Democracy Now! is "a must see!" as Marcia notes today.
Headlines for February 9, 2005
- Hamas & Islamic Jihad Rejects Ceasefire
- Reporter for U.S.-Funded Arabic Station Killed in Iraq
- Post-election Death Toll in Iraq Tops 175
- Report: US Agents 'Kidnapped Militant' in Italy
- U.S. Begins New Nuclear Weapons Program
- Karl Rove Promoted To Coordinate Domestic & Foreign Policy
- Pentagon Holds Space War Games in Nevada
- Oil Giants BP, Shell, ExxonMobil Report Record Profits
- 13-Year-old 8th Grader Shot Dead by LAPD
Noam Chomsky: U.S. Might Face "Ultimate Nightmare" in Middle East Where Shiites Control Most of World's Oil
One of the country's leading dissidents, MIT Professor Noam Chomsky, gives a major new address on the Iraq war, the re-election of President Bush and imperialism. On Iraq's elections, Chomsky predicts what a Shiite-controlled Iraq may look like: "The first thing they'll do is reestablish relations with Iran...The next thing that might happen is that a Shiite-controlled, more or less democratic Iraq might stir up feelings in the Shiite areas of Saudi Arabia, which happen to be right nearby and which happen to be where all the oil is. So you might find what in Washington must be the ultimate nightmare-a Shiite region which controls most of the world's oil and is independent."
Ned e-mails to note that Dahr Jamail has a new post at Iraqi Dispatches:
Stories from Fallujah
These are the stories that will continue to emerge from the rubble of Fallujah for years. No, for generations. . . .
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the doctor sits with me in a hotel room in Amman, where he is now a refugee. He’d spoken about what he saw in Fallujah in the UK, and now is under threat by the US military if he returns to Iraq.
"I started speaking about what happened in Fallujah during both sieges in order to raise awareness, and the Americans raided my house three times," he says, talking so fast I can barely keep up. He is driven to tell what he's witnessed, and as a doctor working inside Fallujah, he has video and photographic proof of all that he tells me.
"I entered Fallujah with a British medical and humanitarian convoy at the end of December, and stayed until the end of January," he explains, "But I was in Fallujah before that to work with people and see what their needs were, so I was in there since the beginning of December."
When I ask him to explain what he saw when he first entered Fallujah in December he says it was like a tsunami struck the city.
Please check out Ron's Why Are We Back In Iraq? blog for the story of Talon news and especially note Sunday's entry. As Rebecca (Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude) points out in an e-mail, Ron's been at the forefront of driving this story and now that the story's breaking he's not getting a lot of credit. I'm sure there's strong work done elsewhere but Ron and Loaded Mouth have been stressing this story.
Please check out Bob Somerby's The Daily Howler today, not just for his outstanding work on social security but also for his take on "straight talker" John McCain.
And don't miss Folding Star's discussions (at A Winding Road) on Harry Reid from Monday and Tuesday that go far deeper than Sherly Gay Stolberg's late-to-the-party summary in today's New York Times.
Don't miss Matthew Rothschild addressing Sunday's Face the Nation in his latest "This Just In:"
I had the misfortune of watching Tom Friedman and Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation" Sunday, Feb. 6, letting Donald Rumsfeld box them around the ring.
Friedman was especially defensive. He has three Pulitzer Prizes, and he's the leading foreign policy columnist for the leading paper in the country, and yet he acted like Rumsfeld’s little boy.
Overly deferential, meek almost to the point of obsequious, Friedman in his first question gently tapped Rumsfeld with this patty cake: "Mr. Secretary, the first sign that people will be [turning against the insurgency] would be if your intelligence improved, if somebody started calling our men on the ground and saying, 'You know that third house down the street?'"
Rumsfeld: Exactly. Exactly.
Friedman: Are you seeing any sign of that?
Rumsfeld: It’s too soon for me to know.
Friedman: Gotcha.
And some items worth noting from BuzzFlash:
1) You Can Listen to and Read About 60 BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrites of the Week Here. Wouldn't They be Great on National Radio, Exposing the GOP for What is It's Essential Characteristic: Hypocrisy
2) BuzzFlash Was on the Gannon Story From the Get-Go: Reposted from Saturday, Jeff Gannon, GOP Partisan and Symbol of How the Bush Cartel Creates "Virtual" News (AKA Propaganda), is Our BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week3) Melissa Boyle Mahle Shares an Insider's View of the CIA and Why the Agency Failed on 9/11. Part I of a BuzzFlash Interview.4) SECOND Part of BuzzFlash Interview: Melissa Boyle Mahle Shares an Insider's View of the CIA and Why the Agency Failed on 9/11
