Wednesday, November 05, 2003
Vietnam Redeux:
The major media have generally avoided the story of the massacres perpetrated in Vietnam that have been unmasked by The Blade, a small independent newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. My Lai had always been cited as an exception, yet it turns out the crimes committed in this case overlapped with My Lai and were protracted. Seymour Hersh has a fine summary in the current (11/10) New Yorker.
In early 1971, the Blade wrote, these events became known to Army investigators, who, over a four-and-a-half-year period, conducted an inquiry that eventually concluded that eighteen Tiger Force members had participated in as many as twenty war crimes. It was the longest war-crimes investigation of the Vietnam War. But no one was charged, and in 1975 the investigation was quietly shut down. By then, six suspects had been allowed to resign from the Army, which removed them from military jurisdiction. The only soldier to be officially punished was a sergeant who had triggered the investigation by reporting that a member of the Tiger Force had decapitated an infant. (He was reprimanded for stating that he had witnessed the incident when in fact he had learned of it from others.) Two former Tiger Force members told the Blade that they had been encouraged by Army investigators not to say anything about what had occurred; in addition, investigators failed to pursue leads and made no effort to interview eyewitnesses in South Vietnam...
There is, of course, a hesitancy in time of war—and, in particular, during an increasingly unpopular war against an entrenched guerrilla enemy—to publish stories that could be interpreted as undermining military morale. And news organizations instinctively debunk scoops from their competitors, especially those in smaller markets. It may be that others in the media are planning to do their own Tiger Force investigations. Let’s hope so. Terrible things always happen in war, and the responsibility of the press is to do exactly what the Blade has done—to find, verify, and publish the truth
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?031110ta_talk_hersh
In the same issue, Jane Kramer has a full portrait of Silvio Berlusconi’s “monopoly on Italy”. The media magnate-premier rules with minimalist checks, as he owns or intimidates the media that should be policing him. We know well what happens when a ruler, be it of a country or a social service agency, is unaccountable. No link available; sorry.
Media Sounds: The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, no flaming progressive he, has asked a most basic question, “When the Bushies say they want the bad news put in perspective, do they really mean they don't want it reported at all?”
I ask this because of a piece out of Baghdad by veteran New York Times foreign correspondent Raymond Bonner. He reflects the anger that some U.S. officials are feeling toward the Fourth Estate, but also cites instances in which they try to suppress, downplay or minimize bad news.
In other words, even as the president complains about the "filter" of the national media, his team in Iraq seems to be doing some filtering of its own.
That's how a credibility gap takes root. If American officials want journalists to believe their claims of progress, they need to own up to unfortunate developments as well. And isn't it telling that the only time Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described Iraq as a "long hard slog," it was in a private memo that was leaked?
http://64.4.16.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=52d392dc68250f18322c89c452ccce1b&lat=1067964163&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fwp%2ddyn%2farticles%2fA61774%2d2003Nov4%2ehtml
Senator Byrd Speaks:
Before us today is a massive $87 billion supplemental appropriations package that commits this nation to a long and costly occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, and yet the collective wisdom of the House and Senate appropriations conference that produced it was little more than a SHADOW PLAY, choreographed to stifle dissent and rubber stamp the President's request.
Perhaps this take-no-prisoners approach is how the President and his advisers define victory, but I fear they are fixated on the muscle of the politics instead of the wisdom of the policy. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to policy, the Iraq supplemental is a monument to failure.
Rumor Central:
I normally don’t circulate such, but this comes via Danny Schechter, a marvelous resource at mediachannel.org. The former "News Dissector" at WBCN in Boston for many years, circulates info he received from "Peacewatchers", who are located at the U.S. bases in Scotland. The info:
Since Saturday, people in the Highlands of Scotland have been witnessing large movements of US warplanes overhead. Experienced observers say the large numbers are reminiscent of those that preceded the bombing of Iraq in 1998 and military strikes on Libya in the1980's as well as the first Gulf War. At the weekend warplanes were flying over at a rate of roughly one every 15 minutes. As well as watching them from the ground the plane spotters have also been able to overhear pilots talking by listening to their radio frequencies.
At this rate some 288 warplanes would have passed over Scotland in three days.
