From SF Bay Area Indymedia, Debbie Speer's "Aaron Glantz in Fresno M27:"

Aaron Glantz talks about his book, "How America Lost Iraq" in Fresno, sponsored by KFCF 88.1fm.

"How America Lost Iraq"
An evening with Aaron Glantz
Friday, May 27, 2005
at 7:30 pm,
Admission $5
Unitarian Universalist Church of Fresno
4144 N. Millbrook Avenue
Fresno

Aaron Glantz is a correspondent for Free Speech Radio News and Pacifica Radio. He will provide an on-the-scene account of the Iraq War in its unvarnished reality. Aaron has been on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East filing news reports for radio and print media. Before producing for FSRN, Aaron he served as Sacramento reporter for Pacifica's Berkeley station, KPFA, where he began his career in journalism.
His series of reports from Iraq, exclusively for Pacifica.org, called Pacifica Reports From Iraq. His radio documentary, "Iraq: One Year of Occupation and Resistance," can be accessed online at http://www.fsrn.org.
His recently published book, "How America Lost Iraq" is a journal of his experiences and observations in the war zones of Iraq.

*Aaron Glantz' courageous, unembedded journalism explains the reality of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq with a clarity and perspective sorely lacking in the mainstream media. He incisively cuts through the fog of war and Pentagon chatter, getting close to the story, as all journalists should. "How America Lost Iraq" is essential reading as the saber rattling in Washington continues. --Amy Goodman, host "Democracy Now!", co-author: "Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them."
*Ignorance is one of the main reasons of the current conflicts. Fighting it requires courageous journalists like Aaron Glantz. "How America Lost Iraq" reflects courage and strong willingness to promote truth, and defy lies. ---Jamal Tahat, collumnist, al-Rai'i newspaper, Amman, Jordan *Good for Glantz! Aaron puts an ear to the conversations of Iraqi civilians and reveals just how little Americans have understood. He does what the embedded media can't and takes a look at the US military through the perspective of Iraqi people. How did US soldiers go from being liberators (in some Iraqi's eyes) to oppressors in just a few short months. Find out. A fascinating piece of intrepid reporting. Well done. --Laura Flanders, host The Laura Flanders Show on Air America Radio and author of "Bushwomen."
*Bush's war was sold with propaganda echoed by media from Fox to the New York Times. Brave, young, independent journalist Aaron Glantz learned first-hand the painful lessons that every American had better understand to prevent future military escapades that undermine real security and freedom. Shut off your TV, put down the paper, and read the gripping truth of "How America Lost Iraq." -- John Stauber, co-author, "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq."
*Glantz's account is full of interviews with ordinary Iraqis, and from their evolving thoughts and experiences he builds a critique of the many American misconceptions about Iraq, one that castigates equally the left's knee-jerk preconceptions, the occupation authorities' cluelessness and heavy-handed misrule and the media's lack of interest in the suffering of Iraqis. The result is a nuanced and hard-hitting indictment. ---Publishers' Weekly

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Had Blogger not gone haywire last night, we would have noted a story from Democracy Now! yesterday in it's own entry. The segment is entitled "Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories: How The U.S. Press Has Sanitized The War in Iraq" and Amy Goodman is interviewing the L.A. Times' James Rainey, The Village Voice's Sydney H. Schanberg ("Not a Pretty Picture: Looking this war in the face proves difficult when the press itself won't even put in an appearance") , and Pacifica Radio's Aaron Glantz (author of How America Lost Iraq).

The entire segment is worth watching, listening to or reading (and all options are available). I'm going to focus on this section of the interview which deals with Falluja because, as members know, this is a big issue to me (and to many members -- it's only some visitors who stumble across this site that seem to have a problem):

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to move to an example of terrible pain and agony, Fallujah, and how little we saw. Recently, I was listening to Richard Clarke, author of Against All Enemies, who was the counterterrorism czar saying, “Fallujah, Fallujah, if we saw those pictures.” And it's not just about pictures, it's word pictures, too. Reporters can describe. Aaron Glantz. You went to Fallujah. You reported for us and for Pacifica Radio about the people on the ground, and not just talking U.S. soldiers, Iraqis as well. We rarely see their pain. Can you talk about that? I'd like to even play a clip of one of your reports.
AARON GLANTZ: I was in Iraq in April and May of 2004 when the United States military was bombarding Fallujah. This is very typical, actually, under the occupation that there will be some, you know -- I mean, smaller crime against U.S. people like this killing of these four Blackwater Security figures and their hanging on the old Fallujah bridge. And it will bring a tremendous response by the U.S. military and the killing of hundreds of people is what happened in Fallujah. I was in Baghdad at that time and, at first, I thought it was unsafe to go to Fallujah, so I would interview refugees fleeing the city. I interviewed a 12-year-old boy who talked about how a U.S. military sniper shot his 11-year-old best friend, as he stood in front of his school. I interviewed a man who talked about how his father was in his own house and that that house was bombed by the U.S. military. I spoke with so many people. I spoke with a man who had a bullet in his -- right below his collar bone because U.S. military snipers in Fallujah were aiming for the neck, and they had just barely missed as he went to go get food aid from a neighborhood mosque.
And I think at some level I thought that these stories that I were hearing were exaggerations, that the situation couldn't possibly – in fact, even sitting in Baghdad, I thought the situation in Fallujah could not possibly be as bad as these refugees were telling me, even as Al Jazeera was broadcasting from the hospital, showing us images of the women and children in the hospital. But when I went to Fallujah, after the bombing had stopped, I saw that the city had just been devastated. Whole streets had been destroyed. I saw shopping centers that had collapsed, mosques that had been bombed, and the story that sticks out the most for me, is of this woman, and I think this is the clip that we're going to hear, who was buried in the front lawn of a neighbor's house because as she was trying to flee the city in her car, the Americans bombed it.
AMY GOODMAN: We're going to go to that after break. We're talking to Aaron Glantz, a Pacifica reporter, spent a good deal of time in Iraq and now has a new book, How America Lost Iraq. Sidney Schanberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, did a piece in The Village Voice about the pictures that we are not seeing. James Rainey, on the line with us from The Los Angeles Times on that issue, as well, "Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories."
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Our guests are James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times; Sidney Schanberg, now writing for The Village Voice, Pulitzer prize-winning reporter, covered Vietnam, Cambodia and other war zones; Aaron Glantz, author of How America Lost Iraq. Let's turn for a moment to that piece that Aaron did from Fallujah.
AARON GLANTZ: A team of local volunteers in surgical masks lift the rotting corpse of a middle aged woman from a shallow grave in the front yard of a single family home. The owner of the house explains the woman has been lying dead in his front yard for three weeks. He says an American warplane bombed her car as she fled the city with her husband, who is buried in the garden of the house next door. The destroyed remains of the car still smolder a few meters away from his front door. “We couldn't give her a proper burial,” he says, “because every time we would go outside, American snipers would shoot at us. They even shot at us when we retrieved her carcass from the car after the Americans bombed it.”
The head of the medical team asks to speak anonymously, because his clinic's ambulance was shot by U.S. Marine snipers twice during the siege. One of the clinic's volunteers was killed. “The Americans are dogs. They try to kill anybody who works humanitarian aid. They attack humanitarian aid worker, doctor or ambulance to kill them.”
In the meantime, the aid worker says many corpses continue to rot under buildings, which collapse on top of them, amid a hail of American firepower. The volunteers place the woman onto a gurney and take her away in a small pickup truck. In a half an hour, she is buried in the municipal football stadium, alongside 600 others killed in the last month by the U.S. military.
AMY GOODMAN: Aaron Glantz in Fallujah. Your thoughts as you hear the report now back here at home and with the kind of images that we're getting in the United States.

