NY TIMES APOLOGIZES, SORT OF

WHO WILL CONTROL WHAT?

REMEMBERING DAVE DELLINGER

Hallelujah! Sound the bugle, party hardy in Times Square. Throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don’t care….The mighty New York Times has admitted, oops, that’s too strong, acknowledged, that some of its news, well, maybe, one or two stories, was not quite fit to print. Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor and Publisher, who has done a wonderfully consistent job of policing the disgraceful media coverage of the war, and its run-up, has the story:

The New York Times, in Editors’ Note, Finds Much at Fault in its Iraq WMD Coverage

After months of criticism of The New York Times’ coverage of alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, mainly directed at star reporter Judith Miller, the paper’s editors, in an extraordinary note to readers this morning, finally tackled the subject, acknowledging it was "past time" they do so. Following the sudden fall of Ahmad Chalabi, Miller’s most famous source, last week, they probably had no choice.

While it does not, in some ways, go nearly far enough, this low-key, but scathing, self-rebuke is nothing less than a primer on how not to do journalism, particularly if you are an enormously influential newspaper with a costly invasion of another nation at stake.

Today’s critique is, in its own way, as devastating as last year’s front-page corrective on Jayson Blair, though not nearly as long.

Nowhere in it, however, does the name of Judith Miller appear. The editors claim that the "problematic articles varied in authorship" and point out that while critics have "focused blame on individual reporters … the problem was more complicated."

Leave it to Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning blog to give us a sense of how some Iraqis see NY Times source and CIA stooge Chalabi. She reports on a recent interview he gave to Al Arabia TV:

I always enjoy a good Chalabi interview. His answers to questions are always so completely antagonistic to Iraqi public opinion that the whole thing makes a delightful show- rather like a vicious Chihuahua in the midst of a dozen bulldogs. There were several amusing moments during the interview. He kept waving around his arms and made numerous flourishing movements with his hands to emphasize some key points. A few interesting things I noted about the interview: he was suddenly using the word ‘occupation’. During past interviews, he would never use the word ‘occupation’. He used to insist on calling the invading army et al. ‘coalition’ and the whole fiasco was persistently labeled a ‘liberation’ by him and his cronies.

He made several insipid comments about the raid and his falling out with Bremer and the rest. My favorite comment was his “I’ve won the prize! I’ve won the Iraqi nationality prize …” Followed by a large grin (with several gaps between the teeth). The prize he was so proudly referring to was the disapproval of the CIA and the Coalition …

CONTROL FREAKS

One of the more problematic questions in politics revolves around what words mean. We all remember Bill Clinton splitting hairs over what sex is and isn’t, as in ‘what is is’. Now the debate is over what the word CONTROL means when it comes to post June 30th Iraq. Who will run what? That debate is heating up.

Colin Powell insists that that US forces in Iraq will remain under American control after the 30 June handover of sovereignty. But what does sovereignty mean in that circumstance? Already, according to BBC, "Tony Blair said the new Iraqi government would have ‘final political control’ on military operations. The apparent difference in emphasis may complicate the passage of a US-UK resolution on Iraq at the United Nations"

CNN reported from the UN that "diplomats questioned how much power the United States will transfer to an interim Iraqi government on June 30, as Russia suggested members of the new government should be chosen before the U.N. Security Council votes to endorse the scheduled handover." Meanwhile the UN seems busy recruiting a new government that in the end may be just as imposed as the (non) Governing Council . The Washington Post named a Shiite scientist the next likely Iraqi Prime Minister His name is Hussain Shahristani, a nuclear scientist who spent years in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for refusing to participate in Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program.

IRAQ AT WAR

Meanwhile in Occupied Iraq, more bombs went off yesterday, there was damage at the holy shrine of Shia Islam in Najaf where fighting continued this morning. CNN says "An artillery shell used in a roadside bomb in Baghdad did contain the nerve agent sarin as originally thought … U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday … The 155 mm artillery shell was designed to mix two inert chemicals when fired from a cannon to produce sarin, and military officials said it was ineffective when rigged as a roadside bomb." No one can say how old the shell is or demonstrate that it suggests the presence of more chemical weapons.

