** SH: ARM YOURSELF OR HARM YOURSELF
** TED IS TURNING OVER
** CZECK MATE

A thought to ponder: “All is chaos under heaven. The situation is excellent!” MAO

“AMERICA WILL BE HARMED’ was the Saddam Hussein “threat” selected to headline the BREAKING NEWS on CNN this morning. There was Nic Robertson, the usually incisive reporter standing somewhere in Baghdad to tell us that the leader who President Bush has branded “evil” for the upteenth time is now threatening us, the US. Cut to a sound byte from speech. Saddam sits alone at a table staring into the camera speaking in Arabic. The translation tells us that he is warning that “America’s reputation and economy” will be harmed. Didn’t sound so alarming as it was made out to be. He is advising that Iraq will defend itself–referring to a plan with various “defense lines.”

Not particularly surprising; what country wouldn’t try to defend itself when faced with imminent attack? Anchor Carol Costello, asks Robertson to clarify what Hussein has in mind, what his plans are. He responded:

“We don’t know. They haven’t shown us.”

I guess the Iraqi army has no plans to “embed” CNN. This is news?

THE DAILY DISH

As for news, I was touched by a comment from an unlikely place, the gossip columns of the New York Post, the newspaper that seems glued to Bush’s every twist and turn. There, on page 18 today, is none other than the Godmother of Gossip Liz Smith reviewing a book review in the heady New York Review of Books by Anthony Lewis, the retired Timesman who asks Americans if they are “so frightened by September 11 that, for the moment, we want leadership without qualms.”

This prompts an unexpectedly thoughtful intervention by MS. Smith:

“To answer Mr. Lewis’ question, I’d have to look within myself and say - I think so. A lot of Americans are like children these days. We want Daddy to fix it! Sometimes I fear that a lot of my fellow citizens even yearn for a benevolent dictatorship. (If you are one of those readers who believes I should stick to covering, or uncovering, Britney Spears’ navel and not make any comment on larger issues, well, times are too tough. I just can’t concentrate all the time on the Big G - gossip. And, I’m apprehensive as well, waiting every day for the other shoe to drop.)

“ITS SHOWTIME’

What does seem to be shaping up is a full court press on the UN. A number of rightwing governments in Europe, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Danmark are pledging “solidarity” with the US effort. Mr. Blair is dropping over for tea at Camp David this weekend where the final plans will likely be agreed upon. The Russians continue to have the termerity to demand “proof.” No problem, Vladmir.

You can bet that Colin Powell will have quite a show to unveil at the Security Council next week. Look for “Surveillance” photos, telephone intercepts, maybe even excerps, transcripts of defector testimony and info gleaned from those interrogation sessions down in Guantanamo, along with lots of “visual aids” and other hi-tech show and tell gimmicks to market all of this to diplomats who are not used to the high production values that Mr. Powell will likely unveil. Will the UN Security Council roll over. I wouldn’t bet against it. And I also would’t bet about, how to put it, the use of black propaganda, evidence invented for maximum effect. We are talking about the CIA, people. Look at their track record.

NAMING NAMES

Turning the Security Council into Court TV with a one sided presentation is just part of the way information provided to decision makers gets sanitized and sclulpted for maximum effect. Recall how Iraq’s weapons declaration-which the US so roundly rejects was intercepted, flown to Washington, and “edited” before many of the countries on the Council were allowed to even see it. Some of the information that was taken out were the names of the various companies that have supplied Iraq with weapons systems that inspectors are hunting or “verifying” depending on your assessment of their role. The Berlin newspaper Die Tageszeitung, No. 6934, 19 Dec 2002, page 3 actually got hold of the list-maybe from German sources. Have you see this published anywhere in the US press?

