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There’s No “Gotchya!” For Newsday’s Pinkerton
By Matt Margolis | April 11, 2004
James Pinkteron wrote a piece for Newsday where he leads with the following question:
If you knew that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had received a memo a month before Pearl Harbor entitled, “Japanese Determined to Attack the United States in the Pacific,” and that he had done nothing about that information, would that knowledge change your perception of FDR as a wise war leader?
This question frames the rest of his column with the idea that this is a very damning comparison. Now, FDR didn’t receive any memo, but the implication Pinkerton is trying make is not equal.
From the made up title of the hypotheticla FDR PDB, “Japanese Determined to Attack the United States in the Pacific,” one would only come to the conclusion, based our knowledge of the history of WWII, that such a memo would be implying Pearl Harbor specifically, or at the very least, imply a more specific threat than the August 6, 2001 PDB had suggested.
As Captain Ed at Blogs For Bush describes the Augst 6, 2001 PDB:
…no planes flying into buildings, just a suggestion that bin Laden may have planned a hijacking to free Omar abd al-Rahman, who currently resides in a federal prison for the first World Trade Center bombing. It describes 70 “ongoing” FBI investigations related to bin Laden.
What in God’s name in this report gave any specific warning that coordinated hijackings would turn planes into guided missiles? Nothing. There is absolutely nothing in this PDB that could have prevented 9/11, and Ben-Veniste and Kerrey knew it — because they had already read it. Why did Ben-Veniste and Kerrey demand its declassification? Because they thought they wouldn’t get it, and wanted to suggest that the Bush administration was covering up something.
9-11 has been referred to as our generations Pearl Harbor. Knowing this, Pinkerton is obviously trying to suggest that the memo’s contents imply a threat with the same specificity as is implied in the hypothetical FDR PDB, “Japanese Determined to Attack the United States in the Pacific.”
I find it intersting Pinkerton didn’t use the title “Japanese Determined to Attack the United States” to make his point. The recently declassified PDB was not titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike The United States in New York and Washington D.C.” or some other variation of equivalent specificity.
Pinkerton, has framed the content of the PDB memo with his own biases, and immediate gives the readers an unequal hypothetical scenario in order to imply to readers that Pearl Harbor couldn’t have been prevented, but 9-11 could have, solely from the content of the August 6, 2001 PDB memo.
Of course, reading the memo by itself paints a very different picture than the one Pinkerton gives his readers.
Not that I’m suggesting Pinkerton is biased or anything…
Topics: General |
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April 11th, 2004 at 3:23 pm
Yeah, Matt… who ever heard of a “liberal media bias?” I mean, go figure, we are at war time and in an election year, for goodness’ sake — two very strenuous events by themselves, made all the more worse when running simultaneous. It’s just so pathetic that one side has to tear down the other for the sake of a political party’s advancement. I thought politics meant (in the broader sense)… “compromise”.
President Bush seems to have bent over forwards and backwards to “compromise” to the point sponsoring some quite “liberal” ideas, yet the attack-dogs of the left continue to huff their stinky-dog-breath and show us their stained-attack-dog teeth. I think they need a good head-whacking with the proverbial “rolled up newspaper”, politically.
Yes, that would be good.
April 11th, 2004 at 3:40 pm
Matt Margolis Blog » There’s No “Gotchya!” For Newsday’s Pinkerton
Just read a little piece from MattMargolis.com, entitled: There’s No “Gotchya!” For Newsday’s Pinkerton and all I can come up with is that this is just another instance of the media trying to advance a “Democrat” bias against a sitti…
April 11th, 2004 at 10:05 pm
True. It’s all a game for those anti-war liberals.All they can think of is Bin laden is in Afghanistan.
April 12th, 2004 at 12:15 am
I go out of town for a couple of days and all Hell breaks loose in Iraq. Is it a coincidence? Anyways, here are a few random thoughts about stuff.
After a brief look around the blahgospere, I find out that a couple of days ago Instarepugnant declared the Sadr uprising in Iraq aint no big thang. No, really, he did. I have no joke, snide remark or even amazed “huh” in response to this, since I simply couldn’t top what that dumbass said.
