Nat'l Security Journalistic Honesty. Rare and should be rewarded

HonestChieffan · 02:55 PM

When the debate turns to Omabas State Department and Military efforts, things like this will sink his ship after than anything. The press still has a few journalists who are not afraid of the palace guard.

This was no ordinary rubber chicken affair. That was my reaction to the extraordinary keynoter at Tuesday’s Better Government Association annual luncheon.

Lara Logan, a correspondent for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” delivered a provocative speech to about 1,100 influentials from government, politics, media, and the legal and corporate arenas. Such downtown gatherings are a regular on Chicago’s networking circuit. (I am a member of the BGA’s Civic Leadership Committee, and the Chicago Sun-Times was a sponsor).

Her ominous and frightening message was gleaned from years of covering our wars in the Middle East. She arrived in Chicago on the heels of her Sept. 30 report, “The Longest War.” It examined the Afghanistan conflict and exposed the perils that still confront America, 11 years after 9/11.

Eleven years later, “they” still hate us, now more than ever, Logan told the crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They’re coming back.

“I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated . . .” Logan declared in her native South African accent.

The lie is that America’s military might has tamed the Taliban.

“There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,” Logan said. It is driven in part by “Taliban apologists,” who claim “they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,” she added sarcastically. “It’s such nonsense!”

Logan stepped way out of the “objective,” journalistic role. The audience was riveted as she told of plowing through reams of documents, and interviewing John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a Taliban commander trained by al-Qaida. The Taliban and al-Qaida are teaming up and recruiting new terrorists to do us deadly harm, she reports.

She made a passionate case that our government is downplaying the strength of our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a rationale of getting us out of the longest war. We have been lulled into believing that the perils are in the past: “You’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance, you think you write the script.”

Our enemies are writing the story, she suggests, and there’s no happy ending for us.

As a journalist, I was queasy. Reporters should tell the story, not be the story. As an American, I was frightened.

Logan even called for retribution for the recent terrorist killings of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other officials. The event is a harbinger of our vulnerability, she said. Logan hopes that America will “exact revenge and let the world know that the United States will not be attacked on its own soil. That its ambassadors will not be murdered, and that the United States will not stand by and do nothing about it.”

http://www.suntimes.com/news/washing...ddle-east.html

What is more telling is the unfolding of the facts on the Libya fiasco and the entire pack of lies from the White House to the UN...http://weaselzippers.us/2012/10/08/v...aign-on-libya/

CBS comes in with the facts on how security requests were turned down by the administration shortly before the terrorists hit....The former head of a Special Forces “Site Security Team” in Libya tells CBS News that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other U.S. security officials on the ground for “more, not less” security personnel, the State Department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before a terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.

Lt. Col. Andy Wood will appear this week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that will examine security decisions leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi.

Speaking to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled from Tripoli in August – about a month before the assault in Benghazi – he felt, “like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff.”

He said other staffers approached him with their concerns when the reduction in security personnel was announced.

“They asked if we were safe,” he told Attkisson. “They asked… what was going to happen, and I could only answer that what we were being told is that they’re working on it – they’ll get us more (security personnel), but I never saw that.”

Wood insists that senior staff in Libya, including Ambassador Stevens, State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, and himself, all wanted and had requested enhanced security.

“We felt we needed more, not less,” he tells Attkisson.

Asked what response their repeated pleas got from the State Department in Washington, Wood says they were simply told “to do with less. For what reasons, I don’t know.”

**patteeu** · 10-08-2012, 03:21 PM

If anything supports my contention that a democrat President wouldn't have responded meaningfully to 9/11, Obama's attempt to sweep al Qaeda under the rug so he doesn't have to deal with them does.

**patteeu** · 10-08-2012, 03:23 PM

BTW, Logan is the reporter who was raped by Egyptian street rabble during the Arab Spring uprising. Hosni Mubarack didn't build that.

qabbaan · 10-08-2012, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

BTW, Logan is the reporter who was raped by Egyptian street rabble during the Arab Spring uprising. Hosni Mubarack didn't build that.

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide Lara Logan cause they rapin' airybody in Tahrir

Fish · 10-08-2012, 03:51 PM

What happened to her was sickening and very unfortunate. But I don't think we should base our political or military actions on the vengeful desires of a rape victim. GTFO, come home and defend our borders. Let the savages be savages to each other and quit trying to police them. It's a damn waste.

**patteeu** · 10-08-2012, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qabbaan

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide Lara Logan cause they rapin' airybody in Tahrir

LiveSteam · 10-08-2012, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC Fish

. GTFO, come home and defend our borders. Let the savages be savages to each other and quit trying to police them. It's a damn waste.

