WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WRITE TO THE DOD?

One of our readers, Roberta E. Richardson of Melbourne, FL (Question Reference #050415-000128) wrote to the Defense Department about the shooting of Giuliana:

“Mr. Rumsfeld,

“The United States needs to act to defend its traditions of liberty and justice by addressing the concerns of journalists and citizens around the world over the failure to conduct credible investigations into the deaths of journalists and media staff in Iraq. Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena is a prime example.”

THE PENTAGON RESPONSE:

Response (Directorate for Public Inquiry and Analysis) - 04/25/2005 12:50 PM

“Dear Correspondent:

“The Department of Defense has never, repeat NEVER deliberately targeted non-combatants, including journalists. We have always gone to extreme measures to avoid civilian casualties and collateral damage. Since the beginning of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq we have encouraged media to embed with our forces. Well over 1,000 reporters have taken us up on this offer. We continue to work closely with national and international media outlets to assist them in understanding the risks of reporting on combat operations in the theater.

“It has been an unfortunate reality that journalist have died in Iraq.

“As of March 2005, seven embedded reporters have died in accidents, of natural causes, or in combat operations alongside our soldiers and Marines. Another seven non-embedded journalists died due to combat actions of coalition forces and each incident was investigated. Five of these investigations are complete and the results were released to the media. The other two are still under investigation.

“Combat operations are inherently dangerous and we do not take lightly our responsibilities in the conduct of these operations. We do not, nor would we ever, deliberately target a non-combatant civilian or journalist.

“About the Italian Journalist March 4 incident:

“Here is the text of a press release that we hope you will find helpful:

“‘Team to Conduct Inquiry Into Checkpoint Shooting

“‘WASHINGTON, March 8, 2005 — U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Peter Vangjel will lead a Multinational Corps Iraq team to investigate the March 4 incident on a Baghdad road that left Italian security specialist Nicola Calipari dead and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena wounded, Multinational Force Iraq announced today.

“‘U.S. Forces fired on the vehicle Calipari and Sgrena were riding in as approached a coalition checkpoint on airport road in Baghdad. The follow-on investigation to the Multinational Division Baghdad commander‚s initial inquiry into the incident is expected to take about three to four weeks to complete. The command is working closely with the U.S. Embassy, and Italian officials have bee invited to participate.

“‘Multinational Force Iraq issued a statement extending the command‚s deepest sympathies to Calipari‚s family. The command also issued a statement saying it regretted the March 4 death of Jr. Sgt. Gardi Gardev from Bulgaria. The Bulgarian government said March 7 death was the result of U.S. friendly fire. ‘”

(NOTE: NO SYMPATHY EXPRESSED TO GIULIANA WHO WAS WOUNDED. –DS)

To read more: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2005/20050308_110.html

MORE ON THE GIULIANA AFFFAIR

Joseph F. Dunphy writes:

“On the Sgrena Giuliana shooting. For background on Pope John Paul II, I have been reading up on murdered Archbishop Oscar Romero. A compelling book on El Salvador is Weakness and Deceit: US Policy in El Salvador, by Raymond Bonner.

“This relates to journalist Sgrena Giuliana in the following way. Bonner wrote about the cold-blooded ambush of some Dutch journalists/tv crew/filmmakers in El Salvador. They were ambushed at a point where they were supposed to meet with some guerillas, in order to give their side of the story in the conflict. Apparently, intell tipped them off, and the journalists were machine gunned.

“The perpetrators were part of the El Salvador government’s repression machine, who were actually killing anyone even thought to sympathize with the guerillas.

“This brings me to a separate point — on deception and information control. Around page 227 of the book, Bonner documents how the claimed causus belli, a boat landing from Nicaragua into El Salvador . . . was staged. It was a deception operation, used to blame outside forces, so as to rile up Congress to approve money for use in El Salvador against “outside forces,” which resulted in a severe ratcheting up of the repression and killings.

“Bonner also cites a book by Ralph McGehee: Deadly Deceits — My 25 years with the CIA.

