HARD RAIN IS FALLING

ELECTION FRAUD IN OHIO AND UKRAINE

THE FLIES OCCUPY FALLUJAH

The hard rain that Dylan sang about was pouring down yesterday, easing my return to Dissector Central after what seemed like weeks in Old Europe trying to stretch a few dollars which were in free fall against the Euro. If Bush’s America is the strongest bully on the block why is the dollar increasingly worthless?

Why do we keep hearing about how the Christmas shopping season us off to such a big bang— even as Walmart says their sales were not up to expectations. It seems to happen every year when the shopping news after Thanksgiving is bullish on econ recovery only to be revised when goods are returned and estimates prove overly optimistic. Not to mention the fact that all of this is funded by billions in credit card debt.

For the alternative, hear the preachings, oh lawd, of Reverend Billy of the Church to Stop Shopping. He was arrested over the weekend in a protest in the heart of Times Square, now a mall in United States of Consumerism. See revbilly.com.

CNN was leading yesterday morning with flight delays in Reno, a sign that the news had taken the weekend off. A strong feature story by Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported on an old story on a growth of aids in the Black Community in the US was compelling. What made it news was it was being run at all. With World Aids Day approaching, more HIV-AIDS stories will make their annual appearance.

SCUTTLING THE 911 “REFORMS”

Over on Meet The Press, the 911 Commission chairman and co-chair was using an appearance to lobby before the intelligence reform recommendations that were all the rage before the elections only to succumb to maneuvers by a small clique of Republicans in the House out to scuttle the reforms at the behest, it seemed of Mr. Rumsfeld and the Defense Department. President Bush who backed the bill before the election has suddenly gone quiet. 911 Commission Chairman Tom Kean predicted his “reforms” to make us safer will pass either now or after the next Al Qaeda attack.

The Washington Post reports today:

“The fate of an overhaul of U.S. intelligence agencies rests with President Bush, who must exert more pressure on holdout Republicans if he wants compromise legislation to pass this year, a lead Senate negotiator said yesterday.

“If the president of the United States wants this bill, as commander in chief in the middle of a war, I cannot believe Republicans in the House are going to stop him from getting it,” said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) on ABC’s “This Week.”

The best comment cited on Meet the Press was from a former CIA official who criticizes the Commission report for not naming the names of all the incompetents in high places who let it happen. Kean dismisses that criticism. For a more comprehensive critique, check out David Ray Griffin’s new book “The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions”.

CRONKITE: NEW ELECTION NEEDED HERE

Before we delve in to the election fraud news, there’s this from the Miami Herald: “What America needs right now, legendary TV anchor Walter Cronkite said Thursday, is a new election — and, he warned a laughing press conference full of reporters, he wasn’t kidding.

“That’s not entirely a joke,” Cronkite said solemnly, arguing that the Bush administration has spent itself into ruin while embroiling the country in a war that will eventually make public revulsion to the war in Vietnam look “like peanuts.”

VOTER FRAUD IN THE USSA?

Voter fraud stories are all over the news–not allegations of fraud in the US but stories about that disputed election in the Ukraine. The media here has all but certified the election of 2004 even as all the votes have not been counted and as Jesse Jackson barnstorms Ohio talking about violations of voting rights. Where are the Dems?

The best report I read about all this was in a letter from Bill Smirnow who says “perhaps the juiciest analytical morsel comes from Steven F. Freeman, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, who thoroughly examined discrepancies between reported results and exit poll data, with particular emphasis on the crucial states of Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.”

“Specifically, Ohio’s reported results gave Bush a 6.7% premium over exit polls in 2004, Florida gave him an extra 5%, and Pennsylvania boosted him by 6.5%. Freeman calculates the combined statistical probability of these three discrepancies occurring in 2004, is one in 250 million. In 10 of the 11 so-called “battleground” states, he observes, “the tallied marginu differs from the predicted margin, and in every one, the shift favors Bush.”

“The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used, versus counties using traditional voting methods. The statistical probability for these anomalies is less than 0.1%.

