Saturday, April 15, 2006

Ruth's Public Radio Report

Ruth: It was a week where a number of us in the community went to California. Let me pull a C.I. and say "Translation," do not expect much from this week's report because we were all busy speaking to activists and participating in activities. I will be discussing two programs.

First up is one of my favorites, CounterSpin. As always the program began with a look at recent press.

Janine Jackson: The Valerie Plame story found its way back into the the media last week as special prosector Patrick Fitzgerald filed new papers that shed a little more light on how the White House planned to undermine Iraq war critic and foreign ambassador Joe Wilson. According to the court filing, Dick Cheney's former aide [Scooter] Lewis Libby was instructed by the administration to leak portions of a classified National Intelligence Estimate. in order to counter Wilson's claim that the White House's story of Iraq's attempts to get yellowcake uranium from Niger was unfounded. Some reporters shrugged it off suggesting that everyone in Washington leaks information. As CBS Evening News reporter Gloria Borger put in on April 6th QUOTE "This is just one more opportunity for the Democrats to charge the White House with hypocrisy. But, as one former intelligence official told me today 'If hypocrisy were a crime in Washington, we'd have to build more jails.' " CLOSED QUOTE. NPR analyst Daniel Schorr summarized the story on April 8th by saying that the Intelligence Estimate QUOTE "came up with the possibility that there was indeed an attempt to buy uranium from the country of Niger" CLOSED QUOTE so the White House was very anxious to get that out. But that's deceptive. Some analysts did think there was something to the Niger story but others vehemently disagreed. The White House wanted reporters to know only about the analysis that backed up there ulitmately bogus case. But the Washington Post was the most passionated administration defender. It's April 9th editorial headlined "A Good Leak" argued the White House was right to go after Wilson since he was the one not telling the truth. Washington Post readers were surely confused to read in the same day's paper a long story reporting that the Intelligence Estimate did not say it what the White House claimed it did and, since the White House itself long ago admitted it shouldn't have made the Niger claims at all, the Washington Post is left defending the administration on a claim even they no longer stand by. Now that's loyalty.

Let me note a second item as well:

Steve Rendall: An ongoing military propaganda campaign aimed at exaggerating the importance of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the purported leader of al Qaeda in Iraq was reported in the April 10th Washington Post. The report "Military Plays Up Role of Zacharwi" says the effort has raised Zarqawi's profile QUOTE "In a way some military intelligence officials belive may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks." CLOSED QUOTE. The propaganda not only targeted Iraqis hoping to turn them against the foreign militants, according to Post reporters Thomas Ricks, it also quote "explicitly lists the U.S. home audience as one of its targets of a broader propa campaign" CLOSED QUOTE and boasts of how "a selective leak about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins whose resulting article ran on the New York Times front page on February 9, 2004." Closed QUOTE. Ricks quotes an Army colonel [James A. Treadwell] seemingly shocked by it all, who tells him "You don't psyops Americans We just don't do that." Indeed PYSOPS or psychological operations -- military speak for propaganda operations which target Americans aren't just against Army regulations, they're a violation of federal law.

This week's CounterSpin also included a hard hitting look at the Massachusetts health care plan via an interview Janine Jackson did with Harvard University professor Steffie Woolhandler. Of key interest to the community would be Professor Woolhandler's critique of the press which, as she noted, seems to operate under the belief that if they include a statement from a Democrat and one from a Republican, they have covered a topic. A better approach would be to actually read the legislation, at least the summary, and to examine it as opposed to rushing from one partisan to another and passing off an article as informed. In the case of the health care plan, the extreme poor, only 11% of the state's population, will benefit, a good thing as Professor Woolhandler noted, however everyone from the working poor on up will not. Add to that the fact that the legislation lacks any teeth that would allow it to be enforced and you have a program that benefits the lobby that supported it, the insurance industry. As Professor Woolandler stated, "This is not fooling anyone who is thinking seriously about universal health care."


Missing WBAI's Law and Disorder Monday was a trade off for me and one worth it due to Monday's activities. We were at a rally when it would have been airing. So I had the Law and Disorder spirit if not the program. I was delighted when a young man stopped by C.I.'s that evening with an iPod. I am, quite honestly, still at a loss on how to adequately work mine. He provided a number of suggestions and tips. Derek had e-mailed a question sometime ago and I was unable to answer it. However, I did get the answer Monday and, though I have already e-mailed Derek, I will post it here in case anyone else is having similar problems. If the program you use, I use Juice, is slow in downloading due to your connection, do not attempt to download feeds you subscribe to while you are using the computer for it will only make it slower. That seems so obvious now but it was not a thought that had occurred to me when Derek asked his question. Instead, create a time for downloading. Derek wrote back that he used the suggestion and what worked best for him was to come home from work, boot up the computer and download the feeds while he ate dinner and took care of odds and ends around the house. Then, when he is ready to surf and do his other activities, the programs are already downloaded and he can listen to them that night. He has dial up and noted that there were many nights previously where he would attempt to download and surf only to discover several hours later that maybe one of his feeds, if he was lucky, had downloaded.