You know, I used to think that all Americans were arrogant, narcissistic pricks. Then a couple of years ago I got on the internet newsgroups and discovered that it was the Reich Whingers who were the arrogant, narcissistic pricks. After a year of arguing with these rubes over the Iraq war and subsequent occupation, I really began to despise you. Now, after spending the past half year roaming through the right whinge blahgosphere, I just wish you Reich Whingers could be exterminated like vermin. Fortunately, the valiant Iraqi insurgents will do just that.
Unlike Kos, I have no intention of retracting or clarifying that last statement, so any Reich Whingers who take offense and cry can bite my shiny metal ass. Or they can stand still while I take my oversized shoe and squash em like the filthy roaches they are. To sum up, you Reich Whingers are nothing more than vermin who need to be snuffed out of existence, I have no advertisers for you cunts to complain to about what I’m saying and so you can go fuck yourselves.
Over the next few days, the Sadr City Insurgents will battle the George Bush Infidels in game sixty of a best of nine thousand series. This one promises to be another bloodbath. My money is on the Infidels to take this one, but in the long run I hope the Insurgents will prove to have the staying power necessary to take the series.
As I write this, I’m watching “The Daily Show”. Why does a funny guy like Jon Stewart only get a half hour when that Reich Whinge shill, Dennis Miller, gets a full hour? Damn that liberal media. Okay, I’ll be honest, Miller is funny too, but only in his delusional fascism
April 12th, 2004 at 4:45 pm
Matt, just so you know, the above comment is a “cut and paste” job thats been posted all over the “right side” of the blogosphere.
It’s Robert McClelland’s little gambit to try and generate hits for his blog.
April 12th, 2004 at 4:46 pm
It doesn’t matter WHAT the memo suggested that the hijacked planes were to be used for. IF they could have been prevented, then the end result of what were to happen with them, whatever it was, would have been prevented. This has got to be the lamest excuse the Bushies have put out. Even if the terrorists “only” wanted to hijack in the traditional sense, it would have been a big plus to stop it. Who knows if even that could have been prevented but it is possible had Bush actually acted instead of going on vacation.
April 12th, 2004 at 4:50 pm
Umm..Matt, Pinkerton is a Republican who worked for Bush’s Daddy. What kind of bias do you suppose he has? Pro Kerry?
April 12th, 2004 at 5:14 pm
Clarke worked for Bush Jr… so much for your theory.
April 12th, 2004 at 6:10 pm
Not really. Clarke also worked for Clinton too, for eight years. Pinkerton NEVER worked for a Democratic Administration.
April 12th, 2004 at 6:11 pm
By the way, Who is Bush, Jr.?
April 13th, 2004 at 8:49 pm
If there truly was NOTHING that could be done to stop the 9/11 attacks then they would have happened under Gore if he had been elected, too. The difference is while Kerry doesn’t blame Bush for 9/11 you can be bet your last dollar that if 9/11 happened under Gore the whole right media would be tarring and feathering Gore for it.
For what it’s worth, I mentioned this very same August 6, 2001 memo this blog last fall and got called a liar by Trollbaiter. Last week I was told the uprising by Sadr was the last gasp of Iraqi resistance. The war has been studiously ignored on this board for weeks now.
April 14th, 2004 at 7:31 am
Jay, I’m sure that when you mentioned this memo, you either:
A. Distorted its contents or misquoted it. (much like what’s going on now)
or
B. I asked for a link for confirmation. (I guess in your book that’s being called “a liar”.)
By the way, the memo said that the reports about hijacking planes were unconfirmed.
By the way, it’s nice to know that you’re still stewing over being called on your spin and distortions last fall.
April 14th, 2004 at 7:43 am
(foregoing the “by the way”)
Didn’t Clarke claim he was a republican?
Yet he voted for Gore.
Political affiliation doesn’t preclude someone from being wrong so it’s a moot point. (and yes, that goes for both sides of the aisle)