International aid arrives as Algeria quake toll tops
1,600
Saturday May 24, 4:41 AM
Algeria's prime minister warned that the official provisional
figure of 1,600 dead in Wednesday's earthquake was bound to rise,
while exhausted rescue teams still clawed through mountains of
rubble in a hunt for the living.
"The toll, alas, is going to get worse," premier Ahmed Ouyahia
told a news conference, explaining that the heavy loss of life was
due to the high population density in the hardest-hit areas.
Over 7,200 have also been reported injured, while hundreds are
listed as still missing, presumably trapped in buildings that
collapsed in the shock...
Blix casts doubt on WMDs
The Guardian
Friday May 23, 2003
The chief UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said he was starting
to suspect Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction in advance of
the war on Iraq, a German newspaper reported today.
"I am obviously very interested in the question of whether or
not there were weapons of mass destruction, and I am beginning to
suspect there possibly were none," Mr Blix told the Berlin daily
Der Tagesspiegel.
If that were the case, he said, Iraq's evasive behaviour in
recent years could be due to Saddam Hussein's fixation with Iraqi
honour and a wish to dictate the conditions under which people
could enter the country...
Congress Questions "Existence" Of Iraq's
WMDs
"This could conceivably be the greatest intelligence hoax of
all time," said Harman
WASHINGTON, May 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As
the lack of hard evidence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction (WMDs) has been a thorn in the side of the U.S.-led
forces in post-war Iraq, the Congress on Friday, May 23, demanded
CIA to determine whether the U.S. intelligence community erred in
its pre-war assessments of Iraq's weapons programs or links with
al-Qaeda network.
[...] "The committee wants to ensure that the intelligence
analysis relayed to our policymakers from the intelligence
community was accurate, unbiased and timely," said the letter,
signed by committee vice-chairman Porter Goss, a Republican, and
committee member Jane Harman, a California Democrat.
[...] In the Senate, as well, Democrats were attacking U.S.
intelligence services, whose performance, said John Rockefeller of
West Virginia, had been "wholly unimpressive."
Rockefeller called for internal investigations by the Pentagon
and CIA to determine whether the Bush government had been
manipulating documents to show that Iraq had tried to buy uranium
from Niger for its nuclear program while the CIA was denying
it...
Expert questions authenticity of al-Qaeda
tape
COPENHAGEN: A Danish terrorism expert on Thursday questioned the
authenticity of a taped message attributed to al-Qaeda which
threatened Norway, saying the speaker meant Denmark but made a
mistake.
Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, on Wednesday
called on Muslims to carry out more suicide attacks against Western
targets, citing Norway alongside the United States, Britain and
Australia, in a taped message attributed to him. Terrorism expert
Lars Erslev Andersen said he believed the audiotape "was not
authentic", saying the speaker meant to name Denmark, a staunch US
ally in the war on Iraq along with Britain and Australia.
Andersen said Al-Zawahiri would never have confused the two
Scandinavian countries, casting doubt on the identity of the
speaker. "I think he (the speaker) must be thinking of Denmark or
Poland, which participated in the war on Iraq, and not Norway,
which did not take part," he said.
"I think it is a mistake," he said, adding: "Al-Zawahiri knows
these two countries well. Confusing them this way can only indicate
that it is the voice of someone else on the al-Qaeda tape."
Al-Zawahiri is known to have visited Denmark many times in
connection with his role as editor, until 1996, of the Islamic
newsletter "Al Moujahidoun" which is published in Copenhagen.
However, he never lived in Denmark, Islamic sources in the country
said. Norwegian officials have meanwhile expressed surprise at
finding their country on the list of al-Qaeda targets.
Following the message and possible confusion over Denmark and
Norway, Copenhagen police stepped up security around foreign
embassies, including those of the United States, Britain and Israel
which are considered potential targets.
On 9/11, U.S. radar was facing wrong
way
'Cold War vestige' guided air defenses
BY
RON MARSICO
Star-Ledger Staff
WASHINGTON -- A top U.S. air defense official testified yesterday
that an outdated "cold war" view of the world before the 9/11
attacks blinded the nation to mounting evidence that hijacked
airliners were becoming the terrorist's weapon of
choice.
Maj.
Gen. Craig McKinley, commander of the North American Aerospace
Defense Command, said even the nation's radars were, in retrospect,
turned the wrong way, looking out to sea for incoming invaders
rather than searching the skies for threats from within the
country.[...]
Comment: Today's
newest excuse . . . now hurry up and give up your freedoms so you
can be safe. If you have not yet read the
grimly humourous essay
Debunking conspiracy theorists' paranoid fantasies about
Sept. 11, by Gerard Holmgren than you are missing
out.
Wild weapons chase
by Brendan O'Neill
spiked-online.com
[...] US forces are in turmoil over their failure to find Saddam's
weapons. On 5 February, six weeks before the war started, US
secretary of state Colin Powell told the UN Security Council that
Saddam had 'hundreds of tons of biological and chemical agents'
(2). On the eve of the war on 19 March, President Bush said America
refused to 'live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens
the peace with weapons of mass murder' (3). One war, two months and
a defeated regime later, and still there's no sign of Saddam's
hundred-ton threat to world peace.
America's desire to make good its prewar claims about Iraq's deadly
weapons is no doubt a big part of its ongoing hunt. In their
clashes with the UN and spats with chief weapons inspector Hans
Blix, US spokesmen continually emphasised the urgency of 'disarming
Saddam' (4). Now they want to show Blix and co that they were right
all along.
Yet such considerations alone do not explain the intensity of
America's hunt for WMD - and why the weapons thing is now stirring
up strife within the US elite itself. America's search for WMD has
become bound up with its search for a sense of mission. Since 11
September, America has defined its international role in defensive
terms, as standing up to evil regimes and amorphous terror groups
'over there'. In the absence of a positive mission to project
around the world, US officials hope that the discovery of bad
things in Iraq will be enough to justify America's international
role.