“But what are exit polls, and how accurate are they? Basically, they ask people leaving a polling area how they voted. And, as for precision, even Republican consultant Dick Morris gives them high marks. “Exit polls are almost never wrong,” he wrote in a November 2004 article. “So reliable are the surveys that actually tap voters as they leave the polling places, that they are used as guides to the relative honesty of elections in Third World countries….

DOWN WITH THE BLUE STATES

But despite reports like this by activists challenging what they call “votergate,” the story has all but disappeared except perhaps in the Indy media and over Air America. Have the American people gone to sleep? David Broder, the dean of American political reporters was revealing yesterday that the Bush Administration has begun rewarding the so-called Red States at the expense of the Blue. He explained yesterday in the Washington Post that the election’s results already have ” real-world consequences, effects that can be measured in hundreds of millions of dollars in federal spending….

“The county-by-county maps, displaying vast expanses of red where The impact of these election returns was exhibited vividly and in damaging fashion in the catch-all government spending bill the Republican-controlled Congress cleared three weeks after Election Day.

“The legislators who fashioned that bill and the president who will sign it get their votes from red America. The legislators and advocates who counted up the consequences come from the blue-dot city constituencies….

Sheila Crowley, a longtime housing advocate, wrote to the members of her organization, “People who need or rely on public housing, Indian housing, elderly housing, housing for people with AIDS or who are disabled, block grants for affordable housing and community development, and even homeless assistance will have to do with less in the coming year. . . Tougher times are ahead for low-income people in the United States.”

UP WITH THE UKRAINE

Perhaps this because there have been no mass protests like we have seen in the Ukraine. What is happening there? There seems to be more to the story we are getting. The focus in the US press tends to mirror the Administration view–namely that the electrion was stolen. Many Ukranians believe it:

This was in the news yesterday: “Ukraine’s parliament on Saturday declared invalid the disputed presidential election that triggered a week of growing street protests and legal maneuvers, a move that was not legally binding but clearly demonstrated rising dissatisfaction with the announced outcome.

MSNBC reports “Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said Sunday that compromise was needed to solve the political crisis that has engulfed the country since its disputed presidential vote last week.”

Today Ukraine’s Supreme Court — already blockaded by protesters — hears an appeal by Yushchenko’s supporters , and Yanukovych will not be inaugurated before that appeal is decided. Regional courts also are considering some 11,000 complaints — from both sides — about alleged voting fraud.

State TV Revolts

Sebastian Usher reports that there is a revolt on Ukranian State TV

“Journalists on Ukraine’s state-owned channel — which had previously given unswerving support to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych — have joined the opposition, saying they have had enough of “telling the government’s lies”.

“Ukraine journalists pledge impartiality

“Journalists on another strongly pro-government TV station have also promised an end to the bias in their reporting. The turnaround in news coverage, after years of toeing the government line, is a big setback for Mr Yanukovych.”

WHAT WE ARE NOT SEEING

From these stories, it seems like this is a simple good-guy bad guy story. With forces of light and western democracy up against old Stalinists and/or Putin lovers. But is it? The Guardian has been carrying several stories that challenge this simplistic media frame:

First, long time foreign correspondent Jonathan Steele who knows the former Soviet Union as well as any journalist:

“Oranges can often be bitter, and the mass street protests now going on in Ukraine may not be quite as sweet as their supporters claim.

“For one thing the demonstrators do not reflect nationwide sentiments. Ukraine is riven by deep historical, religious and linguistic divisions. The crowds in the street include a large contingent from western Ukraine, which has never felt comfortable with rule from Kiev, let alone from people associated with eastern Ukraine, the home-base of Viktor Yanukovich, the disputed president-elect.

“Their traditions are not always pleasant. Some protesters have been chanting nationalistic and secessionist songs from the anti-semitic years of the second world war.

“Nor are we watching a struggle between freedom and authoritarianism as is romantically alleged. Viktor Yushchenko, who claims to have won Sunday’s election, served as prime minister under the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, and some of his backers are also linked to the brutal industrial clans who manipulated Ukraine’s post-Soviet privatisation.

“On some issues Yushchenko may be a better potential president than Yanukovich, but to suggest he would provide a sea-change in Ukrainian politics and economic management is naive. Nor is there much evidence to imagine that, were he the incumbent president facing a severe challenge, he would not have tried to falsify the poll….