There's more on Falluja there (and Goodman's covered this topic on Democracy Now! many times before) and there's also a very serious discussion that I think you'll be glad you took a look at, gave an ear to or watched.

Below are some resources.


Excerpt from James Rainey's "Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories:"

An Associated Press photograph of the mortally wounded Babbitt remains a rarity -- one of a handful of pictures of dead or dying American service members to be published in this country since the start of the Iraq war more than two years ago.
A review of six prominent U.S. newspapers and the nation's two most popular newsmagazines during a recent six-month period found almost no pictures from the war zone of Americans killed in action. During that time, 559 Americans and Western allies died. The same publications ran 44 photos from Iraq to represent the thousands of Westerners wounded during that same time.
Many photographers and editors believe they are delivering Americans an incomplete portrait of the violence that has killed 1,797 U.S. service members and their Western allies and wounded 12,516 Americans.
Journalists attribute the relatively bloodless portrayal of the war to a variety of causes -- some in their control, others in the hands of the U.S. military, and the most important related to the far-flung nature of the conflict and the way American news outlets perceive their role.
"We in the news business are not doing a very good job of showing our readers what has really happened over there," said Pim Van Hemmen, assistant managing editor for photography at the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.

[Please note, this is an article that appeared in the L.A. Times but to allow as many people to access it as possible, I've linked to the Yahoo version of it. Translation, no registration required to read Rainey's article.]

Excerpt from Sydney H. Schanberg's "Not a Pretty Picture:"

If we believe that the present war in Iraq is just and necessary, why do we shrink from looking at the damage it wreaks? Why does the government that ordered the war and hails it as an instrument of good then ask us to respect those who died in the cause by not describing and depicting how they died? And why, in response, have newspapers gone along with Washington and grown timid about showing photos of the killing and maiming? What kind of honor does this bestow on those who are sent to fight in the nation's name?
The Iraq war inspires these questions.
The government has blocked the press from soldiers' funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. The government has prevented the press from taking pictures of the caskets that arrive day after day at the Dover Air Force Base military mortuary in Delaware, the world's largest funeral home. And the government, by inferring that citizens who question its justifications for this war are disloyal Americans, has intimidated a compliant press from making full use of pictures of the dead and wounded. Also worth noting: President Bush's latest rationale for the war is that he is trying to "spread democracy" through the world. He says these new democracies must have a "free press." Yet he says all this while continuing to restrict and limit the American press. There's a huge disconnect here.

Publisher's book description of Aaron Glantz How America Lost Iraq:


A reporter in Iraq shows how the U.S. squandered its early victories and goodwill among the Iraqi people, and allowed the newly freed society to slip into violence and chaos.
As a reporter for the staunchly antiwar Pacifica Radio, twenty-seven-year-old Aaron Glantz had spent much of early 2003 warning of catastrophe if the U.S. invaded Iraq. But, as he watched the statue of Saddam topple, he wondered whether he had been mistaken: In interviews with regular Iraqis, he found wide support for the Americans.
Then, public opinion changed.
In early 2004, the U.S. military initiated a completely unprovoked bombing campaign against the population of Fallujah, increasing support for an armed resistance. The attack confounded many anti-Saddam Iraqis, and plunged the nation into chaos. In How America Lost Iraq, Glantz tells his story of working on the front lines, while revealing truths that most media outlets have missed or failed to report. For instance, 50 percent of the U.S.-trained Iraqi army has either mutinied or refused to fight; the Iraqi public has sustained appalling civilian casualties; corporate contractors including Halliburton and Bechtel have failed to supply Iraqis with the basic necessities of daily life, such as clean water and electricity; and a respected poll shows that 82 percent of Iraqis want the U.S. to leave.
Here is the brutally honest account of a reporter who discovered how popular the U.S. presence was in Iraq-and who then watched this popularity disappear as the Bush administration mishandled the war, leaving us with the intractable conflict we face today.

