Monday, July 26, 2010

Pundita on Wikigate

Pundita is hot on the big news story of the day, the release of 91,000 (or 92,000, depending on which article you read) classified intelligence reports about Afghanistan to WikiLeaks. The Guardian and The New York Times — the twin transatlantic custodians of the current wisdom among the global media elite — are the primary purveyors of the leaked reports.

What’s the deal with the Times? Doesn’t the Gray Slattern know that you’re only supposed to do this sort of thing during a Republican administration?

Here the Messiah thought he had all your love, and now he has been spurned — what a grim and tear-stained day it must be in the West Wing.

Here’s what Pundita has to say:

WikiLeak Afghan War Papers: Pity the White House spin machine

Well, here it is 3:30 AM in Washington, DC. Nobody in this town who has to render an opinion for a living is getting any sleep. Me, I’m awake only because I’m suffering from irrational exuberance since seeing the New York Times headline last night about the leaked papers: Pakistan Aids Insurgency in Afghanistan, Reports Assert. Finally a report about the White House mollycoddling of Pakistan that the TV and cable networks can’t bury.

But consider the plight of the White House. They’re already dizzy trying to strike just the right tone about the papers, and it’s not even been eight hours since the story broke. At this rate they’ll need to mainline Dramamine by noon.

Obama is “furious” the papers were leaked. However it’s good thing all this is coming to public light and it shows why he took so long to decide about the troop surge. But then there is Pakistan’s regime to consider:
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White House National Security Advisor James Jones issued a statement to reporters shortly before the documents were posted online, saying the leaks were “irresponsible” but would not impact US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organizations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk, and threaten our national security,” Jones said in his statement.

“These irresponsible leaks will not impact our ongoing commitment to deepen our partnerships with Afghanistan and Pakistan; to defeat our common enemies; and to support the aspirations of the Afghan and Pakistani people.”

Jeepers, has Jones read some of the stuff in those papers? And reporters are just getting started on plowing through the 90,000 or so pages of the logs.

Senator John Kerry — a dyed in the wool Democrat and Obama supporter — took one look at a few of the revelations in the papers and came out with his own statement

Read the rest at Pundita’s.

There’s one place where I disagree with her, however: I think George W. Bush will get the blame. It’s true that the liberal media are upset with Obama for Guantanamo, Afghanistan, the absence of a public option in Obamacare, etc., but there is no way they will turn on him completely.

Blaming Bush is their story, and they’re sticking to it. It will continue until the call of the muezzin resounds from the top of the Washington Monument — and will keep going after that.

No, the job of the MSM is to be a gentle corrective. They intend to show Hussein the error of his ways, and nudge him back to the Left where he belongs.

Wait and see.

5 comments:

urah2222 said...

Of COURSE GWB will get the blame. Look at the time frame reported -2004-2009 - Before Obama for the most part. This was not done by accident. The whole manner in which this "info-dump" was done was a set up. By who and to what Exact end remains to be seen. That covert operations are done and civilians die in war is nothing new, nor is the fact that our Pakistani "ally" is abut as much on our side as Vichy France was.What stands out is the purpose of this disclosure, which is, I believe, to discredit the US Military by innuendo by pointing out that they do their job. -S-

Georg Felis said...

The same Leftist pundits who will happily romp thru this data dump of Classified American military secrets with great glee, will scream bloody murder when their Journolist emails become public knowledge.

Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up....

gadfly said...

Well, it is rather early for an "October surprise" and I don't think that there was a poll out there, (despite McChystal's best efforts) to raise the war into high political focus.

No, this is an unwanted focus on some badly-handled bureaucratic SNAFUs. This is East Anglia emails in spades.

Pundita said...

gadfly -- hmmmmm I hadn't thought of the leaked logs in terms of the East Anglia emails but yes there are strong parallels.

The Observer said...

Why all this concern for Dubya? He has been instrumental in allowing millions of illegal immigrants into the country, he’s a corporate man whose policies were hostile to US workers, and he’s best buddy with the Saudis?

Personally I think he’s a complete moron.