WSJ's Henninger suggested Ahmadinejad's views "correlate with the views of whoever in the CIA leaked the prisons' existence"
Wall Street Journal deputy editorial page editor Daniel Henninger suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertion that "secret prisons in Eastern Europe" do not comport with laws, religious values, or human rights "correlate[s] with the views of whoever in the CIA leaked the prisons' existence" to The Washington Post.
In his May 12 Wall Street Journal column, Journal deputy editorial page editor Daniel Henninger suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's assertion that "secret prisons in Eastern Europe" do not comport with laws, religious values, or human rights "correlate[s] with the views of whoever in the CIA leaked the prisons' existence" to The Washington Post, which first reported on the prisons in November 2005. Henninger was referring to Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush, in which he wrote, "I could not correlate the abduction of a person, and him or her being kept in secret prisons, with the provisions of any judicial system."
From Henninger's May 12 column:
Among the "significant challenges" to getting a coherent U.S. message out to the Arab world, one might include the odd recent habit of employees at the CIA to leak to the press key elements of the government's war on Islamic terror. What conclusion do you think might be reached by an 18-year-old Yemeni reading online the details of these leaks about U.S. officials "confirming" wiretaps and secret terrorist prisons? He might reasonably conclude that major parts of the American government don't want to wage a war on terror and think the war is merely the obsession of the country's president.
This conclusion found its way into Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's "diplomatic" letter to President Bush. "European investigators have confirmed the existence of secret prisons in Europe," Iran's president wrote. "I could not correlate the abduction of a person, and him or her being kept in secret prisons, with the provisions of any judicial system." Any reason to believe this also doesn't correlate with the views of whoever in the CIA leaked the prisons' existence?
Henninger is only the most recent conservative commentator to equate Ahmadinejad's stated views with those of various Americans. Fox News host John Gibson and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes equated Ahmadinejad's letter with Democratic talking points and progressive positions. Radio host Rush Limbaugh claimed the letter contained "some liberal Hollywood Jewish people talking point."
If Ted Kennedy said "America is the greatest country in the world" these guys would start saying "He sounds an awful lot like Stalin there, Dan." "That's right, bill. More viciousness than we heard from Castro, at least."
Therefore, all vegetarians are Nazis! or Vegetarians are objectively pro-Nazi!
Of course during the Cold War, the Soviet Union used to criticize the apartheid regime in the American South. I suppose those views "correlated" as well with the civil rights movement.
Exact same reasoning as the WSJ. That kind of smack wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds in my freshman dorm, even after 6 Old Milwaukees apiece.
Henninger seriously believes that the biggest concern of an "an 18-year-old Yemeni reading online" about secret CIA prisons would be the process by which the story was confirmed to the media??? Maybe an 18-year-old Yemeni attending the political science school at Princeton.
It's difficult to imagine a more out-of-touch supposition. Wouldn't an 18-year-old Yemeni or anyone of any age anywhere be much more concerned with the basic fact that there are secret CIA prisons?
I'd be more concerned about the fact that nations such as China and Iran criticize the US on human rights violations and that the criticisms are actually based on facts.
"...reading online the details of these leaks about U.S. officials "confirming" wiretaps and secret terrorist prisons? He might reasonably conclude that major parts of the American government don't want to wage a war on terror and think the war is merely the obsession of the country's president. "
Huh? Perhaps he'd reach the conclusion that the USA was a nation of laws? On the other hand, he'd be right about the war being the result of the "obsession of the country's president. "