Correspondence and collusion between the New York Times and the CIA

The Guardian ^ | 29 Aug 2012 | Glenn Greenwald

[Theoria]

Mark Mazzetti's emails with the CIA expose the degradation of journalism that has lost the imperative to be a check to power

The rightwing transparency group, Judicial Watch, released Tuesday a new batch of documents showing how eagerly the Obama administration shoveled information to Hollywood film-makers about the Bin Laden raid. Obama officials did so to enable the production of a politically beneficial pre-election film about that "heroic" killing, even as administration lawyers insisted to federal courts and media outlets that no disclosure was permissible because the raid was classified.

Thanks to prior disclosures from Judicial Watch of documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, this is old news. That's what the Obama administration chronically does: it manipulates secrecy powers to prevent accountability in a court of law, while leaking at will about the same programs in order to glorify the president.

But what is news in this disclosure are the newly released emails between Mark Mazzetti, the New York Times's national security and intelligence reporter, and CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf. The CIA had evidently heard that Maureen Dowd was planning to write a column on the CIA's role in pumping the film-makers with information about the Bin Laden raid in order to boost Obama's re-election chances, and was apparently worried about how Dowd's column would reflect on them. On 5 August 2011 (a Friday night), Harf wrote an email to Mazzetti with the subject line: "Any word??", suggesting, obviously, that she and Mazzetti had already discussed Dowd's impending column and she was expecting an update from the NYT reporter.

[TigerClaws]

Why are all the good stories from UK? No reporters here??

[Theoria]

The author did write for Salon in the past. He just switched to the Guardian.

[MestaMachine]

Not so you would notice.

[fella]

Our so called news organizations are to centralized, to few and all owned by the same ‘connected’ stockholders. we have to go outside to get the real news.

[God luvs America]

So the uber left wing Guardian is praising the “right wing” Judicial Watch for pointing out controlled transparency of the obamamugabe regime. And the NYSlimes is an accesory to the crimw. Wonder how much play this will get on this side of the pond.

[Pollster1]

This was a harmless leak for the greater good. Keeping Obama and his people in power is good for those who want to spend their lives dependent on the government for everything. No one was harmed by the leaks . . . except for 22 Navy SEALs and 8 other Americans . . . and Obama doesn't mind a small price like that.

30 Americans Killed Including 22 SEALs When Afghan Insurgents Shoot Down Helicopter

[Hunton Peck]

“No reporters here?”

They’re all 0wned.

[iontheball]

This exchange reinforces in my mind the Agency's collusion with the ‘mystery man.’ I bet the Agency has Obama classified in the compartmental information category.

[spodefly]

What all of this behavior from the NYT has in common is clear: it demonstrates the extent to which it institutionally collaborates with and serves the interests of the nation's most powerful factions, rather than act as an adversarial check on them.

Which should have been readily apparent to anyone paying attention for the past few decades.

[austinaero]

I read the Guardian UK article and I truly like how the author actually responds to some of the criticisms in the comments.

[RummyChick]

Operation Mockingbird

Do you really think the CIA ever stopped...

This is nothing new

[Dr. Thorne]

IMHO, this wasn't just a leak. Obama didn't make the decision to kill bin Laden. The helo shootdown was payback by the radicals in the WH who were bamboozled by Panetta and Clinton who actually made the call.

Radical elements of the Left, who have connections to Muslim jihadis who are probably on the US payroll, got info to those jihadis who just happened to have an RPG and just happened to be in the exact right place at the exact right time to take out 22 SEALS and others.

Remarkably, the guy who supposedly pulled the trigger was found and killed very quickly and conveniently. All tied up with a nice bow.

[cherokee1]

For quite some time now I’ve noticed that we get better news coverage of many of our domestic events from foreign sources. The Chicoms (CCTV9 ) amazingly, does a good job, Deutsche Welle, from Europe, Aljazeera English for examples, all frequently show more video of events. Recognizing that everyone has their own axe to grind the info is nevertheless useful/interesting and makes Brian Williams and his big three friends all look like Putzes.

[max americana]

You kidding me? The Guardian UK is the most anti-American rag in the UK. The reason why they wrote this article is because they have had a hatred for the CIA.

[haroldeveryman]

“Why are all the good stories from UK?”

If our MSM can’t maintain their silence about the Regime’s malfeasance, they’ll probably frame the story as being about “stolen emails”.

[Real Cynic No More]

This was a harmless leak for the greater good. Keeping Obama and his people in power ...

Hmmmm. Seems to me this was also Nixon's justification for the illegal acts in the Watergate break-in and other actions by his "plumbers".