columbiatribune.com, June 29, 2007
KANSAS CITY (AP) - The Marines announced today that they won’t seek an early discharge for an Iraq veteran who made anti-war statements in a speech and wore part of his uniform at a protest.
An investigating officer recommended in May that Liam Madden, 22, of Boston, receive an other-than-honorable discharge, which could have meant a reduction in some of his health benefits. Madden is part of the Individual Ready Reserve, which consists mainly of those who have left active duty but still have time remaining on their eight-year military obligations.
He isn’t scheduled to be discharged until 2010.
Madden was accused of making "disloyal statements" during a speech in February in New York in which he accused President George W. Bush of betraying service members and called the fighting in Iraq a "war crime."
The speech was posted on the Internet.
Madden also was accused of a uniform violation for wearing a camouflage, button-down shirt and jeans at a demonstration in January in Washington, D.C.
The Marines said in a news release that they were dropping the case because they had "received sufficient indication" from Madden that he would no longer wear his uniform when engaged in political activities. They also determined that his statements did not warrant further action.
Federal Prison Facilities
Federal Bureau Of Prisons (BOP)
Within this area of the website, you will find web pages for each of the facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons. Each facility's web page provides:
the facility's security level
the facility's visiting hours
judicial districts
the facility's contact information
and more...
You will also find information about the various types of facilities under contract with the Bureau, including residential re-entry centers.
To access information about a specific prison facility, use the Facility Locator tool or view the Maps of Facilities. If you would like additional information on a facility, contact the facility directly.
Within this area of the website, you will find web pages for each of the facilities operated by the Bureau of Prisons. Each facility's web page provides:
the facility's security level
the facility's visiting hours
judicial districts
the facility's contact information
and more...
You will also find information about the various types of facilities under contract with the Bureau, including residential re-entry centers.
To access information about a specific prison facility, use the Facility Locator tool or view the Maps of Facilities. If you would like additional information on a facility, contact the facility directly.
NC Prison Directory & Map
NC Department Of Corrections
Download Division of Prisons region map
The Division of Prisons (DOP) region map shows the division's five geographic regions, the approximate location of each prison and its custody level.
Map effective 1/1/2005
Prisons listed by county where prison located: http://www.doc.state.nc.us/dop/list/county.htm
Download Division of Prisons region map
The Division of Prisons (DOP) region map shows the division's five geographic regions, the approximate location of each prison and its custody level.
Map effective 1/1/2005
Prisons listed by county where prison located: http://www.doc.state.nc.us/dop/list/county.htm
Private Prison Facilities in NC
North Carolina Department of Correction
Energy Committed to Offenders (ECO)
P.O. Box 33533
Charlotte, NC 28233
(704) 374-0762
Security Level minimum Standard Capacity 20 female inmates
Evergreen Rehabilitation Center
20513 US 301 North
St. Paul's, NC 28384
(910) 865-4581
Security Level minimum Standard Capacity 75 male inmates
Mary Frances Center
1212 Recovery Road
Box D
Tarboro, NC 27886-1111
(252) 641-1111
Security Level minimum Standard Capacity 100 female inmates
Rivers Correctional Institution is not affiliated with the North Carolina Department of Correction. It is a private prison facility located in Winton, North Carolina (Hertford County) and operated by Wackenhut Corrections under contract for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Energy Committed to Offenders (ECO)
P.O. Box 33533
Charlotte, NC 28233
(704) 374-0762
Security Level minimum Standard Capacity 20 female inmates
Evergreen Rehabilitation Center
20513 US 301 North
St. Paul's, NC 28384
(910) 865-4581
Security Level minimum Standard Capacity 75 male inmates
Mary Frances Center
1212 Recovery Road
Box D
Tarboro, NC 27886-1111
(252) 641-1111
Security Level minimum Standard Capacity 100 female inmates
Rivers Correctional Institution is not affiliated with the North Carolina Department of Correction. It is a private prison facility located in Winton, North Carolina (Hertford County) and operated by Wackenhut Corrections under contract for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Prisons, jails see largest increase in inmates since 2000
Associated Press, posted on LocalNews8 June 27, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - Prison and jails across the country added more than 42,000 inmates last year ... the largest increase since 2000.
At the state level, Idaho reported a growth spurt of 6.9% in 2006 compared to the previous year. The Department of Justice revised its figures today after earlier reporting Idaho had a 13.9% increase to lead the nation.
Even so, the Gem State was 1 of 42 states reporting increases from 2005 to 2006.
Nationwide, the total number of people incarcerated by federal or state authorities in the year ending June 30th, 2006 was roughly 1.6 million.
Federal officials say that translates to a 2.8% increase from the previous year ... due mostly to people being put in prison at a faster rate than those released.
At the end of fiscal year 2006, Idaho had 6,976 inmates, up from 6,519 the previous year.
Idaho Department of Correction officials say they expect similar growth in the state's prison population through 2010.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Prison and jails across the country added more than 42,000 inmates last year ... the largest increase since 2000.
At the state level, Idaho reported a growth spurt of 6.9% in 2006 compared to the previous year. The Department of Justice revised its figures today after earlier reporting Idaho had a 13.9% increase to lead the nation.
Even so, the Gem State was 1 of 42 states reporting increases from 2005 to 2006.
Nationwide, the total number of people incarcerated by federal or state authorities in the year ending June 30th, 2006 was roughly 1.6 million.
Federal officials say that translates to a 2.8% increase from the previous year ... due mostly to people being put in prison at a faster rate than those released.
At the end of fiscal year 2006, Idaho had 6,976 inmates, up from 6,519 the previous year.
Idaho Department of Correction officials say they expect similar growth in the state's prison population through 2010.
Announcing Charlotte Friends of Live Earth concert on July 7
The Neighborhood Theatre 511 E. 36th Street - NoDa - Charlotte, NC will create a FREE Live Concert experience for the Live Earth monumental music event that will bring together more than 2 billion people on 7/7/07 to raise awareness about global warming !!!
With 24 hours of music across 7 continents, and performances by more than 150 of the world's top musicians, Live Earth will engage, connect, and inspire.
Join us at the Neighborhood Theatre for Charlotte Friends of Live Earth;
FROM 5 pm TO CLOSE let's make 7/7/07 a very special day in Charlotte !
Schedule:
5-6 PM Concert
6-7 PM Climate Education!
7- Close Concert
For more info: http://www.neighborhoodtheatre.com/theatre/events/current.asp
Supporting organizations:
Charlotte Climate Team www.charlotteclimateteam.org
Carolinas Clean Air Coalition www.clean-air-coalition.org
Sierra Club / Charlotte www.sierraclub.org
Charlotte Veterans Village www.veteransvillage.org
North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light www.ncipl.org/?page_id=3
With 24 hours of music across 7 continents, and performances by more than 150 of the world's top musicians, Live Earth will engage, connect, and inspire.
Join us at the Neighborhood Theatre for Charlotte Friends of Live Earth;
FROM 5 pm TO CLOSE let's make 7/7/07 a very special day in Charlotte !
Schedule:
5-6 PM Concert
6-7 PM Climate Education!
7- Close Concert
For more info: http://www.neighborhoodtheatre.com/theatre/events/current.asp
Supporting organizations:
Charlotte Climate Team www.charlotteclimateteam.org
Carolinas Clean Air Coalition www.clean-air-coalition.org
Sierra Club / Charlotte www.sierraclub.org
Charlotte Veterans Village www.veteransvillage.org
North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light www.ncipl.org/?page_id=3
Join us this Saturday to Tell Celebrity Chef Paula Deen to Drop Smithfield!
Food Network Chef Paula Deen is coming to Charlotte this Saturday. Join Smithfield workers, along with their families and supporters as we rally to tell her it's time to end her partnership with Smithfield Foods!
Justice at Smithfield Rally
Saturday, June 30th 2007
2:30 p.m.
Mart Inn and Suites
3000 E. Independence Blvd (See Map)
Charlotte, NC
Join us at 2:30 p.m., and we will march together to Ovens Auditorium to rally and leaflet for Justice at Smithfield. If you have a Justice at Smithfield T-Shirt, be sure to wear it! We will be joined by a giant pig puppet, representing Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant, and Smithfield workers will read a letter from the nation's only African American Presidential Commission Master Chef asking Deen to end her Smithfield endorsement.
Download an event flyer.
Paula Deen has recently signed a contract with Smithfield Foods to promote their products—but we fear she is unaware of the conditions in which these products are produced.
The 5,500 Smithfield Packing workers in Tar Heel, NC are enduring unbearable working conditions. Workers suffer crippling injuries due to excessive line speeds and inadequate training. A recent report reveals that injury rates at Smithfield Packing have skyrocketed 200% in the last three years. Various legal rulings have found that the company has assaulted, harassed, threatened and used racial epithets against workers.
For more information on the abuses at Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant, and the company’s sponsorship of Paula Deen, please visit www.smithfieldjustice.org
Justice at Smithfield Rally
Saturday, June 30th 2007
2:30 p.m.
Mart Inn and Suites
3000 E. Independence Blvd (See Map)
Charlotte, NC
Join us at 2:30 p.m., and we will march together to Ovens Auditorium to rally and leaflet for Justice at Smithfield. If you have a Justice at Smithfield T-Shirt, be sure to wear it! We will be joined by a giant pig puppet, representing Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant, and Smithfield workers will read a letter from the nation's only African American Presidential Commission Master Chef asking Deen to end her Smithfield endorsement.
Download an event flyer.
Paula Deen has recently signed a contract with Smithfield Foods to promote their products—but we fear she is unaware of the conditions in which these products are produced.
The 5,500 Smithfield Packing workers in Tar Heel, NC are enduring unbearable working conditions. Workers suffer crippling injuries due to excessive line speeds and inadequate training. A recent report reveals that injury rates at Smithfield Packing have skyrocketed 200% in the last three years. Various legal rulings have found that the company has assaulted, harassed, threatened and used racial epithets against workers.
For more information on the abuses at Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant, and the company’s sponsorship of Paula Deen, please visit www.smithfieldjustice.org
White House, Cheney's office, Justice Dept, NSC subpoenaed over spying program
By LAURIE KELLMAN, AP, June 27, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans.
Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee also is summoning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs, committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced.
Leahy, D-Vt., raised questions about previous testimony by one of Bush's appeals court nominees and said he wouldn't let such matters pass.
"If there have been lies told to us, we'll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate," Leahy told reporters. He did just that Wednesday, referring questions about testimony by former White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program.
The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective — pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information — such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision — to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress.
Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply with the new ones.
"We're aware of the committee's action and will respond appropriately," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "It's unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation."
In fact, the Judiciary Committee's three most senior Republicans — Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, former chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa — sided with Democrats on the 13-3 vote last week to give Leahy the power to issue the subpoenas.
The showdown between the White House and Congress could land in federal court.
Also named in subpoenas signed by Leahy were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties — the White House, Cheney's office, the Justice Department and the National Security Council — have until July 18 to comply, Leahy said. He added that, like House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., he would consider pursuing contempt citations against those who refuse.
Gonzales, in Spokane, Wash., on Wednesday to discuss gang issues with local officials, said he had not seen the subpoena documents and could not comment on them directly.
"There are competing institutional interests," Gonzales said.
The Judiciary committees have issued the subpoenas as part of a look at how much influence the White House exerts over the Justice Department and its chief, Gonzales.
The probe, in its sixth month, began with an investigation into whether administration officials ordered the firings of eight federal prosecutors for political reasons. The Judiciary committees subpoenaed Miers, one-time White House legal counsel, and Taylor, a former political director, though they have yet to testify.
Now, with senators of both parties concerned about the constitutionality of the administration's efforts to root out terrorism suspects in the United States, the committee has shifted to the broader question of Gonzales' stewardship of Justice.
The issue concerning Kavanaugh, a former White House staff secretary, is whether he misled the Senate panel during his confirmation hearing last year about how much he was involved in crafting the administration's policy on enemy combatants.
The Bush administration secretly launched the eavesdropping program, run by the National Security Agency, in 2001 to monitor international phone calls and e-mails to or from the United States involving people the government suspected of having terrorist links. The program, which the administration said did not require investigators to seek warrants before conducting surveillance, was revealed in December 2005.
After the program was challenged in court, Bush put it under the supervision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, established in 1978. The president still claims the power to order warrantless spying.
The subpoenas seek a wide array of documents from the Sept. 11 attacks to the present. Among them are any that include analysis or opinions from Justice, NSA, the Defense Department, the White House, or "any entity within the executive branch" on the legality of the electronic surveillance program.
Debate continues over whether the program violates people's civil liberties. The administration has gone to great lengths to keep it running.
Interest was raised by vivid testimony last month by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey about the extent of the White House's effort to override the Justice Department's objections to the program in 2004.
Comey told the Judiciary Committee that Gonzales, then-White House counsel, tried to persuade Attorney General John Ashcroft to reverse course and recertify the program. At the time, Ashcroft lay in intensive care, recovering form gall bladder surgery.
Ashcroft refused, as did Comey, who temporarily held the power of the attorney general's office during his boss' illness.
The White House recertified the program unilaterally. Ashcroft, Comey, FBI Director Robert Mueller and their staffs prepared to resign. Bush ultimately relented and made changes the Justice officials had demanded, and the agency eventually recertified it.
Fratto defended the surveillance program as "lawful" and "limited."
"It's specifically designed to be effective without infringing Americans' civil liberties," Fratto said. "The program is classified for a reason — its purpose is to track down and stop terrorist planning. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping Americans safe from an enemy determined to use any means possible — including the latest in technology — to attack us."
____
Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Wash., contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON - The Senate subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday, demanding documents and elevating the confrontation with President Bush over the administration's warrant-free eavesdropping on Americans.
Separately, the Senate Judiciary Committee also is summoning Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to discuss the program and an array of other matters that have cost a half-dozen top Justice Department officials their jobs, committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced.
Leahy, D-Vt., raised questions about previous testimony by one of Bush's appeals court nominees and said he wouldn't let such matters pass.
"If there have been lies told to us, we'll refer it to the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney for whatever legal action they think is appropriate," Leahy told reporters. He did just that Wednesday, referring questions about testimony by former White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The escalation is part of the Democrats' effort to hold the administration to account for the way it has conducted the war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The subpoenas extend the probe into the private sector, demanding among other things documents on any agreements that telecommunications companies made to cooperate with the surveillance program.
The White House contends that its search for would-be terrorists is legal, necessary and effective — pointing out frequently that there have been no further attacks on American soil. Administration officials say they have given classified information — such as details about the eavesdropping program, which is now under court supervision — to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress.
Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply with the new ones.
"We're aware of the committee's action and will respond appropriately," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "It's unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation."
In fact, the Judiciary Committee's three most senior Republicans — Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, former chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa — sided with Democrats on the 13-3 vote last week to give Leahy the power to issue the subpoenas.
The showdown between the White House and Congress could land in federal court.
Also named in subpoenas signed by Leahy were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties — the White House, Cheney's office, the Justice Department and the National Security Council — have until July 18 to comply, Leahy said. He added that, like House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., he would consider pursuing contempt citations against those who refuse.
Gonzales, in Spokane, Wash., on Wednesday to discuss gang issues with local officials, said he had not seen the subpoena documents and could not comment on them directly.
"There are competing institutional interests," Gonzales said.
The Judiciary committees have issued the subpoenas as part of a look at how much influence the White House exerts over the Justice Department and its chief, Gonzales.
The probe, in its sixth month, began with an investigation into whether administration officials ordered the firings of eight federal prosecutors for political reasons. The Judiciary committees subpoenaed Miers, one-time White House legal counsel, and Taylor, a former political director, though they have yet to testify.
Now, with senators of both parties concerned about the constitutionality of the administration's efforts to root out terrorism suspects in the United States, the committee has shifted to the broader question of Gonzales' stewardship of Justice.
The issue concerning Kavanaugh, a former White House staff secretary, is whether he misled the Senate panel during his confirmation hearing last year about how much he was involved in crafting the administration's policy on enemy combatants.
The Bush administration secretly launched the eavesdropping program, run by the National Security Agency, in 2001 to monitor international phone calls and e-mails to or from the United States involving people the government suspected of having terrorist links. The program, which the administration said did not require investigators to seek warrants before conducting surveillance, was revealed in December 2005.
After the program was challenged in court, Bush put it under the supervision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, established in 1978. The president still claims the power to order warrantless spying.
The subpoenas seek a wide array of documents from the Sept. 11 attacks to the present. Among them are any that include analysis or opinions from Justice, NSA, the Defense Department, the White House, or "any entity within the executive branch" on the legality of the electronic surveillance program.
Debate continues over whether the program violates people's civil liberties. The administration has gone to great lengths to keep it running.
Interest was raised by vivid testimony last month by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey about the extent of the White House's effort to override the Justice Department's objections to the program in 2004.
Comey told the Judiciary Committee that Gonzales, then-White House counsel, tried to persuade Attorney General John Ashcroft to reverse course and recertify the program. At the time, Ashcroft lay in intensive care, recovering form gall bladder surgery.
Ashcroft refused, as did Comey, who temporarily held the power of the attorney general's office during his boss' illness.
The White House recertified the program unilaterally. Ashcroft, Comey, FBI Director Robert Mueller and their staffs prepared to resign. Bush ultimately relented and made changes the Justice officials had demanded, and the agency eventually recertified it.
Fratto defended the surveillance program as "lawful" and "limited."
"It's specifically designed to be effective without infringing Americans' civil liberties," Fratto said. "The program is classified for a reason — its purpose is to track down and stop terrorist planning. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping Americans safe from an enemy determined to use any means possible — including the latest in technology — to attack us."
____
Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Wash., contributed to this report.
African states oppose US presence
Simon Tisdall in Washington, Guardian Unlimited, June 25, 2007
The Pentagon's plans to create a new US military command based in Africa have hit a wall of hostility from governments in the region reluctant to associate themselves publicly with the US "global war on terror".
A US delegation led by Ryan Henry, the principal deputy undersecretary of defence for policy, returned to Washington last week with little to show from separate consultations with senior defence and foreign ministry officials in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti and with the African Union (AU).
An earlier round of consultations with sub-Saharan countries on providing secure facilities and local backup for the new command, to be known as Africom and due to be operational by September next year, was similarly inconclusive.
The Libyan and Algerian governments reportedly told Mr Henry this month that they would play no part in hosting Africom. Despite recently improved relations with the US, both said they would urge their neighbours not to do so, either, due to fears of future American intervention. Even Morocco, considered Washington's closest north African ally, indicated it did not welcome a permanent military presence on its soil.
"We've got a big image problem down there," a state department official admitted. "Public opinion is really against getting into bed with the US. They just don't trust the US."
Another African worry was that any US facilities could become targets for terrorists, the official said. Dangled US economic incentives, including the prospect of hundreds of local jobs, had not proven persuasive.
Mr Henry said African officials had agreed during the talks that counter-terrorism was "a top security concern". But he added: "The countries were committed to the African Union as the continent's common security structure. They advised us that Africom should be established in harmony with the AU."
The US talks with Libya appear to have been frank. "In the area of security, they are looking for Africa-only solutions... I wouldn't say we see eye to eye on every issue," Mr Henry said. "I wouldn't say we see eye to eye on every issue."
Mr Henry emphasised the US was not seeking to supplant or supersede African leadership but rather to reinforce it. He said the creation of Africom would not entail the permanent stationing of large numbers of US troops in Africa, as in Asia and Europe.
Its overall aim was to integrate and expand US security, diplomatic, developmental and humanitarian assistance in collaboration with regional allies, not increased interventionism, he said.
Unveiling the plan in February, president George Bush said Africom would advance "our common goals of peace, security, development, health, education, democracy and economic growth".
But African opposition appears to have modified Washington's approach. Mr Henry said the latest plans envisaged "a distributed command" that would be "networked" across several countries, rather than a single, large headquarters in one place.
"There will be a staff headquarters... with a four-star in-theatre commander," he said. "(But) information technology allows us to bring people at dispersed geographical locations together. We are investigating the possibility of having the command distributed in a number of different nodes around the continent."
Mr Henry said this approach matched that of Islamist terrorists. "Al-Qaida is working in a distributive structure itself. It's establishing nodes throughout the region and there's been an establishment of al-Qaida in the Maghreb."
The state department official said the US remained confident that partners for the Africom project would eventually be found, although concerns persisted about political stability, misgovernance and corruption issues in some potential sub-Saharan partner countries.
The official added that the command's security focus would include suspected terrorist training camps in Mali and southern Algeria, the spread of Islamic fundamentalist ideas and violence in the Maghreb, northern Nigeria and the Horn of Africa, suspected uranium smuggling in the Sahel region - and addressing the political instability and economic deprivation that fed extremism.
Energy supply is another factor sparking heightened US interest, notably in west Africa. Gulf of Guinea countries including Nigeria and Angola are projected to provide a quarter of US oil imports within a decade.