While the young man was answering my questions and demonstrating different options, I saw that one of his feeds was Law and Disorder. He was a technically savy. We ended up listening to the program while we ate dinner. Mike and Cedric have both covered the first segment. To that, I will add that the restaurant in Houston, Texas where co-host Dalia Hashad was treated so poorly was Bubba’s Seafood Grill and Bar. Ms. Hashad was traveling from a conference, in Austin, and had stopped in there for a meal. Upon being seated, she was ignored by the staff repeatedly despite the fact that White diners arriving after her were given prompt service. Ms. Hashad was ignored even when she attempted to address the problem in several ways including repeatedly calling out "Excuse me" and getting her own menu after one would not be brought to her. If you have had a similar experience at a Bubba's Seafood Grill or anywhere else, the hosts invited you to go to their website and share your experience. On that, Eddie advised that there was a registration process and that he had not anticpated it would take so long to receive his password via e-mail. He ended up running out of time and asked that I advise that if you are not registered to comment at the site, you "plan your time better than I did."

As Michael Ratner, "You just wanted to have something to eat and not have a fight." But that was not the case at Terminal C, in the George Bush International Airport. If the rIf that explains it. Ms. Hashad spoke of the question that weighs on the mind "How much does my race play into it?" and spoke of the what it feels like to be faced with these incidents of racial profiling on a daily basis.

The episode began with the announcement that Ms. Hashad has left her post at the ACLU, where she was the Arab-American advocate for the Campaign Against Racial Profiling, to move to the director of US programs at Amnesty International. All four co-hosts are members of National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty Interntational and the Center for Constitutional Rights. I do not think I have noted Ms. Hashad's title here before but I believe we did note her new opportunity. (I believe that Heidi Boghosian and Geoff Brady mentioned it when they anchored a special fundraising broadcast.)

Venita Gupta, with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, was the first guest and she discussed the situation in Rome, Georgia where South Asisan immigrants were being targeted by law enforcement in a sting operation that was supposedly intended to reduce the use of meth. In Georgia, it is illegal to sell more than two bottles of Sudafed as part of their supposed crack down on meth. There have been 49 arrests and, of the 49, 44 were South Asian. The number of stores targeted were 24 and, of those, 23 were owned by South Asians. Large retail giants, such as Wal-Mart and Costco, were not targeted in the sting which utilized informants looking to reduce the length of time they themselves were facing.

In some instances, the "crime" is selling four boxes of Sudafed instead of two and/or selling to people who stated, "I'm going to use this to make a cook." Make a cook do what? Someone of my age wonders that; however, it is slang among users for making meth. Why clerks would know that, no fact sheet was given to them nor were they offered training in Meth Lingo 101, is a question the legal system is not interested in pursuing. Just as public schools earn dollars for each student who attends in the first periods each day, law enforcement can earn federal dollars for each arrest made in the so-called war on drugs. So targeting a community that is a minority in the population and avoiding the big retailers can turn a tidy profit.

When this targeted population is faced with a trial, they will take pleas. A citizen would, for instance, be granted a plea bargain of house arrest and that would be the end of it. For immigrants, that is not the case. Once they have taken part in a plea agreement, they are now at risk of deportation and Ms. Gupta noted the INS was often outside the courtrooms ready to begin proceedings.

In response to Heidi Boghosian's question of what length of sentences they would be facing, if found guilty, had they not entered into a plea agreement, Ms. Gupta responded twenty-five to forty years in prison.

Ms. Hashad: For selling sudafed and matches?
Ms. Boghosian: For selling legal products.

That is probably enough to disturb many, as it should, but in response to Ms. Boghosian's question of whether this was going on outside of Georgia, Ms. Gupta noted reports of it taking place in Tennessee, Texas and North Carolina.

For further information and to see what you can do, visit the Racial Justice Campaign. Ms. Hashad noted that Halle Berry has plans to portray Ms. Gupta in a film on this story.



The next guest was Justice Vegas Torrealba who is a Supreme Court Justice in Venezuela.
This segment led to an intense dinner table discussion on the role of the United States in Venezuela so my notes were spotty. It is a wonderful segment and I will zero in on the 2002 attempted coup backed by the United States.

Justice Torrealba noted that in the early stages of the coup there was a huge difference between what was actully happening on the streets and what was making it to TV screens. Venzuela's big media is controlled by foes of Hugo Chavez. By the palace, there were sharp shooters, "one was North America, they had Columbians," who were killing Chavez supporters but this was portrayed in the big media as if those opposed to President Chavez were the ones being shot at and as though they were shot at on the orders of President Chavez.

At a time when the so-called "Chavez problem" is a concern to such "concerned" people as Pat Robertson, the New York Times editorial board and Simon Rosenberg, this section bears noting.

The sharp shooting, as Michael Ratner noted, "was the beginning of the coup." Justice Torrealba explained that despite the military announcing fourteen people had died, at the time of the announced "no one had died." Mr. Ratner wondered, "Why didn't the military kill Chavez when he was their prisoner?"

Justice Torrealba: I think they got scared. Too many people were on the streets. . . . It was amazing.
Ms. Hashad: That's what we need, that's what we need. Millions of people on the streets.

The hosts noted that this had happened with regards to people fighting back against the scapegoating of immigrants, but that it needed to happen with respect to the illegal occupation of Iraq. That is a feat that we would have difficulty with in some instances due to, as Michael Smith noted, the continued attacks on labor unions and the fact that "we really have two capitalist parties" in this country "and that's it."