“Reading the El Salvador story, above, and Frank Snepp’s account of the fall of South Vietnam, reinforces my suspicion that the current war in Iraq is just a carbon-copy, cookie-cutter version of the same old plays from the play-book. In El Salvador, there was scant evidence of outside interference — the repression alone lead to the guerilla activity. From now on, I am dropping the term insurgents, and sticking with guerillas, as that seems to be most appropriate. It is quite depressing that we are being forced to relive the policy mistakes of Vietnam and El Salvador all over again. My concern is that sooner or later this path will lead to repression breaking out here in the US, and the worst provisions of the Patriot Act and expanding use of drone technology reinforces those fears. “

Henry Fernandez writes:

“Concerning the differing conclusions between Italian officials and the US officials on the alleged whitewash of the Nicola Calipari murder . . . essentially all of US media throw up a bunch of ‘chaff’ type wording of issues to distract readers/viewers from the salient fact that US officials denied Italian investigators access to the actual evidence of the shot-up vehicle itself. What joint investigation?”

“THEY ARE LUCKY I AM NOT THEIR COMMANDER”

Paul Harrington writes from California:

“Great to see they cleared the GIs on that Baghdad airport road shooting. My problem with the incident is that 8 to 10 troops at a check point open up on a vehicle approaching them and they only kill one and wound one completely missing the other two people in the car. Very bad marksmanship on the part of these guys. They should have whacked all four with the amount of ammo expanded.

“They’re lucky I’m not their company commander. I’d have them all back on the range. Bullets cost tax-payers money.”

LETTERS FROM CHINA (ANONYMOUS) AND RESPONSE (ANON)

“Dear Mr. Dissector:

“As one of many westerners living in China, we get an up close and in depth look at what the Chinese think:

“Concerning Japanese:

“When you ask most Chinese point blank if they like Japan they automatically say ‘no.’ Ask them if they like ‘Japanese’ and they will reply in a similar fashion. And ask them if they’ve ever met or talked to any Japanese and they also say ‘no’…

“Ask them why they hate Japanese and they give the standard replies of the textbook issue, the Nanjing Massacre and the PM’s visits to the Shrine of the war dead. My colleagues and I noticed this inborn anti-Japanese sentiment right from the beginning, without having to read it in the news. They can name all the bad things the Japanese did, but most cannot even name the Prime Minister. And as these ‘opinions’ are homogenous among the young population, it must defiantly have something to do with not only the education system but just the general system of creating culture that all governments use.

“The Communist Party at least did not let the bad feelings left after 1945 get resolved in anyway. They probably felt there is no use. They knew Japan, and with them the Americans, would be around one day and having an easily instigatible population at the ready is certainly a great advantage.

“And if anyone ever get a chance to go to the Nanjing Museum, it is quite an educational piece of propaganda. All ages are admitted and I’m sure that any 7 year old Chinese seeing those excessively graphic pictures would build up a great deal of resentment towards the Japanese. And the museum also lacks a moral; it’s not anti-war like I think it should be, it’s simply and purely anti-Japanese. Comparing it with Holocaust Museums is a little unfair too, simply because the Nazi’s aren’t around any more.

“Concerning what the Chinese gov’t knew about the protests:

“They sure as hell knew about it before hand! If they had wanted to stop it they would have, there is no arguing as to whether they were caught with their pants down or not. Since it was mainly organized online, and the gov’t monitors the Internet constantly, they defiantly knew a lot more about it than the protestors.

“Chinese, like most Asians, are very subtle people. If the gov’t wants the people to protest, they will give tacit approval of it in ways that most westerners cannot perceive, in this case not arresting everyone that showed up or immediately shutting down the websites that promote it.

“The same happened when they wanted to stop the protests. Some university students told me the Communist Party had a meeting with all the party members at all the Universities and kindly suggested that students shouldn’t really go downtown tomorrow unless it was absolutely necessary, for a great number of reasons that didn’t really need to be strong, as the fact they had a meeting about it is a strong enough reason.

“The party members then spread the word through the student populations and magically there was no great protest the next day! In fact in the pictures I’ve seen of my city’s protests show more police than protestor. And as a way to reinforce the you-shouldn’t-go-downtown-unless-really-necessary policy, tables with administrators were ominously erected near the school’s gates, probably as another hint the students shouldn’t leave.

“The Communist Party knows that it cannot control the internet like it controls the newspapers and TV, those media’s controls being similar ‘understandings’ and wink-wink suggestions, so instead they gather all the information they need from the Internet and use that to help them control and influence the situation. Perhaps the Japanese are instigating it, but so are the Chinese. There’s too much bad blood and trying to lay the blame on either side is like solving that chicken/egg problem.

“Also remember that these protestors were rich city kids, most in the country side have no access to computers or the internet or cell phones. And the 30 million + who signed the online petitions were simply the 30 million + who have Internet access. The news may be made in the cities, but most people don’t live there.”

