From CounterPunch
By Rev. William E. Alberts

A classic denial of reality is seen in the defensive reactions of CBS “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley in his September 23, 2007 interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Pelley’s defensiveness is an attempt to deny the reality of an American foreign policy soaked in blood: “The American people believe . . . your country is a terrorist nation,” and that “you have American blood on your hands,” because “it is an established fact now that Iranian bombs and know-how are killing Americans in Iraq.” Ahmadinejad responded that “American officials” were making that charge to divert attention from their failed policy in Iraq, a policy opposed by many Americans, and that he was “amazed” that Pelley, “representing a media and . . . a reporter” would “speak for . . . 300 million” Americans. Pelley repeated, “Many Americans believe that you have American blood on your hands.” Scott Pelley and CBS do not want the American people to know who really has “American blood” on their hands.

CBS itself has “American blood” on its hands. On February 5, 2003, CBS’s “60 Minutes II” presented a program designed to build public support for pre-emptive war against Iraq called, “The Case Against Saddam” [italics added]. “The Case” began with Secretary of State Colin Powell, fresh from his blatantly false, dishonorable UN presentation on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction that morning, telling host Dan Rather, “I spent most of the last four days going over every sentence in my statement. . . . What you see is the truth . . . I think I put forward a case today that said . . . there are many smoking guns.”

CBS’s “The Case Against Saddam” followed Secretary of State Powell with a clip of Saddam Hussein in a recent rare interview saying, “I tell you, as I have said on many occasions before, that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq whatsoever. And we challenge those who say the opposite to give the simplist proof. These weapons are not aspirin pills that one can have in his pockets.”

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