The desperate scrabbling around in Iraq's burnt-out buildings is as
much a search for America's foreign policy as it is for Saddam's
illegal stockpile.[...]
Ex-President Bush Says Son Misunderstood on
Europe
MADRID (Reuters) - Former President George Bush said Friday some
people had misunderstood his son's attitude toward Europe.
"I know there is a perception in some quarters here in Europe that
this administration of his hasn't reached out to our friends and
allies as much as some would like. I know that this is a
misperception," the father of the current President Bush told a
business conference in Madrid.[...]
Comment: Poor misunderstood
Bush, Jr., got
his daddy to do a little pr campaign for him. Read the above
article, to hear
Bush, Sr. regale the audience with homespun tales of
his humility. Meanwhile Bush, Jr is busy sacrificing Americans to
his psychopathic agenda, dismantaling the American economy,
curtailing freedoms and severing all ties to the rest of the world.
When Bush is done with us, he will have his daddy's friends set him
up nicely, but where will we be?
Post-9/11 satire barks and
bites
Saibal Chatterjee
Cannes, May 23
Hindustan Times
A brilliant satire about the post-9/11 American Empire by veteran
French-Canadian director Denys Arcand struck an instant chord at
the 56th Cannes Film Festival. Les invasions barbares (Invasion of
the Barbarians) is a funny, irreverent and deeply poignant
depiction of a society that is grappling with issues it can barely
grasp.
Who Benefits?
Lifting the Sanctions on Iraq
By STANDARD SCHAEFER
CounterPunch
U.S. Ambassador John D. Negroponte called the lifting of
sanctions "the turning point of a historical page that should
brighten the future of a people and a region." It simply will not
do so. Thirteen years of sanctions has drastically altered the
fundamental nature of Iraq's economy; history has shown repeatedly
that the infrastructure of economic warfare always outlives the war
itself. To distract attention from this fact, representatives to
the UN from the United States continued to chastise Saddam Hussein
for diverting money from the "oil for food program" to his personal
bank accounts.
No doubt Hussein is guilty, but this is really beside the point.
The United States, with its long history of love-hate relationships
with dictators, should know by now that dictators welcome sanctions
and embargos.
Sanctions allow dictators to blame the world, often rightfully,
for their domestic problems. By portraying the country as under
attack, they are able to reduce internal dissent. In response to
sanctions, dictators are often relieved of the duty of serious
social spending and can justify to its citizen's the increase in
military spending...
Afghan Leaders In Talks With The Taliban
by Yvonne Ridley
Information Clearinghouse
05/23/03 Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has held top secret talks
with members of the former Taliban government. The dramatic move
could see a return to power of some of the most senior members of
the Taliban, once described by Tony Blair as the most evil, brutal
regime in the world.
However President Karzai praised the Taliban's "good elements
and said the movement had done a "great service to our war torn
country". The interim leader, who is becoming increasingly
isolated, has lost all power and influence outside of the capital
Kabul. However, news of his attempt to broker a peace deal with his
old enemies is bound to cause shock waves across the world.
The Taliban delegation was led by the former Health Minister
Mullah Abbas who was last in the capital as British and American
bombs rained down out the outbreak of war in October 2001. The
meeting will certainly cause huge embarrassment to British Prime
Minister Tony Blair who celebrated the demise of the Taliban so
publicly after the fall of Kabul. Foreign Office officials said
they were ''aware'' of the peace move but preferred to remain muted
last night.
Although it is quite clear President Karzai's initiative was
done with the backing of the Bush Administration, White House spin
doctors also remained unusually muted in their response to the
meeting. A senior delegation of Taliban, led by Mullah Abbas,
slipped in to Kabul for the top secret several days ago after being
given assurances of their personal security as some are thought to
be on America's "wanted" list.
[...] "Karzai saluted some of the Taliban and said that their
movement had done a great service for the country. It was a very
tense, and at times emotional, meeting and one of many to come", a
Taliban source told Globe-Intel. He said the interim leaders main
bodyguards, all American, were kept outside of the meeting, adding:
"It was just as well because while there was praise for the Taliban
there were few good words for the United States."
[...] An anti-American wave is also sweeping across the country
because of the military presence and a series of US blunders which
have led to the deaths of Afghan civilians. These include the death
of 11 Afghan children who were killed when a laser guided missile
hit their home in Bermil near the Pakistan border as revealed
exclusively in the Sunday Express last month...
CIA to review pre-war advice
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Friday May 23, 2003
The Guardian
The CIA has launched a review of intelligence assessments of
Iraq's banned weapons programme and its links with al-Qaida, to see
how the intelligence community's pre-war pronouncements compared
with reality.
The idea of a review, which emerged yesterday from interviews
with unidentified officials by the New York Times, had first
been raised with the CIA last October by the defence secretary,
Donald Rumsfeld.
However, the failure of US forces in Iraq to find hard evidence
for repeated claims by US intelligence agencies that Saddam Hussein
was building weapons of mass destruction could make the review
politically explosive, the New York Times said.
It quoted officials as saying that the review did not mean the
US had given up all hope of finding Saddam's banned weapons.
Even so, closer scrutiny of the intelligence community's
assessments of the threat posed by Saddam before the war could make
for uncomfortable reading.
It could worsen a feud which has been running since last year,
with CIA analysts complaining that ideologues from the Pentagon
were exerting pressure for assessments to bolster the case for war
on Iraq.
Those tensions deepened when the Pentagon set up a special cell
to review intelligence on Iraq - an action seen as a rebuke to the
CIA from Mr Rumsfeld for its failure to come up with the definitive
link between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and al-Qaida.
But yesterday it appeared that the CIA had been handed the
advantage. The review will reportedly be conducted by a team of
retired CIA officials, and will be under the control of the
director, George Tenet. They will also have the authority to study
documents from outside agencies.
