Comments on: FBI Kept Tabs on NY Reporter Halberstam

By: Paul Rigby

Paul Rigby — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:14:59 +0000

Halberstam in 1963 was a very right-wing piece of work: His big criticism of Diem was the latter’s lack of vigour in killing Communists. He was also notorious – and satirized as such – for his reliance on unspecified sources; in many instances, these were clearly CIA.

Halberstam a hero? Not a bit of it.

By: yoyoMa

yoyoMa — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:36:32 +0000

Can anyone say “STFU, TJ Fod?” What a maroon!

By: T.J. Fod

T.J. Fod — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:20:49 +0000

Nothing silly about this problem.

Let me now ask once more with feeling, why did Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose say on-air they don’t know who Barak Obama is? I mean 2 days before the election?

Simple, because the protected media class decided to leave it undiscovered until he is in office. Then of course we will all learn about Obama’s references, after he has the job.

TJ Fod

By: Peter Wentworth

Peter Wentworth — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:36:03 +0000

For those who have read T.J. Fod’s silly, widely recognized pathological lie about Izzy Stone I’ve provided a link to Eric Alterman’s article – which set the record straight years ago. But the Ann Coulter, Robert Noavaks T.J. Fod’s – who make big money by making things up and cashing in on the country’s considerable hate industries (Fox News, Rush, Michael Savage, have no integrity beyond the bottom line of what will get them sufficient attention to cashi in.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060918/alterman

By: Dudley Gibson

Dudley Gibson — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 12:36:45 +0000

I am a retired police officer and National Guard Officer. I held top secret clearances and had access to quite a variety of classified and sensitive information.

I have long been concerned about the actions and activities of our government going about their duties in collecting information necessary to national security and public safety.

In far to many instances the public right to know is supressed using phony cover of supposed rights to privacy, national security concerns and just plain old we do not want to tell you that so you will have to go to extraordinary efforts to get what you want, which usually stifles the attempt.

I think the School of Journalism should make an example of the Halberstam FOI request and the government response, pursuing the request further to expose the arbitrary refusual of the FBI to release information.

There is no FOI if an agency can unilaterally, and arbitrarily fail to comply with the law!

Dudley Gibson

By: T.J. Fod

T.J. Fod — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:24:04 +0000

Can anyone say Izzy Stone? Famous reporter for the NY TYimes and just as infamous backchannel mouthpiece of the Soviet Union’s Politboro’s. This came to light when files were acccessed after the fall of the old Soviet Union and when the “Wall” came down

While one well established spy does not suggest the Soviet policy of ‘disinformation’ employed all NY Times Eastern-bloc reporters, as this past election saw, and Chris Matthews just intoned with his interest in ‘helping this president-elect’, the media ‘ is corrupt beyond measure.

Corrupt reporters should not have unfettered access to the White House, Senate briefing room, State Dept releases and events, etc if they are corrupt.

With the NY Times reporter’s backgrounds, there may have been a red flag so to speak and the FBI looked further into the matter. Without an investigation how can we know?

T.J. Fod

By: No Name

No Name — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:08:07 +0000

Thank you for providing yet one more example of why the so called ‘FISA law’ was originally enacted.

By: John Brooks

John Brooks — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:56:49 +0000

The FOI law needs to be improved.
The arbitrary and needless redactions in request
would be funny if the actions of the government
were not so serious. The agency even removes
Elzbieta Czyzewska’s name , when its clear who it is talking about. There should be a time limit, beyond which ALL material must be released.

By: Paul Kellogg

Paul Kellogg — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:37:34 +0000

November 7, 2008

So the FBI kept files on late former NY Times reporter David Halberstam. Halberstam’s assignment in Vietnam led to his book, “Making of a Quagmire” and to a Pulitzer prize. But President Kennedy wanted Halberstam removed from Vietnam, and Hoover’s FBI was not above investigating people it viewed as security risks.
An unpleasant reminder of government intrusion into private lives.

By: Lee Maltenfort

Lee Maltenfort — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:49:58 +0000

I knew Halberstam slightly in ‘Nam in ‘63; he was with the Times and I was News Director for Armed Forces Radio (long before Kronhauer and Robin Williams). Dave was the subject of surveillance by military intelligence then for his stand on the war and he knew it and fully expected other alphabets in the government were either on his case or about to get on that particular bandwagon then. He was a very thorough, intense reporter with no tolerance for the US government’s pr mechanisms in Nam or DC when it came to war news. Neither, for that matter, was his office mate, Neal Sheehan. Wonder what dossiers are under his name . . .