Woodward’s mentor was a CIA stooge

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Ben Bradlee, the man who helped steer the Watergate coverage that brought down President Richard Nixon, worked for the CIA, issuing propaganda. He also lied in a murder investigation to cover up the sexual exploits of his friend, President John F. Kennedy.

Bradlee, along with the publisher of the Washington Post, also worked to suppress a book critical of Bradlee, the Post and its publisher, trying to keep secret some of Bradlee’s nefarious exploits as a journalist, while at a time when the Bradley and The Post were taking credit for forcing the federal government to allow the publication of the Pentagon Papers – papers that uncovered some of the activities leading up and into the Vietnam War, and exposed political enemies of the Kennedys, to whom Bradlee was close friends.

While working as a journalist for Newsweek, Bradley leaked stories to JFK to review prior to publishing – and foreshadowed activities Woodward conducted while Bradley served as his editor in which Woodward gave inside information to a committee controlled by associates of the Kennedy’s who were investigating the Watergate cover up. Bradley also met with special prosecutor Cox – another close associate of the Kennedy family -- during the investigation, who Nixon later tried to fire partly in the belief Cox – like Mueller today –, was too closely aligned with the Democrats and the Kennedys, orchestrating the Watergate witch hunt in order to get Nixon.

Since Bradlee is considered Woodward’s mentor you have to wonder just how much influence Bradlee had in steering coverage to slant Post stories against Nixon and how much influence the Democrats have on Woodward today in their attempt to bring down Trump.

Bradlee, who was born in Boston, became a communications officer while serving in the U.S. Navy in World War II, where he handled classified material.

After the war, he became a reporter in New Hampshire for a paper he helped establish (perhaps with CIA money) and later sold to take a job with Newsweek and The Washington Post.

In 1952, Bradlee joined the CIA and  worked spreading American propaganda though magazines, films and Voice of America. He helped in the controversial Rosenberg trial that led to the conviction of the husband and wife accused of giving the Soviets the secret to the atomic bomb.

Bradlee apparently couldn't separate his reporting from his spying and was thrown out of France when he used his cover as a newspaper reporter to gain access to a terrorist organization.

He later covered the campaign of JFK and helped give JFK information that allowed JFK to win the Democratic nomination for president against LBJ. This smacks very much of the antics that went on in the 2016 primary where Hillary Clinton used reporters and other to gain access to information that allowed her to beat Bernie Sanders.

Bradlee covered and then became a good friend of JFK  through his wife, who knew the Kennedy family.  At the time, Bradlee was Washington Bureau Chief for Newsweek. JFK and Bradlee often golfed together. Bradlee continued to feed JFK information even after JFK became president. Bradlee called JFK "The Boss." and at times, allowed JFK to review and change stories before they were published. Bradlee also agreed not to publish material that might have made JFK look bad. Several reporters at the time were nervous about Bradlee's too close relationship with the Kennedys. Some claim Bradlee became part of the Kennedy Team

When Woodward came to the Post, Bradlee took him under his wing, and considering the close relationship Bradlee and publisher Graham had with the Democrats and the Kennedys, you have to wonder how much Bradley encouraged Woodward to go after Nixon, who the Kennedys considered their enemy.

As mentioned before, during the Watergate investigation Bradlee met with Special Prosecutor Cox, who was also strongly connected with the Kennedy family and he seemed to advocate as an editor on the Kennedy’s behalf, much as The Post seems to do for the Democrats today.

Bradlee was connected to Cox in other ways. He had once helped Cox write a legal brief trying to sway the high court to issue a ruling favorable to the Democrats.

Woodward apparently had a similar arrangement with the special prosecutor and the committee investigating Nixon, he fed them information in exchange for information they would leak to him.

It was only after Bradlee published his auto-biography did it become clear that he had committed perjury and obstructed justice in the early 1960s when he and the CIT destroyed a diary detailing one of JFK’s sexual encounters. Bradlee’s sister in law, also in the CIA, was murdered. She had left behind a diary with details of her affair with JFK. To protect his friend, Bradlee lied under oath about what happened to the diary. While most reporters knew about JFK’s numerous affairs -- far worse than Bill Clinton or Donald Trump -- all kept silent. But Bradlee went far beyond the others making Trumps alleged cover up of Stormy Daniels look tame.  It’s ironic that with Bradlee’s checkered past, The Post should continue to take up such moral outrage in regards to Trump.

Since Bradlee seems to have worked so hard to bring down Nixon on behalf of his close friends the Kennedys you have to wonder if he directed Woodward to do so as well since Bradlee was Woodward’s mentor and Woodward seems to be operating on behalf of the Democrats to help bring down Trump just as he once brought down Nixon.

The Democrats, of course, clearly appreciated what Bradlee did on their behalf. A year before Bradlee’s death in 2014, Obama gave him a medal just as he later gave to Tom Hanks who played Bradlee in Spielberg's The Post, and Terry Gross who bushwhacked Nancy Reagan on her public radio show and Bruce Springsteen who gave a campaign concert on behalf of Hillary Clinton a week before the election.

You have to wonder if there is a medal waiting for Woodward if and when the Democrats retake the White House.