Justice Torrealba offered a detail of the coup attempt that I was unfamiliar with, "There were two ships right in front of the coast from this country [the United States] and they jammed the communications."

This knocked out cell phone usage and reminded me of some of the targets the administration sought in Iraq. For members who are new to the coup, in December of 2004, Juan Forero wrote one of his usual pieces of "reporting" and the coup was addressed then. At that time, he went to great strides to ignore details in the public documents that spoke of C.I.A. involvement in the coup. His "reporting" was analyzed then and it has been noted since then that the Times finally eased (carefully) to the position of C.I.A. involvement.

The issue of the United States actions with regards to other democracies was addressed later in the broadcast. Mr. Smith did note that in Venezuela that have multi parties who form coalitions and give voters a greater degree of choice but in the United States we are largely left with the two major parties.

Bertel Ollman was the final guest and one that I hope they will have on again. In addition to many years at NYU, Professor Ollman has written numerous books and created the boardgame Class Struggle. Currently, his project is The International Endowment for Democracy which is not to be confused with the National Edowment for Democracy which relies on monies from the Congress (from our pockets) to interject the interests of a few into democracies in other countries (doing a job that, as noted, was previously done exclusively by the C.I.A.). As Profesor Ollman summarized the NED, it has "been around for over twenty years and it basically gets money from the United State government to subvert regimes abroad that Washington disapproves of all in the name of . . . promoting democracy and nation building." By contrast, Professor Ollman's group, the IEFD, hopes to use money "to support democracy in the country that needs it the most . . . Needs it the most, not because we're the worst dictatorship" but because our actions are creating "a greater negative effect to the people all over the world than the actions of any government on the face of the planet."

Thirty-five people sit on the board of the IEFD, none of whom is paid a salary, and they include
Gore Vidal, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ramsey Clark, Howard Zinn, Michael Smith and Michael Ratner.
You can find out more information about the IEFD online where their appeal can be read in thirteen languages and where they have created an online library.

I was able to catch a small portion of KPFA's Living Room hosted by Kris Welch and Friday's topic was immigration. One guest that I reconized was James K. Galbraith whose "Morning in America Again" was highly recommended by Ms. Welch. Another guest was Professor Roberto Rodriguez. A caller noted the book Elaine covered Monday's WBAI's Cat Radio Cafe, Rebecca covered Flashpoints on Tuesday and Thursday, and Kat covered KPFA's Guns and Butter on Wednesday.


I had a wonderful time this week and Mike has shared some thoughts on the experience so be sure to read that. There was wonderful music, as Kat has noted. We also watched Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein's documentary The Take which I highly recommend. Afterwards, we discussed the film and at one point, I offered that some of what is done reminds me of a film that many people seem unfamiliar with. Elaine had already left but it turns out this is one of her favorite films which surprised me as much as when C.I. pulled it out so we could all watch. The film is Frank Capra's Meet John Doe. For a film from the forties, its look at journalism and fat cats who attempt to utilize parties to control the people and get them to betray their own interests in a manner which may surprise many. The film stars Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper and, especially for younger members who feel that we are in a new period or that the control of the mainstream media is something new to our nation, I recommend that you check out the film.

My grandchildren Tracey, Jayson and Elijah had as much fun as I did. Whomever taught Elijah to stick out his tongue should come forward because I was thrilled he discovered something he enjoyed more than kicking and his parents prefer it to his kicking as well. So, if it was Ty or someone else, claim your credit and receive your thanks.

KPFA's Sunday Salon will cover the following this Sunday (9:00 a.m. Pacific time, 11:00 a.m. Central, and noon Eastern time) :

First Hour
In our first hour
...Imagine being one of several dozen women incarcerated with thousands of men.Harassment, humiliation, and in many cases, rape, are all a part of thedaily routine. So is being called "sir." Outside of prison, transgenderfolks often face a hurtful lack of understanding; inside prison, that lackof understanding can be life-threatening...Attorney Alex Lee of the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex JusticeProject joins us, and others, to be confirmed.
Second Hour
In our second hour...
Its been 100 years since the 1906 Earthquake. And 1989 -- when the last bigone hit the Bay Area -- isn't recent history, either. Time to dust off yourearthquake-preparedness savvy...Our guests Ana-Marie Jones of Collaborating Agencies Responding toDisasters, Kiska Icard of the San Francisco SPCA, and others will remind youhow to get yourself, your home, and your family -- including its non-humanmembers -- ready for a rumbler.
Listen to past shows, get contact and reference info for guests, see announcements of upcoming programs, and more at: SundaySalon.org.

Sandra Lupien of KPFA's The Morning Show will fill in for Mr. Bensky as this Sunday's host.
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NYT: Pretend to care, pretend Dexy's not there, pretend it's news

How much fluff are you supposed to swallow before you spit out feathers? A question worth contemplating if you've read this morning's New York Times. If you haven't spare yourself.