BUSH DISMISSED

More editorial writers were trouncing President Bush’s speech Monday night. The Minneapolis Star Tribune called it "more of the same:"

Let’s be clear at the outset: President Bush’s much-anticipated speech Monday night at the Army War College in Pennsylvania wasn’t about Iraq. It was about the general election on Nov. 2 and Bush’s frantic desire to stop his inexorable slide in public opinion polls, the latest of which has his approval rating at a dismal 41 percent. A Bush aide said as much Sunday, telling the New York Times that the Monday night speech was designed to dispel “this idea that we don’t know what we’re doing” in Iraq.

Did Bush succeed? Not by a long shot. It’s arrogant of a president to believe speeches can dispel the skepticism borne of three years of lies and incompetence on the ground. Lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Incompetence in sizing the American troop strength that would be required to pacify Iraq following the inevitably quick opening combat. Incompetence in failing to plan well for dealing with an occupied Iraq. Incompetence in ceding control of American foreign policy to a small cabal of self-delusional neoconservatives who threw traditional American pragmatism — conservative pragmatism — overboard in favor of grandiose plans for remaking the Middle East into a peaceful, democratic region in one fell swoop.

TIMES RESPECTFUL

In the news columns, some newspapers like the Washington Post were critical with headlines like: "A Speech Meant to Rally Public Support Doesn’t Answer Key Questions." Others like the NY Times treated it as if it was a serious policy proposal: "Bush Lays Out Goals for Iraq: Self-Rule and Stability"

A CALL FOR JUSTICE

Anti-war activists are championing the cause of the soldier-son of Nicaraguans Maritza Castillo and the singer-songwriter, Carlos Mejia Godoy Camilo Mejia who has been jailed for opposing the war, as Code Pink activist Medea Benjamin explains:

"Where is the justice?” cried Maritza Castillo, whose 28-year-old son Camilo Mejia was found guilty of desertion on May 21 for refusing to return to Iraq. "The American soldier who tortured Iraqi prisoners was sentenced to one year in prison and my son, who denounced these abuses and followed his conscience, was also sentenced to one year in prison. Is that fair? Is that just?"

At a court martial trial in Ft. Stewart, Georgia on May 19-21, Staff Sergeant Camilo Mejia Castillo, known by friends and supporters simply as Camilo, was sentenced to the maximum penalty of one year in prison, reduction in rank to private, and a bad-conduct discharge for refusing to return to Iraq.

“What an incredible irony that we’re prosecuting soldiers in Iraq for violations of international law and we’re prosecuting a soldier here because he refused to do the same things,” said former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Camilo’s defense team.

YOUNG ISRAELIS BACK RESISTERS

Speaking of resistance, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports "43% of Israeli teenagers support refusenik stance. According to a survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, teens are more supportive than adults of refusenik positions of all kinds."

Amira Hass meanwhile continues to chronicle the devastation left behind by the Israeli army in Rafah: "The thousands of stories from Rafah will never be told, because they repeat themselves; they are about the Israeli generals, army and government. They are the ones who managed to convince Israel’s majority that Rafah and its tunnels are the worst enemy that has risen up against the State of Israel in recent times, and therefore, it is legitimate to strangle its 160,000 residents."

Hass, an Israeli, covers the occupation with an eloquence and determination. Here’s a taste:

But in fact, this is a story about the Israeli bulldozer drivers and their commanders who together, bury the fruits of labor of hundreds of families in a few minutes. (The families will have to pay the loans on the house for years to come). This is the story of the soldiers in the tank who say, “hurry, hurry” to the son carrying the old grandfather on his back while they are fleeing from the bulldozers. This is the story about the soldiers of the armored corps and helicopter pilots who provide them with cover of fire while they are busy with the demolition work. Even if we do not know their names, they are the subject of the story, they and their undiminished faith in their contribution to the security of the State of Israel.