Trust me. Their is a better way

**patteeu** · 10-08-2012, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC Fish

What happened to her was sickening and very unfortunate. But I don't think we should base our political or military actions on the vengeful desires of a rape victim. GTFO, come home and defend our borders. Let the savages be savages to each other and quit trying to police them. It's a damn waste.

1. Is that a gratuitous swipe or would you actually have a different opinion if this report came from someone who hadn't been gang raped by muslims?

2. I think your approach leads to either a police state or much greater success for terrorist attacks on our soil. Either way, it's a loser IMO.

Fish · 10-08-2012, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

1. Is that a gratuitous swipe or would you actually have a different opinion if this report came from someone who hadn't been gang raped by muslims?

2. I think your approach leads to either a police state or much greater success for terrorist attacks on our soil. Either way, it's a loser IMO.

1. Yes, of course I would have a different opinion if the report didn't come from a victim of rape at the hands of those she's vilifying. You don't think she's emotionally invested in what she wants?

2. You've made your fear of domestic "Terror" pretty clear, and I think it's illogical and irrational. I don't expect to persuade you from wanting to waste government money being the World Police.

HonestChieffan · 10-08-2012, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

1. Is that a gratuitous swipe or would you actually have a different opinion if this report came from someone who hadn't been gang raped by muslims?

2. I think your approach leads to either a police state or much greater success for terrorist attacks on our soil. Either way, it's a loser IMO.

always attack the source

**patteeu** · 10-08-2012, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC Fish

1. Yes, of course I would have a different opinion if the report didn't come from a victim of rape at the hands of those she's vilifying. You don't think she's emotionally invested in what she wants?

She may well be. Do you think the vast majority of mainstream reporters are invested in their support of Barack Obama or do you think they can find a way to be objective?

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC Fish

2. You've made your fear of domestic "Terror" pretty clear, and I think it's illogical and irrational. I don't expect to persuade you from wanting to waste government money being the World Police.

What fear?

Fish · 10-08-2012, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

She may well be. Do you think the vast majority of mainstream reporters are invested in their support of Barack Obama or do you think they can find a way to be objective?

I really don't like speaking for a vast majority. I don't think it serves much purpose. They all would/could have separate motives of varying degree that makes them hard to compare. Were any other mainstream reporters raped by Muslims? I might speak for those...

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

What fear?

Right.......

**patteeu** · 10-08-2012, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KC Fish

I really don't like speaking for a vast majority. I don't think it serves much purpose. They all would/could have separate motives of varying degree that makes them hard to compare. Were any other mainstream reporters raped by Muslims? I might speak for those...

It certainly wouldn't serve any purpose that parallels your personal agenda. I hear you.

La literatura · 10-08-2012, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patteeu

If anything supports my contention that a democrat President wouldn't have responded meaningfully to 9/11, Obama's attempt to sweep al Qaeda under the rug so he doesn't have to deal with them does.

Isn't it true that under Obama's one term, nearly as many, if not more, senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed compared to both terms of George W. Bush?

**patteeu** · 10-09-2012, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Literature

Isn't it true that under Obama's one term, nearly as many, if not more, senior al Qaeda leaders have been killed compared to both terms of George W. Bush?

Probably. It's a lot easier to allow a policy to continue than it is to make a bold move of your own. Unfortunately, even where Obama has continued Bush policies, he's managed to allow most of the fronts of the GWoT to deteriorate.

