MILITARY AMOK IN IRAQ

A CASE FOR MICHAEL JACKSON

THAT HITLER SPOT: MOVEON SAYS, NOT US

Enough already with all the Britney/Splitney.

It was a bimbocity. Watching cable news yesterday was like watching a Britneython, the same stupid pictures recycled again and again. Give us a break. Every time you think the news business can’t take us any lower, can’t dumb it down anymore, think again. Even the Guardian of London got into the act leading its media page with the need-to-know disclosure that “Britney Spears is the most commonly used phrase on the Google internet search engine over the past year.”

On second thought maybe I can understand why her antics command so much airtime. So much of the rest of the news is so darn awful and in many ways an indictment of what the news media choose to cover and to ignore.

TRUSTING THE NEWS

You can’t trust first day stories and the impressions they leave. This morning, for example, BBC World was in Basra a day after Tony Blair’s well-covered visit. What’s happening? A Riot. Angry former Iraqi soldiers were demanding back pay. Four were shot. A day after we read about the outbreak of democracy in warlord-infested Afghanistan (even though the country as opted to become an Islamic Republic) there are new “security concerns.” This morning a bomb exploded in Kandahar, evidence that the country outside Kabul is hardly “pacified.” Years after the death of Princess Diana, an inquiry opens and a letter she wrote before she died in that car “accident” is revealed. It warned that a member of the Royal Family had vowed to kill her. The other day a plane crashed into the Red Sea. Initial reports said all the victims were French. Now we learn four were American.

And then there is what is really happening on the ground in the GWOT — the so-called global war on terror.

Example: A page-one story in yesterday’s Washington Post reports on a debate about when so-called “hunter-killer” teams with orders to “kick down doors in Iraq” should be deployed. This is a sign of how vicious the war is becoming and of how uncritical most coverage has been. Rather than exposing the brutality of this approach, the Post more softly frames its story as a “debate” with two sides.

WHEN DID IT HAPPEN? WHEN DID WE HEAR ABOUT IT?

But more evidence is emerging every day of war crimes and abuse. As I write, CNN is featuring “U.S. discharges soldiers for abuse of Iraqi prisoners.” And when did this incident occur? Why, May 12. And how many others have there been? And why wasn’t it covered earlier? Perhaps because TIME magazine was too busy saluting American soldiers in its “Man of the Year” issue, and others continue the hype about the bravest and the best.

And what happened to these Iraqi liberators? Barbara Starr reports,

“The soldiers had been facing a court-martial proceeding, but agreed instead to a nonjudicial one. In addition to the discharges, two soldiers had their ranks lowered, and all three were ordered to forfeit pay for two months.” Forfeit pay for two months!

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS?

And that’s not all. The Information Clearing House site offered a slew of stories that would redefine public acceptance of certain military tactics and perhaps the war itself if any of our media outlets focused on them… Here are some of their headlines:

“Iraq Police Chief Says U.S. Army Gunned Down Family”
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040105/ts_nm/iraq_tikrit_killing_dc_1

“US Coalition forces Above the Law, According to the CPA”
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5475.htm

“Iraq Women Alone, Distraught as U.S. Rounds Up Men”
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=4065537&fromEmail=true

A NEW SPORT: HUNTING AND KILLING

Our friend Scott Harris interviews Douglas Valentine, author of a book on the notorious Phoenix program in Vietnam that often turned our soldiers into barbaric assassins:

According to the Pentagon, the U.S. counteroffensive against guerrillas attacking occupation troops — code-named “Operation Iron Hammer” — has been successful in capturing weapons and arresting some of those accused of organizing resistance. But investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed in a recent New Yorker magazine article that another American covert operation is targeting for assassination members of the deposed Ba’athist regime and other civilians thought to support the insurgency.

