Journalist's `Lovefest For Democracy'
Posted Monday, July 14, 2003 by vgdesign

Palast Takes On Bush, Media Before Enthusiastic Crowd - By KEVIN CANFIELD, The Hartford Courant

Greg Palast is not afraid to throw a rhetorical haymaker. During an hourlong talk at the University of Hartford Saturday, the best-selling author railed against network news outfits, made fun of Big Media and likened President Bush to a lesser primate.

An American-born investigative reporter who works for the Guardian newspaper of England and the BBC, Palast was greeted in rock star fashion by a crowd that filled the college's 199-seat Auerbach Auditorium. Accompanied by another 50 people who watched the proceedings on a monitor set up in the building's lobby, audience members rose to their feet and applauded heartily when the late-arriving writer ducked in out of the sun and reached the lectern.

It would be tough to describe him as an impartial journalist - he suggested that a chimp might have greater cognitive skills than George W. Bush - but Palast is a serious reporter. His book, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy," has been on The New York Times  paperback bestseller list for the past four months.

Still, as Palast wrote on his website recently, his career is "only a rumor in the U.S.A." But in England he is a respected voice of dissent, a reporter who often comes up with the documentation to back his claims, never taking a government official's "word for it." >>More

Radio Under Fire Over Free-Speech Clampdown
Posted Monday, July 14, 2003 by vgdesign

By Bill Holland, Billboard

Natalie Maines' controversial comments about President Bush are echoing ever louder in Congress and starting to rattle windows in the radio industry.

Cumulus Broadcasting -- which banned Maines' group, the Dixie Chicks, from all 50 of its country stations after her remarks at a London concert in March -- was the latest to feel the sting of a mounting backlash against media consolidation.

In congressional hearings held July 8, Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw led the charge against Cumulus and the radio business. He revealed his office had had death threats during the ban and he had uncovered evidence that the effort was "orchestrated" in part by "right-wing political" groups. >>More

A Crackdown Leading Nowhere
Posted Monday, July 14, 2003 by vgdesign

More Fines, Arbitrary Enforcement. When Will We Wise Up About Travel to Cuba?
By Alicia C. Shepard, Washington Post

Walk into a travel agency and you can book a trip to communist China or North Korea. But not to Cuba. After 40 years, the U.S. government still bans travel to Castro Country, although thousands of Americans have gone there anyway, aware that enforcement had become lax. Until George W. Bush hit town, that is.

Since Bush took office, some 1,226 Americans have received letters from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) threatening fines of up to the maximum of $55,000 for violating the travel ban by spending money in Cuba without a license. (The average fine is $7,500.) That's more than double the total during Bill Clinton's entire last term. Scores of others are being investigated.

But it's still a hit-or-miss proposition as to who gets pursued. Those most at risk are the ones who tell the truth about where they've been. In effect, the government's policy invites deceit.

To make matters worse, legal travel to Cuba just got harder. >>More

Bush Aides Now Say Claim on Uranium Was Accurate
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2003 by symbolman

WASHINGTON, July 13 — Senior Bush administration officials today adjusted their defense of President Bush's claim in his State of the Union Address that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa, insisting that the phrasing was accurate even if some of the underlying evidence was unsubstantiated.

In his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, Mr. Bush contended that Saddam Hussein was trying to develop a nuclear bomb. Among elements he cited to make his case was a statement that "the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

And Mr. Rumsfeld said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" that "it turns out that it's technically correct what the president said, that the U.K. does — did say that — and still says that. They haven't changed their mind, the United Kingdom intelligence people."

On the ABC News program "This Week," Mr. Rumsfeld added that "it didn't rise to the standard of a presidential speech, but it's not known, for example, that it was inaccurate. In fact, people think it was technically accurate.">> More

We need to ask a pertinent question once again. ARE THESE PEOPLE ON CRACK? I've seen six year olds that are better liars. Look at the slithering going on here by Rumsfeld alone - but Rice is completely PATHETIC. Either way NOT one of them is to be trusted - they should be fired and/or IMPEACHED from the top down.

