Posted on 11/08/2005 6:50:18 AM PST by Sentinel507
The Fourth Branch of Government Needs to be Pruned
Two days ago the Washington Post came out with a story that released classified information on the existence of so called, "Black Sites," where Al Queda prisoners are being held and interrogated. These prisons are not only within American controlled territory but in foreign countries as well. The fact that the United States has secret sites for interrogation doesn't upset me, because I suspected that America probably did have such sites all along. They only make sense. First of all, we need a place to keep these individuals. Each of these terrorists are men that are taken almost directly from the battlefield, some with American blood still dryly caked on their hands. Second, the Government needs to be sure that it will be hard for Al Queda to mount an attack on the prison, so they don't tell anyone where they are. (There are more reasons for that that I'll get to in a second.) And finally, the Government probably has these "Black Sites" to keep the self-appointed "Fourth Branch of Government," the Mainstream Media, off of its back.
Go ask any returning Combat Arms Veteran from Iraq what the biggest obstructions in their fights were and I guarantee that they'll say reporters. Like ants, freelance photojournalists, camera men, and even newspaper hacks are crawling all over Iraq, shoving themselves and their cameras, or microphones into the way of our soldiers while they are trying to do their mission. Take, for example, the Marine who was accused of War Crimes by the Mainstream Media for shooting a potentially faking terrorist in the head while he was lying on the ground. Anybody ever figure out why he shot that terrorist? I'll tell you, first of all, the day before one of the men in his platoon was killed when a terrorist, who pretended to be dead, waited until that Marine got close enough to use a grenade that killed himself and the Marine. On the same day, the Marine accused of War Crimes was shot in the face by another terrorist that was in the building they were trying to clear. Now you tell me what you'd do, and if he wasn't totally justified (as the military determined later in a hearing) for doing it.
The part that is the most disturbing about this revelation of the "Black Sites" is not in the revelation, but in the damage that it could do to our allies and our soldiers. Muslims in several countries rioted and killed people when a false story by Michael Isikoff came out about someone in Guantanamo Bay flushing a Koran down the toilet and other "abuses." In how much risk are the foreign countries that are housing these "Black Sites" now? Talk about straining relations, here are countries that have decided to be come allies with us against the enemy of our time and the Mainstream Media stabs them in the back. I swear I remember hearing from the New York Times editorial pages telling all of us that we needed to have a real coalition to fight the war in Iraq. I can't imagine why they'd want to join our coalition when the only thing that's going to happen is that the Mainstream Media will accept them as another target to throw stones at.
The so called, "Fourth Branch of Government" has grown well out of control. It's branches have spread to other parts of the tree and are choking them out. The American people need to prune this uncontrollable branch. It's starting to happen already. The circulation of the Washington Post is down around 5% last quarter and falling. The New York Times is the same. The San Francisco Chronicle might have jumpers this morning as it wakes up with a 16% cut in readership.
The next logical question to be asked in all of this is, "Who leaked the information, and why did they smear our CIA agents, and ally countries?" Of course you won't hear this from the Mainstream Media, simply because it's not nearly as important as figuring out who tried to smear the beautiful Wilsons, and of course why did Bush lie? (Which to say he did is in and of itself, a lie, but no one in the Mainstream Media will point that out either.) The fourth branch is so wrapped around itself it can't even make a logical argument from its own nonsense anymore. Somebody get me the shears, me and the rest of the New Media have a lot of work to do.
From the blog, The Sentinel's Watch
www.thesentinelswatch.blogspot.com
Well written commentary.
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