Tragic price of contempt for free press
Posted Friday, July 18, 2003 by vgdesign

A man may have died as a result of the government's contempt for one of the cornerstones of democracy - a free and independent press - By Steven Barnett, Media Guardian

One of the fundamental differences between genuine democracies and totalitarian regimes is a free press.

For a free press to operate effectively, governments must accept that their decisions and policies will be challenged, interrogated, investigated and analysed by people acting independently and using whatever legal means are available to them. It can be desperately uncomfortable, and sometimes even unfair. Very occasionally, as for Richard Nixon over Watergate, it can be politically fatal. But the alternative is far worse.

The case of David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence weapons expert who ministers "outed" as the source of Andrew Gilligan's story that the government exaggerated Iraq's weapons capability, raises crucial questions about the operation of a free press and the relationship between government and journalists. >>More

BBC putting critical eye on Lynch rescue
Posted Friday, July 18, 2003 by vgdesign

TV Preview by David Zurawik, Baltimore Sun Television Critic

With the White House and Pentagon facing mounting criticism over their handling of the war in Iraq, what's one more television report attacking their credibility?

Perhaps not all that much when measured against the sheer mass of media questions as to whether there really were stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to obtain uranium. But War Spin: Jessica Lynch, a British report airing tonight on BBC America, does take allegations that the U.S. government purposefully misled the public to a new level that warrants consideration.

The report, which features BBC journalist John Kampfner, begins its assault (and that's what it is) on the Pentagon with the highly publicized rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch on April 2. The 19-year-old soldier from West Virginia became a symbol of American bravery during the war after she was wounded, captured and then rescued. >>More

Pentagon retaliates against GIs who spoke out on TV
Posted Friday, July 18, 2003 by vgdesign

By Robert Collier, San Francisco Chronicle

... On Wednesday morning, when the ABC news show reported from Fallujah, where the division is based, the troops gave the reporters an earful. One soldier said he felt like he'd been "kicked in the guts, slapped in the face." Another demanded that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld quit.

The retaliation from Washington was swift.

"It was the end of the world," said one officer Thursday. "It went all the way up to President Bush and back down again on top of us. At least six of us here will lose our careers."

First lesson for the troops, it seemed: Don't ever talk to the media "on the record" -- that is, with your name attached -- unless you're giving the sort of chin-forward, everything's-great message the Pentagon loves to hear. >>More

The Reliable Source: Drudging Up Personal Details
Posted Friday, July 18, 2003 by vgdesign

Some folks in the White House were apparently hopping mad when ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman did a story on Tuesday's "World News Tonight" about the plummeting morale of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.

So angry, in fact, that the next day, a White House operative alerted cyber-gossip Matt Drudge to the fact that Kofman is not only openly gay, he's Canadian.

Yesterday Drudge told us he was unaware of the ABC story until "someone from the White House communications shop tipped me to it" along with a profile of Kofman in the gay-oriented magazine the Advocate.

On Wednesday, for 6 hours 38 minutes, the Drudge Report  bannered Kofman's widely quoted ABC story -- in which enlisted people questioned the Army's credibility and one irked soldier went on camera to call on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign -- and linked to the Advocate piece with the understated headline "ABC NEWS REPORTER WHO FILED TROOP COMPLAINT STORY IS CANADIAN." >>More

>>Read/Watch Jeffrey Kofman's Report from Fallujah

CHENEY ENERGY TASK FORCE DOCUMENTS FEATURE MAP OF IRAQI OILFIELDS
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

Judicial Watch

(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and “Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.” The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org.

The Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) documents likewise feature a map of each country’s oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals. There are supporting charts with details of the major oil and gas development projects in each country that provide information on the projects, costs, capacity, oil company and status or completion date. >>More

Impeach CHENEY First!

Bush launches magazine to teach young Arabs to love America
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington, The Independent

So what if George Bush is threatening to invade your country? At least the kids in America have nice, white teeth and listen to the same music as you. Isn't that enough for you to love the good 'ol US of A?

