4/2/09

Sy and Terri, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.

Terri Gross and Sy Hersh, both inside the machine while pretending to be outside the machine, have a little 'scoop' here.
Speaking with NPR's Terri Gross, Hersh revealed that the former Vice President -- who he characterized as "really smart" -- has individuals that report back to him from key positions in government. He called these individuals "stay-behinds," an intelligence term generally applied to insiders left behind in foreign governments after the occupying power is driven out.

"He’s put people back," Hersh said. "They call it a stay-behind. It’s sort of an intelligence term of art. When you leave a country and, you know, you’ve driven out, you know, you’ve lost the war. You leave people behind. It’s a stay-behind that you can continue to contacts with, to do sabotage, whatever you want to do.

"Cheney’s left a stay behind," Hersh continued. "He’s got people in a lot of agencies that still tell him what’s going on. Particularly in defense, obviously. Also in the NSA, there’s still people that talk to him. He still knows what’s going on. Can he still control policy up to a point? Probably up to a point, a minor point. But he’s still there. He’s still a presence."

..."Cheney has enormous influence with a lot of the senior officers in the Pentagon," he added. "So I have been told to put the word -- it was the word that I was told about, what they call "stay-behinds." He has people he can count on to keep him informed of what's going on. That doesn't necessarily mean he has much influence on policy. But he, certainly in the Pentagon. And I think because certainly at the National Security Council for weeks and weeks after the Obama Administration took over, there was a long delay in getting staff turned over. So there were a lot of people around in the first few weeks, in the first months of this administration that had served very closely with the Cheney/Bush operation."
WTF? Is Hersh saying he was told to put the word out? That looks like a little slip to me.

You know, Sy Hersh has done some great stuff over the years, but Winter Patriot really flayed him alive a couple of weeks ago, and justifiably so.
The best and the brightest don't join the militarization of America. They fight against it. The best and the brightest didn't get all hyped up after 9/11 and decide to go kill people. The best and the brightest could see, on the day itself, that the government/media story was hogwash. The best and the brightest have been working for years -- decades in some cases -- to counteract the very propaganda Hersh is so fond of spewing.

But for all his inside connections, Hersh cannot see it any other way. By his own admission, he has no outside connections.
Hersh insists [...] that his close ties with the underside of the defense world are the reason he’s so confident about his understanding of that reality. “I’m not working with guys outside the system,” he tells me. “You do understand that, don’t you? I’m not outside the system in what I do. I’m really not.”
And don't get me started on Terri Gross. The day I heard her voice choking up like she was personally stricken while she had a guest on discussing Israel's crimes against humanity in Gaza, in particular the use of white phosphorous, that was the last day I listened to NPR. The way I heard it, she was not choking up about the Palestinians, she was horrified that she was forced to discuss Israel's crimes against humanity on her damn show. Exposing the dirty laundry for all to see.

What does it mean when people with impeccable liberal credentials like Sy Hersh and Terri Gross report that Dick Cheney has moles inside the Obama government? Seems like a little Hegelian mind-fuck to me -- blame Dick give a pass to Obama -- but what do I know. What do you guys think?

12 comments:

kenny said...

I think you have it figured out very well.

There are no 'outside the machine' in any of the MSM or those that they allow to speak.

A. Peasant said...

Thanks for thinking so. They're all tools, even the 'good' ones. Maybe especially them.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I have always belived that Uncle Hersh is an essential part of the "Mighty Wurlitzer's" mammoth psy-ops machinary.

Otherwise, he would not have survived for that long leaking "important" information from "deep throat" sources.

As such - I simply ignore him - for whatever he discloses, the "Mighty Wurlitzer" wishes the public to know in some level of psy-ops. Even if it may contain some truth, it is often mixed with half-truth, and outright omissions, if not outright lies. As Huxley had noted:

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.”

Otherwise, the mission of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" failed.

I think that statement: "So I have been told to put the word -- it was the word that I was told about" is likely to be a freudian slip.

I wonder if he subsequently retracted that - for that would be telling. But if he's smart, which he is, he would have let it ride over. Never retract, never apologize - the twain strands of Machiavelli run deep in the Dulles brothers' legacy.

Could you kindly email me a link to this interview/conversation?

