Bush: God told me to invade Iraq

[suchandra]

Finally we get the details, God is speaking with G.W.Bush.

Bush: God told me to invade Iraq

 

<!--proximic_content_on-->President 'revealed reasons for war in private meeting'<!--proximic_content_off-->

<author>By Rupert Cornwell in Washington</author>

Friday, 16 May 2008

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President George Bush has claimed he was told by God to invade Iraq and attack Osama bin Laden's stronghold of Afghanistan as part of a divine mission to bring peace to the Middle East, security for Israel, and a state for the Palestinians.

<!--proximic_content_off--> <!--proximic_content_on--> The President made the assertion during his first meeting with Palestinian leaders in June 2003, according to a BBC series which will be broadcast this month.

The revelation comes after Mr Bush launched an impassioned attack yesterday in Washington on Islamic militants, likening their ideology to that of Communism, and accusing them of seeking to "enslave whole nations" and set up a radical Islamic empire "that spans from Spain to Indonesia". In the programmeElusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, which starts on Monday, the former Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath says Mr Bush told him and Mahmoud Abbas, former prime minister and now Palestinian President: "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did."

And "now again", Mr Bush is quoted as telling the two, "I feel God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God, I'm gonna do it."

Mr Abbas remembers how the US President told him he had a "moral and religious obligation" to act. The White House has refused to comment on what it terms a private conversation. But the BBC account is anything but implausible, given how throughout his presidency Mr Bush, a born-again Christian, has never hidden the importance of his faith.

From the outset he has couched the "global war on terror" in quasi-religious terms, as a struggle between good and evil. Al-Qa'ida terrorists are routinely described as evil-doers. For Mr Bush, the invasion of Iraq has always been part of the struggle against terrorism, and he appears to see himself as the executor of the divine will.

He told Bob Woodward - whose 2004 book, Plan of Attack, is the definitive account of the administration's road to war in Iraq - that after giving the order to invade in March 2003, he walked in the White House garden, praying "that our troops be safe, be protected by the Almighty". As he went into this critical period, he told Mr Woodward, "I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will.

"I'm surely not going to justify war based upon God. Understand that. Nevertheless, in my case, I pray that I will be as good a messenger of His will as possible. And then of course, I pray for forgiveness."

Another telling sign of Mr Bush's religion was his answer to Mr Woodward's question on whether he had asked his father - the former president who refused to launch a full-scale invasion of Iraq after driving Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991 - for advice on what to do.

The current President replied that his earthly father was "the wrong father to appeal to for advice ... there is a higher father that I appeal to".

The same sense of mission permeated his speech at the National Endowment of Democracy yesterday. Its main news was Mr Bush's claim that Western security services had thwarted 10 planned attacks by al-Qa'ida since 11 September 2001, three of them against mainland US.

More striking though was his unrelenting portrayal of radical Islam as a global menace, which only the forces of freedom - led by the US - could repel. It was delivered at a moment when Mr Bush's domestic approval ratings are at their lowest ebb, in large part because of the war in Iraq, in which 1,950 US troops have died, with no end in sight.

It came amid continuing violence on the ground, nine days before the critical referendum on the new constitution that offers perhaps the last chance of securing a unitary and democratic Iraq. "The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region" and set up a radical empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia, he said.

The insurgents' aim was to "enslave whole nations and intimidate the world". He portrayed Islamic radicals as a single global movement, from the Middle East to Chechnya and Bali and the jungles of the Philippines.

He rejected claims that the US military presence in Iraq was fuelling terrorism: 11 September 2001 occurred long before American troops set foot in Iraq - and Russia's opposition to the invasion did not stop terrorists carrying out the Beslan atrocity in which 300 children died.

Mr Bush also accused Syria and Iran of supporting radical groups. They "have a long history of collaboration with terrorists and they deserve no patience". The US, he warned, "makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbour them because they're equally as guilty of murder".

"Wars are not won without sacrifice and this war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve," Mr Bush declared. But progress was being made in Iraq, and, he proclaimed: "We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory."

[AncientMariner]

The peak oil theorists are saying he did it because they know that oil production is maxed out and not keeping up with demand and that civilization is on the brink of entering the post industrial stone age.

