Friday, January 16, 2009

Profiles of America's Beloved TV Celebrities (26) - The Life & Lies of Mort Kondracke

Edited by Alex Constantine

"If Fox, you know, was embarrassingly right wing or something like that, it would be plain for all to see." - Mort Kondracke

Mort Kondracke and the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC)

The CIC is well-known for the recruitment of Nazis immediately after WW II to "serve"* American intelligence efforts in the Cold War, for instance "the Counter Intelligence Corp's hiring of Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo leader in Lyons, France."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DF113DF934A25755C0A96E948260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/C/Central%20Intelligence%20Agency

* The CIC, CIA and Reinhard Gehlen Network

Declassified documents from the Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group report:

“The notion that they [CIA, Army Counterintelligence Corp, Gehlen organization] employed only a few bad apples will not stand up to the new documentation. Some American intelligence officials could not or did not want to see how many German intelligence officials, SS officers, police, or non-German collaborators with the Nazis were compromised or incriminated by their past service… Hindsight allows us to see that American use of actual or alleged war criminals was a blunder in several respects…there was no compelling reason to begin the postwar era with the assistance of some of those associated with the worst crimes of the war. Lack of sufficient attention to history-and, on a personal level, to character and morality-established a bad precedent, especially for new intelligence agencies. It also brought into intelligence organizations men and women previously incapable of distinguishing between their political/ideological beliefs and reality. As a result, such individuals could not and did not deliver good intelligence. Finally, because their new, professed 'democratic convictions' were at best insecure and their pasts could be used against them (some could be blackmailed), these recruits represented a potential security problem. ... ”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/CIANazis.html
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Kondracke and the CIC

Wikipedia: " ... Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kondracke graduated from Joliet Township High School in 1956, and from Dartmouth College in 1960. He joined the U.S. Army and served in Washington, DC in the Counter Intelligence Corps while pursuing graduate work at Georgetown University and working part time for the Washington Star. ... "

Note that Kondracke went to Georgetown, a university crawling with spooks and Washington elite insiders, and worked as a reporter while still a CIC intelligence asset.

About the Star: The Washington Times was founded a year after the Washington Star closed shop, the culmination of a century in publication. Many on the payroll at the Moonie-owned Times are former employees of the Washington Star.
•••
Kondracke Advocates Ethnic Cleansing In Iraq

"thinkprogress.org — Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke writes today that if President Bush ’s escalation policy doesn’t work, his Plan B should be 'winning dirty,' which will likely involve 'ethnic cleansing, atrocities against civilians and massive refugee flows.' ... 'No one has publicly advocated this Plan B, and I know of only one Member of Congress who backs it — and he wants to stay anonymous. But he argues persuasively that it’s the best alternative available if Bush’s surge fails.' ... "

"Kondracke says it’s understandable that Sunnis suffer because 'so far they’ve refused to accept that they’re a minority. They will have to do so eventually, one way or another.' ... ”

http://digg.com/politics/Kondracke_Advocates_Ethnic_Cleansing_In_Iraq_Also_Known_As_Winning_Dirty?FC=PRCK2
•••
War Crimes Fine by Mort

Morton Kondracke - "Obama Should Say 'No' To 'War Crimes' Probes Of Bush Team"

http://www.caglepost.com/c/72/Morton+Kondracke.html
•••
Kondracke was a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1995

See Council on Foreign Relations Membership Roster, 1995 http://jya.com/nsa032999.htm

Kondracke is also a Member of Freedom House, a CFR Front

See http://watch.pair.com/FreedomHouse.html
•••
Kondracke Defends Rumsfeld

Iraq prison scandal not worth firing Rumsfeld

By Morton Kondracke
Chicago Sun-Times | May 14, 2004|

"The abuse of Iraqi prisoners that is now coming to light was without a doubt despicable, abhorrent and illegal. But on the basis of known facts, these events do not justify the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or the political frenzy it has caused in Washington. ... "

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-1531890.html

Kondracke Denies that Waterboarding is Torture

Kondracke: Waterboarding "doesn't result in any lasting damage"

"Summary: In a Fox News 'All-Star' panel discussion, Morton Kondracke said of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, 'I'm sure it feels like torture, you know, it doesn't result in any lasting damage, but it feels like torture.' ... "

http://mediamatters.org/items/200710310004

Olbermann named Kondracke "Worst Person" "winner" for waterboarding comments

"MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Roll Call's Mort Kondracke the "winner" of his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment for asserting on Fox News' Special Report: "I'm sure [waterboarding] feels like torture ... "

http://mediamatters.org/items/200711010011

News Hounds: Torture? A-OK With The "All-Stars"
•••
Kondracke's Power of Prophesy