“THE CORPORATE NAMES REMOVED FROM IRAQ’S DECLARATION”

“Remember when you read vague stuff about the US government ‘editing’ bits from Iraq’s declaration? If you read the ‘quality’ press you’ll have wondered just who these corporations were who’d supplied Saddam but whose names were removed. Here they are…

Key
A = nuclear weapon program
B = biological weapon program
C = chemical weapon program
R = rocket program
K = conventional weapons, military logistics, supplies at the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, and building of military plants

USA

Honeywell (R, K),
Spectra Physics (K),
Semetex (R),
TI Coating (A, K),
Unisys(A, K),
Sperry Corp (R, K),
Tektronix (R, A),
Rockwell (K),
Leybold Vacuum Systems (A),
Finnigan-MAT-US (A),
Hewlett-Packard (A, R, K),
Dupont (A),
Eastman Kodak (R),
American Type Culture Collection (B),
Alcolac International (C),Consarc (A),
Carl Zeiss - U.S (K),
Cerberus (LTD) (A),
Electronic Associates (R),
International Computer Systems (A, R, K),
Bechtel (K),
EZ Logic DataSystems, Inc. (R),
Canberra Industries Inc. (A),
Axel Electronics Inc. (A)

In addition to these 24 home-based companies are 50 subsidiaries of foreign enterprises which conducted their arms business with Iraq from within the US. Also designated as suppliers for Iraq’s arms programs (A, B, C & R) are the US Ministries of Defense, Energy, Trade and Agriculture as well as the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories.

FRANCE

Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (A),
Sciaky (A),
Thomson CSF (A, K),
Aerospatiale and Matra Espace (R),
Cerbag (A),
Protec SA (C),
Thales Group (A),
Societé Général pour les Techniques Nouvelles (A)

GREAT BRITAIN

Euromac Ltd-Uk (A),
C. Plath-Nuclear (A),
Endshire Export Marketing (A),
International Computer Systems (A, R, K),
MEED International (A, C),
Walter Somers Ltd. (R),
International Computer Limited (A, K),
Matrix Churchill Corp.(A),
Ali Ashour Daghir (A),
International Military Services (R) (part of the UK Ministry of Defence),
Sheffield Forgemasters (R),
Technology Development Group(R),
International Signal and Control (R),
Terex Corporation (R),
Inwako (A),
TMG Engineering (K),
XYY Options, Inc (A)JAPAN

Fanuc (A),
Hammamatsu Photonics KK (A),
NEC (A),
Osaka (A),
Waida (A)NETHERLAND
Melchemie B.V. (C),
KBS Holland B.V. (C),
Delft Instruments N.V. (K)

BELGIUM

Boehler Edelstahl (A),
NU Kraft Mercantile Corporation (C),
OIP Instrubel (K),
Phillips Petroleum (C),
Poudries Réunies Belge SA (R),
Sebatra (A),
Space Research Corp. (R)

SPAIN
Donabat (R),
Treblam (C),
Zayer (A)

SWEDEN

ABB (A),
Saab-Scania (R)

COVERING OR PROMOTING A MILITARY BUILD-UP?

CNN seems to have footage of every US military unit being deployed from every base around the country. This has the feel of being orchestrated by the Pentagon. In the past this type of info was considered secret. No more! Over in Kuwait, the waiting game goes on as Mediachannel’s Jens Munch of Sweden reports:

“With a large portion of network and newspaper resources and foreign correspondents focused in these places it is inevitable that a lot of reporting should be produced there. Unfortunately a small country like Kuwait does not supply enough news to go around and so speculation and sensationalism are common as the American forces continue to train in the desert as they have done for years.

“As journalists are preparing themselves by taking part in these excursions they are in the difficult situation of getting ready for war whilst at the same time remaining open to the possibility that it might not happen. And so are their organizations as millions of dollars are poured into the operations. At the Sheraton, which has become the media headquarters, networks have rented entire floors and turned them into media battle stations with maps and whiteboards and the floor lined with cables.

“The atmosphere in Kuwait is one of waiting and when a local businessman, selling 4×4 desert jeeps to reporters, was asked whether or not Saddam should be overthrown he answered diplomatically, ‘Why not?’ That answer also seems to characterize the laissez faire attitudes of many journalists in the country.”

TED TURNER HAS HAD IT

While Saddam is the man to hate over on the cable news networks, CNN has, as they say, problems of its own. The man who started the network and gave it its franchise is on the way out of the company that bought him out. You may have seen the news: “‘AOL Time Warner vice chairman Ted Turner will step down in May,’” the company said Wednesday, capping a tumultuous year for the beleaguered media giant.”

