-Caveat Lector-
Where have all the heroes gone? Nice post. Thanks. Gavin.
Robert Parry writes: "Tyranny, like cowardice, often comes in small pieces,
compromises that seemed reasonable at the time."
<< COURAGE
by Carla Binion
After reading what follows, you may ask, as I have recently: Where are the
people of courage today? Where are the bold statesmen in politics, the
aggressive, honest journalists? Why don't larger numbers of influential
politicians and journalists stand up and speak out about what has gone wrong
with our nation? The sources for much of the following information are
journalist Robert Parry's LOST HISTORY, 1999, and Parry's FOOLING AMERICA,
1992. Parry has worked as a Newsweek correspondent and as a reporter for PBS
Frontline.
What is the missing link between the aggressive, investigative Watergate
press corps of the 1970s and the tabloidish Monica Lewinsky media of the
1990s? Bob Parry says the 1970s press corps made life too difficult for U.S.
intelligence agencies as those agencies tried to conduct their clandestine
wars around the world without public scrutiny. The CIA/military goals then
became: (1) to limit news media coverage, and (2) to control public opinion
by convincing influential Americans and much of the press corps that the
obvious facts before them were not the real facts.
National security secrets were exposed by senate investigating committees
(the Church and Pike committees) by the mid-1970s. Those committees exposed
CIA scandals such as Mafia-connected assassination plots, drug experiments on
unsuspecting citizens, spying on Americans and so forth. During the 1970s,
an era of relative openness, those scandals appeared routinely in the
newspapers and on TV. George Bush became CIA director in 1976, and the CIA
began to retaliate. President Reagan, in the 1980s, acted even more
aggressively by imposing tougher security regulations to keep the public in
the dark and punish those who disclosed CIA abuses.
Reagan also implemented an Orwellian "perception management" program designed
to control public opinion regarding the administration's policy arguments.
That program was based at the National Security Council and was run by CIA
director William Casey. To minimize resistance to Reagan's policies, Casey
assigned "psy-war" experts to generate public support for the president. The
experts analyzed "what excited or frightened the American people" and
exploited it. When the propaganda operation was exposed during the
Iran-contra investigation in 1987, participants downplayed its impact,
although the public's lack of resistance to Iran-contra and the media's lack
of coverage were proof the propaganda program had been effective.
Journalists knew that working against Reagan/Casey would lower their earning
potential and status. In 1986, ABC News's Karen Burnes ran into resistance
when she pursued stories about contra corruption and drug smuggling. Bob
Parry quotes Karen Burnes (Rolling Stone, September 10, 1987, p. 48) "It
takes months and months to do this story. If I'm on the air for [a total of
only] five minutes, it doesn't look good on the computer. If you're someone
who perceives success as air time, this is not a way to be successful."
Bob Parry faced the same pressure when he investigated Iran-contra. In 1986,
the Miami Herald's Alfonso Chardy told Parry that the Reagan "public
diplomacy" apparatus was trashing Parry's reputation solely because Parry was
doing critical reporting on Iran-contra. Parry's reports had consistently
turned out to be true. In the same year, Parry was told by a Reagan "public
displomacy" official that an AP colleague who pursued Iran-contra was a
"Sandinista agent," though there was no evidence for the smear. (Parry's
FOOLING AMERICA, 1991, pp. 210, 211.)
Reagan tried to control the public as well as the press. The few American
citizens who protested Iran-contra misdeeds were harassed. Over four years
starting in 1981, 52 FBI field officers investigated citizens who tried to
organize and challenge Reagan's Central American policies. The National
Security Council staff had FBI agents interrogate anti-contra Americans.
Security consultant Philip Mabry said that in 1984 Oliver North urged Mabry
and others to investigate contra opponents. Mabry told the Boston Globe:
"Ollie told me that if the FBI received letters from five or six unrelated
sources all requesting an investigation of the same groups, that would give
the Bureau a mandate to go ahead and investigate." (The Boston Globe,
February 29, 1988.)
While Reagan's FBI harassed American citizens, the CIA's Casey-Raymond
"perception management" team harassed out-of-step journalists. When Reagan
got mad over CBS News coverage of Nicaragua, his diplomacy man, Otto Reich,
made a trip to the CBS Washington office. Reagan's Secretary of State George
Schultz sent a memo to Reagan saying Reich spent an hour complaining to the
CBS correspondent and two hours pointing out "flaws" in the information to
his Washington bureau chief. The Office of Public Diplomacy interferred with
the "free press" on other occasions, too. Schultz also told the president
that Reich's heavy handed intervention with the media "has been repeated
dozens of times over the past few months."
In 1984, Reich also complained to National Public Radio about an NPR contra
expose. NPR's Paul Allen said Reich "went ballistic," demanding meetings
with NPR executives. Reich's top aide ranted about too many "anti-contra"
minutes. Paul Allen said Reich and his aide made it clear "we're monitoring
you -- holding a stop watch on you," adding: "We understood what Otto Reich's
job was. He was engaged in an effort to alter coverage. It was a special
effort."
Robert Parry writes: "Tyranny, like cowardice, often comes in small pieces,
compromises that seemed reasonable at the time." How did so many powerful
politicians and journalists become compromised and cowardly? Large numbers
of average Americans online write truthfully about current events on a daily
basis. I'm a housewife who simply happens to read voraciously and care about
the country's future. Most of my friends who participate politically are
exactly the same -- housewives, small business people, artists, laymen from
various walks of life.
We are not the politically powerful. We are not the establishment media. We
plainly, simply care and write and speak truthfully about what goes on
politically. Despite "perception management" designed to limit public access
to the facts, and despite Orwellian attempts to convince the public that "the
facts before us aren't the real facts," somehow large numbers of average
Americans see through the smoke screen to the truth. However, we can't keep
the country on track without help from people with real political power --
without genuine statesmen in congress and journalists who will investigate
and expose governmental abuses.
No matter how tiring it gets, average Americans should continue to speak the
truth to power and urge people with political clout to be more courageous and
aggressive in trying to set the country straight. Human beings are not
objects to be manipulated and exploited with psychological studies aimed at
determining "which things excite or frighten" us. We are not "subversives"
to be investigated by the FBI when we simply disagree with questionable
clandestine wars or express legitimate grievances with corrupt officials.
To quote Jerry Fresia (TOWARD AN AMERICAN REVOLUTION): "Here we are.
Watched over. Infiltrated at meetings. Monitored at work. Spied on when we
come back from Nicaragua. Legislated at instead of self-governed.
Indoctrinated in not so subtle ways....And at each turn, on just about each
day, we are exploited, lied to, ripped off, pressed to work harder, extorted,
and generally held in contempt....But you know, things are going to change.
We are going to stand up because we know who we are. We are restlessness,
hunger, and lust. We are a great furnace of resolve. The doubt is false.
We state the bare facts and let them sing. We ride on some undiscovered
spirit. We reverberate with shattering force. We have the capacity to
ennoble. We are voices strong and steady. We are defiant, rebellious. We
have been told all our lives we can't change anything, that you can't fight
city hall. At every meeting there is someone who always makes a case why we
should not be radical -- it will alienate someone, we are not ready, we need
to educate a little more, read a little more, get more numbers. Well you can
always make a case not to be radical, but don't. It's a lie. The doubt is
false. We are here on earth in this hour of danger and we must move beyond
the vision of the Framers to express our own. And that belief is real. The
doubt is false."
>>
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