"In praise of Karl Rove: Outing covert CIA operative was not a bad thing"

[undeterred]

This was the title of an opinion piece in a weekly paper. So far haven't been able to find a link to it on the internet. Its written by Alexander Cockburn, who writes for The Nation and Counterpunch.

some excerpts:
"The CIA's covert wing is not in the business of advancing world peace and general prosperity. The record of 60 years is one of uninterrupted evil. So we should drop all this nonsense about treason and clap Rove warmly on the back for his courageous onslaughts on the cult of secrecy. By all means delight in the White House's discomfiture, but spare us the claptrap about national security and treason. Any deed or disclosure that sabotages the CIA's capacity for covert operations deserves our praise."

snip

"If you want to start waving around words like "treason" the AIPAC spy case is surely a better target than Karl Rove. Here we have a four-year FBI probe of possible treachery by senior U.S. government officials, as well as by Israel's premier lobbying outfit in the United States, AIPAC. Yet compared with the mileage given to the Plame affair, coverage of the AIPAC spy case in the press has been sparse, and the commentary very demure, until you get to Justin Rainmondo's pugnacious columns on antiwar.com"

snip

"It's perfectly obvious that Israel exerts huge influence on U.S. policy. Men and women working in Israel's interest throng Washington. In such contexts, its good to be wary of words like traitor and "national security". They can cut both ways."

AIPAC= American Israel Public Affairs Committee

Edited to add link:
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/2/2005/1167

[jsamuel]

1. what a load n/t

[Cha]

2. Oh, Fuck cockburn..

asshole.

[KittyWampus]

14. may I second that?

[Cha]

15. Yes you may!

:toast:

[kliljedahl]

3. Here's one of many

Google is my friend: http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/2/2005/1167


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[undeterred]

4. Thanks. My weekly changed the title.

[madaboutharry]

5. Cockburn is the reason

I cancelled my subscription to The Nation. He is an anti-semitic Stalinist.

[undeterred]

6. I didn't know anything about him

But I was shocked to see a title like that coming from a "liberal" writer.

[dogday]

7. Maybe he should tell this to the CIA and The Justice Dept

and to The Special Prosecutor's Office and The Grand Jury. Their shame knows no limits, they will lie with no conscience....

[lvx35]

8. Where is Counterpunch?

It says he worked for counterpunch, but where are they? I haven't been able to connect for days. Did they shut down?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Gotta agree with Alex and The Nation.

Although I would hardly clap Rove on the back.

The CIA covert wing are a bunch of fascist, murderous, thugs that put Al-queda to shame as mere amateurs.

And, he certainly has a point about the AIPAC spy/influence case.

[Just Me]

10. Well, I have to agree on the covert wing.

But, the CIA is much MUCH bigger than those murderous pricks.

He does have a point about the AIPAC espionage, too.

But, the overall tone of his article is truly disturbing and not the least bit helpful in terms of spreading the nuanced understanding of the matters at hand.

He comes off as biggoted and simple-minded and just plain extreme.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Well, he is talking about a bigoted, simple-minded, extreme organization.

[Just Me]

16. I understand that BUT it is a small, a select groups of elites.

He fails to make that clear and appears to do that broadbrush stroke we all loathe.

He's not at all effective in behaving the same way they do. That's what I'm saying. He fails to distinguish the elitist pricks from the population in which and/or from which they operate. His failure to do so makes him appear as an advocate against the whole CIA and the whole of the Israeli people. There are some really good and gracious folks in both those camps.

That's all I'm sayin'. And, I'm telling you, if his writing is offensive to me, it must be offensive to a helluva' lot of others. How on earth can such a tone be effective?

:shrug:

[lvx35]

12. Wake up: all evil does not come from the CIA.

A source, possible in the white house, disrupted the arm of the CIA that was associated with monitoring weapons of mass destruction around Pakistan, where OSAMA BIN LADEN is thought to be hiding. The operative who was outed was married to a man who was trying to prevent a war based on false conjectures by pointing out that fraudulent claims were made about the WMDs. This person was not a murderous thug. Now have murderous thugs operated through the CIA? Perhaps. But agencies are comprised of individuals...And if you think the CIA is the only big bad fish in the sea as far as clandestine groups, you are sorely deluded.

[glitch]

13. Just protecting another propagandist. Not surprising. What is surprising

is that freepress.org would print it as well. Tsk.