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Rupert Murdoch, in midst of Hacking Scandal, tried to entice Petraeus with a funded Presidency
(WaPo/Informed Comment) – Bob Woodward of the Washington Post has another scoop, on former CIA director David Petraeus and possibly from David Petraeus. It reveals that the head of Fox News, on orders from yellow press lord Rupert Murdoch, attempted to recruit Petraeus as a Republican candidate for president in spring, 2011, while he was commanding troops in Afghanistan.
The evidence is in the form of a recording of a conversation in Afghanistan between Petraeus and K. T. McFarland, a long-time Republican party flack (going back to Nixon!), more recently kept on retainer by Fox Cable News, the media arm of the US Republican Party.
Murdoch is worth over $8 billion, and is the 38th wealthiest person in the US. He was a force behind George W. Bush’s and Tony Blair’s Iraq War, and his media have plumped for far right wing causes, climate change denial, and the far right wing Israeli Likud Party, and have promoted fearmongering and racism against minorities. Murdoch has a practical streak, so that he also backed Tony Blair and said he thought well of Barack Obama, but he is only pragmatic when he has to be, presented with centrist winners. He much prefers the George W. Bushes and the Newt Gingriches.
Despite mountains of evidence that Murdoch media are profoundly corrupt and have engaged in widespread hacking of people’s telephone messaging machines, he may yet be allowed by the FCC to buy up the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, extending his undue influence in the US (via the Wall Street Journal and Fox Cable News).
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If Petraeus agreed to run for president with Murdoch’s funding, he could run interference for Murdoch with the Department of Justice if it got too interested in Fox News hacking enterprises. If Petraeus declined the offer and became head of the CIA, Murdoch had just made friends with the incoming head of the CIA.That scenario is similar to the saga of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson‘s massive expenditure on first Newt Gingrich and then on Mitt Romney. Adelson, also a key backer of far right wing PM Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel, is under investigation for possibly having lubricated Chinese authorities with regard to his Macau casino.
In short, the Petraeus tape demonstrates that politics in the United States is now done in ways not much different from Silvio Berlusconi’s Italy. I.e. it is a playground for corrupt billionaires, thanks to far right wing dominance of the US Supreme Court.
PM Cameron in trouble with close ties to News Corp run by Murdoch
(Daily Beast) – Counsel for the Leveson Inquiry pores over 1,000 exchanges between News Corp. and David Cameron’s culture minister regarding the media giant’s proposed control of BSkyB, further illuminating the cozy relationship between Murdoch’s empire and the conservative government.
The hacking scandal that has already led to 50 arrests, the resignation of senior police officers, and News Corp. executives is now threatening the survival of a British government minister and posing more awkward questions for Prime Minister David Cameron about his cozy relationship with the Murdoch empire.
In his written evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, Rupert Murdoch revealed more than 160 pages of emails from News Corp.’s senior lobbyist, Frederic Michel, to Adam Smith, special adviser to Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, who was supposed to be acting in an impartial “quasi-judicial” role while overseeing News Corp.’s $16 billion for the remaining 61 percent share in the British satellite broadcaster BSkyB last year. Smith resigned as a result of the “inappropriate” contact with Michel, temporarily drawing the heat from his boss.
Cameron tries to ignore press recommendation by Leveson Inquiry
Petraeus gave Afghanistan away to NeoCon Think Tanks
(ProRepublica/Informed Comment) – Amid the media frenzy over former CIA director David Petraeus’ extramarital affair, we were struck by a quick reference in a Washington Post story about Petraeus’ time running the war in Afghanistan:
“Prominent members of conservative, Washington-based defense think tanks were given permanent office space at his headquarters and access to military aircraft to tour the battlefield. They provided advice to field commanders that sometimes conflicted with orders the commanders were getting from their immediate bosses.”
So who were these think-tankers and what exactly were they doing? We spoke to some of them.
The most prominent and frequent traveler appears to have been the American Enterprise Institute’s Fred Kagan. Best known as the intellectual author of the Iraq surge strategy, Kagan said he and his wife, Kimberley Kagan of the Institute for the Study of War, spent a total of about 270 days in Afghanistan while Petraeus was in command from summer 2010 to summer 2011, and about 128 days under Gen. John Allen, who took command after Petraeus and remains in the position.
Like others we spoke with, Kagan said Petraeus and other generals have routinely brought think tankers to both Iraq and Afghanistan, both to solicit outside advice and to shape the debate back home.