I'm not finding an excerpt online of Glantz's book; however, you can listen online to Glanz reporting on Dennis Bernstein's Flashpoints! from May 4, 2005.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Two views, both from the left, regarding media reform are below. Maybe you'll find something you agree with, maybe you won't. But there is a wide spectrum of opinions on the left and these two are not presented as ____ v. ____ but as "here are two views." There are members who are adament that they will not support NPR or PBS in the current struggle (the excerpts go beyond that). Members are entitled to their own opinions. But a number of you have e-mailed to share your feelings and ask, "Am I wrong?" If that's what you feel, you need to go with that.

In the two excerpts below, e-mailers who've stated that PBS and NPR are on their own will find some of the reasons or thoughts they've noted. (The first excerpt is not offering that PBS or NPR need to be left to their own devices in the current battle. However, Danny Schechter is reffing some of the problems e-mailers have noted. The second entry, please read in full if the excerpt interests you, argues there are some issues being overlooked.)

Members should make up their own minds. Yes, I'm doing my part and, yes, I'm telling myself it's for the last time. That was my decision. Everyone should make up their own mind.

From MediaChannel.org, Lori e-mails to note Danny Schechter's "Why We Need a Media and Democracy Act:"

The National Conference for Media Reform held last week in St. Louis was a smashing success in generating the momentum that the organizers from Free Press hoped for. Bill Moyers's powerful sermon of a speech during the closing session on Sunday morning was aired on C-SPAN and hurtled through cyberspace faster than that proverbial speeding bullet.The threat to PBS was put on the agenda – as it should be – with a powerful challenge to Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson.
Tomlinson's big-foot strategy at PBS and NPR is being exposed for what is – a right-wing coup that will, if it is successful, drive what remains of more diverse or outspoken programming off the public airwaves.That came through very clearly.
What has yet to penetrate the progressive community is a deeper understanding of the structural problem here, and the institutional stagnation that PBS has suffered from for years.
Unmentioned at the conference was the fact that it was Bill Clinton – not Attila the Hun or Bill O'Reilly – who appointed Tomlinson and, for that matter, Michael Powell. As a TV producer with years of experience producing programming for the PBS that we are now trying to save, I can tell you how flawed the system has been, how timid, and how difficult to work with. But I won't. Suffice it to say, anything less than reinventing PBS and imbuing it with a new more courageous spirit and mission will not have the desired effect.

From CounterPunch, Molly notes Stephen Dunifer's "The Folly of Media Reform:"

If your intent is to move a population from a relatively pacifist or isolationist position to one that is supportive of a global war, then it would make perfect sense to place the broadcast spectrum in trusted hands ­ RCA, Western Electric, etc. Certainly not labor unions whose definition of a bayonet is "a sharp instrument with a worker at each end".
Further, you sweeten the pot with the prospect of war profits ­ according to some statistics, corporate America made $1,000,000 of profit for every US service person killed during World War II. Finally, you take the propaganda machine that has been running since 1916 or so and supercharge it once the war has begun. At the end of WW II this machine was not switched off, instead it was turned full bore on the American public.
Many major media figures, both frontline journalists and corporate bosses, had prominent positions in this war propaganda apparatus. For example, William Paley, CEO of CBS, served as deputy chief of the psychological warfare branch of General Dwight Eisenhower's staff. When that is not sufficient you buy journalists by the dozen as the CIA did in the 1950's. Now most of them are such skanky whores they do not have an asking price.
Given the integral and vital role of media in creating and maintaining a hyper-saturated propaganda environment domestically and an ongoing campaign of media imperialism abroad one would have to be delusional to think that any degree of reform is going to fundamentally alter this reality, or be allowed to have any meaningful effect by the ruling elite. As long as reform is maintained as the only "viable and realistic" option available and its advocates can roam about their comfortably appointed play pens, underwritten by liberal foundations, then those who run and service this mechanistic Moloch to which all must be sacrificed in the name of profit and greed can rest undisturbed.
Further, most advocates of reform fail to recognize that every citizen of the United States is the target of an ongoing psychological warfare campaign. It is terra-forming of the human internal landscape. An old movement slogan had it right, "It is hard to fight an enemy who has an outpost in your head". When someone is carpet bombing your mind every second, minute and hour of the day, blowing the hell of out of your sense of self-esteem, self-identity and self-worth, would any intelligent, free thinking person believe that media reform aspirin is the solution and cure? No way!

Please be aware that there is a wide range of opinion on the current issue. Members should make up their own mind. For those wanting to make their voices heard regarding Ken Tomlinson's attack on PBS and NPR (from yesterday) read the next item:

And let's note that Media Matters has a new campaign "Hands off Public Broadcasting." As noted in members' posted comments as well as in the interview with Ruth, the community is pretty much divided on the issue of PBS and NPR. If you're in favor of action, please visit Media Matters' campaign. The page gives a history of recent events for anyone who's not clear on Ken Tomlinson, et al.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

 

Democracy Now!:

FBI acusado de interrogar a dos ciudadanos estadounidenses retenidos ilegalmente en Paquistán
La organización Human Rights Watch acusó al FBI de interrogar y amenazar a dos ciudadanos estadounidenses mientras se encontraban detenidos en forma ilegal y eran torturados por los servicios de seguridad paquistaní. Según Human Rights Watch, los detenidos, que son hermanos, fueron secuestrados de su hogar en Karachi en agosto de 2004. Estuvieron detenidos hasta el mes pasado sin haber sido acusados. Durante los ocho meses de su detención, agentes del FBI los cuestionaron y amenazaron en forma sistemática con enviarlos a la prisión de la Bahía de Guantánamo. Asimismo, Human Rights Watch alegó que el FBI no intervino para poner fin a la tortura ni para brindar ayuda consular, que normalmente se ofrece a ciudadanos estadounidenses detenidos. Uno de los hermanos dijo que "los agentes paquistaníes nos golpeaban duramente, nos mantenían despiertos toda la noche o nos colgaban de los pies, antes que los agentes del FBI nos hicieran 10 sesiones de interrogatorios a cada uno."