US aid and development projects in Africa are expanding rapidly. Mr Bush asked Congress this month to double to $30bn (£15bn) over the next five years US funding for Aids relief, plus $1.2bn to fight malaria. Washington has also broadened its involvement in efforts to end the Darfur crisis. Laura Bush, the First Lady, embarked on a five-day consciousness-raising tour today, to Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia and Mali.
The Pentagon's plans to create a new US military command based in Africa have hit a wall of hostility from governments in the region reluctant to associate themselves publicly with the US "global war on terror".
A US delegation led by Ryan Henry, the principal deputy undersecretary of defence for policy, returned to Washington last week with little to show from separate consultations with senior defence and foreign ministry officials in Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Djibouti and with the African Union (AU).
An earlier round of consultations with sub-Saharan countries on providing secure facilities and local backup for the new command, to be known as Africom and due to be operational by September next year, was similarly inconclusive.
The Libyan and Algerian governments reportedly told Mr Henry this month that they would play no part in hosting Africom. Despite recently improved relations with the US, both said they would urge their neighbours not to do so, either, due to fears of future American intervention. Even Morocco, considered Washington's closest north African ally, indicated it did not welcome a permanent military presence on its soil.
"We've got a big image problem down there," a state department official admitted. "Public opinion is really against getting into bed with the US. They just don't trust the US."
Another African worry was that any US facilities could become targets for terrorists, the official said. Dangled US economic incentives, including the prospect of hundreds of local jobs, had not proven persuasive.
Mr Henry said African officials had agreed during the talks that counter-terrorism was "a top security concern". But he added: "The countries were committed to the African Union as the continent's common security structure. They advised us that Africom should be established in harmony with the AU."
The US talks with Libya appear to have been frank. "In the area of security, they are looking for Africa-only solutions... I wouldn't say we see eye to eye on every issue," Mr Henry said. "I wouldn't say we see eye to eye on every issue."
Mr Henry emphasised the US was not seeking to supplant or supersede African leadership but rather to reinforce it. He said the creation of Africom would not entail the permanent stationing of large numbers of US troops in Africa, as in Asia and Europe.
Its overall aim was to integrate and expand US security, diplomatic, developmental and humanitarian assistance in collaboration with regional allies, not increased interventionism, he said.
Unveiling the plan in February, president George Bush said Africom would advance "our common goals of peace, security, development, health, education, democracy and economic growth".
But African opposition appears to have modified Washington's approach. Mr Henry said the latest plans envisaged "a distributed command" that would be "networked" across several countries, rather than a single, large headquarters in one place.
"There will be a staff headquarters... with a four-star in-theatre commander," he said. "(But) information technology allows us to bring people at dispersed geographical locations together. We are investigating the possibility of having the command distributed in a number of different nodes around the continent."
Mr Henry said this approach matched that of Islamist terrorists. "Al-Qaida is working in a distributive structure itself. It's establishing nodes throughout the region and there's been an establishment of al-Qaida in the Maghreb."
The state department official said the US remained confident that partners for the Africom project would eventually be found, although concerns persisted about political stability, misgovernance and corruption issues in some potential sub-Saharan partner countries.
The official added that the command's security focus would include suspected terrorist training camps in Mali and southern Algeria, the spread of Islamic fundamentalist ideas and violence in the Maghreb, northern Nigeria and the Horn of Africa, suspected uranium smuggling in the Sahel region - and addressing the political instability and economic deprivation that fed extremism.
Energy supply is another factor sparking heightened US interest, notably in west Africa. Gulf of Guinea countries including Nigeria and Angola are projected to provide a quarter of US oil imports within a decade.
US aid and development projects in Africa are expanding rapidly. Mr Bush asked Congress this month to double to $30bn (£15bn) over the next five years US funding for Aids relief, plus $1.2bn to fight malaria. Washington has also broadened its involvement in efforts to end the Darfur crisis. Laura Bush, the First Lady, embarked on a five-day consciousness-raising tour today, to Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia and Mali.
U.S. Soldiers Open Fire on Civilians, Kill Two
Sunnis threatened by arrest warrant
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer, AP, June 27, 2007
BAGHDAD - An arrest warrant against a Sunni Cabinet minister is another step by the Shiite-led government to marginalize the country's Sunni minority, the official's political organization said Wednesday.
The comments were made one day after Iraqi commandos raided the Baghdad home of Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi and detained about 40 of his guards. The minister was not at home at the time, but officials said a warrant had been issued for his arrest in a 2005 assassination attempt on another politician.
Those moves have angered Sunni groups and politicians, who warn they could jeopardize U.S.-backed reconciliation efforts. The United States has been pushing for a greater role for Sunnis, who dominated Iraq's politics for decades until the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
Also Wednesday, roadside bombs killed five policemen north of Baghdad and another five civilians in the capital, police said. Drive-by shootings killed one man and injured six others in Baghdad, and at least three rockets or mortars targeted the heavily guarded Green Zone there.
In the capital's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, two people were killed in separate cars enveloped in a barrage of gunfire. TV video showed blood splattered across the vehicles, one of which was smashed. Both had multiple bullet holes in their windshields.
Dozens of residents swarmed at the scene, and hauled the bodies out of the cars. Witnesses said the men had been shot by American soldiers, who were stuck in a traffic jam and opened fire on cars around them. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, Turkey's military chief asked his government Wednesday to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas. But the government is likely to consider military action only as a last resort: Asking parliament to approve such an incursion would strain ties with Washington and Iraq, which oppose such unilateral Turkish action.
Outrage continued among some Sunni politicians in Iraq over al-Hashimi's arrest warrant. Muhannad al-Issawi, a spokesman for Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, called the move "a political matter not a judicial one."
"It aims to marginalize the Sunnis" and their main parliamentary bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, al-Issawi told The Associated Press by telephone.
He said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a Sunni delegation Tuesday that he would halt the moves against al-Hashimi. Al-Maliki's office denied the claim, saying the case was a matter for the judiciary.
Al-Dulaimi told the U.S.-funded Radio Sawa that al-Hashimi's departure from the country "will be facilitated."
"I believe he will leave Iraq and declare his resignation," al-Dulaimi said, adding that it seems that an agreement has been reached with the government on the case.
"We will feel relaxed when this case is closed and is not raised by the media or any other side," the Sunni leader said.
The move against al-Hashimi came after he was identified by two suspected militants as the mastermind of a Feb. 8, 2005, attack against secular politician Mithal al-Alusi, an Iraqi government spokesman said. Al-Alusi escaped unharmed but two of his sons were killed.
"The two who planned and carried out the killings of Mithal al-Alusi's two sons confessed that they took orders from him," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Tuesday.
Al-Issawi questioned why the government was raising the case now even though it is more than two years old.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera television Tuesday, al-Hashimi accused the government of pursuing him as part of a campaign to sideline Sunni politicians.
The U.S. is pressing the Iraqis to enact a series of laws to bring together the country's warring factions. Sunni politicians have long accused the Shiites of seeking to marginalize them.
In scattered violence Wednesday, five policemen were killed in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a hospital official said on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. Afterward, police opened fire randomly on the area, killing one civilian and wounding two others, the official said.
Five civilians died later in northern Baghdad, when a bomb planted under a car exploded, police said. Ten people were also injured in the blast, they said.
Unknown gunmen opened fire on a civilian car in a southwestern section of the capital, killing a man and wounding his son who was riding with him, police said.
In another incident, police said gunmen opened fire on a minibus in western Baghdad, injuring five civilians including the driver. The victims were two Shiite men and their wives, heading to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of the capital, police said. The shooting took place in a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood.
Four pedestrians were also wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, in the commercial Palestine Street area, police said. The bomb had apparently targeted a U.S. military convoy, but there was no word on any American casualties, they added.
In Turkey, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit asked his government to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas who have targeted Turkey.
The military chief had asked his government in April to approve a cross-border incursion into Iraq, increasing pressure on the United States and Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels. But the government said then that priority should be given to fighting guerrillas who are already inside Turkey.
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer, AP, June 27, 2007
BAGHDAD - An arrest warrant against a Sunni Cabinet minister is another step by the Shiite-led government to marginalize the country's Sunni minority, the official's political organization said Wednesday.
The comments were made one day after Iraqi commandos raided the Baghdad home of Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi and detained about 40 of his guards. The minister was not at home at the time, but officials said a warrant had been issued for his arrest in a 2005 assassination attempt on another politician.
Those moves have angered Sunni groups and politicians, who warn they could jeopardize U.S.-backed reconciliation efforts. The United States has been pushing for a greater role for Sunnis, who dominated Iraq's politics for decades until the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
Also Wednesday, roadside bombs killed five policemen north of Baghdad and another five civilians in the capital, police said. Drive-by shootings killed one man and injured six others in Baghdad, and at least three rockets or mortars targeted the heavily guarded Green Zone there.
In the capital's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, two people were killed in separate cars enveloped in a barrage of gunfire. TV video showed blood splattered across the vehicles, one of which was smashed. Both had multiple bullet holes in their windshields.
Dozens of residents swarmed at the scene, and hauled the bodies out of the cars. Witnesses said the men had been shot by American soldiers, who were stuck in a traffic jam and opened fire on cars around them. The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
Meanwhile, Turkey's military chief asked his government Wednesday to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas. But the government is likely to consider military action only as a last resort: Asking parliament to approve such an incursion would strain ties with Washington and Iraq, which oppose such unilateral Turkish action.
Outrage continued among some Sunni politicians in Iraq over al-Hashimi's arrest warrant. Muhannad al-Issawi, a spokesman for Sunni politician Adnan al-Dulaimi, called the move "a political matter not a judicial one."
"It aims to marginalize the Sunnis" and their main parliamentary bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, al-Issawi told The Associated Press by telephone.
He said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a Sunni delegation Tuesday that he would halt the moves against al-Hashimi. Al-Maliki's office denied the claim, saying the case was a matter for the judiciary.
Al-Dulaimi told the U.S.-funded Radio Sawa that al-Hashimi's departure from the country "will be facilitated."
"I believe he will leave Iraq and declare his resignation," al-Dulaimi said, adding that it seems that an agreement has been reached with the government on the case.
"We will feel relaxed when this case is closed and is not raised by the media or any other side," the Sunni leader said.
The move against al-Hashimi came after he was identified by two suspected militants as the mastermind of a Feb. 8, 2005, attack against secular politician Mithal al-Alusi, an Iraqi government spokesman said. Al-Alusi escaped unharmed but two of his sons were killed.
"The two who planned and carried out the killings of Mithal al-Alusi's two sons confessed that they took orders from him," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Tuesday.
Al-Issawi questioned why the government was raising the case now even though it is more than two years old.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera television Tuesday, al-Hashimi accused the government of pursuing him as part of a campaign to sideline Sunni politicians.
The U.S. is pressing the Iraqis to enact a series of laws to bring together the country's warring factions. Sunni politicians have long accused the Shiites of seeking to marginalize them.
In scattered violence Wednesday, five policemen were killed in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a hospital official said on condition of anonymity out of security concerns. Afterward, police opened fire randomly on the area, killing one civilian and wounding two others, the official said.
Five civilians died later in northern Baghdad, when a bomb planted under a car exploded, police said. Ten people were also injured in the blast, they said.
Unknown gunmen opened fire on a civilian car in a southwestern section of the capital, killing a man and wounding his son who was riding with him, police said.
In another incident, police said gunmen opened fire on a minibus in western Baghdad, injuring five civilians including the driver. The victims were two Shiite men and their wives, heading to the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of the capital, police said. The shooting took place in a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood.
Four pedestrians were also wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Baghdad, in the commercial Palestine Street area, police said. The bomb had apparently targeted a U.S. military convoy, but there was no word on any American casualties, they added.
In Turkey, Gen. Yasar Buyukanit asked his government to set political guidelines for an incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrillas who have targeted Turkey.
The military chief had asked his government in April to approve a cross-border incursion into Iraq, increasing pressure on the United States and Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels. But the government said then that priority should be given to fighting guerrillas who are already inside Turkey.
Anti-war protest in Downing Street
Guardian Unlimited, Press Association, June 27, 2007
Anti-war campaigners have led protests outside Downing Street as they used Tony Blair's departure to highlight what they feel is his true "legacy".
The demonstrators, including many relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq, shouted slogans and waved placards as the Prime Minister prepared to leave.
Most were kept outside the gates of Downing Street but a handful, including veteran campaigner Rose Gentle, were allowed closer to the front door.
It is believed to be one of the first times that such protesters have been allowed to demonstrate inside Downing Street since new public order legislation was brought in.
Mrs Gentle, 43, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra three years ago on Thursday, said she wanted Mr Blair to speak to her as he departed.
She said: "We thought that he should have left a long time ago and we are here to ask Gordon Brown to change his policy and start to pull people out from Iraq.
"My feelings are so strong towards Tony Blair, the hatred for the man is hard to describe. If he had any decency today, then he would come out for five minutes and speak to us."
Mrs Gentle and the mother of a serving Iraq soldier held pictures of military men killed in Iraq as they shouted towards 10 Downing Street.
At one point, police officers had to ask them to come down from a window ledge from which they screamed for the Prime Minister to leave the building and speak to them.
As they made their protest, growing numbers of demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the famous road in central London.
Anti-war campaigners have led protests outside Downing Street as they used Tony Blair's departure to highlight what they feel is his true "legacy".
The demonstrators, including many relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq, shouted slogans and waved placards as the Prime Minister prepared to leave.
Most were kept outside the gates of Downing Street but a handful, including veteran campaigner Rose Gentle, were allowed closer to the front door.
It is believed to be one of the first times that such protesters have been allowed to demonstrate inside Downing Street since new public order legislation was brought in.
Mrs Gentle, 43, whose son Gordon was killed in Basra three years ago on Thursday, said she wanted Mr Blair to speak to her as he departed.
She said: "We thought that he should have left a long time ago and we are here to ask Gordon Brown to change his policy and start to pull people out from Iraq.
"My feelings are so strong towards Tony Blair, the hatred for the man is hard to describe. If he had any decency today, then he would come out for five minutes and speak to us."
Mrs Gentle and the mother of a serving Iraq soldier held pictures of military men killed in Iraq as they shouted towards 10 Downing Street.
At one point, police officers had to ask them to come down from a window ledge from which they screamed for the Prime Minister to leave the building and speak to them.
As they made their protest, growing numbers of demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the famous road in central London.
FREE THEM NOW! Lesbians sentenced for self-defense
All-white jury convicts Black women
By Imani Henry, workers.org, June 21, 2007
New York - On June 14, four African-American women—Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20) and Renata Hill (24)—received sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years in prison. None of them had previous criminal records. Two of them are parents of small children.
Their crime? Defending themselves from a physical attack by a man who held them down and choked them, ripped hair from their scalps, spat on them, and threatened to sexually assault them—all because they are lesbians.
The mere fact that any victim of a bigoted attack would be arrested, jailed and then convicted for self-defense is an outrage. But the length of prison time given further demonstrates the highly political nature of this case and just how racist, misogynistic, anti-gay, anti-youth and anti-worker the so-called U.S. justice system truly is.
The description of the events, reported below, is based on written statements by a community organization (FIERCE) that has made a call to action to defend the four women, verbal accounts from court observers and evidence from a surveillance camera.
The attack
On Aug. 16, 2006, seven young, African-American, lesbian-identified friends were walking in the West Village. The Village is a historic center for lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) communities, and is seen as a safe haven for working-class LGBT youth, especially youth of color.
As they passed the Independent Film Cinema, 29-year-old Dwayne Buckle, an African-American vendor selling DVDs, sexually propositioned one of the women. They rebuffed his advances and kept walking.
“I’ll f— you straight, sweetheart!” Buckle shouted. A video camera from a nearby store shows the women walking away. He followed them, all the while hurling anti-lesbian slurs, grabbing his genitals and making explicitly obscene remarks. The women finally stopped and confronted him. A heated argument ensued. Buckle spat in the face of one of the women and threw his lit cigarette at them, escalating the verbal attack into a physical one.
Buckle is seen on the video grabbing and pulling out large patches of hair from one of the young women. When Buckle ended up on top of one of the women, choking her, Johnson pulled a small steak knife out of her purse. She aimed for his arm to stop him from killing her friend.
The video captures two men finally running over to help the women and beating Buckle. At some point he was stabbed in the abdomen. The women were already walking away across the street by the time the police arrived.
Buckle was hospitalized for five days after surgery for a lacerated liver and stomach. When asked at the hospital, he responded at least twice that men had attacked him.
There was no evidence that Johnson’s kitchen knife was the weapon that penetrated his abdomen, nor was there any blood visible on it. In fact, there was never any forensics testing done on her knife. On the night they were arrested, the police told the women that there would be a search by the New York Police Department for the two men—which to date has not happened.
After almost a year of trial, four of the seven were convicted in April. Johnson was sentenced to 11 years on June 14.
Even with Buckle’s admission and the video footage proving that he instigated this anti-gay attack, the women were relentlessly demonized in the press, had trumped-up felony charges levied against them, and were subsequently given long sentences in order to send a clear resounding message—that self-defense is a crime and no one should dare to fight back.
Political backdrop of the case
Why were these young women used as an example? At stake are the billions of dollars in tourism and real estate development involved in the continued gentrification of the West Village. This particular incident happened near the Washington Square area—home of New York University, one of most expensive private colleges in the country and one of the biggest employers and landlords in New York City. The New York Times reported that Justice Edward J. McLaughlin used his sentencing speech to comment on “how New York welcomes tourists.” (June 17)
The Village is also the home of the Stonewall Rebellion, the three-day street battle against the NYPD that, along with the Compton Cafeteria “Riots” in California, helped launch the modern-day LGBT liberation movement in 1969. The Manhattan LGBT Pride march, one of the biggest demonstrations of LGBT peoples in the world, ends near the Christopher Street Piers in the Village, which have been the historical “hangout” and home for working-class trans and LGBT youth in New York City for decades.
Because of growing gentrification in recent years, young people of color, homeless and transgender communities, LGBT and straight, have faced curfews and brutality by police sanctioned by the West Village community board and politicians. On Oct. 31, 2006, police officers from the NYPD’s 6th Precinct indiscriminately beat and arrested several people of color in sweeps on Christopher Street after the Halloween parade.
Since the 1980s there has been a steady increase in anti-LGBT violence in the area, with bashers going there with that purpose in mind.
For trans people and LGBT youth of color, who statistically experience higher amounts of bigoted violence, the impact of the gentrification has been severe. As their once-safe haven is encroached on by real estate developers, the new white and majority heterosexual residents of the West Village then call in the state to brutalize them.
For the last six years the political LGBT youth group FIERCE has been at the forefront of mobilizing young people “to counter the displacement and criminalization of LGBTSTQ [lesbian, gay, bi, two spirit, trans, and queer] youth of color and homeless youth at the Christopher Street Pier and in Manhattan’s West Village.” (www.fiercenyc.org) FIERCE has also been the lead organization supporting the Jersey Seven and their families.
The trial and the media
Deemed a so-called “hate crime” against a straight man, every possible racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT and anti-youth tactic was used by the entire state apparatus and media. Everything from the fact that they lived outside of New York, in the working-class majority Black city of Newark, N.J., to their gender expressions and body structures were twisted and dehumanized in the public eye and to the jury.
According to court observers, McLaughlin stated throughout the trial that he had no sympathy for these women. The jury, although they were all women, were all white. All witnesses for the district attorney were white men, except for one Black male who had several felony charges.
Court observers report that the defense attorneys had to put enormous effort into simply convincing the jury that they were “average women” who had planned to just hang out together that night. Some jurists asked why they were in the Village if they were from New Jersey. The DA brought up whether they could afford to hang out there—raising the issue of who has the right to be there in the first place.
The Daily News reporting was relentless in its racist anti-lesbian misogyny, portraying Buckle as a “filmmaker” and “sound engineer” preyed upon by a “lesbian wolf pack” (April 19) and a “gang of angry lesbians.” (April 13)
Everyone has been socialized by cultural archetypes of what it means to be a “man” or “masculine” and “woman” or “feminine.” Gender identity/expression is the way each indivdual chooses or not to express gender in their everyday lives, including how they dress, walk, talk, etc. Transgender people and other gender non-conforming people face oppression based on their gender expression/identity.
The only pictures shown in the Daily News were of the more masculine-appearing women. One of the most despiciable headlines in the Daily News, “‘I’m a man!’ lesbian growled during fight,” (April 13) was targeted against Renata Hill, who was taunted by Buckle because of her masculinity.
