c.c. replied on Permalink
Covert appearances, or events staged with media cooperation?
I heard of one of those 'covert appearances':
www.democracynow.org/2007/5/25/somebody_had_to_speak_out_if
"Major General John Batiste was offered a promotion to become a three-star general, the second-highest-ranking military officer in Iraq. Instead, he quit over the war. After he appeared in a commercial for VoteVets.org, CBS News fired him as a paid news consultant. MoveOn.org collected 230,000 signatures on a petition demanding he be rehired."
Funny thing about this "dissident general" - he's still for the Iraq War:
"AMY GOODMAN: Do you think, General Batiste, that it was wrong for the United States to invade Iraq, March 19, 2003?
MAJ. GEN. JOHN BATISTE: You know, that’s all hindsight, and we certainly could debate that forever. The point is, we are where we are."
That's a funny kind of dissent... probably it was all just a staged event, part of the "new strategy" PR line put out around that time.