It has been a year! Today’s the anniversary of Katrina. Here’s the headline in New Orlean’s principal newspaper:

“Flood protection plans still lacking
Efforts to upgrade levee system to higher protection level barely past the planning stages”

Read what New Orleans is reading today: http://www.nola.com/
NO resident Alfred Reed writes: http://www.alternet.org/katrina/40961/

TV NEWS IN PANIC MODE AS KARR WALKS FREE
IS THERE A CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ OR SOMETHING ELSE?
NEW RULES RESTRICT FOREIGN JOURNOS IN USA

I just can’t imagine the panic that went on in the offices of TV Talk show bookers who had to un-book and un-retain all the lawyers, criminal investigators and talking head “sexperts” that had booked and retained to comment on what was expected to be the trial of century, leading to the certain conviction of the bizarre John Mark Karr who in story after story was made to appear that the mad dog killer of JonBenet Ramsey, the six year old blonde and oh so cute beauty queen.

This latest news must have been devastating to the newsploitation specialists who were cranking up months of wall to wall coverage:

BOULDER, Colo. - Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene

“Just a week and a half after Karr’s arrest in Thailand was seen as a remarkable break in the sensational, decade-old case, prosecutors suggested in court papers that he was just a man with a twisted fascination with JonBenet who confessed to a crime he didn’t commit….”

Next? Or Next War?

In the real world, we are seeing more and more mainstream media accounts that seem to be verifying the early warnings by Scott Ritter and then Seymour Hersh that plans were in the hopper to make war on Iran. This is from the Miami Herald.

“Iran Could Be Next Target Of U.S. Experts said the possibility of U.S. military action lurks as tensions are likely to build if Iran ignores a deadline to abandon its enrichment of uranium.

Ron Hutcheson reports for the McClatchy News Service

”WASHINGTON - Iran could be next U.S. target, analysts say

The escalating confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program raises an unsettling question: Is Iran the next target for U.S. military action?
Some analysts think so….

Armed conflict isn’t imminent or inevitable, and it wouldn’t necessarily take the form of a full-scale invasion. Airstrikes alone might be the choice. But the possibility of military action lurks on the sidelines of the diplomatic dance that will play out over the coming months at the U.N. Security Council…”

IS THERE A CIVIL WAR OR IS IT A PARTITION SCHEME?

I write about the lack of media coverage in Iraq in a separate just posted commentary on Mediachannel this week. I was intrigued by this report by Al Jazeerah (not AlJazeera) which challenges the notion that there is a civil war. Theirs instead sees a planned partition of the country with orchestrated violence used to create chaos which will justify a division. Bear in mind that dividing countries is not a new strategy as we saw in post WW2 Korea and later in Vietnam.

”It is inaccurate to describe the war in Iraq as if it is fought between Muslim Shi’is and Muslim Sunnis, as the US corporate media have been trying hard to do.

“It is more accurate to describe it as fought between US-led forces and Iraqi resistance fighters. Even killing civilians is part of the war, as the evidence earlier demonstrated that Interior Ministry death
squads and British soldiers were caught either targeting or attempting to target civilians to make the war appear as if it is between Shi’is and Sunnis.

“This purported Shi’i-Sunni civil war in Iraq aims at distracting Iraqis and dividing their country into three regions, in preparation for a final partition and dismemberment of Iraq. Previous statements of Iraqi elected officials pointed fingers to death squads of the Interior Ministry.”

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2006%20News%20Archives/July/
9n/

A MISERABLE MILESTONE

ICH: “A miserable milestone was passed the other day. America’s (and Britain’s) disastrous war in Iraq has now lasted longer than the US involvement in the Second World War.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14736.htm

LEBANON LESSSONS?

As UN Secretary General pushes for a prisoner release in Lebanon, our military monitor Joe Dunphy raises a point I haven’t seen elsewhere:

This observation on Lebanon falls into the category of the law of unintended consequences. The force structures used by combatants in the Israel-Lebanon conflict bear a reasonably close relationship to the force structures used by the U.S. and allies in the War on Drugs in “Plan Columbia.” Publicly available information lists the FARC guerillas with a strength of about 17,000 fighters, and the Columbian government with a strength of about 30,000 troops. Also in the mix in the Plan Columbia war on drugs are about 3 groups, each 950 strong, of counter-terrorist trained contractors, such as employed by DynCorp. And AUC paramilitaries used by the AUC forces reportedly have killed about 1,560 people in the war on drugs in Columbia.

“Lesson learned: if paramilitaries in the drug trade in Columbia adopt the tunneling and other defensive techniques employed by Hezbullah in Lebanon, the human and financial costs of the drug war could increase dramatically, as well

LAW SUITS SEEK REPARATIONS IN FRANCE

”France and its national railway company, SNCF, face a deluge of compensation claims for their role in the deportation of Jews during the second world war.

“More than 200 families from France, Israel, Belgium, the US and Canada will launch suits this week against the French state and SNCF for colluding in the transport of Jews, political prisoners, homosexuals and Gypsies to the Nazi death camps during the German occupation.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1860222,00.html

T H E K A T R I N A A N N I V E R S A R Y

SAM SMITH: MICHAEL BROWN SAYS WHITE HOUSE WANTED HIM TO LIE ABOUT KATRINA

UPI - The ousted head of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency says the White House wanted him to lie about the response to Hurricane Katrina. Former Director Michael Brown told ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Sunday he stood by comments in a Playboy interview, and President Bush wanted him to take the heat for the bungling.

“The lie was that we were ready and that everything was working as a team. Behind the scenes, it wasn’t working at all,” Brown said. “There were political considerations going into all the discussions. There was the fact that New Orleans did not evacuate and the mayor (Ray Nagin) had no plan.” Brown said it was natural to “want to put the spin on that things are working the way they’re supposed to do. And behind the scenes, they’re not. Again, my biggest mistake was just not leveling with the American public and saying, ‘Folks, this isn’t working.’”

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/view_upi.php?StoryID=20060827-021802-1523r

BUSH: PROGRESS, PROGRESS, PROGRESS

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/29/us/nationalspecial/29bush.html?ex=1314504000&en=df2c6ebba091a87f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

CNN: “A year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region, parts of New Orleans scream recovery; others scream for it. On one side of the city, you can’t find a gas station intact. On the other, all three of Larry Flynt’s Hustler clubs are blinking on Bourbon Street.”

SOUTHERN INSTITUTE REPORT ON KATRINA

(http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=wbtp7xbab.0.4f4ebqbab.5slv9pbab.1691&ts=S0201&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.southernstudies.org)
and Southern Exposure

Katrina Timeline: Don’t Be Fooled

This week’s Katrina anniversary poses a huge vulnerability for Republicans as they head into the November elections. The White House has already started a massive PR campaign to spin the facts. Don’t be fooled. Think Progress has published a timeline laying them all out.

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015584.html

IN THESE TIMES: SDS, New and Improved

Over the first weekend of August, more squirrels were scampering through the Quads at the University of Chicago than students or professors. But from Aug. 4 to 7, students adorned with political pins and T-shirts transformed the drab front hall of Cobb Hall into a scene reminiscent of a political rally. For the first time in 37 years, the newly re-formed Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) exchanged ideas and strategies at a national convention, one that contained both contention and hope for the modern student left.”