Ironically, Johnson, who was singled out by the judge as the “ringleader,” is the more feminine of the four. According to the New York Times, in his sentencing remarks, “Justice McLaughlin scoffed at the assertion made by ... Johnson, that she carried a knife because she was just 4-foot-11 and 95 pounds, worked nights and lived in a dangerous neighborhood.” He quoted the nursery rhyme, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” (June 15)
All of the seven women knew and went to school with Sakia Gunn, a 19-year-old butch lesbian who was stabbed to death in Newark, N.J., in May 2003. Paralleling the present case, Gunn was out with three of her friends when a man made sexual advances to one of the women. When she replied that she was a lesbian and not interested, he attacked them. Gunn fought back and was stabbed to death.
“You can’t help but wonder that if Sakia Gunn had a weapon, would she be in jail right now?” Bran Fenner, a founding member and co-executive director of FIERCE, told Workers World. “If we don’t have the right to self-defense, how are we supposed to survive?”
National call to action
While racist killer cops continue to go without indictment and anti-immigrant paramilitary groups like the Minutemen are on the rise in the U.S., The Jersey Four sit behind bars for simply defending themselves against a bigot who attacked them in the Village.
Capitalism at its very core is a racist, sexist, anti-LGBT system, sanctioning state violence through cops, courts and its so-called laws. The case of the Jersey Four gives more legal precedence for bigoted violence to go unchallenged. The ruling class saw this case as a political one; FIERCE and other groups believe the entire progressive movement should as well.
Fenner said, “We are organizing in the hope that this wakes up all oppressed people and sparks a huge, broad campaign to demand freedom for the Jersey Four.”
FIERCE is asking for assistance for these young women, including pro-bono legal support, media contacts and writers, pen pals, financial support, and diverse organizational support. For details, visit www.fiercenyc.org.
Podcast: Defending The Jersey 4
Imani Henry, a Workers World Party leader, reports on the case of four young African-American lesbians sentenced to 3-11 years for defending themselves against an anti-gay attack. Workers World Forum, June 21, 2007, NYC
Click here to listen to MP3(Running Time 29:05)
By Imani Henry, workers.org, June 21, 2007
New York - On June 14, four African-American women—Venice Brown (19), Terrain Dandridge (20), Patreese Johnson (20) and Renata Hill (24)—received sentences ranging from three-and-a-half to 11 years in prison. None of them had previous criminal records. Two of them are parents of small children.
Their crime? Defending themselves from a physical attack by a man who held them down and choked them, ripped hair from their scalps, spat on them, and threatened to sexually assault them—all because they are lesbians.
The mere fact that any victim of a bigoted attack would be arrested, jailed and then convicted for self-defense is an outrage. But the length of prison time given further demonstrates the highly political nature of this case and just how racist, misogynistic, anti-gay, anti-youth and anti-worker the so-called U.S. justice system truly is.
The description of the events, reported below, is based on written statements by a community organization (FIERCE) that has made a call to action to defend the four women, verbal accounts from court observers and evidence from a surveillance camera.
The attack
On Aug. 16, 2006, seven young, African-American, lesbian-identified friends were walking in the West Village. The Village is a historic center for lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) communities, and is seen as a safe haven for working-class LGBT youth, especially youth of color.
As they passed the Independent Film Cinema, 29-year-old Dwayne Buckle, an African-American vendor selling DVDs, sexually propositioned one of the women. They rebuffed his advances and kept walking.
“I’ll f— you straight, sweetheart!” Buckle shouted. A video camera from a nearby store shows the women walking away. He followed them, all the while hurling anti-lesbian slurs, grabbing his genitals and making explicitly obscene remarks. The women finally stopped and confronted him. A heated argument ensued. Buckle spat in the face of one of the women and threw his lit cigarette at them, escalating the verbal attack into a physical one.
Buckle is seen on the video grabbing and pulling out large patches of hair from one of the young women. When Buckle ended up on top of one of the women, choking her, Johnson pulled a small steak knife out of her purse. She aimed for his arm to stop him from killing her friend.
The video captures two men finally running over to help the women and beating Buckle. At some point he was stabbed in the abdomen. The women were already walking away across the street by the time the police arrived.
Buckle was hospitalized for five days after surgery for a lacerated liver and stomach. When asked at the hospital, he responded at least twice that men had attacked him.
There was no evidence that Johnson’s kitchen knife was the weapon that penetrated his abdomen, nor was there any blood visible on it. In fact, there was never any forensics testing done on her knife. On the night they were arrested, the police told the women that there would be a search by the New York Police Department for the two men—which to date has not happened.
After almost a year of trial, four of the seven were convicted in April. Johnson was sentenced to 11 years on June 14.
Even with Buckle’s admission and the video footage proving that he instigated this anti-gay attack, the women were relentlessly demonized in the press, had trumped-up felony charges levied against them, and were subsequently given long sentences in order to send a clear resounding message—that self-defense is a crime and no one should dare to fight back.
Political backdrop of the case
Why were these young women used as an example? At stake are the billions of dollars in tourism and real estate development involved in the continued gentrification of the West Village. This particular incident happened near the Washington Square area—home of New York University, one of most expensive private colleges in the country and one of the biggest employers and landlords in New York City. The New York Times reported that Justice Edward J. McLaughlin used his sentencing speech to comment on “how New York welcomes tourists.” (June 17)
The Village is also the home of the Stonewall Rebellion, the three-day street battle against the NYPD that, along with the Compton Cafeteria “Riots” in California, helped launch the modern-day LGBT liberation movement in 1969. The Manhattan LGBT Pride march, one of the biggest demonstrations of LGBT peoples in the world, ends near the Christopher Street Piers in the Village, which have been the historical “hangout” and home for working-class trans and LGBT youth in New York City for decades.
Because of growing gentrification in recent years, young people of color, homeless and transgender communities, LGBT and straight, have faced curfews and brutality by police sanctioned by the West Village community board and politicians. On Oct. 31, 2006, police officers from the NYPD’s 6th Precinct indiscriminately beat and arrested several people of color in sweeps on Christopher Street after the Halloween parade.
Since the 1980s there has been a steady increase in anti-LGBT violence in the area, with bashers going there with that purpose in mind.
For trans people and LGBT youth of color, who statistically experience higher amounts of bigoted violence, the impact of the gentrification has been severe. As their once-safe haven is encroached on by real estate developers, the new white and majority heterosexual residents of the West Village then call in the state to brutalize them.
For the last six years the political LGBT youth group FIERCE has been at the forefront of mobilizing young people “to counter the displacement and criminalization of LGBTSTQ [lesbian, gay, bi, two spirit, trans, and queer] youth of color and homeless youth at the Christopher Street Pier and in Manhattan’s West Village.” (www.fiercenyc.org) FIERCE has also been the lead organization supporting the Jersey Seven and their families.
The trial and the media
Deemed a so-called “hate crime” against a straight man, every possible racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT and anti-youth tactic was used by the entire state apparatus and media. Everything from the fact that they lived outside of New York, in the working-class majority Black city of Newark, N.J., to their gender expressions and body structures were twisted and dehumanized in the public eye and to the jury.
According to court observers, McLaughlin stated throughout the trial that he had no sympathy for these women. The jury, although they were all women, were all white. All witnesses for the district attorney were white men, except for one Black male who had several felony charges.
Court observers report that the defense attorneys had to put enormous effort into simply convincing the jury that they were “average women” who had planned to just hang out together that night. Some jurists asked why they were in the Village if they were from New Jersey. The DA brought up whether they could afford to hang out there—raising the issue of who has the right to be there in the first place.
The Daily News reporting was relentless in its racist anti-lesbian misogyny, portraying Buckle as a “filmmaker” and “sound engineer” preyed upon by a “lesbian wolf pack” (April 19) and a “gang of angry lesbians.” (April 13)
Everyone has been socialized by cultural archetypes of what it means to be a “man” or “masculine” and “woman” or “feminine.” Gender identity/expression is the way each indivdual chooses or not to express gender in their everyday lives, including how they dress, walk, talk, etc. Transgender people and other gender non-conforming people face oppression based on their gender expression/identity.
The only pictures shown in the Daily News were of the more masculine-appearing women. One of the most despiciable headlines in the Daily News, “‘I’m a man!’ lesbian growled during fight,” (April 13) was targeted against Renata Hill, who was taunted by Buckle because of her masculinity.
Ironically, Johnson, who was singled out by the judge as the “ringleader,” is the more feminine of the four. According to the New York Times, in his sentencing remarks, “Justice McLaughlin scoffed at the assertion made by ... Johnson, that she carried a knife because she was just 4-foot-11 and 95 pounds, worked nights and lived in a dangerous neighborhood.” He quoted the nursery rhyme, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” (June 15)
All of the seven women knew and went to school with Sakia Gunn, a 19-year-old butch lesbian who was stabbed to death in Newark, N.J., in May 2003. Paralleling the present case, Gunn was out with three of her friends when a man made sexual advances to one of the women. When she replied that she was a lesbian and not interested, he attacked them. Gunn fought back and was stabbed to death.
“You can’t help but wonder that if Sakia Gunn had a weapon, would she be in jail right now?” Bran Fenner, a founding member and co-executive director of FIERCE, told Workers World. “If we don’t have the right to self-defense, how are we supposed to survive?”
National call to action
While racist killer cops continue to go without indictment and anti-immigrant paramilitary groups like the Minutemen are on the rise in the U.S., The Jersey Four sit behind bars for simply defending themselves against a bigot who attacked them in the Village.
Capitalism at its very core is a racist, sexist, anti-LGBT system, sanctioning state violence through cops, courts and its so-called laws. The case of the Jersey Four gives more legal precedence for bigoted violence to go unchallenged. The ruling class saw this case as a political one; FIERCE and other groups believe the entire progressive movement should as well.
Fenner said, “We are organizing in the hope that this wakes up all oppressed people and sparks a huge, broad campaign to demand freedom for the Jersey Four.”
FIERCE is asking for assistance for these young women, including pro-bono legal support, media contacts and writers, pen pals, financial support, and diverse organizational support. For details, visit www.fiercenyc.org.
Podcast: Defending The Jersey 4
Imani Henry, a Workers World Party leader, reports on the case of four young African-American lesbians sentenced to 3-11 years for defending themselves against an anti-gay attack. Workers World Forum, June 21, 2007, NYC
Click here to listen to MP3(Running Time 29:05)
The CIA's Family Jewels - Full report now available
The National Security Archive, June 26, 2007, 1 p.m.
The full "family jewels" report, released today by the Central Intelligence Agency and detailing 25 years of Agency misdeeds, is now available on the Archive's Web site. The 702-page collection was delivered by CIA officers to the Archive at approximately 11:30 this morning -- 15 years after the Archive filed a Freedom of Information request for the documents.
The report is available for download in its entirety and is also split into five smaller files for easier download.
CIA's "Family Jewels" - full report (27 MB)
CIA's "Family Jewels" - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Top Ten Most Interesting "Family Jewels"
Released by the CIA to the National Security Archive, June 26, 2007
1) Journalist surveillance - operation CELOTEX I-II (pp. 26-30)
2) Covert mail opening, codenamed SRPOINTER / HTLINGUAL at JFK airport (pp. 28, 644-45)
3) Watergate burglar and former CIA operative E. Howard Hunt requests a lock picker (p. 107)
4) CIA Science and Technology Directorate Chief Carl Duckett "thinks the Director would be ill-advised to say he is acquainted with this program" (Sidney Gottlieb's drug experiments) (p. 213)
5) MHCHAOS documents (investigating foreign support for domestic U.S. dissent) reflecting Agency employee resentment against participation (p. 326)
6) Plan to poison Congo leader Patrice Lumumba (p. 464)
7) Report of detention of Soviet defector Yuriy Nosenko (p. 522)
8) Document describing John Lennon funding anti-war activists (p. 552)
9) MHCHAOS documents (investigating foreign support for domestic U.S. dissent) (pp. 591-93)
10) CIA counter-intelligence official James J. Angleton and issue of training foreign police in bomb-making, sabotage, etc. (pp. 599-603)
Plus a bonus "Jewel":
Warrantless wiretapping by CIA's Division D (pp. 533-539)
Read the rest of this article, full report & more at The National Security Archive's "The CIA's Family Jewels".
The full "family jewels" report, released today by the Central Intelligence Agency and detailing 25 years of Agency misdeeds, is now available on the Archive's Web site. The 702-page collection was delivered by CIA officers to the Archive at approximately 11:30 this morning -- 15 years after the Archive filed a Freedom of Information request for the documents.
The report is available for download in its entirety and is also split into five smaller files for easier download.
CIA's "Family Jewels" - full report (27 MB)
CIA's "Family Jewels" - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Top Ten Most Interesting "Family Jewels"
Released by the CIA to the National Security Archive, June 26, 2007
1) Journalist surveillance - operation CELOTEX I-II (pp. 26-30)
2) Covert mail opening, codenamed SRPOINTER / HTLINGUAL at JFK airport (pp. 28, 644-45)
3) Watergate burglar and former CIA operative E. Howard Hunt requests a lock picker (p. 107)
4) CIA Science and Technology Directorate Chief Carl Duckett "thinks the Director would be ill-advised to say he is acquainted with this program" (Sidney Gottlieb's drug experiments) (p. 213)
5) MHCHAOS documents (investigating foreign support for domestic U.S. dissent) reflecting Agency employee resentment against participation (p. 326)
6) Plan to poison Congo leader Patrice Lumumba (p. 464)
7) Report of detention of Soviet defector Yuriy Nosenko (p. 522)
8) Document describing John Lennon funding anti-war activists (p. 552)
9) MHCHAOS documents (investigating foreign support for domestic U.S. dissent) (pp. 591-93)
10) CIA counter-intelligence official James J. Angleton and issue of training foreign police in bomb-making, sabotage, etc. (pp. 599-603)
Plus a bonus "Jewel":
Warrantless wiretapping by CIA's Division D (pp. 533-539)
Read the rest of this article, full report & more at The National Security Archive's "The CIA's Family Jewels".
Reflections of President Fidel Castro: Another argument for the Manifesto
Digital Granma International, June 25, 2007
WHY did I once claim, in one of my reflections, that Bush had authorized or ordered my death?
That phrase may appear ambiguous and vague. Perhaps it would be more accurate, though even more confusing, to say that he both authorized and ordered my death. Allow me to explain immediately:
The denunciation surrounding his plan to assassinate me was made before he snatched an electoral victory from his opponent through fraud.
As early as August 5, 2000, I denounced these plans in Pinar del Rio, before a vast congregation of combative citizens who had gathered there for the traditional July 26 festivities, held in that province, in Villa Clara and Ciudad de La Habana in recognition of their merits that year.
Attempts to identify those responsible for the hundreds of plans to assassinate me meet with a shroud of secrecy. All direct and indirect means have been used to bring about my removal. Following Nixon’s morally forced renunciation Ford forbade the participation of government employees in assassination schemes.
I am convinced that Carter, bound by ethical convictions of a religious nature, would never have ordered any such action against me. He was the only U.S. president who had a gesture of friendship towards Cuba in several important areas, including the establishment of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba.
I don’t know that Clinton ever ordered my death, so I cannot accuse him of such an action. Unquestionably, he showed respect for the law and acted with political savvy when he accepted the judicial decision that called for the kidnapped child's return to his father and closest relatives, a decision by then backed by the overwhelming majority of the U.S. people.
However, it is also a fact that, during his administration, Posada Carriles hired Central American mercenaries to place bombs in the hotels and recreational centers of cities like Havana and Varadero in order to strike at Cuba's economy, hit by the blockade and the special period. The terrorist had no reservations about declaring that the young Italian tourist who perished in one of the explosions was “in the wrong place at the wrong time", a phrase Bush repeated recently like the line from a poem. The money and even the electronic materials used to assemble those bombs were provided by the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which distributed the handsome sums at its disposal through shameless lobbying with members of different parties at the U.S. Congress.
At the close of 1997, the 7th Latin American Summit of Heads of State and Government, which I was obliged to attend, was to be held on Isla Margarita, Venezuela.
On October 27 that year, a vessel called “La Esperanza” was en route to Isla Margarita. While sailing very close to Puerto Rican coasts, it was intercepted by a patrol boat of the Coast Guard and Customs Service of that occupied island on suspicion of drug trafficking. On the vessel were four Cuban-born terrorists carrying two 50-calibre Barrett semi-automatic assault rifles with infrared-guided telescopic sights, capable of delivering precision rounds to armor-plated vehicles and planes in mid-air or about to take off or land from a distance of over a thousand meters, and 7 boxes of munitions.
The semi-automatic rifles were the property of Francisco José Hernández, Chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation. The yacht "La Esperanza” was the registered property of José Antonio Llamas, one of the directors of that counterrevolutionary organization. Recently, the latter declared that CANF had purchased a cargo helicopter, ten ultra-light, remote-controlled planes, seven ships and abundant explosive materials, with the express aim of executing terrorist actions against Cuba. The organization also had another yacht at its disposal, the "Midnight Express", which, according to Llamas, was to transport the Chairman —the head of heads— Mas Canosa to the island, where he would declare himself President after Fidel had been assassinated and his government overthrown.
American officers in Puerto Rico had no choice but to turn the four crew members over to the courts. In Venezuela, Posada Carriles was to coordinate the execution of the plan. He was expected to arrive there at any moment.
Could U.S. authorities, who generated and provided the Foundation with public funds and million-dollar businesses, have been unaware of these facts?
In December 1999, the detainees were acquitted by an indulgent jury, for “lack of evidence”. The rigged proceedings were manipulated by Héctor Pesquera, corrupt FBI officer who was later rewarded with the directorship of FBI headquarters in Miami and was a key figure in the arrest of the five Cuban anti-terrorist activists in Florida.
The notorious Cuban-American mafia was preparing for the November 2000 presidential elections. Both parties were contending for its support, for the Florida state could tilt the balance. The chieftains, of pure Batista stock, were the experts in committing fraud.
In the address I mentioned above, I literally said, among other things:
"The so-called Republican Convention has just come to an end. It was held in none other than the city of Philadelphia, home to the famous 1776 Declaration of Independence. Actually, (…) those slaveholders who rebelled against the British colonial rule did not abolish the disgraceful practice of slavery --which remained in effect for almost a whole century longer (…).
“(…) the first announcement made at the Republican Convention just held in Philadelphia under the leadership of the party’s illustrious candidate, [in violation of major international agreements], was the plan to considerably raise the military budget for research and development, and the construction of an antimissile shield to cover the entire nation with a radar network that could detect enemy missiles en route to U.S. territory and shoot them down in mid-air.
“Those holding these views are unable to understand that such a policy would meet with the overwhelming opposition of the rest of the world, including Europe. That, like a magnet, it would bring together all those nations threatened by a strategy that would leave them helpless against the United States. A new, dangerous and extremely costly arms race would immediately follow and nothing could prevent the proliferation of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction".
I dared predict these events seven years before Bush’s recent visit to the Albanian capital, which was the subject of one of my reflections.
I continued my address as follows:
“The authors of the plan know very well that slightly more than half the American people, who are still confused and insufficiently informed about this complex issue, believe that to be the most suitable solution in the interest of the country’s peace and security. However, the adoption of this extreme position by the Republican candidate vis à vis any other more sensible or reasonable proposal from his opponent would present him to voters as the strong, farsighted, tough guy that the United States needs to confront all imaginary or real dangers. This is the good news they sent out from Philadelphia to all of the peoples on Earth”.
This was still well before witnessing the occupation of Afghanistan and the plans to unleash a war against Iraq.
I proceeded to denounce Bush’s program vis-à-vis Latin America:
“What does this smart platform have to offer Latin America and the Caribbean in particular? There is a phrase that says it all: "The next American century should include all of the Americas." This simple statement means no less than the proclamation of the United States’ right of ownership over Latin America and the Caribbean.
“It later adds: ‘In concert with the Congress, (the president) will work with key democracies (…) and --above all-- Mexico.’ (…). Particularly striking is the phrase that reads: ‘...and --above all—Mexico’ since that is a country they robbed of half its territory through an unjustifiable, expansionist war. Their obvious intent is to begin with the economic annexation and full political subordination of that country to the United States and then do likewise with the rest of the countries in our region, imposing a free trade agreement essentially favorable to U.S. interests, from which not even the tiniest Caribbean island could escape. They mean, of course, the free circulation of capital and commodities, not the people!
“As expected, the highly biased Philadelphia platform devotes a substantial part of its section on Latin America to Cuba: ‘Our economic and political relations will change when the Cuban regime frees all political prisoners, legalizes peaceful protest, allows opposition political activity, permits free expression, and commits to democratic elections.’ For the authors of this demagogic abomination, freedom and democracy mean an outdated, corrupt system in which it is money alone that decides and elects, and in which a presidential candidate is nominated, with lightning speed, as the heir to a vacant throne”.
“Another wire story reports that: ‘The platform, aside from active support for the enemies of the Revolution, includes the broadcasting of news from the United States to the Caribbean nation.’ That is, they intend to keep up with the filth spewed against Cuba by subversive radio stations located in U.S. territory; they will persist in the outrageous use of the name of José Martí --a name that is glorious and sacred to our people-- in official U.S. government broadcasts directed against Cuba”.