WHAT ARE WE WATCHING?

The Guardian’s John Laughland argues: ” The western media’s view of Ukraine’s election is hopelessly biased ”

“There was a time when the left was in favor of revolution, while the right stood unambiguously for the authority of the state. Not any more. This week both the anti-war Independent and the pro-war Telegraph excitedly announced a “revolution” in Ukraine. Across the pond, the rightwing Washington Times welcomed “the people versus the power”.

“Whether it is Albania in 1997, Serbia in 2000, Georgia last November or Ukraine now, our media regularly peddle the same fairy tale about how youthful demonstrators manage to bring down an authoritarian regime, simply by attending a rock concert in a central square. Two million anti-war demonstrators can stream though the streets of London and be politically ignored, but a few tens of thousands in central Kiev are proclaimed to be “the people”, while the Ukrainian police, courts and governmental institutions are discounted as instruments of oppression.

” The western imagination is now so gripped by its own mythology of popular revolution that we have become dangerously tolerant of blatant double standards in media reporting. Enormous rallies have been held in Kiev in support of the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, but they are not shown on our TV screens: if their existence is admitted, Yanukovich supporters are denigrated as having been “bussed in”. The demonstrations in favour of Viktor Yushchenko have laser lights, plasma screens, sophisticated sound systems, rock concerts, tents to camp in and huge quantities of orange clothing; yet we happily dupe ourselves that they are spontaneous….”

UNSEEN: THE COVERT MANIPULATORS

Ok, so what is behind all of this? Ian Traynor of the Guardian sees the deft hand of the US in the shadows, writing: “the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavory regimes.

“Funded and organized by the US government, deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-government organizations, the campaign was first used in Europe in Belgrade in 2000 to beat Slobodan Milosevic at the ballot box.

“Richard Miles, the US ambassador in Belgrade, played a key role. And by last year, as US ambassador in Tbilisi, he repeated the trick in Georgia, coaching Mikhail Saakashvili in how to bring down Eduard Shevardnadze.

“Ten months after the success in Belgrade, the US ambassador in Minsk, Michael Kozak, a veteran of similar operations in central America, notably in Nicaragua, organized a near identical campaign to try to defeat the Belarus hardman, Alexander Lukashenko.

…. Apart from the student movement and the united opposition, the other key element in the democracy template is what is known as the “parallel vote tabulation”, a counter to the election-rigging tricks beloved of disreputable regimes.

“There are professional outside election monitors from bodies such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, but the Ukrainian poll, like its predecessors, also featured thousands of local election monitors trained and paid by western groups.

” Freedom House and the Democratic party’s NDI helped fund and organize the “largest civil regional election monitoring effort” in Ukraine, involving more than 1,000 trained observers. They also organized exit polls. On Sunday night those polls gave Mr. Yushchenko an 11-point lead and set the agenda for much of what has followed.”

www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1360236,00.html

MEANWHILE BACK IN LONDON, A NEW PARTY SURFACES

“LONDON (AP)– U.K. actress Vanessa Redgrave and her brother, political activist Corin Redgrave, Saturday launched a political party devoted to human rights, called the Peace and Progress Party.

“The party, co-founded with Azmat Begg, the father of a Guantanamo Bay detainee, says it will field candidates and endorse politicians with strong human rights records in the next general election.

“Our goal is to ring the alarm bells about the human rights abuses our government is sanctioning, and to act as a focus for people who want to stand up against them,” Corin Redgrave said.”

NEXT STOP ON THE ELECTION EXPRESS

“Democracy” marches on–this time to Iraq where despite appeals from l5 parties, the elections scheduled for late January will go forward blessed by Shia cleric Grand Ayatillah Sistani and the US picked Iraqi interim regime. There appears to be a timetable here — perhaps to create a pretext for a US withdrawal and the entry of international troops — once successful elections are proclaimed as you know they will be What this could lead to is a civil war with the Shia majority seeking to dominate in the country’s future. Stand by for Mullahocracy.

Meanwhile in Iraq, we learn that 20,802 US Soldiers have been heavily wounded according to military hospital statistics –not the official DOD figures–and that as many as 6000 Iraqis may have died in the latest wave of the US “liberation of Fallujah.