I sent this letter to a Chinese friend. Her response:

ONE CHINESE REPONSE

“Ha. An emotional topic.

“If he has had been personally growing up (us from SE Asia included) listening to his grandparents/aunts/uncles etc. telling him about the suffering under the Japanese then he might not write in this way including about museum/textbooks/ visits to war shrine.

“Chinese like ourselves who are well exposed to Japanese with very close Japanese friends today are well aware of the atrocities due to living peoples reminding us of them. In fact you ought to do a documentary of this as these stories will disappear soon with the older relatives now mostly disappearing without anyone recording of their tales unlike extensive coverage of the Nazi atrocities against the Jewish. China does not invade other countries but many others have invaded China. The Opium war is another grotesque leaf of history and the occupation of China under 8 countries plundering much of China’s heritage. eg. In most places in China where dogs are allowed, Chinese are banned etc. As such, despite the horrifying Great leap Forward and Cultural Revolution under MaoZedong, his liberation of China from these other countries made him still a significant figure in Chinese history.

“Atrocities by Chinese regimes against Chinese including Cultural Revolution/Tiananmen or by non Chinese Japs against Chinese are not forgiven with yet living scars but the way I see it they ultimately belong to history. We must move on. I feel just as bad if not worse of these outbreaks for my Japanese friends who are like family to us and they think they’re hated pretty much everywhere they go in Asia due to their past. It’s just not true.

“Do agree with your observer, if only these Chinese students make some real Japanese friends, they are a rare breed of special people and the best of friends anyone can have…”

WRONG FIX

Paul Palmer writes:

“On April 27th you quoted Robert Johnson suggesting changes in the numbers of and terms of senators and representatives as some kind of ‘fix’.

“It seems to me his fix fixes the wrong problem.

“The major problem with representative government as practiced in Washington is that so-called representatives are set free to vote any way they want once they are elected. There is no monitoring of their fidelity to any platform. Citizens naively pray that they will follow some personal politicies that were claimed in their campaigns. But of course they are left free to take money from lobbyists and corporations and other wealthy influencers, selling their votes, until just before their next elections, when they suddenly turn pure once again and ask voters to select them for another round of profitable corruption.

“Until this basic flaw is fixed and representatives are forced to represent, Washington will remain the lobbyist sewer that it is.”

RUSHING THE NEWS

Bradley K Laing writes:

“On Rush Limbaugh’s website there is an article ‘Networks turn on each other’ and it’s subtitle is ‘Something wonderful.’

“Limbaugh imagines ABC News investigating FOX’s ‘American Idol’ as a sweeps month gimmick as evidence that after years of “going after Enron” they are turning on each other?

“If his description had any relation to reality, then he’d have spent the past two years accusing them of being active KGB Agents, for going after Enron.

“He is actually describing an activist, anti- big business media ABC News: as though the Progressive or The Nation ran the ABC Evening News…?”

David Hallock writes from Seattle:

“As American public opinion to 9/11 unfolded, I noticed the split between those who expressed attitudes of aggression and militarism toward the world and those whose attitudes were oriented more toward relatingness and mutual understanding, attitudes of American against the world vs. America as part of the world. (Power vs. Eros). Fear inspires aggression and aggression now dominates America’s relationship with the world. But, the world is now like a small school yard and bully boy behavior can only lead to isolation and punishment.

“The world is reacting to restrain and contain the frightening behavior of America in significant ways, such as: 1) the coalescence of South American countries, 2) the EEU, 3) the rise of China and India economies and emerging powerful economic relationships between them and other countries, and 4) the increasing influence of third-world and global information and news sources, such as Al-Jazeera. The school yard bully metaphor shows the frightened kids realizing the power of coming together and supporting each other. How long will it be before they tell the bully to take his bat and ball and go home?”

TV WORTH WATCHING

Jack Schiullz from Quebec in Canada:

“I thought your readers might be interested in a BBC documentary that was presented on CBC Newsworld’s ‘The Passionate Eye’ called ‘the Power of Nightmares’. The central thesis of this doc is that the international Al Qaeda terror network does not exist and has really never existed, except in the fevered imaginations of the neo-cons.

“The argument is essentially that by creating a climate of fear, as was done during the cold war, the neo-cons were able to take full control of the levers of power, and that the neo-cons have come to believe their own lies and fantasies. Well worth seeing and thinking about!”