"[At a press conference, U.S. legislators of Cuban descent euphorically squealed]: ‘This is unprecedented language. Never before has the Republican Party made such a broad commitment’”.
"To top off the mountain of garbage contained in the Republican platform, it is finally stated: ‘Republicans believe that the United States should adhere to the principles established by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which recognizes the rights of Cuban refugees fleeing communist tyranny’”.
“The prestige of the imperial policy will so crumble that not even its dust will remain. We will systematically denounce and demolish one by one, its hypocrisy and lies. They obviously have absolutely no idea what kinds of people have been forged in these 40 years of Revolution.
"Our message will reach all corners of the Earth, and our struggle will serve as an example. The world, ever more ungovernable, will fight until hegemony and the subjugation of peoples become totally unsustainable.
"Whoever is elected leader of the empire should not ignore that Cuba demands the total removal of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act and the criminal pieces of legislation that bear the notorious names of Torricelli and Helms-Burton as well as the genocidal blockade and economic war. It should be noted that those who have authored, promoted and enforced these laws and policies are guilty of the crime of genocide, as defined and condemned by international treaties signed by both the United States and Cuba”.
"They must not forget that although no lawsuits have been filed so far demanding compensation for moral damage --and this compensation could be substantial-- the U.S. government already owes the Cuban people over 300 billion dollars for the human damage resulting from its mercenary invasion by the Bay of Pigs, its dirty war and many other crimes”.
"They should not entertain any illusion regarding Cuba’s stance if relations between the United States and our country ever become as normal as those currently existing with other socialist countries like China and Vietnam. We will not remain silent in the face of any crime, aggression or injustice committed against other peoples. Our battle of ideas will not cease as long as the current imperialist, hegemonic and unipolar system is still in place and remains a scourge of humanity and a mortal threat to the survival of our species.
“A growing number of millions of Americans are becoming aware of the horrors of the economic and political order imposed on the world”.
“The Cuban Revolution does not merely confide in the moral integrity and patriotic and revolutionary spirit of its people, and in the survival instinct of the human species, whose very existence is threatened. It also believes and confides in the traditional idealism of the American people that can only be led into unjust wars and shameful aggressions through vulgar deceit. Once demagoguery and lies are definitely exposed and defeated, the world will find excellent allies in the American people. This is what happened in the case of the repugnant war that cost the lives of millions of Vietnamese and over 50,000 young Americans. A more recent example is the American people noble support of a little boy and a Cuban family, victims of a brutal crime perpetrated by a band of criminals who, after having taken advantage of that country’s hospitality, ended up showing their hatred and frustration by trampling and burning the U.S. flag.
"The changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba must be unilateral because the U.S. leaders have unilaterally imposed the blockade and economic war against Cuba”.
"From here, from this province where the Bronze Titan ultimately crowned, in Mantua, the colossal feat of the invasion he had begun in Mangos de Baraguá, we say to them: You fools! Do you not understand that Cuba is impregnable, that its Revolution is indestructible, that its people will never bow down or surrender? Do you not realize that our patriotism and internationalism are as deeply rooted in our minds and hearts as the imposing mogotes of Pinar del Río are in the volcanic rocks of this part of an island that is called Cuba and is surrounded today by the halo of having successfully endured almost 42 years of blockade and aggression by the most formidable power that ever existed?
"We are defended by the strength of our prestige and the example we have set, the indestructible steel that is the justice of our cause, the inextinguishable fire of our truth and our morale as well as the double trench of stone and ideas that we have built which is unassailable.
"That is why, Mr. Bush, if you finally become the leader of what no longer is and can no longer be called a republic but rather an empire, then, in the spirit of an honest adversary, I suggest that you leave aside the euphoria and fever of your Convention, and reconsider your position in order to avoid the risk of becoming the tenth American president to come and go watching with sterile and unnecessary bitterness a Revolution that will not bow down or surrender and that can never be destroyed.
“I am very much aware of what you have recklessly told your close and indiscreet friends in the Cuban-American mob: that you can solve the problem of Cuba very easily, in clear reference to the methods used in the sinister era when the Central Intelligence Agency was directly involved in assassination plots against our country’s leaders. Because I do not share this narrow view of the role of individuals in history, I urge you not to forget that for every one of the revolutionary leaders you may decide to so remove, there are millions of men and women in Cuba who are capable of taking their places and altogether there are far more of them than you could ever remove, or that your immense political, economic and military power could ever defeat".
I believe this long reflection is yet another argument in support of what I expounded on in the Manifesto for the People of Cuba.
Fidel Castro Ruz
June 24, 2007
6:15 p.m.
Translated by ESTI
WHY did I once claim, in one of my reflections, that Bush had authorized or ordered my death?
That phrase may appear ambiguous and vague. Perhaps it would be more accurate, though even more confusing, to say that he both authorized and ordered my death. Allow me to explain immediately:
The denunciation surrounding his plan to assassinate me was made before he snatched an electoral victory from his opponent through fraud.
As early as August 5, 2000, I denounced these plans in Pinar del Rio, before a vast congregation of combative citizens who had gathered there for the traditional July 26 festivities, held in that province, in Villa Clara and Ciudad de La Habana in recognition of their merits that year.
Attempts to identify those responsible for the hundreds of plans to assassinate me meet with a shroud of secrecy. All direct and indirect means have been used to bring about my removal. Following Nixon’s morally forced renunciation Ford forbade the participation of government employees in assassination schemes.
I am convinced that Carter, bound by ethical convictions of a religious nature, would never have ordered any such action against me. He was the only U.S. president who had a gesture of friendship towards Cuba in several important areas, including the establishment of the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba.
I don’t know that Clinton ever ordered my death, so I cannot accuse him of such an action. Unquestionably, he showed respect for the law and acted with political savvy when he accepted the judicial decision that called for the kidnapped child's return to his father and closest relatives, a decision by then backed by the overwhelming majority of the U.S. people.
However, it is also a fact that, during his administration, Posada Carriles hired Central American mercenaries to place bombs in the hotels and recreational centers of cities like Havana and Varadero in order to strike at Cuba's economy, hit by the blockade and the special period. The terrorist had no reservations about declaring that the young Italian tourist who perished in one of the explosions was “in the wrong place at the wrong time", a phrase Bush repeated recently like the line from a poem. The money and even the electronic materials used to assemble those bombs were provided by the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which distributed the handsome sums at its disposal through shameless lobbying with members of different parties at the U.S. Congress.
At the close of 1997, the 7th Latin American Summit of Heads of State and Government, which I was obliged to attend, was to be held on Isla Margarita, Venezuela.
On October 27 that year, a vessel called “La Esperanza” was en route to Isla Margarita. While sailing very close to Puerto Rican coasts, it was intercepted by a patrol boat of the Coast Guard and Customs Service of that occupied island on suspicion of drug trafficking. On the vessel were four Cuban-born terrorists carrying two 50-calibre Barrett semi-automatic assault rifles with infrared-guided telescopic sights, capable of delivering precision rounds to armor-plated vehicles and planes in mid-air or about to take off or land from a distance of over a thousand meters, and 7 boxes of munitions.
The semi-automatic rifles were the property of Francisco José Hernández, Chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation. The yacht "La Esperanza” was the registered property of José Antonio Llamas, one of the directors of that counterrevolutionary organization. Recently, the latter declared that CANF had purchased a cargo helicopter, ten ultra-light, remote-controlled planes, seven ships and abundant explosive materials, with the express aim of executing terrorist actions against Cuba. The organization also had another yacht at its disposal, the "Midnight Express", which, according to Llamas, was to transport the Chairman —the head of heads— Mas Canosa to the island, where he would declare himself President after Fidel had been assassinated and his government overthrown.
American officers in Puerto Rico had no choice but to turn the four crew members over to the courts. In Venezuela, Posada Carriles was to coordinate the execution of the plan. He was expected to arrive there at any moment.
Could U.S. authorities, who generated and provided the Foundation with public funds and million-dollar businesses, have been unaware of these facts?
In December 1999, the detainees were acquitted by an indulgent jury, for “lack of evidence”. The rigged proceedings were manipulated by Héctor Pesquera, corrupt FBI officer who was later rewarded with the directorship of FBI headquarters in Miami and was a key figure in the arrest of the five Cuban anti-terrorist activists in Florida.
The notorious Cuban-American mafia was preparing for the November 2000 presidential elections. Both parties were contending for its support, for the Florida state could tilt the balance. The chieftains, of pure Batista stock, were the experts in committing fraud.
In the address I mentioned above, I literally said, among other things:
"The so-called Republican Convention has just come to an end. It was held in none other than the city of Philadelphia, home to the famous 1776 Declaration of Independence. Actually, (…) those slaveholders who rebelled against the British colonial rule did not abolish the disgraceful practice of slavery --which remained in effect for almost a whole century longer (…).
“(…) the first announcement made at the Republican Convention just held in Philadelphia under the leadership of the party’s illustrious candidate, [in violation of major international agreements], was the plan to considerably raise the military budget for research and development, and the construction of an antimissile shield to cover the entire nation with a radar network that could detect enemy missiles en route to U.S. territory and shoot them down in mid-air.
“Those holding these views are unable to understand that such a policy would meet with the overwhelming opposition of the rest of the world, including Europe. That, like a magnet, it would bring together all those nations threatened by a strategy that would leave them helpless against the United States. A new, dangerous and extremely costly arms race would immediately follow and nothing could prevent the proliferation of nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction".
I dared predict these events seven years before Bush’s recent visit to the Albanian capital, which was the subject of one of my reflections.
I continued my address as follows:
“The authors of the plan know very well that slightly more than half the American people, who are still confused and insufficiently informed about this complex issue, believe that to be the most suitable solution in the interest of the country’s peace and security. However, the adoption of this extreme position by the Republican candidate vis à vis any other more sensible or reasonable proposal from his opponent would present him to voters as the strong, farsighted, tough guy that the United States needs to confront all imaginary or real dangers. This is the good news they sent out from Philadelphia to all of the peoples on Earth”.
This was still well before witnessing the occupation of Afghanistan and the plans to unleash a war against Iraq.
I proceeded to denounce Bush’s program vis-à-vis Latin America:
“What does this smart platform have to offer Latin America and the Caribbean in particular? There is a phrase that says it all: "The next American century should include all of the Americas." This simple statement means no less than the proclamation of the United States’ right of ownership over Latin America and the Caribbean.
“It later adds: ‘In concert with the Congress, (the president) will work with key democracies (…) and --above all-- Mexico.’ (…). Particularly striking is the phrase that reads: ‘...and --above all—Mexico’ since that is a country they robbed of half its territory through an unjustifiable, expansionist war. Their obvious intent is to begin with the economic annexation and full political subordination of that country to the United States and then do likewise with the rest of the countries in our region, imposing a free trade agreement essentially favorable to U.S. interests, from which not even the tiniest Caribbean island could escape. They mean, of course, the free circulation of capital and commodities, not the people!
“As expected, the highly biased Philadelphia platform devotes a substantial part of its section on Latin America to Cuba: ‘Our economic and political relations will change when the Cuban regime frees all political prisoners, legalizes peaceful protest, allows opposition political activity, permits free expression, and commits to democratic elections.’ For the authors of this demagogic abomination, freedom and democracy mean an outdated, corrupt system in which it is money alone that decides and elects, and in which a presidential candidate is nominated, with lightning speed, as the heir to a vacant throne”.
“Another wire story reports that: ‘The platform, aside from active support for the enemies of the Revolution, includes the broadcasting of news from the United States to the Caribbean nation.’ That is, they intend to keep up with the filth spewed against Cuba by subversive radio stations located in U.S. territory; they will persist in the outrageous use of the name of José Martí --a name that is glorious and sacred to our people-- in official U.S. government broadcasts directed against Cuba”.
"[At a press conference, U.S. legislators of Cuban descent euphorically squealed]: ‘This is unprecedented language. Never before has the Republican Party made such a broad commitment’”.
"To top off the mountain of garbage contained in the Republican platform, it is finally stated: ‘Republicans believe that the United States should adhere to the principles established by the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, which recognizes the rights of Cuban refugees fleeing communist tyranny’”.
“The prestige of the imperial policy will so crumble that not even its dust will remain. We will systematically denounce and demolish one by one, its hypocrisy and lies. They obviously have absolutely no idea what kinds of people have been forged in these 40 years of Revolution.
"Our message will reach all corners of the Earth, and our struggle will serve as an example. The world, ever more ungovernable, will fight until hegemony and the subjugation of peoples become totally unsustainable.
"Whoever is elected leader of the empire should not ignore that Cuba demands the total removal of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act and the criminal pieces of legislation that bear the notorious names of Torricelli and Helms-Burton as well as the genocidal blockade and economic war. It should be noted that those who have authored, promoted and enforced these laws and policies are guilty of the crime of genocide, as defined and condemned by international treaties signed by both the United States and Cuba”.
"They must not forget that although no lawsuits have been filed so far demanding compensation for moral damage --and this compensation could be substantial-- the U.S. government already owes the Cuban people over 300 billion dollars for the human damage resulting from its mercenary invasion by the Bay of Pigs, its dirty war and many other crimes”.
"They should not entertain any illusion regarding Cuba’s stance if relations between the United States and our country ever become as normal as those currently existing with other socialist countries like China and Vietnam. We will not remain silent in the face of any crime, aggression or injustice committed against other peoples. Our battle of ideas will not cease as long as the current imperialist, hegemonic and unipolar system is still in place and remains a scourge of humanity and a mortal threat to the survival of our species.
“A growing number of millions of Americans are becoming aware of the horrors of the economic and political order imposed on the world”.
“The Cuban Revolution does not merely confide in the moral integrity and patriotic and revolutionary spirit of its people, and in the survival instinct of the human species, whose very existence is threatened. It also believes and confides in the traditional idealism of the American people that can only be led into unjust wars and shameful aggressions through vulgar deceit. Once demagoguery and lies are definitely exposed and defeated, the world will find excellent allies in the American people. This is what happened in the case of the repugnant war that cost the lives of millions of Vietnamese and over 50,000 young Americans. A more recent example is the American people noble support of a little boy and a Cuban family, victims of a brutal crime perpetrated by a band of criminals who, after having taken advantage of that country’s hospitality, ended up showing their hatred and frustration by trampling and burning the U.S. flag.
"The changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba must be unilateral because the U.S. leaders have unilaterally imposed the blockade and economic war against Cuba”.
"From here, from this province where the Bronze Titan ultimately crowned, in Mantua, the colossal feat of the invasion he had begun in Mangos de Baraguá, we say to them: You fools! Do you not understand that Cuba is impregnable, that its Revolution is indestructible, that its people will never bow down or surrender? Do you not realize that our patriotism and internationalism are as deeply rooted in our minds and hearts as the imposing mogotes of Pinar del Río are in the volcanic rocks of this part of an island that is called Cuba and is surrounded today by the halo of having successfully endured almost 42 years of blockade and aggression by the most formidable power that ever existed?
"We are defended by the strength of our prestige and the example we have set, the indestructible steel that is the justice of our cause, the inextinguishable fire of our truth and our morale as well as the double trench of stone and ideas that we have built which is unassailable.
"That is why, Mr. Bush, if you finally become the leader of what no longer is and can no longer be called a republic but rather an empire, then, in the spirit of an honest adversary, I suggest that you leave aside the euphoria and fever of your Convention, and reconsider your position in order to avoid the risk of becoming the tenth American president to come and go watching with sterile and unnecessary bitterness a Revolution that will not bow down or surrender and that can never be destroyed.
“I am very much aware of what you have recklessly told your close and indiscreet friends in the Cuban-American mob: that you can solve the problem of Cuba very easily, in clear reference to the methods used in the sinister era when the Central Intelligence Agency was directly involved in assassination plots against our country’s leaders. Because I do not share this narrow view of the role of individuals in history, I urge you not to forget that for every one of the revolutionary leaders you may decide to so remove, there are millions of men and women in Cuba who are capable of taking their places and altogether there are far more of them than you could ever remove, or that your immense political, economic and military power could ever defeat".
I believe this long reflection is yet another argument in support of what I expounded on in the Manifesto for the People of Cuba.
Fidel Castro Ruz
June 24, 2007
6:15 p.m.
Translated by ESTI
CIA conspired with mafia to kill Castro
· Agency publishes secret documents detailing plot
· 702 pages reveal illegal activities up to 1973
Simon Tisdall in Washington, The Guardian, June 27, 2007
The CIA conspired with a Chicago gangster described as "the chieftain of the Cosa Nostra and the successor to Al Capone" in a bungled 1960 attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba's communist revolution, according to classified documents published by the agency yesterday.
The disclosure is contained in a 702-page CIA dossier known as the "Family Jewels" compiled at the behest of then agency director James Schlesinger in 1973. According to a memo written at the time, the purpose of the dossier was to identify all current and past CIA activities that "conflict with the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947" - and were, in other words, illegal.
The dossier covers operations including domestic surveillance, kidnapping, infiltration of anti-war movements, and the bugging of leading journalists.
But its detailed information on assassination attempts against foreign leaders is likely to attract most attention.
The plot to kill Mr Castro, whom the US government at the time considered a threat to national security and a stooge of the Soviet Union, begins quietly and sinisterly in August 1960.
The documents released yesterday describe how a CIA officer, Richard Bissell, approached the CIA's Office of Security to establish whether it had "assets that may assist in a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action. The mission target was Fidel Castro".
The dossier continues: "Because of its extreme sensitivity, only a small group was made privy to the project. The DCI (Director of Central Intelligence Allen Welsh Dulles) was briefed and gave his approval."
Following the meeting with the Office of Security, Bissell employed a go-between, Robert Maheu, and asked him to make contact with "gangster elements". Maheu subsequently reported an approach to Johnny Roselli in Las Vegas. Roselli is described as "a high-ranking member of the 'syndicate' (who) controlled all the ice-making machines on the (Las Vegas) Strip and (who) undoubtedly had connections leading into the Cuban gambling interests".
The CIA is careful to cover its tracks. According to the dossier, Maheu told Roselli that he (Maheu) has been retained by international businesses suffering "heavy financial losses in Cuba as a result of Castro's action. They were convinced that Castro's removal was the answer to their problem and were willing to pay the price of $150,000 (£75,000) for its successful accomplishment".
Roselli was also told that the US government was not, and must not become aware of the operation.
Roselli in turn led the CIA to a friend, known as Sam Gold. In September 1960, Maheu was introduced to Gold and his associate, known as Joe. In a development that appears to underscore the amateurishness of the whole operation, Maheu subsequently accidentally spotted photographs of "Sam and Joe" in Parade magazine.
Gold was in fact Momo Salvatore Giancana, "the chieftain of Cosa Nostra (the mafia) and the successor to Al Capone". Joe was actually Santos Trafficante, Cosa Nostra boss of Cuban operations.
At a meeting at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Gold/Giancana suggested that rather than try to shoot or blow up Mr Castro, "some type of potent pill that could be placed in Castro's food or drink would be much more effective".
He said a corrupt Cuban official, named as Juan Orta, who was in debt to the syndicate and had access to the Cuban leader, would carry out the poisoning. The CIA subsequently obtained and supplied "six pills of high lethal content" to Orta but after several weeks of abortive attempts, Orta demanded "out" of the operation.
Another disaffected Cuban was recruited to do the job, but he demanded money up front. In the event, the dossier relates, "the project was cancelled shortly after the Bay of Pigs episode" (in April, 1961).
Yesterday's document release under the Freedom of Information Act also reveals details of CIA bugging and surveillance operations and the handling of a Soviet defector and KGB agent, Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, in 1965-67. Also made public are 147 pages of documents relating to CIA assessments of the Soviet and Chinese cold war leaderships.
"The CIA fully understands it has an obligation to protect the nation's secrets, but it also has a responsibility to be as open as possible," CIA director Michael Hayden said yesterday. "The declassification of historical documents is an important part of that effort."
The documents are available at: www.foia.cia.gov/
********************************
Also see The National Security Archive's "The CIA's Family Jewels" for all documents and much more information.
Wonder Why George W. Doesn't Want You To Know The Truth About The Cuban People?
Find out this July! Come with us to meet:
* A cultured people who receive free education at all levels. Who have produced many outstanding scientists, artists, scholars and sports stars. Yet they cannot get access to many basic supplies, because of a 45 year long economic blockade by the U.S. government.
* A healthy people, with free health care, who live on average to age 77 – the same as those in the U.S. – yet some die prematurely and many others suffer unnecessary pain because the blockade denies them access to many of the world’s medicines.
* A proud and humane people who share what they have, including sending tens of thousands of their doctors around the world to provide free health care to others in need. - yet when 1600 Cuban doctors were ready to fly to New Orleans to help out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration wouldn’t let them in, just like it tries to stop US citizens from visiting Cuba.
