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

[Robert Naiman]

"Empty Skies Over Afghanistan," Lara M. Dadkhah, February 18, 2010,
Opinion, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/opinion/18dadkhah.html

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 3:10 PM, Barbara kessel <barkes at gmail.com> wrote:
> When writing to the NYTimes about this editorial, i discovered they want
> this:
> When referring to a specific article, please include its date, section and
> headline.
> Could you supply that, Bob?
> Barbara Kessel
>
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 11:47 AM, Robert Naiman <naiman.uiuc at gmail.com>
> 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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>>
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>
>



-- 
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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This message has been scanned for viruses and
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