Wednesday, December 28, 2005

IRAQ

Knight Ridder: Kurds In Iraqi Army Proclaim Loyalty To Militia

Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.

Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops that are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable.

PROPAGANDA WATCH

Washington Post: IRAQ INFORMATION OPERATIONS INCREASE

The military has paid money to try to place favorable coverage on
television stations in three Iraqi cities."
The military gave one station "about $35,000 in equipment," is "building a new facility for $300,000," and pays $1000 to $2400 a month "for a weekly program that focuses positively on U.S. efforts."

An Army National Guard commander confirmed his officers "suggest" stories for the weekly program and review it, before it is aired. The payments are not disclosed to viewers. At least two bloggers have been embedded with U.S. military units; Michael Yon with the Army in Mosul and Bill Roggio (who was credentialed by the American Enterprise Institute)
with the Marines in Anbar province.

PR WATCH

Wallstreet Journal: A CANCER RISK CONVENIENTLY LOST IN TRANSLATION

A groundbreaking public health study by Chinese doctor Zhang
JianDong in 1987 was used by U.S. regulatory agencies "as evidence
that a form of" the chemical chromium "might cause cancer."

Tenyears later, "a 'clarification and further analysis' published under
his name in a U.S. medical journal said there was no cancer link to
chromium."

But "Dr. Zhang didn't write the clarification" - it was
"conceived, drafted, edited and submitted to medical journals by"
ChemRisk, a firm hired by PG&E, "a utility company being sued for
alleged chromium pollution" by California residents. ChemRisk was
previously paid $7 million to help "save industry hundreds of
millions of dollars in cleanup costs for chromium pollution in New
Jersey."

ChemRisk claims Dr. Zhang signed off on the
"clarification," but records show the final version was not
translated into Chinese for his review. Dr. Zhang died in 1999, but
his son said, "It's impossible that he would have overthrown" his
earlier work linking chromium and cancer.