Read this very important article by Kevin Gosztola called, "The US Drone Program, Terrorism & the Debt Ceiling Talks," about how Adm. Dennis Blair's statements on reducing government spending for counter-terrorism operations were whitewashed by the Associated Press. An excerpt:
Former US intelligence chief Dennis Blair, at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, suggested that it may be time for the US to stop employing drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. In the midst of ongoing political theater in Washington that is slowly but surely producing an agreement to address the budget & debt ceiling, Blair also addressed the cost of the “war on terrorism.”
“I think it’s time to take a look at it not because there’s a pressure on the overall federal budget but it is a right thing,” said Blair. He claimed that if one makes a generous estimate there might be around 4,000 al Qaeda that we continue to fight. And, he claimed the US spends roughly $80 billion a year, which means $20 billion on each thousand al Qaeda. [Blair excluded military expenditures in Pakistan and Afghanistan from his figure.]
Blair’s statements directly drew attention to the exorbitant amount of funds and resources being appropriated for going after al Qaeda and pointed out that since the September 11th attacks only seventeen people inside the US have died from terrorism.
“[Fourteen] were killed in the Ft. Hood massacre, while car accidents and daily crime combined have killed some 1.5 million people during the same 10 years,” noted Blair.
These statements are important. Since they are coming from a former intelligence chief, one might find it especially important for Americans to hear and read. If military, security and intelligence agencies could cut back on the funding and resources they use, one might imagine poor, working poor and middle class Americans it may be harder for those in power to justify cuts to the social safety net in a debt agreement (although libertarians, the right wing and corporate interests would still be pushing for those cuts).
Yet, it appears that Kimberly Dozier & the Associated Press had the above mentioned details scrubbed.
Continued. . .