y:

Defensor de "papas de la libertad" ahora se opone a la Guerra en Irak
También en el Capitolio, surgió un inesperado crítico a la guerra: el republicano Walter Jones.
El congresista de Carolina del Norte expresó recientemente a un diario local que Estados Unidos fue a la guerra "sin justificación alguna". Jones fue noticia internacional hace tres años cuando criticó a Francia por no apoyar la guerra. En marzo de 2003 exigió que tres cafeterías del congreso prohibieran la palabra "francés/a" en el menú. Las "papas francesas" (papas fritas) pronto se convirtieron en las papas de la libertad. A pesar que la prohibición permanece vigente, la opinión actual de Jones sobre la guerra parece ser más cercana a la de Francia que a la del Presidente Bush. Jones afirmó que "sería un error que las personas de este gobierno nos dieran información errónea en forma intencional para ejercer la autoridad de enviar hombres y en algunos casos a mujeres, a Irak. Le deben decir la verdad al Congreso".

Juan selected two items to highlight from Democracy Now!'s Headlines for today's show.
We're highlighting "NEW FEATURE: Democracy Now! is now offering the program's daily news summary translated into Spanish. Los Titulares de Hoy" each day this week to get the word out.

Headlines can be read (via transcript) or listened to in Spanish. If you or someone you know might be interested in this feature, please get the word out on it.

Here, in English, are the two items Juan selected from Headlines:

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Democracy Now! (Marcia: "always worth watching")

Headlines for May 25, 2005
- U.S. Warned It Will Be In Iraq Five More Years
- 14 U.S. Soldiers Killed Over The Past Four Days
- House Committee Approves Another $45B for Iraq War
- Bush Urged Not to Give Military Aid to Indonesia
- FBI Accused of Interrogating U.S. Citizens Illegally Held in Pakistan
- FBI asks US Congress for new power to seize documents
- Amnesty International Accuses Israel of War Crimes

Following Filibuster Compromise, Senate Prepares to Confirm Priscilla Owen to U.S. Appeals Court
Yesterday, the Senate voted to end debate on the confirmation of Priscilla Owen to the U.S Appeals Court, clearing the way for her confirmation. The vote came after a surprise compromise was reached Monday night that averted a showdown over judicial nominees. The deal -- agreed upon by a bipartisan group of 14 Senators -- came less than 24 hours before the Republican leadership was expected to change the Senate rules in order to deny Democrats the ability to filibuster judicial nominees.

Beyond the Gas War: Indigenous Bolivians Fight for "Nationalization of the Government"
Massive indigenous-led protests continue to rock South America's poorest country. The fight for control of Bolivia's vast natural gas resources is fueling the current crisis but a war is escalating over the rights of the country's majority indigenous population. We'll go to Cochabamba to hear from the famed Bolivian resistance leader Oscar Olivera and longtime Bolivia activist Jim Shultz of the Democracy Center, as well as activist Moises Gutierrez Rojas of the Aymara Quichua Indigenous organization.

AIPAC Holds National Meeting Amid Spy Scandal Investigation
A Pentagon analyst accused of leaking top-secret information to a pro-Israel group faces a new charge of illegally taking classified government documents out of the Washington area to his West Virginia residence. Larry Franklin was arrested on May 4th for passing top secret information to employees of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC -- the American Israel Public Affairs Committee

Anti-Military Recruiting Campaigns Heats up At Seattle Schools
On Monday, four US military recruiting offices in Seattle were shut down when students blocked the entrances to protest recruitment practices and to oppose the occupation of Iraq. Meanwhile the Parent Teacher Student Association at one school has passed a resolution recommending that military recruiters be barred from the campus.

At The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby's addressing too many topics to summarize. We'll zero on in the filibuster agreement/compromise and Senator Lindsey's Graham's appearence on Hardball:

GRAHAM: Well, President Bush`s nominees, most of them are going to go through. There will be at least one in the group that probably will fail in a bipartisan fashion. But every president faces that.
Wouldn't anyone with an ounce of sense follow up on Graham's grabber? But Matthews moved to a typical "cable news" question--a question about "the polling." He didn't ask who "will probably fail"--and we've seen no one in the mainstream "press corps" mention this comment by Graham since then. For example, did Ifill ask Chafee or Nelson last night? We're not sure. Does the pope worship Druids?
For the record, Matthews has been in extra-special High Clown Mode for the past two nights. During Monday’s regular, 7 PM hour, he broke off live coverage of The Agreement so he could run extended footage of himself being parodied on Saturday Night Live. (Earlier, he had wasted time showing footage of Warren Beatty mentioning Hardball in a speech.) His interview with Graham came about 90 minutes later; despite the extra time to “think,” he still showed no sign of having noticed the difference between 7 and 5. And when Graham tossed him a "dirty little secret" (two times!), the dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks self-promoter simply stared off into air. Last night’s interviews were especially clownish, as he rattled on and on--and on and on--about nominations he thinks will be made, and about issues that everyone agreed were not central. Go ahead--read the full transcripts from the past two nights, and marvel at the intellectual functioning of your millionaire "press corps."

Theresa e-mails to note that Democracy Now!'s Mike Burke is running a site entitled CounterRecruiter.net. Theresa wants us to be aware of this site. This evening (barring any problems with the Blogger program like last night), I will add it to our list.

