Dear Justice,
Earlier this year, Colin Powell went to the UN in a widely televised event to justify the US’s planned attack on Iraq. He presented facts that were basically fabrications, which was soon revealed. Behind Powell sat the CIA chief Tenet. In a radio interview with a former CIA director this incident was referred to. How could the CIA let Powell say such nonsense? The former chief answered that the CIA is a political organization that follows government orders. But then the former chief turned the question around and asked where in all this were the media? What did they make of the 9/11 blunder, the Powell fabrications, the weapons of mass destruction story? They largely repeated the government line, he complained.
I had to think twice – the US news media is so bad that even US intelligence is appalled? Could there be a worse insult for “news” agencies than to be ridiculed by the country’s own spy agency?
Will Kaiser