This secret operation described as “pre-emptive man-hunting” — run, according to Hersh, by the U.S. Army’s Special Forces — is strikingly similar to the Vietnam-era CIA-run Phoenix Program that assassinated more than 25,000 political supporters of the Communist insurgency fighting to topple the U.S. supported South Vietnamese government. This revelation comes not long after Max Boot of the influential Council on Foreign Relations, wrote a New York Times editorial in November advocating that the U.S. adopt illegal assassination operations like Phoenix in Iraq. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Douglas Valentine, author of the book “The Phoenix Program,” who discusses America’s counterinsurgency program in Iraq and the parallels with the CIA’s covert assassination operations during the Vietnam War.

Douglas Valentine: The planning for this counterinsurgency has been going on for ten years, and the evidence of that planning was the constant pressure for the search for weapons of mass destruction, the “no fly zones,” and covert action programs which were conducted by the CIA inside Iraq starting in 1991 and which have been ongoing right up until the point of the invasion. So, the planning and strategizing for this insurgency has been elaborate and I think it’s very well thought out. I don’t think it’s really comparable to what happened in Vietnam. I think in Vietnam, the United States learned how to fight a counter insurgency (campaign) and I think that in Iraq they’re going to be applying all the lessons that they learned in Vietnam.

Between The Lines: Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations recommended (on the op-ed page of the New York Times) that the U.S. adopt tactics used during the Vietnam war, such as the Phoenix program where the CIA assassinated an estimated 26,000 supporters of the communist insurgency there. So, what do you think of this kind of advice? I don’t think this was any kind of “off the top of the head” flippant remark; it was very well thought out — and certainly being discussed, I would imagine, in the elite circles of the U.S. military and in the White House as well.

NEWS TO WATCH FOR

The big military news — and the Pentagon’s real fear — has to do with the rotation of tens of thousands of experienced soldiers leaving and new ones being sent to Iraq. Already the army is delaying the return of some 7000 military personnel. What will these soldiers have to say when they are back in the USA? How smooth will the transition be?

On the economic front, there are more warnings of an economic meltdown. In his New York Times column today, economist Paul Krugman quotes a recent paper by Robert Rubin, Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and some colleague. It is scary:

“Substantial ongoing deficits,” they warn, “may severely and adversely affect expectations and confidence, which in turn can generate a self-reinforcing negative cycle among the underlying fiscal deficit, financial markets, and the real economy. . .. The potential costs and fallout from such fiscal and financial disarray provide perhaps the strongest motivation for avoiding substantial, ongoing budget deficits.” In other words, do cry for us, Argentina: we may be heading down the same road. ( www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/opinion/06KRUG.html )

PROTECTING THE PRESIDENT

War abroad often prompts repression at home, as James Bovard wrote Sunday in the San Francisco Chronicle.

When President Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up “free speech zones” or “protest zones,” where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.

When Bush went to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, “The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us.”

The local police, at the Secret Service’s behest, set up a “designated free-speech zone” on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush’s speech.

( www.sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/04/INGPQ40MB81.DTL )

MICHAEL JACKSON: ANOTHER LOOK

Polar Levine who does the popcultmedia.com site has written an essay on the Michael Jackson affair that should be widely read and discussed. Here is a taste:

John Ashcroft’s thirst for capital punishment aside, America’s thirst for death as catharsis and entertainment still hasn’t gotten around to FOX’s inserting live executions into its reality TV lineup. For the moment we’ll have to be satisfied with the much slower Jacko hunt. I believe the media is chasing a very unbalanced and vulnerable man to suicide to be followed by a year-long explosion of Michael Jackson tributes, posthumous music releases, bioPix, merchandise and — when all has been said and sold — soul-searching questions about our own culpability in our victim’s demise. I’ll be amazed if Jackson reaches his fiftieth birthday.

I’d say, “go get him” if I were aware of any serious evidence of child molestation. As a dad of a young kid I take a hard stand on pedophilia. But as far as I’m concerned a 45-year-old man sleeping in the same bed with a child, adult or any other mammal is not the same as having sex. Like having a Bud is not the same as being an alcoholic. Like being a Muslim is not the same as being a terrorist. No specific evidence of sex with children has been publicly disclosed. For that matter I’m not sure Michael Jackson has a history of sex with any human, animal or vegetable. His true crime is being weird. More specifically, his true crime is being weird in precisely the same way that our pop culture is weird — but he’s a few years ahead of the curve?.