[yogesh]

I suspect it must be the OIL GOD:P

[RadheyRadhey108]

He's such a joke. How dare he claim divine realization from God for mass slaughter.

[tackleberry]

 

He's such a joke. How dare he claim divine realization from God for mass slaughter.

 

Yeah, and when Muslims slaughter people in the name of god, it's supposed to be a divine act.

[Kulapavana]

 

Yeah, and when Muslims slaughter people in the name of god, it's supposed to be a divine act.

 

it must be the same desert god of oil

[RadheyRadhey108]

 

Yeah, and when Muslims slaughter people in the name of god, it's supposed to be a divine act.

I don't think the mass slaughter of innocent people is ever a divine act.

[sreeram]

mass slaughter was happend during kurukshethara war too. But this one is the OIL GOD. Yes Oil is the god for him.

[RadheyRadhey108]

 

mass slaughter was happend during kurukshethara war too. But this one is the OIL GOD. Yes Oil is the god for him.

But the people the Pandavas fought at Kurukshetra certainly weren't innocent. Not to mention that they tried to compromise with the Kauravas numerous times.

But, yes, money is Bush's god.

[mahak]

Nice lines for one who never had a thought. Take another toot, GW. God spelled IRAQ wrong, thought, he really meant IRAN. Jeez, GW, doncha even listen? (BTW, that speech in Egypt, real smoothe, very diplomatic and statesmanlike, I bet Heritage is just waiting for your imput. No wonder they bought that place in Paraguay.

[suchandra]

 

Nice lines for one who never had a thought. Take another toot, GW. God spelled IRAQ wrong, thought, he really meant IRAN. Jeez, GW, doncha even listen? (BTW, that speech in Egypt, real smoothe, very diplomatic and statesmanlike, I bet Heritage is just waiting for your imput. No wonder they bought that place in Paraguay.

 

Finally one of G.W.Bush's closest secretaries quit his job in the White House.

 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100"></td> <td valign="top" width="10"></td> <td class="auname" valign="top" width="290"> WHAT HAPPENED

Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

SCOTT MCCLELLAN</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"></td> <td valign="top"></td> <td valign="top"></td> </tr> </tbody></table> SUMMARY | EXCERPT | AUTHOR TOUR DATES

With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush's closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency, and what exactly happened to take it off course

Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to Bush by his commitment to compassionate conservatism and strong bipartisan leadership, McClellan served the president for more than seven years, and witnessed day-to-day exactly how the presidency veered off course. In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Washington's bitter partisanship, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.

 

 

Scott McClellan served as White House press secretary from 2003 to 2006. before that he served as the principal deputy White House press secretary and as traveling press secretary for the bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. Earlier in his career, Mr. McClellan served as deputy communications director in the Texas governor's office and campaign manager for three successful statewide campaigns. He is now a senior adviser to a global technology firm and communications strategist. Born in Austin, Texas, he now lives near Washington, D.C.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="400"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="15"></td> <td class="bookbodytext" valign="top">Special retail coop available</td> </tr><tr><td valign="top" width="15"></td> <td class="bookbodytext" valign="top">National television and radio publicity</td> </tr><tr><td valign="top" width="15"></td> <td class="bookbodytext" valign="top">Reviews and features</td> </tr><tr><td valign="top" width="15"></td> <td class="bookbodytext" valign="top">On-line promotion</td> </tr><tr><td valign="top" width="15"></td> <td class="bookbodytext" valign="top">Author lecture tour</td></tr></tbody></table>

[rand0M aXiS]

 

Finally one of G.W.Bush's closest secretaries quit his job in the White House.

 

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="100"></td> <td valign="top" width="10"></td> <td class="auname" valign="top" width="290"> WHAT HAPPENED

Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception

SCOTT MCCLELLAN</td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"></td> <td valign="top"></td> <td valign="top"></td> </tr> </tbody></table> SUMMARY | EXCERPT | AUTHOR TOUR DATES

With unprecedented candor, one of George W. Bush's closest aides takes readers behind the scenes of the Bush presidency, and what exactly happened to take it off course

Scott McClellan was one of a few Bush loyalists from Texas who became part of his inner circle of trusted advisers, and remained so during one of the most challenging and contentious periods of recent history. Drawn to Bush by his commitment to compassionate conservatism and strong bipartisan leadership, McClellan served the president for more than seven years, and witnessed day-to-day exactly how the presidency veered off course. In this refreshingly clear-eyed book, written with no agenda other than to record his experiences and insights for the benefit of history, McClellan provides unique perspective on what happened and why it happened the way it did, including the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, Washington's bitter partisanship, and two hotly contested presidential campaigns. He gives readers a candid look into who George W. Bush is and what he believes, and into the personalities, strengths, and liabilities of his top aides. Finally, McClellan looks to the future, exploring the lessons this presidency offers the American people as we prepare to elect a new leader.