"Watching Mort Kondracke defend Republicans and predict gloom and doom for Democrats tonight it was impossible to guess that he had the slightest connection with the Democratic Party. ... Kondracke claimed that the ethics charges involving DeLay and Frist would turn out to be nothing. ... Then he reminded viewers that the Republicans are in power and the Bush poll numbers have risen to a 45% approval. Adding that this is only 2005, he hinted that the Party would recover by 2008 and there was little chance that Democrats could gain control in 2006. Fred Barnes chuckled and congratulated Kondracke with 'an excellent job on your homework.' ... "

http://www.newshounds.us/2005/10/01/mort_kondracke_democrats_are_in_an_ecstasy_of_indignation.php
•••
Red-Baiting

From The Nation: " ... On The Beltway Boys, Morton Kondracke likened Nevada Democrats to Communist propagandists. ... "
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070507/alterman

Healthscare

" ... Fox's Morton Kondracke (Beltway Boys, 6/24/07) warned of a slippery slope from single-payer care to a socialist dictatorship, saying that "Moore basically wants socialized everything and the movie neglects to tell you that Cuba is a dictatorship and an economic basket case." (That "basket case" grew at a rate of 9.5 percent in 2006, according to the CIA World Factbook.) ... "
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3446

The "Anti-American Conspiracy"

Noam Chomsky on Kondracke's "enthusiasm for terrorist violence and
illegal economic warfare": "The March 15 [NY Times Book Review] carries Morton Kondracke's review of Paul Hollander's Anti-Americanism; the author and reviewer are loyal apologists for atrocities by the US government and its clients. Kondracke applauds this worthy exposure of the crime of anti-Americanism, though he feels Hollander may go too far in citing benefits for the handicapped as an illustration of the leftist deviation of Congress. ...

"Kondracke agrees that 'the left gets more respect and attention in the news media than its ideas merit,' and is 'strongly influential' in colleges and the church. But all is not lost: 'there is not a single Marxist or "anti-American" major daily newspaper (or even major newspaper columnist) in the country,' and the dangerous 'mainline churches' are losing membership. Fortunately, those with 'a generally critical disposition toward existing social arrangements' are almost entirely barred, though we must keep up our guard in case the heresy finds a tiny outlet. ... "

"Kondracke is particularly outraged that even though 'the Communist alternative has collapsed,' the anti-Americans (by implication, pro Communists) maintain their 'permanently adversarial culture' and continue to 'hate their nation.' They 'have not recanted,' even though they have been proven 'disastrously wrong' in their wild claims that the Sandinistas and other evil-doers 'represented a bright future for mankind' - or, to replace raving by reality, that the Sandinistas might have offered hope for Nicaraguans. The criminals in this case include the World Bank, Central American Jesuits, the leading figure of Central American democracy, Jose Figueres, a great enthusiast for US corporations and the CIA, indeed, a rather broad range. But that just shows how awesome the anti-American conspiracy is. ... "

http://prernalal.com/scholar/Noam%20Chomsky%20-%20The%20Propaganda%20System.pdf
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Kondracke's Judgment on Character

Kondracke: McCain is "truth-teller" on Iraq war

"During the 'All-Star Panel" segment on the June 6 edition of Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton Kondracke asserted that during the GOP presidential debates, Sen. John McCain 'was the truth-teller about the war in Iraq.' (sic) ... "

http://mediamatters.org/discuss/200706070011
•••
A Doctored Tape and Kondrake's Trademark "Spin" (Patent Far-Right Moonshine)

After Fox edited out applause following Lowery's remarks at King funeral, Kondracke expressed surprise at audience's muted reaction

" ... 'Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume showed an edited video clip of Rev. Joseph Lowery's remarks at Coretta Scott King's funeral, during which he mentioned the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Lowery's remarks were greeted with 23 seconds of applause and a standing ovation, but the clip Fox News aired presented nine seconds of applause and little hint of the standing ovation without noting that the clip had been doctored. After seeing the clip, Roll Call's Morton Kondracke concluded that the audience "wasn't exactly uproarious in its response" to Lowery.' ... "

http://co-mm.org/items/200602090006
•••
Punchline: Kondracke is Fox News' Idea of a "Liberal"

" ... So-called liberal contributors, who are at best centrists, include NPR's Juan Williams and Mara Liasson and Roll Call's Morton Kondracke. ... "

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010312/eviatar

... but most of us view him as a conservative:

"John McLaughlin's The McLaughlin Group, which went on the air in 1981, is sponsored by a private corporation, General Electric, with two liberal journalists facing off against ... two conservatives such as Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke or Pat Buchanon. ... " - Laurence Jarvic, PBS: Behind the Screen (Forum Books, 1997).

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