Remember how comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq were poo-pahed when first raise. See John Burns in Today’s NY Times: “Shadow of Vietnam Falls Over Iraq River Raids….As marines aboard patrol boats roared up the Euphrates on a dawn raid on Sunday, images pressed in of another American war.”

Three other Iraq stories caught my attention:

THE FLIES OF FALLUJAH

Hakim Mirzoev reported in the Russian newspaper “Zavtra” about what he saw there. This is not a perspective we have seen:

Together with Americans the flies invaded the city. They are millions. The whole city seems to be under their power. The flies cover the corpses. The older is corpse, the more flies are upon it. First they cover a corpse as by some strange rash. Then they begin to swarm upon it, and then a gray moving shroud covers the corpse. Flies swarm upon some ruins as gray monstrous shadows. The stench is awful.

“The flies are everywhere. In the hospital wards, operating rooms, canteen. You find them even where they cannot be. In the “humanitarian” plastic bottle with warm plastic-stinking water. The bottle is almost full, simply someone opened it for a second and made a gulp, but this black spot is already floating there…

“It is a general crisis with water. There are simply no clean sources. The local residents fetch water from the river, muddy, gray and dead. You can buy anything for water now. The sewage system is broken, the water supply is broken, and electricity is absent in the city.

“I am afraid to imagine what will happen in two weeks. Hepatitis will take toll of thousands. They say already that people at the outskirts are in fever with the symptoms of typhus. But one cannot verify it. They prohibited moving in the city…

IS THE US USING POISON GAS?

Dahr Jamail reports for Inter Press Service “The U.S. military has used poison gas and other non-conventional weapons against civilians in Fallujah, eyewitnesses report. “Poisonous gases have been used in Fallujah,” 35-year-old trader from Fallujah Abu Hammad told IPS. “They used everything — tanks, artillery, infantry, poison gas. Fallujah has been bombed to the ground.”

ISRAELI TROOPS IN IRAQ?

Then there was this by eye-opener, if true, from Rashid Khashana from the Arab newspaper Al Hayat:

“It has become clear that Israel played a major role in the battle for Fallujah, despite the American concern to conceal this fact. What news leaked of officers, soldiers, and even rabbis of dual citizenships that took part in the battles, some of which were killed by the resistance’s bullets, is only the tip of the iceberg. The killing of an Israeli officer in Fallujah exposed the existence of a large number officers, snipers, and paratroopers in Iraq.

“Based on Israeli press statistics, Israel currently has no fewer than 1,000 officers and soldiers scattered around the American units working in Iraq. In addition, 37 rabbis are operating within the American troops, which leads to believe that the real number is greater; which makes them self-driven Israeli citizens. Currently, there is a recruitment campaign coinciding with the escalation of the operations in Iraq, which seeks to send further assistance there. Amongst these campaigns is the incitement of Rabbi Irving Elson in his latest speech given in New Yor to allocate further “Fighting Rabbis” and encourage them to enlist in the American forces, in addition to another rabbi’s advisory stating that those killed in Fallujah are “martyrs.”

http://tinyurl.com/5p6g2

YOUR LETTERS: FAREWELL BILL MOYERS

Bill Moyers has left PBS. Adelaide Gomer comments: “I feel like we have lost the only sane voice in the media today. We have no leader, I remember his speech at the Media Reform meeting in Madison, Wisconsin where he implored us to look around the auditorium. He told us that we would be the people who would fight for democracy. He warned that it was up to this new generation because he would not be around forever. That time has come and it is so sad. He is leaving such a vacuum. Journalism has lost one of its biggest heroes. There will never be another Bill Moyers. He was philosophical, sensitive, compassionate, courageous and wise. God help PBS (or the new amalgamated homogenous CPB). ”

TRANSLATIONS ANYONE?

Joel Bainerman writes from Israel:

“I have been a writer on Israel and Middle East political and economic affairs since moving to the region from Toronto in 1982. You can view my research and published archive at my website at www.joelbainerman.com

“About a year ago I came up with an idea and have been investing in it to bring it to fruition. The idea is to write alternative articles and then have them translated into ten European languages.

