According to a scathing 7 page article in the NY Times, that man is General Barry McCaffrey, "a retired four-star Army general and military analyst for NBC News" ... and consultant to defense contractors.
The article goes into great detail about how McCaffrey's work for defense contractors such as Defense Solutions, DynCorp and Veritas Capital and his position as a military analyst for the news converge to form a perfect machine for war-profiteering. OK. That's my translation, admittedly, but you must read this article detailing the workings of the M-I-C.
Through seven years of war an exclusive club has quietly flourished at the intersection of network news and wartime commerce. Its members, mostly retired generals, have had a foot in both camps as influential network military analysts and defense industry rainmakers. It is a deeply opaque world, a place of privileged access to senior government officials, where war commentary can fit hand in glove with undisclosed commercial interests and network executives are sometimes oblivious to possible conflicts of interest.
We've known for quite some time about the military analysts on the news shilling for ShrubCo, but this article highlights the industrial piece of the M-I-C.
And McCaffrey is the poster-boy, indeed:
General McCaffrey, 66, has long been a force in Washington’s power elite. A consummate networker, he cultivated politicians and journalists of all stripes as drug czar in the Clinton cabinet, and his ties run deep to a new generation of generals, some of whom he taught at West Point or commanded in the Persian Gulf war, when he rose to fame leading the "left hook" assault on Iraqi forces.
But it was 9/11 that thrust General McCaffrey to the forefront of the national security debate. In the years since he has made nearly 1,000 appearances on NBC and its cable sisters, delivering crisp sound bites in a blunt, hyperbolic style. He commands up to $25,000 for speeches, his commentary regularly turns up in The Wall Street Journal, and he has been quoted or cited in thousands of news articles, including dozens in The New York Times.
Will the NY Times retract its stories? Did it reveal to its readership McCaffrey's ties to defense contractors? Will it now? One can only hope, since the article several times informs us that General McCaffrey did not disclose his ties when appearing on news programs.
The article details the ins and outs of this sickening world of war profiteering and propaganda, revealing how Rumsfeld cut McCaffrey out of the loop when McCaffrey voiced some doubts about the prosecution of the war. Unsuprisingly, McCaffrey changed his tune and access was restored.
Robert Weiner, a longtime publicist for General McCaffrey, said the general came to see that if he continued his criticism, he risked being shut out not only by Mr. Rumsfeld but also by his network of friends and contacts among the uniformed leadership.
Within days General McCaffrey began to backpedal, professing his "great respect" for Mr. Rumsfeld to Tim Russert. "Is this man O.K.?" the Fox News anchor Brit Hume asked, taking note of the about-face.
For months to come, as an insurgency took root, General McCaffrey defended the Bush administration. "I am 100 percent behind what the administration, what the president of the United States, is doing in Iraq," he told Mr. Williams that June.
It's hard to believe that this kind of man is a General--does he have any respect for the troops?
The frightening thing is that these guys aren't just greedy; they are ideologues who perversely think that their success is a ratification of the righteousness of their beliefs. These are Ollie North types, "Colonel Jessup"-like in their attitude, they see themselves as patriots and the media legitimizes them as such.
Mr. Weiner, the general’s longtime publicist, said General McCaffrey worked with clients "to get your mission achieved in the media." General McCaffrey, he said, often speaks out with the twin goals of shaping policy and generating favorable coverage for clients with worthy products or ideas.
"His motive is pure," Mr. Weiner said. "It is national interest."
Pure spin? Or blind ideological delusion? Either way it is unacceptable that this man continues to appear as an "impartial" analyst on the news. Follow testvet6778's excellent example in his letter to NBC and demand McCaffrey be pulled from the air. testvet had served under McCaffrey and once held him in the highest esteem.
And we know it's not just McCaffrey.
The NY Times can't just report and there be no consequences. Let's them know how we feel too.
Let's start undoing this "opaque world" by shining light on it and demanding regulation and investigation.
Do read the whole article--it's juicy with detail and sickening. And lots of food for blogging.