The Defaming of a War Resister by an embedded journalist

[Tom Joad]

The Jimmy Massey Story, and the slime job by Ron Harris.

This is about more than one courageous war resister’s defaming by the media elite, it is a story about how a man such as Ron Harris, who works for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, as a writer (or more accurately, a propagandist for wars of aggression, in the hollowed tradition of Judith Miller). As Paul Rockwell reminds us, Harris’s work was to sanitize the war, to make it palatable to the US public. Manufacturing Consent.

Some Background.
Jimmy Massey is a self-described "good old boy" born in Texas; Massey was honorably discharged from the Corps in December 2003 after 12 years of active duty, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome. He has testified in court as to attacks on unarmed civilians in Iraq, and taking his concerns to his superiors with no action being taken. See- Massey Testimony in Canada for War Resister Jeremy Hinzman

When he went to his superiors about his changing perspective regarding the war, Massey was offered a desk job away from combat, he responded to this offer by saying “Thank you Sergeant Major, I don’t want your money anymore. I don’t want your benefits. You killed some civilians, and you’re gonna have to live with it partner, and I’m gonna tell the truth.” Massey hired a good lawyer which meant that he was discharged rather than court-martialed. Since his discharge, he has been telling the truth. It comes at a price.

The Marines were not happy. So Ron Harris, wrote a smear story, accusing Massey of not being truthful. Harris’s story does not hold up.

“When Harris made his accusations , however, he did not realize that Massey’s claims about civilian killings were already corroborated by three other Marines with whom he served. Their testimony is recorded on tape by Massey’s publisher and a Danish journalist.” -- Paul Rockwell - Embedded Journalism At Its Worst

I would highly recommend reading that article to learn more about this smear campaign against Jimmy Massey. It says much about the current state of journalism in the US today. Harris’s bias is clear from his writings, not only his smear job against Massey, but through his months of writing about the war. For example, he proclaims “mission accomplished” (the very words appear in his text) two weeks before Bush made a fool of himself on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

I would also invite folks to check out the other resisters who have gone public with their refusal to participate in Bush’s War of Terror. See: War Resisters, the Real Heroes.

Tragically, as we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, these words spoken just one year before he died, are still too truthful, especially for those who love our country:
The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today, my own government.
Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Let’s do all in our power to create a new America, and a new world. Jimmy Massey is one of those people who will make such a dream a reality.

[lvx35]

1. I would love to get inside Harris's head.

Do these know they are the tools of Soviet style state-controlled media? I'll bet they don't. They say there are four things that make men sell out their nation and become spies: Money, Ideology, Coercion and Ego. 99% chance it was Ego with Harris, he bought into the bullshit that he was privy to special information, in with the intelligence elite and opened his mouth and ate the shit they told him about Massey lying. That's how it so often works.

[xchrom]

2. sorry, they are willfully ignorant.

they know and don't care -- it doesn't make them less fascinating -- just morbidly so.

[lvx35]

7. Do you think so?

I truly wonder about this whole crowd...If they are as you say, how do they get up in the morning and deal with themselves? I couldn't do it. Its pretty fascinating.

[EFerrari]

3. Kick

[Peace Patriot]

4. Tom Joad, thank you for this info--for telling us of Jim Massey, a hero

for peace and for truth, and for exposing this reporter (Ron Harris). In upside down and backward BushWorld--a place like Alice's Wonderland, where the Red Queen demands that the white roses to be painted red--Harris gets the pulpit to propagandize for war and murder, and gets paid for it, with benefits, and the real patriot and hero, the one who balks at murder, and courageously and honorably speaks out, has to forego his salary and benefits, after 12 years of service, and suffer calumny and Rovian smear tactics.

In my America, the U.S. military was not always an honorable institution, but it was learning, over the decades--after the slaughter in Vietnam, after the lessons of WW II and the consequent Geneva Conventions and Uniform Code of Military Justice--to have a code of ethics in war, and, since it is made up of human beings who reflect the progress and positive developments in society, it was finally acquiring a culture of accountability and a sense of truth and justice. Witness the military lawyers who fought against the Bush junta's torture policy, the generals who spoke honestly about the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the need for Cheney and Rumsfeld to get around the honest professionals in the military and other defense services, in order to slaughter tens of thousands of innocent people, and torture many more, and seize and occupy their oil fields.

One of the critical parts of the process of creating an accountable and professional military--a place of honorable service--has been the role of the free press, for instance in exposing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, and the impacts of napalm on civilians, and the general horror of unjust war.

The mass murderers, thieves and evil minds of the Bush junta are destroying all of it. They are destroying honorable service in the military. They are destroying its ethics. They are destroying the cautious use of the military, only for actions deemed necessary by world consensus at the United Nations. They are turning the U.S. military--or are trying to turn the U.S. military--into the ugly, goose-stepping Nazi army that the U.S. military defeated in WW II.

Just look at what these ghouls have done to Max Cleland, John Kerry and now John Murtha, men of courage who won medals on the battlefield, and who understand war first hand, and are therefore temperate in its use. Smear, smear, smear--against honorable service and against HONESTY.

And the war profiteering corporate news monopolies are going right along with it. No more honesty, or accountability, or "checks and balances" there either.

And along comes another man of integrity--Jim Massey--and the bloody vampires of the junta, and the slimy worms of the corporate news monopolies strike again.

Well, kudos to Jim Massey! You have the best kind of courage, Jim--moral courage! And I salute you and honor you here! You have Peace Patriot's medal of valor.

[EFerrari]

5. kick

[lvx35]

6. K& R