“I have an experimental website up and running at www.theotherside.org.uk and am currently in the process of redesigning the look and feel of it- and then having each language have its own separate website.

“I don’t know if a media idea like this is profitable — eventually — or if I just keep it as a non-profit venture and do it “for the cause.” I have invested about $5,000 in it to get the articles translated — and would very much like to hook up with someone else out there on the net- to take it to the next step. I am currently involved in another media venture to create a database of companies active in the renewable energy industry worldwide — and an on-line newsletter/portal for people that want to invest in renewable energy companies that are traded publicly in North America and Europe. This is the project my expertise is in- rather than “alternative literature” however I am willing to stick with the “The Other Side” until I find someone or some entity that can help me take it to the next phase.” ANYONE INTRESTED?

Henry Fernandez writes from Texas:

“In today’s world our leaders (who are simply celebrity role-models and seonded for special interests) banter about terms like “ethics” and “moral compass” in such a hollow fashion that any such “moral compass” is spinning out of control. It is this role-model aspect that should concern us as a people who are being led. If our children’s generation grows up to mimic these leaders, God help us all. Those of us that strive to be responsible citizens within our society need desperately to find a voice….

Neb Conner sounds off on the ‘liberal media’: “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of the “liberal media” having the likes of Jerry Falwall and Pat Robertson on television to spread the lie that there was a mandate in the last election and that the 22% fundamentalist voter should have more representation from their government, than the other Seventy Eight percent!

WHO KILLED JFK?

Jerry Sanford writes from Florida:

” This may not be any stranger than other letters you receive; I hope not. I’m a federal prosecutor in Gainesville, FL. I did the same thing in Miami from 1975-80, then left the gov’t because of too many threats on my life and my family. Here’s the point: during that time, I assisted investigators from the House Select Committee on Assassinations. I was then and am still certain that anti-Castro Cuban exiles were involved; some I knew or had investigated told me as much. In 1984 I ran against Janet Reno in the Democratic primary for State Attorney of Dade County. Obviously, I lost. Had I won, I would have opened the Kennedy assassination investigation with a clean slate and unemcumbered by political considerations. I’ve been an Assistant U.S. Attorney now for nearly twenty years, and I’ve sadly come to the realization that if I could bring to justice and prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt of the men who killed JFK — now, today — no one would care or give a damn. That’s a condition of this country I thought I’d never have to bequeath to my children.”

WMD WORLDWIDE

I just returned from an incredible reception for WMD in Europe. The film sold out three screenings at the IFDA documentary festival in Amsterdam. That’s the world’s largest, known for the best documentaries in the world. I also took part in two packed panel discussion there, and was interviewed by the leading newspaper in Amsterdam, on radio and TV. There is interest in broadcasting WMD there as well.

I also spoke at the University of Amsterdam at a well attended forum. Best comment — from a graduate student there: “WMD IS FAHRENHEIT 911 FOR GROWN UPS!”

In Paris, a wonderfully enterprising Media Channel reader Frank Meagher organized a a packed screening in a classy venue off the Champs Elysee. Nearly 300 people came. I was interviewed by Canal Plus and Belgian’s leading French speaking TV station. Prominent journalists and Americans in Paris were there. Countess Albina and Princess Caroline’s husband turned up as well. Viv La France. And Le Frank.

ON AIR AMERICA AND AIR FRANCE

Last night I was on Air America with the always engaging Laura Flanders, and learned that they now have 40 Stations. Impressive.

The night before I was on Air France, and to my surprise was recognized by two fellow flyers when I stumbled to the facilities. Turns out they had both seen and liked WMD. We had a mid-ocean exchange. Wmdthefilm.com has all the latest details.

And it is good to be back in the saddle just bursting with news as you can read if you can penetrate this blogothon, Sorry to report that Vietnam war journalist David Leitch has died in the UK…. Let’s hope those Chinese miners are rescued and that Canada survives Dubya’s visit … And I could go on, but I won’t.

Your emails are welcome at dissector@mediachannel.org

Posted by Danny on Mon, Nov 29, 2004 at 06:51 AM EST