Join the IFCO/Pastors for Peace 18th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba July 2007
The US government says you can't go to Cuba and see things for yourself. We say you should! Our Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba call domestic and international attention to the cruel and immoral US economic blockade by delivering humanitarian aid to our sisters and brothers in Cuba without asking permission for a US Treasury Department license.
In November 2006, the United Nations once again voted overwhelmingly (183-4) to condemn the US blockade. We know that many members of Congress are deeply unhappy with the policy. Meanwhile the Bush administration and its "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" continue desperately to look for more ways to starve the Cuban people into surrendering to US domination.
We think that the tide is turning in the US against the blockade, but this issue cannot be left to the politicians – we must take the lead and challenge them by implementing a People to People Foreign Policy that calls for an end to this insidious and immoral policy.
How you can get involved:
* Come as a caravanista - get in touch with us to get an application form
* Recruit other caravanistas - get them to request an application form
* Get involved locally - host a caravan event in your community – email us to find out your local contact - and if there isn't one you or your organization can take the initiative to host the caravan!
* Collect material aid - let us know so we can send you the aid information packet.
* Help out as a volunteer in the IFCO office.
* Make a financial donation. Checks or money orders should be made out to IFCO and mailed to our New York office. To make a credit card donation simply click on the donate-now button, on the page at the link below, and follow the instructions, or you can call our office (212-926-5757). Donations are tax-deductible!
For details & more information see http://www.ifconews.org/Cuba/caravan18/main.htm
* A cultured people who receive free education at all levels. Who have produced many outstanding scientists, artists, scholars and sports stars. Yet they cannot get access to many basic supplies, because of a 45 year long economic blockade by the U.S. government.
* A healthy people, with free health care, who live on average to age 77 – the same as those in the U.S. – yet some die prematurely and many others suffer unnecessary pain because the blockade denies them access to many of the world’s medicines.
* A proud and humane people who share what they have, including sending tens of thousands of their doctors around the world to provide free health care to others in need. - yet when 1600 Cuban doctors were ready to fly to New Orleans to help out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration wouldn’t let them in, just like it tries to stop US citizens from visiting Cuba.
Join the IFCO/Pastors for Peace 18th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba July 2007
The US government says you can't go to Cuba and see things for yourself. We say you should! Our Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba call domestic and international attention to the cruel and immoral US economic blockade by delivering humanitarian aid to our sisters and brothers in Cuba without asking permission for a US Treasury Department license.
In November 2006, the United Nations once again voted overwhelmingly (183-4) to condemn the US blockade. We know that many members of Congress are deeply unhappy with the policy. Meanwhile the Bush administration and its "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba" continue desperately to look for more ways to starve the Cuban people into surrendering to US domination.
We think that the tide is turning in the US against the blockade, but this issue cannot be left to the politicians – we must take the lead and challenge them by implementing a People to People Foreign Policy that calls for an end to this insidious and immoral policy.
How you can get involved:
* Come as a caravanista - get in touch with us to get an application form
* Recruit other caravanistas - get them to request an application form
* Get involved locally - host a caravan event in your community – email us to find out your local contact - and if there isn't one you or your organization can take the initiative to host the caravan!
* Collect material aid - let us know so we can send you the aid information packet.
* Help out as a volunteer in the IFCO office.
* Make a financial donation. Checks or money orders should be made out to IFCO and mailed to our New York office. To make a credit card donation simply click on the donate-now button, on the page at the link below, and follow the instructions, or you can call our office (212-926-5757). Donations are tax-deductible!
For details & more information see http://www.ifconews.org/Cuba/caravan18/main.htm
Audio: Crossing the Line gets reports from Nahr al-Bared
Electronic Intifada, June 26 2007
This week on Crossing The Line, as the crisis in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp enters its fifth week, host Chris Brown gets two reports from correspondents Dr. Marcy Newman and Sharif Bibi who are in Lebanon working with Palestinian refugees from Nahr al-Bared.
Brown also speaks with Kathryn Webber, a student leader at DePaul University who is part of an ongoing protest to rescind the tenure denial of Professor Norman G. Finkelstein. And finally Paul Larudee from the International Solidarity Movement talks about the Free Gaza Movement which is an action set to test Israel's sea-occupation of the Gaza Strip by internationals who will attempt to sail to the Gaza Strip from Cyprus in August 2007.
Listen Now [MP3 - 41.6 MB, 45:23 min]
This week on Crossing The Line, as the crisis in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp enters its fifth week, host Chris Brown gets two reports from correspondents Dr. Marcy Newman and Sharif Bibi who are in Lebanon working with Palestinian refugees from Nahr al-Bared.
Brown also speaks with Kathryn Webber, a student leader at DePaul University who is part of an ongoing protest to rescind the tenure denial of Professor Norman G. Finkelstein. And finally Paul Larudee from the International Solidarity Movement talks about the Free Gaza Movement which is an action set to test Israel's sea-occupation of the Gaza Strip by internationals who will attempt to sail to the Gaza Strip from Cyprus in August 2007.
Listen Now [MP3 - 41.6 MB, 45:23 min]
Criminalizing The Classroom
The Over-Policing of New York City Schools
NY Civil Liberties Union, published March 2007
This report documents the excesses of the New York City school policing program and offers realistic recommendations for reform.
To produce this report, the New York Civil Liberties Union(NYCLU) and the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conducted 1,000 student surveys and analyzed publicly available data. The organizations also interviewed students, parents, teachers, school administrators, school safety agents, and officials from the Department of Education, the United Federation of Teachers, and the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
The conclusions of this research are clear. Students and teachers are entitled to a safe learning environment that is conducive to education. The environment created by the massive deployment of inadequately trained police personnel in schools, in contrast, is often hostile and dysfunctional.
Since the NYPD took control of school safety in 1998, the number of police personnel in schools and the extent of their activity have skyrocketed. At the start of the 2005-2006 school year, the city employed a total of 4,625 School Safety Agents (SSAs) and at least 200 armed police officers assigned exclusively to schools. These numberswould make the NYPD’s School Safety Division alone the tenth largest police force in the country – larger than the police forces of Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston, or Las Vegas.
Because these school-assigned police personnel are not directly subject to the supervisory authority of school administrators, and because they often have not been adequately trained to work in educational settings, SSAs and police officers often arrogate to themselves authority that extends well beyond the narrow mission of securing the safety of the students and teachers. They enforce school rules relating to dress and appearance. They make up their own rules regarding food or other objects that have nothing whatsoever to do with school safety. On occasion they subject educators who question the NYPD’s treatment of students to retaliatory arrests. More routinely, according to our interviews and survey, they subject students to inappropriate treatment including:
• derogatory, abusive and discriminatory comments and conduct;
• intrusive searches;
• unauthorized confiscation of students’ personal items,
including food, cameras and essential school supplies;
• inappropriate sexual attention;
• physical abuse; and
• arrest for minor non-criminal violations of school rules.
These types of police interventions create flashpoints for confrontations and divert students and teachers from invaluable classroom time. They make students feel diminished, and are wholly incompatible with a positive educational environment.
Statistical analysis shows that all students are not equally likely to bear the brunt of over-policing in New York City schools. The burden falls primarily on the schools with permanent metal detectors, which are attended by the city’s most vulnerable children. The students attending these high schools are disproportionately poor, Black, and Latino compared to citywide averages, and they are more often confronted by police personnel in school for “non-criminal” incidents than their peers citywide. These children receive grossly less per-pupil funding on direct educational services than city averages. Their schools are likely to be large and overcrowded, and to have unusually high suspension and drop-out rates.
The report offers the following recommendations for reforming New York City’s school policing program – all of which can be accomplished without any sacrifice to school safety:
• Authority over school safety must be restored to school administrators.
• School safety personnel must be trained to function in accordance with sound educational practices and to respect the differences between street and school environments.
• The role of police personnel in schools must be limited to legitimate security concerns for children and educators.
• Students, families and educators must be given meaningful mechanisms, including access to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, to report wrongdoing by school-based police personnel.
Read the full report at http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/criminalizing_the_classroom_report.pdf
NY Civil Liberties Union, published March 2007
This report documents the excesses of the New York City school policing program and offers realistic recommendations for reform.
To produce this report, the New York Civil Liberties Union(NYCLU) and the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conducted 1,000 student surveys and analyzed publicly available data. The organizations also interviewed students, parents, teachers, school administrators, school safety agents, and officials from the Department of Education, the United Federation of Teachers, and the New York City Police Department (NYPD).
The conclusions of this research are clear. Students and teachers are entitled to a safe learning environment that is conducive to education. The environment created by the massive deployment of inadequately trained police personnel in schools, in contrast, is often hostile and dysfunctional.
Since the NYPD took control of school safety in 1998, the number of police personnel in schools and the extent of their activity have skyrocketed. At the start of the 2005-2006 school year, the city employed a total of 4,625 School Safety Agents (SSAs) and at least 200 armed police officers assigned exclusively to schools. These numberswould make the NYPD’s School Safety Division alone the tenth largest police force in the country – larger than the police forces of Washington, D.C., Detroit, Boston, or Las Vegas.
Because these school-assigned police personnel are not directly subject to the supervisory authority of school administrators, and because they often have not been adequately trained to work in educational settings, SSAs and police officers often arrogate to themselves authority that extends well beyond the narrow mission of securing the safety of the students and teachers. They enforce school rules relating to dress and appearance. They make up their own rules regarding food or other objects that have nothing whatsoever to do with school safety. On occasion they subject educators who question the NYPD’s treatment of students to retaliatory arrests. More routinely, according to our interviews and survey, they subject students to inappropriate treatment including:
• derogatory, abusive and discriminatory comments and conduct;
• intrusive searches;
• unauthorized confiscation of students’ personal items,
including food, cameras and essential school supplies;
• inappropriate sexual attention;
• physical abuse; and
• arrest for minor non-criminal violations of school rules.
These types of police interventions create flashpoints for confrontations and divert students and teachers from invaluable classroom time. They make students feel diminished, and are wholly incompatible with a positive educational environment.
Statistical analysis shows that all students are not equally likely to bear the brunt of over-policing in New York City schools. The burden falls primarily on the schools with permanent metal detectors, which are attended by the city’s most vulnerable children. The students attending these high schools are disproportionately poor, Black, and Latino compared to citywide averages, and they are more often confronted by police personnel in school for “non-criminal” incidents than their peers citywide. These children receive grossly less per-pupil funding on direct educational services than city averages. Their schools are likely to be large and overcrowded, and to have unusually high suspension and drop-out rates.
The report offers the following recommendations for reforming New York City’s school policing program – all of which can be accomplished without any sacrifice to school safety:
• Authority over school safety must be restored to school administrators.
• School safety personnel must be trained to function in accordance with sound educational practices and to respect the differences between street and school environments.
• The role of police personnel in schools must be limited to legitimate security concerns for children and educators.
• Students, families and educators must be given meaningful mechanisms, including access to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, to report wrongdoing by school-based police personnel.
Read the full report at http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/criminalizing_the_classroom_report.pdf
Victimized youth organize against police brutality
By Kathy Durkin, workers.org, Jun 14, 2007
It was a somber day in May. Thirty-two grieving young people were walking to the subway train in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood. They were on their way to a wake for a friend, Donnell McFarland, who had been tragically murdered at the age of 18.
Then, like a bolt from the blue, as the youth neared the Myrtle Avenue station, police swooped down on them, harassing, cursing, and terrorizing them. They were all searched; nothing illegal was found.
All of these Black and Latin@ women and men—some as young as 13 years old—were handcuffed, arrested and taken to the 83rd police precinct. The majority were charged with so-called unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. Several were held overnight, some for 38 hours.
In his investigation of the horrendous May 21 police attack, journalist Bob Herbert interviewed several of the young people involved, who are all students at Bushwick Community High School, as well as other eyewitnesses including Kathleen Williams, a parent who was traveling with them. Everyone said that youth did absolutely nothing wrong. Williams was threatened with arrest herself when she objected to the arrests. (New York Times, 5/26/07)
The police even taunted them about their deceased friend. And later, to justify their outrageous actions, the cops pointed to the memorial T-shirts the youth were wearing with McFarland’s picture on them, and tried to claim the gathering was “gang-related.”
The young people called it what it was—a clear-cut case of racial profiling.
This is business as usual by New York City police. The callous mistreatment, racist humiliation, harassment and intimidation of youth from oppressed communities is a commonplace, citywide occurrence—on the streets, in the subways and even inside the schools.
There is a reign of terror against the Black and Latin@ youth of this city.
In fact, by their own admission, a New York Police Department report issued earlier this year stated that cops stopped-and-frisked 508,540 people in 2006, 85 percent of whom were Black or Latin@. The majority of these intimidating acts were leveled against young oppressed women and men.
Inside the schools, thousands of students every semester are verbally abused, intimidated, threatened, sexually harassed and physically assaulted by cops and security guards. Teachers and parents who come to their aid are also targeted.
A New York Civil Liberties Union report issued in March, “Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools,” details the aggressive practices of the New York Police Department’s so-called School Safety Division, which subjects students to “invasive practices and other forms of abuse everyday by nearly 5,000 SSA’s, many of whom are armed.” (www.nyclu.org)
But the students are fighting back! On June 5, the Student Coalition against Racial Profiling met with City Council members and community organizers to organize opposition to these racist police practices. Among those attending was City Councilperson Charles Barron, who expressed his solidarity with the young people there.
Dana Jordan, a Bushwick Community High School senior and a founder of SCARP, said, “We are coming together to let the community know what has been going on with the cops, the excessive stop-and-frisks, the profiling, to let them know that it is time for a change in our community. We started SCARP because we wanted the community to know that we are trying to fight this battle against police profiling and that we need their support.” (New York Times, 6/6/07)
Public officials, right up to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who have said nothing, must be held accountable. These racist attacks must be stopped!
The Bushwick 32 will be in court in mid-July. This is a time for progressive organizations and activists to come out in solidarity with them and to spur a larger struggle to stand with the oppressed youth of this city and demand an end to police abuse.
It was a somber day in May. Thirty-two grieving young people were walking to the subway train in Bushwick, a Brooklyn neighborhood. They were on their way to a wake for a friend, Donnell McFarland, who had been tragically murdered at the age of 18.
Then, like a bolt from the blue, as the youth neared the Myrtle Avenue station, police swooped down on them, harassing, cursing, and terrorizing them. They were all searched; nothing illegal was found.
All of these Black and Latin@ women and men—some as young as 13 years old—were handcuffed, arrested and taken to the 83rd police precinct. The majority were charged with so-called unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. Several were held overnight, some for 38 hours.
In his investigation of the horrendous May 21 police attack, journalist Bob Herbert interviewed several of the young people involved, who are all students at Bushwick Community High School, as well as other eyewitnesses including Kathleen Williams, a parent who was traveling with them. Everyone said that youth did absolutely nothing wrong. Williams was threatened with arrest herself when she objected to the arrests. (New York Times, 5/26/07)
The police even taunted them about their deceased friend. And later, to justify their outrageous actions, the cops pointed to the memorial T-shirts the youth were wearing with McFarland’s picture on them, and tried to claim the gathering was “gang-related.”
The young people called it what it was—a clear-cut case of racial profiling.
This is business as usual by New York City police. The callous mistreatment, racist humiliation, harassment and intimidation of youth from oppressed communities is a commonplace, citywide occurrence—on the streets, in the subways and even inside the schools.
There is a reign of terror against the Black and Latin@ youth of this city.
In fact, by their own admission, a New York Police Department report issued earlier this year stated that cops stopped-and-frisked 508,540 people in 2006, 85 percent of whom were Black or Latin@. The majority of these intimidating acts were leveled against young oppressed women and men.
Inside the schools, thousands of students every semester are verbally abused, intimidated, threatened, sexually harassed and physically assaulted by cops and security guards. Teachers and parents who come to their aid are also targeted.
A New York Civil Liberties Union report issued in March, “Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools,” details the aggressive practices of the New York Police Department’s so-called School Safety Division, which subjects students to “invasive practices and other forms of abuse everyday by nearly 5,000 SSA’s, many of whom are armed.” (www.nyclu.org)
But the students are fighting back! On June 5, the Student Coalition against Racial Profiling met with City Council members and community organizers to organize opposition to these racist police practices. Among those attending was City Councilperson Charles Barron, who expressed his solidarity with the young people there.
Dana Jordan, a Bushwick Community High School senior and a founder of SCARP, said, “We are coming together to let the community know what has been going on with the cops, the excessive stop-and-frisks, the profiling, to let them know that it is time for a change in our community. We started SCARP because we wanted the community to know that we are trying to fight this battle against police profiling and that we need their support.” (New York Times, 6/6/07)
Public officials, right up to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who have said nothing, must be held accountable. These racist attacks must be stopped!
The Bushwick 32 will be in court in mid-July. This is a time for progressive organizations and activists to come out in solidarity with them and to spur a larger struggle to stand with the oppressed youth of this city and demand an end to police abuse.
Venezuela pushes out U.S. oil giants
President Hugo Chavez vows to diversify Venezuela's oil customers to reduce reliance on U.S. companies, such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.
CNNMoney.com, June 26, 2007
CARACAS (Reuters) -- President Hugo Chavez pushed U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips out of Venezuela Tuesday in a nationalization drive the United States said could hurt its oil supply.
ExxonMobil (Charts, Fortune 500) and ConocoPhillips (Charts, Fortune 500) decided to quit their oil operations in the OPEC nation after they failed to strike a deal to stay in multibillion-dollar projects that the anti-U.S. leader decreed should be taken over.
Four other oil majors - Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500), Norway's Statoil (Charts), Britain's BP (Charts) and France's Total (Charts) - signed pacts allowing Venezuela to increase its stake to as much as 83 percent in projects worth $30 billion.
The backdrop for the ceremony was a huge poster displaying Chavez dressed in his signature red with his fist clenched in the air in the typical salute of his self-styled socialist revolution.
"We characterize this ceremony as an act of sovereignty for our country, for our people," Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said after the companies signed the deals.
Exxon and ConocoPhillips can now negotiate compensation or take Venezuela to court for the loss of assets that are part of four heavy-crude upgrading facilities capable of producing around 600,000 barrels per day from the vast Orinoco oil belt.
Chavez, who vows to diversify Venezuela's oil customers to reduce traditional reliance on U.S. oil markets, prides himself on confronting American "imperialism," even though the United States is the country's biggest oil importer.
Washington fretted over Tuesday's move by its No. 4 foreign petroleum supplier.
"I'm concerned," Energy Secretary Sam Bodman told reporters. When asked if he was worried U.S. oil and product imports from Venezuela could be reduced with the companies leaving, he said: "Sure, of course."
Hostile Environment
Driving the U.S. giants out burnishes the anti-U.S. credentials of Chavez, who can spice his speeches up with the refrain "Gringos Go Home."
This year, he has squeezed out U.S. telecommunications and electricity companies in nationalizations. But taking the oil assets on Tuesday was by far the biggest move he has made against private property since coming to power in 1999.
Exxon said it was disappointed to leave Venezuela - a country with the world's largest oil reserves outside of the Middle East.
ConocoPhillips, which did not immediately comment on its decision, still has a stake in a Venezuelan gas project, but a source close to the company said it would leave the country entirely and likely head to arbitration.
Chavez: Big oil firms to leave Venezuela
Oil majors are well-known for withstanding harsh investment climates.
Statoil and Total agreed to reduce their stakes in their Orinoco project. BP and Chevron were able to maintain their share because they were involved in the ventures vacated by Exxon and ConocoPhillips.
Industry officials said the four companies were willing to stay mainly because crude prices are robust and oil majors are finding it increasingly difficult to access such large reserves as are available in the Orinoco.
Still, the exit of Exxon and ConocoPhillips highlights how difficult it can be for foreign companies to do business in a nation led by a man who calls capitalism an evil and Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor.
Foreign investment in Venezuela has been falling because companies fear they could lose their assets.
Chavez depends increasingly on revenue from high oil prices to maintain the food hand-outs and free doctors visits that make him popular among the majority poor.
"I think this was the right thing to do," said Hilda Valencia, 50, a bookseller at a kiosk in Caracas. "The natural resources are for Venezuelans and we can use them as we see fit."
Exxon, Conoco say no to Venezuela plans
BAE under probe over Saudi dealings
CNNMoney.com, June 26, 2007
CARACAS (Reuters) -- President Hugo Chavez pushed U.S. oil giants Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips out of Venezuela Tuesday in a nationalization drive the United States said could hurt its oil supply.
ExxonMobil (Charts, Fortune 500) and ConocoPhillips (Charts, Fortune 500) decided to quit their oil operations in the OPEC nation after they failed to strike a deal to stay in multibillion-dollar projects that the anti-U.S. leader decreed should be taken over.
Four other oil majors - Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500), Norway's Statoil (Charts), Britain's BP (Charts) and France's Total (Charts) - signed pacts allowing Venezuela to increase its stake to as much as 83 percent in projects worth $30 billion.