It is thought that the planes have flown on a route from the US over the north pole to bases in Europe and the Mediterranean. The size and scale of the movement suggests that the US may be preparing to strike at a country in the Middle East in the next week to ten days.
Polls: Always ambivalent, I still report:
Bush's poll ratings on Iraq are now below 50 per cent for the first time. An ABC-Washington Post poll taken on Saturday, before the attack on the helicopter, gave him a 47 per cent approval figure compared with 51 per cent disapproval.
Yet, his overall approval ratings as president stood at 56 per cent in favor and 42 per cent against.
More Re-writing at the White House
I’ve observed the cleaning up of Bush’s words on the official White House transcripts. This has helped him appear to be almost articulate. But, they go further at the White House. I had noted when he had visited Australia his curious statement, that “We see a China that is stable and prosperous, a nation that respects the peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own people.” But now the White House site claims that he said, “We seek a China that is stable…” Ethics, schmethics…
Jobs and Economic Recovery
After all the talk of the 7.2% growth in the “third quarter”, more disturbing news emerges that questions whether this “growth” means we will continue to have a jobloss so-called recovery. The official figures will be released Thursday morning, but for now, an outplacement firm reported that in October U.S. companies more than doubled the job cuts of September. The Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. announced that in October, companies announced plans to eliminate 171,874 positions, compared with 76,506 jobs in September.
Rumsfeld’s Words: Perspective
Recall when the Secretary minimized the dangers to our soldiers, comparing occupied Baghdad favorably to Washington D.C. and its frightening murder rate. Well, let’s compare.
Last year, D.C. had 262 murders. As of Wednesday, 264 “coalition” soldiers have been killed in Iraq, i.e. since Bush’s notorious “Mission Accomplished” speech on May 1.
The Draft: It sounds like the Administration has floated this, seeking to test the waters. Reports from the Selective Service Administration and Defense Department web sites note that there is a need to recruit volunteers to fill the rash of vacancies on local draft boards. While I’m hardly thrilled with the idea- and re full disclosure I have a 23 year old son- bringing the Draft back certainly would rally more opposition to the Administration…which is why they wouldn’t do it, at least before the election…
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Turks are having second and third thoughts about sending troops. Sounds like it won’t happen. This will further pressure the U.S. to send more reservists in early 2004. The frantic training of Iraqi police and the ambivalent flirting with re-hiring vets of the old Iraqi army seem unlikely to forestall a call-up.
Email and activism
It’s been a grand help. Thought I’d mention, however, the (rare) story of someone being targeted…. in New Zealand! An Auckland peace activist, Bruce Hubbard, was charged with “misuse of a telephone” after he sent an email to the US Embassy objecting to the Iraq war.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hubbard said “he had been charged under the Telecommunications Act and had been told by police they would seize information from his computer under the Counter Terrorism Act”.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067233349746.html
Reagan Program Censored/Cancelled:
So, CBS cancelled its showing of the program on the Reagans, one that included noting Nancy’s well-known control, Reagan’s obliviousness and occasional callousness. The Right intervened, claiming that the portrayal played too loose with the facts. Yet, it was OK when Showtime showed the travesty re September 11 where Bush was pictured to be a totally in-charge, articulate leader.
Congressman John Dingall (D-MI) had sent his ideas for the program to CBS so as to achieve balance.
I share the concerns expressed by others that it may not present an accurate depiction of the Reagan administration and America during the 1980s. I trust that CBS will not be a party to a distorted presentation of American history, and that the mini-series will present a fair and balanced portrayal of the Reagans, the 1980s and their legacy.
As someone who served with President Reagan, and in the interest of historical accuracy, please allow me to share with you some of my recollections of the Reagan years that I hope will make it into the final cut of the mini-series: $640 Pentagon toilets seats; ketchup as a vegetable; union busting; firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra; selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for hostages; retreating from terrorists in Beirut; lying to Congress; financing an illegal war in Nicaragua; visiting Bitburg cemetery; a cozy relationship with Saddam Hussein; shredding documents; Ed Meese; Fawn Hall; Oliver North; James Watt; apartheid apologia; the savings and loan scandal; voodoo economics; record budget deficits; double digit unemployment; farm bankruptcies; trade deficits; astrologers in the White House; Star Wars; and influence peddling.
