Stay Classified

Seymour Hersh is a disgrace to the 4th estate. Only sloppy journalists pursue agendas that conflict with "official narratives." Official narratives = truth. This equation should never be questioned lest one slip into the disgraced denizens of conspiracy theorists. Hersh's reporting on the Me Lai massacre occurred so long ago that he should cease padding his resume and reputation with this acute event. Hersh's crime is using anonymous sources. A journalist like Hersh claims his sources remain anonymous to be protected from state prosecution or any other punitive backlash. Now contrast Hersh's self serving methods to the Governments benevolent use of anonymous sources when classifying the information obtained under the nebulous state secret provisions. Governments do this to protect sources which are supposedly vital intelligence assets whose being revealed would compromise their future effectiveness and personal safety. Or so the state lectures. This disparity in responding to Hersh's use of anonymous sources and the state classifying information presupposes a deification of the state. In addition, Congress enables this deification by their conceding to the Executive branch's use of secrecy.

Is this deification the result of the masses believing faithfully in the state's need to establish narratives and classify the information on which they concluded such narratives, or is the state a deity by default resulting from public apathy? The state, nonetheless, establishes the definitive interpretation of an event. In this setting, George W. Bush classifies 28 pages from the U.S. Joint Intelligence Committee's report on the 9/11 attack. Everyone in the free world including the U.S. Congress cannot obtain copies of the contents of these pages. Moreover, Congress cannot obtain copies of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Apparently, Congress deifies the state too...Of course the term "state" here refers to the persons, institutions, etc holding the most power.

Congress conceding in either case (the 28 pages or the TPP) any authority to view its content protects and serves the interests of other powerful interests. Congress conceding to the White House its authority to suppress content doesn't result from the former deifying the latter. Instead, Congress suffers from a crisis in basic courage. Why else do they allow they tolerate lacking access to the full text of the TPP while the U.S. Trade Representative's web site is accessible to special interests representatives who have special login credentials? Draw your own conclusion about Congress' motivation for allowing the Executive Branch to create and negotiate trade deals in secrecy.

So instead of venting rage at Hersh for his anonymous sources, why don't we more closely direct our indignation to a government that believes secrecy should be standard operating procedure, and such secrecy is used to the behest of corporations benefiting from policies negotiated in secret. The degree of secrecy used in negotiating the TPP is thus:

So who can read the text of the TPP? Not you, it’s classified. Even members of Congress can only look at it one section at a time in the Capitol’s basement, without most of their staff or the ability to keep notes.

But there’s an exception: if you’re part of one of 28 U.S. government-appointed trade advisory committees providing advice to the U.S. negotiators. The committees with the most access to what’s going on in the negotiations are 16 “Industry Trade Advisory Committees,” whose members include AT&T, General Electric, Apple, Dow Chemical, Nike, Walmart and the American Petroleum Institute. [1].

Who said he has the "most transparent administration ever?" We don't need Seymour Hersh to interview any anonymous sources to identify who uttered that hypocritical statement.

1. Brown, Alleen. "You Can't Read the TPP, But These Huge Corporations Can." May 12, 2015. The Intercept. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/12/cant-read-tpp-heres-huge-corporations-can/