"I agree with Maureen Dowd in nearly all of her criticism of the foreign policy team around Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. In specific I agree with her (a) that since there is so little there, there to Romney's own expressed foreign policy views, it is fair to observe that he has surrounded himself with advisors whose well-established past opinions are now reflected in his policy statements, and (b) that those advisors were deeply involved in leading the United States into its costliest foreign-policy error of at least the past 40 years, the invasion of Iraq. Some of the people who fit categories (a) and (b) are Jewish. Some of them are not -- notably including Dick Cheney, who still speaks up regularly to disparage the current administration; Condoleezza Rice (despite her successful service as Secretary of State), who lambasted the administration at the Republican convention; John Bolton; and many others. - Therefore I really disagree with Jeff Goldberg's casting of Dowd's column as one millimeter away from outright anti-Semitism, and I agree with the counter-arguments by Kevin Drum at Mother Jones and by another friend and former colleague, Andrew Sullivan, at the Daily Dish." James Fallows
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I know a little something about being "suppressed," having been there myself. When I used to do foreign policy media appearances, I several times experienced the phenomenon of journalists contacting me to say that their editors or producers or network corporate executives had been contacted by prominent neocons (most of whom worked at right wing think tanks) who told these people various untruths about me. The most common one was that I was or had been a FARA registered agent of the Syrian or Lebanese government and that if the media outlet wanted to quote me, etc. they should state that I was a foreign country's agent. On one occasion a reporter called me from L.A. to angrily demand why I had not told him that I was a foreign agent. On another occasion the director of a major Washington "think tank" (an immigrant from abroad) called to demand that I confess to my "agentry." When I said I would add it to my CV he said he was happy and hung up.
None of this was true. At one point I ran the family foundation of a rich Middle Easterner. The foundation contributed money to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City for the purpose of funding studies to support the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. Henry Siegman was in charge of the process. The resulting papers were given to the State Department and NSC to assist the process. The FARA law specifies that if a foreign entity does anything that seeks to influence US foreign policy then the Americans involved must register under FARA. Corporate counsel advised me that to be in strict compliance with the law I should register under FARA. I took his advice and registered as the "agent" (like any business agent) of the named individual who was the proprietor of the foundation. I was never the "agent" of anything but this man for whom I worked. I de-registered when I ceased to work for the man in 2006.
On another occasion a prominent civilian historian of military/strategic matters confronted me in the Green Room of the Newshour to say that I must be an Anti-semite because I used the term "neocon" and according to this fellow that was mere code for "foreign policy Jew."
So, I know a little something about suppression of freedom of expression and press freedom. The problem with people who do such things is that they act without regard to any sort of code of honor, and indifferent to the truth or falsity of their charges. They are concerned only with controlling "the narrative." Nothing else matters to them.
Maureen Dowd got a taste of it. They will continue to pursue her. pl
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/09/maureen-dowd-is-not-an-anti-semite/262485/
