------------------------------}

Open Source Software InstituteOSSI DHS Industry Day

Monday, January 14, 2013 (7:00AM - 5:00PM)
Hosted by OSSI @ Conference Center at the Maritime Institute

Monday January 14th (next Monday)

Download conference program here! Download

OSSI Industry Day focused on the needs of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Registration is closing soon!

Join key decision makers from DHS, DoD Cyber Crime Center, NSA, NGA, OSD, DNI, NIST, GSA, US Treasury, Department of Commerce, VA, HHS, SSN and industry leaders SUSE, Red Hat, BAE, NG, HP ESP, Carasoft and many more in thought provoking discussion.
US citizenship is required.

Exhibit Tables: $350 per table and includes registration for one person.

Attendance: $99 per person including meals includes continental breakfast and lunch.

Opening remarks by Joe Jarzombek /DHS and Bob Bigman /CIA CISO (recently retired)

Track 1 - Software Assurance

Ambassador Joe Jarzombek , DHS Director Software Assurance National Cyber Security Division

Track Leader John Farrell/HP Enterprise Security Products

Session 1 - Policy and Governance - Government Perspective (all Government panel)

Moderator - Rob Roy/HP
Panel Members

Session 2 - Process/Practice/Expectations for building Mission Critical Software

Moderator - Dan Risacher /DoD
Panel Members

Session 3 - Cyber Security Tools and Technologies

Moderator - Kris Britton /NSA
Panel Members

Track 2 - Open Source Software Life Cycle Management

Ambassador Don Hagerling, Director, Information Security Policy, Focused Operations & Security Architect, DHS Office of the CIO

Track Leader Adam Morgan /SUSE AMorgan@suse.com

Session 1 - Lessons Learned - Presentation by Dr. David Wheeler - Insitute for Defense Analysis

Moderated by John Weathersby /OSSI

Session 2 - Managing Requirements and Expectations

Moderator - Mike Atkins /Incident Logic CEO
Panel Members
  • Josh Davis /Georgia Tech
  • Luke Berndt /DHS S&T
  • Glen Schoonoer/Koolspan
  • Merrick Watchorn/TASC
  • Stefania Brown-Vanhoozer/ORNL

Session 3 - Answering the Support Question for Open Source Software

Moderator - Tim Kirk/Supreme Soft
Panel Members
  • John Keane /MHS
  • Mark Piermarini/SUSE
  • Bruce Goldfeder/Data Tactics Corporation
  • Shakeel Tufail/HP Enterprise Security Products
  • Robert Riegle/Mission Concepts

Track 3 - Future of Open Source Technology

Ambassador Doug Maughan , DHS Division Director Cyber Security Division, Science and Technology Directorate

Track Leader Ely Kahn /Sqrrl ely@sqrrl.com


Session 1 - Hardware - Embedded/Software Defined Systems

Moderator - David Knox /Oracle
Panel Members

Session 2 - Big Data Analytics

Moderator - Doug Naquin /CIA (retired)
Panel Members

Session 3 - Making it Rain - Clouds of Open Source

Moderator - Oren Falkowitz /CEO/Sqrrl
Panel Members
  • Scott Ruff/VMWare
  • Andrew DiSilvestre / Terramark
  • Dave Egts/Red Hat
  • David Nalley /CloudStack Contributor/Citrix Systems
  • Tim Bixler/Federal Manager/Amazon (invited)

Case Studies

DHS HOST Program

Moderated by Jack Kurtz/Sqrrl the presented by Luke Berndt /DHS S&T/HOST Program Manager and Josh Davis /Georgia Tech/HOST Prime Contractor

Value of Commercial Open Source

Moderated by John Weathersby /OSSI and presentated by Dave Egts/Principal Architect/Red Hat

DHS OCIO - ICE PIV Card

Presentation by Joe Broghamer/DHS ICE/Office of the CIO.

OpenSSL 2012 FIPS 140-2 Validation #1747

Moderated by Jack Kurtz/Sqrrl and presentated by Dr. David Wheeler/Institute for Defense Analysis

Federal Adoption of Open Source

Presentation by Dan Risacher /Office of the CIO/Department of Defense

Open Source Big data Analysis

Moderated by John Weathersby /OSSI and presented by Mary Galvin/LexisNexis

Keynote Address - Role of OSS in Future Government IT Equations.

Mid Day presentation time real life example of Open Source Technology Deployed During Hurricane Sandy

Presentation by Persistent Systems and the US Coast Guard Sector New York
The United States Coast Guard's Sector New York (USCG Sector NY), located on the Staten Island waterfront, was recently overcome by Hurricane Sandy. They lost all network connectivity, and backup SATCOM connections were too slow and unreliable. Slow communications prevented the USCG Sector NY (Captain of the Port New York) from effectively participating in rescue efforts and other key operations post Sandy. Hear how rapid deployment of software defined radios re-established communications in record time.

Closing remarks - The Business Model for Open Source

Presented by Keith Trippie /Executive Director for Enterprise System Development Office/DHS/CIO

Visit these Open Source Exhibitors

SUSE  (Platinum Member)

Red Hat  (Platinum Member)

CAST Software

HP Enterprise Security Products

Aspect Security

Persistent Systems

Basho Technologies

OpenGEO

RTI

CyVision

and many others...

Agency Exhibits from

Department of Homeland Security

National Geospatial Agency

National Security Agency

State of Maryland

Read more »
 http://oss-institute.org/calendar/upcoming-events
-------------------------------------------------| 
Published on TheWrap TV 
 (http://www.thewrap.com)

The 5 Best TV Shows of 2012

The 5 Best TV Shows of 2012


Published: December 26, 2012 @ 5:48 pm



"Louie" is still TV's best comedy. The final season of "30 Rock" is filled with everything we love about "30 Rock." "Homeland" has some magnificent acting, and who am I to argue with all those Emmy wins?

But none of them made my list of the five best shows of 2012. Neither did very good shows like "Girls," "Modern Family," "Veep" or "Justified."

"Nashville" is my favorite new drama -- and maybe the best network drama overall -- but it didn't make the list either, despite an engaging mix of soapy stories, engaging stories and gorgeous songs.

Maybe next year.

The word "best" is subjective. But these are the five shows I never, ever miss. I didn't choose them for the list. They chose me. I can't miss them. I can't go to sleep without thinking about them. I can't believe the time is near that one of them will end.
Here they are.

5. "The Walking Dead"
 
We hear a lot about mindless hordes making hits of terrible shows. But maybe the masses aren't so mindless after all. "The Walking Dead" began its best season this year even as millions of new viewers discovered the show, making it television's top-rated drama. (The AMC series also has a legitimate shot at becoming the top-rated scripted show.) The show has finally lived up to the compulsively readable comics that inspired it -- and it hasn't hurt that their writer, Robert Kirkman, is one of its executive producers. Everything about "The Walking Dead" came together in season 3: The acting is top-notch. The pacing is ferocious. And the zombies have never looked so revolting.  Of course, nothing good ever lasts forever. Showrunner Glen Mazzara, who has worked hard to achieve the show's fast pace, is leaving at the end of the season. Whoever takes over will have a very hard act to follow.

Also read: 4 Things Networks Can Learn From 'The Walking Dead' [5]

4. "Mad Men"
 
I'm grateful that the show's fifth season even happened. Creator Matthew Weiner threatened to walk in a contract dispute with AMC, leading to a 17-month break between seasons. But Weiner and his team seem to have used every spare second coming up with mesmerizing moments, from Jessica Pare's performance of "Zou Bisou Bisou [6]" to the British-to-the-end tragedy of Lane Pryce [7] (Jared Harris.) 

"Mad Men" was exquisite this season. Even the rare missteps (we still don't believe Joan would sleep with a client like that) were welcome, because they helped us recognize the perfection of nearly every other scene. Why is an almost-perfect show only at No. 4? Because I'm spoiled by four past brilliant seasons of "Mad Men." The wow factor has worn off, and now "Mad Men" is only coasting on its excellence.

3. "Game of Thrones"

No show does better spectacles. Actually, no anything does better spectacles. This was the year "Game of Thrones" sank an armada with green fire. But the show has also created a new world that feels vivid, fantastical and authentic enough to be terrifying. It's a great series if you like dragons and swordplay, but an even better one if you like cutting dialogue and politics. Every second Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) appears on screen feels like a gift. And despicable teen king Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) is single-handedly making me reconsider my position on the death penalty for minors.

Novelist George R.R. Martin's thousands of pages gave showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff plenty to work with, but also handed the show scads of information to convey. The writers have made a wonderful game of it, giving us backstory through sex scenes, swordfights -- anything but voiceovers.