Russia staging Pop Idol for
prisoners
Ananova
Story filed: 13:49 Friday 23rd May 2003
Russia is staging its own version of Pop Idol in the country's
prisons where inmates are competing for a recording contract and
freedom.
The competition, open to the country's 748 high-security
prisons, aims to discover a new national pop sensation.
The winner will be legally bound to perform a number of live
concerts and will also be given a recording deal.
Prison wardens have been told to filter out applicants guilty of
particularly gruesome crimes, but a number of convicted killers
have nevertheless been allowed to enter.
[...] The competition is being sponsored by Troika, one of
Moscow's biggest radio stations, which denies it is
exploitation.
"There's lots of talented people out there in those prisons, and
this is just the way for them to be discovered," a spokesman
said...
Central Command: Suspected gold shipment
recovered
U.S.: Bars could be worth $500 million
Friday, May 23, 2003 Posted: 11:09 AM
EDT
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. troops seized what is believed to be a
massive gold shipment Friday during a routine traffic stop near the
Iraqi border with Syria, U.S. Central Command announced.
Soldiers with the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment found
about 2,000 bars -- each weighing 40 pounds -- while searching a
Mercedes truck driven by two men.
The bars have not yet been tested to determine their contents,
Central Command said, adding that they could be worth as much as
$500 million, depending on their purity and karat weight.
The men said they were paid $350 to pick the truck up in Baghdad
and drive it to an unnamed person in the Iraqi town of Qaim near
the Syrian border, along a known smuggling route. They said they
were told the bars were bronze, the Central Command statement
said.
The bars are now in custody of the 3rd Cavalry.
Coalition forces have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars
believed to have been taken by members of Saddam Hussein's regime
before the start of the war.
WHO Links SARS to Three Small
Mammals
May 23, 11:52 AM EDT
By
JONATHAN FOWLER
Associated Press
Writer
GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization has traced the SARS
virus to the civet cat and two other small mammals in China, and
researchers are investigating a possible link between the animals
and the SARS outbreak in humans, an official said Friday.
Researchers from the University of Hong Kong examined 25 animals
representing eight species in a live animal market in southern
China and found the virus in all six masked palm civets they
sampled, as well as in a badger and a raccoon dog.
Klaus Stohr, chief SARS virologist at the WHO, said Friday it
was impossible to tell from the study whether any of the animals
spread the virus to humans or whether they caught the virus from
people.
"All these animals could have been infected by feed which was
given to them at the market," Stohr said. "Very often these markets
have one major supplier of feed."
[...] "This is corroborative evidence that there make be a link
between the wildlife and the emergence of SARS."
[...] Taiwan reported 55 new SARS cases Friday but no new
deaths. The island's total number of infections is 538 and the
death toll is 60 - the third-highest toll after mainland China and
Hong Kong.
In Canada, health officials say they fear that four people in a
Toronto hospital may be ill with SARS. All four are in a
respiratory isolation ward, two in critical condition. If
confirmed, they would be the city's first new SARS cases since
April 19.
Sars 'comes from racoon-like animal' eaten as
delicacy
Story filed: 07:03 Saturday 24th May
2003
Ananova
Medical researchers says they have found the Sars virus in a
racoon-like creature which is a popular delicacy in China.
University of Hong Kong researchers say they have successfully
isolated a type of coronavirus that caused Sars in an animal called
the masked palm civet.
They say it appears to have spread the Sars virus to humans.
Microbiologist Yuen Kwok-yung says the scientists tested a large
number of game animals eaten by people in China's Guangdong
province.
They have found coronavirus in four of the civet cats.
Civet cats are not true cats, but short-haired mammals with long
bodies, short legs, and tails. They resemble small raccoons or
weasels.
"Looking at the genetic information, it is highly likely that
the virus has been jumping from the civets to humans," Dr Yuen
Kwok-yung said.
Toronto fears fresh Sars outbreak
AP
24
May 2003
Hundreds of people have been advised to go into quarantine
after health chiefs announced a new cluster of 20 or more possible
Sars cases in Toronto.
The
new scare came hours after the US Centres for Disease Control
reinstated a travel alert for Canada's largest city.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation lifted its travel
advisories related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars)
against Hong Kong and the Chinese province of Guangdong, saying the
outbreaks are under control there.
In
Taiwan, a US disease investigator was rushed home after developing
symptoms of the often-deadly virus on the job.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome has spread to more than 8,000
people around the globe, and the death toll stood yesterday at 689,
the vast majority of them in Asia...
Blair faces war crimes suit
May
23, 2003
BBC
Greek lawyers say they are going to sue British officials -
including Prime Minister Tony Blair - for their role in the Iraq
war.
The
Athens Bar Association says it will file a suit against Britain at
the International Criminal Court - the recently created tribunal
for cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide.
The
lawyers call the attacks by the United States and British forces
against Iraq "crimes against humanity and war crimes".
They
have listed a number of international treaties they say the two
countries have violated.
These include the United Nations Charter, the Geneva
Conventions, the Hague Convention and the International Criminal
Court's statute.
Dimitris Paxinos, the head of the lawyers' association, told
the BBC the lawsuit will be filed within a fortnight.
He
said American officials could not be prosecuted as the US is not a
signatory to the ICC's founding treaty...
US citizens 'cannot be exempt from
ICC'
The
US has withdrawn from the ICC
By
Chris Morris
BBC correspondent in
Brussels
Thursday, 29 August, 2002,
01:35 GMT
Legal experts at the European Commission in Brussels say EU
nations have no right to exempt American citizens from prosecution
at the newly-created International Criminal Court.
An
internal EU document says any country which agrees to the Bush
administration's request to exempt US citizens would be acting
against the object and purpose of the ICC.