The backdrop for the ceremony was a huge poster displaying Chavez dressed in his signature red with his fist clenched in the air in the typical salute of his self-styled socialist revolution.
"We characterize this ceremony as an act of sovereignty for our country, for our people," Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said after the companies signed the deals.
Exxon and ConocoPhillips can now negotiate compensation or take Venezuela to court for the loss of assets that are part of four heavy-crude upgrading facilities capable of producing around 600,000 barrels per day from the vast Orinoco oil belt.
Chavez, who vows to diversify Venezuela's oil customers to reduce traditional reliance on U.S. oil markets, prides himself on confronting American "imperialism," even though the United States is the country's biggest oil importer.
Washington fretted over Tuesday's move by its No. 4 foreign petroleum supplier.
"I'm concerned," Energy Secretary Sam Bodman told reporters. When asked if he was worried U.S. oil and product imports from Venezuela could be reduced with the companies leaving, he said: "Sure, of course."
Hostile Environment
Driving the U.S. giants out burnishes the anti-U.S. credentials of Chavez, who can spice his speeches up with the refrain "Gringos Go Home."
This year, he has squeezed out U.S. telecommunications and electricity companies in nationalizations. But taking the oil assets on Tuesday was by far the biggest move he has made against private property since coming to power in 1999.
Exxon said it was disappointed to leave Venezuela - a country with the world's largest oil reserves outside of the Middle East.
ConocoPhillips, which did not immediately comment on its decision, still has a stake in a Venezuelan gas project, but a source close to the company said it would leave the country entirely and likely head to arbitration.
Chavez: Big oil firms to leave Venezuela
Oil majors are well-known for withstanding harsh investment climates.
Statoil and Total agreed to reduce their stakes in their Orinoco project. BP and Chevron were able to maintain their share because they were involved in the ventures vacated by Exxon and ConocoPhillips.
Industry officials said the four companies were willing to stay mainly because crude prices are robust and oil majors are finding it increasingly difficult to access such large reserves as are available in the Orinoco.
Still, the exit of Exxon and ConocoPhillips highlights how difficult it can be for foreign companies to do business in a nation led by a man who calls capitalism an evil and Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor.
Foreign investment in Venezuela has been falling because companies fear they could lose their assets.
Chavez depends increasingly on revenue from high oil prices to maintain the food hand-outs and free doctors visits that make him popular among the majority poor.
"I think this was the right thing to do," said Hilda Valencia, 50, a bookseller at a kiosk in Caracas. "The natural resources are for Venezuelans and we can use them as we see fit."
Exxon, Conoco say no to Venezuela plans
BAE under probe over Saudi dealings
Venezuela assumes control of Orinoco Oil Belt
Digital Granma International
CARACAS, June 26 (PL).—The nationalization of the Orinoco Oil Belt concludes today in Venezuela with the constitution of joint ventures with a state majority share.
In this way the four associations for processing heavy and extra-heavy crude, which together produce around 500,000 barrels per day, have been converted into enterprises with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as the majority shareholder with a minimum of 60%.
With this decision the Venezuelan authorities have closed the so-called oil opening, considered by the National Assembly as a covert privatization of the country’s principal natural resource.
Given the possibility that some of the foreign enterprises might not accept the new regulations, President Hugo Chávez recently stated that PDVSA could take over control of the Orinoco Oil Belt and, moreover, the country has other allies in the world.
Venezuela is currently undertaking a certification process of crude in the belt with the participation of 13 foreign enterprises, which should make that nation the first oil reserve in the world by 2008.
With the 140 billion barrels estimated to be found in that region, Venezuela’s reserves should reach 316 billion barrels that can be extracted with current technology, estimated at 20% retrieval.
Translated by Granma International
CARACAS, June 26 (PL).—The nationalization of the Orinoco Oil Belt concludes today in Venezuela with the constitution of joint ventures with a state majority share.
In this way the four associations for processing heavy and extra-heavy crude, which together produce around 500,000 barrels per day, have been converted into enterprises with Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) as the majority shareholder with a minimum of 60%.
With this decision the Venezuelan authorities have closed the so-called oil opening, considered by the National Assembly as a covert privatization of the country’s principal natural resource.
Given the possibility that some of the foreign enterprises might not accept the new regulations, President Hugo Chávez recently stated that PDVSA could take over control of the Orinoco Oil Belt and, moreover, the country has other allies in the world.
Venezuela is currently undertaking a certification process of crude in the belt with the participation of 13 foreign enterprises, which should make that nation the first oil reserve in the world by 2008.
With the 140 billion barrels estimated to be found in that region, Venezuela’s reserves should reach 316 billion barrels that can be extracted with current technology, estimated at 20% retrieval.
Translated by Granma International
Rising Seas to Destroy U.S. Beaches
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer, June 22, 2007
You may have to kiss that summer trip to the beach goodbye later this century, thanks to rising sea levels and more intense tropical storms, scientists predict.
A new study of the potential sand losses to North Carolina beaches reports that a 1-foot rise in sea level in the next 25 to 75 years (which is at the lower end of the range predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) would cause the coast to move inland by 2,000 to 10,000 feet and could cost an estimated $223 million in lost recreational value by 2080 to beach-goers in that state alone.
Predicting exactly how much beaches will shrink is impossible because beach erosion rates are highly variable, even between points that are only a few miles apart. The make-up of each beach's sand, the absence or presence of jetties and other man-made structures meant to retain sand, and offshore topography (which influences wave formation), all affect erosion rates.
But even with all the uncertainty, scientists say the future of our beloved sandy havens doesn’t look good.
“We have no way of predicting what sea level rise will do to erosion rates, except to say that they will increase,” said Duke University geologist Orrin Pilkey, who was not involved in the new study.
Forces of erosion
Hurricanes pose a particular threat to beaches because the floods of ocean water they can push onshore, called storm surge, can wash away large amounts of sand. Typically the sand returns to the beaches (so there’s plenty available to build that sandcastle or bury your dad). But if global warming intensifies hurricanes as some have predicted (either by increasing their frequency or the strength of individual storms), it may also impair beaches’ ability to recover.
For North Carolina’s beaches, the report says, even if hurricanes strike with their current frequency and intensity, sea level rise will make the effects of the storms worse.
Sea level rise is another ominous potential eroding force, at least for beaches that are highly developed. When seas rise, undeveloped beaches can simply shift further inland, but because roads, buildings and other man-made structures act as a barrier, the sand at developed beaches cannot migrate backward. Effectively, relentless waves will wear away the sand and these beaches will shrink until there’s simply no sand left for sunbathing or seaside strolls.
“We create the [beach erosion] problem,” Pilkey said.
In fact, Pilkey says, the building of jetties and sea walls may be doing the most damage for now, because while they preserve a small portion of the shoreline near the structure, they actually result in more coastal erosion further from the structure than would have occurred naturally.
“I suspect that may be more important than sea level rise,” he told LiveScience, but that trend will eventually change later, with global warming’s forces surpassing the impact of sea walls and jetties.
For West Coast U.S. beaches, erosion from sea level rise and storms is less of a threat than on the East Coast, because the "left" coastline tends to be higher and steeper, but that doesn’t mean beach-goers there are in the clear. One of the main sources of sand for these beaches is river transport, but dams built along western rivers block this sand, which causes the beaches to erode.
More crowded beaches
With beaches slowly vanishing from the coasts, vacationers might have to find some other way to entertain themselves and soak up the sun in the summer in the coming decades.
“I’m predicting that they [will take] fewer beach trips,” said lead author of the North Carolina study John Whitehead of Appalachian State University in North Carolina. The report was funded by the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan, non-profit group of energy experts.
By surveying beach-goers, Whitehead found that people prefer wider beaches, which provide more room for throwing Frisbees and eating sandy sandwiches. By determining how far people will drive to these roomier beaches and calculating the cost of those drives, Whitehead estimated the millions of dollars that would be lost to vacationers.
And for those for whom the allure of a vacation at the beach is simply irresistible, few options will be left, as the only beaches to survive would likely be the ones that are undeveloped now.
“People would have more limited beach options,” sociologist Maureen Harrington of Griffith University in Australia said in an email interview. “[They] would have to go to beaches that are able to migrate, that are not urbanized ... so these beaches would be more crowded.”
Video: Goldilocks and the Greenhouse
Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming
Timeline: The Frightening Future of Earth
You may have to kiss that summer trip to the beach goodbye later this century, thanks to rising sea levels and more intense tropical storms, scientists predict.
A new study of the potential sand losses to North Carolina beaches reports that a 1-foot rise in sea level in the next 25 to 75 years (which is at the lower end of the range predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) would cause the coast to move inland by 2,000 to 10,000 feet and could cost an estimated $223 million in lost recreational value by 2080 to beach-goers in that state alone.
Predicting exactly how much beaches will shrink is impossible because beach erosion rates are highly variable, even between points that are only a few miles apart. The make-up of each beach's sand, the absence or presence of jetties and other man-made structures meant to retain sand, and offshore topography (which influences wave formation), all affect erosion rates.
But even with all the uncertainty, scientists say the future of our beloved sandy havens doesn’t look good.
“We have no way of predicting what sea level rise will do to erosion rates, except to say that they will increase,” said Duke University geologist Orrin Pilkey, who was not involved in the new study.
Forces of erosion
Hurricanes pose a particular threat to beaches because the floods of ocean water they can push onshore, called storm surge, can wash away large amounts of sand. Typically the sand returns to the beaches (so there’s plenty available to build that sandcastle or bury your dad). But if global warming intensifies hurricanes as some have predicted (either by increasing their frequency or the strength of individual storms), it may also impair beaches’ ability to recover.
For North Carolina’s beaches, the report says, even if hurricanes strike with their current frequency and intensity, sea level rise will make the effects of the storms worse.
Sea level rise is another ominous potential eroding force, at least for beaches that are highly developed. When seas rise, undeveloped beaches can simply shift further inland, but because roads, buildings and other man-made structures act as a barrier, the sand at developed beaches cannot migrate backward. Effectively, relentless waves will wear away the sand and these beaches will shrink until there’s simply no sand left for sunbathing or seaside strolls.
“We create the [beach erosion] problem,” Pilkey said.
In fact, Pilkey says, the building of jetties and sea walls may be doing the most damage for now, because while they preserve a small portion of the shoreline near the structure, they actually result in more coastal erosion further from the structure than would have occurred naturally.
“I suspect that may be more important than sea level rise,” he told LiveScience, but that trend will eventually change later, with global warming’s forces surpassing the impact of sea walls and jetties.
For West Coast U.S. beaches, erosion from sea level rise and storms is less of a threat than on the East Coast, because the "left" coastline tends to be higher and steeper, but that doesn’t mean beach-goers there are in the clear. One of the main sources of sand for these beaches is river transport, but dams built along western rivers block this sand, which causes the beaches to erode.
More crowded beaches
With beaches slowly vanishing from the coasts, vacationers might have to find some other way to entertain themselves and soak up the sun in the summer in the coming decades.
“I’m predicting that they [will take] fewer beach trips,” said lead author of the North Carolina study John Whitehead of Appalachian State University in North Carolina. The report was funded by the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan, non-profit group of energy experts.
By surveying beach-goers, Whitehead found that people prefer wider beaches, which provide more room for throwing Frisbees and eating sandy sandwiches. By determining how far people will drive to these roomier beaches and calculating the cost of those drives, Whitehead estimated the millions of dollars that would be lost to vacationers.
And for those for whom the allure of a vacation at the beach is simply irresistible, few options will be left, as the only beaches to survive would likely be the ones that are undeveloped now.
“People would have more limited beach options,” sociologist Maureen Harrington of Griffith University in Australia said in an email interview. “[They] would have to go to beaches that are able to migrate, that are not urbanized ... so these beaches would be more crowded.”
Video: Goldilocks and the Greenhouse
Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming
Timeline: The Frightening Future of Earth
Iraq: The Media War Plan
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 219
Edited by Joyce Battle, posted May 8, 2007
Washington D.C. - In January 2003 Defense Department planners recommended the creation of a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" to serve as a bridge between Iraq's formerly state-controlled news outlets and an "Iraqi Free Media" network, according to a White Paper and PowerPoint slides that were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and are posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive
The Pentagon team would portray a "new Iraq" offering hope of a prosperous and democratic future, which would serve as a model for the Middle East. American, British, and Iraqi media experts would be hand-picked to provide "approved USG information" for the Iraqi public, while an ensuing "strategic information campaign" would be part of a "likely 1-2 years . . . transition" to a representative government. A new weekly Iraqi newspaper would feature "Hollywood" along with the news.
Defense Department planners envisioned a post-invasion Iraq where the U.S., in cooperation with a friendly Baghdad government, could monopolize information dissemination. They did not account for independent media outlets, the Internet, and all the other alternative sources of information that are available in the modern world. The U.S. media campaign has not been able to control the message - but its execution was privatized, and contracting has made it a profitable enterprise for those able to capitalize on the Pentagon's largesse.
Today's posting also includes an "Iraq Media Timeline" that summarizes the U.S. media campaign and the difficult conditions faced by reporters in Iraq.
Electronic Briefing Book
Pentagon "Rapid Reaction Media Team" for Iraq
By Joyce Battle
A White Paper and PowerPoint briefing obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and published today by the National Security Archive describe Pentagon planning for a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" that was to be a critical part of an information campaign "during [the] pre-hostilities phase of the Iraq mission." As a "bridge" after the overthrow of Iraq's government and before the establishment of an "'Iraqi Free Media' network," the rapid reaction team would create narratives leading Iraqis to feel, Pentagon planners enthused, like North Koreans who turned off state TV at night and in the morning turned on "the rich fare of South Korean TV . . . as their very own." Foreshadowing the unfolding of the U.S. government's Iraq media policy, preliminary work would not come cheap - Defense Department planners recommended paying two U.S. consultants $140,000 each for a campaign of six months duration.
The White Paper was prepared in January 2003 by two Defense Department offices - Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, and Near East and South Asian Affairs (Special Plans). The first is in charge of psychological warfare; the second was set up to covertly plan for the invasion of Iraq. As reported by Knight Ridder Newspapers, by mid-2002 it was clear to veteran Pentagon workers that President Bush was "methodically preparing an invasion to oust" Saddam Hussein. A planning unit - later referred to as the "Office of Special Plans" -- was to coordinate "the non-military and political aspects of any campaign, as opposed to drawing up actual invasion plans." More details of the unit's activities have subsequently become known, particularly through a July 9, 2004 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the efforts of Senator Carl Levin [D-Mich.] and his staff. On October 21, 2004 the senator released a report focusing on the activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, which oversaw these secretive planning activities, and Levin was instrumental in obtaining the February 2007 declassification of what he called a "devastating" report by the Defense Department's inspector general, who said the office's role in developing and disseminating alternative intelligence analyses on Iraq - directed by Under Secretary Douglas Feith, and authorized by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - was "inappropriate."
According to the media White Paper, "civil-military transition of the new Iraq to a broad representative government" would take "1-2 years," and the U.S. government would establish - in 12 months - an information system that would serve "as a model for free media in the Arab world." To ensure that the message would be controlled, Iraq was to be provided with a "Temporary Media Commissioner" to regulate against "hate media". He or she would operate in a receptive environment: the team would "identify the media infrastructure that we need left intact, and work with CENTCOM targeteers to find alternative ways of disabling key sites." (Evidently the Baghdad headquarters of Arab satellite network al-Jazeera was not part of "the media infrastructure that we need left intact.")
Iraqi, American, and "one or two" British media experts would provide information to Iraqis about U.S. intentions and operations. Their mission would include preventing Iraq's "trifurcation" while giving Iraqis hope for the future. "Hand-Picked" Iraqis would provide "the face" for the USG campaign. The team was to "[t]ranslate USG policy and thematic guidance into information campaign (news and entertainment)." Plans for "Entertainment and News Magazine programming" ranked "Hollywood" above the news. Though U.S. policy was officially opposed to Iraq's geographical disintegration, its internal divisions would be emphasized: a new weekly publication would have separate sections for Shi'a, Sunni, and Kurdish articles.
As Pentagon planners saw it, the themes of the "strategic information campaign" were to be crimes of the old regime, and a bright new day. They included "Mine awareness," "Re-starting the Oil," "Justice and rule of law topics," "Humanitarian assistance . . . care and management of population and internal displaced persons," "Political prisoners and atrocity interviews," "WMD disarmament," and "Saddam's palaces and opulence." Unfortunately for the architects of the war, however, the world has found uncontrolled media to view Iraq's actual post-invasion reality -- Abu Ghraib, IED's, chlorine bombs, sabotage, disappearances, torture, botched executions, a dysfunctional legal system, a collapsed civil infrastructure, massive casualties, and an exodus numbering 2 million refugees, for whom American humanitarian aid has been effectively nonexistent -- all overseen from the USG's privileged enclave in the Green Zone. The 21st century universe of alternative media, freelancers, cell phones, video uploads, bloggers, and satellite news outlets was not, evidently, anticipated by the Pentagon, and is well beyond its control.
The U.S. government's Iraq media policy did enrich certain defense contractors, including the Rendon Group, which also provided propaganda support for the U.S. leading up to the first Iraq war, Scientific Applications International Corporation - also known for creating a job, at the Defense Department's behest, for Shaha Ali Riza, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's friend - and the Lincoln Group, which experienced a meteoric rise in fortune courtesy of the Pentagon's largesse. Consistent failure to achieve stated goals has been no obstacle. [also here, here and here]
As for Iraq, it has been provided with media policies that resemble, according to the media watchdog International Press Institute, "those of autocratic regimes in the region, and not those of an aspiring democracy." In the state of anarchy imposed on Iraq by the U.S. invasion, more than 200 journalists have died, including, by April 2007, at least 27 working for the U.S.-created Iraqi Media Network. Three of them were killed by U.S. forces. For reporters still striving, against great odds, to describe the conditions confronted by its people, Iraq is now, according to Reporters Without Borders, the "most dangerous country" in the world.
Documents
The following documents are in PDF format.You will need to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
Document 1: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict; and Office of the Assistant Secretary, Near East and South Asian Affairs (Special Plans) White Paper Entitled, "'Rapid Reaction Media Team' Concept;" January 16, 2003; Includes Briefing Slides.
Source: Declassified through the Freedom of Information Act
Recommends creation of a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" using "hand-picked" American, British, and Iraqi media experts to prepare for the establishment of an "Iraqi Free Media" following the invasion of Iraq. Discusses the team's mission, personnel requirements, required tasks, and plans for "on-the-shelf" programming, and outlines topics and themes to be disseminated to the Iraqi public.
Document 2: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General Audit Entitled, "Acquisition: Contracts Awarded for the Coalition Provisional Authority by the Defense Contracting Command-Washington," March 18, 2004.
Reports on actions taken by the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance/Coalition Provisional Authority - the entities created to govern Iraq following the U.S. invasion of March 2003 - and the Defense Contracting Command-Washington, which was in charge of administrating private sector activity in support of the invasion and occupation - when awarding contracts. The inspector general undertook this inquiry after the Defense Contract Audit Agency "found irregularities in both the award and administration of the contracts" and recommended an in-depth review. During the time span under consideration in the audit, the Defense Contracting Command awarded 24 contracts, valued at $122.5 million, of which 13, valued at $111 million, were sole-source (non-competitive.) The audit, which categorizes "media support" as "humanitarian assistance," discusses a contract for the Iraqi Free Media Program that was granted on a no-bid basis to the Science Applications International Corporation. The Iraqi program is discussed in detail on pages 10, 16-17, 21-22, 26-29, and 33-36.
Document 3: U.S. Department of Defense, Inspector General Report Entitled, "Review of the Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy," February 9, 2007.
The review underlying this report was performed at the request of Sen. Pat Roberts [R-Kans.], Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Carl Levin [D-MIch.], ranking minority member of the committee, because of substantive questions raised about some of the conclusions of the July 7, 2004 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence entitled, "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Pre-War Intelligence Assessments on Iraq," particularly in regard to the possible politicization of intelligence. The inspector general's review found that "The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers. While such actions were not illegal or unauthorized, the actions were, in our opinion, inappropriate . . . " Therefore, "the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy did not provide 'the most accurate analysis of intelligence' to senior decision-makers." (p. ii)
Iraq Media Timeline
Before (and during) the invasion of Iraq - The U.S. government broadcasts psychological warfare programming into Iraq from an EC-130E Commander Solo aircraft (a modified C130 cargo plane). (Asia Times, 8/16/03)
January 16, 2003 - Defense Department offices for special operations and low-intensity conflict and for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs (special plans), issue a White Paper/briefing calling for a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" to set up an "Iraqi Free Media" after the overthrow of the government in Baghdad.
