July 28, 2011 - 6:45pm
History professor accuses Bush administration of targeting him because of his anti-war blog
BY ANDREW SCHULMAN
After years of scrutinizing and deconstructing former President George W. Bush’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Juan Cole — University professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian history — called for an investigation against the administration, claiming it unlawfully targeted him because of his online blog called Informed Comment, according to a June 15 article in The New York Times.
Glenn Carle, CIA official and National Intelligence Council counterterrorism expert, said that during the Bush administration, the White House had twice sought damaging personal information about the professor in order to discredit him, according to the article.
Specifically, the article said Carle was asked to collect incriminating personal information against Cole in 2005.
On Thursday, Cole wrote on his blog that he believes that Informed Comment likely unsettled the Bush administration and prompted it to target him.
“It seems to me clear that the Bush White House was upset by my blogging of the Iraq War ... which contradicted the propaganda efforts of the administration attempting to make the enterprise look like a wild shining success,” he wrote.
In an e-mail interview with the Michigan Daily, LSA Dean Terrence McDonald wrote that he was surprised by the severity of Carle's accusations.
“I was shocked and disappointed to hear of this,” McDonald wrote. “The allegations, if proven true, are a serious attack on Professor Cole’s First Amendment rights.”