CIA Doubted Uranium Report
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2003 by symbolman

Washington -- The CIA "from day one" was highly skeptical of reports that Iraq had been shopping for uranium ore in Africa, and the State Department also was highly suspicious, according to intelligence officials.

A key reason for the CIA's skepticism, according to a senior intelligence officer, was, "What do they need this [the ore] for? They've got tons of it already in Iraq."

Yet in an October National Intelligence Estimate the CIA understated its suspicions while the State Department, in a lengthy dissent in back of the 80-page report, concluded that the claims were probably bogus, the intelligence officials said. It was that document the White House says it relied on for a passage in President George W. Bush's State of the Union address in January.>> More

Americans concerned about media behemoths, poll shows
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2003 by symbolman

Washington — The more Americans learn about federal changes that lift restrictions on companies owning different media outlets in the same city, the less they like it, a new poll suggests.

The public has been increasingly concerned in recent years about the independence of the press. New rules passed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission allowing more concentrated ownership appear to have heightened those fears, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Half in that poll, 50 per cent, said they think allowing companies to own more broadcast and newspaper operations in the same city will have a negative effect. Only 10 per cent said that would have a positive effect.

About a third said in February that the concentrated ownership of media outlets in a city would have a negative effect. But few people at that time had been paying much attention to ongoing efforts to change the media ownership rules.

Seven in 10 in the new poll said they think news organizations are often influenced by powerful people and organizations.

"Over the last 20 years, people have had growing doubts about whether the press is really independent or influenced by powerful forces," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "They have growing concerns about that influence.">> More

PHOTOS SHOW BUSH REWRITING, REVISING SPEECH
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2003 by symbolman

OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE PIX INCLUDE CLOSE-UP OF BUSH "SKETCHING NOTES IN MARGIN," "REWRITING" SOTU ADDRESS

BUSH IN OVAL OFFICE "GIVING SPEECHWRITING TEAM A FEW POINTS" AFTER
"REVISING THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS"

The White House's propaganda site features numerous promotional photos of the Unelected Fraud engaging in various presidential-looking activities

A few of these have become much more interesting, in light of the revelations that Bush lied to the American people while delivering the State of the Union speech.

For the last few days, the administration has attempted to blame everyone except George W. Bush for the speech he delivered, and to portray the speech reviewing process as so messy and arbitrary that no one can remember who wrote or revised what, much less which members of the administration saw the speech.

Luckily, we remembered how impressed we were viewing the pix of an engaged and hands-on George W. Bush at the taxpayer-funded official White House site, as he participated closely in the SOTU speechwriting process in January.

We marveled at his competence and involvement, and the care he took in ensuring that no word would be uttered or information imparted to the American people without his personal approval.>> More

MediaWhoresOnline - or the "Horse" as those in the know call them - You gotta Love 'em! Check out the photos of our glorious leader making sure every word is GOLDEN - and remember that he was UNDER OATH in front of CONGRESS when he LIED, more than once in that speech. An Impeachable offense as we recall.

Bush lied in Sept 14 Radio Address
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2003 by symbolman

Bush lied in Sept 14 Radio Address - And it's on the White House site!

"Today this regime likely maintains stockpiles of chemical and biological agents, and is improving and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical and biological weapons. Today Saddam Hussein has the scientists and infrastructure for a nuclear weapons program, and has illicitly sought to purchase the equipment needed to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should his regime acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.">> More

I guess the CIA Boss doesn't vet their web site either - wonder how long this will be on the White House site? Tell your friends to save this page before it's gone down the Memory Hole.