The
pressure group Human Rights Watch has urged the European Union to
stand firm against American plans to dilute the power of the
court.
The
International Criminal Court was established in July after more
than 60 nations had ratified its charter.
But
the US had already withdrawn its support and Washington had urged
individual European countries to conclude bilateral deals which
would give its citizens protection from prosecution...
[And
there is only one reason that the Bush Reich would seek such
protection: they are guilty of war crimes, and intend to commit
more in the near future.]
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of
Democratic Government"
By ELAINE CASSEL
CounterPunch
May 23, 2003
Activist attorney Lynne Stewart, who was court-appointed to
defend the blind Sheik Abdel Rahman in charges arising out of the
1993 World Trade Center bombing, is charged with aiding and
abetting her client's "acts of terrorism" by speaking to the press
about her client's politicial position. She is being criminally
prosecuted for doing what lawyers do--advocating and speaking for
her client. In the world according to John Ashcroft, the lawyer
becomes synonymous with the client. This is an unheard of spin on
the attorney-client relationship, one that defies hundreds of years
of history of professional obligation and duty. Ashcroft has made
lawyers--as well as their clients--targets in his war on civil
liberties. He would vilify lawyers who uphold the highest tradition
of their profession.
Now Michael Tigar, an activist himself, who has spent his
lifetime representing controversial clients and causes (and as the
target of an FBI false smear tactic, former Supreme Court Justice
Brennan withdrew his offer to the young Tigar to clerk for him), is
representing Lynne Stewart. No case could be more fitting for him
than this one. And in this terrorist trial, the government has an
attorney who won't be timid in calling the judge and the
prosecutors on their illegal conduct.
In a letter Tigar wrote to Judge Koeltl on May 21, Tigar
lambasts the prosecutor's suggestions that it, and it alone, will
decide what evidence Tigar and his client get to see. Though the
prosecutor refers to the documents as "classified," no proof, let
alone rationale, of their classified status has been disclosed.
Morever, the prosecutors say that as to the documents they will let
Tigar and his team see, they, the prosecuors and/or their agents,
will "monitor" Tigar and his staff to see what they do with the
information. Of course, they may also be monitoring his meetings
with his client. Ashcroft wrote that into law a couple of years
ago...
Son Of Patriot Act Goes From Bad To Worse
By Jim Marrs
www.jimmarrs.com
5-23-3
In early 2003 there was an effort underway within the Justice
Department to further expand the provisions and powers of the
PATRIOT Act. And it was all done in such secrecy that even ranking
members of congress did not know this act was in preparation.
Even Mark Corallo, deputy director of the Justice Department's
Office of Public Affairs appeared unaware of the draft legislation.
"This is all news to me. I have never heard of this," he told
members of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based
group dedicated to "public service journalism." This center
obtained a copy of the document and made it public in early 2003.
A spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, Jeff Lungren,
said, "We haven't heard anything from the Justice Department on
updating the PATRIOT Act. They haven't shared their thoughts on
that. Obviously, we'd be interested, but we haven't heard anything
at this point."
After reviewing the draft legislation, Dr. David Cole of the
Georgetown University Law School said raises a "lot of serious
concerns." "It's troubling that they have gotten this far along and
they've been telling people there is nothing in the works." He
added the proposed changes "would radically expand law enforcement
and intelligence gathering authorities, reduce or eliminate
judicial oversight over surveillance, authorize secret arrests,
create a DNA database based on unchecked executive `suspicion,'
create new death penalties, and even seek to take American
citizenship away from persons who belong to or support disfavored
political groups."
Innocently entitled the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of
2003," this expansion of both police and government powers was kept
deep within the confines of the Justice Department until leaked to
the public. As usual, the corporate controlled mass media made
little of the story but it sparked outrage on the Internet and from
some columnists.
Editorial page writer Errol Louis of the New York Sun wrote,
"[This] document is a catalog of authoritarianism that runs counter
to the basic tenets of modern democracy." Columnist Jim Hightower
termed it "Ashcroft's Latest Assault on Liberty."
A dissection of the PATRIOT Act expansion by Timothy H. Edgar,
Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union,
revealed the legislation would diminish personal privacy by
removing checks on government power by:
ACLU
counsel Edgar noted that the constitutional protection of habeas
corpus (the right to a hearing to determine if any criminal offense
has been committed) has not been exempted since the War Between the
States.
Edgar added that despite the Justice Department's efforts to
characterize both the PATRIOT Act and its proposed expansion as
minor tinkering with statutory language, "the DOJ's modest
descriptions of the powers it is seeking, and the actual scope of
the authorities it seeks, are miles apart." "The USA PATRIOT Act
undercut many of the traditional checks and balances on government
power, " he explained. "The new draft legislation threatens to
fundamentally alter the constitutional protections that allow us as
Americans to be both safe and free. If adopted, the bill would
diminish personal privacy by removing important checks on
government surveillance authority, reduce the accountability of
government to be public by increasing government secrecy, further
undermine fundamental constitutional rights of Americans under an
already over broad definition of `terrorism,' and seriously erode
the right of all persons to due process of law."
Many
of the provision of the expansion of the PATRIOT Act seem to be so
draconian and reprehensible that many people felt it could never be
passed in the light of day. But, as noted by Professor Cole, author
of Terrorism and the Constitution, this legislation may lay
awaiting yet another pretext to make it law.
He
said PATRIOT Act II "is troubling as a generic matter that they
have gotten this far along and tell people that there is nothing in
the works. What that suggests is that they're waiting for a
propitious time to introduce it, which might well be when a war is
begun. At that time there would be less opportunity for discussion
and they'll have a much stronger hand in saying that they need
these things right away."
Quantum computer draws closer
By
Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Scientists have "entangled" two sub-atomic particles separated
by about a millimetre, a feat that might pave the way for powerful
quantum computers in the future. Quantum entanglement on a chip:
Significant scaling up When two particles are entangled they are
somehow connected because the fate of one depends upon the other,
no matter how far apart they are.
