IRAQ EXIT STRATEGY?

BRESLIN SAYS GOODBYE

A CHRISTMAS PRESENT (SCROLL DOWN)

On the Second Day before Christmas, Mosul has been put off limits, locked down, turned into a no go zone. The barn door closes after the horses are gone. Latest casualty count in yesterday’s attack on the base there: 22 dead, 70 wounded. Many of the serious cases are now in the US military hospital in Germany.

Al Jazeera reports new killings in Iraq today. Also that “Contrack International Inc has become the first major US contractor to pull out of the reconstruction effort in Iraq, citing security concerns, the Los Angeles Times said.

“A company spokesman also said spiraling costs were a reason for the withdrawal.”…The White House says new allegations of abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay unearthed by the ACLU will be ‘fully investigated.’

BBC reports Rummy “weary”:

“Journalists asked Mr. Rumsfeld to explain how security could have been breached and troops left vulnerable. The defense secretary said he was truly saddened by claims that he was failing in his duty to protect the troops.

“But both Mr. Rumsfeld and the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Richard Myers looked embattled and weary as they entered the Pentagon briefing room, says the BBC’s Rob Watson in Washington.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4119727.stm

The New York Times carries a Rumsfeld explanation as its ‘quote of the day:’

“Someone who’s attacking can attack at any place at any time using any technique, and it is an enormous challenge to provide force protection, something that our forces worry about, work on constantly.”

THE GORY DETAILS

I was wrong yesterday in reporting that the mess hall in Mosul was destroyed by a rocket. It was worse, The base was penetrated by a suicide bomber who apparently worked there. CNN reports: “components associated with bombs, but no evidence of a rocket strike, were found at the deadly Mosul attack site, a U.S. military statement said Wednesday. Kitchen equipment was pitted with circular holes — a possible sign of ball bearings being used to increase a bomb’s deadliness, a spokesman said.”

GI SPECIAL carries a detailed report from many news sources about what happened. They say the attack was by an individual who worked on the base for two months. The base had been targeted before. Read this and weep:

“The focal point of the blast appeared to have been where the soldiers collected plastic folks and spoons at a stand a few feet from the long serving line, where a four-inch deep crater, about a foot wide, was blown into the thick concrete floor, said Capt. Pat Roddy.

“The tiles on the floor near the serving line “were covered with so much blood you couldn’t see what color the tiles were,” Captain Roddy, of Fort Lewis, Wash., said in a telephone interview from Mosul. “At least 50 percent of the tables and chairs had been obliterated by shrapnel. Anybody who was sitting in there, with the magnitude of the explosion, it was large enough, it could have killed anybody.”

“”This is the worst we have seen in the 11 months since we have been here,” said Master Sgt. David Scott, chief ward master for the hospital.

“The Ansar al-Sunnah Army also posted details about the alleged suicide bomber on a website.

“The statement said the 24-year-old man was from Mosul and he worked at the base for two months and provided the group with information. It also said the man hid the explosives in his clothes.

“He made his way on to the base, someone who was a trusted individual,” Myers said.

“The base is not unsecure,” he said.”

http://tinyurl.com/4vmua

BEHIND YESTERDAY’S ATTACK

This indicates how vulnerable the US military explains Tom Ricks, the Washington Post’s acute military reporter:

“The major difference between the latest attack and the earlier incidents is that it was an attack on a U.S. base, rather than on troops in transit in vulnerable aircraft. That difference appears to reflect both the persistence of the insurgency and its growing sophistication, as experts noted that it seemed to be based on precise intelligence. Most disturbingly, some officers who have served in Iraq worried that the Mosul attack could mark the beginning of a period of even more intense violence preceding the Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30.

“‘On the strategic level, we were expecting an horrendous month leading up to the Iraqi elections, and that has begun,’ retired Army Col. Michael E. Hess said.

“Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst of Middle Eastern military affairs, said he is especially worried that the insurgents’ next move will be an actual penetration by fighters into a base. ‘The real danger here is that they will mount a sophisticated effort to penetrate or assault one of our camps or bases with a ground element,’ he said.

“If anti-American violence does hit a new level, pressure is likely to increase on the Bush administration to either boost the U.S. military presence in Iraq or find a fast way to get out.”

