[Mb-civic] The (Arianna) Huffington Post | Front Page - By Norman mailer

[TSawyer456 at aol.com]

This is extraordinary! And you know he's right!
 
Tom
_www.ThomasBSawyer.com_ (http://www.ThomasBSawyer.com) 
 
 
May 17, 2005
 
 
 
 
_05.17.2005 Norman Mailer _ 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/norman-mailer/intelligence-101a_1142.html)  
_Intelligence  101A_ 
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/norman-mailer/intelligence-101a_1142.html) 
I'm beginning to see why one would want to write a blog. At present, I have a 
 few thoughts I can certainly not prove, but the gaffe over the _Michael 
Isikoff story_ (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7857407/site/newsweek/)   in Newsweek 
concerning the Koran and the toilet is redolent with bad odor. Who,  indeed, was 
Isikoff's supposedly reliable Pentagon source? One's  counter-espionage hackles 
rise. If you want to _discredit a Dan Rather_ 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathergate)  or a  Newsweek crew, just feed them false information from a 
hitherto reliable source.  You learn that in Intelligence 101A. 
Counter-espionage often depends on building "reliable sources." You construct 
 such reliability item by secret item, all accurate. That is seen by the  
intelligence artists as a necessary expenditure. It gains the source his  
credibility. Then, you spring the trap. 
As for the riots at the other end, on this occasion, they, too, could have  
been orchestrated. We do have agents in Pakistan, after all, not to mention  
Afghanistan. 
Obviously, I can offer no proof of any of the above. There still resides,  
however, under my aging novelist's pate a volunteer intelligence agent, sadly  
manque. He does suggest that the outcome was too neat. It came out too  
effectively for one side, one special side. At the age of eighty-two I do not  wish 
to revive old paranoia, but Lenin did leave us one valuable notion, one, at  
any rate. It was "Whom?" When you cannot understand a curious matter, ask  
yourself, "Whom? Whom does this benefit?" Dare I suggest that our Right has just  
gained a good deal by way of this matter? In every covert Department of Dirty  
Tricks, whether official, semi-official, or off-the-wall, great pride is best  
obtained by going real deep into down-and-dirty-land—Yeah! Expedite the  
consequences. 
Posted at 09:25 PM 




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