Also read: 'Game of Thrones' Gets Expanded Episodes for Season 3 [8]

2. "Breaking Bad"
 
Creator Vince Gilligan seems to be every bit as diabolical as his antihero, Walter White (Bryan Cranston). But Gilligan seems to be having a lot more fun. "Breaking Bad" is probably the best show ever made (sorry, "The Wire,") but this season felt like the ramp up to the real chaos: The final eight episodes air next year. One of the most thrilling things about "Breaking Bad" is how quickly its clear, methodical storytelling takes sudden, violent turns -- but the simple moments can be just as devastating, like the one in a bathroom that ended the first half of season five.

Every turn, no matter how shocking, is earned, through TV's most naturalistic acting and  storytelling as carefully plotted as any I've seen. (Yes, this is the third AMC show on this list, which is especially impressive given the network's difficult relationships with its showrunners. Let's hope it will learn to keep them happy.)

Also read: The 'Breaking Bad' Interviews: a Season 5 Preview [9]

1. "Boardwalk Empire"
 
"Boardwalk Empire" is even good at being boring. Despite its cavalcade of jumpy gangsters, the Prohibition gangster epic could easily have been one of those shows where dandy people speak pretty lines. In past seasons, it sometimes has been. But this year, "Boardwalk" found the perfect mix of romanticism, crime, politics and tragedy. Especially tragedy. It seemed impossible that the show could stay as good as it was in its first two seasons after dispatching one of its most beloved characters. 

But somehow, in season 3, it got better. Sometimes it lulled us into thinking nothing was happening -- what's this bit about the Treasury Department? -- until someone was doused in gasoline. It was beautiful and grotesque. Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson found himself, Al Capone (Stephen Graham) made friends with Chalkie White (Michael K. Williams), a beautiful girl perished in an horrible, gorgeous explosion. And am I the only one who just realized the kid who did the botched heroin delivery grows up to be Bugsy Siegel? "Boardwalk" has an endless array of captivating characters, but doles them out carefully. When Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) finally gets a moment to do what he does best, you wonder why the show needs anyone else. Then it reminds you. Again and again. It rewards everyone who watches, but gives the most to those who watch the most closely.



Related Articles: 
'The Walking Dead': 4 Things Networks Can Learn From the Cable Show That's Beating Them [5]
'Boardwalk Empire' Creator on Legalizing Drugs and Making Nucky Likeable Again [10]
'Walking Dead' Showrunner Glen Mazzara Leaving [11]


--------------------------------------------------------|

Army Goes Goth With ‘Super-Black’ Materials

Get ready to break out the eyeliner and the candelabras, because the Army is going goth.

In its latest round of solicitations for small businesses, the Army is asking for proposals for super-black material. That is, material so black that it absorbs 99 percent of all light. But it isn’t really black paint, exactly. The plan is to use either an “antireflective coating or surface treatment process for metals” to absorb stray light “in the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared regions.” This, the Army hopes, will boost the quality of high-resolution cameras, while also cooling down sensitive electronics. Or to put it another way: The Army needs the color black to reflect its icy-cold heart.

 Another curious thing is that the program is being run out of the Army’s Program Executive Office Ammunition at the Picatinny Arsenal, a main center for the Pentagon’s experiments in all sorts of weapons: from rifles and tank cannons to directed-energy weapons. But the purpose of the solicitation isn’t much more specific than described. “Simply put, it’s too early yet to speculate on where the technology(s) will go,” Frank Misurelli, an Army spokesman at Picatinny said in a statement provided to Danger Room. ”Possibly in a few months, after an contract has been awarded, more information may become available.”

 But for whatever the Army wants to fade to black, it seems that regular black isn’t good enough. This is because most black paint will absorb only around 90-95 percent of light, with the other 5-10 percent reflected back outwards. For a high-resolution camera, that stray light can bounce back into the lens and interfere with the quality of an image. It’s even a problem for NASA’s ultra-deep-space sensors. In the extreme coldness of space, black paint turns a silver-y color, which increases heat and can interfere with infrared-detecting instruments.

But wait, doesn’t black get really hot when hit with light, like wearing black clothes during the summer? The answer is: sorta. Black is really good at absorbing heat, but is also really good at radiating heat away. This is why cooling fins, radiators and engines for cars and trucks are often painted black. In 2011, NASA developed a carbon-nanotube coating that absorbed between 98-99.5 percent of light, depending on the wavelength. Nor do the coating’s thin layers of nanotubes change color in extreme cold. They absorb more light, and help radiate heat away from instruments, keeping them cold.

 The Army could go another route. A second option uncovered by Britain’s National Physical Laboratory involves immersing an object in a solution of nickel and sodium for several hours, which blackens the color, and then taking it out and dunking it in nitric acid for a few seconds. According to New Scientist, this creates an alloy pock-marked with tiny microscopic craters that prevent light from bouncing away.

 Finally, the Army also hopes to expand the materials to “optical glass surfaces” — camera lenses, in other words — while testing to see whether “it will be able to survive in a military environment.” The material should also come in “multiple surface colors” and be able to “selectively exhibit earth color instead of broadband absorption.” And another hope is to use the materials to absorb water to cool down equipment. See, it’s tough out there being goth, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do it in comfort.

FULL ARTICLE HERE....

---------------------------------------------|

C.U.ANON....

© 2001-2012 MBI – All  Rights Reserved 

FROM: BKNT-US/94

[ed.note: Outside of opinions expressed below, and the distinct exception of Oliver Stone's depiction of former New Orleans District Attorney Big Jim Garrison, much of the below is TRUE.

But LONG--WSM]
 
Feed: The Constantine Report
Posted on: Thursday, November 29, 2012 2:16 PM
Author: admin
Subject: How the Washington Post Censors the News


A Letter to the Washington Post

 By Julian C. Holmes
 (April 25, 1992)
Richard Harwood, Ombudsman
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20071

 Dear Mr. Harwood,

 Though the Washington Post does not over-extend itself in the pursuit of hard news, just let drop the faintest rumor of a government “conspiracy”, and a klaxon horn goes off in the news room. Aroused from apathy in the daily routine of reporting assignations and various other political and social sports events, editors and reporters scramble to the phones. The klaxon screams its warning: the greatest single threat to herd-journalism, corporate profits, and government stability — the dreaded “CONSPIRACY THEORY”!!

 It is not known whether anyone has actually been hassled or accosted by any of these frightful spectres, but their presence is announced to Post readers with a salvo of warnings to avoid the tricky, sticky webs spun by the wacko “CONSPIRACY THEORISTS”.

 Recall how the Post saved us from the truth about Iran-Contra.

 Professional conspiracy exorcist Mark Hosenball was hired to ridicule the idea that Oliver North and his CIA-associated gangsters had conspired to do wrong (*1). And when, in their syndicated column, Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta discussed some of the conspirators, the Post sprang to protect its readers, and the conspirators, by censoring the Anderson column before printing it (*2). [T]

 But for some time the lid had been coming off the Iran-Contra conspiracy. In 1986, the Christic Institute, an interfaith center for law and public policy, had filed a lawsuit alleging a U.S. arms-for-drugs trade that helped keep weapons flowing to the CIA-Contra army in Nicaragua, and cocaine flowing to U.S. markets (*3). In 1988 Leslie Cockburn published Out of Control, a seminal work on our bizarre, illegal war against Nicaragua (*4). 

The Post contributed to this discovery process by disparaging the charges of conspiracy and by publishing false information about the drug-smuggling evidence presented to the House Subcommittee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. When accused by Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY). of misleading reporting, the Post printed only a partial correction and declined to print a letter of complaint from Rangel (*5).

 Sworn testimony before Senator John Kerry’s Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations confirmed U.S. Government complicity in the drug trade (*6). With its coverup of the arms/drug conspiracy evaporating, the ever-accommodating Post shifted gears and retained Hosenball to exorcise from our minds a newly emerging threat to domestic tranquility, the “October Surprise” conspiracy (*7). But close on the heels of Hosenball and the Post came Barbara Honegger and then Gary Sick who authored independently, two years apart, books with the same title, “October Surprise” (*8).

 Honegger was a member of the Reagan/Bush campaign and transition teams in 1980. Gary Sick, professor of Middle East Politics at Columbia University, was on the staff of the National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan. In 1989 and 1991 respectively, Honegger and Sick published their evidence of how the Republicans made a deal to supply arms to Iran if Iran would delay release of the 52 United States hostages until after the November 1980 election. The purpose of this deal was to quash the possibility of a pre-election release (an October surprise). which would have bolstered the reelection prospects for President Carter.

 Others published details of this alleged Reagan-Bush conspiracy. In October 1988, Playboy Magazine ran an expose “An Election Held Hostage”; FRONTLINE did another in April 1991 (*9). 

[And later retracted much of it in a subsequent hour-long documentary a year later.]

In June, 1991 a conference of distinguished journalists, joined by 8 of the former hostages, challenged the Congress to “make a full, impartial investigation” of the election/hostage allegations. The Post reported the statement of the hostages, but not a word of the conference itself which was held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building Auditorium (*10). 

