(no subject)

A STORY THAT the U.S. government hoped would never see the light of day finally has been published, 60 years after it was spiked by military censors. The discovery of reporter George Weller's firsthand account of conditions in post-nuclear Nagasaki sheds light on one of the great journalistic betrayals of the last century: the cover-up of the effects of the atomic bombing on Japan.

On Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima; three days later, Nagasaki was hit. Gen. Douglas MacArthur promptly declared southern Japan off-limits, barring the news media. More than 200,000 people died in the atomic bombings of the cities, but no Western journalist witnessed the aftermath and told the story. Instead, the world's media obediently crowded onto the battleship USS Missouri off the coast of Japan to cover the Japanese surrender.

A month after the bombings, two reporters defied General MacArthur and struck out on their own. Mr. Weller, of the Chicago Daily News, took row boats and trains to reach devastated Nagasaki. Independent journalist Wilfred Burchett rode a train for 30 hours and walked into the charred remains of Hiroshima.

Both men encountered nightmare worlds. Mr. Burchett sat down on a chunk of rubble with his Baby Hermes typewriter. His dispatch began: "In Hiroshima, 30 days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world, people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly - people who were uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague."

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from The Hiroshima cover-up (thanks to jenlight for the lead)

(no subject)

For a couple of years now I've read hints and rumors about an ongoing full-scale war between the neoconservatives and the FBI-CIA. The flap over the mass media outing of undercover spook Valerie Plame by members of the Bush Administration is but one tendril of evidence that points to such a war. Allegations of Dick Cheney strongarming people in the CIA to produce intelligence favorable to the Administration's goal of "regime change in Iraq" are another tendril.

Yet another tendril was filed in federal court on August 4. You can read a copy of a federal grand jury's indictment of Larry Franklin, Steve Rosen, and Keith Weissman on charges of espionage here.

Justin Raimondo posted an interesting analysis of that indictment here.

As I wrote in The American Conservative in June:
"Like a dorsal fin poking just above the water, the Franklin spy trial promises us a glimpse of a creature much larger than appears at first sight."
However, not even I imagined the monstrous scale of this submerged giant: the earliest I could trace its movements was back to just before 9/11, based on the reporting of UPI's Richard Sale. But 1999? Who woulda thought? And it isn't just the timeline that's disturbing: it seems that a number of apparently senior U.S. government officials are about to be dragged into this imbroglio of trouble and treason.

This was all about factional warfare going on inside the administration over U.S. policy toward Iran, and "how the deliberations would proceed" was and still is of vital interest to the Israelis. Pushing the Americans toward a confrontation with Tehran, Israel and its American amen corner could care less how many laws they have to break in order to make sure they prevail. Trading in classified information, and leaking to "reporters for a national news organization" and even "a senior fellow at a Washington, D.C., thinktank," was all part of the game, and no doubt still is: what none of them realized, however, was that the feds were listening in on the other end.

... As the issue of Iran's alleged push to procure nuclear weapons takes center stage, AIPAC's efforts to sway U.S. policy – including stealing and leaking U.S. secrets in the service of their pro-Israel agenda – could not have been exposed at a more opportune time. Franklin's trial is scheduled for Sept. 6, although this new indictment could delay matters, but one thing is clear: When these people are finally brought to trial, it is the War Party that will be put in the dock. All those mysterious government officials, not identified by name in the indictment, will be called to testify under oath: the same goes for reporters who laundered Franklin's ill-gotten secrets.