Obama Confidant's Spine-Chilling Proposal

Obama Confidant's Spine-Chilling Proposal by Glenn Greenwald

"Sunstein advocates that the Government's stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups." "

Funny thing is that I've seen this behavior, or at least it's functional equivalent (because I have no means to look under the covers to see the connections), in an online software developer's forum I've been a member of for a decade or so. If there was a talking point developed by a right-wing think tank, it found it's way into the discussion, prominently and repeatedly. The small number of people in the group who argued against the war and it's machine were continuously and relentlessly bombarded with all the cleverly worded propaganda used to make that invasion happen. I strongly suspected there were plants in the group, much as described in this article. Perhaps you're a member of a group similarly infiltrated?

Scott Ritter

No, the right-wing attack machine didn't make this up, but you must be impressed with the ease with which this story made it into virtually every "news" source in the country overnight. Unless you've been under a rock, you've seen this report at least once.

I'll be interested in hearing the whole story, that is including his side of it, but on the surface it looks like he did something really, really stupid.

BUT - does his sexual behavior invalidate his reports? Of course not. They've already withstood the test of time and been proven correct. Ritter was dead right on Iraq. Has he been destroyed anyway? You bet.

Seems to me that - take Clinton as an example - many people have decided to accept that great people have great weaknesses, and many would support Clinton today despite his sexual dalliances, because he is, as they say, "really smart" and we'd have fared much better with him in office then, say, Bush. Even though I'm no big Clinton fan, I believe he wouldn't have done anywhere near as much damage to this country as Bush did.


Bill