Why is the US press silent on Brzezinski’s warnings?

2007-02-18

Richard Moore

We seem to be witnessing conflict within elite ranks.

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Original source URL:
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/printer_23895.shtml

 From AxisofLogic.com
MEDIA CRITIQUES

Why is the US press silent on Brzezinski's warnings of war against Iran?

By Barry Grey in Washington DC
Feb 3, 2007, 04:52


The major national newspapers and most broadcast outlets failed even 
to report Thursday's stunning testimony by former national security 
adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski before the Senate Foreign Relations 
Committee.

Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, is 
among the most prominent figures within the US foreign policy 
establishment. He delivered a scathing critique of the war in Iraq 
and warned that the policy of the Bush administration was leading 
inevitably to a military confrontation with Iran which would have 
disastrous consequences for US imperialism.

Most significant and disturbing was Brzezinski's suggestion that the 
Bush administration might manufacture a pretext to justify a military 
attack on Iran. Presenting what he called a "plausible scenario for a 
military collision with Iraq," Brzezinski laid out the following 
series of events: "Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by 
accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some 
provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, 
culminating in, quote/unquote, 'defensive' US military action against 
Iran..." [Emphasis added].

Thus Brzezinski opined that a US military attack on Iran would be an 
aggressive action, presented as though it were a defensive response 
to alleged Iranian provocations, and came close to suggesting, 
without explicitly stating as much, that the White House was capable 
of manufacturing or allowing a terrorist attack within the US to 
provide a casus belli for war.

It is self-evident that such testimony at an open congressional 
hearing from someone with decades of experience in the US foreign 
policy establishment and the closest ties to the military and 
intelligence apparatus is not only newsworthy, but of the most 
immense and grave import. Any objective and conscientious newspaper 
or news channel would consider it an obligation to inform the public 
of such a development.

Yet neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post carried so 
much as a news brief on Brzezinski's testimony in their Friday 
editions. Nor did USA Today or the Wall Street Journal. All of these 
publications, of course, have well-staffed Washington bureaus and 
regularly cover congressional hearings-especially those dealing with 
such burning political questions as the war in Iraq.

There is no innocent explanation for their decision to suppress this 
story. The Washington Post on Thursday published a large page-two 
column and photo on Henry Kissinger's appearance the previous day 
before the same Senate committee. The former secretary of state under 
Richard Nixon gave testimony that was generally supportive of the 
Bush administration's war policy.

Moreover, the Post's web edition carried an Associated Press report 
on Brzezinski's appearance. That article introduced subtle but 
significant changes to Brzezinski's speculative scenario of the road 
to war with Iran which had the effect of underplaying the sharpness 
and urgency of Brzezinski's critique of the Bush administration. It 
omitted the suggestion that a terrorist attack within the US could 
become the justification for war, and it removed the quotation marks 
from Brzezinski's talk of a "defensive" war against Iran.

The World Socialist Web Site on Friday telephoned the New York Times, 
the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today to ask for 
an explanation for their failure to report Brzezinski's testimony. 
None of the newspapers returned our calls.

As for the television news outlets, the "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" 
on PBS showed a clip of Brzezinski laying out his war scenario before 
the Senate committee, without making any comment. "NBC Nightly News" 
ignored the story entirely.

The suppression of this damning critique of the Iraq war, the 
conspiratorial methods of the Bush administration, and its drive to 
an even wider war in the Middle East is one more demonstration of the 
corrupt and reactionary character of the American mass media. It 
indicates that the establishment media is preparing once again, as in 
the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, to serve as a sounding board for 
the administration's war propaganda and lies.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/feb2007/brze-f03.shtml
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