Apologies to Maria who e-mailed to note Jude of Iddybud yesterday. Here's an excerpt from Jude's writings yesterday:

The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch, confirmed that they’d paid a U.S. official about $900 for the pictures of Saddam in his underwear. The tabloid says it was a U.S. military official, but it did not identify him. The official had allegedly hoped the release of the photo would deal a "body blow" to 'the rebels'.That's right. Keep blaming Isikoff and Newsweek for sparking a wave of anti-Americanism....and yet American officials shove this kind of thing - these nearly-naked Saddam photos - in the Muslim world's faces like brave, Fox News-ish, Murdoch-ish, official he-men. (No girly-men are they!) Will anyone be held accountable for this cheap Saddam photo sale? I'll bet not.

Jude's commenting futher on Newsweek elsewhere in yesterday's entry, the filibuster compromise and much more.

Ben e-mails to note Daniel Howden and Philip Thornton's "The Pipeline That Will Change the World" from The Independent:

The goal of the ambitious project, which makes its tortuous way from the Caspian in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, is to ease the reliance of the West on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and bring cheaper fuel to our filling stations. The pipe threads its way through the region in a seemingly modest private corridor only 50 yards wide but nothing has been allowed to stand in its way. From forests to labour laws and endangered species to democracy protesters: all have given way to the costliest and most significant pipeline ever built.
The project, known as BTC, has driven a wedge between the US and Russia, triggered political unrest in the countries it passes through and their neighbours and sparked concern at extensive damage to the environment.
Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, concern at the West's dependence on Persian Gulf oil has intensified. For Washington, the opening is a cause for celebration. "We view this as a significant step forward in the energy security of that region," said Samuel Bodman, the American energy secretary, who stood next to the three heads of state at today's ceremony.
With him at the pumping station controls was the president of the tiny former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. The BTC has allowed Ilham Aliev to become a firm friend of the West while overseeing a government condemned for human rights abuses and sitting at the head of an administration placed 140 out of 146 in Transparency International's global corruption index.

Charlie e-mails to note Katrina vanden Heuvel's "Cowboy Cheers:"

Flouting the fact that Pat Robertson thinks the "activist" (Republican-sponsored and approved) judiciary is the worst threat America faces, the moralistic majority in the Texas legislature has decided that sexy cheerleading is our nation's undoing.
Forget the fact that it was the state of Texas that made sexy cheerleading part of our national cultural life. (This state, which wanted to be an independent nation, has also given us the execution of women and the mentally handicapped, Tom DeLay and George W. Bush.)
Of course, youthful female sexuality will always be a threat to the good ole boys. But my favorite part of this legislation is that it requires every school district to hire a sexy cheerleading commissar to enforce the proposed prohibition of "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading routines. (They won't be condemning James Joyce's Ulysses, but the principle of we-know-it-when-we-see-it has expanded.) Big government conservatism at your service.

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[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]
 

Rachel e-mails to note that at BuzzFlash, Pamela Troy's latest installment of "Dangerous Clowns" is up (this is part three):

A pattern that has become more and apparent on both the official and grassroots level is that of conservatives compiling lists of dissidents, or individuals perceived as dissidents. Activists have found themselves on "no fly lists" or even the subject of "preemptive" arrests. Attendees at events where Bush or Cheney speak have been carefully vetted, with those identified as liberals or Democrats turned away as if their political affiliation alone qualifies them as security risks.
In Fargo, North Dakota, about forty people were listed as barred from Republican events for such radical activities as expressing criticism of George W. Bush. Recently in Denver, three people were denied entrance to the event because someone had spotted a "No Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on their car.
The use of blacklists, of course, is nothing new. It was the hallmark of the Red Scare, and those of us who are old enough and well educated enough to be familiar with the history of the HUAC [House Committee on Un-American Activities] and the career of Joseph McCarthy are also familiar with how and why the use of such blacklists are a detriment to an open society. Unfortunately, like the lessons of the Second World War, the lessons of the Red Scare are falling from living memory, and cynical conservatives have been quick to take advantage of this historical amnesia. The Bush administration might be somewhat cagey about its lists, blaming overenthusiastic Republican volunteers and computer database glitches, but younger conservatives seem to be less aware of the implications of the lists they compile, and therefore more transparent about the attitudes and motives that drive them.

From Democracy Now!'s Headlines yesterday, Maria chose this item to be offered in English and Spanish (remember "NEW FEATURE: Democracy Now! is now offering the program's daily news summary translated into Spanish. Los Titulares de Hoy"):

Sister Carol Gilbert Released From Jail
Sister Carol Gilbert has been released from prison after serving a 33-month sentence in a federal prison in Colorado. She was jailed along with two other Dominican sisters -- Sister Ardeth Platte and Sister Jackie Hudson. They were arrested for destroying government property during a Plowshares action at the N-8 Minuteman silo in Colorado. Last night at a welcome home celebration at Jonah House in Baltimore she defended her actions. "We acted because we never want a child to ask, 'Why were you complicit?'," she said. "And absolutely, I will continue to ask myself what needs to have truth spoken to it, so that a child would never ask me that, and I hope that I can be faithful in following conscience wherever that might lead."

And here is the Spanish version:

La Hermana Carol Gilbert fue liberada de prisión
La Hermana Carol Gilbert fue liberada de prisión luego de haber cumplido una condena de 33 meses en una prisión federal en Colorado. Fue enviada a prisión junto a otras dos hermanas Domínicas, Ardeth Platte y Jackie Hudson. Fueron arrestadas por destruir propiedad del gobierno durante una acción de desarme de la organización Plowshares en un silo nuclear N-8 en Colorado. En una bienvenida realizada anoche en la comunidad Jonah House en Baltimore, Gilbert defendió sus acciones.

