Fear This Man

The spectacular New York Times article concerning General McCaffrey's conflict of interest issues with NBC News brought to our attention by Mr. McEnroe is, to me at least, a perfect example of the value of large, professional news gathering and reporting companies. Citizen reporting will probably be a part of the future of news, but there will always be a need for experienced, well-connected and determined reporters.

The David Barstow expose' in the New York Times that led to the Salon article by Glenn Greenwald is an excellent example of a level of reporting far beyond even the most determined citizen reporter. The expose' was expertly written, engaging, thorough and in depth to a degree suggesting numerous high-level contacts and trusted sources. I was not surprised, incidentally, that General McCaffrey profits from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--he has a history of being on the wrong side of the law.

I was especially interested in the story because I believe General McCaffrey is also a war criminal. I base this belief on the stories related by the multiple reliable witnesses of McCaffrey's ordering of the slaughter of thousands of retreating Iraqi soldiers after a cease-fire had been ordered in the Desert Storm conflict. Was there outrage in the media about this atrocity? Not really--its hard to replay the down, if I may use a sports analogy, when the clock has run out and the victorious team is carrying the coach off the field. We won, we didn't lose that many lives on our side, and Sadam Hussein was humiliated. But we're talking about real people really dying. The photos of the slaughter were of a staggering number of dead bodies and burnt vehicles and equipment not vanquished athletes hanging their heads in defeat. McCaffrey wanted to be famous for something, so he gave the order to kill them all.

General McCaffrey deals in death at the highest levels. Only reporters with access to and experience at those levels can get the kind of story David Barstow has given us. If the media goes too far in the direction of the citizen reporter we may never be informed of what the super powerful are up to. We might lose the trail on scoundrels like General McCaffrey.