On February 5, 1992 a gun-shy, uninspired House of Representatives begrudgingly authorized an “October Surprise” investigation by a task force of 13 congressmen headed by Lee Hamilton (D-IN). who had chaired the House of Representatives Iran-Contra Committee. Hamilton has named as chief team counsel Larry Barcella, a lawyer who represented BCCI when the Bank was indicted in 1988 (*11).

 Like the Washington Post, Hamilton had not shown interest in pursuing the U.S. arms-for-drugs operation (*12). He had accepted Oliver North’s lies, [True lies], and as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee he derailed House Resolution 485 which had asked President Reagan to answer questions about Contra support activities of government officials and others (*13). 

After CIA operative John Hull (from Hamilton’s home state). was charged in Costa Rica with “international drug trafficking and hostile acts against the nation’s security”, Hamilton and 18 fellow members of Congress tried to intimidate Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez into handling Hull’s case “in a manner that will not complicate U.S.-Costa Rican relations” (*14). The Post did not report the Hamilton letter or the Costa Rican response that declared Hull’s case to be “in as good hands as our 100 year old uninterrupted democracy can provide to all citizens” (*15).

 Though the Post does its best to guide our thinking away from conspiracy theories, it is difficult to avoid the fact that so much wrongdoing involves government or corporate conspiracies:

 In its COINTELPRO operation, the FBI used disinformation, forgery, surveillance, false arrests, and violence [?] to illegally harass U.S.citizens in the 60′s (*16).

 The CIA’s Operation MONGOOSE illegally sabotaged Cuba by “destroying crops, brutalizing citizens, destabilizing the society, and conspiring with the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro and other leaders” (*17). [T]

 “Standard Oil of New Jersey was found by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice to be conspiring with I.G.Farben…of Germany. …By its cartel agreements with Standard Oil, the United States was effectively prevented from developing or producing [fo rWorld War-II] any substantial amount of synthetic rubber,” said Senator Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin (*18).

 U.S. Government agencies knowingly withheld information about dosages of radiation “almost certain to produce thyroid abnormalities or cancer” that contaminated people residing near the nuclear weapons factory at Hanford, Washington (*19). [T]

 Various branches of Government deliberately drag their feet in getting around to cleaning up the Nation’s dangerous nuclear weapons sites (*20). State and local governments back the nuclear industry’s secret public relations strategy (*21).

 “The National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and some twenty comprehensive cancer centers, have misled and confused the public and Congress by repeated claims that we are winning the war against cancer. In fact, the cancer establishment has continually minimized the evidence for increasing cancer rates which it has largely attributed to smoking and dietary fat, while discounting or ignoring the causal role of avoidable eposures to industrial carcinogens in the air, food, water, and the workplace.” (*22).

 The Bush Administration coverup of its pre-Gulf-War support of Iraq “is yet another example of the President’s people conspiring to keep both Congress and the American people in the dark” (*23). [T]

 If you think about it, conspiracy is a fundamental aspect of doing business in this country.

 Take the systematic and cooperative censorship of the Persian Gulf War by the Pentagon and much of the news media (*24). [T]

 Or the widespread plans of business and government groups to spend $100 million in taxes to promote a distorted and truncated history of Columbus in America (*25). along the lines of the Smithsonian Institution’s “fusion of the two worlds”, (*26). rather than examining more realistic aspects of the Spanish invasion, like “anger, cruelty, gold, terror, and death” (*27). [T]

 Or circumstances surrounding the U.S. Justice Department theft from the INSLAW company of sophisticated, law-enforcement computer software which “now point to a widespread conspiracy implicating lesser Government officials in the theft of INSLAW’s technology”, says former U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson (*28). [T]

 Or Watergate.

 Or the “largest bank fraud in world financial history” (*29), where the White House knew of the criminal activities at “the Bank of Crooks and Criminals International” (BCCI) (*30), where U.S. intelligence agencies did their secret banking (*31), and where bribery of prominent American public officials “was a way of doing business” (*32). [T]

 Or the 1949 conviction of “GM [General Motors], Standard Oil of California, Firestone, and E. Roy Fitzgerald, among others, for criminally conspiring to replace electric transportation with gas- and diesel-powered buses and to monopolize the sale of buses and related products to transportation companies throughout the country” [in, among others, the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Oakland, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles] (*33). [T]

 Or the collusion in 1973 between Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT). and the U.S. Department of Transportation to overlook safety defects in the 1.2 million Corvair automobiles manufactured by General Motors in the early 60′s (*34).

 Or the A. H. Robins Company, which manufactured the Dalkon Shield intrauterine contraceptive, and which ignored repeated warnings of the Shield’s hazards and which “stonewalled, deceived, covered up, and covered up the coverups…[thus inflicting] on women a worldwide epidemic of pelvic infections.” (*35). [T]

 Or that cooperation between McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Company and the FAA resulted in failure to enforce regulations regarding the unsafe DC-10 cargo door which failed in flight killing all 364 passengers on Turkish Airlines Flight 981 on March 3, 1974 (*36). [T]

 Or the now-banned, cancer-producing pregnancy drug Diethylstilbestrol (DES). that was sold by manufacturers who ignored tests which showed DES to be carcinogenic; and who acted “in concert with each other in the testing and marketing of DES for miscarriage purposes” (*37).

 Or the conspiracies among bankers and speculators, with the cooperation of a corrupted Congress, to relieve depositors of their savings. This “arrogant disregard from the White House, Congress and corporate world for the interests and rights of the American people” will cost U.S. tapayers many hundreds of billions of dollars (*38).

Or the Westinghouse, Allis Chalmers, Federal Pacific, and General Electric executives who met surreptitiously in hotel rooms to fix prices and eliminate competition on heavy industrial equipment (*39).

 Or the convictions of Industrial Biotest Laboratories (IBT). officers for fabricating safety tests on prescription drugs (*40).

 Or the conspiracy by the asbestos industry to suppress knowledge of medical problemsrelating to asbestos (*41).  [T]

Or the 1928 Achnacarry Agreement through which oil companies “agreed not to engage in any effective price competition” (*42).

 Or the conspiracy among U.S. Government agencies and the Congress to cover up the nature of our decades-old war against the people of Nicaragua, a covert war that continues in 1992 with the U.S. Government applying pressure for the Nicaraguan police to reorganize into a more repressive force (*43).

 Or the conspiracy by the CIA and the U.S. Government to interfere in the Chilean election process with military aid, covert actions, and an economic boycott which culminated in the overthrow of the legitimately elected government and the assassination of President Salvador Allende in 1973 (*44). [T]

 Or the conspiracy among U.S. officials including Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and CIA Director William Colby to finance terrorism in Angola for the purpose of disrupting Angola’s plans for peaceful elections in October 1975, and to lie about these actions to the Congress and the news media (*45). And CIA Director George Bush’s subsequent cover up of this U.S.-sponsored terrorism (*46). [T]

 Or President George Bush’s consorting with the Pentagon to invade Panama in 1989 and thereby violate the Constitution of the United States, the U.N. Charter, the O.A.S. Charter, and the Panama Canal Treaties (*47).

[A 23 April 1989 article in the WASHINGTON POST by WSM lead directly to President Bush's change of position from one of support for his one-time CIA ally to regime change.]

Or the “gross antitrust violations” (*48) and the conspiracy of American oil companies and the British and U.S. governments to strangle Iran economically after Iran nationalized the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1951. And the subsequent overthrow by the CIA in 1953 of Iranian Prime Minister Muhammed Mossadegh (*49).[T]
 
Or the CIA-planned assassination of Congo head-of-state Patrice Lumumba (*50). [T]

 Or the deliberate and wilful efforts of President George Bush, Senator Robert Dole, Senator George Mitchell, various U.S. Government agencies, and members of both Houses of the Congress to buy the 1990 Nicaraguan national elections for the presidential candidate supported by President Bush (*51).

 Or the collective approval by 64 U.S. Senators of Robert Gates to head the CIA, in the face of “unmistakable evidence that Gates lied about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal” (*52). [T, and concurrent US-IRAQ INTEL SHARING]

 Or “How Reagan and the Pope Conspired to Assist Poland’s Solidarity Movement and Hasten the Demise of Communism” (*53).  

[T, though hard to quite see what was 'wrong' with the "Demise of Communism," Corrupt, False and Fascistic as it was...]

 Or how the Reagan Administration connived with the Vatican to ban the use of USAID funds by any country “for the promotion of birth control or abortion” (*54). [T]

 Or “the way the Vatican and Washington colluded to achieve common purpose in Central America” (*55).

 Or the collaboration of Guatemalan strong-man and mass murderer Hector Gramajo with the U.S. Army to design “programs to build civilian-military cooperation” at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia; five of the nine soldiers accused in the 1989 Jesuit massacre in El Salvador are graduates of SOA which trains Latin/American military personnel (*56). [T]

 Or the conspiracy of the Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant administration to harass and cause bodily harm to whistleblower Linda Porter who uncovered dangerous working conditions at the facility (*57).