“Tumultuous” is an understatement. AOL Time Warner could be a dead duck before it even gets to open its palatial new headquarters on Columbus Circle. Of the troika that ruled its roost, Gerry Levin has “retired” and was last seen shopping for new threads in Beverly Hill; His partner in crime Steve Case just quit. And now it’s Ted’s Turn. Is it fair to talk about rats leaving a sinking ship? The bad news gets worse

“The announcement came just shortly after the company reported a net loss of $98.7 billion for 2002. Those results included a $45.5 billion fourth quarter charge related primarily to depreciation in the value of its America Online unit, as well as a first quarter charge of $54 billion in accordance with accounting rules changes.”

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE

As it happens, last night I literally ran into the man who was left sitting when the music stopped, the now-chairman and CEO of AOL TimeWarner, the tall imposing Richard Parsons. He’s a former banker and long time Republican at a company known for backing Democrats. Parson was attending the We Are Family Foundation awards function. (I directed the film on the remake of the song as a call for tolerance and global understanding after 9/11) Parsons was there to support the President of Court TV who was getting an award. Court TV is part of the TimeWarner AOL “family.” I have met him before so I went up to say hello, joking, “and then there was one” in an allusion to Ted’s announcement, He was not amused.

LULA FOR PRESIDENT (AGAIN)?

The other day we reported Media Tenor’s findings that the progressive President of Brazil, Lula was the most quoted leader at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Today, The Guardian explains the significance in a report by Richard Adams:

“In a bizarre twist, global bankers love Lula and despair of Bush He writes in a bizarre geo-political twist — stereotypes have been turned ontheir heads. While the president of South America’s most important country couldn’t be more different as a person than the president of North America’smost important country, it’s hard not to think the world would be a better place if the two men swapped jobs.”

MEDIA NEWS: WHY FCC COVERAGE SUCKS

In our media news, as Tony Blair heads to the US, the UK’s most famous war correspondent Katie Adie is hanging up her flak jacket and abandoning the frontlines for young members of the BBC tribe. This is big news in Britain and has been reported in every newspaper. Also in the UK, visiting American actress Susan Sarandon says she is fed up with being labeled anti-American. AP reports:

“I’m tired of being labeled anti-American because I ask questions,” she told reporters before the premiere of her movie ‘The Banger Sisters.’ Sarandon also said she couldn’t understand why British Prime Minister Tony Blair has shown so much support for President Bush. “What’s happened to Blair? I don’t understand his reasoning or his logic. I don’t understand his evolution,” she said. “I can see him being seduced byClinton but don’t understand what he and Bush speak about.”

Here in the US of A., FAIR reports that there may be a connection between the lack of reporting on proposed FCC rule changes and the networks.

“The review of media ownership rules underway at the Federal Communications Commission will have an enormous impact on the future of broadcasting and on media diversity. The FCC is considering repealing or altering a number of key rules that limit media consolidation. But you wouldn’t know any of this from watching network television news.

“Media companies stand to gain a lot from a relaxation of the ownership caps. So it is no surprise that NBC/General Electric, ABC/Disney andCBS/Viacom have all filed comments with the FCC. It’s what they haven’t done that is more troubling: None of the big three networks have found the story worth reporting in depth. Since the FCC issued its notice on the ownership rules last September, a search of the Nexis news database turns up one network story: a short summary of the FCC’s announcement on ABC’s World News This Morning (9/9/02), which according to the transcript aired at 4:30 AM.”

See Fair.org for more.

HAVEL HANGS IT UP Transitions Online, (a MediaChannel affiliate)

“Thought you might be interested to participate or send your questions to our Internet discussion on Vaclav Havel scheduled for Thursday, 30 January, at 16:00 Central European Time (10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) You can also explore a range of articles we published about Vaclav Havel over recent months and years, as well as the range of resources featured on the Czech country page (at http://czechrepublic.tol.cz) and the Czech-related books, music, and films available through the TOL Store (http://store.tol.cz).”