ON CAMBODIA

Jean Braun writes:

“I’m sorry to belabor a point, but your piece from a journalist who reported what was said to her by a Cambodian she trusted, also contained the information that the wife who supposedly had been beaten to death by the Khmer Rouge (according to this Cambodian who had been welcomed in America) suddenly made an appearance, whereupon the bearer of tales about the Khmer Rouge suddenly disappeared with his second wife.

“Don’t you think we need a little sophistication in listening to immigrants who seem very eager to add their personal endorsement of the policies of the government that has admitted them?”

Sunny Youn writes: “See today’s WSJ. 44% of Americans surveyed (2,000+) said they read political blogs at least once a month.”

Belay Shannon sends in a “pithy political poem:”

Democrats are insane.
Republicans are criminally insane.
–Blackbird Crow Raven

Mary Fox writes:

“What a lovely retrospective on South Africa (especially their election!), I remember watching this from a lot farther away than you, and falling in love the first time I saw Mandela interviewed on McNeil Lehrer. Even my late mother, an unrepentant old bigot, was blown away by him.

“On the other hand, the most important fact remaining to this day about this country, was your point, ‘The social justice that so many fought for is still a distant goal because of systemic inequality and great gaps between the rich and poor.’ Very little has been accomplished in this area, particularly because the ANC had worked so hard to avoid civil war by promising not to expropriate the huge wealth controlled by the whites (as is happening in Zimbabwe). I don’t know the answer to this, but I wish someone would come up with one, since look at the same situation in the US, where 2% own 90% of the wealth, give or take. This is obscene on a global scale.

“Did you happen to catch Lynne Stewart’s talk at the Left Forum, where she pointed out that the inquisition — uh, prosecution — in her case bitched to the jury that she had disputed the notion that Mandela was a ‘man of peace’ — as if he had spent 27 years in prison for throwing flowers at the apartheid regime, and he had refused to disavow violence even after he was freed.

“Also,

“Thanks for sharing as much of the letter from New Zealand as you did, it’s a really well-thought out analysis. People think instant runoff voting is a panacea, but all it is a defense against the accusation that any third party candidate could only be a spoiler. The 90+% reelection rate suggests that we will get meaningful reform when pigs fly.”

ON AL-JAZEERA

Tai Job:

“This article is EXCELLENT; in terms of both very welcome order comprehensive, the various aspects of all that’s addressed, as well as with respect to covering each of the latter with reasonable and adequate depth.

“I’m very glad for Al-Jazeera and had appreciated their reporting on the war in Iraq, until they were despotically outed.”

Michael Bailey:

“I’m praying like a sinner that Danny is right. Viva Al-Jazeera!”

Michael Zweig:

“Great interview with Al Jazeera, Danny. Way to go, brother.”

SUNDAY, SUNDAY

United For Peace and Justice writes:

“We are just days away from the demonstration in New York City on May 1. On the day before the U.N. reviews the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, tens of thousands will march and rally for global nuclear disarmament and an immediate end to the Iraq War. There is still time to make your plans to be part of the important event, and to help get the word out to others.

“People from around the U.S. and delegations from around the world will be joining us for this mobilization, including at least 1,000 people from Japan. Survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 60 years ago will march with us, dramatizing the stakes in the global struggle to abolish all nuclear weapons.”

”

HELP NEEDED…

O’Dwyer PR reports via PRWatch.org:

“U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) is ‘fostering competition’ for a ‘lucrative contract to analyze foreign media coverage and handle strategic communications for its operations and the so-called global war on terrorism,’ reports O’Dwyer’s. The work involves tracking ‘media in broadcast, print and online in Arabic, Urdu Pashtu’ and other languages, as well as ‘building databases of key communicators and media outlets, analyzing the perception of U.S. actions and communication, and identifying vulnerabilities.’ The contract requires the PR firm to provide staff ‘on a 24/7 schedule during critical periods.’ The secretive Rendon Group, ‘the Pentagon’s go-to firm for military PR,” currently holds the $8.2 million contract, which 56 of its employees work on. STRATCOM hopes to award the new contract this summer.”

EVENTS

The week is winding down. I will be checking out the Projectile Arts benefit in Brooklyn tonight and heading over to the Gallery Viet Nam for the opening of a photo exhibit Friday marking the anniversary of the Vietnam War’s end. I speak there (345 Greenwich in Tribeca) Saturday at 5.

Thanks for all your great letters. Comments always welcome at www.mediachannel.org

Mediachannel still seeking a volunteer with web design and organizational skills. Write: doug@mediachannel.org