What's really behind the RW noise about Kerry's trip to the Middle East?

[whometense]

I think this Steve Clemons post holds the key: http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001829.php

...Flynt Leverett, a former government official who worked at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and on the National Security Council staff of the George W. Bush administration, is now a senior fellow and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation.

He has written numerous books, manuscripts, working papers, and many dozens upon dozens of some of the most important public policy op-ed commentary on American engagement in the Middle East and has always dutifully submitted his materials to the CIA's review process. Never -- not even once -- has been a word or item changed in anything submitted.

The White House has now forced the CIA to heavily censor a 1000 word op-ed draft planned for the New York Times that is based on a much larger product he produced under the sponsorship of the Century Foundation titled "Dealing with Tehran: Assessing US Diplomatic Options Toward Iran." (A pdf of the article can be downloaded here.)

Leverett believes that the White House is now politicizing the "secrets review" process and is rewarding those who support Bush's policies and punishing those don't...

I recommend reading the whole thing, especially if you haven't been following the Flynt Leverett flap. Let's just say I don't think it's remotely :tinfoilhat:ish to see that the attacks on Kerry are no coincidence.

Also, http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011613.php
and http://www.liberaloasis.com/2006/12/iran_shifts_bush_censors.php

[whometense]

1. Oh and a post by Dan Kennedy too

http://medianation.blogspot.com/2006/12/no-more-joseph-wilsons.html

[ProSense]

2. Fascinating!

Excellent post, Whome!

An aside, not a deep, but all the talk about who is going to back Shia or Sunni is another diversionary tactic!

Saudi denies it will back Iraq Sunnis

by Suleiman Nimr
59 minutes ago

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister has denied reports that the Sunni-dominated kingdom would step in to back the Sunnis in Iraq's sectarian conflict in the event of a US pullout.

Snip..

"We do not pose as guardians of one faction or sect," he said Tuesday.

His remarks follow repeated reports that oil-rich Saudi Arabia might bankroll Iraq's Sunnis against Iran-backed Shiites should US troops pull out swiftly and leave a raging civil war in the country.

"We cooperate with anyone who wants (to preserve) the unity ... and independence of Iraq," Saud said.

Snip...

"Certain countries are sending inadequate signals that would get in the way of the United States taking the right decision (to leave Iraq)," the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, told reporters.

"There are even threats of intervention in Iraq. It is bizarre that there is an attempt to create the conditions for the United States to stay in the region," he added.

[whometense]

3. oh,

realllllly????

You can't even watch the news with a skeptical eye anymore - that's not enough. I swear, they have made cynicism into an art form.

[ProSense]

4. News?

What's that? It's not even spin anymore, it's pure propaganda!

Oh, the Liberal Oasis piece is excellent!

[whometense]

5. Isn't it?

He wove together a lot of different threads in a way that made a complicated story easier to understand.

[wisteria]

6. Yes, this all does seem to explain a lot.

Now, I can see why the RW papers have been up to, discrediting Sen. kerry and trying to influence public opinion against him.