Iraq: AP Chief Slams Case Against Iraqi Photographer

by Lily Hindy (AP, 2007-11-24)

The U.S. military's plan to seek a criminal case against an Associated Press photographer in Iraq without disclosing the charges or evidence against him makes a mockery of American democratic principles, AP President and CEO Tom Curley said Saturday.

"This is a poor example—and not the first of its kind—of the way our government honors the democratic principles and values it says it wants to share with the Iraqi people," Curley said in a column in The Washington Post.

The U.S. military notified the AP last weekend that it intended to submit a complaint against Bilal Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29....

"At long last, prize-winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein may get his day in court....We believe Bilal's crime was taking photographs the U.S. government did not want its citizens to see. That he was part of a team of AP photographers who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for work in Iraq may have made Bilal even more of a marked man."

The rest of the story: Breitbart.com

Follow Up: AP Fires Back, Says Its Probe Clears Iraqi Photog (E&P)

Editor & Publisher, 2007-11-21

A series of accusations raised by the U.S. military against an Associated Press photographer detained for 19 months in Iraq are false or meaningless, according to an intensive AP investigation of the case made public Wednesday.

Evidence and testimony collected by the AP shows no support for allegations that Bilal Hussein took part in insurgent activities or bomb-making, and few of the images he provided dealt directly with Iraqi insurgents.

"Despite the fact that Hussein has not been interrogated since May 2006, allegations have been dropped or modified over time, and new claims added, all without any explanation," said the 48-page report compiled by lawyer and former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe.

The rest of the story: Editor & Publisher

The Free Press: AP Lawyers Will Go to Iraq Next Week to Defend Photographer (E&P)

Press Group Raises Concerns

by Joe Strupp (Editor & Publisher, 2007-11-21)

Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll believes AP photographer Bilal Hussein, who finally may be charged with unspecified alleged terrorist crimes in Iraq, can get a fair trial there.

But she stressed that the U.S. military's failure to provide AP with specific information or evidence related to charges may well hamper efforts to mount a defense and ultimately free Hussein, whom AP contends is innocent.

"I have no reason to think the Iraqi court system will be anything but fair and impartial," Carroll told E&P a day after AP revealed charges had been brought. "But they can only be impartial about what is presented to them. If one side has evidence and the other side doesn't know what it is, how can we defend Bilal? They have told our lawyers they will find out specifics when the complaint is filed next week."

Carroll's comments come a day after Hussein, 36, who has been held by U.S. and Iraqi military officials in Baghdad since April 2006, received word that the U.S. military planned to seek a criminal complaint against him. An AFP report late Monday stated the complaint accused Hussein of being "a terrorist media operative" who had "infiltrated the AP."

Dave Tomlin, AP associate general counsel, said such language is not new, noting the military had used such vague phrasing for months to describe Hussein, but without substantial evidence or specific incidents that have not been refuted.

"We continue not to have heard anything that would be grounds for a charge," Tomlin said. "What is new this week is that after months of stonewalling, they propose on less than two weeks notice to drag him into a court room."

The rest of the story: Editor & Publisher

Official Lies: State Department Coverup on Blackwater Revealed

Officials balked on '05 Blackwater inquiry

State Department e-mails obtained by ABC News discuss how to deflect a Times reporter's questions about a civilian shooting death.

by T. Christian Miller (Los Angeles Times, 2007-19-26)

Even as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her department's oversight of private security contractors, new evidence surfaced Thursday that the U.S. sought to conceal details of Blackwater shootings of Iraqi civilians more than two years ago.

In one instance, internal e-mails show that State Department officials tried to deflect a 2005 Los Angeles Times inquiry into an alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian by Blackwater guards.

"Give [the Los Angeles Times] what we can and then dump the rest on Blackwater," one State Department official wrote to another in the e-mails, which were obtained by ABC News. "We can't win this one."

One department official taking part in a chain of e-mails noted that the "findings of the investigation are to remain off-limits to the reporter." Another recommended that there be no mention of the existence of a criminal investigation since such a reference would "raise questions and issues."

