Where’s The Outrage as Bush Escalates The Failing “Surge?”

May 23rd, 2007 - by: danny

Blog for Wednesday May 22 and Thursday May 24

VISITING NEW MEXICO
US SECRETLY DOUBLES “SURGE” IN IRAQ
ASSASSINATION PLOT AGAINST SADR REVEALED

Guess what? I arrived in New Mexico, was picked up by my old Bronx mate Bob Easton who whisked me away into the countryside above Santa Fe, 7200 feet up there in the Mountains. It’s a beautiful setting but, no wireless. So I will have to go back to a dial-up mode to try to post these few items.

Before I do, I must report that I have been unable to confirm my suspicions and report on the shakeup at AlJazeera. The Friends of AlJazeera, an unofficial site posted my report but with no comment. The folks I wrote to in Doha to try to confirm the report haven’t gotten back to me. (sorry for misspelling ex Managing Director Wadah Khanfar’s name. I hope he will stay with the network he did so much to build.)

I did speak to an Arab expert on Al Jazeera and the author of a new fascinating study of the impact of the new Arab satellite stations on the Arab world discussing McArabism, concept inspired by Ben Barber’s book Jidhad Versus McWorld. Its about the reemergence of pan arab unity and identity.

He says my interpretation is possible but he has no evidence that there has been a US takeover, and neither do I. (His book exposes other conspiracy theories that were once common in the Arab world suggesting that AlJazeera was an Israeli or CIA creation.)

So let’s hope that the worse will not come to pass and that Jazeera will continue as a pioneer of independent news globally. Their English channel has just broken the blockade by US cable outlets and has gotten on the air in Toledo Ohio, of all places in addition to being in YouTube.

IN THE LAND OF ENCHANTMENT

I am in Santa Fe to show In Debt We Trust at the CCA Cinematheque on Thursday and Friday at 7 PM. (It will sceeen this weekend in Albuquerque. The debt problem and the predatory lenders who help create it was show cased with a New Mexico example in a cover story in Business Week. It showed how the big financial institutions are squeezing people.

The outcry against this abuse is already leading lending institutions to try to put on a new face, the face of reform as USA Today reported yesterday, Note how they want to keep the focus on borrowers more than lenders. It also shows how sensitive this industry ius to pressure

BANKERS MANEUEVERING

WASHINGTON – Banking industry trade groups endorsed mortgage reform principles Monday as the troubled market for high-risk home loans worsens and Congress ponders whether to intervene.

The statement from five industry groups says lenders are already stepping up efforts to assist borrowers who face default or foreclosure and emphasizes that lenders are voluntarily tightening loan standards.

Any legislation or new regulations should focus on lenders only being permitted to issue high-risk home loans if they “reasonably believe” at the time the loan is made that borrowers have the ability to repay, the statement said.

Mortgage terms should be “clearly disclosed” to consumers, and estimates of monthly payments that could quickly jump in later years should be made clearer, the groups said.

The statement came from Financial Services Roundtable, American Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association and America’s Community Bankers.

SURGE ESCALATING

SURGE DOUBLES WITH A MINIMUM OF MEDIA ATTENTION: U.S. quietly, dramatically increasing Iraq troop levels

By STEWART M. POWELL HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.

This “second surge” of troops in Iraq, which is being executed by extending tours for brigades already there and by deploying more units, could boost the number of combat troops to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year. When support troops are included, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 — the most ever — by the end of the year.

The efforts to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq are being carried out without the fanfare that accompanied President Bush’s initial troop surge in January.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, the U.S. commander who led NATO troops into Bosnia in late 1995, when asked to comment on the analysis of deployment orders, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that they’re not talking about it. I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this.”

The first surge was prominently proclaimed by Bush in a nationally televised address Jan. 10, when he ordered five additional combat brigades to join 15 brigades already in Iraq.

ASSASSINATIONS R’US: Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr

Patrick Cockburn writes this excusive in the Independent from Baghdad

The US Army tried to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr, the widely revered Shia cleric, after luring him to peace negotiations at a house in the holy city of Najaf, which it then attacked, according to a senior Iraqi government official.

