It’s official. The US is in a recession. That news came out November 26. The only problem is that the report this official finding is based on tracks the recession’s origins to March. That’s eight months ago! Why the lag in confirming the bad news. President Bush now says he knew the economy was in bad shape when he took office. What else did he know, and why did he decide not to tell us? When will the depression start?

By the time you read this posting on Tuesday, I will be in Virginia for an American Press Institute seminar in hopes of winning some more newsies over to the side of truth, justice and the comics as an ad for the now defunct New York Newsday used to put it. I am filing Monday night so I am sure I am going to miss some breaking stories. But, maybe, just maybe, we should spend a little time with yesterdays developments o try to make sense of their meaning.

THAT PRISON RIOT: REVOLT OR PRE-MEDITATED MASSACRE?

I am still puzzled by that prison “riot” in Mazar i sharif. What happened there? Do we know the full story. Who is investigating further? Did the US and the Northern Alliance turn the prison into a turkey shoot as per the demands Mr.Rumsfeld to rub out all of those so-called foreign fighters? What happened to the reports on Saturday suggesting that the British Foreign Secretary and others were insisting that the all the troops who surrendered be treated humanely? Many US press reports suggest that the prisoners started it by seizing weapons and throwing bombs. In this scenario, the US and its allies simply responded. Yet the actions of a few–whether provoked or deliberately aggressive–was followed by a wipe out of the many. And then there total dehumanization and demonization by much of the press. Here’s an account from the Independent in London

“The clash is believed to be the bloodiest single incident of the war so far.Between 300 and 800 prisoners have already died as Northern Alliancesoldiers, backed by American aircraft, crushed the prison uprising. Some 40Northern Alliance soldiers were also killed.

“Aware that they could expect no mercy, a hardcore group of Taliban fighters made a last desperate stand from a crumbling tower. They were reported to have run out of ammunition for their machine-guns and were using rocket-propelled grenades and mortars seized from an armory.

“The security situation is not under control,” said Simon Brooks, a Red Cross official, contradicting claims by the Pentagon and the Alliance that the uprising had been crushed on Sunday night. His fears were confirmed by Dr AbdullahAbdullah, the Alliance Foreign Minister. Speaking in Kabul yesterday, he said:”There have been several security failures.”

“Advancing Alliance troops are apparently under orders to kill all the Taliban still alive in the vast 18th century fort outside Mazar-i-Sharif. In a chilling comment, Alim Razim, an adviser to the Alliance warlord General Rashid Dostum, said surviving Taliban would not be alive for long. “Those who are left over will be dead,” he said. “None of them can escape.”

AFP: 300-400DEAD

Clearly, this turned into a massacre if not a premeditated cold blooded execution without the niceties of a military tribunal. According to Olim Razm of the NorthernAlliance “almost all of the 600 prisoners were dead. Why did they revolt. Was it just insane fanaticism, or did they know or suspect that the promises that they were given to be handed over to the UN would not and could not be honored. AFP, the French Agency’s report was in the Times of India. Quote: ” Northern Alliance commander Shujan Uddin earlier said 300 to 400 prisoners were killed by US bombing and Alliance troops on Sunday, leaving only a few resisters holed up in a basement inside the fortress.”Uddin made his remarks as an alliance tank was seen firing on the ancient fortress and mortars and Kalashnikov fire were heard inside.”Some 500 Northern Alliance troops surrounded the clay structure. They said eight of their comrades had been killed Sunday when a wayward US bomb hit one of their tanks.”

CNN: MORE US CASULATIES THAN ORIGINALLY REPORTEDHere’s how CNN updated the same story Monday:”MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan (CNN) — Five members of a U.S. special operations force were injured — three seriously — when a U.S. warplane dropped a bomb near them Sunday in an attempt to control a prison uprising, the Pentagon said Monday.”

SOCIOLOGIST: “THIS IS INCREDIBLE…WRONG…ILLEGAL

I soon discovered that mine were not the only eyebrows to go up. Writing on the Progrssive Sociologist network, Michael I Lichterhad a comment of a kind that I found nowhere else, perhaps because killings like this are supposed to be what war is all about, even as the history of war is always written by victors. He is outraged:

“This is incredible! The US helps to put down a revolt among prisoners of war by DROPPING BOMBS on them! What do the Geneva Conventions have to say about this? (NOT a question asked by CNN, of course.) CNN’s reporter on the scene says that the “revolt” consisted of a Taliban POW committing a (successful) suicide attack on some important Northern Alliance officers. The reporter notes that Northern Alliance security was very lax and disorganized, and that the other Taliban POWs did not attempt to take advantage of the chaos resulting from the suicide attack. Perhaps the “facts” are not all in yet, but it sounds like cooperative POWs werebombed and possibly killed in retaliation for a murder committed by one oftheir number. This wrong, illegal, and totally consistent with U.S. foreignpolicy as a whole.”