That, at least, appears to be the message of a glossy new magazine published by the Bush administration and going on sale across the Middle East this week, targeting young people with a mix of features, celebrity profiles and music. The Arabic-language Hi  magazine is US propaganda 2003-style. "We're fighting a war of ideas as much as a war on terror," said Tucker Eskew, director of the White House's Office of Global Communications.

Hi, a monthly, will be available for the equivalent of around $2 (£1.25) in Lebanon, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Cyprus and several Gulf states. Saudi Arabia - home to 15 of the 19 hijackers on 11 September and where drug dealers are publicly beheaded - has not yet been deemed ready to get Hi. >>More

"America's Message to the World" >>Office of Global Communications

The Consequences of Believing Your Own Propaganda
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

By Mamadou Chinyelu, The Black Commentator

A new mental disorder has been born. (Either that or its an old disorder with a new application.) Like all newborns, this new mental disorder needs to be named. Its official name should be a catchy, clinical-sounding term. The term should contain reference to each of the multiple characteristics that converge with one another to form this mental disorder. It should be self-definitional and worthy of its uniqueness in human behavior. Those characteristics include (1) ill-fated policy, because that’s the symptom of this mental disorder; (2) self-delusion, because that’s the cause of the disorder; (3) collective, because this behavioral disorder has reached epidemic proportions; and (4) nationalistic, because the common denominator of those in this collective is national origin. Space for this new category should be reserved for inclusion in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Until a more media-savvy term is coined, perhaps its working title can be National Collective Self-Delusional Foreign Policy. And since heads of state, their advisers and citizens of any country can suffer under this mental disorder, its name should be generic, rather than specific to any one nation-state. Therefore, “U.S.” will not be included in its name. However, to mark the point on the historical timeline at which this mental disorder was discovered and to honor its most famous victim, it’s only fair that it be nicknamed The George W. Bush Self-Delusional Syndrome, or, for short, Bush SS; or, if that’s not short enough, BSS.

In the next edition of the DSM , this new category of mental disorder, Bush SS, should be perfectly placed between two new companion disorders; that is, (1) Those Who Laugh At Their Own Jokes; and (2) Those Who Bask In The Smelling Of Their Own Broken Wind. And it can be cross-referenced with Those Who Don’t Know When To Quit. >>More

Media Underplays U.S. Death Toll in Iraq
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

Soldiers Dead Since May Is 3 Times Official Count - By Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher

Any way you look at it, the news is bad enough. According to Thursday's press and television reports, 33 U.S. soldiers have now died in combat since President Bush declared an end to the major fighting in the war on May 2. This, of course, is a tragedy for the men killed and their families, and a problem for the White House.

But actually the numbers are much worse -- and rarely reported by the media.

According to official military records, the number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq since May 2 is actually 85. This includes a staggering number of non-combat deaths. Even if killed in a non-hostile action, these soldiers are no less dead, their families no less aggrieved. And it's safe to say that nearly all of these people would still be alive if they were still back in the States.

Nevertheless, the media continues to report the much lower figure of 33 as if those are the only deaths that count. >>More

>>Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

BIG MEDIA LOVEFEST: Moguls pick up good vibrations -- plus profits
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

By JOHN GORMAN, Cleveland Free Times

It's the summer of love for the country's leading media moguls and it appears they'll be celebrating all season long. A few weeks back, they took their love-in to a Chicago cable-TV convention for a public display of their affection. Competitors? Not these guys. We're dealing with commercial media socialism here. It's all love, peace and profit.

Their carnal love fest tour continued on to Sun Valley, Idaho, last week at investment banker Herb Allen's version of a financial Plato's Retreat.

Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, at 79 still feeling a bit frisky after his recent marriage to a 40-something New York schoolteacher, took the podium to gush over his competitors. Redstone did shout outs to News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, Disney's Michael Eisner, AOL Time Warner's Richard Parsons, Comcast's Brian Roberts and InterActiveCorp.'s Barry Diller, among others.