MOVEON (THE MEDIA)

Yesterday I told you about a report charging that MoveOn.org was encouraging ads that compared President Bush to the late Chancellor Hitler. One reader wonders:

A key question for me is whether Bush actually made the statements that are attributed to him. And, for that matter, whether Hitler did either. Regardless, it’s a compelling ad - your perceptions will, without a doubt, be driven by your politics. It’s true the ad has been removed, although the probable reason was that they’ve now posted the finalists.

NOT US

Well, guess what? MoveOn has repudiated the ad and says it isn’t theirs: “The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading.”

During December the MoveOn.org Voter Fund invited members of the public to submit ads that purported to tell the truth about the President and his policies. More than 1,500 submissions from ordinary Americans came in and were posted on a web site, bushin30seconds.org, for the public to review.

None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public, who reviewed the ads and submitted nearly 3 million critiques in the process of choosing the 15 finalist entries.

We agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process. In the future, if we publish or broadcast raw material, we will create a more effective filtering system.

Contrast this with the behavior of the RNC and its allies when supporters of President Bush used TV ads morphing the faces of Sens. Tom Daschle (D-SD) and Max Cleland (D-GA) into that of Osama Bin Laden during the 2002 Senate races. MoveOn.org and the MoveOn.org Voter Fund exist to bring the public into the political process and produce a more fact-based election process. We regret that the RNC doesn’t seem to embrace the same goals.

To see all the MoveOn finalist spots: http://www.bushin30seconds.org/

MOVEON’S MOVIE

MoveOn is also sponsoring screenings of a new film called “Uncovered, The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, an antiwar expos頢y Hollywood producer Robert Greenwald.” It is a clever way to get a film out — and many people find it a good agitprop tool. Robert Wilcox, who teaches at Ithaca College, was troubled by the film and sent me some of his concerns. Here’s an excerpt:

While I applaud Mr. Greenwald’s courage and professionalism, and appreciate the part this film may play in defeating George W. Bush in 2004, I am deeply troubled by the overall tone of this documentary. For example, we hear former Central Intelligence employees talking about the good old days when they could work without interference from the White House. These proud patriots served the empire for decades, and now they are angry that the Bush administration lied about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction. They are upset that Secretary of State Powell lied to the United Nations about Saddam’s secret stash of biological weapons. They think it’s terrible that a Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, tried to pull the wool (perhaps we should say oil) over the world’s eyes. And they are outraged that anyone would “out” a CIA operative.

Granted, we live in strange times, but never did I expect to find myself in a room crowded with progressives watching a film in which the heroes are men and women who have devoted their lives to undermining the very thing, democracy, they claim to cherish? Robert Greenwald has taken great risks in order to show the sordid truth behind the war in Iraq. For that he should be commended and honored. Nevertheless, I would hope that our anger at Bush and company does not encourage the movement to think that our end justifies lying to ourselves?

Other comments welcome.

GOOD NEWS BEARS

The European Journalism Center reports, “Berlin daily newspaper, the Berliner Morgenpost, appeared containing almost nothing but good news. Editor-in-chief Jan-Eric Peters said bad news would not be suppressed, but would be confined to small boxes on the page. The newspaper will go back to the usual mix of news, but for one day, readers are able to discover what a wonderful city they live in. Political and sports news and features will also be positive.”

LOOK AT MARS

My pal Geo has been looking up at the heavens and beyond and suggests we all look more closely at Mars:

Thought you might find some of these links and images interesting from NASA. By the way, Laurie Anderson (performance artist) is the first NASA artist in residence.

