Why Does Rupert Define This as News Only in Britain?

I guess, in a way, it's proof of the oft-derided claim that Rupert Murdoch really doesn't control his "classy" media -- The Times of London, the Sunday Times, The Australian, now the WSJ -- the way he does his trashy ones -- the Brit and Australian tabloids, the NY Post. But his Times has been hard on a story I only started paying attention to thanks to a commenter on an earlier post: the Sibel Edmonds story. Last Sunday's Times advanced the story substantially: responding to a Freedom of Information Act request for a named file (one which Edmonds, a former FBI translator, says would support her story of American nuke materials making their way to Pakistan and elsewhere through Turkish intermediaries), the FBI denied that the file existed. The Sunday Times, though, says it has an internal document indicating that the file does indeed exist.

The theft of US nuclear secrets, the diverting of them to Pakistan (and, according to Edmonds, Saudi Arabia), the involvement of Israel in the scheme -- all of these would justify as jaw-droppingly newsworthy in a rational journalistic universe. Clearly, that's not where we live.

Comments

[philistine]

This crime is so big, and so many are complicit in its undertaking, that much effort is being exerted to hide it here in the U.S.. Apparently, some in Britain don't much approve. Since Britain's State Secrets Act is stronger than our state secret provisions, I suspect that some in the post-Tony Blair British government must have approved the release of this information. I hope that this builds up some steam, like the Downing Street memos did. We have some big weeds to uproot.

[bookish]

Many thanks.

[Eric2]

Thanks Harry- This story should be front page news. We also need open congressional hearings. Rep. Waxman promised them so everyone should call him. Sibel Edmonds is a brave American patriot that deserves to be heard.

[Stuart]

I hate to beat a dead horse, but I lay responsibility for the media's inability to cover this kind of substance upon--you guessed it--the Bush Administration.

Other parts of the world, in particular the UK, have been suffering losses to terrorists for decades. Americans had a lucky tenure without such attacks on home soil. The American media less ready than its British counterpart to handle with September 11. They more susceptible to the Administration's broad and largely successful effort to politicize it.

The Administration saw an opportunity amid the chaos of fall 2001. What started as a tentative policy of secrecy and falsehood
became institutionalized as the Administration began to misrepresent facts again and again with near total impunity.

Our media, who did fine when they had Oval Office tapes or Linda Tripp in hand, were outflanked by public servants who we long suspected (and now have confirmed) of carefully sweeping up any paper trail toward accountability.

We have learned so much since September 11. We learned that the Administration's mouthpieces could lay out a falsehood and not have it challenged by the questioners. We have watched time after time as the glare of publicity was nudged away from root causes toward minor or even false issues (the media represents New Orleans in fall 2005 as the inevitable result of natural events, and not the victim of documented negligence by Federal government). We have watched media repeatedly take the easy and inexpensive audience-garnering choice over costly, in-depth reporting.

I wonder whether Murdoch or his minions had anything to do with this, or is the British media is simply more competent and less skittish about following a story with such horrifying potential?

[Novista]

Thanks, Harry, for the coverage.

Curiously, just before the first Times story, there was another report (forget where) speculating on 'connect the dots' between the CIA and AQ Khan and nuclear proliferation -- totally independent of the Sibel case.

Waxman and other congresscritters know Sibel's backstory -- the devilish details still unknown to We the People.

Way I see it, if Daniel Ellsberg supports it as "more inportant than the Pentagon Papers", that's good enough for me. Open public hearings, let the chips fall where they may.

[badmormon]

Any person that talks negatively about Israel, Israeli citizens or Judaism in general is an ANTI SEMITE and will be spanked.

[antispin]

"She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia."

I gather the motive for stealing and selling was to make money.

Meanwhile, the Grey Lady was bringing down the iron fist on Wen Ho Lee. Remember? "Swear" - Hamlet's ghost

http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2000/09/21/nyt/

[YA]

It's no secret that there is a big taboo about Israel in the US news media. Every time a news item shows Israel in a really bad light, it is either suppressed, distorted, minimized, or countered with a story showing Israel in a good light. So, no surprise here. Anyone who wishes to be actually informed should read the foreign press as well.

[KoolBreez]

There are no news-media outlets in the US at all. Gosh it is frustrating to be part of the most uninformed middle class in the world..

[peterg76]

"a rational journalistic universe. Clearly, that's not where we live"

Clearly not, not for well over 10 years. This is not news. (And really, how are they going to bomb Iran's nuclear programme if they don't plant some evidence first?)

[freespeach]

Thanks for writing about this Harry. I think if your post were on page 1 you may have a few more readers/comments. Oh well, I'm pleasantly surprised that huffy covered this at all.

I have been emailing articles on this story (mostly from rawstory and alternet) to people I know and they are amazed and angry!

More and more, the word "fascism" fits what is happening in our nation. The media blackout of the Sibel Edmonds story is a crime against every American citizen.

[CintiBlue]

I first read Sibel's story in a Spring (I think) 2004 "Vanity Fair" issue. Her efforts to get this information out, along with her insider's knowledge of the forcing out of very qualified translators who were also putting the facts together, is huge.

Thank you for posting for Sibel.

[EspressoAtNoon]

If Israel comes up as complicit in the intelligence, the government destroys the intelligence, or states the intelligence doesn't exist, or calls those requesting it to be anti-semites.

This country will sacrifice its own national security for Israel as it has shown again and again. Remember the U.S. Liberty?

[davidly]

Maybe it's somehow in his interest to have this info pumped in Britain, however not the US.