NO PRESS CARDS FOR PALESTINIANS

As an Israeli, Hass can cover the Israeli military. Palestinian journalists don’t have the same access, reports the European Journalism Center: "Israel’s government has appealed a Supreme Court order to issue press cards to Palestinian journalists, the head of the Government Press Office said. A three-judge panel ruled on April 25 that the press office’s policy of denying credentials to all journalists from the West Bank and Gaza Strip was illegal. The policy was adopted after the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence in September 2000, on grounds that Palestinian journalists were a security threat. The press cards grant access to government events and are needed to pass through military checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and police cordons in Israel. Government Press Office director Daniel Seaman said the government asked the court May 11 to appoint a larger panel of judges to reconsider the case, which was brought by the Reuters news agency and Al-Jazeera television. Until the court decides, no press cards will be issued to Palestinians, he said."

BRUTALIZATION OF JOURNALISTS DETAILED

In other media news, Media Guardian reports:

Reuters has released details of the full extent of the brutal treatment it claims was meted out to three of its journalists by US soldiers in Iraq. The news agency made available a transcript of interviews it had conducted with three of its employees who accused US forces of subjecting them to prolonged beatings and degrading sexual abuse, after the Pentagon rejected claims it had failed to conduct an adequate investigation in the incident and declared the case ‘closed.’ The three men, cameraman Salem Ureibi, who has worked for Reuters since 1991, Ahmad Mohammad Hussein al-Badrani, a TV reporter employed on a freelance basis since July 2003 and Sattar Jabar al-Badrani, a driver, were held on January 2 after attempting to report on the aftermath of the crash of a US helicopter near Fallujah.

A spokesman for Reuters said the company would continue to press for the case to be reopened given the weight of evidence suggesting serious abuse and contradictions in the US investigation’s report. In particular he pointed to the fact that the first version of the US military investigation report into the incident had admitted that “sleep deprivation” techniques had been used on the three Reuters and NBC employee, despite statements from coalition leaders that such methods were banned.

DERSHOWITZ CONS PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Progressive Review posted this item from the Boston Globe’s David Mehegan:

It’s many a disgruntled author’s dream, but it almost never happens: A publication prints a second review of a book after the author complains about the first one … Harvard Law School professor Alan M. Dershowitz was unhappy with the April 12 Publishers Weekly review of his new book, America on Trial: Inside the Legal Battles that Transformed Our Nation — From the Salem Witches to the Guantanamo Detainees.

Skewering Dershowitz for “self-aggrandizement” and “his love for the cliche masked as insight,” the reviewer wrote: “The whole enterprise has more than a little scent of student research about it, supplemented by observations that those familiar with the author’s various hobbyhorses will recognize …” Reviews are unsigned in Publishers Weekly, an influential magazine for librarians and booksellers.

After reading the review, he fired off an e-mail to Nora Rawlinson, editor in chief of Publishers Weekly, complaining about the “self-aggrandizement” comment, and added: “Several recent reviews of my books in Publishers Weekly have smacked of personal antagonism by the reviewer. They seem more reviews of me as a controversial person than of my writings.” He did not ask for a new review.

A few days later, Rawlinson replied by e-mail: “We have looked at the review … in light of your comments and agree that it does not meet our reviewing standards. We are sending out the book for a second review. Meanwhile, we have contacted Amazon.com and the other online booksellers who license our reviews to ask them to remove the current one.”

STON ON THAT ROYAL WEDDING

Dorothy Flynn writes: "Great blogs recently, Danny — glad Barcelona was so good for and to you, and I’ll check out the full Dan Kennedy interview. I’d love to see you making an acceptance speech from Cannes one of these days, too. On the wedding: I think most Spaniards love pomp and circumstance and that a certain amount of pretentiousness is woven deeply into the culture. Spain passionately adores public celebrations — why not, when they do them so well? I suspect that is how the royal wedding was viewed, not as A Royal Waste. (Think of Las Faillas, how much money and time is put into preparing elaborate creations that in a short time go up in smoke, and everybody loves all of it.) If you asked people on the street what they thought of the wedding, most would say that they think Spain ought to have more of that, more often — like the Princess Di wedding, when poor Brits were completely enchanted, swept away by it all, and they wouldn’t have given up any of it to save a few million pounds. People love the idea of a commoner becoming a princess via a wave of a royal scepter and an ‘I do …’ That stuff carries the citizenry straight out to Fantasyland, where they catch a vision of what they think was ‘The Glorious Past’ without even (they think) having to buy a ticket, and they don’t give a damn that it’s all shot through a very fuzzy lens! Everything looks grand, magnificent and oh-so-beautiful, even if just for a day. On another note: sadly, Sontag is right, as usual. The Photographs Are Us. Ugh."

