Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Instapundit points to a powerline story about Aero America, yet another CIA front. Powerline, in a story with some teeth to it, is criticizing the New York Times for outing the airline, as part of the Rove/Plame affair. The NYT may have put agents in harm's way. Publishing troop movements during wartime (which some would say this is, others not) is supposed to be one of the few limits on the free press.
But I went to Sunday school with a kid named Rob Weldon. Rob's father was a tugboat captain, a burly jovial Irishman of the sort I'm reading about in Honey Fitz. So it made sense for Rob to grow up to be an airplane pilot. Rob was shot down over Angola. He didn't know the small charter company he worked for was a CIA front. That's the story as I heard it at a class reunion from a girl who used to date him. I don't expect to ever get more details.
When I was in my teens, I used to hitchhike a lot between Dover Delaware and the main campus in Newark. On rt 896 near Middletown, I'd pass Summit Aviation, a small charter company owned by one of the DuPonts. Another CIA front. I'm sitting here wondering how much to write about what little I know about what my parents did in the war - I'll leave it at that. The general point I'm trying to get at is there's something stasi-like about our culture. Militarism is pervasive, and often covert. So, net, I think it's valuable that the Times can and does publish this sort of thing, and that bloggers like powerline can jump on it when the Times screws up.
Disclosure: I useta work for the Times. Further disclosure: but only as a paperboy in college, and not a very good one.
But I went to Sunday school with a kid named Rob Weldon. Rob's father was a tugboat captain, a burly jovial Irishman of the sort I'm reading about in Honey Fitz. So it made sense for Rob to grow up to be an airplane pilot. Rob was shot down over Angola. He didn't know the small charter company he worked for was a CIA front. That's the story as I heard it at a class reunion from a girl who used to date him. I don't expect to ever get more details.
When I was in my teens, I used to hitchhike a lot between Dover Delaware and the main campus in Newark. On rt 896 near Middletown, I'd pass Summit Aviation, a small charter company owned by one of the DuPonts. Another CIA front. I'm sitting here wondering how much to write about what little I know about what my parents did in the war - I'll leave it at that. The general point I'm trying to get at is there's something stasi-like about our culture. Militarism is pervasive, and often covert. So, net, I think it's valuable that the Times can and does publish this sort of thing, and that bloggers like powerline can jump on it when the Times screws up.
Disclosure: I useta work for the Times. Further disclosure: but only as a paperboy in college, and not a very good one.
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