February 2003 - C. Ryan Henry, corporate vice president for strategic assessment and development for the San Diego-based defense contractor Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC), leaves to become deputy to Douglas Feith, head of the Defense Department's policy office. (OUSD(P) Web site, Ryan Henry biography)
March 5, 2003 - The Pentagon gives a no-bid $33 million contract to SAIC for the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council (IRDC), a group of exiles put together by Paul Wolfowitz. (Acquisition, 3/18/04; San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/4/04)
March 11, 2003 - The Defense Department gives SAIC a $15 million sole-source contract for the "Iraqi Free Media" project. Though the company has worked extensively with U.S. Special Forces, it has no media experience. The contract is under Douglas Feith's purview.
(SAIC's vice chairman, Admiral William Owens (Ret.), was a member of the Defense Policy Board, advising Donald Rumsfeld. The company's board members include Gen. Wayne Downing (Ret.), who also worked on domestic and international business development for the company, and was a member of the board of The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Soon after SAIC hired him, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, "Downing became a vocal advocate for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, becoming a part-time lobbyist and military planner for Iraqi dissident Adnan Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.")
("In 1997, Downing drafted a detailed plan for invading Iraq, spearheaded by Iraqi insurgents with the help of 5,000 or 6,000 special operations forces . . . . Gen. Anthony Zinni [U.S. military commander for the Middle East] mocked it as 'the Bay of Goats'," evoking the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.)
(Until mid-2002 Downing worked for the George W. Bush administration as an NSC counterterrorism expert.) (Acquisition, 3/18/04; Asia Times, 8/16/03; Washington Post, 10/16/03; Village Voice, 11/12/03; San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/4/04)
Around March 11, 2003 - Robert Reilly, former head of the Voice of America, is hired to be project director for the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). Reilly worked for the Reagan administration as a liaison to Catholics, and as a publicist for the Nicaraguan contras. He was a member of the Center for Security Policy, whose credo was "peace through American strength." Other members included Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Elliott Abrams, Midge Dector, and Frank Gaffney. One of Reilly's publications posited an inherent incompatibility between Islamic theology and Western values.
Mike Furlong, who did military media work after the Kosovo war, is hired as Reilly's deputy and the Iraqi Media Network's program manager. (Reporters Without Borders Web site, 7/22/03; Center for Security Policy Web site)
March 20, 2003 - The U.S. invades Iraq.
March 21, 2003 - An email from a Defense Department contracting specialist indicates that someone from the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), the entity initially created by the Pentagon to rule Iraq, wants SAIC to hire four named individuals, including Shaha Ali Riza, as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for advice regarding voter education, business development, politics, women, and government reform. (Acquisition, 3/18/04; Contract No. DASW01-03-F-0537)
March 27, 2003 - SAIC is awarded an $834,744 contract for an "Advisor for Democracy and Governance Group," including Shaha Ali Riza. (In April 2007 it is revealed that Paul Wolfowitz, in response to nepotism rules evoked when he became director of the World Bank, arranged for Riza, his significant other, to be posted to the State Department and to be granted several large raises, increasing her salary to more than $193,000.) (Acquisition, 3/18/04; Government Accountability Project Web site, 4/5/07)
March 29, 2003 - British tanks fire on four al-Jazeera journalists filming food distribution in Basra. (Reporters Without Borders Web site,4/8/03)
March 30, 2003 - U.S. forces hit Iraq's Ministry of Information with a cruise missile, damaging the building and destroying satellite dishes. (Central Command News Release, 3/30/2003, Independent on Sunday (London), 3/30/03)
April 6, 2003 - American troops kill Qomran Abdul Razzaq, a BBC translator, when they bomb a Kurdish convoy in northern Iraq. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April 7, 2003 - U.S. forces fire on an al-Jazeera vehicle, prominently marked "press", on a road near Baghdad. (Reporters Without Borders Web site, 4/8/03)
April 8, 2003 - A U.S. tank fires on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel and kills Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Spanish Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso. (Associated Press, 4/19/04)
April 8, 2003 - A U.S. missile hits al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau and kills reporter Tariq Ayoub. The Pentagon had been extensively briefed on the bureau's location, which was festooned with barriers marked "TV". (MEED Weekly Special Report, 2/20/04)
April 10, 2003 - Ahmed al-Rikaby, hired by SAIC to be the Iraqi Media Network's first television director, broadcasts the announcement "Welcome to the new Iraq" from a tent erected by U.S. soldiers. Five days later, "The Voice of New Iraq" officially begins broadcasting on AM radio. (Associated Press, 8/6/03; Christian Science Monitor, 4/21/03)
May 13, 2003 - The Iraqi Media Network begins television broadcasting from Baghdad, featuring cartoons, Egyptian soap operas, folk singers, news, sports, and interviews about Iraq's lack of security and services. (Associated Press, 5/25/03)
May 15, 2003 - PR Week reports SAIC's launching of the newspaper as-Sabah, with an initial run of 50,000. Its "short-term goal is to quell unrest among Iraqis by establishing America's presence and control over basic issues. The San Diego-based information-technology firm holds a Pentagon-issued contract to set up a media operation in post-war Iraq in coordination with Psychological Operations and the White House communications staff." (PR Week (US), 5/19/03)
June 2003 - Administrator Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), successor to ORHA, issues Order No. 6, declaring that the Iraqi Media Network is an interim entity replacing Iraq's information ministry, eliminated by occupation authorities in May. IMN is given the ministry's equipment and facilities. It retains a few hundred reporters and other staff. More than 5,000 employees are fired.
Along with the newspaper as-Sabah, the Iraqi Media Network operates a television station and two radio stations. The network's chief editor, former Iraqi-Canadian exile George Mansour, says its news bulletins are independent. In reality they feature coalition activities and statements by Bremer. Mansour insists his journalists are "genuine" Iraqis, but some mock its reporters' American and British accents. (Reporters Without Borders Web site, 4/26/07)
June 2003 - Independent press watchdog groups issue a report calling for the Iraqi Media Network to be dismantled because it is unclear whether it is to be an independent media outlet or a propaganda tool. Controversies include the hiring of Hero Talabani, wife of Kurdish leader/USG ally Jalal Talabani, to oversee editing, and its daily airing of a British program called "Toward Freedom." The latter issue has led five Iraqi Media Network officials to write to managers installed by SAIC: "We respectfully request to know whose political agenda is involved here. Certainly, it is not a professionally sound programming decision to use a mediocre propaganda program from abroad to supercede our own news program. Following an exhausting hour of 'Toward Freedom,' it is only the most dedicated news junkies who could tolerate it without seeking another channel." (Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003)
June 2003 - Iraqi Media Network staff are not paid and go on strike. They strike again upon learning their pay scale will be that of the former Ministry of Information -- $120 a month. A senior advisor to the IMN, former NBC correspondent Don North, says, "For some reason CPA have said we must adhere to the old pay scheme" despite intense competition for competent staff. (U.S. contractors hired for management positions are paid more than $200 per hour.) (Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003)
June 2003 - Robert Reilly leaves the Iraqi Media Network, suddenly. (Washington Post, 10/16/03)
June 2003 - Iraqi Media Network program manager Mike Furlong is fired. (Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003)
August 5, 2003 - Iraqi Media Network's TV director, Ahmed al-Rikaby, quits, saying the network is inadequately funded and can't compete with al-Jazeera and other alternative news sources. Al-Rikaby's one-year contract to be television director and head of radio programs was scheduled to end in April 2004. He says low pay has led staff to leave the network. (Associated Press, 8/6/03)
August 10, 2003 - The Daily Telegraph, a conservative British paper, reports that former colleagues of Ahmed al-Rikaby say that Iraqi TV's problems arose from incompetence and nepotism, and that his claims of inadequate funding "should not be taken seriously." Al-Rikaby declares that he's been targeted by "a smear campaign," and says, "There was always an excuse as to why I couldn't get what I needed." (The Daily Telegraph, 8/10/03)
August 17, 2003 - U.S. soldiers kill Mazen Dana, a Palestinian journalist working for Reuters, while he is filming outside Abu Ghraib prison. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September 2003 - Dorrance Smith becomes media consultant to the CPA and head of the Iraqi Media Network. A childhood friend of George Bush and former producer for This Week with David Brinkley, he left ABC in 1989 to become media advisor to George H.W. Bush. He worked at This Week again from 1995 to 1999, when he was reportedly forced out, shortly before ABC decided not to renew the contract of commentator William Kristol. Kristol, a Smith colleague from the first Bush White House, was a principal cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq. (Media Research Center Web site, 12/30/99)
September 23, 2003 - Iraq's governing council bars leading Arab satellite TV stations al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya from its ministries and events. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders condemn the decision. IPS reports that the Iraqi Media Network has taken over a number of Iraqi radio stations and effectively shut down independent media outlets. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September 24, 2003 - U.S. soldiers open fire on AP photographer Karim Kadhim and his driver Qassim as-Saidi, and rake their car, prominently labeled "Press", with machine gunfire. The reporters escape death by leaping from the car. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September 30, 2003 - According to the Defense Department's inspector general, SAIC's initial $15 million contract for the Iraqi Free Media Program is now valued at $82.3 million: "approximately 71 percent of the costs were materials." (Department of Defense; Office of the Inspector General: Acquisition, March 18, 2004, p. 10)
October 2003 - The Pentagon begins soliciting bids for a new $200 million contract to run the Iraqi Media Network. (Village Voice, 11/12/03)
October 16, 2003 - The Washington Post reports that Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) wants to transfer $100 million meant to expand Iraq's media network from the Pentagon to the State Department; however, the DOD's Office for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (in charge of psychological operations) retains control. (Washington Post, 10/16/03; Village Voice, 11/12/03)
October 22, 2003 - Japan's foreign ministry announces that the 1980s TV drama "Oshin", called a "tearjerker" by some, will be broadcast by the Iraqi Media Network. A Japanese official hopes that "the patience, enthusiasm and forward-looking attitude of Oshin, the story's heroine, will send out a positive message to the Iraqi people." (Japan Economic Newswire, 10/22/03)
Early November 2003 - George Mansour is removed as the Iraqi Media Network's news director. (Village Voice, 11/12/03)
November 3, 2003 - U.S. troops seize al-Jazeera cameraman Salah Hassan near Baquba, as he is interviewing witnesses to a roadside bomb attack, and take him to a U.S. military base, then to Abu Ghraib. He is eventually released without charge. (Observer, 11/27/05; Reporters Without Borders Web site)
November 12, 2003 -The Village Voice reports that a recent poll found that 67 percent of Iraqis with satellite receivers prefer TV news from al-Arabiya or al-Jazeera - not the Iraqi Media Network. (Village Voice, 11/12/03)
November 13, 2003 - The New York Observer reports that the CPA, dissatisfied with U.S. news coverage of Iraq, is about to create its own 24-hour broadcast operation, bypassing American networks. "It's C-Span Baghdad", according to CPA media advisor Dorrance Smith.
The article says that the U.S. military in Iraq and the CPA press office, described by one news producer "as staffed by political true believers, 'neocons and evangelists'," were "'apoplectic' at the press for under-reporting the 'good news' in Iraq." (New York Observer, 11/13/03)
January 7, 2004 - The satellite broadcaster Arabsat, based in U.S.-friendly Saudi Arabia, begins broadcasting Iraqi Media Network's al-Iraqiya TV programs. According to Radio Netherlands, "After the American attack on Iraq the management of both Arabsat and Nilesat announced that they w[ould] not let the Iraqi Media Network to be broadcast on both satellites but sounds like they gave it a second thought . . ." (BBC Monitoring International Reports, 1/7/04)
January 9, 2004 - After deciding not to renew SAIC's contract to run the Iraqi Media Network, the Defense Department replaces it with the Harris Corp., a military contractor based in Melbourne, Florida. The company announces, "the Defense Contracting Command-Washington (DCC-W), on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) currently governing Iraq," has given it a renewable $96 million to develop Iraq's "antiquated" media network. The total value of the contract could be nearly $165 million. Its "local teammates" will be the Christian-owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and telecommunications company al-Fawares of Kuwait. (Harris Corp. Web site, 4/27/2007)
January 20, 2004 - In his State of the Union speech, President Bush says, "To cut through the barriers of hateful propaganda, the Voice of America and other broadcast services are expanding their programming in Arabic and Persian - and soon, a new television service will begin providing reliable news and information across the region." (White House Web site, 1/20/04)
February 14, 2004 - With $62 million, the U.S. government launches al-Hurra, a network intended to compete with al-Jazeera, to broadcast news and entertainment to Arab countries from a base in Springfield, Virginia. According to the National Post (Canada), Washington has allocated an additional $40 million for a specifically Iraqi al-Hurra operation [which begins broadcasting in April 2004.] Its programs are to be modeled after Radio Sawa, a pop music outlet that the USG considers a relative success.
According to the Post, "The Pentagon-run Iraq Media Network has flopped. Iraqis have not warmed to its broadcasts of official statements by Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator, and members of the Iraqi Governing Council." (National Post (Canada), 12/19/03)
February 14, 2004 - Former CPA contractor and Iraqi Media Network senior advisor Don North says professional journalism training was obviously needed in Iraq - "A brutal form of training was delivered by the U.S. Army and CPA officials when they found stories offensive. They visited the offices of offending newspapers and often left them padlocked and in ruins. No mediation, no appeal."
He says the Iraqi Media Network's problems had many causes, including the fact that, "A revolving door of officials with no credible television or journalism experience dictated plans and policy to IMN."
Also, "A surprising lack of operating capital, in spite of IMN's being the most expensive U.S. government media project in history at an estimated $4 million a month, forced the IMN to run on a shoestring and look like it. There were no funds for basic equipment such as camera batteries, tripods or editing equipment. A $500 request for a satellite dish to downlink the Reuters news feed was refused. A $200 request for printing my training manual in Arabic for reporters was turned down."
Also, "Lack of planning for program production or acquisition resulted in illegal airing of copyrighted European and Hollywood film tapes confiscated from the mansion of Saddam's son Uday."
Also, "IMN staff were ordered to cover endless daily CPA news conferences, interviews and photo opportunities, leaving little time and few facilities to cover genuine news stories initiated by IMN reporters on the street."
Also, "The right of 'collective bargaining,' another American concept, was trashed by CPA management when IMN staff twice went on strike for higher wages. IMN staff were told in effect, 'our way or the highway'." (Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 2/14/05; Don North statement)
February 15, 2004 - Harris Corp. takes over the operation of the Iraqi Media Network from SAIC. Eleven months after SAIC was given a contract that was ultimately valued at $82.3 million, an official from one of Harris's two regional subcontracters, Lebanese broadcasting Corporation International, says, "We are practically starting from scratch." (MEED Weekly Special Report, 2/20/04)
March 3, 2004 - U.S. troops kill al-Jazeera editor-in-chief Mahmood Awad Hamadi in Falluja. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 18, 2004 - Near a checkpoint, U.S. troops kill correspondent Ali al-Khatib and cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news station. (Associated Press, 4/19/04)
March 18, 2004 - Nadia Nasrat, announcer, Majeed Rasheed, technician, and Mohammed Ahmad Sarhan, security agent of the Iraqi Media Network, are killed by armed men in Diyala (Baquba). (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 18, 2004 - The Defense Department's inspector general issues a report on CPA contracts. It says that SAIC's original program manager for the Iraqi Media Network bought a H2 Hummer and a Ford pickup truck and chartered a DC-10 cargo jet to fly them to Iraq for his personal use "outside the scope of the contract." When the Pentagon's contracting office refused to authorize the purchases, SAIC "went around the authority of this acquisition specialist to a different office within the under secretary of defense for policy to gain approval and succeeded." The inspector general could not specifically determine the cost but one category of expenses called "Office & Vehicle" totaled $381,000.
Also, when a subject specialist did not win a USAID contract, the director of the ORHA arranged for him to be covered by SAIC's Iraqi Media Network contract. He "was first placed in charge of determining how to dispose of garbage in Iraq, and was then made Senior Ministry Advisor for the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Neither of those roles was within the scope of the Iraqi Free media contract." ORHA's director wrote, "we anticipate . . . [the subject matter expert] would be used on a variety of special projects essentially outside of the Indigenous media contract's scope of work."
The inspector general concluded, "We could not determine how the contracting officer obtained a fair and reasonable price for the Iraqi Free Media contract." (Department of Defense; Office of the Inspector General: Acquisition, March 18, 2004, pp. 18, 21)
March 26, 2004 - U.S. troops kill ABC cameraman Burhan Mohammed Mazhoor in Falluja. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April 6, 2004 - SAIC says "its revenue soared to a record $6.7 billion" during the last fiscal year, with "a surge in defense spending . . . . government business accounted for 80 percent of its revenue, with Pentagon contracts amounting to $3.7 billion." (San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/7/04)
April 15, 2004 - Donald Rumsfeld declares, "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable." (Department of Defense Transcripts, 4/15/04)
April 16, 2004 - According to a leaked memo, George Bush discloses in a meeting with Tony Blair that he plans to bomb al-Jazeera's Qatar headquarters, but Blair dissuades him. (The Mirror (U.K.), 11/22/05)
April 19, 2004 - The St. Petersburg Times reports that development work on the Iraqi Media Network's al-Iraqiya and other media projects "has come to a near halt in recent days as Harris and other companies have been in lockdown because of the violence. Even with armed guards and armored vehicles, [project director David] Sedgley has been unable to move more than a mile or so beyond the Green Zone . . ."
The Times notes that Harris won the Pentagon contract to run the Iraqi Media Network through its "one-man Iraqi Initiatives project." Because "it knew nothing about programming," it subcontracted "a non-controversial Arab network," and Newsweek's Kuwaiti printer. (St. Petersburg Times, 4/19/04)
April 19, 2004 - On a road leading to Samarra, U.S. troops shoot and kill correspondent As'ad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh, and wound cameraman Bassem Kamel, employees of the Pentagon-funded al-Iraqiya TV station. (Associated Press, 4/19/04)
May 15, 2004 - Shortly before the end of its rule in Iraq, the CPA announces creation of a new framework for Iraq's broadcast media, turning it into a sort of public broadcasting system. (Agence France Presse, 5/15/04)
Mid 2004 - A company called Iraqex, created to look for business opportunities in occupied Iraq, forms a partnership with the Rendon Group. (New York Times, 12/11/05) [Rendon has a long history of propaganda activities on behalf of conservative and Republican Party causes.]
August 7, 2004 - Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi suspends al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau. (New York Times, 8/8/04)
September 4, 2004 - The Iraqi interim government breaks into al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, searches it, and closes it down indefinitely. (Agence France Presse, 9/6/04; Associated Press, 9/7/04)
Around September 2004 - The U.S. military awards the year-old Iraqex company a $6 million contract. The company is to undertake "an aggressive advertising and PR campaign." It has "no background in public relations or the media." (Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, 10/6/04; Haymarket Publishing Services, 11/19/04; New York Times, 12/11/05)
October 7, 2004 - Ahmad Jasim, al-Iraqiya reporter, is killed by unknown armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
November 2004 - The CPA changes the Iraqi Media Network's name to Iraqia Network and hires J. Walter Thompson for public relations work "to convince Iraqis that IMN or Iraqia was credible." [The network continues to be referred to popularly as the Iraqi Media Network.] (Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 2/14/05; Don North statement)
November 1, 2004 - Reuters cameraman Dhia Najim is shot in the head and killed by a U.S. sniper while covering fighting between armed men and American troops. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 20, 2005 - Harris Corp. announces it has been awarded a second, three-month, $22 million contract by the Iraqi Media Network, covering training, programming support, systems, and deployment. (Harris Corp. Web site, 1/20/05; 4/27/2007)
February 20, 2005 - When asked by the St. Petersburg Times how Harris Corp. can "counter the perception that the Iraqi Media Network's TV station, al-Iraqiya, is a mouthpiece for the U.S. government - especially during the time the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority was running the country," project manager David Sedgley says, "First, Harris Corp. has never received a dime from the U.S. government - the Iraqi Media Network, including al-Iraqiya, is totally funded by the Iraqi government with Iraqi funds."
He also says one of Harris's objectives is to develop "fair and balanced" broadcasts, and that it has "reduced the amount of pro-American subjects" being aired.
Regarding security, he says, "If we knew it was going to deteriorate to today's situation, I would have recommended to my management not to bid this program." (St. Petersburg Times, 2/20/05)
February 28, 2005 - Raida al-Wazzan, al-Iraqiya TV announcer, is killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 2005 - Iraqex changes its name to the Lincoln Group. (Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, 3/23/05)
May 31, 2005 - Jerges Mohammed Sultan, al-Iraqiya TV reporter, is killed near his house by armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
June 2005 - The Defense Department's Special Operations Command awards three five-year contracts, totaling $300 million, for articles, broadcasts, advertisements, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other messages meant to win international support for the U.S. government, including one to the Lincoln Group, which claims "select relationships in Congress, the Administration and the U.S. Department of State." According to the New York Times, Lincoln becomes "the main civilian contractor for carrying out an aggressive propaganda campaign in Anbar Province, known as the Western Mission project. Over the next several months," records show, "the military transfer[s] tens of millions of dollars to Lincoln for the project."