 Or the conspiracy of President Richard Nxion and the Government of South Vietnam to delay the Paris Peace Talks until after the 1968 U.S. presidential election (*58). [T]

 Or the pandemic coverups of police violence (*59). [T]

 Or the always safe-to-cite worldwide communist conspiracy (*60).

 Or maybe the socially responsible, secret consortium to publish The Satanic Verses in paperback (*61). [T, even after IRANIAN Fatwas, no less]

Conspiracies are obviously a way to get things done, and the Washington Post offers little comment unless conspiracy theorizing threatens to expose a really important conspiracy that, let’s say, benefits big business or big government.

 Such a conspiracy would be like our benevolent CIA’s 1953 overthrow of the Iranian government to help out U.S. oil companies; or like our illegal war against Panama to tighten U.S. control over Panama and the Canal; or like monopoly control of broadcasting that facilitates corporate censorship on issues of public importance (*62).

When the camouflage of such conspiracies is stripped away, public confidence in the conspiring officials can erode — depending on how seriously the citizenry perceives the conspiracy to have violated the public trust. Erosion of public trust in the status quo is what the Post seems to see as a real threat to its corporate security.

 Currently, the Post has mounted vituperative, frenzied attacks on Oliver Stone’s movie “JFK”, which reexamines the U.S. Government’s official (Warren Commission. finding that a single gunman, acting alone, killed President John F. Kennedy. The movie also is the story of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s unsuccessful prosecution of Clay Shaw, the only person ever tried in connection with the assassination. 


Click to See WSM Review
[Jim Garrison was a black-mailed, closet homosexual who was denied the US Attorney slot in New Orleans after the 1960 election by RFK; was viciously envious of his law school better, Claw Shaw; and was paid by, reported to, and did the bidding of his 'legitmate businessman" friend, as Garrison more than once remarked to WSM, Mafia boss Carlos Marcello.

'Mr. C,' as he was called respectfully by those who knew him well, like Garrison, conspired with Santo Trafficante (and Fidel Castro's lawyer), and the later assassinated Chicago Marylin Monroe/Judith Cambell Exner lovers Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, alon with CIA Operators Bob Maheu, Bill Harvey and Joe Shimon to blackmail the CIA and the FBI over RFK entusiastic hands-on supervision of JFK's multiple failed attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.

Jim Garrison died of AIDS, and Oliver Stone bloody well knew better.--WSM]

And the movie proposes that the Kennedy assassination was the work of conspirators whose interests would not be served by a president who, had he lived, might have disengaged us from our war against Vietnam.

 The Post ridicules a reexamination of the Kennedy assassination along lines suggested by “JFK”. Senior Post journalists like Charles Krauthammer, Ken Ringle, George Will, Phil McCombs, and Michael Isikoff, have been called up to man the bulwarks against public sentiment which has never supported the government’s non-conspiratorial assassination thesis. In spite of the facts that the Senate Intelligence Committee of 1975 and 1976 found that “both the FBI and CIA had repeatedly lied to the Warren Commission” (*63)  [T] and that the 1979 Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations found that President Kennedy was probably killed “as a result of a conspiracy” (*64), a truly astounding number of Post stories have been used as vehicles to discredit “JFK” as just another conspiracy (*65). 

Click to Watch
      
[T, but nothing about Kevin Kostner's character`s character flaws, though the earliest Washington Post discreditation was done by George Lardner, who knew Garrison well , as Georg told WSM more once.]

 Some of the more vicious attacks on the movie are by editor Stephen Rosenfeld, and journalists Richard Cohen, George Will, and George Lardner Jr (*66). They ridicule the idea that Kennedy could have had second thoughts about escalating the Vietnam War and declaim that there is no historical justification for this idea. Seasoned journalist Peter Dale Scott, former Pentagon/CIA liaison chief L. Fletcher Prouty, and investigators David Scheim and John Newman have each authored defense of the “JFK” thesis that Kennedy was not enthusiastic about staying in Vietnam (*67). 

[WSM is cited in his three friends' books, Scott, Scheim and Newman, but has neither met nor read Prouty.]

But the Post team just continues ranting against the possibility of a high-level assassination conspiracy while offering little justification for its arguments.

 An example of particularly shabby scholarship and unacceptable behavior is George Lardner Jr’s contribution to the Post’s campaign against the movie. Lardner wrote three articles, two before the movie was completed, and the third upon its release. In May, six months before the movie came out, Lardner obtained a copy of the first draft
of the script and, contrary to accepted standards, revealed in the Post the contents of this copyrighted movie (*68).

[Oh Gosh! The Washington Post did that...must of thought it was the Pentagon Papers or Watergate of something. Shocking! 

So what was in Oliver Stone's 'historic," to quote Stone himself, FIRST DRAFT of the SCRIPT? This author--outside of being dismayed at Lardner's journalistic enterprise intrapsing "accepted [copyright] standards,"--Julian C. Holmes, then herein determinally deploys one of the very  bias-tactics he is accusing the Washington Post of displaying--to employ the words of WSM-- "editorialization by ommision." 

Then immediately changes the subject, as follows below:]

Also in this article, (*69). Lardner discredits Jim Garrison with hostile statements from a former Garrison associate Pershing Gervais. Lardner does not tell the reader that subsequent to the Clay Shaw trial, in a U.S. Government criminal action brought against Garrison, Government witness Gervais, who helped set up Garrison for prosecution, admitted under oath that in a May 1972 interview with a New Orleans television reporter, he, Gervais, had said that the U.S. Government’s case against Garrison was a fraud (*70). The Post’s 1973 account of the Garrison acquittal mentions this controversy, but when I recently [1991-1?] asked Lardner about this, he was not clear as to whether he remembered it (*71).
 
[The last sentence above is presumably true, but proves what, exactly?]

 Two weeks after his first “JFK” article, Lardner blustered his way through a justification for his unauthorized possession of the early draft ofthe movie (*72). He also defended his reference to Pershing Gervais by lashing out at Garrison as a writer “of gothic fiction”.

 When the movie was released in December, Lardner “reviewed” it (*73). 

He again ridiculed the film’s thesis that following the Kennedy assassination, President Johnson reversed Kennedy’s plans to de-escalate the Vietnam War. Lardner cited a memorandum issued by Johnson four days after Kennedy died. Lardner says this memorandum was written before the assassination, and that it “was a continuation of Kennedy’s policy”. In fact, the memorandum was drafted the day before the assassination by McGeorge Bundy (Kennedy’s Assistant for National Security Affairs) Kennedy was in Texas, and may never have seen it.

 Following the assassination, it was rewritten [by McGeorge Bundy]; and the final version provided for escalating the war against Vietnam (*74) — facts that Lardner avoided. [Not ulike the elementary Mr. Holmes.]

 The Post’s crusade against exposing conspiracies is blatantly dishonest:

 The Warren Commission inquiry into the Kennedy Assassination was for the most part conducted in secret. This fact is buried in the Post (*75). Nor do current readers of this newspaper find meaningful discussion of the Warren Commission’s secret doubts about both the FBI and the CIA (*76). [T]

Or of a dispatch from CIA headquarters instructing co-conspirators at field stations [i.e.GS-scale operations officers] to counteract the “new wave of books and articles criticizing the [Warren] Commission’s findings…[and] conspiracy theories …[that] have frequently thrown suspicion on our organization” and to “discuss the publicity problem with liaison and friendly elite contacts, especially politicians and editors “and to”employ propaganda assets to answer and refute the attacks of the critics. …Book reviews and feature articles are particularly appropriate for this purpose. …The aim of this dispatch is to provide material for countering and discrediting the claims of the [CIA?] conspiracy theorists…” (*77).

 In 1979, Washington journalist Deborah Davis published Katharine The Great, the story of Post publisher Katharine Graham and her newspaper’s close ties with Washington’s powerful elite, a number of whom were with the CIA.

Particularly irksome to Post editor Benjamin Bradlee was a Davis claim that Bradlee had “produced CIA material” (*78). Understandably sensitive about this kind of publicity, Bradlee told Davis’ publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich ,”Miss Davis is lying …I never produced CIA material …what I can do is to brand Miss Davis as a fool and to put your company in that special little group of publishers who don’t give a shit for the truth”. The Post bullied HBJ into recalling the book; HBJ shredded 20,000 copies; Davis sued HBJ for breach of contract and damage to reputation; HBJ settled out of court; and Davis published her book elsewhere with an appendix that demonstrated Bradlee to have been deeply involved with producing cold-war/CIA propaganda (*79). Bradlee still says the allegations about his association with people in the CIA are false, but he has apparently taken no action to contest the exetensive documentation presented by Deborah Davis in the second and third editions of her book (*80).

 And it’s not as if the Post were new to conspiracy work.