The rest of the story: The Los Angeles Times

The War: U.N. Report on Iraq Details An 'Ever-Deepening' Crisis

by Joshua Partlow and Colum Lynch (Washington Post, 2007-10-12)

BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 -- A U.N. report issued Thursday outlined an "ever-deepening humanitarian crisis" in Iraq, with thousands of people driven from their homes each month, ongoing indiscriminate killings and "routine torture" in Iraqi prisons....

The assessment by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, which covered a three-month period ending June 30, found that civilians were suffering "devastating consequences" from violence across the country. It documented more than 100 civilians allegedly killed by U.S.-led forces during airstrikes or raids.

The report described Iraq in more dire terms than last month's congressional testimony from top U.S. military and embassy officials, which stressed improvements in the security situation.

"The killings are still taking place, the torture is still being reported, the due process issues are still unresolved," said Ivana Vuco, a U.N. human rights officer in Baghdad.

The rest of the story: The Washington Post

Iraq: Military returns tape it took from AP

BAGHDAD (AP) - The U.S. military returned a videotape and digital camera memory card Monday that American soldiers had seized last week from an AP Television News cameraman.

The tape and card were taken without explanation from Ayad M. Abd Ali at the scene of an insurgent attack against the Polish ambassador in Baghdad. The ambassador, Gen. Edward Pietrzyk, suffered burns and was evacuated by helicopter.

After photographing the attack's aftermath and the rescue activities, Abd Ali was detained by U.S. troops for about 40 minutes in spite of having shown the soldiers a valid U.S.-issued press credential and identification.

He says he was never told why he was handcuffed, blindfolded and put in a Humvee, or why the tape and film were taken. Subsequent contact with the U.S. military also has failed to produce a clear explanation for the military's actions.

Other news organizations shot video and still photographs of the scene and had no apparent difficulty.

The rest of the story: Yahoo! News

Iraq: As War Dragged On, Coverage Tone Weighed Heavily on Anchors (The Washington Post)

by Howard Kurtz (The Washington Post, 2007-10-08)

Charlie Gibson is a product of the Vietnam War era. When he was a television reporter in Lynchburg, Va., he had driven to Washington on weekends to march in antiwar demonstrations. And he had lost friends in that jungle war.

Now Gibson had friends whose sons were dying in Iraq. His thoughts kept returning to one central question: When you commit kids to war, what are they fighting for? What was the mission in Iraq? How could a family say that the war was worth little Johnny's well-being?

The ABC anchor was obsessed with this point. If you were president, and you decided to go to war, was there a calculus in your mind, that the goal was worth so many American lives? After all, your generals would tell you that X number were likely to die. What was the acceptable trade-off? Gibson's threshold would be one: Was the war worth one life?

As the U.S. occupation of Iraq stretched into its fourth bloody year, the media coverage was turning increasingly negative, and the three evening news anchors constantly agonized over how to deal with the conflict.

Their newscasts had become a nightly tableau of death and destruction, and whether that was an accurate picture of Iraq had become a matter of fierce political debate. Certainly the constant plague of suicide bombs, explosive devices, sniper fire and, occasionally, the massacre of large numbers of civilians played into television's need for dramatic events and arresting visuals. Certainly, by 2006 it was easier for the anchors and correspondents to offer a skeptical vision of the war, now that a majority of the country disapproved of the conflict, than in the heady days after the toppling of Saddam Hussein seemed to strike a blow for democracy in the Middle East. By training their powerful spotlight on the chaos gripping Iraq, the anchors were arguably contributing to the political downfall of a president who had seemed to be riding high when he won his second term.

Through the routine decisions of daily journalism -- how prominently to play a story, what pictures to use, what voices to include -- the newscasts were sending an unmistakable message. And the message was that George W. Bush's war was a debacle. Administration officials regularly complained about the coverage as unduly negative, but to little avail. Other news organizations chronicled the deteriorating situation as well, but with a combined 25 million viewers, the evening newscasts had the biggest megaphone.

The rest of the story: The Washington Post

This article is adapted from the book "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Television News War" by Howard Kurtz, Free Press, New York, ©2007.

Iraq: Return of the Body Count

Body count isn't best way to rate war result

The Department of Defense has for the first time revealed statistics on the numbers of Iraqi insurgents killed since the U.S. invasion. Previously, the Bush administration resisted such requests, the secretiveness of this White House reinforced by a reluctance to highlight a very controversial approach from the Vietnam period. The about-face came in response to a request from USA Today.