US army chief says Iraqi troops took bribes to
surrender
By
Andrew Buncombe in Washington
The Independent
24 May 2003
Senior Iraqi officers who commanded troops crucial to the
defence of key Iraqi cities were bribed not to fight by American
special forces, the US general in charge of the war has
confirmed.
Well
before hostilities started, special forces troops and intelligence
agents paid sums of money to a number of Iraqi officers, whose
support was deemed important to a swift, low-casualty
victory.
General Tommy Franks, the US army commander for the war, said
these Iraqi officers had acknowledged their loyalties were no
longer with the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, but with their
American paymasters. As a result, many officers chose not to defend
their positions as American and British forces pushed north from
Kuwait.
"I
had letters from Iraqi generals saying: 'I now work for you',"
General Franks said.
It
is not clear which Iraqi officers were bribed, how many were bought
off or at what cost. It is likely, however, that the US focused on
officers in control of Saddam's elite forces, which were expected
to defend the capital. The Pentagon said that bribing the senior
officers was a cost-effective method of fighting and one that led
to fewer casualties.
"What is the effect you want?" a senior Pentagon official said.
"How much does a cruise missile cost? Between $1m and $2.5m. Well,
a bribe is a PGM [precision guided missile) AD it achieves the aim
but it's bloodless and there's zero collateral damage...
The Message Fact or
Fiction?
BY MICHAEL ROBERTS
westword.com
More intriguing was Temple's newly declared policy in regard to the
publishing of Times reports in the News. He announced that "New
York Times stories that use anonymous sources must be approved in
advance" by the same editor or editors noted above -- an
astonishing development, because it suggests that in a few short
weeks, the Times has gone from being among the most trusted news
purveyors on the planet to a publication viewed with suspicion by
its peers.
The Rocky's procedural shift will place a sizable burden on
newsroomers. After all, a great many stories out of Washington, be
they from the Times, the Washington Post or any other major news
agency, wouldn't exist if not for officials or those in their orbit
who anonymously leak data that might otherwise remain hidden from
the public. In the memo, Temple implies that he made the move
despite the inevitable workload boost after a Times spokeswoman
identified in the column as Catherine Mathis, vice president of
corporate communications, "told me...that it has 'no formal
policy.' Its 'practice has been for the executive editor to reserve
the right to ask the question, and to withhold the story if it is
not answered. But the question may or may not be asked in
individual cases, depending on the importance of the story and the
track record of the writer.'" As Temple thundered in his column,
"It appears, based on the Times' own coverage, that the paper...has
a lower standard of internal checks and balances when it comes to
anonymous sources than a lot of other far less distinguished
American newspapers, including the News."
Bush And Newspapers Lie Because We Do,
Too
by
Walt Brasch
www.bushwatch.com
The
nation's journalists were surprised, shocked, and outraged. Jayson
Blair, a 27-year-old New York Times national correspondent, had
lied and cheated his way through a four-year career at the paper
that not only claims to have the highest journalistic standards but
also believes it's the national record. At the time he resigned
under pressure at the end of April 2003, Blair had not only left a
trail of innumerable factual errors, but had fabricated quotes,
"covered" stories in other states while not leaving New York, and
plagiarized from metropolitan newspapers.
[...] In an unprecedented 14,000 words of explanation and
apology almost two weeks after the "resignation," the Times
excoriated the chain-smoking, Scotch-drinking, cocaine-using Blair
for having "committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud," wailed
that it was the worst "black-eye" in the newspaper's 152-year
history, and promised to take steps not to allow it to occur
again.
But,
it will occur again, just as it had occurred for decades, not just
at the Times but in all the media.
During the nineteenth century, in their quest for political
power and circulation, newspapers not only exaggerated and
fabricated, they also played innumerable hoaxes upon their readers.
In the twentieth century, "jazz journalism" replaced "yellow
journalism," but reporters still looked for ways to meet their
publishers' needs to sell papers. Journalists have come a long ways
since then. But, as in any profession, there are still significant
holes of ethics.
TV
shows sponsored by Ford in the 1960s and 1970s either shot away
from New York City's Chrysler Building, or electronically
eliminated it. The National Geographic digitally altered the
pyramids for "aesthetic" reasons for one of its covers. Janet
Cooke, who won a Pulitzer Prize for a feature about an
eight-year-old boy who was addicted to cocaine while in his
mother's womb, was stripped of her prize and fired from the
Washington Post in 1981 when the story proved to be as much fiction
as her resume.
NBC-TV broadcast a story about fish that were supposedly killed
on government land, but it was footage of a different forest--and
the fish weren't dead. NBC also came under a firestorm of protest
when the public learned that to enhance a story about truck safety,
the network's "Dateline" staff rigged a GM truck with an explosive
to illustrate how easily those trucks burst into flame. FOX-TV
obliterated the distinction between news and hucksterism when it
"interrupted" its coverage of the 1997 Super Bowl with a "special
report" by news anchor Catherine Crier. The breaking news? The
Blues Brothers "escaped" and were about to headline the half-time
show.
[...] As much as journalists may want to believe these are
isolated examples, they aren't. As much as the public wants to
believe that the problem occurs only in journalism, it doesn't.
About 75 percent of college students admit to cheating, according
to a 1999 survey conducted by Donald McCabe, a Rutgers University
professor. A year later, a survey conducted by the editors of Who's
Who Among American High School Students revealed that 84 percent of
high school students believe cheating was common. A study by the
Center for Academic Integrity revealed that about 15 percent of all
students say they bought research papers, and more than half admit
to having copied passages, without attribution, from published
sources.
More
important, students don't see that cheating, lying, or plagiarizing
are necessarily immoral or unethical. Almost half of high school
students, according to the Josephson Institute of Ethics, believe
"a person has to lie or cheat sometimes in order to succeed."