 

 

Scott McClellan served as White House press secretary from 2003 to 2006. before that he served as the principal deputy White House press secretary and as traveling press secretary for the bush-Cheney 2000 campaign. Earlier in his career, Mr. McClellan served as deputy communications director in the Texas governor's office and campaign manager for three successful statewide campaigns. He is now a senior adviser to a global technology firm and communications strategist. Born in Austin, Texas, he now lives near Washington, D.C.

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Liberals are ecstatic over the latest “Tell-All” from Scott McClellan while Conservatives really don’t know how to react. Consider the dynamics of Scott McClellan and determine if you, the reader, would really want to have a guy like this anywhere around you? His friends and co workers say he never gave any indication that he was annoyed, disgruntled or even mildly disturbed at the things he saw being done within the White House. Their claim, pretty much in unison, is “This is not the Scott we knew”. Only Nancy Pelosi, with her lack of appreciation for anything American, “entirely agrees” with him. This is an appropriate response coming from Mrs. Pelosi, however, it is odd that she would have the audacity to admit it so openly. Scott is her kind of people.

 

 

Track the history of Code Pink, Moveon.org, GLAD, many of the far left environmental groups, etcetra and look for elements of the same type of behavior. As an example of synonymous behavior: When Tony Snow was diagnosed with cancer, the Huffington Post and Daily Kos openly wished bad tidings, even an advanced death for Mr. Snow. However, when Teddy Kennedy was diagnosed with his Brain Tumor Freerepublic.com and other traditionally conservative sites offered prayers for Kennedy. The list of similarities is endless. Most honest people are attracted to the higher road regardless of their political affiliations.

 

 

People who are driven by purpose rather than ethics tend to allow ideology to rule their better judgment. People who pursue ethics above purpose tend to not be as concerned about the outcome as much as the process. By the time an individual’s “determination to see a desired result” has caused them to step over the line of ethics, takes place, it’s too late. They have become entangled in the net of betrayal or dishonesty and such behavior simply becomes the cost of doing business. They get used to it and the sting or pangs of conscious are no longer as much of an issue.

 

 

One glaring example of this is PETA (People for the ethical treatment of animals). At one time, PETA had a rational, well founded and rightful goal. Animal cruelty, for purposes of commercial gain, is wrong. There is no need of applying Drano into the eyes of 10,000 animals to see if it burns. The group, frustrated with the inability of getting their message across, resorted to more grandiose and publicity driven behavior, even sometimes criminal. Their original message is still just as valid, however their reputation is along the lines of any far left fringe group and no one wants to hear it anymore.

 

 

Had McClellan voiced his concerns shortly after leaving his White House post, or discussed them with his peers, he might still hold a degree of intellectual credibility. At this point he has chosen the path of unethical betrayal and offended rather than convinced his counterparts as well as the American public. Those who relate to Scott’s type of behavior, as they too have sold out, will rejoice at the prospect of a new partner in advancing their agenda whether it is anti-war activism, minority rights or some other special interest. Scott has painted himself as a person never to be trusted again and it says far more about Scott than it does anyone from the White House. The eternal question will always be: Did the issue cause the actions or did the seeds of intellectual dishonesty exist before the events. As this type of behavior has become stereotypical, even the question is no longer debated. It is simply accepted as fact. The victims here are those who interacted with and trusted Mr. McClellan. In fact, Scott, without intent, does the public a service. Those who side with him or relate to his betrayal show their colors by association. Those still gasping for fresh air after reading the book are not. Watching the reactions of other’s as the book is discussed will be enlightening and evidence of one’s true core beliefs.

 

If ever I bump into Scott, the question I'll ask him is: "So, were you lying to us then, or are you lying to us now." However, I know what the real answer is, he's just another media wh*re who is trying to sell a book....