 Former Washington Post publisher Philip Graham “believing that the function of the press was more often than not to mobilize consent for the policies of the government, was one of the architects of what became a widespread practice: the use and manipulation of journalists by the CIA” (*81). This scandal was known by its code name Operation MOCKINGBIRD. Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein cites a former CIA deputy director as saying, “It was widely known that Phil Graham was someone you could get help from” (*82). More recently the Post provided cover for CIA personality Joseph Fernandez by “refusing to print his name for over a year up until the day his indictment was announced …for crimes committed in his official capacity as CIA station chief in Costa Rica” (*83). [T]

 Of the meetings between Graham and his CIA acquaintances at which the availability and prices of journalists were discussed, a former CIA man recalls, “You could get a journalist cheaper than a good call girl, for a couple hundred dollars a month” (*84). 

Click to Read Article
[If one were to comparison shop, according to the historical record, the KGB and its successor the FSB, CIA case officers, FBI Special Agents and NSA-sanctioned communications specialists, like Navy radioman John Walker, cost only slighty more--on an annualized basis.] 

One may wish to consider Philip Graham’s philosophy along with a more recent statement from his wife Katharine Graham, current Chairman of the Board of the Washington Post. In a lecture on terrorism [circa 1991-2!] and the news media, Mrs. Graham said: “A second challenge facing the media is how to prevent terrorists from using the media as a platform fortheir views. … The point is that we generally know when we are being manipulated, and we’ve learned better how and where to draw the line, though the decisions are often difficult” (*85).

 Today, the Post and its world of big business are apparently terrified that our elite and our high-level public officials may be exposed as conspirators behind Contra drug-smuggling, October Surprise, or the assassination of President Kennedy. This fear is truly remarkable in that, like most of us and like most institutions, the Post runs its business as a conspiracy of like-minded entrepreneurs — a conspiracy “to act or work together toward the same result or goal” (*86). But where the Post really parts company from just plain people is when it pretends that conspiracies associated with big business or government are “coincidence”. Post reporter Lardner vents the frustration inherent in having to maintain this dichotomy. He lashes out at Oliver Stone and suggests that Stone may actually believe that the Post’s opposition to Stone’s movie is a “conspiracy”. Lardner assures us that Stone’s complaints are “groundless and paranoid and smack of McCarthyism” (*87).

 So how does the Post justify devoting so much energy to ridiculing those who investigate conspiracies?

The Post has answers: people revert to conspiracy theories because they need something “neat and tidy” (*88) that “plugs a gap [as once precisely noted by WSM in a 1997 U of Md TV interview about religious cults--like Christianity, Islam and Judiasm--as WSM precisely put it] no other generally accepted theory fills’, (*89. and “coincidence …is always the safest and most likely explanation for any conjunction of curious circumstances …” (*90).

 And what does this response mean? It means that “coincidence theory” is what the Post espouses when it would prefer not to admit to a conspiracy. In other words, some things just “happen”. And, besides, conspiracy to do certain things would be a crime; “coincidence” is a safer bet.

 Post Ombudsman Richard Harwood, who, it is rumored, serves as Executive Director of the Benevolent Protective Order of Coincidence Theorists, (*91) recently issued a warning about presidential candidates “who have begun to mutter about a press conspiracy”. Ordinarily, Harwood would simply dismiss these charges as “symptoms of the media paranoia that quadrennially engulfs members of the American political class” (*92). But a fatal mistake was made by the mutterers; they used the “C” word against the PRESS! And Harwood exploded his off-the-cuff comment into an entire column — ending it with:”We are the new journalists, immersed too long, perhaps, in the cleansing waters of political conformity. But conspirators we ain’t”.

 Distinguished investigative journalist Morton Mintz, a 29-year veteran of the Washington Post, now chairs the Fund for Investigative Journalism. In the December issue of The Progressive, Mintz wrote “A Reporter Looks Back in Anger — Why the Media Cover Up Corporate Crime”. Therein he discussed the difficulties in convincing editors to accept important news stories. He illustrated the article with his own experiences at the Post, where he says he was known as “the biggest pain in the ass in the office” (*93).

 Would Harwood argue that grief endured by journalists at the hands of editors is a matter of random coincidence?

And that such policy as Mintz described is made independently by editors without influence from fellow editors or from management? Would Harwood have us believe that at the countless office “meetings” in which news people are ever in attendance, there is no discussion of which stories will run and which ones will find inadequate space? That there is no advanced planning for stories or that there are no cooperative efforts among the staff? Or that in the face of our news-media “grayout” of presidential candidate Larry Agran, (*94) a Post journalist would be free to give news space to candidate Agran equal to that the Post lavishes on candidate Clinton? Let’s face it: these possibilities are about as likely as Barbara Bush entertaining guests at a soup kitchen.

 Would Harwood have us believe that media critic and former Post Ombudsman Ben Bagdikian is telling less than the truth in his account of wire-service control over news: “The largely anonymous men who control the syndicate and wire service copy desks and the central wire photo machines determine at a single decision what millions will see and hear. …there seems to be little doubt that these gatekeepers preside over an operation in which an appalling amount of press agentry sneaks in the back door of American journalism and marches untouched out the front door as ‘news’.” (*95).

 When he sat on the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, Judge Clarence Thomas violated U.S. law when he failed to remove himself from a case in which he then proceeded to reverse a $10 million judgment against the Ralston Purina Company (*96). Ralston Purina, the animal feed empire, is the family fortune of Thomas’ mentor, Senator John Danforth. 

The Post limited its coverage of the Thomas malfeasance to 56 words buried in the middle of a 1200-word article (*97). Would Harwood have us believe that the almost complete blackout on this matter by the major news media and the U.S. Senate was a matter of coincidence? Could a Post reporter have written a story about Ralston Purina if she had wanted to? Can a brick swim?

 Or take the fine report produced last September by Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen. Titled All the Vice President’s Men, it documents “How the Quayle Council on Competitiveness Secretly Undermines Health, Safety, and Environmental Programs”. Three months later, Post journalists David Broder and Bob Woodward published “The President’s Understudy”, a seven-part series on Vice President Quayle. Although this series does address Quayle’s role with the Competitiveness Council, its handling of the Council’s disastrous impact on America is inadequate. It is 40,000 words of mostly aimless chatter about Quayle memorabilia: youth, family, college record, Christianity, political aspirations, intellectual aspirations, wealthy friends, government associates, golf, travels, wife Marilyn, and net worth — revealing little about Quayle’s abilities, his understanding of society’s problems, or his thoughts about justice and freedom, and never mentioning the comprehensive Nader study of Quayle’s record in the Bush Administration (*98).

 Now, did Broder or did Woodward forget about the Nader study? Or did both of them forget? Or did one, or the other, or both decide not to mention it? Did these two celebrated, seasoned Post reporters ever discuss together their jointly authored stories? Did they decide to publish such a barren set of articles because it would enhance their reputations? How did management feel about the use of precious news space for such frivolity? Is it possible that so many pages were dedicated to this twaddle without people “acting or working together toward the same result or goal”? (*99) Do crocodiles fly?

[No doubt unbeknownst to this author, but Eugene Meyer, Kay Graham's father, from whom she inherited ownership of the Washington Post in 1959, was the primary financier of young George H. W. Bush's first 1957 foray into the mid-land oil patches of West Texas, which became Bush's Zapato Oil. In late 1988, Kay Graham was the secret guest lecturer at CIA's Langley HQ, as the then CIA director William H. Webster furiously lobbied Graham to lobby her father's financial benefactee and family friend, former DCI GHW Bush, to keep his intelligence directorship.
WSM's and his  colleague at that time, Mark Perry, asked then Post Outlook Editor David Igantius if he "would like a transcript?" With wary surprise on his face, he not-so-demurely declined to get involved in the high politics between the Washington Post, the CIA and the White House,  putting both hands up in a stopping motion: "No, no, no..." was all he said. During a subsequent discussion, however, David did say that he played tennis with Webster, and that Webster "cheats on line calls..."
"Holy s**t, David--that's his precise god-damned function as the DCI," both of us practically shouted in unison. David just shrugged his shoulds. Discussion over... 

"And I suppose 'SIRO' is a meaningless State Department cable tag designator for the TS/SCI codeword-cleared "ROGER CHANNEL" for US covert opertions traffick?" ... David?
He doesn't know, for sure, apparently. He titled his third spy-thriller, (a quite excellent read), 'SIRO.'
Go figure...

(Separately, his statements either comport with, or not quite comport with, David's later reputation in certain sensitive quarters, wherein WSM has labored for the last decade. Combined, they give credence to certain particular members of the Navy SEAL and SpecOPS communities, who still ocassionally refer, perhaps not-so-fastidiously, to David as "the Washington Post Chief of Station.")]

On March 20, front-page headlines in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, and the Washington Post read respectively:
TSONGAS DROPPED OUT OF THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE CLEARING CLINTON’S PATH

TSONGAS ABANDONS CAMPAIGN LEAVING CLINTON CLEAR PATH TOWARD SHOWDOWN
WITH BUSH

TSONGAS CLEARS WAY FOR CLINTON

TSONGAS EXIT CLEARS WAY FOR CLINTON

This display of editorial independence should at least raise questions of whether the news media collective mindset is really different from that of any other cartel — like oil, diamond, energy, (*100) or manufacturing cartels, a cartel being “a combination of independent commercial enterprises designed to limit competition” (*101).

