Friday, October 28, 2005

USA: PLAMEGATE

Salon: All The Vice President's Men by Juan Cole

The ideologues in Cheney's inner circle drummed up a war. Now their zealotry is blowing up in their faces.

IRAQ

Asia Times: In for the long haul

The United States will have to maintain a substantial part of its current 150,000 forces in Iraq long after President George W Bush leaves office, concludes a study released by the London-based think tank, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

The conclusion itself has been regarded as very much part of conventional wisdom inside Washington. Only the timing of the release of that study is going to provide further ammunition to the opponents of the Iraq war, especially inside the Republican Party. There has been little international support for America's invasion of Iraq. Now Bush's core support for staying put in Iraq appears to be unfastening.

IRAN

Asia Times: Iran on course for a showdown

PARIS - The call by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday for Israel to be "wiped off the map" has drawn instant and bitter condemnation, with Israel urging Iran's expulsion from the United Nations, and other countries saying that Tehran should now definitely be hauled before the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad's outburst, however, also signifies deep rifts within the country between his administration and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his small clique that ultimately controls the levers of power.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

MEDIA WATCH: FAKE NEWS

PR Watch: One Step Forward (But Two Back) in the Fight Against Fake News

"Myself and others felt violated by the first bill," said Doug Simon, the founder, president and CEO of D S Simon Productions, a major producer of the faux television news reports known as video news releases (VNRs).

Simon was referring to the Truth in Broadcasting Act (S 967). In its original incarnation, this bill would have required a "conspicuous" disclosure to accompany any government-produced or -funded prepackaged VNR or the radio equivalent, an audio news release (ANR).

For VNRs, the Act rightly mandated "continuous" on-screen notification of the material's source, such as the words "Produced by the U.S. Government." Moreover, the Act made it illegal to remove the disclosure.

That Act was considered by the Senate Commerce Committee on October 20. What the committee passed, however, was significantly different. Even the name had changed, to the "Prepackaged News Story Announcement Act."

And now, Doug Simon likes it.

Boston Globe: AND NOW, FOR THE LOCAL FAKE NEWS

The mayor and city council of Newark, New Jersey "hired a fledging
newspaper called Newark Weekly News to publish 'positive news' about
the city - and will pay $100,000 over the next year for it." The
no-bid contract specifies that the paper will "generate stories
based on leads" from the mayor's spokesperson and city
communications staff. A senior scholar at the Poynter Institute for
Media Studies said, "If you are publishing government propaganda in
the guise of neutral, detached reporting, that's about as unethical
as you can get." Rutgers University journalism department chair John
Pavlik New York Times" target="_blank">told the New York Times that
the arrangement was "fake news." In New York, as Mayor Michael
Bloomberg "picked up the endorsement of an influential black
minister at a Harlem restaurant last month," some of the diners who
"were quoted in news stories" as "regular people" were actually
campaign volunteers. At least three people whose glowing quotes
about Bloomberg were printed didn't identify themselves "as being
affiliated with the campaign,"

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

SYRIA: MEHLIS REPORT

Asia Times: The ball is now in Syria's court

DAMASCUS - The findings of the United Nations-sanctioned Mehlis commission have ripped like a thunderstorm through Syria and Lebanon. When parts of the 53-page report began to emerge at about midnight (Damascus time) on October 20-21, everybody turned on Arabic satellite TV. People were waiting to hear a clear sentence saying: "Syrian Mr X pressed the explode button on February 14, 2005, killing former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri, under orders from Damascus." Such an explicit statement was not made. A threat, rather than an accusation, was fired at Damascus in the Mehlis report, making it clear that it could not find concrete evidence against Syria. Had the investigation obtained something tangible to

"recommended reading"

INTERNET FRAUD

LA Times: 'I Will Eat Your Dollars'

To the cyber scammers in Nigeria who trawl for victims on the Internet, Americans are easy targets. But one thief had second thoughts

LEBANON: HAIRIRI

Onlinejournal: Hariri Reportedly Assassinated To Make Way For Large US Air Base In Lebanon

According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources-Christian and Muslim-former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was reportedly assassinated in a sophisticated explosion-by-wire bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel. There are also strong indications that the Hariri assassination was carried out by the same rogue Syrian intelligence agents used in the 2002 car bombing assassination of Lebanese Christian leader Elie Hobeika, who was prepared to testify against Sharon in a Brussels human rights court

Monday, October 24, 2005

MEDIA: PLAMEGATE

Independent: Hard times in New York

The paper that regards itself as America's supreme journal of record is washing its dirty laundry in public. And a large cast of characters is getting splashed with water

USA: PLAMEGATE

News Max: Dems Tap PatrickFitzgerald For Impeachment Probe

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are so pleased with reports that Leakgate prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is about to indict senior White House officials that they want him to lead an impeachment investigation into whether President Bush lied to Congress about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

"The CIA leak issue is only the tip of the iceberg," House Judiciary Democrat Jerrold Nadler complains in a message posted to his web site.

In a letter asking the Justice Department to expand the scope of Fitzgerald's investigation, Nadler says: "We now have reason to believe that high crimes may have been committed at the highest level [and] wrongdoing that may have led us to war and imperiled our national security."


Opednews: THE COMING HURRICANE FITZGERALD...

There is a storm of historic proportions headed for the United States, one that will make Hurricane Wilma (also en route) look like a small splash in the pond by comparison. It's been building and gathering strength in the increasingly hot waters of the Special Counsel's office for almost two years, and in a matter of days it may lay waste to the entire political infrastructure of Washington, D.C., from one end to the other.


Rense: The Most Important Criminal Case In American History

Patrick Fitzgerald has before him the most important criminal case in American history. Watergate, by comparison, was a random burglary in an age of innocence. The investigator's prosecutorial authority in this present case is not constrained by any regulation. If he finds a thread connecting the leak to something greater, Fitzgerald has the legal power to follow it to the web in search of the spider. It seems unlikely, then, that he would simply go after the leakers and the people who sought to cover up the leak when it was merely a secondary consequence of the much greater crime of forging evidence to foment war.

BIRD FLU

Times: Deadly bird flu virus confirmed in Britain

A SERIOUS failure in strict quarantine regulations allowed a parrot to become infected with the deadly H5N1 avian flu strain after its arrival in Britain, animal health experts said last night.
The South American parrot appears to have been kept in quarantine too close to a bird from Taiwan, against official advice to bird importers. The apparent lapse in the system is expected to bring about a review of a policy that allows some commercial animal dealers to run their own quarantine operations under veterinary supervision.

Scotsman: Parrot had deadliest bird flu strain

Confirmation that the parrot had the most lethal form of the disease came as Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, said the UK faced an inevitable human flu pandemic, which could lead to people staying away from work and public gatherings. She conceded scientists had warned it was a case of when, not if, the flu strikes, but she could not give a timetable as "we simply don't know".

Reuters: Key dates in spread of bird flu from Asia