[bhaktajan]

"The President made the assertion during his first meeting with Palestinian leaders in June 2003, according to a BBC series which will be broadcast this month."

 

 

I'm sorry if this will SHOCK EVERYONE reading this but I must state that I myself am an unequivical 101% dedicated supporter of President George Bush, I always was and always will be.

 

So there, I said it.

 

And the funny thing is,

 

(get ready for this,

 

brace yourselves,

 

here it comes):

 

"You all know why!"

 

If you're still unsure why I am a 101% Bush supporter,

Then just ask your self, 'for what ulterior motive would anyone truely be a supporter of Pres. Bush'.

 

So, all ya'lls' possible reasons are good enough for me, and for every military cadet & office & subcontractor etc etc etc--are all good enough for me --and with that I offer my prayers for Pres. George Bush and his legacy and his success.

 

best regards,

Bhaktajan

 

-----------------------

 

OK. Now, everyone, return back to your rat-race commonplace lives and/or post your 'bestest' literary 'polish' bile, while it's still hot, hold the Sauerkraut.

[rand0M aXiS]

 

Fortunatley, the President could not care less about "bhaktajan"'s support.

 

ROTFLMAO!!!

 

Who cares about what you think? Not me nor those fighting the enemy...

[mahak]

I have been most critical of Bush, but I am not ecstatic over the idiots book. Who cares? What is he saying that is not known already? And as far as pulosi, clinton and others who seem to be reveling in the revelation of idiots, they are most disingenuous. There is one reason and one reason only that pulosi is speaker of the house, and that is that americans wanted investigations and redress for the state of the union (IMPEACHMENT), yet pulost couldnt wait to get to lick the table that bust eats from.

 

So, where it stands now, bush is actually doing exactly what he promised, taking care of his own kind. The liars are the democrats who steal elections under fasle pretense of liberalism, yet are fully engaged in genocide of all including our own troops.

 

My friend BB has it wrong, there is no true liberalism in the democratic party, just as certain that republican party is not in tune with the ideals of Goldwater, William F. Buckley, or other truely great american statesmen/thuinkers. Amerikan two party system is the hedonist democrats who want freedom to be billy goats and the reactionary fundamentalist fanatics who want to baptize your baby for the great anti-christ.

 

The more I think of it, the great reggae ditty extolling the virtues of and the necessity of voting for Ron Paul is quite appropriate. We dont need change, enough change over the last twenty years makes me not even recognize the america of my youth. What we need is return of liberty and justice for all.

 

The book? Big deal, the dude was broke, and only the way he wrote it would make anyone buy it, those sheep who really think that the hillarys or obamas will hurry to get our boys and girls back home. The only thing that will change is the level of debt and the communes being wiped out en masse, they already have the camps built.

 

mahak

[suchandra]

 

I have been most critical of Bush, but I am not ecstatic over the idiots book. Who cares? What is he saying that is not known already? And as far as pulosi, clinton and others who seem to be reveling in the revelation of idiots, they are most disingenuous. There is one reason and one reason only that pulosi is speaker of the house, and that is that americans wanted investigations and redress for the state of the union (IMPEACHMENT), yet pulost couldnt wait to get to lick the table that bust eats from.

 

So, where it stands now, bush is actually doing exactly what he promised, taking care of his own kind. The liars are the democrats who steal elections under fasle pretense of liberalism, yet are fully engaged in genocide of all including our own troops.

 

My friend BB has it wrong, there is no true liberalism in the democratic party, just as certain that republican party is not in tune with the ideals of Goldwater, William F. Buckley, or other truely great american statesmen/thuinkers. Amerikan two party system is the hedonist democrats who want freedom to be billy goats and the reactionary fundamentalist fanatics who want to baptize your baby for the great anti-christ.

 

The more I think of it, the great reggae ditty extolling the virtues of and the necessity of voting for Ron Paul is quite appropriate. We dont need change, enough change over the last twenty years makes me not even recognize the america of my youth. What we need is return of liberty and justice for all.

 

The book? Big deal, the dude was broke, and only the way he wrote it would make anyone buy it, those sheep who really think that the hillarys or obamas will hurry to get our boys and girls back home. The only thing that will change is the level of debt and the communes being wiped out en masse, they already have the camps built.

