Why CBS Canceled Reagan (Reagan and 9/11)

[donsu]

http://www.juancole.com/2003_11_01_juancole_archive.html#106802064823446083

-snip-

In fact, of course, Ronald Reagan bears substantial responsibility for September 11. He and his administration were so gung ho to roll back Communism that they funneled billions of dollars to scruffy far rightwing radical Muslim mujahidin in Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. Orrin Hatch even flew to Beijing for Reagan in 1985 to ask the Chinese to pressure Pakistan to allow the US to provide the Mujahidin with ever more sophisticated weaponry. Even the Pakistani military had initially balked at this crazy idea, knowing who the Gulbuddin Hikmatyars and Usama Bin Ladens really were (unlike clueless Reagan, who called them freedom fighters). But the US twisted the Pakistanis' arms, and they gave in. Likewise, Reagan forced the timid Saudis to match US contributions to the Mujahidin. (And then after Sept. 11 the former Reagan officials who had twisted the arms of the Saudis, like Richard Perle, turned around and blamed Riyadh for spreading radical Muslim ideas!!) It was the CIA that first established terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to hit the leftist government in Kabul. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the camps used by al-Qaeda had been built originally by the Reagan administration.

Then after the Reagan administration contributed to the destruction of Afghanistan with this proxy war, its successor, the Bush administration, made a deal with the Soviets for a US withdrawal from Afghanistan once the Soviets were gone. The US just walked away, leaving the country in chaos. The right often tries to blame Clinton for this, but it was Bush senior that agreed to the deal and walked away, before Clinton ever got in.
-snip-

So the US is becoming Berlusconi-ized, with a few fabulously wealthy men deciding what appears in our media, and with Bush's tax giveaways to the super-rich giving them the wherewithal to buy up even more of the country's media.

And we can't even point out on television, with the people's airwaves, that Reagan went off the deep end on Afghanistan, or that he shredded the Constitution with Iran-Contra.
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telling it like it was

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[papau]

2. Point very true - and ignored in US Media - but blame Clinton book for 911

still getting US Media air time.

Not that our US media is right wing GOP controlled - they just act that way.

[hang a left]

3. Well that shines a new color light on it. That totally makes sense

alot more sense that all the "homophobia" being trounced out as the main reason. Got damn disinformers!

[Cascadian]

4. But here's some "good" news!

NBC isn't cancelling "Saving Jessica Lynch". Can you believe this piece of propaganda???? From what previews I have seen, it looks like a total whitewash of what really happened. Sadly, Jessica Lynch will never tell us what happened when she was in that Iraqi hospital.


John

[J. Hill]

5. Reagan and Afghanistan

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the U. S. supplied the Afghan fighters with SA-7 missles. The Chinook that was shot-down on Sunday very well might have been shot-down with one that Reagan sent to Afghanistan.

[Kolesar]

6. Hey!

Welcome to the Underground. :hi:

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[J. Hill]

11. Thanks

[BallaFaseke]

8. I doubt it

Those missles are prolly long used up by now.

[J. Hill]

13. Ironic

Yeah, probably; and if they haven't been they may be so old they're useless. Nevertheless it's rather ironic.

[Wonk]

14. The Chinook shot down Sunday was near Fallujah, Iraq. Not Afghanistan.

Same point applies, though, since Raygun, Bush Sr, Rumsfeld, etc helped arm Saddam in the 80's.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi J.Hill!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[J. Hill]

21. Thanks.

[RichM]

9. CBS action = "the extreme right has a veto over....the US mass media..."

"The decision by (CBS chairman Leslie) Moonves and his associates gives new and richer meaning to the word “spineless.” More significantly, the network’s action underscores the reality that for all intents and purposes the extreme right has a veto over what appears on the US mass media...."

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/reag-n05.shtml

[Ugnmoose]

23. Nothing short of censorhip

It should come as no surprise to us, however, for many Americans this is a real wake up call as to how much our mainstream media is controlled and manipulated by the right wing conservatives who run this country.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Reagan/Bush policy decision to support the Government of Iraq

In 1983, President Reagan removed Iraq from the list of terrorist nations and that immediately opened the gates for new business, to help our balance-of-trade deficiency. So it was a Bush/Reagan policy decision to support the Government of Iraq, which was in the midst of a terrible war of attrition with Iran. This policy led to massive sales of food, to begin with to Iraq, which eventually absorbed no less than 20 percent of the Commodity Credit Corporation's loan guarantee program, 20 percent. Here is a country much smaller that Mexico, but getting, I forget how much, 400 percent or 500 percent more than, say Mexico was in CCC. A great deal of this was financed by BNL-Atlanta. Now, what do we mean by Commodity Credit loan guarantees?Well, it means those guarantees are the taxpayers' liability, that is what that means, just like deposit insurance.

So that the $2 billion I speak of, aside from the commodity, the food, is commerical. These are bank loans.

Now the banks operate this way, just like in the case of the hostage-taking in Iran in 1979, at the bottom of it all was banking: Chase Manhattan had an exposure of $10 billion. In fact that is still a continuing issue.

I want my colleagues to remember that on January 20,1981, when Mr. Reagan was being sworn in, the Federal Reserve Board pressed a button and released instantanoeously several billion dollars in London to Iran, and that is when they released our hostages, something that had not happened since the 9th century.

THE BNL CASE; HEAR NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL
Henry B. Gonzalez,(TX-20)
House of Representatives - Septmeber 28, 1992
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920928g.htm

[DrFunkenstein]

12. Damn That Liberal Media! Foiled Again!

n/t

[economic justice]

15. Uh, in fairness, Jimmy Carter....

We can blame Reagan for a lot of things....but 9/11? That's going a tad far. Jimmy Carter is the president responsible for the CIA work inside the Mujahadeen (multiple spellings if you're searching the net). It was the brainchild of Zbginiew Brzezinksi. This kind of thing just destroys our credibility.
http://www.proxsa.org/resources/9-11/Brzezinski-980115-interview.htm

[kentuck]

16. But wasn't it Reagan that armed them with shoulder-missiles ?

And then withdrew when they needed him the most? And they became the Taliban?

[northzax]

18. no, silly

don't you know it was illegal to provide weapons to the Mujahadeen, and Iran in the 1980's? and all those people were pardoned by our Fearless Leader*'s own pappy, so STOP SAYING THAT.

[Skittles]

17. blaming CARTER

THAT'S going too far. It's right wingnut presidents that prop up dictators

[seemslikeadream]

19. Fueling the Fire: How We Armed the Middle East

Warning that the virtually unrestrained spread of conventioanl weaponry threatens stability in every region of the world President Jimmy Carter attempted in the mid-1970s to constrain U.S. military sales in the Third World and to negotiate a mutal curb on arms exports with the Soviets. These efforts failed. Carter's attempt to limit U.S. military sales collided with the use of arms transfers as an instrument of diplomacy-- especially in the Middle East--and his opvertures to Moscow were forestalled by a resurgence of Cold War tentions. Since then, no serious effort has been made to curb international arms trafficking, and sales to the Third World have skyrocketed. As Carter predicted, unrestrained commerce in conventional arms has fueled local arms races and inspired aggresive powers like Iraq to employ their bulging arsenals in unprovoked attacks on neighboring countries. If the present crisis in the Persian Gulf is to have any positive outcome, therefore, it should be demonstrated the urgent need to curtail the global arms trade.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920707g.htm

[paradisiac]

22. kick

that's a must-read.