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040105a.html

All Raw Images as they come in
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit001.html

IRAN TO LIDDY DOLE: THANKS BUT NO THANKS

Susan Taft notes that Liddy Dole is not wanted in Iran as part of a mercy mission. She is not surprised:

No, I’m not even thinking the President’s briefings on the earthquake at Bam went off on an opportunistic tangent. Send Libby Dole, good photos and America Cares! on the cover of USA Today. They wouldn’t do that would they?

Americans are already there on humanitarian grounds. Reports say these relief workers are greeted warmly. “American, yes? Good!”, said the man in the rubble. But Iran doesn’t want Libby Dole’s Red Cross anywhere near the place. That’s funny. That’s almost unbelievable.

I wrote a few months ago about this PR horn of the great Red Cross, about how Libby Dole stood in the wreckage of a Florida neighborhood, a neighborhood flattened like a Monopoly board. She smiled as she spoke into the camera, she wore a spotless red suit with tidy trimming, and she was praising the Red Cross.

But the very next report came from the same spot, the journalist’s hair drenched and muddy, her voice rising and her spirit on fire. It had been more than a day. She’s yelling right into the camera. “There is no water here! These people need water! Where is FEMA!? WHERE IS THE RED CROSS!!??” Enough said.

MANIC MONDAY

Anita Nowell writes. Subject: Monday!

Hello Danny, Just today, at business, we were singing “Manic Monday” by the Bangles. Remember that one? Happy New Year and it will be a busy one. Yesterday, I was reading an incredible article from a media log that was researched stating that our voting system hasn’t been on the up and up for many years; I forgot the article at home but I wanted to pass it by you, will write you with it tomorrow. If this is so true why is there so much money raised and spent on campaigning? Is that why the dems have so many running so they can blame it on that when they allow Bush to get in again? Do you believe this to be true? Guess you didn’t like what I wrote to you on 01/01/04 since none of it was in your, “dissector”. I thought it was a great idea to ask Mr. Bush why he isn’t allowing his fellow Americans to know his innocence in 9/11—oh well!

OUT OF THE SKIES

Kenisha Jenkins touched me with this one:

I would like to take this time out to thank you. I thank you for consistently keeping us abreast of real developing news and for diligently doing research to bring us the most up to date information. You are a blessing out of the skies. Happy New Year and God Bless You all!

NABLUS AND ISRAEL

I have been chastised for not fully explaining the situation in Nablus. Here’s a link to a story that does:
http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=45

And what about inside Israel? What is happening there? Carl Alpert, the former editor of Boston’s Jewish Advocate, says that the media focus on the conflict is obscuring other stories of ongoing cooperation between Arabs and Jews.

One would get the impression, from reading news reports, that all contacts between the two peoples are marked by enmity and mutual hostility. Little attention is given to instances of friendship and good will, many of which never get reported. Some recent examples:

* The St. Gabriel Hotel in Nazareth was recently the scene of a three day seminar attended by Jews and Muslims, devoted to discussion of the many elements which the two peoples have in common.

* Two nurses in the Hadassah hospital emergency room, Ayad Abu-S’ara and Doris Livni, were jointly honored for their devoted service to patients during times of emergency and tranquillity alike.

* Fassouta, a Christian village in the Galilee with 3,000 inhabitants, received computer equipment, access to the Internet and vocational training, thanks to a generous gift from the Chicago Jewish Federation and the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.

* Special assistance provided by Israeli officials in Judea and Samaria facilitated the flight to Europe of seven young Palestinian children who required life-saving medical treatment. Costs were covered by the European Union.

Many other similar stories are cited.

WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION

Yesterday I told you about the book “Tell Me Lies” on the media coverage of the war. Tony Sutton of ColdType.net is now posting a free excerpt. Check it out?Also Mediachannel advisor Greg Palast has a CD out. He is not singing but talking about stories from his bestseller “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.” You can buy the CD through AK press and read more about it on Alternative Tentacles.com. It’s called “WEAPONS OF MASS INSTRUCTION.” Greg is fun to listen to. His revelations are disturbing. One good line on Afghanistan: “One War Lord, One Vote.”

Your letters make this blog interactive. Keep them coming. Write dissector@mediachannel.org.