-R
The major media have generally avoided the story of the massacres perpetrated in Vietnam that have been unmasked by The Blade, a small independent newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. My Lai had always been cited as an exception, yet it turns out the crimes committed in this case overlapped with My Lai and were protracted. Seymour Hersh has a fine summary in the current (11/10) New Yorker.
In early 1971, the Blade wrote, these events became known to Army investigators, who, over a four-and-a-half-year period, conducted an inquiry that eventually concluded that eighteen Tiger Force members had participated in as many as twenty war crimes. It was the longest war-crimes investigation of the Vietnam War. But no one was charged, and in 1975 the investigation was quietly shut down. By then, six suspects had been allowed to resign from the Army, which removed them from military jurisdiction. The only soldier to be officially punished was a sergeant who had triggered the investigation by reporting that a member of the Tiger Force had decapitated an infant. (He was reprimanded for stating that he had witnessed the incident when in fact he had learned of it from others.) Two former Tiger Force members told the Blade that they had been encouraged by Army investigators not to say anything about what had occurred; in addition, investigators failed to pursue leads and made no effort to interview eyewitnesses in South Vietnam...
There is, of course, a hesitancy in time of war—and, in particular, during an increasingly unpopular war against an entrenched guerrilla enemy—to publish stories that could be interpreted as undermining military morale. And news organizations instinctively debunk scoops from their competitors, especially those in smaller markets. It may be that others in the media are planning to do their own Tiger Force investigations. Let’s hope so. Terrible things always happen in war, and the responsibility of the press is to do exactly what the Blade has done—to find, verify, and publish the truth
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?031110ta_talk_hersh
In the same issue, Jane Kramer has a full portrait of Silvio Berlusconi’s “monopoly on Italy”. The media magnate-premier rules with minimalist checks, as he owns or intimidates the media that should be policing him. We know well what happens when a ruler, be it of a country or a social service agency, is unaccountable. No link available; sorry.
Media Sounds: The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, no flaming progressive he, has asked a most basic question, “When the Bushies say they want the bad news put in perspective, do they really mean they don't want it reported at all?”
I ask this because of a piece out of Baghdad by veteran New York Times foreign correspondent Raymond Bonner. He reflects the anger that some U.S. officials are feeling toward the Fourth Estate, but also cites instances in which they try to suppress, downplay or minimize bad news.
In other words, even as the president complains about the "filter" of the national media, his team in Iraq seems to be doing some filtering of its own.
That's how a credibility gap takes root. If American officials want journalists to believe their claims of progress, they need to own up to unfortunate developments as well. And isn't it telling that the only time Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described Iraq as a "long hard slog," it was in a private memo that was leaked?
http://64.4.16.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=52d392dc68250f18322c89c452ccce1b&lat=1067964163&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fwp%2ddyn%2farticles%2fA61774%2d2003Nov4%2ehtml
Senator Byrd Speaks:
Before us today is a massive $87 billion supplemental appropriations package that commits this nation to a long and costly occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, and yet the collective wisdom of the House and Senate appropriations conference that produced it was little more than a SHADOW PLAY, choreographed to stifle dissent and rubber stamp the President's request.
Perhaps this take-no-prisoners approach is how the President and his advisers define victory, but I fear they are fixated on the muscle of the politics instead of the wisdom of the policy. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to policy, the Iraq supplemental is a monument to failure.
Rumor Central:
I normally don’t circulate such, but this comes via Danny Schechter, a marvelous resource at mediachannel.org. The former "News Dissector" at WBCN in Boston for many years, circulates info he received from "Peacewatchers", who are located at the U.S. bases in Scotland. The info:
Since Saturday, people in the Highlands of Scotland have been witnessing large movements of US warplanes overhead. Experienced observers say the large numbers are reminiscent of those that preceded the bombing of Iraq in 1998 and military strikes on Libya in the1980's as well as the first Gulf War. At the weekend warplanes were flying over at a rate of roughly one every 15 minutes. As well as watching them from the ground the plane spotters have also been able to overhear pilots talking by listening to their radio frequencies.
At this rate some 288 warplanes would have passed over Scotland in three days.
It is thought that the planes have flown on a route from the US over the north pole to bases in Europe and the Mediterranean. The size and scale of the movement suggests that the US may be preparing to strike at a country in the Middle East in the next week to ten days.