Ethan e-mails this Associated Press article entitled "CIA man saw detainee abuse:"

A CIA official testified he witnessed the "pummelling" of a detainee at a Navy Seal base in Baghdad in 2003, but a former Seal who beat the prisoner said he was acting on instructions from the CIA.
The differing accounts were offered as the court-martial of Navy Seal Lieutenant Andrew Ledford got under way on Tuesday. Ledford, accused of charges including assault, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer, faces a maximum of 11 years in military prison if convicted.
The CIA official, who was shielded from public view, testified he recalled seeing a small crowd gathered around a Seal who was landing blows on the back of the prisoner who lay face down.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]
 

Military prosecutors alleged at the court-martial of a Navy Seal lieutenant on Tuesday that he joined his men in striking an Iraqi detainee in 2003 and later sought to mislead investigators looking into the detainee's death.
Lt. Andrew K. Ledford, a member of the elite Seal commando force, led the platoon that captured Manadel al-Jamadi in a raid near Baghdad in November 2003. Mr. Jamadi later died at Abu Ghraib prison after the Central Intelligence Agency took custody of him. A photograph of his body, wrapped in plastic and packed in ice, became one of the most infamous images to emerge from the Iraq prisoner abuse case last year.
[. . .]
Navy prosecutors contend that he had punched the prisoner once at the urging of his subordinates and that he had failed to restrain his men from repeatedly kicking and hitting him after his capture. The lieutenant's lawyer, Frank Skinner, challenged that version of events in his opening remarks to the six-member jury on Tuesday.
[. . .]
An undercurrent to the court-martial proceedings is the involvement of C.I.A. personnel in Mr. Jamadi's capture and questions about whether the agency's interrogation tactics played a role in his death several hours later. The case is one of several that the C.I.A. has referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.

The above is from this morning's New York Times' "Seal Officer Hears Charges in Court-Martial in Iraqi's Death." (The byline credits the article not to an individual but to "The New York Times.")

Eli e-mails to note Eric Lichtblau's "After Talk of Compromise, Panel Is Again Split on Patriot Act:"

Just a few weeks ago, critics and supporters of the sweeping antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act had reduced their differences to only a handful of substantive issues, and the two sides were talking openly about finding room for compromise in renewing the law.
But now, a new proposal in the Senate Intelligence Committee - backed by the Bush administration - has sent the two sides scurrying back to their war camps. The central question is no longer whether the government's antiterrorism powers should be scaled back in the face of criticism from civil rights advocates, but whether those powers should be significantly expanded to give the F.B.I. new authority to demand records and monitor mailings without approval from a judge.
The divergent views were on full display Tuesday as the committee began its debate in earnest over the future of the Patriot Act and 16 provisions in the law that will expire at the end of the year. On Thursday, the committee will hold a closed-door hearing on a proposal to renew and expand major provisions, but critics are attacking the committee's decision to hold the debate in secret.

(Refer to the ACLU web site for more information.)

Lynda e-mails to highlight Douglas Jehl's "G.O.P. Senator Issues Letter Urging Vote Against Bolton:"

The Ohio Republican whose opposition to John R. Bolton nearly stalled his nomination in committee circulated a letter on Tuesday urging colleagues to vote against Mr. Bolton when his name reaches the Senate floor, possibly this week.
The renewed opposition from the senator, George V. Voinovich, was addressed to all his colleagues, but it was aimed particularly at fellow Republicans in a chamber in which the party holds a 55-to-44 majority. At least five Republicans would have to join Mr. Voinovich in opposing Mr. Bolton's nomination as United Nations ambassador in order to defeat it.
In the letter, Mr. Voinovich said that while he had been "hesitant to push my views on my colleagues" during his six years in the Senate, he felt "compelled to share my deep concerns" about the nomination.

Rob e-mails to note Eric Lipton's "U.S. Effort to Secure Foreign Ports Is Faulted:"

The Department of Homeland Security's effort to extend its antiterrorism campaign overseas by enlisting help from importers and foreign ports has been so flawed that the program may have made it easier at times to smuggle unconventional weapons into the United States, Congressional officials say.
Homeland Security has reduced inspections in the United States of cargo coming from 36 foreign ports and 5,000 importers that were certified under its antiterrorism initiatives. But the department has failed to confirm whether most of those importers have tightened security or whether thousands of high-risk containers headed to the United States were inspected at ports overseas, agency records show.

Cedric e-mails to note Gretchen Ruethling's "Police Chief in Milwaukee Fires Eight Over Beating:"

The dismissals stem from an October incident in which Frank Jude Jr., 26, of Appleton, Wis., said he had been beaten by a group of off-duty police officers at the party after they accused him of taking a wallet and a police badge. In all, 13 officers have been disciplined for a total of 79 department violations. In addition, one was dismissed earlier this month for refusing to answer questions about the case.
Chief Hegerty said she expected the dismissals to be appealed to the civilian commission that oversees the department.
Three of the fired officers - Jon Bartlett, Andrew Spengler and Daniel Masarik - also face criminal charges of battery, reckless endangerment or perjury. They have pleaded not guilty. The criminal complaint contends that the three men choked, punched and kicked Mr. Jude, put a knife to his neck and a gun to his head and stuck a sharp object in his ears while he was handcuffed.

