{"id":43378,"date":"2011-09-03T20:39:59","date_gmt":"2011-09-03T17:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=43378"},"modified":"2014-01-06T15:02:14","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T13:02:14","slug":"meet-professor-juan-cole-consultant-to-the-cia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2011\/09\/03\/meet-professor-juan-cole-consultant-to-the-cia\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Professor Juan Cole, Consultant to the CIA"},"content":{"rendered":"
“Democracy Now?”<\/strong><\/div>\n
by JOHN WALSH<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"Juan Cole is a brand name that is no longer trusted.\u00a0 And that has been the case for some time for the Professor from Michigan.\u00a0 After warning of the \u201cdifficulties\u201d with the Iraq War, Cole swung over to ply it with burning kisses on the day of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.\u00a0 His fervor was not based on Saddam Hussein\u2019s fictional possession of weapons of mass destruction but on the virtues of \u201chumanitarian imperialism.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thus on March 19, 2003, as the imperial invasion commenced, Cole enthused on his blog: \u201cI\u00a0remain<\/em> (Emphasis mine.) convinced that, for all the concerns one might have about the aftermath, the removal of Saddam Hussein and the murderous Baath regime from power will be worth the sacrifices that are about to be made on all sides.\u201d <\/strong> Now, with over 1 million Iraqis dead, 4 million displaced and the country\u2019s infrastructure destroyed, might Cole still echo Madeline Albright that the price was \u201cworth it\u201d?\u00a0 Cole has called the Afghan War \u201cthe right war at the right time\u201d and has emerged as a cheerleader for Obama\u2019s unconstitutional war on Libya and for Obama himself.<\/p>\n

Cole claims to be a man of the left and he appears with painful frequency on Amy Goodman\u2019s\u00a0Democracy Now<\/em> as the reigning \u201cexpert\u201d on the war on Libya.\u00a0 This is deeply troubling \u2013 on at least two counts. First, can one be a member of the \u201cleft\u201d and also an advocate for the brutal intervention by the Great Western Powers in the affairs of a small, relatively poor country?\u00a0 Apparently so, at least in\u00a0Democracy Now\u2019s<\/em>version of the \u201cleft.\u201d\u00a0 Second, it appears that Cole\u2019s essential function these days is to convince wavering progressives that the war on Libya has been \u00a0fine and dandy.\u00a0 But how can such damaged goods as Cole credibly perform this marketing mission so vital to Obama\u2019s war?<\/p>\n

Miraculously, Cole got just the rehabilitation he needed to continue with this vital propaganda function when it was disclosed by the New York Times on June 15 that he was the object of a White House inquiry way back in 2005 in Bush time.\u00a0\u00a0 The source and reason for this leak and the publication of it by the NYT at this time, so many years later, should be of great interest, but they are unknown.\u00a0\u00a0 Within a week of the\u00a0Timespiece Cole was accorded a hero\u2019s welcome on Democracy Now, as he appeared with retired CIA agent Glenn Carle who had served 23 years in the clandestine services of the CIA in part as an \u201cinterrogator.\u201d <\/em> Carl had just retired from the CIA at the time of the White House request and was at the time employed at the National Intelligence Council, which authors the National Intelligence Estimate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It hit this listener like a ton of bricks when it was disclosed in Goodman\u2019s interview that Cole was a long time \u201cconsultant\u201d for the CIA,<\/em> the National Intelligence Council and other agencies.\u00a0 Here is what nearly caused me to keel over when I heard it (From the <\/strong>Democracy Now<\/em>transcript.):<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN:<\/strong> So, did you know Professor Cole or know of him at the time you were asked? And can you go on from there? What happened when you said you wouldn\u2019t do this? And who was it who demanded this information from you, said that you should get information?<\/p>\n

GLENN CARLE:<\/strong> Well, I did know Professor Cole. He was one of a large number of experts of diverse views that\u00a0the National Intelligence Council and my office and the CIA respectively consult with<\/em> to challenge our assumptions and understand the trends and issues on our various portfolios. So I knew him that way. And it was sensible, in that sense, that the White House turned to my office to inquire about him,\u00a0because we were the ones, at least one of the ones\u2014I don\u2019t know all of Mr. Cole\u2019s work\u2014who had consulted with him<\/em>. (Emphases mine.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That seems like strange toil for a man of the \u201cleft.\u201d\u00a0 But were the consultations long drawn out and the association with the CIA a deep one?\u00a0\u00a0 It would appear so.\u00a0 Again from the transcript:<\/p>\n

AMY GOODMAN: <\/strong>Well, the way James Risen (the NYT reporter) writes it, he says, \u201cMr. Carle said [that] sometime that year, he was approached by his supervisor, David Low, about Professor Cole. [Mr.] Low and [Mr.] Carle have starkly different recollections of what happened. According to Mr. Carle, [Mr.] Low returned from a White House meeting one day and inquired who Juan Cole was, making clear [that] he wanted [Mr.] Carle to gather information on him. Mr. Carle recalled [his] boss saying, \u2018The White House wants to get him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

GLENN CARLE: <\/strong>Well, that\u2019s substantially correct. The one nuance, perhaps, I would point out is there\u2019s a difference between collecting information actively, going out and running an operation, say, to find out things about Mr. Cole, or\u00a0providing information known through interactions<\/em>.\u00a0 (Emphasis mine.)\u00a0 I would characterize it more as the latter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And later in the interview Carle continues:<\/p>\n