"These are smart guys," swooned Sumner. "In fact, this conference is brimming with brilliant men and women." He was echoing the joy-of-love comment made in Chicago from his number two, Mel Karmazin, "I can't imagine being a competitor with any of these guys." >>More

July 17, 1968: U.S. and the Ba'ath stage Iraq Coup
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

A FRONTLINE interview with Said K. Aburish, author of "Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge"

There was a coup in Iraq in 1963. What do we know about the U.S. involvement in that coup?

The U.S. involvement in the coup against Kassem in Iraq in 1963 was substantial. There is evidence that CIA agents were in touch with army officers who were involved in the coup. There is evidence that an electronic command center was set up in Kuwait to guide the forces who were fighting Kassem. There is evidence that they supplied the conspirators with lists of people who had to be eliminated immediately in order to ensure success. The relationship between the Americans and the Ba'ath Party at that moment in time was very close indeed. And that continued for some time after the coup. And there was an exchange of information between the two sides. For example it was one of the first times that the United States was able to get certain models of Mig fighters and certain tanks made in the Soviet Union. That was the bribe. That was what the Ba'ath had to offer the United States in return for their help in eliminating Kassem.

Do we know to what extent Saddam Hussein was involved in the killings when he came back from Cairo?

I have documented over 700 people who were eliminated, mostly on an individual basis, after the 1963 coup. And they were eliminated based on lists supplied by the CIA to the Ba'ath Party. So the CIA and the Ba'ath were in the business of eliminating communists and leftists who were dangerous to the Ba'ath's takeover.

Jumping forward a few years to 1967 and the Arab-Israeli conflict, we've heard that the Soviets then looked to Baghdad in terms of gaining influence in the Middle East. And the Ba'ath Party also wants to get back into power. Describe in the run-up to the 1968 coup, the Cold War dynamics of what was going on in the Middle East, and in particular Iraq, and how the Ba'ath Party was able to use those dynamics to help them get back into power.

There were two things happening within Iraq at that time. They were developing their own oil and very close to giving the concessions for huge new oil fields, to the USSR and France. And the price of sulpher had shot up so greatly that they were about to mine the sulpher mines in the north and sell it in the world market.

The United States didn't want either to happen. The United States wanted the oil for American oil companies; they wanted the sulpher for themselves. They thought that if Iraq went to the Soviet Union or France, Iraq would be lost to them. In this they were joined by the Ba'ath Party. The Party used the concessions for oil and sulpher as a bargaining point to endear itself once again to America. >>More

Happy Anniversary!

The Avenger: Sy Hersh, Then and Now
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

By Scott Sherman, Columbia Journalism Review

On a humid morning in late April, a group of students from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism attended a two-hour seminar at ABC News in Washington. The topic was state secrets and anti-leak legislation, and the session was organized by Richard Wald, a professor of journalism at Columbia.

At 11:05, the guest speakers for the second hour — Seymour Hersh and his old friend, the journalist David Wise — stride into the conference room. Hersh is laughing and making jokes. He is wearing a jacket and tie, but his belt buckle is slightly awry.

Wald, the moderator, begins by summarizing the remarks of the previous speaker — Chris Ford, a smooth, clean-cut, recently departed general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who helped draft the anti-leak legislation that some have referred to as the “official secrets act.” Ford himself has left the room. “Ford’s been saying leaks are terrible,” Wald says.

Hersh is rocking back and forth in his swivel chair, taking in the professor’s summary. “Here are two guys,” Wald continues, “who don’t exactly live off leaks, but have in the past used them to great advantage for the general public. I throw the floor open to questions.”

Hersh’s jokes have ceased. Now he’s prepared for combat. His voice is full of rough edges. >>More

WILLIAM SAFIRE: Localism's Last Stand
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

General managers of 75 stations owned and operated by the Big Four television networks swept into a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday. Big Media's lobbying purpose was to squelch the bipartisan movement in Congress to nullify the Federal Communications Commission's cave-in to the networks' lust to gobble up more independent stations.

Before the vote, the majority whip Roy Blunt, on Tom DeLay's orders, leaned on G.O.P. members to allow the F.C.C. cave-in to be financed. The National Association of Broadcasters, which had been supporting its many independent members against the networks' expansion, flip-flopped in panic because NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox threatened to bolt the lobby.

