Claim: Pentagon tried to ‘intimidate’ journo covering Blackwater

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, November 26th, 2009 -- 9:22 pm
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michaelmullen Claim: Pentagon tried to intimidate journo covering BlackwaterThe office of Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the highest-ranking soldier in the US, tried to intimidate a reporter working on a story about security contractor Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, the reporter claims.

Jeremy Scahill -- whose story alleging secret assassination and bombing campaigns inside Pakistan run by Xe Services, formerly Blackwater, appeared in The Nation on Monday -- said he received a phone call from Adm. Mullen's office the day before the story appeared, informing him that his story "didn't match up with reality."

Speaking to Laura Flanders' GRITtv, Scahill described how he got little cooperation from the government in his investigation -- until he received a phone call from Adm. Mullen's office the day before the article was to be published.

"I didn't call them," Scahill said. "They called me. They wouldn't tell me how they got my number. They wouldn't tell me how they heard about the story. And they told me that my story didn't match up with reality."

Scahill said he interpreted the move as an attempt at intimidation.

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"How would any journalist perceive a call from the top US military chain of command, when you haven't called them [and] they won't tell you how they heard about the story? I did take it as an act of intimidation on the part of Adm. Mullen's office."

The following video was posted to the Web by GRITtv, November 25, 2009. Scahill's comments about Adm. Mullen start around the 8:00 mark.

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Story comments are below...

  • fukum
    Cheney & co. ought to be strung up for treason
  • texasaggie
    So if it "didn't match up with reality," what is stopping them from passing on the information that DOES match up with reality?

    The Pentagon and the whole military machine is now beginning to reap the harvest of deceit that they've been sowing for so long. How many investigations into individual deaths have been shown to be false? Pat Tilman isn't the first nor the last. How is paying a stable of former military brass to pretend to be analysts while they pass on Pentagon talking points going to engender confidence in anything they say? It has reached the point that now anything they say is automatically discounted. I don't know how they can ever regain credence, but cover ups and distortions is not the way to go.
  • alfani
    Is it our government any longer? I feel as though I have been betrayed at every turn, from my service to my country in Viet Nam, to the fraudulent elections in 2000 and 2004, to the clever misrepresentations in the last election, to the bogus bail outs and this. We are absolute suckers.

    Left and right, liberal and conservative, gay and straight, atheist, agnostic and religious, we are being played one against the other, wasting our energies as the puppet masters pull our strings.

    Our enemies are not muslims, not christians, not the Iraqi, not Afghani, not Iranian, not Mexican, not Canadian, or any other masses. Our enemies run the media, have great yatches, fly private jetliners and laugh all the way to the party. Our enemies are the uber-rich.

    I, for one, welcome our old overlords. bah. humbug.
  • Savantster
    .
    And since they control all official means of power (media/campaign/etc), there's little to nothing the "people" can do about it. Either the masses get a spine and march on Washington, or it will continue to get worse. The SCOTUS is about to make a decision on "money = free speech" and if it includes campaign law. If they decide in the favor of big business (and with their flawed logic, they will), it's game over in America.

    And the solution for an individual when their country has abandoned them is to quite simply, leave. That's what I'm in the process of doing. Many other small countries out there can absorb a few million Americans (combined) quite readily, and most of those countries are Democratic Socialisms.. perfect for me. I'll gladly move to a place with Single Payer, less crime, longer life spans, better health care, and a population that actively discusses politics from a frame of reality, not some deluded Fox Newz slant.

    Sane people need to start getting out before the rest of the world decides to shut America down.
    .
  • dennycrane
    The cheney shadow government still pulling the strings. If the pockets of the politicians aren't "filled" up enough from lobbyists money, there are "pockets" pointed at them with more than a "finger" sticking thru the fabric.
  • gkf
    Brings to mind, the lawsuit by Cacci against popular radio host Randi Rhodes/Air America, for
    discussing them on air. When did it become legal , for the United States,to use private contractors/mercenaries ? It's a dangerous practice, and eventually could result in a coup. I
    assume it's purpose was to camaflouge the losses of American lives, and covered the illegal
    activities of Cheney and co.
  • George_of_the_Jungle
    "assume it's purpose was to camouflage the losses of American lives, and covered the illegal activities".

    Yes. BushCo and now Obama, view these contractors as their own private military squad. It seems that going through Congress and all the bureaucratic channels was too much for Bush, Cheney, and Obama, so they preferred a private force that's answerable directly to them.