 

mahak

Right, the plan is to get our boys and girls from Iraq to Iran and make sure that they won't return.

 

 

 

THE NETWORK BEHIND THE BUSH-BASHING BOOK

 

 

By Cliff Kincaid

 

 

May 31, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

 

 

 

Publisher Peter Osnos, who admits to personally working with former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan on his new book, What Happened, began his career as an assistant to I.F. Stone, the pro-communist “journalist” named as a Soviet agent of influence who was the uncle of Weather Underground communist terrorist Kathy Boudin.

 

 

But the connections don’t end there. Boudin’s son Chesa was raised by Barack Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were Boudin’s comrades in the communist terrorist group, after Kathy Boudin went to prison for her involvement in an armed robbery and assault that

took the lives of two policemen and a security guard. Dohrn later served jail time for refusing to cooperate in an official investigation of the crime.

 

 

Obama stands to benefit from the McClellan book because it was obviously crafted, under the guidance of Osnos, to inflict maximum damage on President Bush and, by extension, fellow Republican and Iraq War supporter Senator John McCain. None of this can be called an accident.

 

 

One question that has been raised by critics is whether McClellan is in it for the money. But that’s less important than the fact that the network that has made this book into a reality incorporates many elements of the far left. Some of these links have been commented on already. For example, the Osnos firm, PublicAffairs Books, has also published books by George Soros, John Kerry, and Vladimir Putin. But Osnos’s ties to I.F. Stone and the media constitute the story behind the story.

 

 

The network that included Stone, who died in 1989, was the subject of Susan Braudy’s 2003 book, Family Circle, about the Boudin family’s communist and socialist ties. Page 185 shows Kathy Boudin and Bernardine Dohrn together, “after Bernardine’s return from Cuba,” where she had “a warm meeting with members of the Viet Cong.” That was before she and Ayers finished their bombing campaign, which included a blast that killed a San Francisco policeman, and helped launch Barack Obama’s political career.

 

 

None of this background, of course, is being mentioned by those anxious and eager to interview McClellan, even though virtually all of his former friends say that what he is writing and saying now doesn’t sound like him at all. The obvious explanation is that, for whatever reason or motivation, he is reading from a script prepared by Osnos & Company and the far left.

 

 

The ploy is working. So far, according to the firm’s website, McClellan’s interviews are scheduled to include:

 

 

• NBC-TV “Today” - 5/29

• CNN “The Situation Room” - 5/30

• CNN “American Morning” - 6/2

• Comedy Central “Daily Show” - 6/2

• NPR “Fresh Air” - 6/3

• NPR “Talk of the Nation” (LIVE from the Newseum in DC) - 6/11

 

 

Favorable stories about the book have already appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today.

 

 

This is quite impressive until you realize that Osnos says that every book he publishes includes a dedication to Benjamin C. Bradlee, I.F.Stone and Robert Bernstein, former head of Random House. The first two are worth mentioning. Bradlee was the executive editor of the Washington Post, famous for once remarking that, during coverage of the Iran-Contra affair under President Reagan, he was having “the most fun since Watergate.” Bradlee was hoping to bring down Reagan, as they had brought down President Nixon in the paper’s coverage of the Watergate scandal.

 

 

Nixon had developed a national reputation as a Congressman and had laid the basis for his runs for national office by helping expose Soviet spy Alger Hiss in the State Department and a communist network inside the U.S. Government. Interestingly, one of Bradlee’s reporters on the Watergate story was Carl Bernstein, whose parents were members of the Soviet-controlled Communist Party.

 

 

 

 

 

Iran-Contra did not bring down Reagan, but the far-left apparently hopes the McClellan book will help bring down or further damage President George W. Bush. It can also, in their view, do some collateral damage to McCain.

 

 

It is a tactic that has been employed time and time again. Pegging their coverage to a book, the media create the appearance of a “scandal,” this time with a former “insider,” and try to inflict political damage that benefits the Democrats. The problem for McClellan is that he appears transparently foolish, reciting charges about the Iraq War and so forth that have mostly been raised before by the President’s political enemies. McClellan, who never objected to the policies when he promoted and defended them, is acting like a puppet.