But to everyone's amazement, the networks' power play was foiled. Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia urged his G.O.P. colleagues to vote their consciences, and an amendment to hold the cap on a huge conglomerate's ownership to 35 percent of the national TV audience was passed by a vote of 40 to 25.

Here is what made this happen. Take the force of right-wingers upholding community standards who are determined to defend local control of the public airwaves; combine that with the force of lefties eager to maintain diversity of opinion in local media; add in the independent voters' mistrust of media manipulation; then let all these people have access to their representatives by e-mail and fax, and voilą! Congress awakens to slap down the power grab. >>More

>>Take 3 Minutes to Stop Media Monopoly: Phone It In.

Hill forms united front against new FCC rules
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2003 by vgdesign

By Brooks Boliek, Hollywood Reporter

Congressional action over the FCC's decision to make it easier for media companies to get bigger is heating up as a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Tuesday that vetoes the measure and a key House committee takes up similar legislation today.

The moves on both sides of the Capitol reflect the growing uneasiness lawmakers have with the FCC's decision and have forced the broadcast industry lobby into high gear.

While the Senate legislation would institute the little-used Congressional Review Act to undo the legislation, the House plan would reverse the FCC's decision to raise the television audience-reach ceiling to 45%. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., plans to offer the amendment, which would effectively set the cap at its former 35% level for a year.

It was unclear if Obey's amendment would win approval by the committee, but broadcast industry executives were patrolling the Capitol in an effort to convince lawmakers to reject the attempt.

Lobbyists for different networks said it becomes more and more difficult to stop the legislation as it works its way through the system. They said they were appealing to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ohio, and Majority Leader Rep. Tom Delay, R-Texas, to head off the attempt. >>More

>>Take 3 Minutes to Stop Media Monopoly: Phone It In.

Ads say Bush lied about Iraq
Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2003 by symbolman

By Brian Faler, Washington Post, 7/15/2003

WASHINGTON -- With questions mounting as to why President Bush said, wrongly, in his State of the Union address that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa, the online advocacy groups MoveOn.org and Win Without War are launching a television advertising campaign accusing him of misleading Americans.

The ads feature unflattering, green-tinted photos of the president, along with a graphic display of his controversial accusation, which the administration has since said was based on faulty intelligence. ''George Bush told us Iraq was a nuclear threat,'' the announcer says. ''He said they were trying to purchase uranium. . . . Now there's evidence we were misled. And almost every day, Americans are dying in Iraq. We need the truth, not a coverup.''

The spots direct viewers to a new website that the two groups have unveiled, www.misleader.org. The site has a petition urging Congress to create an independent commission to investigate.>> SEE THE AD HERE

Join Win Without War this weekend in San Francisco at the "WAR IS OVER - Create Peace" Fundraiser - go >> HERE to learn more about it!Take Back the Media will be there in force!

Democrats.com Launches MadGeorge.us Web Site to Declare Bush Insane Under the 25th Amendment
Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2003 by symbolman

In response to George W. Bush's declaration that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "wouldn't let [inspectors] in," Democrats.com has launched a Web site to declare Bush insane under the 25th Amendment, which allows a temporarily incapacitated President to step down voluntarily, or by a majority of the Cabinet.

The site is at MadGeorge.us.

Bush made his remarks to reporters on July 14 with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his side, in response to a question from the Washington Post.

As quoted on the White House Web site, Bush said: "The fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power..."

According to Democrats.com co-founder Bob Fertik, "George W. Bush's statement defies any rational explanation. Everyone in the world knows that Saddam Hussein allowed a fully-equipped team of UN inspectors to comb every inch of his country - including previously off-limits Presidential palaces - for four full months."

Fertik said, "It is impossible to believe that Bush has forgotten the inspectors so quickly, or that he misspoke on an issue of such historic importance. The only conclusion we can draw is that Bush has lost touch with reality - in other words, he has gone mad," he added.>> More

Mark Morford: Nothing Left To Lie About
Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2003 by vgdesign

With BushCo reaming the nation on just about every possible front, is implosion imminent?