Monica Davey's writing about . . . what? The articles entitled "Protest Rallies End in Job Loss For Immigrants." (That is the print headline. Online headline is different. We go by print when there's a difference between it and online.) She offers, as an exampled, that in Tyler, Texas "22 welders lost their jobs making parts for air conditioners." 22 out of over 2000 demonstrators. I've heard from the Tyler members (and the surrounding areas -- shout outs to Longview, Marshall, Kilgore and Chandler -- see, I did read this morning's e-mails).

Is this propaganda intended to scare people because that's quite frankly how it's being read. Davey's got nothing in the article about the 22 fired including what the grounds were for firing them. She also doesn't note who they worked for. Would it be Trane? Would it be Carrier? Is it another company? For members: air quality, "Targaritas," special rates, and threats of pulling business if their product is not used. Put it together and you've got what didn't make it into Davey's story.

What did make it into print is a cautionary tale of victims -- one that never actually includes the victims. She offers a shrugged oh-well of these-things-happen. Whether that's her intent or not (or whether someone else shaped what made it into print), who knows? (I'm not taking calls this morning because I'd like to be done with this entry in less than an hour and out the door.)

Are the 22 (that Davey tosses out, if not explores) taking the attitude that they'd made a mistake? (At least one isn't taking that attitude and would march again.) Who knows? They don't get a hearing on their feelings on anything. As pointed out yesterday, it's a wide shot when it comes to the people effected. But it's always a close up (flattering) for big business in the paper of record, isn't it? So flip from Davey's front page story to A11 for Kate Phillips' "Business Lobbyists Call For Action on Immigration." Lobbyists? The Times is comfortable to speaking to them and for them (check out the editorials) but people effected? Rendered invisible yet again. (Recalling an infamous editorial that the paper no doubt wishes was forgotten -- where they advocated that the minimu wage should be "$0.00.")

And is Alan Cowell lost in London (again!)? Brandon wonders that and whether Pru should return to covering him for the round-robin? Why does Brandon wonder that? There was a court martial in England. Three days. Malcolm Kendall-Smith was sented to eight months. The Times hasn't noted the verdict even in an "international brief." Pru, Brandon may be right and you may need to send out a search party to locate Cowell. Who will locate the news for the paper is another issue.

From Democracy Now!:

RAF Doctor Jailed For Refusing Iraq Service
In Britain, a doctor in the Royal Air Force has been sentenced to eight months in jail for refusing to go to Iraq. Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith maintained he is refusing his assignment in order to not take part in an illegal war. "Now more so than ever he feels that his actions were totally justified and he would not if placed in the same circumstances seek to do anything differently," Justin Hugheston-Roberts, the lawyer representing Kendall-Smith, said after the sentencing.

"Warhols of Tomorrow Are Dealers' Quarry Today" is someone's idea of news. Well at least, as far as we know, the paper's not using its own space on a pet issue of concern. (Tweet, tweet, ring a bell?) It's not exactly front page news, notfor the hard news section. But it ends up there, lets them pretend they've covered the art scene well and maybe someone has an investment to protect? (The Times' conflict in the arts scene, traditional arts, is legendary. Just never covered in the Times.)

What else is there? Kirk Semple reports from Iraq. Not in the mood for it this morning. It's laughable that the Times has yet to apologize to readers for running propaganda that was part of a PSYOPS operation and yet they want readers to trust them on Iraq.

Let's be clear that what Dexter Filkins did in that instance (and just focusing on that one instance) topped Judith Miller because PSYOPS operations can be directed at foreign countries but it is illegal to use them on Americans. So let's be real clear that Dexter Filkins has surpassed Judith Miller. The minute the truth of Dexy's report was reported (not in the Times), there should have been a very prominent note to the readers. It should have offered an apology, it should have named Filkins and should have set out some sort of guideline to prevent readers from being the target of future PSYOP operations. Bare minimum, that should have been done.

The paper's refusal to address the issue demonstrats, yet again, that the mea culpa was meaningless. Their silence, rightly or wrongly, indicates that they have no interest in whether their readers are misinformed or if reporters are accomplices (knowingly or unknowingly) in illegal activies that further lower the paper's credibility and damage the readers chances of true understanding. "All the news that's fit to print"?

A paper that's concerned itself with "tabloid wars" this week should be willing to take a serious (and needed) look at their own actions in what was an illegal activity by the government. As it is, for readers to know what happened, they can't depend on Edward Wong's aside yesterday, but will need to turn to Thomas E. Ricks "Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi" (Washington Post). The most we can hope for, apparently, is circle jerk profiles where Dexter Filkins says he and John F. Burns will be "friends forever" (did they exchange frienship braclets) and Burns notes Dexy's "questing." (Was there a medieval romance in the Green Zone?)

