Ask me where I’ve been in April, I don’t know. Mars? Strange how I’ve missed this one, but I guess it is never too late. The 2009 Pulitzer price for investigative journalism went to David Barstow of The New York Times for his story about how dozens of retired US army generals who were working as radio and TV analysts for major US media were co-opted by Pentagon to make its case for war in Iraq and how many of them had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended. Reading Barstow’s articles helps understand why war in Iraq and what proportions the business deals in an occupied country can take.
I wonder more and more who really bombed the towers…
From “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand”:
“But in the summer and fall of 2006, even as he was regularly asked to comment on conditions in Iraq [on CNN], General Marks was working intensively on bidding for a $4.6 billion contract to provide thousands of translators to United States forces in Iraq. In fact, General Marks was made president of the McNeil spin-off that won the huge contract in December 2006.”
Here his two stories: