BLAIR SAYS IT NEVER HAPPENED
WAR WITHOUT END
THE CONTEXT OF NO CONTEXT

You keep hearing and reading about the lack of “context” in news. And its’s true—but where do you start and how far back should you go? I thought about that as I took my own “March down Memory Lane” looking up events that occurred on this date, Nov 29 as compiled by the Wikipedia. I wonder what events today, November29 2005 may be remembered for:

1781 - The slave ship Zong dumps its living cargo into the sea in order to claim insurance.

1864 - Indian Wars: Sand Creek Massacre - Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacre at least 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants inside Colorado Territory.’’

1947 - The United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine.

1963 - U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1975 - The name “Micro-soft” (for “microcomputer software”) is first used in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen.

1990 - Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes UN Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing military intervention in Iraq if that nation did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991.

AND WHAT OF TODAY?

CNN: 2005. A Kickback scandal has brought down The Canadian government

Congressman resigns after bribery plea California Republican admits selling influence for $2.4 million

NY TIMES: “Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings”

Fleeing from money-laundering charges by dressing as a woman, a Nigerian official has joined a rogue’s gallery of corrupt leaders.

HISTORY’S GREATEST HITS

Why wasn’t history taught this way in school? In mine, we memorized the names of president without really understanding what a rogues gallery has ruled us and other nations.

AL JAZEERA TAKES TO THE COURTS

The Guardian reports today:

” Arab news channel al-Jazeera is to consult its lawyers in an attempt to pursue George Bush through the courts over the US president’s alleged threat to bomb the broadcaster’s headquarters.

“The satellite broadcaster’s managing director, Wadah Khanfar, who is in London to petition No 10 for a meeting with Tony Blair to discuss the leaked memo, said the incident had hardened attitudes against the US among its viewers.

“Al-Jazeera is not just a TV station. It has become something people are very attached to. People are angry,” he said, adding that the broadcaster would consult lawyers to see what further action could be taken.”

US PAPERS TAKE NOTE, MOSTLY DOWNPLAY STORY

For the most part, this story played as a one day affair, if at all in much of the US media. Noted and forgotten. There doesn’t seem to have been much interest on this disclosure—just as there wasn’t initially when another Downing Street Memo was leaked arguing that pre-war intelligence had been “fixed.” The San Francisco Chronicle treated the story as part of a “Digest” of international news, noting:

“most gallingly” for the Bush administration, Al-Jazeera’s “reporters have told a story that Washington either disagrees with or would rather remain untold: that the kind of war America is prosecuting in Iraq is messy and heavy-handed; that civilians are too often the victims, and that the insurgents are not shadowy, sinister figures but ordinary men with more support than politicians would like to acknowledge.”
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”Worth keeping in mind, too, is that, at the time of Bush and Blair's April 2004 meeting, Bush's war making in Iraq wasn't going well and Al-Jazeera was dutifully reporting the bad news that "the Americans were fighting in Falluja against Sunnis backed by foreign fighters linked to the Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi," and that "[m]ore than 600 Iraqi civilians were reported to have been killed in the offensive." (Times)

“In a radio interview, Lord Goldsmith tried to play down his threat to invoke the Official Secrets Act against anyone who dared to publish the contents of the memo about the April 2004 Bush-Blair powwow. "I wasn't seeking to gag newspapers; what I said to newspapers was you need to take legal advice," Goldsmith told a radio interviewer who accused him "of trying to silence the media for political expediency."

TONY NOW SAYS AL JAZEERA BOMB THREAT NOT TRUE

Tony Blair has other protests aimed his way today. Greenpeace disrupted a speech he was giving embracing nuclear power. Two activists scaled the roof of the building he was in…On Sunday the British PM was dismissing published reports of a threat to bomb Al Jazeera as a conspiracy theory, Yesterday, he straight out denied it with one word.

”LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday denied receiving any details of a reported U.S. proposal to bomb the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera.

“The Daily Mirror newspaper reported last week that a secret British government memo said Blair had talked U.S. President George W. Bush out of bombing the broadcaster’s Qatar headquarters last April.

“The White House has dismissed the report as “outlandish”, while Blair’s office has so far refused to comment.

“Blair was asked in a written question to parliament made public on Monday “what information he received on action that the United States administration proposed to take against the Al Jazeera television channel?”
“In a written response, Blair gave the one-word answer “none.”