For real news from Iraq, we'll note Dahr Jamail. Read his and Arkan Hamed's "Baghdad Morgue Overflowing Daily" here at IPS or here at Iraq Dispatches:

BAGHDAD, Apr 14 (IPS) -- As sectarian killings continue to rise in Iraq, the central morgue in Baghdad is unable to keep up with the daily influx of bodies.
The morgue is receiving a minimum of 60 bodies a day and sometimes more than 100, a morgue employee told IPS on condition of anonymity.
"The average is probably over 85," said the employee on the morning of April 12, as scores of family members waited outside the building to see if their loved ones were among the dead.
The family of a man named Ashraf who had been taken away by the Iraqi police Feb. 16 anxiously searched through digital photographs inside the morgue. He then found what he was looking for.
"His two sons were killed when Ashraf was taken," said his uncle, 50-year-old Aziz. "Ashraf was a bricklayer who was simply trying to do his job, and now we see what has become of him in our new democracy."
Aziz found that the body of Ashraf was brought to the morgue Feb. 18 by the Iraqi police two days after he was abducted. The photographs of the body showed gunshot wounds in the head and bludgeon marks across the face. Both arms were apparently broken, and so many holes had been drilled into his chest that it appeared shredded.
A report Oct. 29, 2004 in the British medical journal The Lancet had said that "by conservative assumptions, we think about 100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq."
In an update, Les Roberts, lead author of the report said Feb. 8 this year that there may have been 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since the invasion.

Highlight. And, it's not available online yet. However, check here because it's supposed to go online (excerpt) at some point. From Robert Dreyfuss' "The Pentagon's New Spies" (Rolling Stone, April 20, 2006):

Last October, before the public learned that President Bush had secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without a court order, the Pentagon approached the Senate intelligence committee with an unprecedented request. Military officials wanted the authority to spy on U.S. citizens on American soil, without identifying themselves, in order to collect intelligence about terrorists threats. The plan was so sweeping, according to congressional sources who reviewed it, that it would have permitted operatives from the Defense Intelligence Agency to spy on dissidents by posing as peace activists and infiltrating anti-war meetings.
Senators on both sides of the aisle refused to go along with the plan. "The Department of Defense should not be in the business of spying on law-abiding Americans-- period," said Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon. In closed-door deliberations, the intelligence committee blocked the request.
In fact, however, the Pentagon has already assembled a nationwide domestic spying machine that goes far beyond the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of telephone and e-mail traffice. Operating in secret, the Defense Department is systematically gathering and analyzing intelligence on American citizens at home -- and a new Pentagon agency called Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) is helping to coordinae the military's covert efforts with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
[. . .]
"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America," says Wyden. "This is a huge leap without even a congressional hearing."

The Defense Department, formerly the War Department, has no business spying on Americans; however, it did before and that led to Congressional hearings. Hearings are not required to determine whether they can do this, hearings are required to determine the guilt and the punishment. The militarization of the United States is not in keeping with democracy but maybe it will wake some up (finally?) to the "dangers of an unchecked Bully Boy"?

Martha advises those looking for news in a print newspaper to check out the Washington Post.
From Thomas B. Edsall's "E-Mails Tie Former GSA Official to Abramoff: Safavian Attorney Objects to Disclosure:"

Federal prosecutors last night released hundreds of e-mails documenting the business and personal ties between former White House aide David H. Safavian, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and a network of congressional representatives and staffers.
Within days after becoming chief of staff at the General Services Administration, for example, Safavian began discussions of government property opportunities with Abramoff. In other e-mails, Abramoff suggested that then-GSA Administrator Steve Perry join them on a $130,000 golfing trip to Scotland.

Ruth's Public Radio Report going up after this posts (and publishes). The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.














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Friday, April 14, 2006

Democracy Now: Nepal, Jeff Chester, Scott Horton; Danny Schechter, Katrina vanden Heuvel

 
THE CSPAN "OPPORTUNITY"
We were so psyched when C-SPAN agreed to tape a discussion based around my book  When News Media Lies. Rory O'Connor and I had a great conversation at the Used Book Cafe in New York. The folks at the store told us our packed event was among their best. The CSPAN videographer was enthusiastic.
AND THEN...
CPAN 2 advised us that they scheduled the program for 7 AM on Monday the 17th. 7 AM! Well, I will be up. I always am, BUT.... Tape it if you can and send it around. And if you like it, ask Brian Lamb and his team to consider playing it again. Do you think this had anything to do with the subject--ie the role of the media? Rememer, the cable industry pays for CSPAN--or is just bad luck.
Have a great holiday weekend. I will be attending the memorial tribute to the late producer and Mediachannel.org supporter Al Levin tomorrow night. You can see Al in his son Marc’s doc "The Protocols of Zion."
 
That is a heads up on the broadcast of Danny Schechter's March 29th discussion.  I'm not a CSPAN junkie.  (I really don't watch TV if I can help it.)  However, things are streamed online.  This event may be (audio only or audio and video).  If you are a member who is a CSPAN junkie and have more to add to the above (which is from The News Dissector's "The Dissector Daily Readers Forum"), e-mail and put "When News Lies" or "CSPAN" in the heading so I notice it right away.
 
RAF Doctor Jailed For Refusing Iraq Service
In Britain, a doctor in the Royal Air Force has been sentenced to eight months in jail for refusing to go to Iraq. Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith maintained he is refusing his assignment in order to not take part in an illegal war. "Now more so than ever he feels that his actions were totally justified and he would not if placed in the same circumstances seek to do anything differently," Justin Hugheston-Roberts, the lawyer representing Kendall-Smith, said after the sentencing.
 
Dozens Dead in Iraq Violence
In Iraq, dozens of police officers are feared dead after their convoy was bombed north of Baghdad earlier today. At least six officers were killed. In other violence, at least eleven construction workers were murdered after they were abducted in Basra. Today's deaths come a day after violence killed at least 52 people around Iraq. In Thursday's deadliest incident, at least 15 people were killed and 25 wounded in car bombing of a market in a Shiite area of Baghdad.
 
