Monday, August 22, 2011

Counterpunch two days ago: Obama and NATO must surrender in Libya before it's too late!

The blog Counterpunch claims to have learned of private conversations between President Obama and Sen. John Kerry with respect to Libya.

Obama disapproves of officials using colorful language that might offend voters. But he did reportedly tell his friend who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently that “We have stepped into a pot of s--- and we need to get out of it!” . . . 

Counterpunch (allegedly) quotes an anonymous member of Sen. Kerry's staff:

“Both the CIA and Pentagon told our committee that green lighting NATO to bomb Libya would be really quick and not even very dirty. Now it’s become a potentially endless nightmare.”

NATO insiders have advised Congressional staffers recently that the apparent eternal US armed “coalition of the willing” cannot afford another humiliation from its point of view, given Iraq and Afghanistan, so NATO has no plans to stop the bombing until one of three events occur. Those three in order of NATO preference are: Gaddafi is killed, Gaddafi “surrenders” or Gaddafi flees Libya.

President Obama is being advised by some members of the Foreign Relations Committee among others to “just pull NATO’s god-damned plug and get this mess behind us!”

I don't  do mean to disparage Counterpunch as a source of news, but, especially in light of recent events, this story shows signs of being complete and utter bullshit.  I don't believe that President Obama and the (again anonymous) members of the Foreign Relations Committee said these things, I don't believe that the Counterpunch reporter has a source who would be privy to those discussions, and I don't believe that the canned quotes in the article accurately reflect the thinking of the parties into whose mouth Counterpunch places them.

Best of all about the piece is its timeliness.  As the rest of the world watches the Gaddafi regime collapse and celebrates the demise of the dictatorship, Counterpunch readers are told that NATO and President Obama. must surrender to Gaddafi before it's too late or they will suffer the consequences.

Perfect!  As they say, timing is everything.







Franklin Lamb: Waiting for the Endgame in Libya

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's perfectly legit to disparage Counterpunch as a source of news. It is run by and for people who haven't yet given up on Stalinism.

Adam Holland said...

You're absolutely right, of course. I've made an appropriate edit to the post.

Ben said...

I saw the article was written by Franklin Lamb. That makes me 100% certain that the quotes and comments contained in it are a hearty mix of the bull and the crap as they say. Mr. Lamb has a tendency to quote things (a CIA report claiming Israel will collapse in the near future) or people (Congressional staffers claiming they are ready to embrace the anti-Israel cause) that do not appear to exist outside his anonymous realm. I'm not saying every Hezbollah groupie and bad writer is a total loser, but this guy is.

Oh Crap said...

Does Crankypunch *ever* get anything right?

Franklin Lamb, ugh.

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