The Leonard Lopate Show

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Michael Kirk.

Frontline is an oasis of reason.

My uncle who is a right wing Republican thinks Frontline is a liberally biased news program just doesn't understand the American people have been hearing only ONE side of the story.

He's a lost cause however it feels great knowing there are still SOME journalists out there doing their job.

Great Michael, Keep saying a tv show is 'always' objective and it won't be objective for long. Keep saying WNYC is a public service and soon it will become entertainment. I personally don't find every statement on Front Line objective, but I mostly agree it is pretty good. I don't find every program on WNYC objective either, but its pretty good, considering it is in the middle of blue city, blue state heaven.

What the first night of this program last night showed me is that the government makes a lot of mistakes, and it competes with itself to the public's disservice, and bungles quite a bit. The biggest example of government bungling was for letting 9/11 happen in the first place.

Glenn,

I have to say it is SAD when a person like yourself who I imagine is very smart will use words like "mistake" and "Bungle" to describe the run up to war in Iraq.

There were no mistakes or bungles.

Iraq was on the table from day 1.

The evidence was deliberately fabricated from the beginning. Example (Curve Ball, Yellow Cake Niger & Mohammad Atta in Germany meeting Iraqi intelligence)

No mistake no bungle just war crimes.

The only problem I have with Frontline is they don't go far enough.

It has been alleged that the CIA knew that the USSR military strength and spending was down in the 70s and intentially inflated their estimates.

Did your guest find anyone willing to admit the influence of the pro-Israel click had on the whole creation of the war, as per the following:

"The real threat...is the threat against Israel, and this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat....and the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it to rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell."

-Phillip Zelikow, counselor to Secretary of State Rice,member of the President'sForeign Intelligence Advisory Board member, September 10, 2002.

"A stronger Israel is very much embedded in the rationale for war with Iraq. It is part of the argument that dare not speaks its name, a fantasy quietly cherished by the neo-conservative faction in the Bush Administration and by many leaders of the American Jewish community."

- author Joe Klein, Time magazine,March 2003.

2 interesting things: [i think, atleast]

1. check out this article on cheney's new 'retirement' house being built literally across-the-street from CIA headquarters>

http://wonkette.com/363302/cheneys-new-

house-is-cia-adjacent

he never stops being fascinated with himself, does he?..

2. and how could have sadaam even launched missles into Israel? somewhere around the Arthur-Kent-on-a-rooftop part of the first Iraq war, something about a rogue American missle scientist named Jerome Bell was mentioned, and about how he'd been murdered in Syria, i think, and they never, of course, really got to the bottom of it. So how was sadaam supposed to use missles he supposedly had anyway?

Leonard - Thank you for another wonderful, interesting interview. I'll listen again tomorrow. Granted, you had an articulate and fascinating interviewee but it was classic Lopate.

Beware of anti-Semitic anti-Israel commenters like "John" #5

his "quotes" are totally fabricated - Klein never wrote that (just Google a little and you'll see they can be found only on white supremacist webs site) and his insidious accusations have been discredited umpteen times.

This smear campaign is typical of the anti-Jewish campaign to smear Israel and it's supporters - there is no moral bottom here - they make up quotes, phony accusations etc... and use any forum and topic to fling their hatred.

Michael,

Knee jerk liberalism won't fix the incompetent and self serving government which is run by professional politicians which allowed 9/11 and the war in Iraq to happen. In fact, larger government will just make the next issues that come up bigger problems still, like we've closed the door after the horse ran away with things like the hightly competent Transporation Security Administration, and the even bigger cluster fork, Homeland Security Department. What is SAD are people who can't think objectively and need to polarize to one side or another. If it were the Demo's in power they'd be shoveling money into corrupt unions and lining the pockets of the same miliary contractors.

Maybe there is a good reason that we now surround crazy Iran? Maybe the corrupt UN Oil-for-Food program also led to the war in Iraq. Maybe these two things were the silent reasons that no one has talked about on camera for invading Iraq? If its on Frontline, it must be comprehensive and objective? If its not, its not true. Right?