On the surface, the data seems to provide evidence of progress. A total of 19,429 insurgents are reported killed, compared with 3,800 Americans and 300 others, largely British. In releasing the figures, the military stressed that 4,882 insurgents have been killed this year, a 25 percent increase over last year....

But there is a more subtle and profound problem with the body-count approach. During Vietnam, U.S. Army iconoclasts such as Col. John Paul Vann argued that the McNamara measures were based on false premises. Given the enormous scale of American firepower, increasing body and weapons totals simply meant the enemy was growing in numbers. There were more targets to kill.

The rest of the story: San Jose Mercury News

Iraq: Iraqis Say Basra Quieter After British Troop Pullout

by Aref Mohammed (Reuters UK, 2007-10-01)

Basra, Iraq - Residents of Iraq's southern city of Basra have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace.

Political assassinations and sectarian violence continue, some city officials say, but on a much smaller scale than at any time since British troops moved into the city after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Mortar rounds, rockets and small arms fire crashed almost daily into the palace, making life hazardous for British and Iraqis alike in Iraq's second-largest city. To many Basrans the withdrawal of the British a month ago removed a proven target.

"The situation these days is better. We were living in hell ... the area is calm since their withdrawal," said housewife Khairiya Salman, who lives near the palace.

The rest of the story: Reuters

Foreign Intelligence: Iraqi TV reflects sectarian strife

Most channels linked to partisan power blocs

By Bryan Pearson (Variety, 2007-09-21)

BAGHDAD -- With more than 30 satellite and terrestrial channels operating in Iraq, a far cry from the two that existed under Saddam Hussein's rigid rule, the television industry should by now be celebrating its new-found freedom.

Instead, it has turned inward, becoming a mish-mash of sectarianized channels linked directly or loosely with partisan power blocs and reflecting the country's highly fractured political reality.

While nine or 10 core satellite channels and as many regional stations have survived the turmoil of the past four years, others have started up or closed down at irregular intervals mainly for commercial reasons.

An unfortunate few have been shut down by the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Tellingly, the two most-watched channels, as rated by research group Ipsos-Stat, have been booted out of the country -- Saudi newscaster Al-Arabiya for a while, and Dubai-based Al-Sharqiya permanently.

Both offended Maliki's government. Al-Arabiya was accused of attempting to stoke sectarian tensions in the country with its gory coverage of the ongoing Iraqi carnage -- charges channel execs denied -- while Al-Sharqiya served up political parody bound to offend.

The end for the channel came after one Al-Sharqiya presenter appeared on air shortly after the execution of Saddam Hussein wearing black as a sign of mourning.

The shutting of its offices in Baghdad had little effect, however, and despite what many perceive as a pro-Sunni bias it remains highly popular in Iraq with its mix of skeins and satirical laffers that poke fun at life in the troubled country.

But while Al-Sharqiya is at least discreet about the line it toes, other channels are more blatant about their political proclivities.

The rest of the story: Variety

NPR reporter stays with Baghdad beat

By Randy Doringa (North County Times, 2007-09-05)

Not too long ago, National Public Radio correspondent Jamie Tarabay visited the home of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and saw a man look at her and whisper into Talabani's ear. The president laughed.

Tarabay, who was attending a political meeting, asked why and got an answer: They were discussing how much she might be worth if she were kidnapped. The best guess: $100,000.

In a phone conversation last week during a brief break from her duties as NPR's Iraq correspondent, Tarabay managed to actually find some humor in her price tag.

"Part of me was horrified that he was even articulating that," Tarabay recalled. "And part of me was horrified that I was only going for so little. It's a Catch-22. You don't want to give anyone any ideas, but you want to think, 'Just $100,000? Come on!' "

On a more serious note, "it made me sick to my stomach," she said. "If I was going to a political gathering and politicians were talking like that, what were the average Iraqis thinking? It's getting harder to do any real reporting. People just see you as dollar signs."

