THE BIRDS ARE ON THE WAY
MILLER MANIA
REPORT FROM FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

The Birds are no longer coming. They are here, all over Europe with a parrot with the dreaded Avian disease found in the UK. (Sorry, I kept remembering that parrot in Monty Python sketches.) Disasters are all over the news from Hurricane Wilma in Mexico and now picking up scale in Florida, Alpha lashing Haiti, and that fatal for all plane crash in Nigeria.

As for bird flu, the World Heath Organization cautions against panic:

BBC: “The World Health Organization has warned people against panic-buying stocks of a drug they hope will protect them against bird flu.The WHO stressed that Tamiflu could reduce the effect of the illness but was not a vaccine to prevent it.

IS SYRIA NEXT?

The war dances are underway with calls for pressure on Syria. The US and Britain want unspecified “action” in the aftermath of a report pointing to Syria as behind the assasinaton of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister. Israel is more explicit, letting the cat out of the bag in calling for “regime change” a phrase we last heard before the invasion of Iraq. AP reports

”Israeli leaders on Friday called for changes in the Syrian leadership,after a U.N. probe implicated top Syrian and Lebanese intelligence officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri…”

“The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to discuss the report Tuesday and may consider sanctions against Syria.

http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/6879.htm

There is clearly another side, or should I say, many other sides to this story:

Furor over names deleted from UN Hariri report:

”A furor arose at the United Nations on Friday over whether the world body doctored a report to delete the names of the Syrian president’s brother and others allegedly involved in a plot to assassinate Lebanon’s former premier.

http://snipurl.com/itgd

IRAQ: DEATH TOLL MOUNTS

Number 2000 for US this week?

2,000th US soldier likely to be killed in Iraq this week. CNN reports 23 dead yesterday.

http://icasualties.org/oif/

The Washington Post says the Pentagon is reviving the practice of releasing enemy body counts to show how successful they are:

http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W9RT04AD043351484F27F3D6062690

Sunday’s New York Times reports on “progress” in the training of Iraqi forces and attacks on US soldiers. The focus seems to continue to be AAU—All about US with the US military the source, and few third party sources. Other voices, including voices of the insurgency are absent in the story but a new poll in Iraq shows Iraqis back attacks on UK, US forces:

”Eighty-two percent of those polled said they were “strongly opposed” to the presence of the troops.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10720.htm

CONSERVATIVES TURN ON BUSH

The WashinghtonNote.com previews a New Yorker story on Brent Scowcroft’s critique of the Bush Administration:

”Jeffrey Goldberg has written a critique in The New Yorker of the Bush White House that equals Ron Suskind’s devastating critique of Bush before the last election titled “Without a Doubt.”
“In “Breaking Ranks: What Turned Brent Scowcroft Against the Bush Administration?”, Jeffrey Goldberg coaxes Brent Scowcroft to delineate his differences with the foreign policy proclivities of George W. Bush, Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Cheney, and others.
“And in the piece, George H.W. Bush is interviewed about Scowcroft — and while Bush 41’s comments are more elliptical, he stands clearly by Scowcroft’s side in clear criticism of the decisions his son made.
“This critique by Scowcroft hardens the foundation of critique that others have recently put in place — particularly from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former State Department Chief of Staff under Colin Powell who spoke at the New America Foundation last Wednesday. Wilkerson’s remarks have swept like wildfire through the media and are the subject of a Richard Holbrooke article today in the New York Times and also a core column of discussion on this morning’s “Meet the Press.”

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001024.html

THE EYES OF TEXAS

AP reports on today’s scandal:

Texas officials paid Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ family more than $100,000 for a small piece of land in 2000 - 10 times the land’s worth - despite thestate’s objections to the way the price was determined, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported Saturday.

The three-member committee that determined the price included Peggy Lundy, a friend of Miers, and property-rights activist Cathie Adams, Knight Ridder reported. They were appointed to the panel by state District Judge David Evans, who had received at least $5,000 in campaign contributions from Miers’ law firm.”

THE MILLER SAGA

The Guardian reports:

”The New York Times continued to implode under the weight of internalcriticism yesterday as the public clamour for one its most prominent reporters, Judith Miller, to be removed from her job gained pace. The row threatens to engulf one of the country’s most venerated newspapers in a bitter dispute over its reporting of the Iraq war, its unquestioning defense of an allegedly rogue reporter and its editor’s ability to assert his authority over his staff.

This weekend, the paper’s readers’ editor and a prominent columnist argued in print that Miller’s presence in the newsroom damaged the credibility of the paper. Their comments came after the paper’s editor sent a memo to staff claiming that Miller misled him about her involvement in a story over a CIA leak.

In a column headlined Woman of Mass Destruction, columnist Maureen Dowd argued: ‘Sorely in need of a tight editorial leash, [Miller] was kept on no leash at all, and that has hurt this paper and its trust with readers. She more than earned her sobriquet Miss Run Amok.’

The paper’s public editor, who is the readers’ representative, yesterday wrote that ‘the problems facing [Miller] inside and outside the newsroom will make it difficult for her to return to the paper as a reporter’.”

http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1599201,00.html - Media Guardian

MILLER DOCUMENTS ONLINE

Mike Petralis calls our attention to some documents of interest. There is a new email from Miller:

http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2005_10_23_mpetrelis_archive.html_

”Bravo to Barney Calame for doing what the Times leadership couldn’t or wouldn’t: Making Bill Keller’s memo and Judy Miller’s response available for free on the paper’s web site!

http://forums.nytimes.com/top/opinion/readersopinions/forums/thepubliceditor/publiceditorswebjournal/index.html_
(http://forums.nytimes.com/top/opinion/readersopinions/forums/thepubliceditor/publiceditorswebjournal/index.html)

bcalame - 7:54 PM ET October 22, 2005 (#_18_
(http://forums.nytimes.com/top/opinion/readersopinions/forums/thepubliceditor/publiceditorswebjournal/index.h
tml?offset=18&fid=.f779788/18) of 18)

THE PROSECUTOR’s BRIEFS ARE ALSO ONLINE

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/legal_proceedings.html

FAIR ON MILLER:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2703

WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES

Some things don’t change. The Pentagon paid $20 each for plastic ice-cube trays that once cost 85 cents

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2002578085_pentagon23.html