Polls: Always ambivalent, I still report:
Bush's poll ratings on Iraq are now below 50 per cent for the first time. An ABC-Washington Post poll taken on Saturday, before the attack on the helicopter, gave him a 47 per cent approval figure compared with 51 per cent disapproval.
Yet, his overall approval ratings as president stood at 56 per cent in favor and 42 per cent against.
More Re-writing at the White House
I’ve observed the cleaning up of Bush’s words on the official White House transcripts. This has helped him appear to be almost articulate. But, they go further at the White House. I had noted when he had visited Australia his curious statement, that “We see a China that is stable and prosperous, a nation that respects the peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own people.” But now the White House site claims that he said, “We seek a China that is stable…” Ethics, schmethics…
Jobs and Economic Recovery
After all the talk of the 7.2% growth in the “third quarter”, more disturbing news emerges that questions whether this “growth” means we will continue to have a jobloss so-called recovery. The official figures will be released Thursday morning, but for now, an outplacement firm reported that in October U.S. companies more than doubled the job cuts of September. The Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. announced that in October, companies announced plans to eliminate 171,874 positions, compared with 76,506 jobs in September.
Rumsfeld’s Words: Perspective
Recall when the Secretary minimized the dangers to our soldiers, comparing occupied Baghdad favorably to Washington D.C. and its frightening murder rate. Well, let’s compare.
Last year, D.C. had 262 murders. As of Wednesday, 264 “coalition” soldiers have been killed in Iraq, i.e. since Bush’s notorious “Mission Accomplished” speech on May 1.
The Draft: It sounds like the Administration has floated this, seeking to test the waters. Reports from the Selective Service Administration and Defense Department web sites note that there is a need to recruit volunteers to fill the rash of vacancies on local draft boards. While I’m hardly thrilled with the idea- and re full disclosure I have a 23 year old son- bringing the Draft back certainly would rally more opposition to the Administration…which is why they wouldn’t do it, at least before the election…
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Turks are having second and third thoughts about sending troops. Sounds like it won’t happen. This will further pressure the U.S. to send more reservists in early 2004. The frantic training of Iraqi police and the ambivalent flirting with re-hiring vets of the old Iraqi army seem unlikely to forestall a call-up.
Email and activism
It’s been a grand help. Thought I’d mention, however, the (rare) story of someone being targeted…. in New Zealand! An Auckland peace activist, Bruce Hubbard, was charged with “misuse of a telephone” after he sent an email to the US Embassy objecting to the Iraq war.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hubbard said “he had been charged under the Telecommunications Act and had been told by police they would seize information from his computer under the Counter Terrorism Act”.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067233349746.html
Reagan Program Censored/Cancelled:
So, CBS cancelled its showing of the program on the Reagans, one that included noting Nancy’s well-known control, Reagan’s obliviousness and occasional callousness. The Right intervened, claiming that the portrayal played too loose with the facts. Yet, it was OK when Showtime showed the travesty re September 11 where Bush was pictured to be a totally in-charge, articulate leader.
Congressman John Dingall (D-MI) had sent his ideas for the program to CBS so as to achieve balance.
I share the concerns expressed by others that it may not present an accurate depiction of the Reagan administration and America during the 1980s. I trust that CBS will not be a party to a distorted presentation of American history, and that the mini-series will present a fair and balanced portrayal of the Reagans, the 1980s and their legacy.
As someone who served with President Reagan, and in the interest of historical accuracy, please allow me to share with you some of my recollections of the Reagan years that I hope will make it into the final cut of the mini-series: $640 Pentagon toilets seats; ketchup as a vegetable; union busting; firing striking air traffic controllers; Iran-Contra; selling arms to terrorist nations; trading arms for hostages; retreating from terrorists in Beirut; lying to Congress; financing an illegal war in Nicaragua; visiting Bitburg cemetery; a cozy relationship with Saddam Hussein; shredding documents; Ed Meese; Fawn Hall; Oliver North; James Watt; apartheid apologia; the savings and loan scandal; voodoo economics; record budget deficits; double digit unemployment; farm bankruptcies; trade deficits; astrologers in the White House; Star Wars; and influence peddling.
-R