The Washington Post editorial page carries the heading:
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Is it? Of course not. There probably is no such thing. Does the Post”conspire” to keep its staff and its newspaper from wandering too far from the safety of mediocrity? The Post would respond that the question is absurd. In that I am not privy to the Post’s telephone conversations, I can only speculate on how closely the media elite must monitor the staff. But we all know how few micro-seconds it takes a new reporter to learn what subjects are taboo and what are “safe”, and that experienced reporters don’t have to ask.

 What is more important, however, than speculating about how the Post communicates within its own corporate structure and with other members of the cartel, is to document and publicize what the Post does in public, namely, how it shapes and censors the news.

Sincerely,
Julian C. Holmes

Copies to: Public-spirited citizens, both inside and outside the news media, And – maybe a few others.


Notes to Letter of April 25, 1992:
1. Mark Hosenball, “The Ultimate Conspiracy”, Washington Post, September 11, 1988, p.C1
2a. Julian Holmes, Letter to Washington Post Ombudsman Richard Harwood, June 4,1991. Notes that the Post censored, from the Anderson/Van Atta column, references to the Christic Institute and to Robert Gates.
2b. Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta, “Iran-Contra Figure Dodges Extradition”, Washington Merry-Go-Round, United Feature Syndicate, May 26, 1991. This is the column submitted to the Post (see note 2a)..
2c. Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta, “The Man Washington Doesn’t Want to Extradite”, Washington Post, May 26, 1991. The column (see note 2b). as it appeared in the Post (see note 2a)..
3a. Case No. 86-1146-CIV-KING, Amended Complaint for RICO Conspiracy, etc., United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey v. John Hull et al., October 3, 1986.
3b. Vince Bielski and Dennis Bernstein, “Reports: Contras Send Drugs to U.S.”, Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 16, 1986.
3c. Neal Matthews, “I Ran Drugs for Uncle Sam” (based on interviews with Robert Plumlee, contra resupply pilot)., San Diego Reader, April 5, 1990.
4. Leslie Cockburn, Out of Control. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987.
5a. Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall, Cocaine Politics, University ofCalifornia Press, 1991, p.179-181.
5b. David S. Hilzenrath, “Hill Panel Finds No Evidence Linking Contras to Drug Smuggling”, Washington Post, July 22, 1987, p.A07.
5c. Partial correction to the Washington Post of July 22, Washington Post, July 24,1987, p.A3.
5d. The Washington Post declined to publish SubCommittee Chairman Rangel’s Letter- to-the-Editor of July 22, 1987. It was printed in the Congressional Record on August 6, 1987, p.E3296-7.
6a. Michael Kranish, “Kerry Says US Turned Blind Eye to Contra-Drug Trail”, Boston Globe, April 10, 1988.
6b. Mary McGrory, “The Contra-Drug Stink”, Washington Post, April 10, 1988, p.B1. 6c. Robert Parry with Rod Nordland, “Guns for Drugs? Senate Probers Trace an Old Contra Connection to George Bush’s Office”, Newsweek, May 23, 1988, p.22.
6d. Dennis Bernstein, “Iran-Contra — The Coverup Continues”, The Progressive, November 1988, p.24.
6e. “Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy”, A Report Prepared by the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, December 1988.
7a. Mark Hosenball, “If It’s October … Then It’s Time for an Iranian Conspiracy Theory”, Washington Post, October 9, 1988, p.D1.
7b. Mark Hosenball, “October Surprise! Redux! The Latest Version of the 1980 ‘Hostage- Deal’ Story Is Still Full of Holes”, Washington Post, April 21, 1991,p.B2.
8a. Barbara Honegger, October Surprise, New York: Tudor, 1989.
8b. Gary Sick, October Surprise, New York: Times Books, Random House, 1991.
9a. Abbie Hoffman and Jonathan Silvers, “An Election Held Hostage”, Playboy, October 1988, p.73.
9b. Robert Parry and Robert Ross, “The Election Held Hostage”, FRONTLINE, WGBH-TV,April 16, 1991.
10a. Reuter, “Ex-Hostages Seek Probe By Congress”, Washington Post, June 14,1991,p.A4.
10b. “An Election Held Hostage?”, Conference, Dirksen Senate Office Building Auditorium, Washington DC, June 13, 1991; Sponsored by The Fund For New Priorities in America, 171 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10016.
11a. David Brown and Guy Gugliotta, “House Approves Inquiry Into ‘OctoberSurprise’”, Washington Post, February 6, 1992, p.A11.
11b. Jack Colhoun, “Lawmakers Lose Nerve on October Surprise”, The Guardian, December 11, 1991, p.7.
11c. Jack Colhoun, “October Surprise Probe Taps BCCI Lawyer”, The Guardian, February 26, 1992, p.3.
12. See note 5a, p.180-1.
13a. See note 4, p.229, 240-1.
13b. Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, Senate Report No. 100-216, House Report No. 100-433, November 1987, p.139-141.
14a. Letter to His Excellency Oscar Arias Sanchez, President of the Republic of Costa Rica; from Members of the U.S. Congress David Dreier, Lee Hamilton, Dave McCurdy, Dan Burton, Mary Rose Oakar, Jim Bunning, Frank McCloskey, Cass Ballenger, Peter Kostmayer, Jim Bates, Douglas Bosco, James Inhofe, Thomas Foglietta, Rod Chandler, Ike Skelton, Howard Wolpe, Gary Ackerman, Robert Lagomarsino, and Bob McEwen; January 26, 1989.
14b. Peter Brennan, “Costa Rica Considers Seeking Contra Backer in U.S. — Indiana Native Wanted on Murder Charge in 1984 Bomb Attack in Nicaragua”, WashingtonPost, February 1, 1990.
14c. “Costa Rica Seeks Extradition of Indiana Farmer”, Scripps-Howard News Service,April 25, 1991.
15. Press Release from the Costa Rican Embassy, Washington DC, On the Case of the Imprisonment of Costa Rican Citizen John Hull”, February 6, 1989.
16. Brian Glick, War at Home, Boston: South End Press, 1989.
17. John Stockwell, The Praetorian Guard– The U.S. Role in the New World Order, Boston: South End Press, 1991, p.121.
18. Hearings Before the Committee on Patents, United States Senate, 77th Cong., 2nd Session (1942)., part I, as cited in Joseph Borkin, The Crime and Punishment of I.G. Farben, New York: The Free Press, Macmillan, 1978, p.93.
19. R. Jeffrey Smith, “Study of A-Plant Neighbors’ Health Urged”, Washington Post, July 13, 1990, p.A6.
20. Tom Horton, “A Cost Higher Than the Peace Dividend — Price Tag Mounts to Clean Up Nuclear Weapons Sites”, Baltimore Sun, February 23, 1992, p.1K.
21. “The Nuclear Industry’s Secret PR Strategy”, EXTRA!, March 1992, p.15.
22a. Samuel S. Epstein, MD et al, Losing the War Against Cancer: Need for PublicPolicy Reform”, Congressional Record, April 2, 1992, p.E947-9.
22b. Samuel S. Epstein, “The Cancer Establishment”, Washington Post, March 10, 1992.
23a. Hon. Henry B. Gonzalez, “Efforts to Thwart Investigation of the BNL Scandal”, Congressional Record, March 30, 1992, p.H2005-2014.
23b. Hon. David E. Skaggs (CO)., White House Spin Control on Pre-War Iraq Policy”, Congressional Record, April 2, 1992, p.H2285.
23c. Nicholas Rostow, Special Assistant to the President and Legal Adviser, Memorandum to Jeanne S. Archibald et al, “Meeting on congressional requests for information and documents”, April 8, 1991; Congressional Record, April 2, 1992,p.H2285.
24a. Michio Kaku, “Operation Desert Lie: Pentagon Confesses”, The
Guardian, March11, 1992, p.4.
24b. J. Max Robins, “NBC’s Unaired Iraq Tapes Not a Black and White Case”, Variety Magazine, March 4, 1991, p.25.
25. Emory R. Searcy Jr., Clergy and Laity Concerned, Spring 1991 Letter to”Friends”, p.1.
26. Jean Dimeo, “Selling Hispanics on Columbus — Luis Vasquez-Ajmac Is Hired to Promote Smithsonian Project”, Washington Post, November 18, 1991, p.Bus.8.
27. Hans Koning, “Teach the Truth About Columbus”, Washington Post, September 3,1991, p.A19.
28a. James Kilpatrick, “Software-Piracy Case Emitting Big Stench”, St. Louis Post/Dispatch, March 18, 1991, p.3B. Elliot L. Richardson, “A High-Tech Watergate”, New York Times, October 21,1991.
29. “BCCI — NBC Sunday Today”, February 23, 1992, p.12; transcript prepared by Burrelle’s Information Services. The quote is from New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau who is running his own independent investigation of BCCI.
30. Norman Bailey, former Reagan White House intelligence analyst; from an interview with Mark Rosenthal of NBC News. See note 29, p.5.
31. Jack Colhoun, “BCCI Skeletons Haunting Bush’s Closet”, The Guardian, September 18, 1991, p.9.
32. Robert Morgenthau. See note 29, p.10.
33. Russell Mokhiber, Corporate Crime and Violence, San Francisco: Sierra ClubBooks, 1989 paperback edition, p.227.
34. See note 33, p.136-7.
35. Morton Mintz, At Any Cost: Corporate Greed, Women, and the Dalkon Shield, NewYork: Pantheon, 1985. As cited in Mokhiber, see note 33, p.157.
36. See note 33, p.164-171.
37. See note 33, p.172-180.
38. Michael Waldman, Who Robbed America?, New York: Random House, 1990. The quote is from Ralph Nader’s Introduction, p.iii.
39. See note 33, p.217.
40. See note 33, p.235.
41. See note 33, p.277-288.
42. See note 33, p.323.
43. Katherine Hoyt Gonzalez, Nicaragua Network Education Fund Newsletter, March1992, p.1.
44. William Blum, The CIA — A Forgotten History, London: Zed Books Ltd., 1986,p.232-243.
45a. John Stockwell, In Search of Enemies, New York: Norton, 1978.
45b. See note 44, p.284-291.
46. See note 17, p.18.
47a. Letter to President George Bush from The Ad Hoc Committee for Panama (James Abourezk et al)., January 10, 1990; published in The Nation, February 5, 1990, p.163.
47b. Philip E. Wheaton, Panama, Trenton NJ: Red Sea Press, 1992, p.145-7.
48a. Morton Mintz and Jerry S. Cohen, Power, Inc., New York: Bantam Books, 1977,p.521.
48b. “The International Oil Cartel”, Federal Trade Commission, December 2, 1949. Cited in 48a, p.521.
49a. See note 44, p.67-76.
49b. See note 48a, p.530-1.
50. Ralph W. McGehee, Deadly Deceits, New York: Sheridan Square Publications, 1983,p.60.
51. HR-3385, “An Act to Provide Assistance for Free and Fair Elections in Nicaragua”. Passed the U.S. House of Representatives on October 4, 1989 by avote of 263 to 136, and the Senate on October 17 by a vote of 64 to 35.
52. Jack Colhoun, “Gates Oozing Trail of Lies, Gets Top CIA Post”, The Guardian,November 20, 1991, p.6.
53. Carl Bernstein, Time, February 24, 1992, Cover Story p.28-35.
54. “The U.S. and the Vatican on Birth Control”, Time, February 24, 1992, p.35.
55. “Time’s Missing Link: Poland to Latin America”, National Catholic Reporter,February 28, 1992, p.24.
56a. Jim Lynn, “School of Americas Commander Hopes to Expand Mission”, Benning Patriot, February 21, 1992, p.12.
56b. Vicky Imerman, “U.S. Army School of the Americas Plans Expansion”, News Release from S.O.A. Watch, P.O. Bo 3330, Columbus, Georgia 31903.
57. 60 MINUTES, CBS, March 8, 1992.
58. Jack Colhoun, “Tricky Dick’s Quick Election Fix”, The Guardian, January 29,1992, p.18.
59a. Sean P. Murphy, “Several Probes May Have Ignored Evidence Against Police”, Boston Globe, July 28, 1991, p.1.
59b. Christopher B. Daly, “Pattern of Police Abuses Reported in Boston Case”, Washington Post, July 12, 1991, p.A3.
