NYT editorial: When leaders use nation's trauma for political gain

[DeepModem Mom]

Editorial
The London Plot
Published: August 11, 2006

For almost five years now, we have carried around the legacy of Sept. 11. There is no sunny morning that does not revive its memory....It comes like a punch to the gut, at times like these, when our leaders blatantly use the nation’s trauma for political gain. We never get used to this. It never feels like business as usual.

On Wednesday, when the administration already knew that British agents were rounding up suspects in what they believed was a plot to blow up planes en route to the United States, Vice President Dick Cheney had a telephone interview with reporters to discuss the defeat of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in a Democratic primary. Mr. Cheney went off on a rather rambling disquisition, but its main point was clear: In rejecting Mr. Lieberman, who supported the war in Iraq, the Democrats were encouraging “the Al Qaeda types.” Within the Democratic ranks, the vice president added, “there’s a significant body of opinion that wants to go back — I guess the way I would describe it is sort of the pre-9/11 mind-set, in terms of how we deal with the world we live in.”

The man who beat Mr. Lieberman, Ned Lamont, lives in Greenwich, a suburb full of commuters who work in New York high-rise buildings. They are completely aware of the way international terrorism can come crashing down on an ordinary family, leaving the survivors stunned and bereft. A dozen of their neighbors died at the World Trade Center. They will never be able to go back to a “pre-9/11 mind-set.”

But that did not seem to deter Mr. Lieberman from scoring a cheap sound bite yesterday. Leaving Iraq, as Mr. Lamont advocates, “will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” he said. “It will strengthen them and they will strike again.”

Here is what we want to do in the wake of the arrests in Britain. We want to understand as much as possible about what terrorists were planning. To talk about airport security and how to make it better. To celebrate what worked in the British investigation and discuss how to push these efforts farther. It would be a blessed moment in modern American history if we could do that without turning this into a political game plan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/opinion/11fri1.html

[Hailtothechimp]

1. Rec #1. I'm confident there will be others. n/t

[yurbud]

2. I hope this is contagious in MSM--and to Dem leaders

[fooj]

3. KR

Wow! Great editorial!

[EFerrari]

7. But, check it out, fooj, they pretend that they are above it all,

they pretend that they don't do the same all the time.

I remember Ohio.

[charlie]

4. Adenoidal butt-trumpet Joe

can't even keep his Bushian talking points straight. He said this at Waterbury:

"If we just pick up like Ned Lamont wants us to do, get out by a date certain, it will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England. It will strengthen them and they will strike again."

Later at the same event:

"I'm not saying we shouldn’t have healthy disagreement and discussion about national security, but to make it into a partisan political football, it’s just unacceptable and in my opinion un-American."

[bettyellen]

14. liberman is right, he, cheney and bush are totally unamerican...

they show no respect for the citizenry. never have.

[Synnical]

21. Wow

I know I should no longer by shocked by these people, but I am.

:mad:

[Arugula Latte]

23. "adenoidal butt trumpet Joe"

:spray:

:rofl:

[Nikki Stone 1]

5. Amen

:kick:

[EFerrari]

6. And speaking of using inside knowledge for political gain

Editor:

It's heartening that the Times has expressed an interest in national security. Who knows how different our national landscape would look today if the 2004 election had gone to Mr. Kerry. Or, if the Times had covered the rampant election fraud in Ohio that secured the White House for George Bush again. For George Bush and his firestarter foreign policy.

In December of that year, then Public Editor Okrent wrote in response to hundreds of readers:

"And more, I expect, will be explored and explained in future articles if meaningful allegations can indeed be established as facts. Both Matthew Purdy, the head of The Times’s investigative unit, and Rick Berke, the paper’s Washington editor, assure me that reporters will continue to look into the issue. I’m confident that if they find something, they’ll publish it. A good investigative reporter (much less a whole staff of them) turning away from a story like this one ­ if true ­ would be like a flower turning away from the sun. Careers are made by stories that detail massive election fraud."

Of course, since that writing, a mountain of literature detailing how and when the 2004 election was stolen is now in the hands of the public. And, since then, those of us paying attention also are aware that the New York Times withheld the NSA wiretapping story until after the election.

To my mind, that's not unlike Mr. Cheney withholding his knowledge that a terrorist plot had been foiled for personal gain. Would that the plot against our election had also been foiled.

As we approach the 2006 midterms, I can only wonder if the NYTs has abdicated its role in shaping our elections? And I wonder, what it knows and what it will not report this time around. And I am still waiting for Mr. Burke and Mr. Purdy to report Ohio 2004, the lines, the suppression, the riots. I'm just not waiting very hard.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Ferrari
San Francisco

[charlie]

8. Good letter

Of course, I'm sure she knew that any assurances from Mr Okrent weren't worth shit in a handbag. He's the idiot who used his last column as ombudsman to take a shot at Paul Krugman, essentially calling him a lying polemicist.

[EFerrari]

9. He acted in an official capacity and the responsibility is

the Times'

They lied and enabled and they will do it again. We have to mitigate that damage somehow. :

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1883515&mesg_id=1883515

[charlie]

10. They're hopeless

While they were doing their red-faced mea culpas over Jayson Blair, promising more stringent review and oversight, they were letting Judy Miller run off the leash, which bought them yet another episode of shame-faced apologies and more promises to do better. All inside of 2 years. Yes, they'll lie again. And again. And again.

