Latest NEWS on the CIA leak - will it be a clone of the Hutton distraction ?
arthur prufrock | 07.10.2003 20:10
Latest NEWS on the CIA leak enquiry suggests it may mirror the Hutton enquiry (still in the NEWS). The latter successfully distracted the media from the real issues of the Iraq war. Another great triumph of Blair spin - all the more so because it appears to be the opposite - a critical investigation.
It seems Bush is now setting up a mirror - an inquiry into something Iraq-related but trivial. It worked for Blair, after all.
This posting takes two current news items, and suggests a viewpoint from which they are intimately related.
It seems Bush is now setting up a mirror - an inquiry into something Iraq-related but trivial. It worked for Blair, after all.
This posting takes two current news items, and suggests a viewpoint from which they are intimately related.
The Blair spin-doctors managed to distract our entire media, and UK public interest, onto entirely the wrong investigation. With a pile of 10,000 civilian corpses in Iraq, and probably at least thrice that number of maimed and injured, Blair carefully sets up an enquiry into whether one civil servant was a bit upset by some questioning that might have been a bit unkind.
One upset Englishman - result - many weeks media saturation, multimillion pound legal enquiry.
10,000 dead Iraqi's - result - silence.
Presumably this irrelevant Kelly charade was intended to delude the people into believing that their leaders were somehow being brought to task over Iraq, and so to quench demand for investigation of the lies we had been told. The ravening dog has been given a rubber bone, and, unbelievably, seems so stupid as to be satisfied.
Worked like a dream.
For this strategy to succeed, it has to look like the govt has been caught doing something naughty, and for it then to nobly allow itself to be investigated. No-one must notice that the crime is very small compared with the huge one it seeks to conceal, that the investigation is carefully focussed and limited, and that the actual culprits, when discovered, must be preferably pretty low-level creatures, or at least readily sacrificeable.
Looks to me like Bush has found the ideal parallel in "the Ambassador, his CIA wife, and the naughty leak". I predict he will copy the Blair success, with a hugely publicised but carefully controlled investigation into nothing much. TV will vibrate with indignation and analsis for a month or two. The foolish population will be largely placated, ending up with the vague feeling that their government has been adequately taken to task on the Iraq question.
On their next meeting Tony and George will then share a "high-five".
And 10,000 innocent Iraqis will still be dead because two populations (and parliaments) were seduced into supporting this massacre by a pack of lies, distortions, and spin.
My suggestion that Bush may be about to copy a successful Blair strategy will be testable by watching to see if the coming development of the new inquiry follows a parallel course to Hutton. I predict that it will, with the same the govt encouraging the media to make it a huge story, out of all proportion to its significance, and fostering the illusion that they have been significantly taken to task.
It is worrying to think that our governments might actually be acting on the basis of this sort of manipulative calculation, but I think we have sufficient evidence to suggest there might be something more here than just my paranoia.
Original NEWS ITEMS (one dated TODAY):
CIA inquiry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3172540.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3153588.stm
Hutton inquiry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2003/david_kelly_inquiry/default.stm
One upset Englishman - result - many weeks media saturation, multimillion pound legal enquiry.
10,000 dead Iraqi's - result - silence.
Presumably this irrelevant Kelly charade was intended to delude the people into believing that their leaders were somehow being brought to task over Iraq, and so to quench demand for investigation of the lies we had been told. The ravening dog has been given a rubber bone, and, unbelievably, seems so stupid as to be satisfied.
Worked like a dream.
For this strategy to succeed, it has to look like the govt has been caught doing something naughty, and for it then to nobly allow itself to be investigated. No-one must notice that the crime is very small compared with the huge one it seeks to conceal, that the investigation is carefully focussed and limited, and that the actual culprits, when discovered, must be preferably pretty low-level creatures, or at least readily sacrificeable.
Looks to me like Bush has found the ideal parallel in "the Ambassador, his CIA wife, and the naughty leak". I predict he will copy the Blair success, with a hugely publicised but carefully controlled investigation into nothing much. TV will vibrate with indignation and analsis for a month or two. The foolish population will be largely placated, ending up with the vague feeling that their government has been adequately taken to task on the Iraq question.
On their next meeting Tony and George will then share a "high-five".
And 10,000 innocent Iraqis will still be dead because two populations (and parliaments) were seduced into supporting this massacre by a pack of lies, distortions, and spin.
My suggestion that Bush may be about to copy a successful Blair strategy will be testable by watching to see if the coming development of the new inquiry follows a parallel course to Hutton. I predict that it will, with the same the govt encouraging the media to make it a huge story, out of all proportion to its significance, and fostering the illusion that they have been significantly taken to task.
It is worrying to think that our governments might actually be acting on the basis of this sort of manipulative calculation, but I think we have sufficient evidence to suggest there might be something more here than just my paranoia.
Original NEWS ITEMS (one dated TODAY):
CIA inquiry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3172540.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3153588.stm Hutton inquiry
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2003/david_kelly_inquiry/default.stm
arthur prufrock
Homepage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3172540.stm
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