59c. Associated Press, “Dayton Police Probing Erasure of Arrest Video”, WashingtonPost, May 26, 1991, p.A20.
59d. Gabriel Escobar, “Deaf Man’s Death In Police Scuffle Called Homicide”, Washington Post, May 18, 1991, p.B1.
59e. Jay Mathews, “L.A. Police Laughed at Beating”, Washington Post, March 19, 1991, p.A1.
59f. David Maraniss, “One Cop’s View of Police Violence”, Washington Post, April 12,1991, p.A1.
59g. From News Services, “Police Abuse Detailed”, Washington Post, February 8, 1992,p.A8.
60. Michael Dobbs, “Panhandling the Kremlin: How Gus Hall Got Millions”, Washington Post, March 1, 1992, p.A1.
61. David Streitfeld, “Secret Consortium To Publish Rushdie In Paperback”, Washington Post, March 14, 1992, p.D1.
62a. See notes 48 and 49.
62b. See note 47b, p.63-76.
62c. “Fairness In Broadcasting Act of 1987″, U.S. Senate Bill S742.
62d. “Now Let That ‘Fairness’ Bill Die”, Editorial, Washington Post,
June 24, 1987. The Post opposed the Fairness in Broadcasting Act.
63. David E. Scheim, Contract on America — The Mafia Murder of President John F.Kennedy, New York: Shapolsky Publishers, 1988, p.viii.
64. See note 63, p.28.
65a. Chuck Conconi, “Out and About”, Washington Post, February 26, 1991, p.B3.
65b. George Lardner Jr., “On the Set: Dallas in Wonderland”, Washington Post, May19, 1991, p.D1.
65c. George Lardner, “…Or Just a Sloppy Mess”, Washington Post, June 2, 1991,p.D3.
65d. Charles Krauthammer, “A Rash of Conspiracy Theories — When Do We Dig Up BillCasey?”, Washington Post, July 5, 1991, p.A19.
65e. Eric Brace, “Personalities”, Washington Post, October 31, 1991, p.C3.
65f. Associated Press, “‘JFK’ Director Condemned — Warren Commission Attorney Calls Stone Film ‘A Big Lie’”, Washington Post, December 16, 1991, p.D14.
65g. Gerald R. Ford and David W. Belin, “Kennedy Assassination: How About the Truth?”, Washington Post, December 17, 1991, p.A21.
65h. Rita Kemply, “‘JFK’: History Through A Prism”, Washington Post, December 20,1991, p.D1.
65i. George Lardner Jr., “The Way it Wasn’t — In ‘JFK’, Stone Assassinates the Truth”, Washington Post, December 20, 1991, p.D2.
65j. Desson Howe, “Dallas Mystery: Who Shot JFK?”, Washington Post, December 20,1991, p.55.
65k. Phil McCombs, “Oliver Stone, Returning the Fire — In Defending His ‘JFK’ Conspiracy Film, the Director Reveals His Rage and Reasoning”, Washington Post, December 21, 1991, p.F1.
65l. George F. Will, “‘JFK’: Paranoid History”, Washington Post, December 26, 1991,p.A23.
65m. “On Screen”, ‘JFK’ movie review, Washington Post, Weekend, December 27, 1991.
65n. Stephen S. Rosenfeld, “Shadow Play”, Washington Post, December 27, 1991, p.A21.
65o. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, “The Paranoid Style”, Washington Post, December 29,1991, p.C7.
65p. Michael Isikoff, “H-e-e-e-e-r-e’s Conspiracy! — Why Did Oliver Stone Omit (Or Suppress!). the Role of Johnny Carson?”, Washington Post, December 29, 1991,p.C2.
65q. Robert O’Harrow Jr., “Conspiracy Theory Wins Converts — Moviegoers Say ‘JFK’ Nourishes Doubts That Oswald Acted Alone”, Washington Post, January 2, 1992, p.B1.
65r. Michael R. Beschloss, “Assassination and Obsession”, Washington Post, January 5, 1992, p.C1.
65s. Charles Krauthammer, “‘JFK’: A Lie, But Harmless”, Washington Post, January 10,1992, p.A19.
65t. Art Buchwald, “Bugged: The Flu Conspiracy”, Washington Post, January 14, 1992,p.E1.
65u. Ken Ringle, “The Fallacy of Conspiracy Theories — Good on Film, But the Motivation Is All Wrong”, Washington Post, January 19, 1992, p.G1.
65v. Charles Paul Freund, “If History Is a Lie — America’s Resort to Conspiracy Thinking”, Washington Post, January 19, 1992, p.C1.
65w. Richard Cohen, “Oliver’s Twist”, Washington Post Magazine, January 19, 1992, p.5.
65. Michael Isikoff, “Seeking JFK’s Missing Brain”, Washington Post, January 21,1992, p.A17.
65y. Don Oldenburg, “The Plots Thicken — Conspiracy Theorists Are Everywhere”, Washington Post, January 28, 1992, p.E5.
65z. Joel Achenbach, “JFK Conspiracy: Myth vs. the Facts”, Washington Post, February 28, 1992, p.C5.
65A. List of books on the best-seller list: On the Trail of the Assassins is characterized as “conspiracy plot theories”, Washington Post, March 8, 1992,Bookworld, p.12
66. See notes 65n, 65w, 65l, 65b, 65c, and 65i.
67a. Peter Dale Scott, “Vietnamization and the Drama of the Pentagon Papers”. Published in The Senator Gravel Edition of The Pentagon Papers, Volume V,p.211-247.
67b. Peter Dale Scott, The War Conspiracy — The Secret Road to the Second Indochina War, Indianapolis/New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1972, p. 215-224.
67c. L. Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team, Copyright 1973. New printing, Costa Mesa CA: Institute for Historical Review, 1990, p.402-416.
67d. See note 63, p.58, 183, 187, 194, 273-4.
67e. John M. Newman, JFK and Vietnam, New York: Warner Books, 1992.
67f. Peter Dale Scott, Letter to the Editor, The Nation, March 9, 1992, p.290.
68a. See note 65b.
68b. Oliver Stone, “The Post, George Lardner, and My Version of the JFK Assassination”, Washington Post, June 2, 1991, p.D3.
69. See note 65b.
70. Jim Garrison, On the Trail of The Assassins, New York: Warner Books, 1988, 315/318.
71. Associated Press, “Garrison, 2 Others, Found Not Guilty Of Bribery Charge”, Washington Post, September 28, 1973, p.A3.
72. See note 65c.
73. See note 65i.
74. See note 67e, p.438-450.
75. John G. Leyden, “Historians, Buffs, and Crackpots”, Washington Post, Bookworld, January 26, 1992, p.8.
76a. Tad Szulc, “New Doubts, Fears in JFK Assassination Probe”, Washington Star,September 19, 1975, p.A1.
76b. Tad Szulc, “Warren Commission’s Self-Doubts Grew Day by Day — ‘This Bullet Business Leaves Me Confused’”, Washington Star, September
20, 1975, p.A1.
76c. Tad Szulc, “Urgent and Secret Meeting of the Warren Commission — Dulles Proposed that the Minutes be Destroyed”, Washington Star, September 21, 1975,p.A1.
77. “Cable Sought to Discredit Critics of Warren Report”, New York Times, December 26, 1977, p.A37.
78. Deborah Davis, Katharine The Great, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979,p.141-2.
79a. Eve Pell, “Private Censorship — Killing ‘Katharine The Great’”, The Nation, November 12, 1983.
79b. Deborah Davis, Katharine The Great, Bethesda MD: National Press, 1987. Davis says, “…corporate documents that became available during my subsequent lawsuit against him [Harcourt Brace Jovanovich chairman, William Jovanovich] showed that 20,000 copies [of Katharine the Great] had been “processed and converted into waste paper”".
79c. Daniel Brandt, “All the Publisher’s Men — A Suppressed Book About Washington Post Publisher Katharine Graham Is On Sale Again” National Reporter, Fall 1987, p.60.
79d. Deborah Davis, Katharine The Great, New York: Sheridan Square Press, 1991. “…publishers who don’t give a shit”, p.iv-v; bullying HBJ into recalling the book, p.iv-vi; lawsuit and settlement, p..
80. Benjamin C. Bradlee, Letter to Deborah Davis, April 1, 1987. See note 79d, p.304.
81. See note 79d, p.119-132.
82. Carl Bernstein, “The CIA and the Media — How America’s Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up”, Rolling Stone,
October 20, 1977, p.63.
83a. Daniel Brandt, Letter to Richard L. Harwood of The Washington Post, September 15, 1988. The letter asks for the Post’s rationale for its policy of protecting government covert actions, and whether this policy is still in effect.
83b. Daniel Brandt, “Little Magazines May Come and Go”, The National Reporter, Fall 1988, p.4. Notes the Post’s protection of the identity of CIA agent Joseph F.Fernandez. Brandt says, “America needs to confront its own recent history as well as protect the interests of its citizens, and both can be accomplished by outlawing peacetime covert activity. This would contribute more to thesecurity of Americans than all the counterterrorist proposals and elite strike
forces that ever found their way onto Pentagon wish-lists.”
83c. Richard L. Harwood, Letter to Daniel Brandt, September 28, 1988. Harwood’s two- sentence letter reads, “We have a long-standing policy of not naming covert agents of the C.I.A., except in unusual
circumstances. We applied that policy to Fernandez.”
84. See note 79d, p.131.
85. Katharine Graham, “Safeguarding Our Freedoms As We Cover Terrorist Acts”, Washington Post, April 20, 1986, p.C1.
86. “conspire”, �4�Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition Unabridged, 1987.
87. Howard Kurtz, “Media Notes”, Washington Post, June 18, 1991, p.D1.
88. See note 65y.
89. See note 65n.
90. See note 65d.
91. William Casey, Private Communications with JCH, March 1992.
Richard Harwood, “What Conspiracy?”, Washington Post, March 1, 1992, p.C6.
93. p. 29-32.
94a. Washington Post Electronic Data Base, Dialog Information Services Inc., April 25, 1992. In 1991 and 1992, the name Bill Clinton appeared in 878 Washington Post stories, columns, letters, or editorials;
“Jerry” Brown in 485, Pat Buchanan in 303, and Larry Agran in 28. In those 28, Agran’s name appeared 76 times, Clinton’s 151, and Brown 105. In only 1 of those 28 did Agran’s name appear in a headline.
94b. Colman McCarthy, “What’s ‘Minor’ About This Candidate?”, Washington Post, February 1, 1992. Washington Post columnist McCarthy tells how television and party officials have kept presidential candidate Larry Agran out of sight. The Post’s own daily news-blackout of Agran is not discussed.
94c. Scot Lehigh, “Larry Agran: ‘Winner’ in Debate With Little Chance For the Big Prize”, Boston Globe, February 25, 1992.
94d. Joshua Meyrowitz, “The Press Rejects a Candidate”, Columbia Journalism Review,March/April, 1992.
95. Ben H. Bagdikian, The Effete Conspiracy And Other Crimes By The Press, NewYork: Harper and Row, 1972, p.36-7.
96a. 28 USC Section 455. “Any justice, judge, or magistrate of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” [emphasis added]
96b. Alpo Petfoods, Inc. v. Ralston Purina Co., 913 F2d 958 (CA DC 1990)..
96c. Monroe Freedman, “Thomas’ Ethics and the Court — Nominee ‘Unfit to Sit’ For Failing to Recuse In Ralston Purina Case”, Legal Times, August 26, 1991.
96d. Paul D. Wilcher, “Opposition to the Confirmation of Judge Clarence Thomas to become a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds of his JUDICIAL MISCONDUCT”, Letter to U.S. Senator Joseph R.
Biden, October 15, 1991.
97. Al Kamen and Michael Isikoff, “‘A Distressing Turn’, Activists
Decry What Process Has Become”, Washington Post, October 12, 1991, p.A1.
98. January 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 1992, p.A1 each day.
99. See note 86.
100. Thomas W. Lippman, “Energy Lobby Fights Unseen ‘Killers’”, Washington Post,April 1, 1992, p.A21. This article explains that “representatives of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the coal, oil, natural gas, offshore
drilling and nuclear power industries, whose interests often conflict, pledged to work together to oppose amendments limiting offshore oil drilling, nuclear power and carbon dioxide emissions soon to be
offered by key House members”.
101. “cartel”, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1977.