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17892-2004Dec21.html

Whoa — did the Washington Post say “get out?” That’s a new one. Yesterday, the NY Times was still suggesting the only option is to dig in and stay. Here’s a critical take on the lack of a critical take by the NY Times:

http://thecommonills.blogspot.com/2004/12/times-and-that-mea-culpa.html

THE FACES OF WAR

Attacks like these are savage … which is what war is. We have had this war sanitized so as not to “gross us out.” What’s wrong with a little confrontation with the real thing. The Memory Hole has some pictures for the non-feint hearted:

Military Personnel Wounded in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Warning — Pictures depict the reality and horror of war.
www.thememoryhole.org/war/wounded/gallery.htm

THIS JUST IN — NO CLOTHES FOR THE WOUNDED

I watched a colonel at the US hospital in Germany describe the medical conditions of the wounded soldiers just in from Mosul. Sad. But then I was sent this CHARITY appeal being circulated to get clothing for wounded soldiers. This is sick — what with a multi-BILLION dollar budget for the Pentagon.

“I am writing is to tell you about a project the Ramstein Cadet Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, is starting. The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) here in Germany got an influx of about 500 wounded troops from Iraq last week and more arrive almost daily. They arrive straight from the battlefield, with only the torn, dirty, bloody clothes on their back. They have no clothes, underwear, or toiletry items. The hospital provides them with only a cotton gown or pajamas, robe, and disposable slippers. Some stay only a few days before being sent to hospitals stateside, while others are here up to several weeks. The military gives them a $250 voucher to buy clothing and toiletries at the BX, but many are not ambulatory, and those who are have to wait for a bus to get down to the BX on Ramstein 7 miles away. The BX runs out of the clothing and it takes weeks for more to come in. Those who can go to the BX still need something to wear to get there!”

NEO-CON NAY-SAYING

Some Neo-cons are having second thoughts, reports NYU’s Global Beat: “The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz notes that when William Kristol turned against Rumsfeld, the change was and still is significant. (Howard Kurtz, Washington Post, December 16, 2004)”

http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/index.html#kurtz

KRISTOL’S OP-ED: THE DEFENSE SECRETARY WE HAVE

(Washington Post and Weekly Standard, December 15, 2004)
www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/index.html#kristol

Here’s a British assessment on the future of neo-conservatism in Bush’s second term.
www.basicint.org/pubs/Papers/2004nc03.htm

ELECTIONS THERE

The NY Times reports today: “Representatives of seven nations agreed to watch the Iraqi elections, but from the safety of Amman, Jordan.”

www.nytimes.com/2004/12/23/politics/23elect.html

ELECTIONS HERE

CNN reports:

“Unofficial results from a manual recount of ballots in King County have tilted the result of the unsettled Washington governor’s race for the first time to Democrat Christine Gregoire. Republican governor-elect Dino Rossi now faces the prospect of losing a race he led after two previous ballot counts.”

I’M JACK NEWFIELD, WHO ARE YOU?

I am not sure how many readers from outside New York know the name Jimmy Breslin, the dean of all newspaper columnists here in Gotham. He’s a writer’s writer, a populist with a pen and a tongue that has slayed many a bad guy and corrupt pol in many years of columnizing. Yesterday, Jimmy was delivering a funeral tribute to Jack Newfield, the crusading journalist who died Monday night.

That funeral drew the A-List and, shall we say, very Jack — in fact, it was his final production. He planned it himself. It began with Bob Marley singing Redemption song, segued into remarks by Mario Cuomo, prize fighters, ex FBI agents, fellow journos, a trumpet solo by Wynton Marsalis and remarks by Breslin. He recounted how Jack has stood for every thing the status quo didn’t and told of his many years of opposing the Vietnam War,

He mused on how sad it was for Jack to go while the war on Iraq raged, and then turned his blistering polemical power on two Senators from New York, Schumer and Clinton who voted for it and Mayor Bloomberg who has yet to say what he thinks about it. You could hear a pin drop. Bloomberg was sitting up front. Staring. He said nothing. What could you say? Breslin was fire and brimstone and Newfield’s spirit floated around the room. It went on for over two hours and I could have listened for two more.

Jack was a conscience of New York journalism, and a presence in the lives of many. I seem to remember a song back in his SDS days which parodied his overtly political style and wordsmithing with a chorus that included the words “Tom Hayden is Albert Camus, I’m Jack Newfield, who are you.”

In fact, Jack meant more to more people than he realized. He was a mentor to many and mensch even to those he couldn’t stand. He loved boxing on the tube and in the Garden and boxing for real with avaricious landlords and abusive nursing home operators. His was a voice we will miss in this era of corporatized media. He liked to eat big meals. And beat up on people he thought were and are doing us all wrong.

