Anne-Marie Slaughter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s director of policy planning, now denies she endorsed Today’s Zaman, the flagship newspaper of Fethullah Gülen’s Islamist cult. Here is a google cache record with Prof. Slaughter’s endorsement, and here is the page now, with Professor Slaughter’s endorsement excised.
Professor Slaughter denies she made the endorsement, although it would be over-the-top for Zaman simply to construct a quote by a former official and prominent intellectual.
There are two possible explanations:
(1) Professor Slaughter is being truthful, and Today’s Zaman simply made it all up. If so, this suggests that the ethics of Zaman and the organization which sponsors it are non-existent.
(2) Professor Slaughter asked for the retraction only after learning about Today’s Zaman’s affiliation. Academics – and government officials – should always pay attention to sources, and understand the backgrounds of those to whom they talk. If Slaughter truly did not know that Zaman is the flagship of Gülen’s Islamist cult, then that does not reflect well on Slaughter and senior officials in the State Department.
It would behoove us to give Professor Slaughter the benefit of the doubt, however, and hope the former explanation is true. However, it would be good to hear from both Slaughter and the State Department just what their assessment of Gülen is, especially given the FBI investigation into his movement’s schools.
LOL! Not that the mag is beyond making stuff up, but my bet's on door number two. Imagined scenario: Prof Slaughter forgot about that thingie that Al Gore invented, was shown Commentary's post by a go-getter intern, screetched a resounding "eek" that cut through Foggy Bottom and got on the horn to the Gülen rag for some serious damage control. Ten years ago this kind of stuff would have never been caught, or caught in time to matter, or have had a forum for exposure. Blogs, Internet, cached sites…time's the've a-changed, Prof.
I would bet number two just because Anne-Marie Slaughter has a history of ignorance. A few years ago on TPMCafe she wrote an article screeching about how the Bush administration refused to sign the Kyoto in 1997…it was then pointed out to her that Clinton was in office, and he was in fact the one who refused to sign it then.____I could go on with various clueless things she has said, but I'll just note she is one of those who very much believes "experts" like her should rule and she is very much a hypocrite (criticizing "gated community exclusion" while she lives only among the elite.)