Okay, the New York Times this morning. Damien Cave's "Bridge Bombing Increases Tensions in Northern Iraq" tries something interesting, changing a date. In Friday's snapshot, we noted the US military's announcement that they had killed 3 children. Yesterday, we noted here that AP and the Los Angeles Times could both cover that in their Saturday reports. The Times didn't. This morning, Cave tells us that the statement was released Saturday.
No, it wasn't.
When the "And the war drags on" entries are done, I'll often make a point to say "Monday, it's Monday already in Iraq" when we're noting a Monday release although it is still Sunday in the US. Multi-National Forces doesn't use the US time zone on their reports. Use the link, you'll see the date "Friday, 01 June 2007." Now it could be a simple mistake but considering that the paper sat out this story yesterday when people were covering it (in print -- they had enough time on Friday to get their stories ready to be printed in Saturday papers) amd considering that Cave twice says this event happened Saturday, it doesn't seem like a simple mistake. Is MNF wrong? Friday did I do the snapshot after the day had rolled over in Baghdad? No. No.
Otherwise, Cave notes that another bridge (2nd for last week) was blown up -- one leading from Baghdad to Kirkuk -- "forcing traffic to detour through some of the most dangerous areas of Diyala Province." Cave notes that another helicopter came under fire (this one had a 'hard landing') and notes that the deaths of the three children is now under investigation.
Investigation is a good transition to Paul von Zielbauer's "At Trial, Colonel's Role in Haditha Questioned" which notes that Adam P. Mathes ("First Lt.") testified in the Camp Pendleton Article 32 hearing that Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani refused to admit the Haditha slaughter after a Time magazine reporter asked about it because, according to Mathes, "an investigation, it will be an admission of guilt." In addition, Chessani was called out by the judge (while the judge spoke with a witness) for choosing to 'supervise' his troops from the safety of the military base, relying on the feeds from drones, as opposed to joining those serving him under him in Haditha.
Ann Coulter's best friend has an "analysis." It's the usual crap (no withdrawal! withdrawal is surrender!) and you can see that in the language and the way the argument's contstructed. That's it for the paper.
On the bridge bombing, we'll note this from Ned Parker's Los Angeles Times article:
Militants blew up a key bridge Saturday on a highway connecting Iraq's oil-rich north to Baghdad, in what locals warned was part of a campaign to stoke ethnic unrest in the volatile melting pot.
The attack about 110 miles north of Baghdad was viewed as a strike against Iraq's trade routes, which see large convoys traveling north to south. The explosion closed the bridge to big vehicles and triggered warnings from residents that the group Al Qaeda in Iraq has designs on the strategic region around Kirkuk, where ethnic Turkmen live alongside Kurds and Arabs.
"Armed groups are trying to spread sectarianism ... and enmity inside Kirkuk," a city police official said on condition of anonymity.
Such groups attack the Kurdish community one day; the next day, they attack the Arabs, and the next they target Turkmen, in an attempt to sow the seeds of sedition in Kirkuk's society." A devastating attack in the Kirkuk region could broaden Iraq's civil war the same way last year's bombing of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra did.
If the link doesn't work, it's destroyed the post twice already. (And it was the LA Times yesterday that caused everything to run together as well.)
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Highlights
Turning to radio. Today on XM satellite, Air American Radio stations and streaming online at one p.m. EST, RadioNation with Laura Flanders:
This week, Meron Benvenisti on the viability of a two state "solution" to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, 40 years after the 6-day War, Ari Berman on Hillary Clinton's unionbusting pals, Esther Kaplan and James Wagoner of Advocates for Youth, on the GOP gravy train that is the administration's "abstinence only" campaign. And Naomi Klein on the Iraq oil boom that's happening - in Canada. All that and Stuart Klawans on the Japanese animated film Paprika
Weeknights, hear Laura on the new, "Air Americans" with Robert Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio, David Bender and Mark Riley, Tues-Thurs.
Fed Up with the Democratic Leadership? Get Smart. Get BLUE GRIT. Buy a copy of Laura's hit new book for your Congressperson TODAY!
Apologies to Rachel whose e-mail I didn't see yesterday. Here are two WBAI (NYC over airwaves, streaming online):
Sunday, June 3rd, 11:00 am
THE NEXT HOUR
Post-Warholian radio artists Andrew Andrew and special guests.
Monday, June 4, 2-3pm
CAT RADIO CAFE
Guest host Jim Freund of WBAI's long-running science fiction and fantasy program, "Hour of the Wolf," interviews fantasy author and screenwriter Peter S. Beagle. Beagle, who recently was the recipient of the prestigious Nebula Award for his novelette, "Two Hearts," sings and reads from an earlier novel, "The Last Unicorn." (Janet Coleman and David Dozer return next week.)
The Next Hour has already aired. You can go to the WBAI archives and listen to the show, however, if you missed it.
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