Newfield had a way with words. He once called me “The Duke Ellington of Chaos.” I was offended at the time, but realize he was on to something. He used to answer the phone “Jack Newfield here.” To everyone packed into that funeral home today, he is still here.

www.editorsweblog.org/2004/12/blogosphere_wor.html

Bertrand Pecquerie also writes about a recent piece of mine:
www.editorsweblog.org/2004/12/us_how_did_an_i.html

PR WATCH: JAILHOUSE ROCKS

“In an effort to get wanted criminals to turn themselves in, the government of Saudi Arabia is running TV spots that say prison life is better than living at home. “I swear to God, they (jailers) are nicer than our parents,” says one of the prisoners featured. James Sturcke reports that “Saudi authorities have aired militant confessions and interviews with fathers of wanted men as part of a public relations campaign to rally the public against radicals who have carried out attacks inside the kingdom, killing Saudis, other Arabs and westerners.”

www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,11599,1374215,00.html

BANKRUPT

Xmphora writes:

“Problem. The United States is a giant turd circling the toilet bowl, and George Bush is flushing as fast as he can. It’s funny how empires at crucial junctures in their histories sometimes find themselves with inspired leaders, and sometimes find themselves with chimps, and the United States has lucked out with a chimp. The combination of religious nuttiness, disdain for the environment, crazy class-warfare tax policy, and ruinous wars would be bad enough, but the real problem is economic, and Bush’s complete disinterest in even addressing the debilitating problem of the two massive deficits, budget and trade, which are bound to become progressively worse. He has no ideas for the trade deficit, and his big ideas for the budget deficit, needless to say, involve removing what few benefits poor people now receive in return for their taxes. For all intents and purposes, the United States is bankrupt, by which I mean it will never, ever, be able to pay back what it owes the rest of the world.

“The only reason the rest of the world continues to fund this disaster is that it needs to keep the American economy on enough life support to maintain the value of the trillions of American dollars held outside the United States, and support the American consumer demand which keeps foreign factories running to create such massive foreign prosperity.

“The American economy is just a big Ponzi scheme, with its prosperity an illusion created on its ability to borrow more and more money. Like all Ponzi schemes, this can’t go on forever, and eventually the rest of the world will figure a way to get out as painlessly as possible. This will cause problems all over the world, but mostly in the United States, as the drastic decline in the value of the U. S. dollar will cause the cheap Walmart consumer goods made in China — the real opium of the masses — to become expensive consumer goods made in China. When that happens, we may get to see what revolution looks like in the surprisingly passive American poor, and those semi-secret concentration camps set up by the Office of Homeland Security may see some use.

http://xymphora.blogspot.com/

PR RELEASE: GROUP RELEASES VIDEO FOOTAGE OF ‘JIM CROW LIKE’ CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN OHIO ON ELECTION DAY

“An emerging coalition of civil rights, pro-democracy groups, and disenfranchised voters challenge US election’s legitimacy. Unprecedented Constitutional confrontation continues to escalate

View just released video footage here: http://oneblockover.net/dropbox/

NPR: TAVIS OUT, ED IN

I was on NPR on Monday on what was once the Tavis Smiley show. Tavis has now left. What’s next?

“WASHINGTON, DC - Emmy Award-winning journalist Ed Gordon will host a new public affairs show beginning in early 2005 that will focus on news, trends and topical issues of interest and importance to the African-American community, NPR and the African American Public Radio Consortium announced today.”

YOUR LETTERS

Ron Shepston … Why hasn’t anyone questioned Bush’s statement that he’d halved the deficit in 5 years? Last I heard he’s only got 4 years left. What does he know that I don’t?

Ron also writes:

“I read with severe difficulty the submittal by Barry Dredze on Zionism. Huh? The false premise that Israel’s right to existence is denied leads to a very false conclusion that Israel’s policies regarding the Palestinians concern nationhood. Start with the true premise that even radical Palestinian groups now accept Israel’s existence and you end up with the true conclusion that Israeli policies are NOT driven by the right to exist. With this argument many see “land grab” as the only true conclusion.

“Furthermore, why is it so difficult for people to separate anti-Semitic behavior from anti-Israeli behavior? Anti-Semitism is wrong but anti-Israeli policies is not. Israel is a nation engaging in occupation, oppression and imperialism and as a nation deserves to be condemned as a nation. Being a Jewish state has nothing to do with these facts. There are UN resolutions against Israel on the issue of imperialism that call for a withdrawal to pre-1967 boundaries. America and Israel have conveniently ignored these resolutions for over 35 years. In fact, Israel’s actions can easily be seen as creating anti-Semitism among those who can’t make the distinction and end up missing the difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Israel.

“If America was to say to Israel: “We will protect you to the death but we do not support occupation, oppression and imperialism and insist that you abide by UN Resolutions” the world would be much safer and America would not be in downward slide to its end.”

Joe Walker:

“I know what Time Magazine was thinking. They were thinking, “We know what to kiss and when.”

WRITING UP A STORM

I have been writing up a storm. Editor and Publisher, the journal of the US newspaper industry carries a piece of mine on current media coverage of the war… It is also posted on the home page of MediaChannel.org … ZNET reprints my commentary on the fight for docu-democracy.