[EFerrari]

11. You may be right. But at very least, let's mark reality.

:)

[charlie]

12. Waitaminute

Are *you* Elizabeth? If so, BIG props to you! :thumbsup: :hi:

[EFerrari]

13. Take 'em where I can get 'em

:hi:

[chill_wind]

19. I KNEW it the second I read it. Great letter.

I'm becoming a total devoted fan of your writs, LOL!

[EFerrari]

22. Did you mean rants?

:rant:

lol

[chill_wind]

26. No indeed. We desperately need massive reform of the

state-run corporate ho media that has aided and abetted the militarists and election thieves for all these many years-- and totally prostituted itself. beyond recognition.

You and like minded DUers are sunshine. The best regular doses of disinfectant we can have.

[krkaufman]

29. Including keeping the NSA "spying on Americans" story ...

... under wraps until after the 2004 election, because telling the truth might have been harmful to Bush.

[Beetwasher]

15. THANK YOU NYT (You Still Suck in General, But This Helps)

n/t

[hippiechick]

16. Cheney had one thing right in his propaganda call ...

" ... Mr. Cheney went off on a rather rambling disquisition ... Within the Democratic ranks, the vice president added, “there’s a significant body of opinion that wants to go back — I guess the way I would describe it is sort of the pre-9/11 mind-set, in terms of how we deal with the world we live in...”

Damn skippy we do!!
We want to go back to the time when the US Government wasn't spying on us.
When the US Government wasn't illegally detaining whoever the fuck they wanted to.
When the US Government wasn't invading sovereign nations and obliterating women and children because we're on a mission from 'God'.
When the US Government wasn't funneling money hand over fist from the national infrastructure to their military-industrial cronies.
When the US Government wasn't pissing off 90% of the rest of the world.
When the US Government wasn't stigmatizing entire segments of the populace to whip a small percentage of their insane base into a drooling frenzy.

Yes, Dick, you're right. Some of us DO want to go back to the "pre-9/11 mindset".
Asshole.

[rfranklin]

17. Please, don't hold back...express yourself fully!

You are absolutely right. Cheney is a war criminal and a treasonous war profiteer who is helping bleed this nation of its lifeblood and and its spirit.

[krkaufman]

30. Right-on, hippiechick! n/t

[mhatrw]

31. Dick Cheney has nothing to sneer but fear itself. n/t

[Patchuli]

32. Damn skippy is right!

:yourock:

[jackstraw45]

18. Breath of fresh air from editorial board of NYT...nt

nt

[Arugula Latte]

20. Well, well, well. Knock me over with a feather.

If it isn't the New York "Judy takes dictation from Bushco" Times coming to its senses.

[rabblerowzer]

24. the joke’s on us

Back in the old days Americans were concerned with a concept called unsportsman like conduct, and dirty players were derided. How you played the game was more important than winning, but nowadays winning by any and all means is accepted. The old concept cut across every aspect of our culture and defined us as a people. Now the abandonment of this concept also defines us as a people.

The commercialization of sports undermined the old concept and replaced it with a new bottom-line concept. Winning and profit was said to all that mattered, and soon the new concept infected every aspect of our lives and culture. It spread from sports to business, to politics and even religion. Fair play and honor are now considered a joke and laughably quaint, strictly for chumps. Nowhere is this more apparent than in politics. For decades our corporate media has sniggeringly dismissed political corruption as merely “Dirty Tricks.”

What have we gained and what have we lost?

As one of the chumps, I think the joke’s on us.

[DeepModem Mom]

35. Excellent post, rabblerowzer -- thank you, and welcome to DU!

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. !

:kick:

[Presidentcokedupfratboy]

27. Cheney is shameless

And so is the whole body of GOPologists. They have exploited this tragedy long enough. It is time to make sure 9/11 doesn't happen again, and that entaile understanding and investigation, not sour grapes over one election.

[McCamy Taylor]

28. Arrests were time, scripted as per Herman Goering

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

[Cha]

33. Just Wow! Shocked at the

sanity! I had a fundie at work today saying how she knew the date was the 11th because that's the day The Terrorists were going to blow up all those PLANES! :scared: :scared: She was literally shaking. I wanted to say..Oh, you mean the terrorist plot that the bushites are trying to score political points with? But, in the interest of civility in the work place, I said..yeah, the English figured that out they have it taken of.

blair was on vacation. I know he'd love to come back and start sounding off like cheney, bush, and lieberwhineman.

[Gregorian]

34. The way we have embraced 9/11 is nothing short of selfish.

In light of the pain the rest of the world suffers, 9/11 is but a blip on the radar screen of humanity. I don't mean to belittle the loss. Each person who is a victim of that tragedy has undergone great loss. But what about the thousands and thousands of children who suffered to death under sanctions? What about Darfur? What about those who have had to live and die in Iraq under Bush's aggression? I'm starting to feel ashamed of the magnification of our not so overwhelming tragedy. Come on, you can't deny it. What happened in New York on 9/11 did not devistate our country the way the examples I mentioned have to their countries. I imagine someone would love to poke me for stating this. After all, Americans seem to get a lot of mileage out of the seriousness of the downing of the World Trade center towers. But how much longer can we sustain it as being more than what it was? I'm speaking with respect to those who have had to endure far greater tragedy. Let us put this in perspective. That's all.