 

 

Osnos is the key to understanding the network that is working behind-the-scenes. A former national news editor of the Post, Osnos was an assistant to I.F. Stone in the 1960s. Stone postured as an independent radical writer

but was exposed as a Soviet agent in the transcripts of Soviet messages known as the Venona intercepts and by other sources.

 

 

Former Soviet KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin had identified Stone as a Soviet agent, but under pressure from Stone’s friends in the media later backed away from that precise description. However, in his book, The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence and Espionage Against the West, Kalugin still identified Stone as a “fellow traveler” of the Soviet Union who “made no secret of his admiration for the Soviet system” over a period of many years and had regular contacts and lunches with him.

Osnos is still one among many far-left journalists who do not want to accept the terrible facts about their hero and icon. But as AIM founder Reed Irvine told the New York Times back in 1992, “The charge that I.F. Stone was a Soviet agent does not surprise those who knew that as a fellow traveler, if not a [Communist] party member, Stone remained a faithful Stalinist through the purges, the Hitler-Stalin pact and the absorption of Eastern Europe…”

 

 

Braudy’s book about the Boudins, Family Circle, has a lot to say about Kathy Boudin and her uncle, I.F. Stone, also known as Izzy. Before turning to a life of crime as a communist terrorist, she had wanted to work for her uncle’s newsletter, which is also where Osnos worked. On page 72 of the book, which tends to avoid harsh judgments, she tells us that Stone tried to organize opposition to U.S. involvement in the Korean War, in order to make South Korea safe for communism, and that he would later work to remove U.S. forces from South Vietnam, in order to pave the way for a communist military victory there. Stone and his comrades were successful in the case of Vietnam. His pro-communist record was clear for all to see, except to Osnos and his ilk.

 

 

According to Braudy, Stone had “achieved fame in the 1950s for fighting for the rights of people who were accused of having been members of the American Communist Party.”

 

 

But none of this apparently bothered Osnos, who went to work for Stone in the 1960s. And Osnos’s tie to Stone didn’t bother the Post. “After working for I.F. Stone, Peter Osnos became a correspondent around the world for The Washington Post and the newspaper’s foreign and national editor,” the official I.F. Stone website proclaims.

 

 

I first came across Osnos back in 1980, just a year or so after coming to Washington, D.C., when he was guest-lecturing at the pro-Marxist Institute for Policy Studies (IPS.) I signed up and covered the Karen DeYoung class on “foreign reporting.”

 

 

DeYoung, then a foreign reporter for the Post, is now an associate editor at the paper. The IPS class was being held during a time when the old Soviet Union and its surrogate, Communist Cuba, were destabilizing Central America and hoping to install a series of communist governments. Reagan had stopped the Soviet takeover at a critical juncture when he ordered the military liberation of communist-controlled Grenada. However, Reagan was also supporting the democratic government of El Salvador, which faced a communist terrorist movement, and freedom fighters in Nicaragua. It was the latter that led to the “Iran-Contra affair” when National Security Council staffer Oliver North arranged for unofficial assistance to the Nicaraguan resistance when the liberal Congress was attempting to cut off their aid.

 

 

To Karen DeYoung, as she told the class, “most journalists now, most Western journalists at least, are very eager to seek out guerrilla groups, leftist groups, because you assume they must be the good guys.” This betrayed the left-wing media bias that continues to this day and is reflected in the publication of the McClellan book. Any Republican president who dares to take on America’s enemies is targeted for destruction.

 

 

 

 

 

For his part, as I noted in an April 1983 Human Events article, “The IPS and the Media: Unholy Alliance,” Osnos exhibited a strange view of communism. He claimed not to know why the Soviets behaved as they did. But he had visited Cuba, where he found no evidence of Soviet control, and came away convinced that there was “’apparently genuine rapport” between Castro and the Cuban people.

 

 

On March 12, 2008, as he was preparing publication of McClellan’s book, Osnos found enough time to pay tribute to I.F. Stone on the anniversary of Stone’s birthday. Others paying tribute were Robert Kaiser, associate editor and former managing editor of the Washington Post, and Myra MacPherson, author of a book about Stone and former reporter for the Washington Post.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the milieu that has spawned the McClellan book. Whatever you may think of Bush, McCain or the Iraq War, there can be no doubt that Bush’s former press secretary has fulfilled the function of “useful idiot.”

 

 

Once again, the media are having their fun.