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1015 Anz 02 Opi
1015 Anz 02 Opi
ed i t o r i a l s o f t h e t i m es
maureen dOwd
complicity in duplicity?
a woman named rice in a top administration job making the rounds of the talk shows to aggressively promote a middle east narrative thats good for the president but destined to crumble under scrutiny. accusations that intelligence on al Qaeda links in the middle east was cherry-picked by american officials to create a convenient reality. a national security apparatus that becomes enmeshed with the political imagemaking machine. Sound familiar? Last time it was condoleezza rice helping her war-obsessed bosses spin their deceptive web, as they recklessly tried to re-engineer the middle east. This time it was Susan rice offering a noncredible yarn as the obama team desperately tries to figure out the middle east. W.s administration played up al Qaeda ties, exploiting 9/11 to invade iraq, which the neocons had wanted to do all along. The obama administration sidestepped he, his pal dick cheney and his ward W. sent then-Secretary of State colin Powell to the United Nations to market a story that fell apart one invasion later. There was something off-kilter about the tragic saga of christopher Stevens from the beginning. Stevens was obviously too lightly guarded in a region roiling with threats and hatred. even afterward, the place was so unprotected that a cNN staffer could walk in and pick up Stevenss private diary, which reflected the ambassadors fear about never-ending attacks and being on an al Qaeda hit list. Susan rices tumble is part of a disturbing pattern of rushing to pump up the president on national security, which seems particularly stupid because its so unnecessary. Last year, the White House had to backtrack from the overwrought initial contentions of John Brennan, a deputy national security adviser, who said Bin Laden died after resisting in a firefight and that he was hiding behind women who were put in front of him as a shield. Now that one of the members of the Navy SeaL team, matt Bissonette, has written a book, there are contradictory accounts, one by a democratic White House dying to sound tough, and one by an eyewitness. Bissonette wrote that the lead commando shot an unarmed Bin Laden in the head when he peered out of his bedroom door and they shot his convulsing body again inside the bedroom. in the administrations version, the shot in the stairwell missed. in an overzealous effort to burnish a president who did not need burnishing especially against foreign policy bumbler mitt romney and foreign policy novice Paul ryan they have gotten tangled in contradictory accounts about Benghazi. The administration had benefited from the impression that it had diminished al Qaeda, even though the public no doubt appreciates that it was never going to be so simple. But, as romney learned when he prematurely rushed to the microphone to take advantage of the crisis and mangled his facts, there is a cost to letting the political spin cycle dictate how you discuss national security. The U.S. military is preparing to retaliate for the Libyan attack. But, even if Stevens is avenged, will the president get the credit he deserves if his acolytes have left the impression that theyre willing to rewrite the story for political advantage?
many low-caste indians are being displaced from their traditional occupations. An incense seller in mumbai.
intelligenCe/shiVam ViJ
inTernaTional weekly
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