The revelation of this extraordinary plot, which would probably have provoked an uprising by outraged Shia if it had succeeded, has left a legacy of bitter distrust in the mind of Mr Sadr for which the US and its allies in Iraq may still be paying. “I believe that particular incident made Muqtada lose any confidence or trust in the [US-led] coalition and made him really wild,” the Iraqi National Security Adviser Dr Mowaffaq Rubai’e told The Independent in an interview. It is not known who gave the orders for the attempt on Mr Sadr but it is one of a series of ill-considered and politically explosive US actions in Iraq since the invasion. In January this year a US helicopter assault team= tried to kidnap two senior Iranian security officials on an official visit to the Iraqi President. Earlier examples of highly provocative actions carried out by the US with little thought for the consequences include the dissolution of the Iraqi army==and the Baath party.

ISRAEL: Shin Bet: Wiretaps can be used to guard state’s Jewish nature

Ha’aretz reports:

The Shin Bet (ISRAEL’S DOMESTIC INTELLIGENE AGENCY) considers itself authorized to use surveillance techniques that violate privacy, such as wiretaps, when activity that “sabotages the state’s Jewish character” is carried out, even if this activity is not illegal.

The security service made this assertion in a letter sent yesterday by its head, Yuval Diskin, to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Adalah _ the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

The letter, sent in response to a query from those organizations, was approved by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.

“The Shin Bet, said the letter, plays “an essential role” in Israeli life, “and for this purpose, it has been given broad powers and authorities.”

Specifically, it said, the organization is responsible both for national security and for preserving Israel’s fundamental values as a “Jewish and democratic” state, and therefore, its job is to protect “the democratic system of government and its institutions from subversive threats.”

COMMON CAUSE HAS NEW CHIEF: RELEASE: Former PA Congressman Edgar chosen new Common Cause president/CEO

Robert William (Bob) Edgar, the general secretary of The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC), and a former congressman who represented eastern Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1987, was elected president and chief executive officer of Common Cause by the organization’s National Governing Board. Edgar succeeds Chellie Pingree, who stepped down in February. (D: GOOD LUCH CHELLIE – she’s the best!)

“With devastating consequences, powerful special interests distort and disrupt the democratic process in ways that shift political power away from the American people,” Edgar said. “I look forward to carrying on (Common Cause founder) John Gardner’s vision of Common Cause as a people’s lobby both in Washington, DC and in the states.”

“Bob Edgar brings to Common Cause an outstanding record of leadership and service,” said Martha Tierney, interim chairwoman of Common Cause’s National Governing Board. “He has a demonstrated ability to inspire people to think and work creatively. We are thrilled he will be focusing his efforts on issues such as campaign finance reform, government ethics and election and media reform that mean so much to Common Cause.”

Edgar, 63, comes to Common Cause with a rich and long history of public service and leadership. In 2000, he took office as general secretary for the National Council of Churches USA, a 50-year-old organization representing 35 member communions and their 45 million members who work to promote unity and justice.

TYPICAL NETWORK NATTERING

Al Gore Critiques Sawyer’s Interview: “Listen To Your Questions…”

Al Gore as on Good Morning America today. He critiqued the media more than once, beginning with the big “Race to ’08″ logo in the background on the GMA set. “That’s not what this is about,” he insisted. Sawyer kept coming back to the campaign, even as she admitted she was doing exactly what Gore condemns in the book: “Not to fall into your thesis that the press only wants the horserace of a political campaign, but–” “But back to the horserace,” Gore mocked. “But back to the horserace!,” Sawyer said as Gore laughed.

Then later, after Gore finished describing a central point in his new book “The Assault on Reason,” Sawyer went back to her original line of questioning. After promising to “dig deeper” later, in an as-yet-unaired segment, Sawyer looked off-camera and said “to dig not very deep, at my peril here, I just want to say one more time. Donna Brazille, your former campaign manager, says ‘if he drops 25 to 30 pounds, he’s running.’ Lost any weight?” Gore laughed heartily. “I think millions of Americans are in the same struggle I am on that one,” he responded.