On the whole, Professor Cole and I are in agreement. The distinction I make is it wasn\u2019t publicly known information that was requested; it was information that officers knew of a personal nature about Professor Cole, which is much more disturbing.There was no direct request that I\u2019m aware, in the two instances of which I have knowledge, for the officers actively to seek and obtain, to conduct\u2014for me to go out and follow Professor Cole. But if I knew lifestyle questions or so on, to pass those along.<\/em> (Emphasis mine.)That\u2019s how I\u2014which is totally unacceptable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It would seem then that the interaction between the CIA operatives and Cole was long standing and sufficiently intimate that the CIA spooks could be expected to know things about Cole\u2019s lifestyle and personal life.\u00a0 It is not that anyone should give two figs about Cole\u2019s personal life which is more than likely is every bit as boring as he claims.\u00a0 But his relationship with the CIA is of interest since he is an unreconstructed hawk.\u00a0 What was remarkable to me at the time is that Goodman did not pick up on any of this. Did she know before of Cole\u2019s connections?\u00a0 Was not this the wrong man to have as a \u201cfrequent guest,\u201d in Goodman\u2019s words, on the situation in the Middle East?<\/p>\n

This is not to claim that Cole is on a mission for the CIA to convince the left to support the imperial wars, most notably at the moment the war on Libya.\u00a0 Nor is this a claim that the revelation about the White House seeking information on Cole was a contrived psyops effort to rehabilitate Cole so that he could continue such a mission.\u00a0 That cannot be claimed, because there is as yet no evidence for it.\u00a0 But information flows two ways in any consultation, and it is even possible that Cole was being loaded with war-friendly information in hopes he would transmit it.<\/p>\n

Cole is anxious to promote himself as a man of the left as he spins out his rationale for the war on Libya.\u00a0 At one point he says to Goodman (3\/29), \u201cWe are people of the left. We care about the ordinary people. We care about workers.\u201d\u00a0 It is strange that a man who claims such views dismisses as irrelevant the progress that has come to the people of Libya under Gaddafi, dictator or not.\u00a0 (Indeed what brought Gaddafi down was not that he was a dictator but that he was not our dictator.)\u00a0 In fact Libya has the highest score of all African countries on the UN\u2019s Human Development Index (HDI) and with Tunisia and Morocco the second highest level of literacy.\u00a0 The HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide.<\/p>\n

Whither the Left on the Question of Intervention?<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n

None of this is all too surprising given Cole\u2019s status as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d hawk.\u00a0 But it is outrageous that he is so often called on by\u00a0Democracy Now<\/em> for his opinion.\u00a0 One of his appearances there was in a debate on the unconstitutional war in Libya, with CounterPunch\u2019s estimable Vijay Prashad taking the antiwar side and Cole prowar. \u00a0It would seem strange for the left to have to debate the worth of an imperial intervention.\u00a0 Certainly if one goes back to the days of the Vietnam War there were teach-ins to inform the public of the lies of the U.S. government and the truth about what was going on in Vietnam.\u00a0 But let us give Democracy Now the benefit of the doubt and say that the debate was some sort of consciousness raising effort.\u00a0 Why later on invite as a frequent guest a man who was the pro-war voice in the debate?\u00a0 That is a strange choice indeed.<\/p>\n

This writer does not get to listen to\u00a0Democracy Now<\/em> every day.\u00a0 But I have not heard a full-throated denunciation of the war on Libya from host or guests.\u00a0 Certainly according to a search on the DN web site, Cynthia McKinney did not appear as a guest nor Ramsey Clark after their courageous fact finding tour to Libya.\u00a0 There was only one all out denunciation of the war \u2013 on the day when the guests were Rev. Jesse Jackson and Vincent Harding who was King\u2019s speechwriter on the famous speech \u201cBeyond Vietnam\u201d in 1967 in which King condemned the U.S. war on Vietnam.\u00a0 Jackson and the wise and keenly intelligent Harding were there not to discuss Libya but to discuss the MLK Jr. monument.\u00a0 Nonetheless Jackson and Harding made clear that they did not like the U.S. war in Libya one bit, nor the militarism it entails.<\/p>\n

If one reads\u00a0CounterPunch.org<\/em>,\u00a0Antiwar.com<\/em> or\u00a0The American Conservative<\/em>, one knows that one is reading those who are anti-interventionist on the basis of principle.\u00a0 With\u00a0Democracy Now<\/em> and kindred progressive outlets, it\u2019s all too clear where a big chunk of the so-called \u201cleft\u201d stands, especially since the advent of Obama.\u00a0\u00a0 In his superb little book\u00a0Humanitarian Imperialism<\/em> Jean Bricmont criticizes much of the left for falling prey to advocacy of wars, supposedly based on good intentions.\u00a0 And Alexander Cockburn has often pointed out that \u00a0many progressives are actually quite fond of \u201chumanitarian\u201d interventionism.\u00a0\u00a0 Both here and in Europe this fondness seems to be especially true of Obama\u2019s latest war, the war on Libya .\u00a0 It is little wonder that the \u201cprogressives\u201d are losing their antiwar following to Ron Paul and the Libertarians who are consistent and principled on the issue of anti-interventionism.<\/p>\n

Democracy Now<\/em>,\u00a0quo vadis<\/em>?\u00a0 Wherever you are heading, you would do well to travel without Juan Cole and his friends.<\/p>\n

John V. Walsh<\/strong> can be reached at\u00a0John.Endwar@gmail.com After wading through Cole\u2019s loose prose and dubious logic to write this essay, the author suspects that the rejection of Cole by the Yale faculty was the result of considerations that had little to do with neocon Bush\/Cheney operatives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

www.counterpunch.org,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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