by Robert Fisk from The Independent.
I doubt that very many people in Egypt and the Middle East were shocked by this incident. I suspect that it is mostly Western journalists and progressives who are shocked. The people in the Middle East have witnessed first hand the many contradictions of official US political propaganda and the realities on the ground. It is mostly people in the West who do not experience the brutal consequences of the Empire's policies that have a difficult time reconciling the contradictions.
See, for example, the NY Times spin that American policy is "complicated".
It is only complicated because the contradictions are surfacing in some of the mainstream press and the official political apparatus. The Obama administration, has to work overtime trying to cover with democratic rhetoric the real imperial operations of the Empire. Although the capitalist ruling class will continue to maintain a democratic political facade as long as possible, they are perfectly capable of moving into fascism by putting into full operation the police state apparatus that now exists in the US.
Progressives in the US must grow out of all the indoctrination they have been subject to about the formal political institutions in the US. They must begin to see it as an elaborate facade, much like that of a stage play, designed to distract people from the real events that the ruling class tries to hide from view. Obama, Clinton, and the most of the official political figures are little more than mere actors who are hired by the capitalist ruling class to focus our attention on the stage play and away from real events.
People like Frank Wisner II are often the real political operatives representing the capitalist class, and who really influence events. They mostly function behind the scenes in complete secrecy; but every once in a while, they come into public view as this fellow has, although very briefly, during the Egyptian crisis. His father, Frank Wisner, was a key figure at the beginning of the CIA and headed many of its most nefarious activities.