College graduates pad their resumes; references lie in their
recommendations. Psychologist Robert Feldman of the University of
Massachusetts found that among 11-16 year old students, there was a
high correlation between lying and popularity. Feldman told the
Associated Press, "Politicians have known for a very long time that
telling people what they want to hear is a very good social
tactic." Politicians and CEOs, aided by hordes of PR professionals,
also know they can spin the truth because the media, often faced by
increased work loads and diminished resources, have largely
abrogated their roles of cynical watchdogs.
Americans lie on their income tax returns, on claims to
insurance companies, and about the condition of their used car
which they're about to unload. They lie about productivity to their
bosses, and use "sick days" to play golf. And when it comes to
managers and executives, Enron, Adelphia, Halliburton, and dozens
of others may not be exceptions to how many corporations do
business.
The
nation's journalists shouldn't be shocked, surprised, or outraged
about Jayson Blair's theft of honesty--they, like most Americans,
are all part of the problem.
Does Stossel Deserve a Promotion?
Common Dreams
MAY 23, 2003 4:38 PM
NEW
YORK - Starting tonight, ABC reporter John Stossel will have a new
job at 20/20: co-anchor. Barbara Walters' former partner John
Miller departed in January, and ABC chose Stossel to fill his role.
According to a recent report in TV Guide (5/10/03), one source at
ABC says that picking Stossel makes sense: "These are conservative
times... the network wants somebody to match the times."
One
might hope ABC would be more concerned with hiring a journalist
with a record of credible and accurate reporting than with matching
the perceived political climate. For years, Stossel's work has been
notable for bungled facts and twisted logic, all in service to his
conservative "free market" agenda. (See Extra!, 3-4/03.) In a 1998
report (2/3/98), Stossel dismissed complaints about rising CEO
salaries, saying that "factory wages were up, too-- up 70 percent"
in the last 15 years. But wages for manufacturing workers had risen
only if you don't adjust for inflation; in terms of purchasing
power, factory workers' wages had fallen by more than 6 percent
since 1983. In a 1999 special (9/19/99), one of Stossel's main
sources claimed that Hong Kong is "the only government in the world
that makes a surplus, a big surplus." In fact, 11 countries--
including the U.S.-- had run a budget surplus the previous
year.
Stossel's methods have also been called into question-- most
memorably when he cited research that didn't actually exist about
pesticide residues in organic produce (New York Times,
7/31/00).
In a
recent email to viewers (5/16/03) Stossel lashed out at his
critics, "the activists of the totalitarian Left, which try to get
people like me fired, or silenced." FAIR, however, has never called
on ABC to fire him. We have frequently asked for Stossel's
reports-- more opinion pieces than news stories-- to be balanced
with commentary from an opposing point of view, and we've
encouraged viewers to ask ABC whether the numerous inaccuracies and
distortions in Stossel broadcasts meet the network's
standards.
Up
until now, ABC has for the most part ignored the thousands of
letters pointing out the unreliability of Stossel's reporting. Now,
apparently, it's decided that the appropriate response is a
promotion.
On
the streets of Baghdad, there are no heroes or villains. Only
victims
By
Phil Reeves in Baghdad
The Independent
24 May 2003
Haider Tahab was so quiveringly angry that the blood vessels at
his temples seemed ready to burst. He kept returning to deliver
another blast of point-blank invective, as if driven by a
compulsion that would only fully be relieved once he had hit
someone.
Bobbing above the heads of the people crowded behind him was a
crude wooden coffin, which they were trying to load on to the roof
of a white mini-van. They seemed as furious as he. "Down Bush! Up
Saddam!" he bellowed into my face. "The Americans have turned into
murderers and thieves."
Scenes such as this, albeit with a different script, are
commonplace in Gaza or the West Bank after a 36-year occupation in
which thousands have been shot dead by the Israeli army. But we
were in Baghdad only a month after the Americans had routed one of
the most repressive and corrupt regimes of the modern age and
promised a new era of democracy, freedom and prosperity.
As
the crowd tied the coffin to the van's roof to be driven 100 miles
south to the Shia holy city of Najaf for burial, Mahadi Mehsen drew
a contemptuous comparison between the two occupied peoples. "We are
not like the Palestinians," he said, shouting above the wails and
cries of anger. "All of us will be Fedayeen. We will take revenge
if they don't stop this."...
UK firms scramble to share in spoils of
war
By
Kim Sengupta
The Independent
24 May 2003
British firms scrambling for contracts in the reconstruction of
Iraq were told yesterday that the Government would ensure they got
a "fair chance" to grab a division of the spoils.
As
protesters waved placards and chanted "vultures, vultures", the
first steps in the slicing of one of the biggest commercial
bonanzas in history took place in London yesterday.
The
initial business deals for rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure amount
to $1.1bn (about A3687m). But this could increase to $100bn under
the rapid recalculations being carried out.
Yesterday British, European and Asian firms gathered at a
seminar in London organised by the Bechtel conglomerate. Later, the
British contingent attended one held by Trade Partners UK, an arm
of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Bechtel, which has close and controversial ties with the US
administration, has been awarded the biggest contract so far -
$680m - by the US Agency for International Development (USAid). The
company has said that as much as 90 per cent of the work would be
passed on in sub-contracts.
[...] Among the Iraqi firms taking part is the Iraqi
Reconstruction Group. Its representative, Abbas al-Husseini, said:
"We don't want Bechtel to be a centre of hate. Please don't do it
for the Iraqi people but withthe Iraqi
people."
Victims of the peace decide Americans are worse than
Saddam
From
Anthony Browne in Khan Bani Saad
Times Online
May 23, 2003
THE
small dank cells with cold stone floors, tiny windows and iron bars
for a door used to house criminals and the victims of Saddam
Hussein's regime. Now Khan Bani Saad prison, overlooked by
watchtowers and surrounded by razorwire, is filled with families
who are victims, not of the war, but of the peace.