White House Maintains Silence on Iraq Weapons Lab Claim
Meanwhile, for the second straight day Thursday, White House spokesperson Scott McLellan could not tell reporters when President Bush or other administration officials were informed a Pentagon fact-finding mission had found no mobile biological weapons labs in Iraq. The timing of the fact-finding mission's report has come under intense scrutiny. Just two days after it was submitted, President Bush cited the trailers as proof the US had discovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The President and other administration officials continued to make the faulty claim for more than a year -- and never once said their claim had been disputed.
 
Nepal Criticized For Human Rights Abuses
In Nepal, embattled King Gyanendra pledged today he would hold national elections, but did not give a specific timetable. Opposition groups said the King's message was nothing more than a vague repeat of previous promises that have gone unfulfilled. The King's announcement comes just two days after he returned from a two-month vacation to the capital of Katmandu amidst massive protests against his rule. On Thursday, Louise Arbor, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, criticized what she called the government's excessive use of force and use of arbitrary detention against protesters. Also Thursday, Police fired on a demonstration attended by dozens of lawyers outside the Supreme Court. At least 70 people were arrested.
 
Immigrant Rights Coalition Calls for One Day Boycott, Walk-Out
A coalition of groups advocating for immigrant rights are calling for a massive one-day job and economic boycott to take place May 1st. Some are calling the event "A Day Without Immigrants." Organizers are calling on immigrants to refuse to work or spend any money on May Day to protest moves in Congress to criminalize undocumented workers. In recent weeks millions of immigrants and their supporters have taken to the streets in an unprecedented wave of protests.
 
The above five (!) items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and KeShawn, Lyle, Amanda, Sam and Mayra all made strong cases for their selections.  Democarcy Now! ("always informing you," as Marcia says):
 
 
 
Headlines for April 14, 2006

- Dozens Dead in Iraq Violence
- Nepal Criticized For Human Rights Abuses
- Chad Claims To Have Fought Off Rebel Attack
- Report: Hamas Willing To Recognize Israeli Government
- RAF Doctor Jailed For Refusing Iraq Service
- 6th Ex-Military Commander Calls For Rumsfeld's Resignation
- White House Maintains Silence on Iraq Weapons Lab Claim
- California TV Station To Stop Using VNRs
- Immigrant Rights Coalition Calls for One Day Boycott, Walk-Out
- Audit: FEMA Misspent $1B in Hurricane Katrina Relief
- Federal Judge Criticizes Denial of Muslim Scholar's Visa
 
Thousands of Protesters, Journalists, Lawyers Arrested in Nepal as Mass Pro-Democracy Demonstrations Continue Against King

For the past week, tens of thousands of protesters have filled the streets of Nepal. King Gyanendra has placed severe restrictions on civil liberties since consolidating power in February of 2005. We go to Kathmandu to speak with a Nepali journalist who was beaten by police and we speak with two activists who have been following the latest developments.
 
Part II: The End of the Internet? Net Neutrality Threatened by Cable, Telecom Interests

Both Congress and the FCC are currently considering a number of proposals that will have far-reaching implications on the way the Internet works and the vital concept of net neutrality -- universal and non-discriminatory to the Internet -- is at risk. We speak with Jeff Chester of the  Center for Digital Democracy.
 
Iraqi CBS Cameraman Released After 1 Year Imprisonment by U.S. Forces

We look at the case of Iraqi CBS cameraman Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein. He was shot by U.S. forces while working in Mosul then detained for a year in Abu Ghraib without due process. We speak with Scott Horton, a New York attorney who flew to Baghdad to help defend Abdul Ameer.
 
 
 
Iraq . . .  The Associated Press reports that, near Baghdad, "dozens" of police officers are missing and at least six are dead in the continued waves of chaos and violence that make up the illegal occupation. KUNA notes the death of police officer Lieutenant Marwan Yosef who was killed by gunmen in Kirkuk.   Australia's ABC highlights yet another source of tension from the occupation: Babylon's hanging gardes ("one of the seven wonders of the ancient world") became the perfect place (in someone's mind) for the US to put in a helicopter landing-pad and the military's "sandbags" were the perfect place for "archaeological artefacts."  Donny George head of the Board for Heritage Antiquities, stated that it would "take decades to sort out" and that "using this city for military purposes was [a] huge damage to the history and heritage of the country."  CNN reports at least four dead and six wounded in two separate mosque bombings in Baquba. In Basra, Reuters reports, kidnapped workers were found dead (eleven civilians) and that a bomb near Basra took the lives of two Iraqis and four British troops were wounded. (The Telegraph of London points out that an additional  three were wounded in Afghanistan, a total of seven British soldiers have been wounded.)  On the workers who were kidnapped, the BBC notes the number as ten and reports that seven were killed but three escaped. Al Jazeera reports the deaths of at least thirteen with at least eight wounded as a result of a 7:45 pm (GMT) market bombing.
 