CIA got uranium mention cut in Oct - Why Bush cited it in Jan. is unclear
Posted Sunday, July 13, 2003 by symbolman

By Walter Pincus and Mike Allen - THE WASHINGTON POST

July 13 — CIA Director George J. Tenet successfully intervened with White House officials to have a reference to Iraq seeking uranium from Niger removed from a presidential speech last October, three months before a less specific reference to the same intelligence appeared in the State of the Union address, according to senior administration officials.

TENET ARGUED personally to White House officials, including deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley, that the allegation should not be used because it came from only a single source, according to one senior official. Another senior official with knowledge of the intelligence said the CIA had doubts about the accuracy of the documents underlying the allegation, which months later turned out to be forged.

The new disclosure suggests how eager the White House was in January to make Iraq’s nuclear program a part of its case against Saddam Hussein even in the face of earlier objections by its own CIA director. It also appears to raise questions about the administration’s explanation of how the faulty allegations were included in the State of the Union speech.

Administration sources said White House officials, particularly those in the office of Vice President Cheney, insisted on including Hussein’s quest for a nuclear weapon as a prominent part of their public case for war in Iraq. Cheney had made the potential threat of Hussein having a nuclear weapon a central theme of his August 2002 speeches that began the public buildup toward war with Baghdad.>> More

A BOMBSHELL - THIS is Journalism Ladies and Gentlemen! A MUST READ - CHENEY is Dirty as HELL and had been LYING for MONTHS already - Impeach them from the top down and don't stop until This Nation is FREE again!

Seymour M. Hersh: WHO LIED TO WHOM?
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by vgdesign

Why did the Administration endorse a forgery about Iraq’s nuclear program?
The New Yorker, Issue of  2003-03-31

Last September 24th, as Congress prepared to vote on the resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to wage war in Iraq, a group of senior intelligence officials, including George Tenet, the Director of Central Intelligence, briefed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq’s weapons capability.

It was an important presentation for the Bush Administration. Some Democrats were publicly questioning the President’s claim that Iraq still possessed weapons of mass destruction which posed an immediate threat to the United States. Just the day before, former Vice-President Al Gore had sharply criticized the Administration’s advocacy of preëmptive war, calling it a doctrine that would replace “a world in which states consider themselves subject to law” with “the notion that there is no law but the discretion of the President of the United States.” A few Democrats were also considering putting an alternative resolution before Congress.

According to two of those present at the briefing, which was highly classified and took place in the committee’s secure hearing room, Tenet declared, as he had done before, that a shipment of high-strength aluminum tubes that was intercepted on its way to Iraq had been meant for the construction of centrifuges that could be used to produce enriched uranium.

The suitability of the tubes for that purpose had been disputed, but this time the argument that Iraq had a nuclear program under way was buttressed by a new and striking fact: the C.I.A. had recently received intelligence showing that, between 1999 and 2001, Iraq had attempted to buy five hundred tons of uranium oxide from Niger, one of the world’s largest producers. >>More

Sharon and the media
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by vgdesign

By Ari Jesner, The Guardian

When I was first based in the Middle East as a BBC correspondent 30 years ago, Israel was rightly proud of its position as the only country in the region from where journalists could report freely. Not any more. Under the Sharon government intimidation of reporters deemed "unfriendly" to Israel is routine and sanctioned by the government.

Two recent examples. A British TV correspondent resident in Israel returned from holiday with his wife and children. Despite the residency visa in his passport and his media credentials issued by the Israeli government, he was detained at the airport because his place of birth was shown in his passport as Iraq (his father had worked in the oil business). He was questioned aggressively and at length about his personal and professional life. Eventually, after the intervention of the government press office, he was allowed to rejoin his family and head for home.

A British cameraman, also resident in Israel, was detained for five hours as he was leaving the country on assignment and repeatedly told, "perhaps you are really one of those British terrorists who come here to blow up Jews". As a matter of course, Palestinian journalists working in Israel are harassed and have had their media accreditation withdrawn, including two highly respected correspondents working for Reuters.

