[Peace-discuss] NYT "Mystery" Op-ed Calls for More Afghan Civilian Deaths

[C. G. Estabrook]

I don't understand the surprise. Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, is 
a DLC Democrat who has always supported the Long War & US policy in the Middle 
East (like Obama & Co.).  The question has always been, is it being pursued 
effectively?  That's just the issue being taken up in this op-ed.  --CGE


Robert Naiman wrote:
> [You can urge the NYT Public Editor to investigate here: public at nytimes.com]
> 
> On Thursday the New York Times made an astonishing editorial choice,
> for which its editors owe the public an explanation: it published an
> op-ed by an obscure and poorly identified author attacking General
> Stanley McChrystal for his directive last July that air strikes in
> Afghanistan be authorized only under "very limited and prescribed
> conditions." The op-ed denounced an "overemphasis on civilian
> protection" and charged that "air support to American and Afghan
> forces has been all but grounded by concerns about civilian
> casualties."
> 
> The author of the op-ed, Lara M. Dadkhah, is identified by the Times
> merely as "an intelligence analyst." In the body of the op-ed, the
> author identifies herself as "employed by a defense consulting
> company," without telling us which company, or what her relationship
> might be to actors who stand to lose financially if the recognition
> that killing civilians is bad for the United States were to affect
> expenditures by the United States military.
> 
> As Glenn Greenwald asks in Salon:
> 
> What defense consulting company employs her? Do they have any ties to
> the war effort? Do they benefit from the grotesque policies she's
> advocating? What type of "analyst" is she? Who knows... it's virtually
> impossible to find any information about "Lara Dadkhah" using standard
> Internet tools.
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/nyt-mystery-op-ed-calls-f_b_468999.html
> 
> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/2/19/121312/180
> 
> http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/488
> 
> --
> Robert Naiman
> Just Foreign Policy
> www.justforeignpolicy.org
> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
> 
> Change.org: End the war in Afghanistan
> Timeline for Withdrawal and Political Negotiations
> http://www.change.org/ideas/view/end_the_war_in_afghanistan_establish_a_timeline_for_withdrawal_and_begin_political_negotiations
> 

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