"War is a coward's escape from the problems of peace," Rev. William Sloane Coffin once said as John Nichols notes in "In Pursuit of Justice, In Search of Peace" (The Online Beat, The Nation).
Lot of cowards at the New York Times. War pornographer Michael Gordon made the case for 'action' from his spin box dubbed "news analysis" in Sunday's paper. Today, Judith Miller's other partner in rush-to-war! gets teamed with extreme fluffer David E. Sanger. Reading William J. Broad and Sanger's piece, it's obvious that the reporting (or "reporting") section of the Times has yet again made their decision on where they stand.
Here's a section buried deep:
Kenneth C. Brill, the director of the National Counterproliferation Center, created to track programs like Iran's and North Korea's, cautioned against accepting at face value Tehran's recent claims about producing enriched uranium and plans to produce 54,000 centrifuges.
"It will take many years," he said, "to build that many."
Along with that, you get a lot of claims (which can't be verified) by unnamed "officials" but then what else would you expect from a piece written by one of Miller's cohorts? Kara wonders if the "very interesting, sarcasm, takes on rumors about Iran" have anything to do with the fact that it is providing fifty million dollars in aid to Palestinians? The Times has needed far less to nurse a grudge before, so who knows?
Brad notes Tom Hayden's "The War on Terrorism Down the Street" (Huffington Post):
All I knew about Rick Rodriguez until recently is that he runs a fair and efficient gas station down the street from me in Culver City. One day fixing cars, he says, he was daydreaming about what went wrong with the fireworks he used to make as a kid. An avid reader, he googled "explosives" and "gunpowder," which was when he began to see the weird men showing up around the windows of his West Hollywood home.
They held wires, the kind used to take video shots of interiors. Then they were gone, or so he thought. The next thing he knew he was being followed by eight or more, dressed as figures out of Homeland Security or Star Wars. He tried to run. Big mistake. They put a shotgun to his head. When he looked up, the trees were full of many more men in battle armor pointing guns. Helicopters filled the sky, he recalls, like black wasps. Then he was put in jail for two days, at $40,000 bail. They told Rick he was in possession of an illegal weapon. Rick in fact did own what he calls an old gun, the kind you shoot birds with.
But how did the Homeland Security types get into his West Hollywood house over near the Pacific Design Center?
Cindy gives a heads up to a program on KPFA today (time in Pacific):
1:00 pm
Women's Magazine
Women correspondents who covered the war in Iraq will join us by phone. May Ying Welch, freelancing with Al-Jezeera, Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times London, Hannah Allam with Knight Ridder and others will talk about the perspective that women bring to the coverage of the war. Marking the 57th anniversary of KPFA we host former programmers from KPFA Women's Department in the 1970's through the 1990's.
Remember that on CSPAN2 today (at 7:00 am Eastern), Danny Schechter's discussion on Iraq and the ways we are lied into war will be aired. (The Times should be required to watch.)
And remember to listen, watch or read (transcripts) Democracy Now! today.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
william j. broad
david e. sanger
michael gordon
tom hayden
john nichols
kpfa
womens magazine
iraq
danny schechter