The rest of the story: NCTimes.com

Secrets: Bush Iraq Trip Latest Surprise Event Missed By White House Press Corps

by Joe Strupp (Editor & Publisher, 2007-09-04)

President Bush's surprise trip to Iraq on Monday, which included just five White House reporters, marks the fourth time in the past month or so that Bush has made surprise news in one location while the White House press corps was en route to another.

And that has at least a few veteran reporters perturbed.

The rest of the story: Editor & Publisher

PEJ Study: War Coverage Down, Campaign Reporting Up

By Joe Strupp (E&P, 2007-08-20)

NEW YORK Coverage of events related to the Iraq War decreased during the second quarter of 2007, but remained the top news issue, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, which noted 15% of stories across print, broadcast and online dealt with Iraq-related issues.

That is down from 22% during the first quarter of the year. As in the first quarter, the Fox News Channel devoted roughly half as much coverage to the war (8%) than its rivals, CNN (18%) and MSNBC (15%).

Rising during the same three-months was reporting on the 2008 presidential campaign, which came in second with 9%. The Virginia Tech massacre, meanwhile, brought the most coverage in a single week, with just more than half of all reporting during that week in April on the shooting spree that left 33 dead.

The rest of the story: Editor & Publisher

CIA and FBI Computers Used for Wikipedia Edits

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.

The rest of the story: PC Magazine

USA Today's Iraq Progress (Fair.Org)

Military claims appear without scrutiny

Government efforts to portray progress in the Iraq War were boosted by USA Today's August 13 front page story, "Major attacks decline in Iraq."

The paper's report relied entirely on current and former military officials, with the key claim being that "large al-Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq have declined nearly 50% since the United States started increasing troop levels in Iraq about six months ago." The paper added that such attacks "have dropped to about 70 in July from a high during the past year of about 130 in March, according to the Multi-National Force-Iraq."

This claim deserved some serious scrutiny, but USA Today unfortunately provided none. ...

Counts of civilian deaths in Iraq vary: the Associated Press reported (Christian Science Monitor, 8/3/07) at least 2,024 violent deaths in July (an increase of 23 percent from June), while the Iraqi government reported a lower total (1,652) that was nonetheless a significant increase from the previous month (Agence France Presse, 8/1/07)

Given that such data is readily available, USA Today should have—at the very least—acknowledged that the military claims could be questioned. In contrast with USA Today's approach, McClatchy Newspapers (8/15/07) covered similar Pentagon claims regarding violence in Baghdad. But instead of merely repeating the official claims, McClatchy's Leila Fadel raised questions: "U.S. officials say the number of civilian casualties in the Iraqi capital is down 50 percent. But U.S. officials declined to provide specific numbers, and statistics gathered by McClatchy Newspapers don't support the claim."

The rest of the story: Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore criticizes CNN...on CNN

Sicko director Michael Moore blasts CNN host Wolf Blitzer and resident medical commentator Dr. Sanjay Gupta for what Moore regards as the distorted coverage on the network of both the war in Iraq and the issue of health care (at the end of the segment, watch CNN try to put Moore in place before the next segment by contextualizing him with an irrelevant reference to Venezuela prez Hugo Chavez).

- Moore and Blitzer:
<http://youtube.com/watch?v=6TR1SG8WDbU>

- Sanjay Gupta's 'Sicko Reality Check':
<http://www.crooksandliars.com/>

- Moore's rebuttal to the 'Sicko Reality Check':
<http://www.michaelmoore.com/>

The War: Journalists removed from Iraq bomb site

Iraqi police removed photographers from the site of bomb blasts that killed at least seven people in central Baghdad yesterday in the first use of a controversial new policy restricting media access.

The rest of the story by Ian Black, The Guardian's Middle East editor, is on today's edition of Guardian Unlimited.

Waste and fraud in Iraq (video)

Here's a four minute excerpt from the movie ‘Iraq for Sale.’ The film's maker, Robert Greenwald, tried to screen the documentary as part of his testimony before Congress, but not surprisingly, since it reveals the unprecedented scale of the waste and theft perpetrated on their watch, Republican members prevented him from doing so. You would need to pour over the corporate media with a microscope to find coverage of what is the biggest government corruption scandal in our history. Coming soon to a coffee coffee klatch near you.

The clip is viewable on YouTube: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cJlJudDtVE>