Highlights?  Death, loss, and 'justice' plus a profile.  On the topic of death, Hilda notes Katrina vanden Heuvel's "Reverend William Sloane Coffin, Jr: 1924-2006" (The Notion, The Nation):
 
"Clearly the trick in life is to die young as late as possible," Reverend William Sloane Coffin From his last book, Credo.
Reverend William Sloane Coffin died Wednesday at the age of 81.
Bill Coffin, as his friends knew him, was one of our greatest and most eloquent prophetic voices. For more than forty years, his passionate calls for peace, social justice, civil rights, and an end to nuclear insanity challenged this nation's conscience.
While Chaplain of Yale University in the 1960s, Coffin emerged as an indomitable opponent of the Vietnam War. A leader of the draft resistance movement, a proponent of civil disobedience, Coffin and four other antiwar activists (including Dr. Benjamin Spock) challenged provisions of the Selective Service Act. Tried in 1968, Coffin, Dr. Spock and two of the other three were convicted of conspiracy, but the verdicts were overturned on appeal. In 1978, Coffin was called to the very visible pulpit of Riverside Church and as its Minister led the church into the center of the antinuclear movement. (He was also immortalized as the offbeat Rev. Scot Sloan in Doonesbury. )Though slowed by a stroke he suffered in 1999, Coffin spoke out against the Iraq war and, just last October, he founded a religious organization calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
 
Dallas notes Mischa Gaus' "A Legal Limbo" (In These Times) which deals with one Guantanamo prisoner:
 
A Libyan, [Abdul Hamid Abud Salam] Al-Ghizzawi was invisible until he passed word through other detainees that he wanted a lawyer. Dozens of new detainees became known this way last year. [Candace] Gorman took his case in November.
"The fact that I’ve been representing my client for four months and yet I can’t communicate with him in any way is just ludicrous," Gorman says.
Gorman cannot see or talk with Al-Ghizzawi without filing a protective order with D.C.’s federal district court--an agreement that warns that she can be prosecuted for sharing classified information. The Justice Department is refusing to let those agreements be filed, because cases currently before the D.C. appeals court and the Supreme Court--Al Odah v. United States and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld--will affect what rights and legal venues detainees can access. The Supreme Court decided two years ago that detainees can challenge their detention, but until the latest cases are cleared everything else--including Gorman's emergency petition to see Al-Ghizzawi--has been sidelined.
Perversely, Al-Ghizzawi may be lucky. Recent disclosures of detainee records show not all even have habeas petitions filed on their behalf yet, says Barbara Olshansky, assistant legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is coordinating their legal fight. These motions allow prisoners to challenge the legality of their detention.
For these prisoners, legal aid may come too late. The Detainee Treatment Act, passed late in 2005 as a rider to a military appropriations bill, strips detainees of their right to challenge their detention in court. The administration is arguing that it retroactively removes habeas rights for all detainees.
Even for those few lawyers who had already filed protective orders, gaining access to their clients is difficult.
 
Now the 'justice' and loss, Malcolm Kendall-Smith.  Sentenced to eight months at the conclusion of his three day court martial but the issues involved in the case weren't as easily dismissed in the real world as they were in the trial.  James in Brighton notes
Robert Verkaik's "Court Martial highlights importance of legality of the war" (Independent of London):
 
Few controversies have divided the British people more than the question of the legality of the war with Iraq.
Among those who believe the 2003 conflict to be unlawful are some of the world's leading experts on international law, who maintain that without a second UN resolution the American and British forces lacked the authority to invade Iraq.
Leading the argument for the British Government is Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General. He told the Prime Minister that UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which found Saddam Hussein to have failed to disarm, could be used to justify war without a second resolution being passed, if it could be shown that Iraq was still in direct breach.
But it is now clear that even Lord Goldsmith had his reservations about the Government's position because of worries that 1441 did not explicitly set out the conditions upon which military action could be taken.
Yesterday's court martial in Aldershot is further evidence that the question of whether the invasion was unlawful is not merely of interest to international jurists.
 
More on the issues can be found in Gareth's highlight, George Galloway's "Rebellion in the ranks" (Guardian of London):
 
The film Winter Soldier is finding a new audience through the networks of the anti-war movement -- and with good reason. Made in 1972 by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, it depicts the height of the revolt behind the lines that was one of the decisive factors in ending that war, the other two being the popular anti-war movement and, above all, the resistance of the Vietnamese people.
The revolt in the ranks of the US military hamstrung the Pentagon for over a decade and a half. But throughout that time organised opposition to war by military personnel and their families seemed a uniquely American phenomenon. Not any more.
The court martial of Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, an RAF doctor, is highlighting the gathering opposition and incipient revolt within the British armed forces to the Iraq war and occupation. Kendall-Smith is refusing deployment to Iraq. He told the court in Aldershot that disobeying illegal orders is "a duty under international law" and referred to "the Nuremburg principles and the law of armed conflict". That was before the judge cut him off and said the illegality of the war was not the issue. Kendall-Smith's argument caught my eye: I made it three years ago and it was one of the reasons I was expelled from the Labour party.
Now, that sentiment is spreading throughout the British military, their families and many of the relatives of the 103 personnel who have been killed in Iraq. The organisation Military Families Against the War (MFAW) was little noticed in the media when it was launched by a small number of courageous individuals, headed by the indomitable Rose Gentle, who lost her son Gordon in Iraq. But that has not stopped it taking off to such an extent that it now receives many emails and phone calls weekly not only from military families, but also from those serving in the military. It is organising a nationwide protests on next Tuesday outside TA centres, and will be lobbying Parliament and heading for Downing Street on Wednesday April 26.
 