The excuse for the latest outburst against the BBC is their reporting of Israel's possession of weapons of mass destruction. The undeniable facts are that Israel possesses them, is continuing to develop them and refuses to sign any international treaties covering such weapons. >>More

American journalism — to what depth?
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by vgdesign

By Ahmed Bouzid, Jordan Times

IF YOU want to measure the extent to which the standards of American journalism have sunk, your best barometer is no doubt the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. There you will find not only the usual lack of investigative backbone that now prevails across the American journalism landscape, or the remarkable self-censorship with which the American media go about “covering the news,” but, at times, also encounter what can only be described as an astonishing and breathtaking open refusal to live up to even the most basic responsibilities of being a journalist or running a newspaper.

The latest example of such total professional failure came in the form of an editor at the international desk of The Charlotte Observer, who was not only willing to publish a map that showed the Golan Heights as part of Israel, Jerusalem as its capital (depicted with a star, while other cities with a round dot), and occupied Palestinian territories highlighted as territories under “Palestinian control,” but had no shame pointing out that the paper published the map because both the Associated Press and National Geographic had done the same! >>More

The Pens of August:  Cry 'Havoc' and Get Paid Considerably More
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by vgdesign

By MARGIE BURNS, The Progressive Populist

The rapid-eye-blink crowd in the media is still trying vainly to pretend that Iraq possessed massive weapons. They are handicapped by lack of evidence, but they're used to that. Last August there was no crisis in Iraq, yet rightwing media from top to bottom began boosting a US invasion of Iraq.

George Will alone put out four columns in August 2002, aside from television commentary, pushing war: "A Vote for War" on Aug. 9, "A Mideast Specter" on Aug. 15, "Skeptics and Sketchy War Plans" on Aug. 22, and "Improvised War Etiquette" Aug. 29.

Charles Krauthammer weighed in on Aug.19 with "The Raines Campaign," attacking the New York Times for reporting doubts on war, following up with a column a week for the next SEVEN weeks, supporting war in either Iraq or Afghanistan. To be sure, Krauthammer had inveighed against Iraq earlier, but as part of his usual rotation. His sustained campaign against Iraq began in August.

The campaign was evidently kicked off by an article titled "The Coming War with Saddam," in William Kristol's Weekly Standard  magazine. The article was flagged by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) >>More

Bush roadshow excluded SA journalists
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by vgdesign

By John Battersby - The Saturday Star, Johannesburg

The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) has written to the United States Ambassador protesting against selective media coverage of this week's visit to South Africa by United States President George Bush.

The complaints relate to a selective accreditation system which excluded all South African journalists and South African-based foreign correspondents from gaining access to Bush's visit to the Ford plant in Pretoria on Wednesday and a briefing on the trip by US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday night.

In the letter sent on July 8, Sanef chairperson Henry Jeffreys said that it had come to the attention of Sanef that some parts of the Bush visit would be open only to the US media. >>More

Trading on fear: Selling 'Brand America' at home
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by vgdesign

From the start, the invasion of Iraq was seen in the US as a marketing project. Selling 'Brand America' abroad was an abject failure; but at home, it worked. Manufacturers of 4x4s, oil prospectors, the nuclear power industry, politicians keen to roll back civil liberties - all seized the moment to capitalise on the war. PR analysts Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber explain how it worked - The Guardian

"The United States lost the public relations war in the Muslim world a long time ago," Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American News, said in October 2001. "They could have the prophet Mohammed doing public relations and it wouldn't help."

At home in the US, the propaganda war has been more effective. And a key component has been fear: fear of terrorism and fear of attack.

