*AFGHANISTAN, ISRAEL AND ABC*

*A NUCLEAR THREAT AGAINST NEW YORK*

*MISSING MONICA*

Good morning, and welcome to the body count in Afganistan, in the Middle East, and at my old haunt, ABC News. The bloodiest battles of the war on terror continue as bombers attack the Shahi Kot mountains in eastern Afghanistan in hopes of wiping out “remnants” of the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces. “Planes pound” is the headline on John Burns report which speaks of “fierce resistance.” Pentagon officials seem to be the prime source.

In an analysis from Washington, Michael R. Gordon seems to have trouble getting the Pentagon to admit that its earlier and unsuccessful poundathon on the Tora Bora mountains was a mistake, “The very idea of an occasional lapse of judgment seems to have been banished from the briefing room,” he notes. The US operation, by the way is called ANANCONDA after the snake.

Since journalists are kept away from the action, I saw no live reports this morning from there, but CNN’s Jerold Kessler was on with updates about Israel’s latest retaliation against the Palestinians latest retaliation against Israel’s latest retaliation. Have you ever noticed now just as talk of peace is in the air, fanatics swing into action with terror attacks or military assaults just to keep the pot stirring? And where is the US? Don’t fear: Dick Cheney leaves his bunker this weekend and travels to the Middle East.

THE DEADLY CYCLE CYCLES ON

20 Israelis dead over the weekend were matched with 50 Palestinian bodies, and this deadly beat goes on with the United States barely stirring to try to play a more interventionist role as a media, or heaven forbid, as the imposer of a cease fire. The Israeli side keeps blaming Arafat and then makes it impossible for him to do anything, as other more militant players take the lead. The Suicide bombers commit atrocities to provoke even more retaliation. What goes unreported largely is the stirrings within Israel on the right to press Sharon to become even more aggressive and brutal, and on the left, and significantly within the ranks of the Israeli military, to seek out another policy course.

Here is a letter from an Israeli . Gila Svirsky, with a perspective that we rarely see:

“So who’s winning? It’s been a blood-soaked weekend: Since Thursday, Israeli army killed 26 Palestinians in refugee camps (and 230 wounded), and Palestinian extremists killed 20 Israelis (and dozens wounded). Add that together and you have a staggering amount of heartache, on eitherside. Everybody’s losing.

“Children on both sides, needless to say, were also killed. A light has gone out, permanently, for these families.

“As I watched the ultra-Orthodox walk around the area of the bomb in Jerusalem scraping stray bits of flesh off the sidewalk for later burial,two Israeli commentators explained that this bomb was revenge for theattack on the refugee camps. This morning’s radio news, however, carried only the government spin: The Palestinian bombing in Jerusalem last night would have taken place whether or not the Israeli army had invaded therefugee camps. What are they saying? Answer: That our killing has no relationship whatsoever with their killing. A theory of cause and no effect.

Do Sharon and his government actually believe that brutality will convince the Palestinians to give up? Do the Palestinian extremists actually believe that suicide bombings will convince Israelis to leave the region?There is little evidence to support the unusual theory of human nature held by either side.

“Meanwhile, on the Israeli side, more and more people have begun to despair of the deepening sea of blood:* Sharon’s popularity rating, as measured by the polls, has dipped under 50% for the first time since his election.”

If you want to read what Israel’s refuseniks are saying, check out: www.seruv.org.

NUCLEAR THREAT AGAINST NEW YORK: TRUE?

Back on the domestic front, Time Magazine is out with a report that New York was threatened with a nuclear attack. The Drudge Report was leaked the story yesterday:

“New York–In October, an intelligence alert went out to asmall number of government agencies, including the EnergyDepartment’s top-secret Nuclear Emergency Search Team, based inNevada. The report said that terrorists were thought to haveobtained a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon from the Russian arsenal,and planned to smuggle it into New York City, a special TIMEmagazine investigation reveals.”

TIME also reports that this threat was kept secret from New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and, of course, the people of this fair city.

An anti-nuclear group in Australia is assessing this threat, writing:

“1)It may be a complete hoax.

“2)It may be a real story, but based on so slender a foundation as to be a beat - up.

“If this is the case, it could be seen as part of an administration agenda to continue to spread panic and thereby justify the kind of repressivemeasures favoured by the Bush administration.

“3) It may be precisely the kind of horrible possibility that the anti-nuclear movement worldwide has been warning of for literally a couple of decades.