IS OBJECTIVITY UN-AMERICAN?

Please share any other items you come across this incident. It does not suggest much of a moral difference between the Alliance forces and the Taliban, much less the US. I know that in saying this I risk denunciation by the likes of Lee Brockhorn who writes for Mr Murdoch’s super patriotic Weekly Standard, and has been denouncing so-called “vainglorious boobs” in the media who allegedly are betraying our country by casting doubt on the military campaign with “thinly disguised news analysis”. My media analyses are anything but thinly disguised. And so is the reporting of others like Loren Jenkins of NPR who says “I don’t represent the government. I represent history. “See The Week magazine for a long takeout on the the question: “IS OBJECTIVITY UN-AMERICAN?” You tell me.

THE HATE THE JEWS ALLIANCE

The Forward, a New York Jewish Weekly is reporting on connection between certain radical Islamacists and neo-Nazi hate groups. Writes Rachel Donadio: “From a racist church in Illinois to a neo-Nazi Web site to a Muslim weekly newspaper in New York, domestic white supremacist and Islamic extremist groups have been finding common cause since September 11 in anti-Jewish invective, hate-group monitors are warning.

“In recent weeks, opinion essays by white supremacists such as David Duke and William Pierce have cropped up in Islamic publications and Web sites in the United States and abroad. At the same time, several American neo-Nazi Web sites offer links to Islamic sites. On these sites, the rhetoric ranges from harsh criticism of Israel to tirades against “jews” (with a lowercase J). Anti-Jewish conspiracy theories also abound.

“Organizations that track hate groups are debating the degree to which the shared anti- Jewish views of Islamic extremists and neo-Nazi groups indicate organizational collusion or just rhetorical affinities. Yet they agree that the invective has grown increasingly worrisome since the September terrorist attacks and note that law enforcement officials have been investigating possible ties.

“They’re making common cause,” said Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks hate groups. “That’s a different thing than to say they’re working hand in glove, shoulder to shoulder.”

“Some Muslim groups are also tracking the issue. “We have always been courted by white supremacists,” said Mazin Qumsiyeh, a professor of genetics at Yale University who moderates the two-year-old listserv of Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right to Return Coalition, which has 12,000 subscribers. “We unsubscribe many people who try to post things that are objectionable and anti-Semitic,” he said.

” In the past year there have been concrete signs of coordination. European and American neo-Nazis organized a Holocaust denial conference that was to have taken place in Beirut in late March. The conference, “Zionism and Revisionism,” was billed as an opportunity for Western extremists to meet their counterparts in the Islamic world. Click here for more: http://www.forward.com/issues/2001/01.11.23/news3.html

THAT MEDIA RECOUNT: THE PALAST POSITION

BBC investigative reporter and Observer columnist Greg Palast was one of the first to expose Florida’s state purge of so-called felons before the 2000 election. He sent me his take on the recent media recount which many media outlets played as confirming Bush’s election. Not Palast. He writes:” On15 February, for BBC TV, I reported that inside information from the newsConsortium (National Opinion Research Center) showed Gore picking up about20,000 votes.

“I’m sure the final was not far off - but understand that NORC did notdesignate ANY ballot as either a Bush or Gore vote. NORC’S work is solelimited to describing each ballot physically - and each newspaper memberchooses a method of analysis. The ultimate data show released by NORCUNQUESTIONABLY SHOWS that most voters in Florida intended to vote for Gore-in a democracy, that means he won.The New York Times’ shamefully twisted oftheir own research by announcing “Bush won” if one goes by the Florida rulesimposed by Katherine Harris and colleagues which void ballots on technicalgrounds. That is not news:we already knew Harris picked Bush by playinggames. If the voters’ intent prevailed (and what other method than thatshould count), Gore nailed it. ”

Meanwhile, this next figure is more impressive. According to a recent Time/CNNPoll, 79% of Americans believe there will never be a completely accurate count of the votes from the last Presidential election. Do you? Let me know, and share your other comments on this column and mediachannel.org. Write:dissector@mediachannel.org.