Early scholars who studied propaganda called it a "hypodermic needle approach" to communication, in which the communicator's objective was to "inject" his ideas into the minds of the target population. Since propaganda is often aimed at persuading people to do things that are not in their own best interests, it frequently seeks to bypass the rational brain altogether and manipulate us on a more primitive level, appealing to emotional symbolism. >>More

CNN - 93% Don't trust Bush as far as they could throw him.
Posted Saturday, July 12, 2003 by symbolman

"Ducker" Carlson is let off the Hook by Classy Lady
Posted Friday, July 11, 2003 by symbolman

That's when the senator herself popped on the set, in Washington, with a giant brown shoe made of chocolate cake.

"It's a right-wing wingtip," Mrs. Clinton said to loud applause. She gave him a copy of the memoir, signed: "Tucker, you're number one million in my book."

"It was a trip," Mr. Carlson said in an interview later. "I had no idea she was coming. My producer had said: `We're changing the segment. Ignore your scripts.' I said: `Well, gee, Sam, it's live television. I'd kind of like to know.' Next thing I know, this woman who looks exactly like Hillary Clinton is standing there."

One aspect of Mrs. Clinton will soon begin looking different: her bank account. After the book sells about 1.3 million copies, Mrs. Clinton's $8 million advance will have been met, and she will begin earning 15 percent of sales, or about $4.20 per book sold, her lawyer, Robert Barnett, said.

CNN replayed the shoe walk-on several times. Mr. Carlson, who called the book "kind of dopey, kind of Midwestern-fifth-grade-girl-scout-leader," said he was impressed with Mrs. Clinton in person.

"I'm easily charmed in general and I'm particularly won over by witty inscriptions, and she had a good inscription," he said. "If Pol Pot came on the show and was charming and witty and good humored and had a good inscription, I'd say, `Well, Pol Pot, charming guy.' ">> More

Of course he'll be trashing her within a week because he's a lying weasel girlie man punk who has no class. And Symbolman would be happy to deliver that in person. You've lost ALL veracity "Ducker" Carlson. Like you had any to begin with. Try to whine a little less loud at least. Sissy.

Give Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz the boot
Posted Friday, July 11, 2003 by vgdesign

By H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe

SECRETARY OF Defense Donald Rumsfeld stands at the head of the table. He has outmaneuvered all his Cabinet rivals and taken over many of the functions that used to belong to the State Department, the CIA, even the Justice Department. He dominates the Cabinet as no secretary of defense has done since Robert McNamara. He is also articulate, refreshingly if undiplomatically blunt, with a no-nonsense approach that is at times both witty and exactly to the point.

His deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, is often mentioned as the most brilliant person in government. He is perhaps the most influential deputy in modern times, at the top of his game. He has seen his vision of toppling Saddam Hussein fulfilled, and he is an intellectual force behind a whole new way of looking at US foreign policy.

But for all of that, both should be fired. Here's why.

The Iraq campaign, of which they were in charge, has been grossly mishandled. I use the word campaign because the overthrow of Saddam's army and regime was only the opening phase in what has to be, if this country is to maintain any credibility, an open and democratic society in Iraq. This may yet happen, but the current leadership of the Pentagon, through a fatal combination of hubris and incompetence, has so far bungled the job.

If there were any accountability in the Bush administration, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz would be asked to resign. >>More

Army Report: Attack on the 507th Maintenance Company
Posted Friday, July 11, 2003 by vgdesign

Attack on the 507th Maintenance Company, 23 March 2003, An Nasiriyah, Iraq

The attack on the 507th Maintenance Company at An Nasiriyah was a tragedy not unlike those that have occurred in past conflicts in which this nation has engaged. Although violence and loss of life are realities of combat for Soldiers, the United States Army is committed to understanding this particular event in an effort to learn lessons and provide a means of closure for the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice. The element of the 507th Maintenance Company that bravely fought through An Nasiriyah found itself in a desperate situation due to a navigational error caused by the combined effects of the operational pace, acute fatigue, isolation and the harsh environmental conditions. The tragic results of this error placed the Soldiers of the 507th Maintenance Company in a torrent of fire from an adaptive enemy employing asymmetrical tactics. >>Read the full report