or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
January 24, 2007
Remembering Howard Hunt Not Remembering
So Howard Hunt is dead. To the Washington Post's credit, they mention his role in the CIA's 1954 overthrow of the Guatemalan government. They do not, however, mention Hunt's denial that the ensuing genocide ever occurred.
Posted at January 24, 2007 10:05 AM | TrackBackHe did have a great line, at least in Oliver Stone's "Nixon" (1995), played by Ed Harris.
Re Nixon, he says (paraphrasing): "...don't you understand, he (Nixon) is the darkness.."
A Shakespearean "not in the stars" moment.
He had a second wife? Brave woman.
Excuse me, I think there's a Democrat under my bed.
Posted by: Mike of Angle at January 24, 2007 12:37 PMIn the Slate interview:
Slate: How long were you in prison for the Watergate break-in?
Hunt: All told, 33 months.
Slate: That's a lot of time.
Hunt: It's a lot of time. And I've often said, what did I do?
Homer: Yes! Nobody messes with the mayor when Homer Simpson's on
... oh, crap.
[notices Fat Tony, who is beating the mayor with a baseball
bat]
Homer: Oh, Fat Tony ...
Fat Tony: What? What did I do?
I chatted a little about Hunt at my blog. Daniel Hopsicker in his book about Barry Seal says that when Hunt "retired" from the CIA in 1970 to work for Nixon he was actually still working for the Agency. His job (for the CIA, not Nixon) was to help Nixon fill the new drug agency at the time, the DEA, with people loyal to the CIA.
Didn't mention it in the blog, but two other good sources would be McCoy's "The Politics Of Heroin in Southeast Asia" and Henrik Krueger's book about the drug trade during Nixon's time. Think it was called "The Great Heroin Coup."
When considering the above it leads one to ponder that Watergate was a CIA set-up to knock out Nixon from competition for control of the drug trade.
Posted by: Bob In Pacifica at January 25, 2007 09:41 AMI think you are seeing the forest for the trees. While 200,000 people may have died in the aftermath of the Guatemala coup (which saved that country from Communism), Hunt was able to save Jacobo Arbenz's life so you have to give him credit for that. As I say in my piece about him, "Who Killed E. Howard Hunt?": "His modus operandi was to make each of the missions he was involved with only seem like fiascos." His influence on current American foreign policy cannot be underestimated.
http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2007/01/who-killed-e-howard-hunt.html
jonswift
"Who Killed E. Howard Hunt?"
a. Hillary Clinton
b. Oliver North
c. Mossad
d. CIA
e. Neighbor's kid
Winners get CIA-sponsored trip to Nigeria.
Nigeria, say, don't they have OIL? My guess is ALL of the above.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 25, 2007 10:35 PM