Sabrir Hassan Ismael, a mother of six, held her three-year-old
daughter Zahraa in the cell that is now their living room and
bedroom, and cried: "Look at me; look at my family. We live in
prison. We can't buy food because we don't have money. We have no
gas to cook.
[...] Before the end of the war Mrs Sabrir lived with her
husband, a local mayor, on a farm in the town of Khanaqin, close to
the Iranian border. They are members of the Arab Saraefien tribe
that had survived unscathed through the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War
in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq. As opponents of Saddam they even
welcomed the American invasion.
But
it is the peace, and the disintegration of Saddam's grip, that has
destroyed their lives. On April 11, two days after the fall of
Saddam, Kurdish fighters entered Khanaqin, ordering all 15,000
Arabs to leave within 48 hours.
"There were so many Kurdish fighters we couldn't count them.
They came into our house, and fired into the air, and grabbed me by
the shoulder and said we had to leave in 48 hours or they would
kill us," said Mrs Sabrir's son, Amar Hassan Tahar, 26.
[...] The tribe has appealed for help to the coalition forces,
but no one has even visited them. They have eaten or sold almost
all their animals, and have only a week left of food. Now they hate
the Americans.
"None of the American promises has happened. It is unbelievable
what has happened," Mr Yassim said.
His
son concludes: "We have discovered that Saddam is better than the
Americans."
Hadeb Hamed Hamed, the tribe's sheikh, sat on mats on the
prison officer's porch, and said: "The Americans promised us food
and medicine and freedom. But we have lost our homes, our land, our
crops. Now we live in prison with nothing, and they ignore
us.
"It
is the allied forces that have done this to us. When we run out of
food, I don't know what we will do."
In
fact, he does know, because with starvation looming, he has been
talking about it with the other elders.
"If
we don't have a solution, we will fight the Americans even if they
kill us. It is better than sitting here with nothing and just
dying," he said.
So the blood may spin in American
eyes
By Akiva Eldar
haaretz.com
[...] Sharon's attack on the road map, like the outpost attack he
strategized, is being done through subterfuge. That's why the
Israeli public relations establishment enlisted the services of
three leading American experts on U.S. public opinion, in other
words, spinmeisters.
Republican consultant Frank Luntz, Democratic consultant Stanley
Greenburg (who worked for Bill Clinton and on Ehud Barak's peace
campaign), and political consultant Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi.
Luntz was here last week to meet with the heads of the Israeli
government's public relations team, including Gideon Meir, the
Foreign Ministry's deputy director general for communications and
information, and the prime minister's media adviser Ra'anan Gissin.
He presented them with the results of polls and focus group studies
conducted by his company in Chicago and Los Angeles during the
first 10 days of the Iraq war.
Meir says the wise recommendations provided by Luntz and his
colleagues have become the guiding lights of the Israel and Jewish
public relations effort in the U.S. The million dollar plus
research was paid for by Jewish donors.
Luntz laid out his recommendations in a lengthy detailed memo. The
purpose of the document, he says at the opening, is to help Israel
supporters get their message across about the best way to "solve"
(the quotes are in the original) the Israel-Palestinian conflict,
before the world's attention is drawn to the road map.
"There will certainly be some people," says Luntz, "particularly
those on the political left, who will oppose whatever words you
use, but the language that follows will help you secure support
from a large majority of Americans." In places, he provides
verbatim speeches for pro-Israeli opinion makers.
Some selected quotes from the Luntz memo:
"The good news is that the American people firmly believe that if
the Palestinians want to demonstrate sincere commitment to peace,
they must abide by the tenants of the president's
soon-to-be-released road map. The not-as-good news is that they
expect exactly same from Israel and they demand it immediately.
"Among virtually all respondents regardless of political party,
Americans responded quite favorably to the language from President
Bush for two reasons: `a balanced approach' and `shared
responsibilities.' Keep those terms in mind and use them whenever
possible.
"The emergence of Mahmoud Abbas as the new Palestinian Prime
Minister comes exactly at the wrong time. His ascent to power seems
legitimate. He is a fresh face, and a clean-shaven one at that. He
speaks well and dresses in Western garb. He may even genuinely want
peace. Just as President Bush had begun to make headway in drawing
attention on the need for a reformed Palestinian leadership, the
Palestinians throw us this curveball. Is it a concern that he is a
Holocaust denier? Absolutely. Will that fact convince Americans
that he cannot represent the Palestinian people in an honest bid
for peace? Hardly. Americans don't want to hear about the Holocaust
anymore, and they particularly don't want to hear it from the
Jewish community. Nevertheless, you need more substance on Abbas
before you can tell the American people you question his devotion
to peace.
"It is essential that you use positive language when asked about
Abbas. However, that does not mean you must compliment Abbas
himself. While knocking him down now does little to help your
long-term goals, building him up is also counterproductive.
Therefore you must remain positive about the peace process and
indifferent about Abbas until he defines his role.
"The settlements are our Achilles heel, and the best response
(which is still quite weak) is the need for security that this
buffer creates. `Security' sells. Security has become the key
fundamental principle for all Americans. Security is the context by
which you should explain Israeli need for loan guarantees and
military aid, as well as why Israel can't just give up land.
"Above all else, reaffirm your position that first terrorism stops,
and then negotiations begin."
War profiteering
The following recommendations are drawn from what Luntz learned
about American public opinion regarding the war in Iraq. "Link
Iraqi liberation with the plight of the Palestinian people. If you
express your concern for the plight of the Palestinian people and
how it is unfair, unjust and immoral that they should be forced to
accept leaders who steal and kill in their name, you will be
building credibility for your support of the average Palestinian
while undermining the credibility of their leadership ... Yes, this
IS a double standard but that's just the way things are. A little
humility goes a long way. You need to talk continually about your
understanding of `the plight of the Palestinians' and a commitment
to helping them.