Thank you.


Zahir Ebrahim,

Project Humanbeingsfirst.org
humanbeingsfirst@gmail.com

A. Peasant said...

Hi Zahir,

Thanks for stopping by here. I am honored. I have sent you the links.

Marlena

Greg Bacon said...

Left some "stay-behinds?" Shit, damn near all of the Washington kommissars are stay-behinds.

Even when they get defeated and lose an election, which is rare--we re-elect our Senators and Reps at a higher rate than the old Soviet Dumma--the defeated get some cozy job working on K Street or with the House or Senate on some bougus committee investigating something.

Others migrate to those "think tanks" that seem to spend all of their time thinking how to loot the country and trick Americans into fighting more wars for Israel.

As for NPR, 20 years ago, they were a great source of news, just like PBS was.

No longer. NPR stands for "Negative Palestinian Reporting" and PBS regularly runs shows about the Tribe and their hardships thru history...

Never mentioning the history behind those hardships, like getting hold of a nation's money supply and using that to make themseleves extremely wealthy at the same time, using that money to influence the throne.

There was a comment on some Link TV show about the world-wide banking crisis.
They claim that NO Islamic run banks are being affected by this crisis, since they don't charge interest for loans?!?!?!?

As for Hersh. I enjoy listening to his reports, He might be what you say, but if not for Hersh, there is a lot of stuff we wouldn't have found out about, like the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
If he is a shill, then take the info he passes out and put it to good use.

malcontent said...

This story is concurrent with the pending release of 3 more OLC torture memos that may entirely blow the face of politeness off our evasion of war crimes investigations. Reportedly, Mikey Hayden is apoplectic and reeking of feces in his efforts to quash their publication.

We don't know all the layers of fuckery that exist in DC and this story may well have primary purpose in an undisclosed knot in the web of control.

I suppose I am defending Sy to a point here but I only wish for everyone to remember that there is rarely a single purpose to any black world message.

Cheney and Hayden genuinely don't like non-GOP personnel and I don't doubt for a moment that there is some amount of fiefdom squabbling to be settled at NSA, DIA, CIA and the rest of Cheney's former stomping grounds.

malcontent said...

Ultimately tangible results or the lack thereof will dictate my analysis of news sources.

A. Peasant said...

Hersh has no doubt done some good things, especially going way back. But Zahir's point is well taken that he has managed to survive his own career. People allow themselves to be used as tools for various reasons, and certainly they may rationalize things in their own minds and be otherwise perfectly delightful people. It doesn't mean they aren't still tools. Basically anyone making a career in the military-industrial complex or professional journalism has to sell out something.

Greg Bacon said...

is some amount of fiefdom squabbling to be settled at NSA, DIA, CIA and the rest of Cheney's former stomping grounds

At the bureacracy I formerly worked at, the City of Columbia's FD, there was always an ego that needed massaging or turf to protect.

If you were in charge of some budget item, you were told in person, never by email, to add in an extra 5% to your budget each year.
That way, the chief could either raid the budget for his favorite toys or turn that extra 5% back in at the fiscal year's end to show the City Council how great a money manager he was.

Multiply that con by infinity and you'll get an idea of what the Pentagon's procurement process is like.
Some goes to buy Buck Roger type toys, a lot of which never work, some goes into the pockets of generals and some makes "aliyah" back to the Mother Ship.

Greg Bacon said...

There are no 'outside the machine' in any of the MSM or those that they allow to speak.

So is British MP George Galloway part of that "machine?"

kenny said...

...So is British MP George Galloway part of that "machine?"...

I would hope that I'm wrong but Galloway seems to be like Ron Paul, Kucinich and a few others who are allowed to speak a lot of truth but never all of it (specifically 9/11 and certain aspects of Israel and jewish influence). They make people think, influence some individuals and get face time in the media but in the end the status quo remains.

'Tools' or not, they won't go too far for risk of being censored, marginalized or possibly even terminated and they know it.

The 'machine' is so well oiled that all I know is to keep a skeptical/cynical eye open.

Greg Bacon said...

The 'machine' is so well oiled that all I know is to keep a skeptical/cynical eye open.

And your powder dry..... and your ammo.... and your....

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