“Note that possibilities (2)and(3)are not mutually exclusive.

“The anti-nuclear movement has been warning for decades of the possibility that terrorist groups might get hold of nuclear materials or nuclear weapons.

“The only way to ensure that this does not happen (even if there were to turn out to be no substance in these reports - and even more so if god forbid there is real substance to them) - is to get rid of both nuclear weapons and the nuclear fuel cycle.

“The need has never been more urgent.”

THE NETWORK WAR

In his recent book, ABC’s Ted Koppel wrote prophetically: “I am increasingly nervous about the prevailing attitude at the network. There seems to be no particular distinction drawn between the entertainment division and the news division when it comes to responding to the corporation’s demands for budget cuts.”

Now it seems as if THE CORPORATION (eg. DISNEY) is demanding a program cut, to get his Nightline program out of late night so it can be replaced with an entertainment show that can bring in higher profits. Koppel has yet to speak publicly about remarks by network execs who say his award winning programming is no longer relevant. Over at CBS, the Times reports that the network bigs are trying to seduce David Letterman into remaining. He apparently does not get along with the network president Les Moonves.

READER WRITES: EMAIL ABC

Steve Rhodes writes in response to my call for the public to speak up on Nightline’s behalf:

“I agree with you that we should definitely fight to save Nightline despite the problems. I’ve written a couple of items on Aaron Barnhart’s website, TVBarn which are currently at the top. People can email their comments to netaudr@abc.com. ”

GARY CONDIT: THE AMERICAN PRESS IS UN-AMERICAN

Congressman Gary Condit is blasting the news media for violating is rights as he campaigns for re-election. Reports Robert Saladay in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The final days of Condit’s campaign find the candidate veering from a monotone discussion of the Central Valley’s smog problem to fury about the press.

“What the press has done is totally un-American,” Condit said in an interview with The Chronicle, pointing his finger. “My civil liberties have been violated. My due process, my equal protection under the law, the fact that Americans believe you are innocent until proven guilty–all of that has been violated by the press.”

“The way his friends and supporters see it, the national media is a totalitarian state that is forcing him to prove a negative, prove that he didn’t kill or kidnap Chandra Levy when there is no evidence that he did.”

HAS AMERICA TURNED INWARD?

Speaking of US media, sometimes people living outside the US see its impact differently from people who live with its influence every day.

Sally Sharp Paulsen, an expatriate living in Norway, writes in Online Journal:

“Though Bush has been applauded as becoming ‘more international’ since Sept.11 by American news sources, foreign media have been shocked at the degree to which America has turned inward, disregarding both the opinionsand experiences of foreign sources.

“Hopefully, the Information Age can work to change this; more interaction among people worldwide by means such as the Internet may lead to an opening of America’s considerations and sensibilities. As things are going, America’s continued isolation from the rest of the world can only lead to disaster, both for the world and the USA herself.”

AL AMIN ON TRIAL IN ATLANTA

Last week, I praised a NIGHTLINE report on the trial of ex-civil rights leader H Rap Brown for killing a policeman. Now, friends in Atlanta are sending me a newspaper ad that is being signed by many former civil rights workers calling for a fair trial in the courts and an open mind in the public and the media.

It reads in part: “The facts as alleged are completely out of character for the man we knew in the civil rights movement and now know as a religious leader in the Muslim community. As a civil rights activist and chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Al-Amin then known as H. Rap Brown, worked tirelessly in the struggle of disenfranchised communities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi to gain the right to vote. As SNCC National Chairman, he spoke out against the war in Vietnam and championed the rights of oppressed people in the US and abroad.”

PIPELINE POLITICS UNDERREPORTED

Over the weekend I carried a backgrounder by Adam McConnel in Istanbul on US troops being sent to Georgia that suggested an oil connection. Peter Dale Scott, known for his books on “deep politics” now makes this same point in a report for Pacific News Service.

“Deployment of U.S. Special Operations forces to the Caucasus state of Georgia would help enforce a Washington pipeline policy aimed at neutralizing Russian influence in oil-rich Central Asia.

“This is the unreported side of the U.S. proposal, which is also about pursuing al Qaeda fighters around the globe. Al Qaeda veterans have reportedly linked up with Chechen rebels on the Georgia-Chechen border.

“Though Georgia and Chechnya themselves contain limited oil and gas reserves, their territory is essential to both existing and proposed pipelines to carry oil and gas out of the Caspian basin west to Turkey and Europe.

