Mensch tracht, und Gott lacht

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Credit Where Cash Is Due

I urge all our friends to please read the article that I have linked. It is a beautifully composed piece of journalism from the Los Angeles Times, telling the tale of a hero of our intelligence services who has become enmeshed in a bureaucratic jumble. He is being denied Workmen's Compensation for a beating he took as CIA Station Chief in Teheran in 1979.

To me this is exactly the role that reporters should play, a compassionate role of holding a magnifying glass to cases that are mishandled because of technicalities and lack of initiative among careerist employees, both in government and in business.

This is the type of journalism that should transcend the labels of Republican and Democrat, helping the individual to get his day in the court of public opinion.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, you play with fire, you get burned.

This man worked for an unethical organization, doing unethical things. He hid behind the shield of loving his country while he participated in dirty and illegal meddling in the affairs of other countries, and who knows what else. The CIA breaks international law, subverts democratic governments, supports dictatorships, and *murders people*.

And now he expects this agency to suddenly behave towards him in an ethical manner? Surely he can't be serious.

James F. Elliott said...

He is. And don't call him Shirley.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Anonymous: no shades of grey with you! Everything is either black or white (though perhaps in the case of the CIA everything is just black).

So would you be willing to put, say, the Cuban government in the category of "an unethical organization, doing unethical things"?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I would. What's your point?