    At the same time, with about 130,000 private contractors on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US government doesn't need to reinstate the draft. A draft would be extremely unpopular here at home and would bring these wars to an end. So, the contractors fill that void.
  • tobyv29
    Obviously the NSA is monitoring The Nation's computers and knows wtf is going to be printed well before press time. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Jeremy should hire a food taster and never fly. He is one of the bravest journalists we have in this pathetic media world. Sooner or later the intimidation will escalate i fear.
  • George_of_the_Jungle
    Either one of Scahill's "sources" is a "double agent" so to speak or his phones and e-mail are tapped. I'm leaning toward the latter.

    By the way, I don't think it's the NSA.
  • Hoosier84
    Um, 3 anonymous sources and 4 official denials and this is a story? For all we know, he's using Bozo the Clown as a source. Not surprising he didn't call Mullen, he ain't much for research. For real journalists that would have been the first call they made. Appalling that they had to call him . . . - doug brooks
  • George_of_the_Jungle
    You're right. Whenever you want honest and accurate information, the first source should be government officials. They always tell the truth. Yup.

    Is that what passes for "journalism" in your world, Hooser? You're not a member of the White House Transcriber Corps, are you?
  • howiebledsoe
    Actually, his exposè on blackwater, which was the first of it´s kind, was very well researched, and he risked his life more than once to put it together.
  • Hoosier84
    Wow, getting thick and deep in here.

    Actually, Jeremy Scahill wrote a chapter on my Association (IPOA) without bothering to talk to us at all. Indeed, we contacted him a half dozen times to see if he wanted to talk to us prior to publishing his book. Nope. One might speculate that he didn't want to cloud his bias with reality. And then he's rewarded with the Polk Award for investigative journalism. A slap in the face to real journalists.

    If the Washington Post or New York Times published an article based only on 3 anonymous sources they'd be rightly taken to task. A glorified blogger, Mr. Scahill gets a free pass from everyone for some reason. No wonder real journalism is a dying art.

    Best,

    doug brooks
  • Savantster
    .
    "without bothering to talk to us at all. "

    "us"? as in the people charged with making sure to put a publicly acceptable face on anything, including illegal child prostitution rings?

    Americans have become so comfortable lying for money that no one in their right mind bothers wasting time "going to the boss" when investigating something; go to the bosses for fluff pieces, that's it.
    .
  • George_of_the_Jungle
    "If the Washington Post or New York Times published an article based only on 3 anonymous sources they'd be rightly taken to task."

    Yes. I'd like to see evidence of those two papers "being taken to task" for using "a senior intelligence official told us on condition of anonymity..." everytime they wanted to make things up, or anytime the government needed to leak disinformation while disassociating itself from that disinfo.


    Many readers on here weren't born yesterday, you know.
  • Hoosier84
    Check out the Wash Post 16 August Ombudsman column. The NYT is less professional or reliable, but they have similar policies.

    More to the point, most of the responders here have already made up their minds on these issues - I guess there can't possibly a different perspective. At least not one they'd care to hear. A closed mind is their loss I guess.

    -doug brooks
  • howiebledsoe
    OK, fair enough, I read the book and found it pretty enthralling, but that´s probably why. Ah, the Mtv generation.... Sometimes real facts are just plain boring.
    Thanks for the heads-up.
  • Savantster
    .
    Makes perfect sense.. ask the criminal if he's a criminal first, and if he says 'no', just let it go.

    o.O

    .
  • greg789
    Cheney? Bill Clinton gave Cheney's Halliburton his first no bid billion dollar contract back in the nineties in Bosnia,etc. Halliburton had already been charged with fraud of the Army. Clinton knew that Cheney had given contracts to Halliburton while he was Sect. of the Defense, then hit the revolving door to CEO of Halliburton

    Cheney is a symptom of the problem, not the cause. Blame your neighbor for voting for these crooks and that includes Obama now. This latest happened under his watch.
    Third party now.
  • Savantster
    .
    Blaming your neighbors is blaming the victim. The Media and their Corporate Controllers are the ones building the false reality the "average" and "simple minded" are being subjected to. And the Party Leadership (of both mainstream parties), entrenched with big business are complicit.. re: Kucinich being shut out of the 2008 Primary Debates in Iowa by his own party.

    The public isn't getting honest debate in the one venue they have historically relied on. That venue was intentionally gamed, and now we're seeing the results. Hillary or Obama? Really? those were the choices out of 320 million people? Seems rigged to me. Can't blame Joe Average for that.
    .
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