http://www.counterpunch.com/marshall12092006.htmlLast week, in his chatty farewell, Donald Rumsfeld told his staff that the low point of his tenure was when he learned about Abu Ghraib. The press corps zombies didn't blink. Yet back on November 25, Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told a Spanish newspaper that she has evidence that Donald Rumsfeld specifically approved the torture techniques used at Abu Ghraib. My local paper never carried that story and there is no mention of Karpinski's allegations in reference to Rumsfeld's professed shock and horror that such a thing occurred on his watch.
Why is it that the media does not take Karpinski seriously? I suspect that few people in this country doubt that the orders to commit torture at Abu Ghraib came from high up in the Pentagon. Yet when someone who is in a position to know offers proof, the media just ignores it and goes along with the fiction that it was the doing of lower level personnel.
But Karpinsky is not the only woman who has been silenced by my morning newspaper. Call me naïve, but you'd think that when a member of Congress introduces a bill to impeach the President, it would be considered news. Maybe even the top headline in the same papers that screamed, "Monica!". But no, that spot in the following day's issue of my local paper went to the Foley scandal report.
There is no mystery as to why the impeachment story isn't a story. The bill was written by outgoing Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who lost her seat in Congress after being accused of hitting a Capitol Hill policeman, although charges were never filed, and evidence was never produced. McKinney has a long reputation of speaking her mind on unpopular topics, including the investigation of 911 and the disenfranchisement of black voters and has been a strong voice against the Iraq war.
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the article ends with this:
But how likely is it that the American public will make such a decision when the media does not see fit to report that the outgoing Sec Def may have authorized the same torture that he claims was his low point or that articles of impeachment have been introduced against the President. Until the media reports the truth that these courageous women are saying, they are complicit in the erosion of our democracy and freedom.
COMPLICIT
(like driving the getaway car)