Thomas Immanuel Steinberg, writes from Hamburg, Germany: "Your news dissector is just great."

CANDIDATE TO WATCH

Jay Spark writes from Vancouver in Canada: "Danny, I’m still following your daily dissection even though I’ve be silent for a few months … We’re beginning an important election in Canada and I’m hoping the debate will eventually swing around to Canadian security in the wake of US administration pressure to arm the peaceful north with ballistic missiles. The candidate to watch is Connie Fogal of the tiny Canadian Action Party. She’s not well-known but tough, articulate, and fearless. She is sure to evoke the wrath of North American neocons by the Action Party’s continuing insistence on abrogation of the NAFTA and challenges to militarism. She’s an activist’s activist and is often in the front lines of major WTO/MAI/peace demo’s, as well as the legal brains behind Supreme Court challenges to our anti-terror laws, etc."

FILM TO SEE

Jack Shultz writes about a new doc from Canada worth watching: "Last night I finally got around to seeing The Corporation. There was a small audience in the theatre, but at the end the audience burst into applause, something that I’ve rarely seen at any movie. Looking forward to seeing WMD."

SCANDAL TO REVEAL

Sybil Chapman of Rockdale, TX writes about our POTUS: "This is not on the topic of the Iraq war, but it does address Bush’s veracity and ethics. I am a retired Texas teacher. The article referred to started on the front page of the previous day’s Houston Chronicle, continued for a full page and on to a small portion on a third page. The Victoria Advocate, daily newspaper of Victoria, TX had an article on page 2A, Monday, August 17, 1998 with the headline Report: Governor’s Partners Benefit From State Business. It was a synopsis of a very lengthy article in the previous day’s Houston Chronicle":

HOUSTON (AP) –As Texas Gov. George W. Bush developed the group to buy the Texas Rangers baseball club for $86 million in 1989, he began an association with the businessmen who would figure in many other deals. [par] Two in particular were among the 70-member partnership: Forth Worth billionaire Richard Rainwater and Dallas investor Edward “Rusty” Rose. [par] The Bush partnership’s purchase of the Texas Rangers was completed in April 1989, about three months after Bush’s father became president.

Government actions favorable to Rainwater and Rose began almost immediately and have intensified since Bush became governor, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Among these actions: The Texas teacher retirement has sold three office buildings to Rainwater’s real estate company. The system lost $44 million making one of the sales and wrote off $7 million in principal and $19.4 million in interest made by a defaulted lender to make another sale. The trust funds for the state’s university and public school systems have invested almost $20 million in Rainwater’s real estate company since Bush became governor.

ACTIVIST TO MOURN: DAVE DELLINGER DIES

Toward Freedom reports from Burlington, Vermont on the death of a man I and so many respected for his commitment, courage and brilliance. "On Tuesday, May 25, 2004, at approximately 1:30 p.m., nonviolent hero Dave Dellinger passed from this world in Montpelier, Vermont. Although suffering from Alzheimer’s for several years, Dave recognized his wife, Elizabeth, and other family members right until the end.

"For more than sixty years, Dave Dellinger was at the forefront of movements for peace and social justice. From his refusal to serve in World War II (which resulted in imprisonment) and early opposition to the nuclear arms race to leading antiwar protests at the 1968 Democratic convention, the famous Chicago ‘conspiracy’ trial, and beyond, Dave led the way by powerful personal example and inspired teaching for generations of activists."

Finally, I will save for last what all the networks put on first this morning; vague warnings of a new Al Qaeda attack this summer. These government-leaked rumors may be tied to upcoming appropriation hearings, who knows? All we saw on the air was irrelevant b-roll: old Al Qaeda training tapes on CNN, and images of the Chrysler Building and other NY landmarks on Fox. It was video wall paper. When you have nothing to say, Boys and Girls, please …

Your comments welcome. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org