The Most Serious of the Very Serious, back in the saddle #Kissingerzombie
by digby
Meteor Blades at Dkos has this flabbergasting bit of news:
The other September 11 is 40 years old. Joyce Horman thanks those who sought justice in Chile—one key person responsible for the torture, exile and death of so many Chileans after the coup of Sept. 11, 1973 still roams our country at large.
In 1971, that guy was National Security Adviser when a Navy Lt. j.g. John Kerry testified before Congress on the war in Vietnam, providing a report on the Winter Soldier Investigation. That guy's boss, Richard Nixon, targeted Kerry, sicking Charles Colson on him. It was Colson who found John O’Neill, who three decades later co-founded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which savagely attacked Kerry during his run for the presidency.
Today, that guy in the photo who denied his role in the Chilean coup and subsequent slaughter and repression, that guy who served two presidents as Secretary of State, is going to advise Secretary of State John Kerry on the Syrian situation.
I guess that makes sense when you think about it. They are probably trying to get into Assad's head and who better than a war criminal? After all, Dick Cheney and John Yoo aren't going to volunteer.
There really is nothing these people can do to lose their status, is there?
Update: Speaking of "experts", remember that Very Serious Person Kerry and McCain wereciting all over the place last week who insisted in the the Syrian rebels are mostly moderates who later turned out to be a paid shill? Oopsie:
[W]hile Kerry spoke before Congress about O'Bagy's "enormous" experience covering Syria, Janine Di Giovanni, a veteran foreign correspondent who has reported on the ground there, suggested that the young researcher had “exaggerated wildly her experience inside Syria.”
Di Giovanni told HuffPost that she's sure O'Bagy has read on Syrian history and the Assad family and that she's had some on-the-ground experience, "but not what she led Kerry and others to believe."
"Those of us who work in Syria, as reporters or researchers, are a very small group of people,” di Giovanni said. “We’re all incredibly cautious. We’re all protective of each other. It’s a very difficult job and difficult war to work in. It’s not a war to cut your teeth in. A lot of people were quite shocked when a 26-year-old Ph.D, so-called Syria expert who appeared to have never worked in the region, and whom no one had heard of, appeared on CNN and other networks as a Syrian expert.”
She was fired today for lying about her PhD. She doesn't have one.
Update: Hah. Just saw that Atrios and I are on the same wavelength. Not for the first time ...
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