Meanwhile on ZNET, A Czech writer, Andre Vltchek, says that the US media feels like the media used to be when the Soviets ruled Czechoslovakia.

“The government-spread propaganda is mostly primitive, sometimes even comical. It almost begs to be ridiculed. However, both the US and European mainstream media is exercising incredible restrain and self discipline, ready to swallow almost everything that it is given by the policymakers and top military brass on both sides of Atlantic. It is becoming a well-groomed poodle, touchingly attached to its two masters, the big business that owns it and governments that serve the interests of big business. It has lost its ability to criticize, its sense of humor and its sarcastic edge. And it is hardly a secret that the use of humor, irony and sarcasm is one of the main fears of any manipulative establishment.

“Many of my honorable friends and colleagues in the United States (those who are refusing to become blind and servile) are outraged and shocked. I am outraged, too, but not shocked. To me, it all feels just too familiar: I experienced a similar situation many years ago, as a child growing up in what used to be known as the Soviet bloc…”

JOURNALISTS SNATCHED IN DC AND CHINA

The Washington Post reports that the INS has swept down on a Pakistani jorunalsist in the US.

“Ejaz Haider an editor with Pakistan’s most respected English-language newsweekly and a visiting research scholar at the Brookings Institution, one of Washington’s most prominent think tanks. Tuesday, however, Haider became one of the latest people detained in the government’s registration program for temporary foreign visitors when two armed INS agents accosted him on the street and took him into custody.

“We were stunned. I never thought I’d see this in my own country: people grabbed on the street and taken away,” said Stephen P. Cohen, head of the Brookings South Asia program for which Haider worked. “If he hadn’t come into the building to show the agents some notes, it’s not clear we would have known where he was.”

And this just in from China, homeland of the man who once said “the situation is excellent. (see above” AP reports: China has detained an American on charges of sabotaging television broadcast systems, the U.S. Embassy said Thursday, and Falun Gong supporters said the man is a member of the banned spiritual group. Falun Gong supporters in the United States identified the man as Charles Li from Menlo Park, California, though the embassy gave his name as Chuck Lee. Š But Chinese followers of the group have broken into a cable and satellite television broadcasts in areas throughout China since last March to show videos protesting the ban and proclaiming the group’s good intentions”

GOT ME

Yesterday I mistakenly and stupidly carried an item which about the fire fights in Afghanistan, quoting a en email that claimed that the US media had unfairly characterized what was being called a “rebel group.” Adam McConnel wrote in from Turkey and others closer to home called me on it. He writes: ” I hate to say this, but the info that Karen Wald sent about Gulbuddin Hekmatyar isn’t exactly right — Hekmatyar was one of the foremost recipients of CIA aid during the mujahidin period in the 80s, but was not a part of the “Northern Alliance.” Hekmatyar was chased out of Afghanistan by the Taliban and lived in Iran until February or March of 2002, when Iran politely told him to leave. Apparently Hekmatyar went back to Afghanistan and the U.S. has been trying to get rid of him since.” It is even worse than that, warlor Hekmatyar caused thousands and thousands of deaths when his warriors shelled Kabul in the chaotic period before the Taliban imposed its bloody rule.

AN ADAGE FROM ALINSKY

Finally, Steve Zuckerman writes to remind me that today is the birthday of a man who taught me about organizing back in the day. His name was Saul Alinksy. We used to quarrel all the time as he became more cautious and reformist in later life. But his values expressed in classics like “Reveille for Radicals” were unshakeable. I will give today’s last word to Saul:

“America’s radicals are to be found wherever and whenever America moves close to the fulfillment of its democratic dream. Whenever America’s hearts are breaking, there American radicals were and are. America was begun by its radicals. America was built by its radicals. The hope and future of America lies with its radicals.

“What is the American radical? The radical is that unique person to whom the common good is the greatest personal value. He is that person who genuinely and completely believes in mankind. The radical is so completely identified with mankind that he personally shares the pain, the injustices, and the sufferings of all his fellow men. ”

Back tomorrow with more as January bids adieu. Please pass word to your friends that this weblog column is free and also available on email. Give them the gift of dissection. In the meantime, I am here to hear from you,

Write: dissector@mediachannel.org

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