JUSTICE IN AMERICA???

CAMDEN, N.J. – AP: Five Muslim immigrants were convicted Monday of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in a case that tested the FBI’s post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist conspiracies in their earliest stages. The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April.

The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of attempted murder, after prosecutors acknowledged the men were probably months away from an attack and did not necessarily have a specific plan. Four defendants were also convicted of weapons charges.

The federal jury deliberated for 38 hours over six days….

Defense lawyers argued that the alleged plot was all talk — that the men weren’t seriously planning anything and that they were manipulated and goaded by two paid FBI informants.

Faten Shnewer, the mother of defendant Mohamad Shnewer, said the informants should be the ones in jail. “Not my son and his friends. It’s not right, it’s not justice,” she said after the verdict. The government “sent somebody to push him to say something; that’s it.”

U.N. calls Mugabe “a mad dictator.”

GENEVA (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is “a mad dictator” who has lost all sense of reality, a United Nations human rights expert said on Monday.

The only way Mugabe can be removed from power is for Europe to convince his “great protector South Africa” to withdraw all support for him, Jean Ziegler, an adviser to the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, told Swiss Radio.

Mugabe, Ziegler declared, “is a former hero of the liberation struggle who has lost all sense of reality…. and become a mad dictator.” He added: “The horror in Zimbabwe today is absolutely intolerable.”

The comments from the Swiss sociologist, who has little sympathy for the Western countries most critical of Mugabe, reflected the despair over Zimbabwe on the rights council.

NOW SHOE THROWER ACCUSED OF SLITTING THROATS

BAGHDAD – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved Monday to undermine the popularity of the Iraqi who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, saying the journalist confessed that the mastermind of the attack was a militant known for slitting his victims’ throats.

Tensions over the case also spilled into parliament, as a move to oust the abrasive Sunni speaker delayed a key decision on whether non-U.S. foreign troops will be allowed to stay in Iraq beyond New Year’s Eve.

Al-Maliki said that in a letter of apology to him, Muntadhar al-Zeidi wrote that a known militant had induced him to throw the shoes.

“He revealed … that a person provoked him to commit this act, and that person is known to us for slitting throats,” al-Maliki said, according to the prime minister’s Web site. The alleged instigator was not named and neither al-Maliki nor any of his officials would elaborate.

Al-Zeidi’s brother Dhargham said that it was “unfair” of al-Maliki to make the allegation about the throat-slitter and described the prime minister as “a sectarian man who is destroying the Iraqi people.”

Uday al-Zaidi, a brother of Iraqi journalist Munthadar al-Zaidi who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush, talks at his home in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Dec. 22, 2008. The apology letter from the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush was written against his will after he was tortured in detention, his brother said Monday. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Earlier, another brother said he met the journalist in prison and that he had expressed no regret for throwing the shoes.

“He told me that he has no regret for what he did and that he would do it again,” Uday al-Zeidi told The Associated Press.

Guardian: Bush shoe-thrower ‘tortured into writing letter of apology’

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush was tortured into writing a letter of apology, his brother said today.

Muntazer al-Zaidi was wrestled to the ground after throwing his shoes during a news conference held by the US president and the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, on 14 December.

The investigating judge in the case said last week that Zaidi, who will stand trial on 31 December, was beaten around the face and eyes. Zaidi’s brother, Uday, said the journalist suffered worse injuries, including a missing tooth and cigarette burns to his ears, and would sue.

From Cedric’s mix:

No offense to Dana Perino — who got hit with a boom mike during the incident (thanks to the Secret Service) — but when the White House is showing more maturity and perspective than others in the international playground, there is something seriously wrong.

CBS adds, “Zeidi, 29, has been working for Al-Baghdadiya since it launched in 2005, reports CBS News’ Khaled Wassef in London. Co-workers describe him as a rather quiet and composed. Zeidi has been arrested before, in error, by American forces and was let go, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer. This time, his family has been told he faces years in jail.”

For a shoe-ing. For a shoe-ing?

Free Calls to America From Almost Anywhere

In trying times like these, every little bit helps, even if it’s just saving the price of a phone call. CallingAmerica.com is a new ad-supported Web service that lets you make phone calls to any number in the United States from any computer with a Web browser and a broadband connection.

The service, which begins Thursday, requires you to view a short ad before you place the call. The audio is played through the browser, and the site uses your computer’s microphone to transmit what you say.

There is a limit to the fun, however. Unregistered users can make calls of up to two minutes; registration – which is also free – gives you unlimited calls of up to 15 minutes. While it’s not as versatile as other Internet calling services like Skype or Vonage, it is enough to make a few quick calls while on the road without racking up long-distance charges.

Most important, the service works domestically and all over the world. That means you can call the United States free from any cybercafe or Internet-enabled computer virtually anywhere. While it might not be as cozy as a call from a phone booth in London, the service is certainly cheaper.

LETTERS

Hi Danny,

Here’s an interesting analysis from Stratfor on the occasion of the passing of Mark Felt: The Death of Deep Throat and the Crisis of Journalism

On the one hand, sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander. Nixon ruthlessly deployed the sleazy FBI machinery against protest groups and leaders of every stripe. So it turned around and bit him on the ass. Big deal. But on the other hand, many have bemoaned the absence of a Woodward-Bernstein to courageously investigate and blow the lid off the Bush-Cheney lies prior to the Iraq War.

From the Stratfor piece it would appear that the real Woodward-Bernstein were also used by a slick Washington insider who utilized leaks as skillfully as the soon (but not soon enough) to be former White House occupants fed the Judith Millers et al.

This is the whole problem with anonymous sources. The reader has no way to know whether this is a person with an agenda or an axe to grind. On the other hand, there are genuine whistleblowers who risk everything to expose government wrongdoing whose identities have to be protected or they would not come forward. It’s hard to figure out a workable solution to this, and by even trying one naively assumes that the media aren’t simply the pawns of the corporate elites to begin with.

Get some rest over the holidays. Then — back to work! The struggle is only beginning.

Peace,
Mary

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE VIDEO DAY — Melody Gardot – Worrisome Heart

h/t to reader David McWilliams in Atlanta

Ok, that’s my take for today, the stories that are and are not making news. Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated. Send your comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org