“NOT A JOKE”

This denial is not being accepted in much of the Muslim world. Here is a representative editorial from the Daily Times of Pakistan:

”A secret memorandum leaked to a British tabloid from the office of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has disclosed that the United States president, George Bush, once toyed with the idea of bombing the headquarters of Al Jazeera TV network in Doha. This has caused much embarrassment to both 10 Downing Street and the White House. Attempts are now afoot by Mr Blair’s office to put the lid back on the issue. One line is that it was all a joke, that the memo is a hoax and at no time did Mr Bush even think of something as rash as bombing Al Jazeera HQ in the capital of Qatar, a state allied with the US.

“It is difficult to accept it as a joke because the British attorney-general is also writing letters to British newspapers, warning them against publishing content that could violate the Official Secrets Act. Simultaneously, the British government has directed The Mirror, the tabloid which published parts of the memo, to refrain from publishing any more of the contents of the documents, failing which it could face charges under the Official Secrets Act. This raises the question: if there’s nothing to the leaked memo, why is 10 Downing Street feeling so edgy about it?”

THE LEAKED MEMOS—WERE THERE TWO?

Yes says the Blairwatch.co.uk website as reported on the Friends of Al Jazeera site:

”There are two memo’s.

“We have had our suspicions that the Times memo and the Mirror memo citing Bush’s plans to bomb al-Jazeera are entirely different documents confirmed by Peter Kilfoyle MP, who has seen both documents.

“He was naturally reticent, but when we aked Peter if the source for the Mirror article was related to the ‘prosecution’ of and Keogh and O’Connor over last years leak to the Times he said:

“Wholly different sources.The Times used ‘official’ leaks; the current document remains top secret - they are livid it is out.”We have also had it confirmed that Keogh and O’Connor are only facing one set of charges, over one document.”

http://www.friendsofaljazeera.org/

The Don’t Bomb Us Blog written by Al Jazeera Staffers picks up my own pieces on Mediachannel.org

”But what does this all mean for US media?
To find out, read War on the Media: “Don’t Bomb Us” and Special Report: Bombs Over Jazeera? by Danny Schechter. He investigates the impact of Memo on the other side of the Atlantic and what is means for the US media.”

http://dontbomb.blogspot.com/

RESIGNATION SPEECH

As imagined by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

” George Bush today resigned his presidency.

Three months ago, Bush was slapped with a one-count indictment by theIraq War Crimes Tribunal charging him with crimes against humanity.

Standing before Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Bush read the following statement:

“Today, I am resigning as President of the United States because I have compromised the trust of my constituents.

“Several months ago, I publicly declared my innocence because I was not strong enough to face the truth.

“So, I misled my family, staff, friends, colleagues, the public — even myself.

“For all of this, I am deeply sorry.

“The truth is — I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my high office.

“I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, and most importantly, the trust of my friends and family.

“Some time ago, I asked my lawyers to inform the special war crimes prosecutor that I would like to plead guilty and begin serving a prisonterm.

“Today is the culmination of that process….

Okay, so that wasn’t George Bush.

Change a few words, and that is the verbatim statement of CongressmanRandall “Duke” Cunningham, who pled guilty in San Diego today to taking more than $2.4 million in bribes from a number of defense contractors.

http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2005/000222.html>

OPEN LETTER TO MR BUSH
http://www.juancole.com/2005/11/us-air-power-to-replace-infantry-in.html

Juan Cole, a “professional historian”, wrote an Open Letter to George W Bush on the latter’s place in history. See US Air Power to Replace Infantry in Iraq.

Celil Sagir, reporting from Istanbul, says the ‘US Will not Completely Retreat from Iraq’

The US Administration signaled to decrease the number of US troops in Iraq due to increasing public opposition and the developments in Iraq.

“Joshua Muravchik from American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where Neoconservatives have the majority, said the US will never retreat completely from Iraq. Muravchik evaluated the latest developments to Zaman and said there will be no retreat from Iraq as long as the Bush administration continues. If the Iraqi army can reach a certain level the number of US troops in Iraq may be decreased. Muravchik disclosed if retreat is perceived as completely leaving Iraq this will not happen even after the Bush administration. Muravchik also noted if the Iraq administration demands the US army may pull out from Iraq however, this kind of a demand does not seem to be possible at this point. AEI authority emphasized the US is against the idea of independent Kurdistan and added it is normal that the CIA has secret detention centers.

US WILL TALK TO INSURGENTS

Ted Haines writes:

FYI… I saw this article and thought you’d be interested. Very insightful analysis.

Zaki Chehab: The US knows it will have to talk to the Iraqi resistance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1650541,00.html

ALITO FILES ANYONE?
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2005/11/justice-dept-470-pages-of-alito-files.html