And the lies, the flagrant GOP bitch slappings of the American public, the maniacal jabs straight in eye of truth with the icepick of utter BS, have just reached some sort of critical mass, some sort of saturation point of absurdity and pain and ridiculousness and you just have to stand up and applaud.

Really. It's almost as if you should cheer the invidiousness, it is so spectacular, unprecedented, the tower of lies reaching the point where you, Jaded and Benumbed American Citizen, are forced to either recoil and ignore and deny, succumb and scream and laugh, or, like Bush himself, just sort of stand there, wide eyed, dumfounded, blinking hard, looking more blank and confused than ever, as the unified BushCo front begins to gloriously unravel.

This much we now know, as compiled by the CIA and the U.N. and U.S. military leaders and Bush's own teams of experts and scientists and lackeys and pretty much anyone with any sort of common sense or astute observation as yet unclouded and unmisled by the raging masturbatory pro-war gropings of, say, Fox News. A brief summary: >>More

The press gives Bush a free ride on his lies
Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2003 by vgdesign

By Robert Kuttner, The Boston Globe

... The op-ed pages are intended for the expression of opinion. But in the Bush era, much of the reporting and analysis that should be Page 1 news are treated as if they were mere opinion.

Normally the press is not reluctant to challenge the lies of a president. The press hardly shrank from this challenge in the Vietnam and Watergate eras. And much of the press, overzealously, made a crusade of the Whitewater real estate affair, virtually all of which turned out to be a phony. Poor Al Gore got toasted for minor exaggerations.

But Bush gets a free pass time after time. The press holds back partly because of America's vulnerability to terrorism, which Bush's handlers exploit shamelessly. The administration is also very effective at pressuring and isolating reporters who criticize Bush, so working reporters bend over backwards to play fair. And the administration benefits from a stage-managed right-wing media machine that has no counterpart on the liberal left.

The press has even stopped making a fuss over the fact that this president has all but stopped holding press conferences. In his Africa trip, Bush intervened to limit questions, even as his African presidential hosts were indicating that press questions were welcome.

Investigations of administration deceptions about how many jobs the tax cuts will create or the actual effects on children of high-stakes testing combined with funding cuts or the saga of how the Pentagon tried to take over the CIA - these are not opinions. They are what journalism is all about. >>More

Losing Faith: The 2nd Brigade of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division
Posted Wednesday, July 16, 2003 by vgdesign

By Jeffrey Kofman in Fallujah, Iraq - ABC News

The sergeant at the 2nd Battle Combat Team Headquarters pulled me aside in the corridor. "I've got my own 'Most Wanted' list," he told me.

He was referring to the deck of cards the U.S. government published, featuring Saddam Hussein, his sons and other wanted members of the former Iraqi regime.

"The aces in my deck are Paul Bremer, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush and Paul Wolfowitz," he said.
...
"If Donald Rumsfeld were sitting here in front of us, what would you say to him?" I asked a group of soldiers who gathered around a table, eager to talk to a visiting reporter.

"If he was here," said Pfc. Jason Punyahotra, "I would ask him why we're still here, why we've been told so many times and it's changed."

In the back of the group, Spc. Clinton Deitz put up his hand. "If Donald Rumsfeld was here," he said, "I'd ask him for his resignation." >>More

The Rest of Your Words, Mr. Bush, Are Also A Problem
Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2003 by symbolman

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY - by Perri Green

POTUS SOTU:

President Bush says he's "moved on" and that the "case is closed" with regards to those "sixteen words" in his SOTU.

Fine. What about these 71 from the same speech?

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas."

To date, not a single UAV has been found, or drop of CBWs, or any munitions capable of delivering said weapons.

Is the CIA responsible for those words as well?>> More

BUZZFLASH - Always First with the GOODS. A Must READ. One more Question along these lines - "HEY BUSH - WHO WROTE YOUR SPEECH? WE WANT THEIR NAME."