Danny Weil

CBS News has hired former acting director of the CIA, Mike Morell, as their senior security correspondent. Morell has been a frequent guest on CBS’ Face the Nation, where he has disseminated CIA propaganda and misleading information, raising questions about CBS’ journalistic integrity. Morell also works for Beacon Global Strategies, a DC consulting firm which peddles its government connections to defense contractors, raising even more questions about his role at CBS.

December 23, 2013

On December 23, 2013, Morell appeared on Face the Nation, where he promoted the government’s campaign to prosecute Edward Snowden. On this day Morell stated:

“He violated the trust put in him by the United States government. He has committed a crime, in my view. You know a whistleblower doesn’t run. A whistleblower does not disclose information that has nothing to do with what he says his cause is which is the privacy and civil liberties of Americans. You know if I could talk to Mister Snowden myself, what I would say is, Edward, you say you’re a patriot, you say you want to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, you say that you wanted Americans to have a debate about this and to make up their mind about what to do about this. Well, if you really believe that, if you really believe that Americans should be the judge of this program, then you should also believe that the Americans should be the judge of your behavior in this regard. So if you are the patriot that you say you are, you should come home and be judged. “

Morell also made the following statement, which is now known to be false, thanks to Snowden’s disclosures:

“The-NSA is not spying on Americans. I think that is a perception that some have out there. It is not— it is not— it is not focused on any single American. It is not reading the content of your phone calls or my phone calls or anybody else’s phone calls. It is focused on this metadata for one purpose only, and that is to make sure that foreign terrorists aren’t in contact with anybody in the United States (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-december-22-2013-morell-garrett-brennan-cordes-martin/2/).

Jan 20, 2014

On January 20, 2014, appearing on Face the Nation with Mike Rdogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee, Morell joined in the campaign to discredit Snowden, implying Snowden was working with the Russians. From the transcript:

SCHIEFFER: I want to ask you first – I mean, Chairman Rogers made some interesting disclosures this morning suggesting that there is some reason to believe the Russians may have been helping Edward Snowden and also expressing real concern about safety for the coming Olympics. Just give me your reaction to that.

MORELL: So I share the chairman’s concern about what the Russian intelligence services may be doing with Mr. Snowden. I don’t have – I don’t have any particular evidence, but one of the things that I point to when I talk about this is that the disclosures that have been coming recently are very sophisticated in their content and sophisticated in their timing, almost too sophisticated for Mr. Snowden to be deciding on his own. And it seems to me he might be getting some help (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/face-the-nation-transcripts-january-19-2014-rogers-udall-donilon-morell/5/).

April 11, 2014

On April 14, 2014 McClatchy News reported on the still secret Senate report on the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation techniques”. McClatchy reported thatthe CIA systematically mislead Congress, lied to the Justice Department and that the legal foundation for the CIA’s activities were doubtful. According to McClatchy, some of the report’s findings include:

“The CIA used interrogation methods that weren’t approved by the Justice Department or CIA headquarters. The agency impeded effective White House oversight and decision-making regarding the program. The CIA actively evaded or impeded congressional oversight of the program. The agency hindered oversight of the program by its own Inspector General’s Office”(http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/04/10/224085/cias-use-of-harsh-interrogation.html).

CBS corporate news & the CIA

The findings of misconduct reported by McClatchy occurred during Michael Morell’s tenure at the CIA, raising questions about the appropriateness of his role as CBS’ senior security analyst.

Additional questions about Morell’s integrity have been raised by allegations that as acting director of the CIA, he disseminated misleading information about the attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi (http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Benghazi-McCain-Graham-Ayotte/2014/04/10/id/564796/?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular).

Further questions about Morell at CBS are raised due to his role working for Beacon Global Strategies, a group of former Clinton and Bush associates who peddle their government connections to drum up business for defense contractors (http://beaconglobalstrategies.com/).

That CBS would allow Morell to use its news division to disseminate misleading information & propaganda, and drum up business for his consulting firm exposes the nexus of government, big business and the corporate run media. It reveals how the three entities work together.

Morell vs. Snowden

While Morell argued for the prosecution of Snowden on Face the Nation, there are questions of whether Morell himself should be prosecuted for war crimes.

Morell was a career CIA employee from 1980 to 2013. This included stints as associate deputy director 2006 — 2008, deputy director 2010, and acting director 2011, 2012-2013 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Morell).

During his tenure as deputy and acting director, the CIA engaged in multiple drone strikes that killed dozens of innocent civilians. These ‘extrajudicial assassinations’ included double tap strikes where rescuers are targeted, andsignature strikes where those fitting a certain demographic profile are targeted. All of this is illegal.

The role of the corporate media, such as CBS and their faux shows like Face the Nation, is to repeatedly spew out the military industrial and oligarch propaganda about the actions of the military and corporate America. This, and to conceal more than they reveal. Many Americans no nothing of what is really happening in the ranks of the military or within the corridors of power and this is precisely what the oligarchs who rule America want.

The military and CIA can know all about you, from your e-mail address, Facebook rants to your daily habits, but we are to know nothing about their activities. Americans must understand that they live not under the Constitution, but under the canopy of tyranny, newspeak and military rule.

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