http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021023/ap_on_re_us/obit_richard_helms_1 Good riddance... My favorite part is this: "The United States has lost a great patriot," CIA Director George J. Tenet in a statement. "The men and women of American intelligence have lost a great teacher and a true friend." Which later sounds odd when compared to this nugget: "Federal prosecutors refused to buy into Helms' explanation and announced a year later they would seek to indict him for perjury. Helms responded aggressively, saying he was prepared to play hardball, go to trial and publicly revel matters the government wanted to remain untold. The Justice Department took Helms' bluff seriously and backed down." What a patriot. When pressured, he saved his ass by threatening to squeal on his government!
This is exactly why they're calling him a "patriot". Now he's taking all the vile US transgressions to the grave just like that demon Casey. Good riddance indeed!
where am I? What societyt, age, epoch, and era do I live in where...yes, its true..."patriot" in the public discourse more often than not actually means "absolute enemy of freedom"? I demand wholesale leaps in cryogenic technology, now! I want to go to sleep, and wake up in 5030...
At least he went out naturally. The world won't miss him one bit, though the School of Americas-spec in interrogation and intimidation of locals-owes him gratitude. His successor, Aimes was murdered a couple yrs back while kayaking. You may recall him from iran contra and arming the mujahadin(osama & friends), S.American death squads, and Saddam. You could also argue that by antagonizing the USSR he gave the hardliners enough clout to prolong communism despite the intentions of the politburo to normalize relations w/ the US in 82'.
so much for class and tolerance. I'd hate to see the party in here if it was Helms in the crash instead of Wellstone.
Interesting observation. I think the differences were that Wellstone died before his time, along with his wife and daughter. Helms could hardly be said to be in the prime of his life. It's also that Helms was, well, not a particularly savory character. I don't think you'd get this kind of reaction for Bob Dole. There's disagreeing with people over policy, and then there's "How do you LIVE with yourself?" territory. I've read reactions to Wellstone's death on the right wing that were varying degrees of nauseating, stupid and shallow - but yes, the conservative contingent on this site did take the high road. But in this case, with this particular right-winger - man, that's not an obituary, that's a rap sheet.
yeah, i'm not real fond of the thought of "wishing someone dead," much as i may dislike them (one exception, off the top of my head: pinochet and kissinger. i hope they suffer immensely). i can tell you, we're pretty numb up here, still. i was at wellstone's hotel party on election night in 1990. seeing aging hippies and students like me, walking around with idiotic grins on our faces, still makes me happy. at the time, it also made me hope.