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

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

In dealings with media, Hamas resorts to brutality

Hamas seems confused about how to quash Fatah protests and simultaneously deal with the media. Trying to nurture a reputation for honesty and legal behavior, its leaders promise journalists freedom of action, but the police intimidate the journalists. The result is a kind of self-censorship, local journalists say, that goes beyond what they traditionally practiced under Fatah.

The rest of the story: The International Herald Tribune (2007-09-09)

Backspin for War: The Convenience of Denial

The man who ran CNN's news operation during the invasion of Iraq is now doing damage control in response to a new documentary's evidence that he kowtowed to the Pentagon on behalf of the cable network. His current denial says a lot about how "liberal media" outlets remain deeply embedded in the mindsets of pro-military conformity. The rest of the story: Media Channel

Outed Ex-Agent Plame and publisher sue CIA over her memoir

(Reuters) An ex-spy whose unmasking led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide is suing the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of unconstitutionally interfering with publication of her memoir. Valerie Plame Wilson and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, filed a suit against J. Michael McConnell, the CIA director of national intelligence, and CIA director Michael Hayden. The CIA demanded "significant portions" of Wilson's manuscript be "excised or rendered 'fiction'" to protect the secrecy of Wilson's service before 2002. The rest of the story: Reuters.

Army attempts to shove blogging genie back in bottle

The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages without clearing the content with a superior officer first. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.

Ironically, the complete text of the US Army's new operational security regulations was posted on the internet despite the phrase "For Official Use Only" splashed in bold across the cover. The revised regulations were first reported by Wired News blogger Noah Shachtman.

The rest of the story:
IraqSlogger.com: Blogosphere in a rage over new muzzle on military blogs
TruthDig: Military Bans Left-Leaning Blog
CNet News: Lip-zip sinks Army blogs?
MilBlogging: The World's Largest Index of Military Blogs
Andy Wibbels: Army Bans Blogging, Embraces YouTube
BlogWorldExpo: Pentagon Bans Army Milblogs!
CJR Daily: It looks like it's official: the United States Army thinks that American reporters are a threat to national security