And Skip wanted to pass on that the verdict is much discussed in his area of Australia.  The verdict doesn't provide anything to be pleased with; however, it has raised the issues. DK notes in an e-mail that he feels as though the verdict is registering in his area (in Germany) because a lot of the people who supported the war early on have had to face "ugly realities."  He says that during the court martial and since the verdict, he's had conversations not just with his anti-war friends but with people who supported the war at the outset.  Polly's going to be addressing the topic Sunday in Polly's Brew so look for that.  Skip noted Malcolm Brown, Deborah Snow and Mark Coultan's "Doctor jailed for following his conscience" (Australia's Sydney Morning Herald):
 
AN eight-month jail term handed out in Britain to an Australian-born Royal Air Force doctor, Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, has provoked debate on whether an individual's private morality can override the duty to obey orders.
Kendall-Smith, 37, was found guilty of refusing to serve in Iraq by a jury of RAF officers at a court martial in Aldershot, in southern England.
Kendall-Smith was born in Brisbane before moving to New Zealand to study medicine. He also took a doctorate in philosophy, receiving top grades for his thesis on the secular and rational morality of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant.
Charles Pigden, a senior lecturer in philosophy who marked Kendall-Smith's thesis, said: "Kant was the philosopher who makes doing the right thing of critical importance. People who are interested in Kant's ethics, they're keen on morality.
"Maybe Dr Kendall-Smith thought that in joining the British armed forces he wouldn't be getting into morally dubious stuff. Which sadly proved not to be the case."
While punitive action for refusal to obey orders is rare, in the lead-up to the first Gulf War in 1990, an Australian sailor, leading seaman Terry Jones, was court-martialled after jumping ship in Perth when HMAS Adelaide was due to go to the Gulf.
Outraged by television footage of the then US president, George Bush snr, playing golf and refusing to answer questions on the Middle East crisis, Jones decided he wanted out. "I am prepared to die to defend my country, but not to protect US oil lines," he said.
Despite his protests that it was a moral issue, Jones received a suspended sentence of 21 days' detention, was reduced in rank to able seaman and was docked four days' pay.
In other places and times, the line-of-command reaction to moral resistance by soldiers has varied widely.
 
Last highlight?  Polly's.  Saturday Seymour Hersh turned 69 years-old.  Sunday, he was pretty much the focus of the entire world in terms of journalists.  As the week concludes (Polly calls it "Hersh Week"), check out Julian Borger's "I feel like I did in the Vietnam days -- I hate to pay taxes just so they can go and bomb more people" (Guardian of London):
 
A generation ago aspiring journalists looked up to the Watergate team of Woodward and Bernstein as their idols. But times have changed. One half of the Washington Post duo, Carl Bernstein, has moved into academia, while Bob Woodward has grown rich and part of the Washington establishment.
His books on the Bush administration have leant heavily on interviews granted by the president and his top aides. Far from shaking the administration, they were advertised as recommended reading by the Bush re-election campaign.
The only investigative journalist from that era who is still giving the administration sleepless nights is Seymour Hersh, whose scoops in the New Yorker have become a centrepiece in the debate over the US "global war on terror".
This week's extraordinary report alleging that George Bush had not only made up his mind to topple the Iranian government, but was also toying with the idea of doing it with a tactical nuclear weapon, was a telling example of his influence. If any other journalist had produced the story, it would almost certainly have been laughed off. Because Hersh wrote it, it was front-page news around the world, notwithstanding Mr Bush's insistence it was all "wild speculation". The White House stopped short of denying the story, saying only that the Pentagon was conducting "normal military contingency planning".
The problem for the president is that the man known in Washington as Sy has become an institution with more credibility than the administrations that come and go in this fickle city.
 
Remember these two upcoming Un-embed the Media appearances (one is tomorrow):
 
 
* Amy Goodman in Castleton, VT: Sat, Apr 15 *
TIME: 4 PM
Tenth Annual Women's Studies Conference
Fine Arts Center, Castleton State College, Castleton, VT 05735
Free and Open to the Public
For more information: contact Dr Sanjukta Ghosh,
Sanjukta.Ghosh@Castleton.edu, 802-468-1445
http://www.csc.vsc.edu/womenstudies/index.htm
 
* Amy Goodman in New York, NY: Tues, Apr 18 *
TIME: 9 PM
"Stuff Happens" post show discussion
The Public Theater
212-239-6200
For more information: http://www.publictheater.org/
ADDRESS:
425 Lafayette St.
New York, 10003
A provocative and thoughtful play about how and why we went to war in
Iraq, Stuff Happens brings to the stage an ongoing story of great national
and international importance, with characters and dialogue seemingly ripped
from today's headlines. Inspired by actual events, both public and private,
that have been authenticated from multiple sources, Stuff Happens is a
powerful history play that brilliantly transforms "real life" into profound
drama.
 
On the Tuesday item, Micah states that it's been stated James Ridgeway will be at that event.
 
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
 

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