How can you find out what’s going on in Iraq. The veteran media critic and journalist Doug Ireland writes about this in the LA Weekly. Susan Oehler send me the link:
www.laweekly.com/ink/05/05/the-ireland.php

I was pleased that Doug also has some nice things to say about WMD. I hope you don’t mind my sharing them:

“The degree to which coverage of Iraq reflects the structural corruption of U.S. major media is even more damningly portrayed in Weapons of Mass Deception, the superb new film by Danny Schechter. Schechter, a TV veteran of three decades, is an Emmy-winning former investigative producer for ABC and CNN (he calls himself a “network refugee”), and the founder of the independent TV production company Globalvision and also of MediaChannel.org, the Web site where his sharp-eyed, acid-tongued media criticism punches gaping holes in official newsdom’s coverage of Iraq.

“In this film — which is much more meticulously documented and more accurate than Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, and therefore infinitely more devastating — Schechter shows with precision how U.S. mass media have been recruited as part and parcel of the Pentagon’s war-propaganda machine.”

SUPPORTING WMD

Oregon Coast Signal News carries an item today criticizing the Free Republic supporters calling for a telephone campaign to stop theaters from carrying WMD.

“… the attacks on Michael Moore, a mere filmmaker, not a presidential candidate, seem not to have been enough for the Rove-clones; some personified as the collective freerepublic.com - freepers. Now they’re going after Danny Schechter’s movie, WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception).

“Yesterday’s Mosul blood is on the hands of the same media Danny’s movie is about. For as long as the Iraq war continues, whoever and whatever works to get it ended deserves our support.

“The very least we can do is make make a phone call to the local movie house, and ask them to run WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception), and call around locally, and ask our friends to do the same.

“What we can’t do is ignore the “freepers” efforts to bury Danny’s movie, …”

URGING BBC TO CARRY WMD

Four countries have so far agreed to run WMD on TV. Here in the US, true to form, PBS has not — without any real explanation of course. No surprise! Some supporters of the film are politely writing to TV stations to urge that WMD be shown. This letter is from distinguished media expert Greg Philo who runs Glasgow University’s prestigious Media Group to a BBC commissioning editor:

“I wanted to mention Danny Schechter’s film to you again. There has been very little to compare with it on BBC tv and as you know most of the academic research suggests that tv coverage has been the sort of parade of generals and politicians that Danny criticises. In this sense the film performs a very important function in restoring balance to the featured perspectives on the war. On these grounds I think it should be shown as well as on the basis of its obvious artistic merit. I do think that at present there are very strong currents of opinion in Britain on the war, which are not being properly featured on tv and that the BBC has a real obligation in this. I hope you are able to show the film as it would go some way to addressing these issues. ”

Mark Sheffner writes from Japan to advise:

“The British “Guardian” newspaper website is advertising a free 4-week trial for its newspaper (the “real” one, not the electronic version, which is still free!). The pop-up ad is an animated gif which says “Many US citizens think the world backed their war in Iraq. Maybe it’s the newspaper they’re reading.” Free 4-week trial to the Guardian!

You can see it if you click on the “send to a friend” link at the bottom of any article (say, this one for instance: www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1378965,00.html)

(if you don’t see the pop-up ad I’m talking about, close the “email to a friend” window, go back to the article and click “send to a friend” link again. I think the window is set so that any 1 of 3 (or more?) ads appears in the window)

CHRISTMAS PRESENT

In the spirit of the season, and in cooperation with our friends at Canada’s ColdType.net, we have a present for you. Editor Tony Sutton advises.

“Subscribe to ColdType and we’ll give you Danny Schechter’s new book - worth $US 15.99 - FREE

“Join our mailing list now and we’ll give you our special end-of-year gift to ColdType subscribers, a FREE copy of Danny Schechter’s 300-page e-book, ‘Embedded: Weapons Of Mass Deception’, which normally costs $US 15 to download.

“What are the catches? None. ColdType has no membership fees or charges of any kind. We’ll never ask you for cash and we won’t sell your name to any other list. But we will tell you when new stuff is going on line and we’ll make sure you’re first in line for more exciting freebies in the new year.

“How do you subscribe? Easy. Just send an e-mail to editor@coldtype.net (Type SUBSCRIBE in the message) and we’ll tell you how to download ‘Embedded: Weapons Of Mass Deception’. ”

So there you go, as I have said, it’s the season of giving. We welcome your donations to keep MediaChannel going and growing as well.

I will be writing tomorrow and then taking a break. Please come back after the new year. If something really big breaks, I guess I will be forced back into blog mode.

Write dissector@mediachannel.org