From the "National Briefing" in this morning's paper, Billie steers us towards:

NEW CHARGES AGAINST EX-ANALYST AT PENTAGON
A former Pentagon analyst accused of leaking top-secret information to a pro-Israel lobbying group was charged with illegally taking classified government documents out of the Washington area to his West Virginia home. The former analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, 58, was not authorized to take such documents to his home in Kearneysville, according to the federal charge that was issued with an arrest warrant by the United States attorney Thomas E. Johnston. Mr. Franklin surrendered to F.B.I. agents and appeared before a federal magistrate in Martinsburg. He was released on $50,000 bond and faces a hearing on June 9. (AP)

Zach e-mails to note Rick Lyman's "Sex Charges Follow a Church's Collapse:"


But by two years ago, when the church finally closed after a ferocious falling-out between the pastor's son and successor, Louis Lamonica Jr., and his family, the congregation that once neared 1,000 had dwindled to 10 or 15 troubled souls from a handful of families.
And now, many of them, including Louis Lamonica Jr. and a deputy sheriff who once lived on the church grounds, are behind bars, accused by the police of a litany of ungodly offenses, including sexual abuse of perhaps two dozen children and the mutilations of cats for satanic rituals.
Eddie Robinson, assistant pastor at the 5,000-member Harvest World Outreach Ministries in nearby Hammond - to which many Hosanna members migrated - says what happened is clear. He told congregants on Sunday that a prophecy of "witchcraft" problems had been revealed in recent weeks.
"When the leadership of that church kept the enemy out, everything was fine," Mr. Robinson said. "But when the leadership of that church let the enemy in, things began to change."
The authorities - who got the first whiff of trouble six weeks ago when a woman, Nicole Bernard, 36, called the Sheriff's Office from Ohio to say she had fled the town to save her child from sexual abuse - are still trying to piece together what happened.
Nine people have been arrested in the past week. A dozen computers have been seized, at least some of which the police believe contain child pornography, as well as dozens of videotapes, hundreds of computer disks and eight large boxes of documents and photographs. Inside the shuttered church compound, in a "youth hall" behind the sanctuary, the police found the faint imprint of pentagrams on the floor that someone had apparently tried to scrub away. Some of those arrested, the police said, described rituals within those pentagrams involving cats' blood and people dressed in black robes.
The abuse victims ranged in age from 1 to 16, the police said. Several are in protective custody, and a search is under way for others, who may have moved or are known to the police only by first name or nickname. On Tuesday, the police were at the church grounds with dogs, though they would not say what they sought.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]
 

Monday brought us the political analysis of Cokie Roberts. Steve [Inskeep] tried to participate in the discussion.

Morning Edition, May 23, 2005 · Political analyst Cokie Roberts discusses issues dividing Congress, including the expected showdown in the Senate over judicial filibusters and debate over stem cell research in the House. Some polls show congressional approval ratings at the lowest they've been in years.

Cokie: To show you how different things are in the Senate than they were in the days of old, Steve, you had this weekend Chuck Hagel, a moderate from Nebraska, on the stump against his colleague, the Democratic senator from Nebraska Ben Nelson. Elizabeth Dole, the chairman of the Republican Campaign Committee, was in Nebraska spurring on Chuck Hagel to hold tough on changing the filibuster rules. But more important than that was the fact that Hagel was there in the first place. In the old days you did not have senators of the same state campaigning against each other. These are two men who have to work together every day in the Senate for their state. They basically agree on much more than many people in the same party agree on but still they are ready to campaign against each other. And in atmosphere like that it is very hard to see where people have trust for a compromise plan.

Maybe I just agreed with some of what Cokie was saying today but, I felt, she got off some strong points, for a change. She then went on to discuss stem cells when Steve asked what appeared to be a prepared question. When it seems he's asking a prepared question, he rushes through his words in a flat tone.

But maybe the reason I was more receptive to Cokie this morning was that "This I Believe" on Morning Edition featured William F. Buckley pontificating in that lock jaw manner. I honestly think if you're last name isn't Hepburn, you'll have trouble pulling that off. But Buckley, nudnik that he is, continues to try. This morning he informed us of religion and how skeptics are people who don't value ... well, let's allow him to tell it:

It has more than once reminded me that skepticism about life and nature is most often expressed by those who take it for granted that belief is an indulgence of the superstitious -- indeed their opiate, to quote a historical cosmologist most profoundly dead.

It has been my own reflection that a shmegegge doesn't bother to contemplate the wonders around him because he so often has little appreciation for them.

Today Mr. Buckley told us of a story that struck him as a child and left an impression, mental not physical. As he continued burtching, I imagined how he'd respond to a request for his opinion of the beloved tale of Robin Hood: Socialistic garbage or communistic clap-trap?

It's amusing to picture the tsutcheppenish sniping over a children's story; however, like most things involving Mr. Buckley, they are far more amusing in the abstract. In reality, he doesn't even invite guffaws or chuckles. My very good friend Treva, the activist, can actually watch a Tucker Carlson and do a humerous running commentary on his half-truths and evasions. I felt at a loss for what to write on Mr. Buckley when she phoned from New York City.

I read her what I'd written in my notes and she said the difference between a Tucker Carlson and a William F. Buckley is that a lifetime of conservatism had drained all the energy and life out of a Buckley or Robert Novak.

"All that's left is reactionary fear," she told me.

Listening to him poke a few jabs of Darwinists, I realized she was correct. There was no passion for the topic, no delight in his voice. You can't hot wire a corpse.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Democracy Now! (Marcia: "always worth watching")
Headlines for May 24, 2005
- Senate Compromise Reached on Judicial Nominees
- Supreme Court to Hear First Abortion Case in Five Years
- 54 Die in String of Attacks in Iraq
- 20 Prominent Iraqis Assassinated over Past Month
- Saudi Women Denied Right To Drive Cars
- Up to 15,000 BBC Workers Stage One-Day Strike
- School Describes Student as "Black Girl" in Yearbook
- Sister Carol Gilbert Released From Jail

Afghan President Heads to Washington Amid New Reports Of U.S. Abuse In Afghanistan
On Monday President Bush met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Washington on Monday just days after the New York Times revealed that U.S. troops tortured and killed Afghan detainees at the Bagram airbase. We speak with John Sifton from Human Rights Watch.