——————————————————————————–

NOTES
A good source on the Washington Post and Katharine Graham’s attempt to suppress the Davis book,”Katherine The Great,”, which was largely successful, is Carol Felsenthal’s, “Power and Privilege at the Post, the Katharine Graham Story.”

For more information on Johnny Rosselli and Moses and Walter Annenberg, an excellent source is “All American Mafioso, the Johnny Rosselli Story,” by Ed Becker and Charles Rappelye.

An additional good short reference is “The CIA’s Greatest Hits” by Mark Zepezauer. There you will find the reference to Carl Bernstein’s classic “The CIA and the Media” which appeared in Rolling Stone on Oct. 20, 1977.
Still another recent example of the CIA’s control of the media is the spiking of Sally Denton’s & Roger Morris’ story,”THE CRIMES OF MENA” by Washington Post managing editor Bob Kaiser even though the story had been legally vetted and cleared for publication. Indeed the story, which details the CIA’s involvement in drug trafficing, was already typeset and ready to go when it was killed withouty explanation.

View article...
[Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]

[Still UNDER CONTRUCTION - BACK OFF....

and wait like everyone else, PLEASE?]

  

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is a great inspiring article.I am pretty much pleased with your good work. You put really very helpful information. Keep it up. Keep blogging.
Wait time Indicator

1/29/2013 1:08 AM
Unknown said...

Thank YOU kindly Taylor. We shall endeavor to try...

1/29/2013 2:15 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

CyBER-BlackSEC Debate

BlackNIGHT Target Practice

SEAL Team SIX - Iron Will from CBS News

The Devil's Advocate?

In 1991, [the late former Secretary of State Lawrence 'Just call me George'] Eagleburger explained to The Post why all of his sons were named Lawrence.

“First of all, it was ego,” he said. “And secondly, I wanted to screw up the Social Security system.”