The existing Russian pipeline, from Baku to Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, passes through Chechnya. U.S. oil companies, which have had difficulty dealing with the Russians, have proposed two alternative pipeline routes that pass through Georgia and Armenia. These pipelines would allow U.S. companies, and not Russian ones, to control oil and pipeline prices.

A DAUGHTER’S APPEAL: A JOURNALIST IN PRISON NEEDS OUR HELP

My name is Banafsheh Zand. My father Siamak Pourzand who is one of Iran’s most prominent journalists was abducted from his sister’s house on Nov. 24th, 2001, in Tehran by agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The situation is complicated and horrifying. I have created a website:

www.rivative.com/pourzand

HISTORY LESSON

To mark today’s 50th wedding anniversary of Nancy and Ronald Reagan, may I share an editorial that appeared last month in The Guardian in England. They simply reprinted a speech by a former American (Republican) President, General Dwight David Eisenhower. He said these words in l953. It appeared without comment on February 15, 2002.

“The way chosen by the United States was plainly marked by a fewclear precepts, which govern its conduct in world affairs. First:no people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, forall humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship andjustice. Second: no nation’s security and well being can belastingly achieved in isolation but only in effective cooperationwith fellow-nations. Third: any nation’s right to a form ofgovernment and an economic system of its own choosing isinalienable. Fourth: any nation’s attempt to dictate other nationstheir form of government is indefensible. And fifth: a nation’shope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race inarmaments but rather upon just relations and honest understandingwith all other nations.

“In the light of these principles the citizens of the United States defined the way they proposed to follow, through theaftermath of war, toward true peace. This way was faithful to thespirit that inspired the United Nations: to prohibit strife, torelieve tensions, to banish fears. This way was to control and toreduce armaments. This way was to allow all nations to devotetheir energies and resources to the great and good tasks ofhealing the war’s wounds, of clothing and feeding and housing the needy, of perfecting a just political life, of enjoying the fruits of their own free toil.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocketfired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. Thisworld in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending thesweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes ofits children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: amodern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electricpower plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is twofine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concretehighway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushelsof wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that couldhave housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the bestway of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under thecloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross ofiron.”

CONFESSION: I MISSED MONICA

Am I the only one in America who missed Monica’s Lewinsky’s HBO “dcoumentary last night?” CNN considered it newsworthy enough to report on, noting that she will continue to make handbags, and hoped to get married and have babies. But there is a TV event that I cannot miss. From the Fresno Bee:

“Amy Fisher out, Paula Jones in ‘Celebrity Boxing’ special

“LOS ANGELES (AP) - Amy Fisher’s out and Paula Jones is in as Tonya Harding’s “Celebrity Boxing” opponent, Fox announced Saturday. Network spokesman Joe Earley declined to comment on why the “Long Island Lolita” is being replaced by one of former President Clinton’s earliest accusers.

“Paula is eager to participate in the special, which certainly will make for a lively match against Tonya,” Earley said. The program will air March 13. Jones, who lives in Cabot, Ark., told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette she’s not concerned about the notorious skater. Her only fear: the safety of her new nose job.”Of course, that’s my first concern as a woman, messing my face up,” she said. “I just got my nose done, and I don’t want to mess it up.”

YOUR COMMENTS WELCOME

Just one note I missed yesterday in exploring Narco Net founder Al Giordano’s campaign against what he believes are serious ethical lapses at Alternet, the independent alterntive syndication service. I confronted Alternet founder Hazen with these charges in this web log yesterday. Al says that Alternet “black lists” journalists it doesn’t like. Don Hazen denied that, but did question Al’s bonafides as a journalist. I should have dissented from that unfair characterization, and reaffirmed my respect for his courage and tenacity for reporting from the front lines of the drug war. You can scroll down if you missed Hazen’s response. To read Al’s continuing coverage of this campaign, read narconews.net.com. Have a great week. Please share your comments and concerns with me at dissector@mediachannel.org

ONE PROGRAM NOTE: I will be on right-wing talk show host Armstrong Williams’ show The Right Side today at l: 30 pm. TheTopic: “The Challenges to The Media: Free and Independent or Censored?” Listen in, if he is on in your area. I may need some help. I was also interviewed yesterday by Dan Damon of BBC World Service. I will post info on when his show on US media coverage since 9/11 will be aired.