“But listen to your questions. The horserace, the cosmetic parts of this — look, that’s all understandable and natural. But while we’re focused on Britney and K-fed and Anna Nicole Smith and all this stuff, meanwhile, very quietly, our country has been making some very serious mistakes that could be avoided if we, the people, including the news media, are involved in a full and vigorous discussion of what our choices are.” After Sawyer tossed to a segment about gas prices, she taped a continuation of her interview with Gore. It’ll air at some point in the future…

OTHER MEDIA NEWS VIA CAROLYN KAY

XM Radio to Launch Election 2008 Station for Political Junkies XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) announced plans Monday to launch a station devoted completely to coverage of the 2008 election. Dubbed “POTUS ’08,” the station will debut next month with a sort of sneak preview format that will include original programming as well as rebroadcasts of candidate debates. The station will formally launch in September and remain in place through November 2008.

Reliable Sources: Transcript for May 20 Continuing his campaign against “obscure” presidential hopefuls being allowed “clutter up the stage” at debates, CNN’s media reporter displays a disdain for public dialog by wishing the democratic process were “like baseball,” or at least some version of baseball that has sidelines: “If you don’t make the cut, you get sent to the sidelines.”
Russert allowed Gingrich to cite Fort Dix Six as proof that terrorists “don’t plan to stop in Baghdad” On the May 20 broadcast of NBC’s Meet the Press, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) suggested without challenge from host Tim Russert that the alleged plot by six men to carry out an armed attack on the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey represents proof that if the United States withdraws forces from Iraq, terrorists “don’t plan to stop in Baghdad. They are coming here as soon as they can get here.” However, as Media Matters for America has documented, the assertion that terrorists will “com[e] here” following a U.S. troop withdrawal is widely challenged by experts.

Kurtz again suggested false comparison between MSNBC, Fox News In his May 21 Media Notes column, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz suggested that MSNBC is the liberal equivalent of Fox News.

NBC TO DUMP STONE PHILLIPS AFTER 15 YEARS

LOCAL NEWS FOR PASADENA NOW ORIGINATES IN INDIA

Harper’s Org reports:” Microsoft announced that it would acquire online media and advertising firm aQuantive for $6 billion, Thomson Corp. agreed to buy Reuters for $17.2 billion, and the editor of a California news website, explaining that editors and interns “are extremely demanding and produce inferior work,” hired two new reporters who will cover Pasadena from India.

LETTERS

Jack Shultz writes from Canada:

We agree that there is a crises in the media, and that it arises from the very nature of the media and its driving purpose, to promote consumption and consumer culture.

I deem myself fortunate that nearly 30 years ago, I had the opportunity to read a report by the Science Council of Canada, commissioned by the Government of Canada, on energy strategies for Canada in an environment where oil is expensive and in diminishing supply. This was in response to the oil crisis of the 70′s.

The report. titled “the Conserver Society”, essentially called for a new economic paradigm, one based on conservation of resources rather than consumption as its primary goal.

Unfortunately, the report has been largely forgotten, though I did see a reference to it recently in a newspaper article in the Toronto Star, or Globe and Mail, I can remember which.

Anyway, it may be recognized eventually that the conserver society is the only choice we have, because a consumer society is unsustainable, but the presen corporate structure of the media has severely retarded both the Canadian and the American consciousness.

WHY HAVEN’T THEY BEEN IMPEACHED?

Lawrence Houghteling writes:

Hey, you know what a nut I am on the subject of impeachment. For the life of me I can’t understand how any smart person doesn’t see that to let Bush and Cheney get away with all the crap they’ve done is to make completely certain that we will lose any remaining vestiges of the great American Republic to Mayberry caesarism.

Here’s a link to a very intelligent piece by Gary Kamiya in Salon explaining why we haven’t impeached the SOB’s. I’m reminded of archy the cockroach remarking (on the subject of the human race doing the best it could), “but that’s an explanation, not an excuse.”

The News Dissector