Addressing the National Press Club today, Attorney General Eric Holder warned reporters against coverage which “has a negative impact on the national security of the nation.”
Holder conceded that the US is not yet “in a time of war,” but cited censorship during World War 2 as an example of the government’s ability to clamp down on the press when they feel it necessary.
“In World War II, if a reporter had found out about that existence of the Manhattan Project, is that something that should have been disclosed?” Holder asked, by way of providing an “example” of the need to limit media coverage.
At the same time, Holder’s assessment of the US as not “in a time of war,” seems to contradict his own comments just a month ago in Paris, when he declared the US to be at war with “radical Islam,” and declared the US “determined to take the fight to them.”
Holder made the comments in response to questions about the Justice Department’s hostility toward journalists covering national security matters, suggesting that the policy is only going to get worse as officials escalate the current crop of wars.
In reference to Holder’s example, the Cleveland Press actually uncovered the Manhattan Project, and reported openly about the “secret city” of scientists the US had working in New Mexico at the time.
The article, titled Forbidden City, was openly critical of the censorship regime in place at the time, and defiant about the calls for “self-censorship.” Openly reporting on “tremendous explosions” about a year and a half before the atomic attack on Hiroshima, Holder appears not to have had his history right.
Not that the Office of Censorship didn’t try. They forced Time Magazine to kill a followup story on the Cleveland Press piece, and even tried to get the reporter, John Raper, drafted and sent off to die in the Pacific. That plot failed, it turned out, because Raper was in his sixties and far too old to conscript.
How much longer till he's gone for crying out loud?
The U.S. is not in a war. The U.S. is actively involved in about 6 wars to varying degrees. Directly with ground forces in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Directly with drones and special op. forces in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia. Indirectly with proxies in Ukraine and Libya.
Wait a minute…according to the warmongers the problem is there are NO BOOTS ON THE GROUND – they're "trainers" and "advisers" – The Peace President ended all the fighting wars, didn't he? Isn't that why he was gifted the Peace Prize?
"Boots on the ground," best as I can surmise, means at least tens of thousands deployed directly into somewhere or other around the same time. It wouldn't count, for instance, if you had thousands and thousands over a number of years, but never at once.
That's howcome whenever Boko Haram or Ebola pops up in the news I get the distinct impression people think Africa is something we have to get into, like we're not there already. The same people, no doubt, who followed the Libyan war and the Benghazi attack, has heard of Africom, vaguely remembers the Battle of Mogadishu, etc. But there hasn't been an African Iraq, so it doesn't count. Plus, all the press goes to the places we weren't (or weren't as much as some think we oughtta been), like Sudan and Rwanda, rather than where we are, which is pretty much everywhere.
In all the reporting I've read over the past 15 years there has never been a number attached to the phrase "boots on the ground." The kill team (10-20?) dispatched to take down bin laden were "boots on the ground" – their intent was to kill, not train or advise.
Some people also believe that all our wars "over there so we won't have to fight them here in the homeland" are designed to protect our "freedoms" and are protecting us from the "evil doers." Bullshit, I say…all of it.
You are a fool.
The US, it's owners, agents and tools are in a single war, that against the American people.
USG been at war for last 60 years with almost every nations in this world, so what is this man is talking about only him can answer that question, but off course based on his judgment and the way his looking at usg war history.
If an analyst at the Pentagon or for that matter in the White House is analyzing the war participation and strategic positions of US vs. Russia he or she cannot fail to notice the following. ISIL threatens oil and gas fields in the Middle East and Libya where US and other Western oil firms have huge investments and are actively producing gas and oil. ISIL is not threatening Russian oil and gas fields and, as far as I understand, is not threatening Russia's oil-rich neighbor Kazakhstan. The US is droning or bombing with airplanes in the following countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and probably Somalia. Not too long ago in Libya. Russia is droning or bombing with airplanes in no foreign country. Zero. Conclusion: Russia occupies the political and propaganda high ground.
With regards to secrecy on the development of atomic weapons the following happened at the University of Chicago where Enrico Fermi and his co-workers were operating the world's first nuclear reactor. Entry to the premises was quite firmly controlled. One day a janitor who knew Fermi well asked him "Doc are you building an atomic bomb"? That question triggered a security scare which went all the way up to President Roosevelt. Did the janitor know or did he only guess on the basis of rumors? In the first case he had to be given a certain security status and clearance. It was eventually decided that he was only guessing and did not know what was going on under the University's football field.
Did any of the esteemed National Press Club stenographers bother to ask Mr Holder just exactly what is his definition of "war"? No? I didn't think so…
He is correct that there is no need for government censorship – they are already doing a bang-up job of self-censorship.
Orwellian Dick.
Because 'boots on the ground' is not officially declared, this means we are not at war?
Please. If AmeriKa stopped making war, it wouldn't know what to do with itself.
The United States is a rogue nation. In the last few decades, it's only answer to world problems is anger, killing, genocide, bombs, war, sanctions, lying, torture, spying, assassinations. and hatred of the target countries and their people.
Diplomacy, respect, and talking are out, mindless violence and stuborness are in.
President Andrew Jackson
“There can be security only in expansion”
And there can be expansion only by force, a state of war actually. For we were created to be an Empire ever exploring, settling and killing off “the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages,” as our Declaration of Independence describes it. All for the wealth and glory of European rich nobility who did curse our nation with such a corrupt and satanic purpose, forever to be so condemned unless by a rebellion we put out of it’s misery such an enigma.