Can you imagine if that was said about Israel? And Israel is more guilty of this than even Qadhdhafi's Libya

"The Libyan government has a growing record of improbable statements and carefully manipulated news events..."  If a New York Times reporter said that about Israel, he/she would have been fired on the spot, and would have been told that she/her is editorializing "inappropriately" as has happened in some dispatches by reporters.  Of course, John Burns (the writer of this piece) has no credibility on anything related to foreign policy.  He served as cheerleader for Bush, and was rewarded in a special ceremony by Bush Sr. in Texas to thank him for his services to Bush administration.  Burns also ran the Baghdad office for the Times and he ran it like a plantation in the South during Jim Crow laws.  He reportedly would ban Iraqi nationals  from staying overnight at the fortress and they felt that they were always watched by the beefy security guards (a militia really) that the Times hired.