The only question is whether defeat comes sooner or later. The longer it takes, the more national resources will be squandered.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7217
http://tinyurl.com/4m4ey


From Information Cleraring House

Check his website and let him know you support his principled resistance to fighting in Iraq.

Les Evenchick
New Orleans


Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 22:21:23 -0800 (PST) From: Carl Webb

Subject: Louisiana native refuses to fight for US imperialism

My name is Carl Webb and I'm a soldier protesting illegal orders (Stop Loss Program) to serve in Iraq beyond the length of my contract which ended in August 2004. I refused to report for training with the Texas National Guard at Fort Hood and left Austin, Texas back in August with the intent of eventually turning myself over to the military authorities. Right now I'm creating a website at carlwebb.net where people can find more information. Click on the link to the press release below.

http://carlwebb.net/press-release.html


From ufpj-news

The majority of Iraqis - those who voted and especially those who didn't - are not willing to surrender their oil, their economy and their land to corporate America. The popular resistance, on a national level, tends only to increase. Shi'ites - from Sistani to the SCIRI - better not enter into a Faustian pact.

http://207.44.245.159/article8043.htm

To understand the current Occupation of Iraq, it is important to recall the British Occupation of Iraq in 1920, and the crisis that followed since. The 1920 British-crafted and rigged elections saw Emir Faisal I (a Saudi living in exile in London) as the first handpicked dictator king of Iraq. Since then, Iraqis have rejected and resisted foreign interference in their affairs.

http://207.44.245.159/article8030.htm


From Information Clearing House

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2005/01/19/notes011905.DTL


Informant: Lew Rockwell

Are the turnout numbers routinely cited by the press – 8 million and 57% – supported by reality? And was the outpouring of voters in Sunni areas really "surprisingly strong"?

by Greg Mitchell, Editor & Publisher. Posted February 5, 2005.

Everyone, of course, is thrilled that so many Iraqis turned out to vote, in the face of threats and intimidation, on Sunday. But in hailing, and at times gushing, over the turnout, has the American media (as it did two years ago in the hyping of Saddam's WMDs) forgotten core journalistic principles in regard to fact-checking and weighing partisan assertions? ... Read the whole story at Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21180


copyright Virginia Metze

by Arianna Huffington in February 9, 2005 newsletter

With the president preparing to hit up Congress for another $80 billion for the war in Iraq, I thought it might be a good time to crack open a history book.

In 1941, as the United States was on the verge of entering World War II, Sen. Harry S. Truman launched an investigation into reports of widespread waste, corruption and mismanagement in the nascent war effort. Over the next three years, the Truman Committee held hundreds of public hearings, visited military bases across the country, and ended up saving taxpayers $15 billion dollars. His efforts also saved countless lives by rooting out contractors using inferior materials and producing shoddy equipment.

We sure could use "Give 'em Hell, Harry" today — although, given the epidemic of corruption infecting the reconstruction of Iraq, even he would have his work cut out for him. ...

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=758

Important note: if you type the link instead of clicking on it above, do NOT misspell Arianna's name, as there is a spoof web page that comes up if you spell it Arrianna and it wants your social security number if you want to join her mailing list .... 1197 people have already visited the spoof link.


copyright Virginia Metze

MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media

February 11, 2005

RAPID RESPONSE MEDIA ALERT: ONE SECOND PER VICTIM

Slaughter In Iraq And ITN’s Descent Into Absurdity

And The Main Headline This Lunchtime

It is easy to overestimate the role of media distortion of facts in the pacification and control of modern society. In reality the imposition of absurdity and mindless distraction is at least as important. If we can be persuaded to ignore serious issues, then it hardly matters if facts relating to those issues are distorted beyond recognition or blanked. Thus, ITN’s headline on January 29, 1999:

"And the main headline this lunchtime: Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles have appeared as a couple, in public, for the first time." (ITV 1 O'Clock News, 29.1.99)

The previous year, ten minutes, or thirty-three per cent, of the BBC's 6 O' Clock News on January 26, 1998, had dealt with the Queen Mother's fall and fracture of her left hip.

These examples might seem merely comical, but in truth real issues and real suffering are buried by nonsense of this kind.

On ITN’s main lunchtime news today, anchor Andrea Catherwood reported that 22 people had been killed in Iraq in two attacks on a mosque and a bakery. The report lasted exactly 22 seconds - one second per victim. Only the basic facts were given and the carnage was not included in a summary of the day’s major stories at the end of the programme.

The 22 seconds were followed by a 5 minute 30 second report on the planned wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles - a story also covered ad nauseam yesterday. This included some six interviews, a straw poll of public opinion, and a discussion of constitutional issues surrounding the marriage.

ITN had no time to mention that three children had been killed in the attack on the Iraqi mosque alongside 40 people wounded. It had no time to mention that no less that 50 Iraqi security personnel have been killed in three massive suicide bombings this week in the wake of Iraq’s fraudulent elections on January 30. You would not know from media reporting that this has been one of the country’s worst weeks for violence. A police officer in Salman Pak, a town fast becoming a focus of the conflict, said:

"We have never seen such fighting." (‘Eleven dead in Iraq bakery attack,’ Jenny Booth, Times Online, February 11, 2005)

This follows the killing of 10 Iraqi police during a fierce gun battle late on Thursday. Insurgents ambushed a police convoy searching for those responsible for an earlier car bomb attack - shooting went on for two hours. US attack helicopters were sent to the scene and opened fired to dislodge the insurgents.

Who is it that is deciding that the British public should be subjected to current levels of absurdity and indifference to suffering in TV news performance? Who are the people who determine what we are and are not told about the world? What are their credentials for such an important task? What are their backgrounds, connections, vested interests, likely biases?

The truth is that almost no one has the remotest clue - ITN is a massive, unaccountable business that responds far less, and far less honestly, even than the BBC to public complaints. How ironic it is that we so certainly believe we live in a free society when we have almost zero understanding of, and zero control over, the means of mass communication.

SUGGESTED ACTION

The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others. In writing letters to journalists, we strongly urge readers to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

Write to the following journalists. Ask them how they can justify spending 22 seconds on the deaths of 22 Iraqis before spending 5 minutes 30 seconds on a royal wedding:

ITN Programme Editor for today‘s lunchtime programme, Patrick Hubbard
Email: patrick.hubbard@itn.co.uk

ITN Director of today‘s programme, Munro Forbes
Email: munro.forbes@itn.co.uk

Andrea Catherwood
Email: andrea.catherwood@itn.co.uk

David Mannion, Head of ITN
Email: david.mannion@itn.co.uk


Please also send all emails to us at Media Lens:
Email: editor@medialens.org


Visit the Media Lens website: http://www.medialens.org

An Army Reserve officer from Powell [Tennessee] is a veteran of two wars in Iraq. Now, he's facing a battle on two fronts, personal nightmares and the Army he loves. First Lt. Phillip Goodrum might go to jail for seeking psychiatric care or he might be dishonorably discharged.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2811

Over the last year, thousands of Tennessee guardsmen and Reservists went to Iraq and Afghanistan. It's the largest call up in over 50 years. ... An Army study shows that one in seven returning Iraq war vets suffers from depression.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2810