10-08-2012, 02:19 PM
HonestChieffan Banned Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: In the Country in MO Casino cash: $1222684	Journalistic Honesty. Rare and should be rewarded When the debate turns to Omabas State Department and Military efforts, things like this will sink his ship after than anything. The press still has a few journalists who are not afraid of the palace guard. This was no ordinary rubber chicken affair. That was my reaction to the extraordinary keynoter at Tuesday’s Better Government Association annual luncheon. Lara Logan, a correspondent for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” delivered a provocative speech to about 1,100 influentials from government, politics, media, and the legal and corporate arenas. Such downtown gatherings are a regular on Chicago’s networking circuit. (I am a member of the BGA’s Civic Leadership Committee, and the Chicago Sun-Times was a sponsor). Her ominous and frightening message was gleaned from years of covering our wars in the Middle East. She arrived in Chicago on the heels of her Sept. 30 report, “The Longest War.” It examined the Afghanistan conflict and exposed the perils that still confront America, 11 years after 9/11. Eleven years later, “they” still hate us, now more than ever, Logan told the crowd. The Taliban and al-Qaida have not been vanquished, she added. They’re coming back. “I chose this subject because, one, I can’t stand, that there is a major lie being propagated . . .” Logan declared in her native South African accent. The lie is that America’s military might has tamed the Taliban. “There is this narrative coming out of Washington for the last two years,” Logan said. It is driven in part by “Taliban apologists,” who claim “they are just the poor moderate, gentler, kinder Taliban,” she added sarcastically. “It’s such nonsense!” Logan stepped way out of the “objective,” journalistic role. The audience was riveted as she told of plowing through reams of documents, and interviewing John Allen, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan; Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and a Taliban commander trained by al-Qaida. The Taliban and al-Qaida are teaming up and recruiting new terrorists to do us deadly harm, she reports. She made a passionate case that our government is downplaying the strength of our enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a rationale of getting us out of the longest war. We have been lulled into believing that the perils are in the past: “You’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance, you think you write the script.” Our enemies are writing the story, she suggests, and there’s no happy ending for us. As a journalist, I was queasy. Reporters should tell the story, not be the story. As an American, I was frightened. Logan even called for retribution for the recent terrorist killings of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other officials. The event is a harbinger of our vulnerability, she said. Logan hopes that America will “exact revenge and let the world know that the United States will not be attacked on its own soil. That its ambassadors will not be murdered, and that the United States will not stand by and do nothing about it.” http://www.suntimes.com/news/washing...ddle-east.html What is more telling is the unfolding of the facts on the Libya fiasco and the entire pack of lies from the White House to the UN...http://weaselzippers.us/2012/10/08/v...aign-on-libya/ CBS comes in with the facts on how security requests were turned down by the administration shortly before the terrorists hit....The former head of a Special Forces “Site Security Team” in Libya tells CBS News that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other U.S. security officials on the ground for “more, not less” security personnel, the State Department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before a terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. Lt. Col. Andy Wood will appear this week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that will examine security decisions leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. Speaking to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled from Tripoli in August – about a month before the assault in Benghazi – he felt, “like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff.” He said other staffers approached him with their concerns when the reduction in security personnel was announced. “They asked if we were safe,” he told Attkisson. “They asked… what was going to happen, and I could only answer that what we were being told is that they’re working on it – they’ll get us more (security personnel), but I never saw that.” Wood insists that senior staff in Libya, including Ambassador Stevens, State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, and himself, all wanted and had requested enhanced security. “We felt we needed more, not less,” he tells Attkisson. Asked what response their repeated pleas got from the State Department in Washington, Wood says they were simply told “to do with less. For what reasons, I don’t know.” Last edited by HonestChieffan; 10-08-2012 at 02:55 PM..
Posts: 22,168

10-08-2012, 03:21 PM	#2
patteeu The 23rd Pillar Join Date: Sep 2002 Casino cash: $421267	If anything supports my contention that a democrat President wouldn't have responded meaningfully to 9/11, Obama's attempt to sweep al Qaeda under the rug so he doesn't have to deal with them does. __________________ Obamacare’s fix for an American health care system that the federal government long ago broke, is to give the federal government far more power over American health care; that its solution to escalating health costs is to mandate greater health benefits (and, hence, higher costs); and that its solution to the pricey overreliance on pre-paid health plans — offered by insurance companies in lieu of real insurance — is to have the government require Americans to buy those pre-paid health plans under penalty of law.
Posts: 67,810

10-08-2012, 03:23 PM	#3
patteeu The 23rd Pillar Join Date: Sep 2002 Casino cash: $421267	BTW, Logan is the reporter who was raped by Egyptian street rabble during the Arab Spring uprising. Hosni Mubarack didn't build that. __________________ Obamacare’s fix for an American health care system that the federal government long ago broke, is to give the federal government far more power over American health care; that its solution to escalating health costs is to mandate greater health benefits (and, hence, higher costs); and that its solution to the pricey overreliance on pre-paid health plans — offered by insurance companies in lieu of real insurance — is to have the government require Americans to buy those pre-paid health plans under penalty of law.
Posts: 67,810

10-08-2012, 03:51 PM	#5
Fish Missing Dick Curl Join Date: Sep 2005 Casino cash: $2089375	What happened to her was sickening and very unfortunate. But I don't think we should base our political or military actions on the vengeful desires of a rape victim. GTFO, come home and defend our borders. Let the savages be savages to each other and quit trying to police them. It's a damn waste. __________________
Posts: 21,470

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