Okay, so The Third Estate Sunday Review is finally finished. If you missed the note, the edition was completed and ready to be posted when it was decided to make it a theme. The Nation stats will be in next week's edition and we'll probably do something on Laura Flanders' interview with David Swanson and Elizabeth de la Vega. New images were also necessary and those are now being uploaded to Flickr.
Let's turn to the New York Times. Michael Gordon drags David S. Cloud down with him in "Planning Seen in Iraqi Attacks on U.S. Copters" -- as we've long pointed out here, there is a story in the helicopter crashes. Supposed documents from 'insurgents' are completely unneeded. Since the Times seems unwilling or unable to find people trying to speak to them, they might want to attempt a Freedom of Information request because, again, the military has been following the crashes -- the whole time it was being spun to the press.
Utilizing 'insurgent' documents, Gordo's able to tell you the obvious -- the resistance has been adapting. Not "is," has been. But the documents allow it to play like a surprise as opposed to getting to the actual reality which is leadership ignoring the problem long after it was noted and risking lives as a result. Don't expect Gordo to tell you that story.
Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet offer a much stronger article "Jailed 2 Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans" -- Laith al-Ani was held for two years and three months, in prisons, away from his family, held by the US military. The article tells you that Tasers were used. al-Ani remembers electrical prods being used on him:
The whole body starts to shake and hurt. And you lose concsciousness for a couple of seconds. One time they used it on my tongue. One guard held me from the left and another on my back and another used it against my tongue and for four or five days I couldn't eat.
Less successful is Damien Cave's "Rice, in Surprise Baghdad Visit, Presses Leaders for Progress." No link. No reason to link it. Progress, read the article slowly, is the passage of the oil law. There's no pressure for anything but to privatize. The New York Times can't and won't come out against that. So by choice or from above, Cave has to play dumb. The mainstream media is blowing this story and, with few exceptions, independent media has shown little interest in covering it.
New content at The Third Estate Sunday Review:
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: Ehren Watada's heroic stand
TV: Boys' WB!
Arch nemises Teen Dumb Ass, junior division
Big Daddy Dumb Ass
The enemy within
Origins
Highlights
What's going on?
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
michael gordon
the new york times
michael moss
the third estate sunday review