Pavlovian Treason

....or communicable, or some other adjective(s) beginning with "c".

CBS had its forged Texas Air National Guard memos; the New York Times exposed the NSA terrorist surveillance program (and was nominated for Pulitzer for their trouble); NBC had its glorification of a domestic terrorist; now ABC took its turn at delivering a swift kick to the national security groin:

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a "nonlethal presidential finding" that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions.

I wish I could believe that this covert op really was on the drawing board. Better yet, that it had been attempted decades ago. If we're not going to fight the mullahs openly on the battlefield, the least we should be doing is trying to subvert them from the shadows.

Unfortunately, I can't believe that. The Bushies have had all the "neocon cowboy" bludgeoned out of them over the past four years. My God, Dubya is sending his SecState to Baghdad to break bread with Iraq's near-future rulers. Makes it horrendously difficult not to think that that will be the prelude to the pell-mell retreat from the Middle East that his domestic enemies are demanding.

Of course, by the same token, the CIA is so bumblingly incompetent after thirty-plus years of liberalization that I doubt they could tip over Chris Dodd and Uncle Teddy after a martini binge. And that's if anybody at Langley actually wanted to pursue such a mission.

More likely is that whatever Bushophobic spook leaked this allegation is making it up as a way of "pre-empting" any actual black ops that they fear might be in the White House hopper.

At any rate, it does not excuse ABC for splattering this latest hill of beans. And Mitt Romney was spirted and pointed in saying so today:

"First of all, I woke up this morning, and I was shocked to see the ABC News report regarding covert action in Iran. I was not shocked because of the covert action. I was shocked because a news organization with such a renowned reputation as ABC News would deem it appropriate to publish information about a covert action existing, and publish that not only to America but to the entire world. The reporting has the potential of jeopardizing our national security. Stated quite plainly, it has the potential of affecting human life. We may never know.

"As you know, Iran is developing a nuclear bomb. Iran sponsors terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran's President has denied the Holocaust. Its leadership has incited to genocide. Its leadership has suggested the use of nuclear weapons. In fact, the spread of nuclear terror – nuclear proliferation – is certainly the most threatening of all the prospects on the planet today. And Iran is the most noted perpetrator of this nuclear proliferation. And Iran is supplying weapons and expertise that kill American soldiers in Iraq.

"And with all those things in mind and despite those factors, ABC News published classified information that warns Iran and that has the potential of putting Americans at risk. Now no one wants in a country like ours any form of censorship, but the media has a responsibility to police itself. And in the last little while, we've seen two examples of a failure in this responsibility. One by the New York Times with regards to reporting on the electronic eavesdropping on potential terrorists and the other is this report by ABC News. Responsible policing I just don't think happened on their part. Responsible policy-making happened on their part.

"And I think it's important to recognize that we have a global war on terror which continues. It's a global war against violent jihad. We've seen six years of this. It's not about to disappear anytime soon. With that in mind, I think it's time for leadership in the media to consider and adopt voluntary rules of responsible reporting with regards to matters of national security. Of course, we have a First Amendment which we cherish and value. It provides for freedom of the press but with this freedom goes the responsibility of the press. I'm not looking, as I said, for government censorship. I'm looking for corporate responsibility."

Sorry, Governor, that only applies to "Big Oil" and "Big Pharmaceutical" and Wal*Mart and any company that "out-sources". Not politically favored sectors that hemorrhage red ink like I did Campbell's Chunky Chicken Noodle Soup in my last bout of projectile nausea. They're above responsibility, and the law itself, just like the rest of the far left.

Sure gives Condi Rice's junket some juice, though, doesn't it?