Unseen Pictures, Untold Stories: How The U.S. Press Has Sanitized The War in Iraq
Images of thousands of dead U.S. soldiers helped to turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War, but now photo-journalists are even banned from military funerals at Arlington national cemetery. A report this weekend in the Los Angeles Times documented the extremely rare publication of photos of American casualties in six major newspapers during a sixth month period. Readers of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Washington Post never saw a single picture of a dead serviceman or servicewoman in their morning papers. [includes rush transcript - partial]

Kyle e-mails to note Dahr Jamail's "Daily Life in Baghdad, from Afar:"

It's coming apart at the seams now in Iraq. We saw on the news today that members of the Mehdi Army in the south, the militia of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, exchanged gunfire with members of the ING (Iraqi National Guard) who in the south are primarily, if not entirely composed of members of the Badr Army, also a Shia group. So now we have Shia fighting Shia.
Meanwhile in Baghdad, things are just as bad. Abu Talat, my friend and interpreter, was speaking with his family who live in the al-Adhamiya district of the capital city. Just across the Tigris River from Adhamiya, which is predominantly Sunni, is the predominantly Shia Khadamiyah neighborhood.
A car bomb detonated inside Khadamiyah which killed at least one ING, so people in that area began firing guns across the Tigris into Adhamiyah. According to two sources in Adhamiyah, they confirmed there was heavy damage to several houses-broken windows, bullet pockmarked walls, etc. When people inside Adhamiyah began returning fire, a US warplane bombed a small mosque on the Adhamiyah side of the Tigris, for yet unknown reasons.
Abu Talat was talking via IM with his wife as she nearly fainted because bombs and gunfire were so near their home.
"What can I do," Abu Talat asked me from a nearby computer at an internet café, "My family is in great danger and what can I do to help them?"
I stared at him dumbly…there was no response.

Over at The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby has a mammoth post today. We're going to focus on his analysis of Okrent:

PART 2--SPAWN OF BERNIE: Dan Okrent's parting cheap-shot at Krugman should be sent straight to the Smithsonian (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 5/23/05). Krugman's a serious bum, Okrent said; he's "ideological" and he’s "unfair," and his columns are full of fake, phony numbers--numbers he has "shaped, sliced and selectively cited in a fashion that pleases his acolytes." But uh-oh! Absent-mindedly, Okrent forgot to give any examples, and his remarkably nasty claims come in his last "public editor" column. This leaves Krugman with the perfect dilemma--nothing to respond to, and nowhere to do it! Tailgunner Joe must be shaking his head at Okrent's slick demagogue touch.
What explains Okrent's odd behavior? We don't know, but the gentleman seems well-disposed to rants from the "angry male" right. In his column, Okrent examines "13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did." Is Daniel Okrent an Angry White Male? The scribe's familiar Topic 5 sent our analysts straight to their consoles, where they did an odd thing--research:
OKRENT (5/22/05):Reader Steven L. Carter of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., asks, If "'Tucker Carlson is identified as a conservative"' in The Times, then why is "'Bill Moyers just, well, plain old Bill Moyers"'? Good question.That was Okrent's total analysis. "Good question," the editor typed, implying a familiar judgment--the Times is showing its liberal bias in the way it IDs Bill and Tucker. But as it turns out, Okrent's reader didn't present a "good question;" in fact, his question was a complete, total clunker. Sadly but typically, Carter's implied claims about the Times turn out to be impressively bogus. Is it true? Does the Times ID Carlson as a conservative but give a pass to "plain old Moyers?" A Nexis search of the past year shows this claim to be totally false--a fever dream straight from Bernie Goldberg's old swamps. Okrent, wading through the mire, buys the claim hook, line and sinker.

Somerby's dealing with other issues as well (it really is a mammoth entry) but regarding Okrent, he demonstrates what Okrent would have known had any done any research, the question is based on something other than reality.

What else is being dealt with? Finland, education, the true history of judicial nominees. Again, all worth reading.

Liang notes that over at BuzzFlash, Pamela Troy's "Dangerous Clowns" has a second installment:

In fact, a truly interesting, but overlooked aspect of Guckert is not his sexuality or his affiliation with Talon and GOPUSA, or even the undeniably fascinating question of how he got access to White House briefings using an alias, but his connection with a popular right-wing website called Free Republic, to which Mr. Gannon frequently contributed.
Free Republic is more than just a forum where like-minded people can post their opinions. It is used as a contact point for mobilizing right-wing activists on a grassroots level in a manner that sometimes goes beyond simply campaigning for a favorite candidate or pushing for changes within the context of our legal system.
Bands of right-wing toughs are not physically beating up the opposition, as was the case in Striecher’s Germany. After all, in the 1920s and 30s, there was no mass media as we know it. Political expression more often took the form of a speaker communicating directly with an audience in a hall. In such a society, one silences the opposition by physically preventing them from speaking, breaking up the meeting, making people afraid to either speak at such gatherings or attend them. Today, in a world with television, an Internet and widespread access to computers, silencing the opposition can be done more indirectly, through attacks not on the body of the person making a speech in an auditorium, but on the show, and more directly on the web site or discussion board where they are expressing their opinions. The right wing web site and forum Free Republic early on established a reputation for fomenting organized efforts among their members to skew national polls, flood discussion boards, and bring down websites they deem too "liberal." In fact, they ended up coining a term for this kind of activity – "freeping."

Lastly, Joey steers us towards Matthew Rothchild's "Progressive Radio" where the most recent half hour is an interview with Amy Goodman.
dn

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]