Not since William Randolph Hearst has the profession of journalism committed such a vile act against the American public. Steve Clemons, quoting the New York Times, tells us that Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek and [*correction] Robert D. Kaplan of the Atlantic Monthly brainstormed on how best to sell the Iraq war in a 2001 secret meeting convened by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

It was the kind of shadowy, secret Washington meeting that Bob Woodward is fond of describing in detail. In his new book, “State of Denial,” he writes that on Nov. 29, 2001, a dozen policy makers, Middle East experts and members of influential policy research organizations gathered in Virginia at the request of Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense. Their objective was to produce a report for President Bush and his cabinet outlining a strategy for dealing with Afghanistan and the Middle East in the aftermath of 9/11.

What was more unusual, Mr. Woodward reveals, was the presence of journalists at the meeting. Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International and a Newsweek columnist, and Robert D. Kaplan, now a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, attended the meeting and, according to Mr. Kaplan, signed confidentiality agreements not to discuss what happened.

More from Laura Rozen, Quoting Bob Woodward in State of Denial:

… ‘The general analysis was that Egypt and Saudi Arabia … were the key, but the problems there are intractable. Iran is more important…’ But Iran was similarly difficult to envision dealing with… But Saddam Hussein was different, weaker, more vulnerable… ‘We concluded that a confrontation with Saddam was inevitable. … We agreed that Saddam would have to leave the scene before the problem would be addressed.’ … Copies of the memo, straight from the neoconservative playbook, were hand-delivered to the war cabinet members. In at least some cases, it was given a SECRET classification. Cheney was pleased with the memo, and it had a strong impact on President Bush …

So why does this matter? It matters because Zakaria and Kaplan presided over the public debate that led to the Iraq war, not as government advocates, but as supposedly impartial actors. They knew that the Bush administration believed that a war with a Iraq was really just a shot over the bow at Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But they allowed the debate to center around suitcase nukes, Al-Qaeda/Iraq ties, and mushroom clouds. In other words, they fucked us.

[*correction]

I incorrectly stated that Fred Kaplan (of Slate) attended the secret meeting with Wolfowitz in 2001.  The meeting was attended by Robert D. Kaplan of the Atlantic Monthly.  There is no excuse for such a sloppy mistake.  I regret the error and apoligize to Fred Kaplan.

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