"Humility is a bitter pill to swallow, but it will inoculate you
against critiques that you have not done enough for peace. Admit
mistakes, but then show how Israel is the partner always working
for peace.
"Democracy loves company. So far, one of Israel's most effective
messages has been that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle
East. It's time to take that message one step further. Emphatically
state that while you are proud of Israel's democracy, you would
much rather be the first democracy in the Middle East than the only
democracy in the Middle East. This may seem simplistic, but the
message works when delivered this way and in this order. Americans
sincerely hope that Iraq - a former adversary - can become a
partner in peace once a representative government is installed.
This is exactly what Israel has asked of the Palestinian Authority
for so long: to establish a legitimate government that will become
a partner in peace.
"When you want to identify with and align yourself with America,
just say it. Don't use George Bush as a synonym for the United
States. Half the Democrats support the war even if they don't
support George Bush. You antagonize the latter half unnecessarily
every time you compliment the President. Don't do it.
"The children component is particularly important. It is essential
that you talk about `the day, not long from now, when Palestinian
children and Israeli children will play side-by-side as their
parents watch approvingly.'
"The language in this document will work, but it will work best
when it is accompanied with passion and compassion. Too many
supporters of Israel speak out of anger or shout when faced with
opposition. Listeners are more likely to accept your arguments if
they like how you express them.
"Find yourself a good female spokesman. In all our testing, women
are found to be more credible than men. And if the woman has
children, that's even better.
"Of course rhetorical questions work, don't they? Asking a question
to which there is only one answer is hard to lose. It is essential
that your communication be laced with rhetorical questions, which
is how Jews talk anyway. (Luntz is Jewish.)
Average Americans
Under the headline, "Words that work," Luntz recommends verbatim
scripts such as the following, which he recommends for Israeli
spokesmen: "During the Gulf War, Iraq attacked Israel with Scud
missiles 39 times. Israel stood by each time, not knowing if the
next missile contained biological and chemical weapons. Israel
chose restraint instead of war, because it was what the U.S. asked.
It was Israel's way to support our ally, America, and its troops
during the Persian Gulf War. We put supporting American priorities
higher than our own. But now, with our national security at stake,
we need America's financial help."
"Advocates of Israel will do well if they adopt the language that
follows," says Luntz: "`We are hoping to find a Palestinian
leadership that really does reflect the best interest for the
Palestinian people.'"
And he suggests Israeli and Jewish spokesmen tell Americans, "`We
know what it is to live our lives with the daily threat of
terrorism. We know what it's like to send our children off to
school one day and bury them the next. For us, terrorism isn't
something we read about in the newspaper; it's something we see
with our own eyes far too often. We don't want to sign a
meaningless agreement that isn't worth the paper it is printed on.
We want something real. If there is to be a just, fair and lasting
peace, we need a partner who rejects violence and who values life
more than death. As a matter of principle, the world should not
force Israel to concede to those who publicly deny our right to
exist or call for our annihilation. Just as the American government
pledges to secure for you life, liberty, and the chance to pursue
happiness, so must Israel's government guarantee that we will be
secure and free.'"
Sylvan glades
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, like many an elected official in
Israel, doesn't do much homework when he meets with European
officials. This week he met with a delegation from the European
Parliament that was visiting Israel. The MPs, led by a member of
the Italian Radical Party, support an initiative to bring Israel
into the European Union. The Europeans would have been happy to
hear Shalom say at the end of the meeting that he was grateful for
their support for Israel. They couldn't believe their ears when
Shalom said, "Israel would be happy to be accepted into the
EU."
For years, prime ministers and foreign minsters have been very
careful about jumping on the EU bandwagon. Shalom could have found
piles of working papers in the Foreign Ministry detailing the
numerous problems involved in Israel joining the EU - separation of
religion and state, strict rules about civil rights, cancelation of
protective tariffs on imports in competition with local goods, or
the EU's difficulty with Israel's immigration laws, like the Law of
Return. Above all, he would have learned that the EU does not open
its doors to countries that are not living in peace with their
neighbors, nor to countries occupying another people's land.
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is the next
high-ranking guest from overseas. His Israeli colleague, who
devoted his one free night in Turkey recently to a meeting with an
Israeli footballer playing for a Turkish team, might consider
discussing shaping policy in the light of history. That's the
subject of one of de Villepin's books. Or they could discuss modern
poetry. Three collections of poetry written by the visiting
minister have already been published.
Airline, barred rider
settled
PAKISTANI
IMMIGRANT WAS BOUND FOR S.J. IN DECEMBER 2001
By Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
Mercury News
A Salinas
software-company manager who alleged he was forcibly removed from a
San Jose-bound Northwest Airlines flight three months after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks merely because he looked Middle Eastern
received an apology and monetary damages from the airline in a
settlement announced Wednesday.
Judge Throws Out Death
Sentence
BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) A judge on Friday threw out the death sentence
for a man convicted of murder, ruling that jurors were improperly
influenced by the Bible and passages describing God's view on
punishment as they deliberated.
Twins' mom suffers for hard
choice
By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer
[N]othing has been tougher
to endure than the turmoil swirling around Rice since Monday, when
the 32-year-old mother of five went to police with a secretly
recorded audiotape of her twin sons allegedly plotting to kill two
siblings.
But
Rice said she can't forget their chilling words captured on tape.
She also points out their alleged confessions to police, recent
theft of her three Ginsu-type kitchen knives and previous
statements that they would kill anyone who "messed with"
them.
There's also the hole they
started to cut through the wall of their trailer - an escape route
they had planned to use after killing their brothers, ages 10 and
15, Rice said. That would have allowed them to avoid activating a
security system she recently had installed to stop them from
running away from home.
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