By George Neumayr on 7.19.05 @ 12:10AM
"Covert operative" in the mouths of leftists was once an occasion for cursing and gnashing of teeth; now they utter it in the hushed tones of admiration.
The left used to pride itself on blowing the identities of CIA
agents and mucking up their operations. Look at some of the left's
favorite movies, such as Robert Redford's anti-CIA, pro-leaking
vehicle Three Days of the Condor. "Covert operative" in
the mouths of leftists was once an occasion for cursing and
gnashing of teeth; now they utter it in the hushed tones of
admiration.
The left-wing press have been itching to nail Karl Rove for some
time, lying in wait for something, anything, to buttress their
sinister-schemer storyline about him. So even though they normally
enjoy foiling CIA bumblers -- as Michael Barone pointed out, the
New York Times had no qualms about blowing the cover of a
CIA-run airline -- the media have suddenly become the agency's most
conscientious ally. Karl Rove, it would appear from their concerned
coverage and talmudic reading of laws protecting the agency, has
done more damage to the CIA than the Church committee they
championed.
I noticed last week that one of MSNBC's hosts, working hard to
generate moral outrage about the damage Rove might have done to the
CIA, asked her guest to detail the reasons one should never
identify even a former CIA covert operative. And who was her guest?
A former CIA covert operative. For a media that was huffing about
the dangers of identifying inactive spies, it seemed to spend a lot
of time last week interviewing them.
Joseph Wilson, by the way, has written for that pro-CIA
publication, The Nation. A media that loves to label
conservative public officials according to the publications for
which they have written never mentions Wilson's musings in a
magazine that has operated as a sustained screed against the CIA
for decades. "Joseph Wilson, who has written for the radical
left-wing magazine The Nation," isn't the beginning of a
line you will see in any of the mainstream media's stories. No, no,
Wilson is a former ambassador who has worked for both "Republican"
and Democratic presidents, the mainstream media are always careful
to remind their readers.
In March of 2003, Wilson quoted approvingly in the pages of
The Nation pro-CIA spy novelist John le Carre's contention
that "America has entered one of its periods of historical
madness." Writing in praise of the United Nations, Wilson observed
that the enlightened nations of the world "will not want to
jettison the one institution that, absent a competing military
power, might constrain United States ambition."
Can America even be trusted with a CIA? Anyone who reads and
believes Wilson's Nation article shouldn't think so.
"Nothing short of conquest, occupation, and imposition of
handpicked leaders on a vanquished population will suffice," he
warned darkly. "Iraq is the linchpin for this broader assault on
the region. The new imperialists will not rest until governments
that ape our worldview are implanted throughout the region, a
breathtakingly ambitious undertaking, smacking of hubris in the
extreme."
Maybe Wilson can take to the pages of The Nation again
to write a stern reassessment of the career of Philip Agee in the
light of his wife's trauma, though perhaps that's not necessary.
I'm sure the editors of The Nation called for Agee to be
frogmarched to jail after he exposed fellow spies.
Have people also noticed that where nepotism at the CIA might
once have troubled Watergate-era liberals they now look upon
spousal recommendations there as a new branch of affirmative
action? It turns out that according to the left, nepotism is good
government. As CNN's Wolf Blitzer said to Wilson last week, a
rhetorical question to which he enthusiastically concurred even as
he dismissed the idea that his wife threw CIA work his way, "What
would have been so bad if your wife would have recommended you to
go to Niger for this investigation?" Wilson's response: "Of course,
from my perspective, it wouldn't have been bad at all."
In its new mature acceptance of the CIA and zealous regard for
covert operatives, the left may yet produce a pro-CIA movie. Spying
has finally won the left's esteem. Three Days of the
Condor can be reworked into Three Weeks of the Con
Man, and then there's The Falcon and the Snowman, a
title that won't need much changing as Wilson keeps opening his
mouth.
topics:
Mainstream Media, Movies, Law, Military, Iraq, United Nations, Oil
