Washblog

* But say -- isn't our local paper a war profiteer too? *

United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
June 5, 2007

News Tribune feigns amazement at protesters' wrath

The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) on Tuesday called the "warfighters' symposium and expo" being held at the Greater Tacoma Trade and Convention Center "a trade show for trigger pullers," and feigned amazement at the notion that there is "anything sinister in vendors marketing items intended to make soldiers safer and more comfortable in difficult circumstances" ("Soldiers Visit Military Hardware Expo," June 5, 2007).

Longtime readers are used to such faux cluelessness in Tacoma's hometown paper.

After all, the News Tribune itself feeds at the Pentagon trough by publishing the Northwest Guardian, the "authorized newspaper of Fort Lewis, WA."

Time was when the News Tribune didn't bother to hide the fact.  The Northwest Guardian used to tell its readers to send feedback to "NWGEditor@thenewstribune.com."  Of late, though, it's changed the editor's address to "NWGEditor@nwguardian.com."  That looks to us like an attempt to hide the relationship.

We don't have all the facts about the News Tribune's relationship with the United States Department of Defense.

But we'd like to. In 2005, a flyer addressed to potential advertisers announced that "The weekly Army newspaper, marketed and published by The News Tribune, is published Fridays with a circulation of 20,000 copies -- 16,300 to base housing and newsstands, and 3,700 to homes on the post.  25,000 adults read each weekly issue."

The flyer also brags about the monopoly the paper enjoys:  "The Northwest Guardian is the only authorized newspaper on the Fort Lewis post.  Published by The News Tribune, you're assured of quality printing, distribution, and customer service."

The flyer goes on to urge advertisers to "[t]ap into the economic power of the Fort Lewis military force" -- exactly what the participants at this week's trade show are doing, come to think of it.  No wonder the News Tribune sympathizes.

"The Northwest Guardian is your avenue to the $1.2 billion in annual military payroll in Pierce County. . . . That makes The Northwest Guardian a goldmine for employee recruiting and, for many businesses, an untapped source of new customers."

And so on -- you get the drift.

We are unable to imagine from what source the News Tribune thinks it derives the moral standing to challenge the principled objections of antiwar protesters, when it is so deeply immersed itself in the very system to which the protesters are calling attention.  Are its editors even able to see the problem, we wonder?  

As Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

But we at least give our hometown paper credit for printing a protest organizer's effective rejoinder to its uncalled-for editorializing.  Scott Silverstein told the News Tribune:  "We want the ultimate comfort for soldiers to come home from a war that is unwinnable. . . . These people sell death for a living.  We want that to be known to everyone in Tacoma."  

So what are the protesters upset about?  

The News Tribune neglected to point out the unsavory aspects of the event, which include a focus on special operations and a keynote speech by the special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, or ASD-SO/LIC.  

Our present "ASD-SO/LIC" is a veteran of the PHOENIX Program in Vietnam, a "murderous covert program" which beginning in 1968 organized the torture and murder of tens of thousands of Vietcong suspects, the well-documented record of which was reviewed recently by historian Alfred W. McCoy on pages 64-71 of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror (Metropolitan Books, 2006); he later became a senior manager at Raytheon after his career in Army Special Ops and the CIA.  

There will also be panels at the "symposium" on subjects like "Irregular Warfare" and a speech about the "Indigenous Surveillance Program."

If this sounds like the PHOENIX Program all over again, it might be because the speaker is an employee of the Abraxas Corp., a private military firm that describes itself as "a global risk mitigation services provider offering a unique insight in the areas of competitive intelligence, . . . political, economic and security assessment, compliance monitoring, behavioral analysis, deception detection, and information elicitation[, with] the largest aggregate of counter-terrorism expertise outside the U.S. Government."  Abraxas has also been called "a firm which provides cover stories for CIA contractors and agents to work worldwide [and which] has allegedly been instrumental in putting into effect illegal plans, unlawful programs, and other activities which violate the laws of war and Geneva Conventions."  

Frankly, we expect hell to freeze over before we read about any of these things in the News Tribune.  

Should you feel inclined to add your voice to those of the protesters, the protest demonstrations will continue on Tues., Jun. 5, at 12:00 noon, and again on Wed., Jun. 6, at noon, in front of the convention center, located at South 15th & Commerce in downtown Tacoma.

Take advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate now -- in the future, you might not be able to.

Chris Hedges wrote on Sunday in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "If the United States falls into a period of instability caused by another catastrophic terrorist attack, an economic meltdown that triggers social unrest, or a series of environmental disasters, such paramilitary forces [as Blackwater USA], protected and assisted by fellow ideologues in the police and military, could ruthlessly abolish what is left of our eroding democracy.  War, with the huge profits it hands to corporations, and to right-wing interests such as the Christian Right, could become a permanent condition.  And the thugs with automatic weapons, black uniforms, and wraparound sunglasses who appeared on the streets in New Orleans could appear on our streets" ("What If Our Mercenaries Turn on Us?" Philadelphia Inquirer, June 3, 2007).

That's just the sort of equipment that's on display this week at the Greater Tacoma Trade and Convention Center.

--Mark Jensen is a member of United for Peace of Pierce County (WA) and of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.

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