Another contract goes to SAIC, despite "widespread criticism for its handling of Iraq's first TV and radio network." Its earlier contract was not renewed in December 2003 "amid complaints that the network was mainly a propaganda tool for the occupying forces." The third is given to SYColeman Inc., headed by Lt. Gen. Jared Bates (Ret.), formerly director of operations for ORHA.
Mike Furlong, fired by the Iraqi Media Network in June 2003, is deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element and one of the officers in charge of the project. (USA Today, 12/13/05, 12/14/05, 12/23/05; San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/18/05; New York Times, 2/15/06)
June 1, 2005 - U.S. troops kill ad-Da'wa newspaper reporter Haydar al-Jourani in Najaf. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
June 22, 2005 - Yassir as-Salihi, Knight-Ridder reporter, is killed in his car by U.S. troops. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
June 28, 2005 - Ahmad Wa'il al-Bakri, ash-Sharqiya TV director, is killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July 1, 2005 - Khalid Sabih al-Attar, al-Iraqiya producer/presenter is kidnapped and killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July 3, 2005 - Editor-in-chief of Baghdad TV Maha Ibrahim is shot and killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
August 27, 2005 - Rafid Mahmood Said al-Anbagy, Diyala radio presenter for the Iraqi Media Network, is killed by armed men in al-Gatoon area. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
August 29, 2005 - Hayder Kadhim and Walid Khaled Ibrahim, Reuters reporters, are killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad while covering fighting. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
September 17, 2005 - Sabah Mohssin of al-Iraqiya is killed. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
September 22, 2005 - Ahlam Yousif, TV engineer, and Bassem al-Fadli, manager, al-Iraqiya, are killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
October 2005 - The Lincoln Group presents a plan called "Divide and Prosper" to the U.S. military's Special Operations Command in Florida. It recommends making Sunni religious leaders one of the "target audiences" for U.S. propaganda. (New York Times, 1/2/06)
November 2, 2005 - Defense Secretary Rumsfeld endorses Dorrance Smith to be his chief spokesman, despite outrage resulting from an April 25 Wall Street Journal opinion piece in which Smith wrote that U.S. television networks were "a tool of terrorist propaganda" because they re-aired footage from al-Jazeera. (Washington Post, 11/2/05)
November 28, 2005 - Akeel Abdul Ridha and Muqdad Muhsin of al-Iraqiya are killed by armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
November 30, 2005 - The Los Angeles Times reports, "the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq." The operation is handled by the Lincoln Group, and "is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military." (Los Angeles Times, 11/30/05)
December 2005 - A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll indicates that 72 percent of Americans think it is wrong for the Pentagon to secretly pay the Iraqi media to publish pro-U.S. stories. (USA Today, 12/23/05)
Early January 2006 - Journalist Kamal Karim is sentenced to 30 years in prison for defaming Kurdish regional leader Masoud Barzani. His treatment is met by international outrage and his sentence is later reduced; he is imprisoned for six months. (Christian Science Monitor, 1/10/06)
January 1, 2006 - Mahmood Za'al, Baghdad TV reporter, is killed by U.S. troops in Khaldiya. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 2, 2005 - The New York Times reports that the Lincoln Group has been paying Sunni Iraqi religious scholars for propaganda assistance. (New York Times, 1/2/06)
January 4, 2006 - Through a recess appointment by President Bush, Dorrance Smith becomes assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. [On April 7, he is confirmed for the position by the Senate.] (Washington Post, 1/5/06; 4/8/06)
January 10, 2006 - The Christian Science Monitor reports that nearly 50 percent of Iraqis watch al-Iraqiya. However, according to its critics, "Iraq's version of America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has simply become a propaganda tool for the country's leading Shiite politicians. Al Iraqiya was meant to stand as a model for a burgeoning independent press, but seems to have instead become one more political spoil for its competing factions . . . . The Iraqi Media Network is another factor that is helping to turn Iraqi society into a sectarian society." (Christian Science Monitor, 1/10/06)
Mid-January 2006 - The Defense Department inspector general begins an audit of the Pentagon's use of the Lincoln Group for "psychological operations." (New York Times, 2/15/06)
February 15, 2006 - The New York Times reports that two years ago the two founders of the Lincoln Group, recent Oxford University graduate Christian Bailey (né Christian Jozefowicz) and Paige Craig (formerly a U.S. Marines intelligence officer), "were living in a half-renovated Washington group house, with a string of failed startup companies behind them," until winning contracts from the Pentagon. "Now their company . . . works out of elegant offices along Pennsylvania Avenue and sponsors polo matches in Virginia horse country. Mr. Bailey recently bought a million-dollar Georgetown row house. Mr. Craig drives a Jaguar and shows up for interviews accompanied by his 'director of security', a beefy bodyguard." (New York Times, 2/15/06)
February 20, 2006 - Raeda Wazzan, al-Iraqiya news anchor, is kidnapped. Five days later she is found dead on a roadside in Mosul, where she had lived and worked. She had been shot repeatedly in the head. Her 10-year-old son was also kidnapped but he was later released. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 5, 2006 - The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) reports that the Japanese Foreign Ministry is providing the animated series "Captain Tsubasa", about a soccer-playing boy, to the Iraqi Media Network for free. Twenty-six Japan Ground Self-Defense Force water tankers in southern Iraq have been decorated with giant decals of Captain Tsubasa. A Foreign Ministry official predicts Iraqi children "will be filled with dreams and hopes by watching the show, and boost pro-Japanese sentiment even more." (Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), 3/5/06)
March 11, 2006 - Amjad Hamid Mohsin, director, and Anwar Turky, driver, al-Iraqiya, are killed by armed men in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 19, 2006 - Ali Hamid al-Mayahi, ad-Da'wa newspaper reporter, and Kamil Manahi Anbar, an-Nahar reporter and Institute of War and Peace Journalism correspondent, are killed by joint U.S.-Iraqi troops while the journalists are covering a military raid on a mosque in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
May 5, 2006 - Saad Shammari, TV host on al-Iraqiya, is found dead of apparent strangulation on a roadside in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
May 24, 2006 - The New York Times reports that an internal Defense Department investigation by Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk has concluded that payment of Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American stories could undermine U.S. credibility and should be stopped. (New York Times, 5/24/06)
May 31, 2006 - Jafaar Ali, al-Iraqiya sports presenter, is gunned down in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July 19, 2006 - The Defense Department drops the Lincoln Group and SAIC from the TV and radio components of a $300 million contract awarded in June 2005. SYColeman retains its part of the contract. A Pentagon psychological operations official says, "We learned that working with three companies increases expenditures in both time and money and does not provide best value to the government."
(SYColeman is a subsidiary of intelligence contractor L-3 Communications. Since May, L-3's president for government services has been Lt. Gen. Paul Cerjan (Ret.). After retirement, Cerjan had worked for Lockheed and Loral and was on the board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, along with Middle East policy hawks Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, and James Woolsey. He had been president of Pat Robertson's Regent University for three years when he was called by ORHA head Jay Garner, and then "oversaw the demobilization the Iraqi army." After that he was hired by Halliburton as "vice president of worldwide military affairs" for its subsidiary KBR, where he was in charge of military logistics for Iraq.) (Washington Post, 7/19/06; TMCnet News, 5/10/06,; CorpWatch Web site, 8/9/06; Private Warriors (Frontline) Web site, 6/21/05)
September 2006 - Willem Marx recounts his experiences paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-U.S. stories secretly written by American soldiers while he worked as a $1,000-a-month intern for the Lincoln Group. He mentions on one occasion needing "an unusually large advance payment" to buy upfront air time for the "Western Mission" propaganda operation, and driving through Baghdad with $3 million in cash in the trunk of a car, "separated into thirty plastic-wrapped $100,000 blocks." The company, he reports, which paid Iraqi newspapers some $50-$1,500 to publish planted stories, expected to make $19 million for two months of work on the contract. (Harper's, 9/06)
September 5, 2006 - SAIC reports revenue of $2 billion in the second quarter of FY 2006, a five percent increase over 2005. Government contracts accounted for about 92 percent of its 2005 revenue of $7.8 billion. Its revenue has increased by 78 percent since 2002. It has around 9,000 active contracts with the government. (San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/6/06)
Late September 2006 - The Lincoln Group receives "a two-year, $12.4 million contract to monitor English and Arabic news outlets" and to produce public relations material for the U.S. military in Iraq. Previously, the contract was handled by the Rendon Group. (New York Times, 10/20/06; Haymarket Publishing Services Ltd., 10/2/06)
October 4, 2006 - Jassem Hamad Ibrahim, al-Iraqiya driver, is killed by unidentified gunmen in Mosul as he is running errands for the station. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
October 6, 2006 - The Defense Department inspector general reports that the Pentagon did not break the law when it used the Lincoln Group "to place articles in the Iraqi media . . . .Psychological Operations are a central element of Information Operations . . . to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to U.S. objectives."
However, the inspector general says that military officials violated contracting guidelines for competitive bidding and for overseeing costs in connection with a September 2004 Lincoln Group contract. But he recommends no punitive measures because the contract has expired. (Department of Defense Inspector General: Information Operations Activities in Southwest Asia, 10/6/06)
October 14, 2006 - Raed Qais ash-Shammari, an al-Iraqiya employee, is killed in a drive-by shooting in southern Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
December 29, 2006 - Akil Sarhan of the Iraq Media Network's sports TV channel ar-Riyadia is killed when his car is attacked on the way to work by armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 9, 2007 - Akil Adnan Majid, as-Sabah accountant, is kidnapped outside the newspaper's office in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 20, 2007 - Mohammed Nuri and Baha' Hussein Khalaf, reporters for the Iraqi Media Network, are killed in the Nineva governorate. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
February 4, 2007 - Suhad al-Khalidi, Iraqi Media Network reporter, is killed by U.S. troops as their patrol passes her car in Hilla. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
February 7, 2007 - Three unknown security guards for al-Iraqiya are killed by foreign security guards accompanying a delegation in as-Salihiya in central Baghdad, near al-Iraqiya headquarters. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 20, 2007 - USA Today publishes an article entitled, "Democracy's Support Sinks; Iraqis Disillusioned, Divided on Government." It reports that a recent USA Today/ABC News/BBC/ARD (German TV) poll found that the percentage of Iraqis who view democracy as the best system for their country has declined from 57 percent to 43 percent in 16 months, that 51 percent, including 94 percent of Sunnis, believe that attacks on U.S. forces are acceptable political acts, and that "[b]y more than 3 to 1, Iraqis say the presence of U.S. forces is making the security situation worse." (USA Today, 3/20/07)
March 31, 2007 - Mohammed Jassim Yousif, Iraqi Media Network reporter, is killed west of Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April 25, 2007 - The International Press Institute, a media watchdog group, reports that "Iraq remains the most dangerous country for journalists." It says, "The Iraqi government's policies towards the press closely resemble those of autocratic regimes in the region, and not those of an aspiring democracy." (Reuters Foundation Alertnet, 4/25/07)
(Most of the information in the Timeline on killed or kidnapped journalists is from the Brussels Tribunal Web site. The Tribunal's list is based in large part on one published in az-Zawra, the Iraqi Journalist Union's newspaper, on May 4, 2006. This timeline includes only casualties from the Iraq Media Network and its organs, or those killed or imprisoned by coalition forces. In total, the Brussels Tribune Web site lists 256 media professionals killed in Iraq as of April 2007.)
Edited by Joyce Battle, posted May 8, 2007
Washington D.C. - In January 2003 Defense Department planners recommended the creation of a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" to serve as a bridge between Iraq's formerly state-controlled news outlets and an "Iraqi Free Media" network, according to a White Paper and PowerPoint slides that were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and are posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive
The Pentagon team would portray a "new Iraq" offering hope of a prosperous and democratic future, which would serve as a model for the Middle East. American, British, and Iraqi media experts would be hand-picked to provide "approved USG information" for the Iraqi public, while an ensuing "strategic information campaign" would be part of a "likely 1-2 years . . . transition" to a representative government. A new weekly Iraqi newspaper would feature "Hollywood" along with the news.
Defense Department planners envisioned a post-invasion Iraq where the U.S., in cooperation with a friendly Baghdad government, could monopolize information dissemination. They did not account for independent media outlets, the Internet, and all the other alternative sources of information that are available in the modern world. The U.S. media campaign has not been able to control the message - but its execution was privatized, and contracting has made it a profitable enterprise for those able to capitalize on the Pentagon's largesse.
Today's posting also includes an "Iraq Media Timeline" that summarizes the U.S. media campaign and the difficult conditions faced by reporters in Iraq.
Electronic Briefing Book
Pentagon "Rapid Reaction Media Team" for Iraq
By Joyce Battle
A White Paper and PowerPoint briefing obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and published today by the National Security Archive describe Pentagon planning for a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" that was to be a critical part of an information campaign "during [the] pre-hostilities phase of the Iraq mission." As a "bridge" after the overthrow of Iraq's government and before the establishment of an "'Iraqi Free Media' network," the rapid reaction team would create narratives leading Iraqis to feel, Pentagon planners enthused, like North Koreans who turned off state TV at night and in the morning turned on "the rich fare of South Korean TV . . . as their very own." Foreshadowing the unfolding of the U.S. government's Iraq media policy, preliminary work would not come cheap - Defense Department planners recommended paying two U.S. consultants $140,000 each for a campaign of six months duration.
The White Paper was prepared in January 2003 by two Defense Department offices - Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, and Near East and South Asian Affairs (Special Plans). The first is in charge of psychological warfare; the second was set up to covertly plan for the invasion of Iraq. As reported by Knight Ridder Newspapers, by mid-2002 it was clear to veteran Pentagon workers that President Bush was "methodically preparing an invasion to oust" Saddam Hussein. A planning unit - later referred to as the "Office of Special Plans" -- was to coordinate "the non-military and political aspects of any campaign, as opposed to drawing up actual invasion plans." More details of the unit's activities have subsequently become known, particularly through a July 9, 2004 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee and the efforts of Senator Carl Levin [D-Mich.] and his staff. On October 21, 2004 the senator released a report focusing on the activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, which oversaw these secretive planning activities, and Levin was instrumental in obtaining the February 2007 declassification of what he called a "devastating" report by the Defense Department's inspector general, who said the office's role in developing and disseminating alternative intelligence analyses on Iraq - directed by Under Secretary Douglas Feith, and authorized by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - was "inappropriate."
According to the media White Paper, "civil-military transition of the new Iraq to a broad representative government" would take "1-2 years," and the U.S. government would establish - in 12 months - an information system that would serve "as a model for free media in the Arab world." To ensure that the message would be controlled, Iraq was to be provided with a "Temporary Media Commissioner" to regulate against "hate media". He or she would operate in a receptive environment: the team would "identify the media infrastructure that we need left intact, and work with CENTCOM targeteers to find alternative ways of disabling key sites." (Evidently the Baghdad headquarters of Arab satellite network al-Jazeera was not part of "the media infrastructure that we need left intact.")
Iraqi, American, and "one or two" British media experts would provide information to Iraqis about U.S. intentions and operations. Their mission would include preventing Iraq's "trifurcation" while giving Iraqis hope for the future. "Hand-Picked" Iraqis would provide "the face" for the USG campaign. The team was to "[t]ranslate USG policy and thematic guidance into information campaign (news and entertainment)." Plans for "Entertainment and News Magazine programming" ranked "Hollywood" above the news. Though U.S. policy was officially opposed to Iraq's geographical disintegration, its internal divisions would be emphasized: a new weekly publication would have separate sections for Shi'a, Sunni, and Kurdish articles.
As Pentagon planners saw it, the themes of the "strategic information campaign" were to be crimes of the old regime, and a bright new day. They included "Mine awareness," "Re-starting the Oil," "Justice and rule of law topics," "Humanitarian assistance . . . care and management of population and internal displaced persons," "Political prisoners and atrocity interviews," "WMD disarmament," and "Saddam's palaces and opulence." Unfortunately for the architects of the war, however, the world has found uncontrolled media to view Iraq's actual post-invasion reality -- Abu Ghraib, IED's, chlorine bombs, sabotage, disappearances, torture, botched executions, a dysfunctional legal system, a collapsed civil infrastructure, massive casualties, and an exodus numbering 2 million refugees, for whom American humanitarian aid has been effectively nonexistent -- all overseen from the USG's privileged enclave in the Green Zone. The 21st century universe of alternative media, freelancers, cell phones, video uploads, bloggers, and satellite news outlets was not, evidently, anticipated by the Pentagon, and is well beyond its control.
The U.S. government's Iraq media policy did enrich certain defense contractors, including the Rendon Group, which also provided propaganda support for the U.S. leading up to the first Iraq war, Scientific Applications International Corporation - also known for creating a job, at the Defense Department's behest, for Shaha Ali Riza, Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's friend - and the Lincoln Group, which experienced a meteoric rise in fortune courtesy of the Pentagon's largesse. Consistent failure to achieve stated goals has been no obstacle. [also here, here and here]
As for Iraq, it has been provided with media policies that resemble, according to the media watchdog International Press Institute, "those of autocratic regimes in the region, and not those of an aspiring democracy." In the state of anarchy imposed on Iraq by the U.S. invasion, more than 200 journalists have died, including, by April 2007, at least 27 working for the U.S.-created Iraqi Media Network. Three of them were killed by U.S. forces. For reporters still striving, against great odds, to describe the conditions confronted by its people, Iraq is now, according to Reporters Without Borders, the "most dangerous country" in the world.
Documents
The following documents are in PDF format.You will need to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.
Document 1: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict; and Office of the Assistant Secretary, Near East and South Asian Affairs (Special Plans) White Paper Entitled, "'Rapid Reaction Media Team' Concept;" January 16, 2003; Includes Briefing Slides.
Source: Declassified through the Freedom of Information Act
Recommends creation of a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" using "hand-picked" American, British, and Iraqi media experts to prepare for the establishment of an "Iraqi Free Media" following the invasion of Iraq. Discusses the team's mission, personnel requirements, required tasks, and plans for "on-the-shelf" programming, and outlines topics and themes to be disseminated to the Iraqi public.
Document 2: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Inspector General Audit Entitled, "Acquisition: Contracts Awarded for the Coalition Provisional Authority by the Defense Contracting Command-Washington," March 18, 2004.
Reports on actions taken by the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance/Coalition Provisional Authority - the entities created to govern Iraq following the U.S. invasion of March 2003 - and the Defense Contracting Command-Washington, which was in charge of administrating private sector activity in support of the invasion and occupation - when awarding contracts. The inspector general undertook this inquiry after the Defense Contract Audit Agency "found irregularities in both the award and administration of the contracts" and recommended an in-depth review. During the time span under consideration in the audit, the Defense Contracting Command awarded 24 contracts, valued at $122.5 million, of which 13, valued at $111 million, were sole-source (non-competitive.) The audit, which categorizes "media support" as "humanitarian assistance," discusses a contract for the Iraqi Free Media Program that was granted on a no-bid basis to the Science Applications International Corporation. The Iraqi program is discussed in detail on pages 10, 16-17, 21-22, 26-29, and 33-36.
Document 3: U.S. Department of Defense, Inspector General Report Entitled, "Review of the Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy," February 9, 2007.
The review underlying this report was performed at the request of Sen. Pat Roberts [R-Kans.], Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Carl Levin [D-MIch.], ranking minority member of the committee, because of substantive questions raised about some of the conclusions of the July 7, 2004 report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence entitled, "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Pre-War Intelligence Assessments on Iraq," particularly in regard to the possible politicization of intelligence. The inspector general's review found that "The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaida relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community, to senior decision-makers. While such actions were not illegal or unauthorized, the actions were, in our opinion, inappropriate . . . " Therefore, "the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy did not provide 'the most accurate analysis of intelligence' to senior decision-makers." (p. ii)
Iraq Media Timeline
Before (and during) the invasion of Iraq - The U.S. government broadcasts psychological warfare programming into Iraq from an EC-130E Commander Solo aircraft (a modified C130 cargo plane). (Asia Times, 8/16/03)
January 16, 2003 - Defense Department offices for special operations and low-intensity conflict and for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs (special plans), issue a White Paper/briefing calling for a "Rapid Reaction Media Team" to set up an "Iraqi Free Media" after the overthrow of the government in Baghdad.
February 2003 - C. Ryan Henry, corporate vice president for strategic assessment and development for the San Diego-based defense contractor Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC), leaves to become deputy to Douglas Feith, head of the Defense Department's policy office. (OUSD(P) Web site, Ryan Henry biography)
March 5, 2003 - The Pentagon gives a no-bid $33 million contract to SAIC for the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council (IRDC), a group of exiles put together by Paul Wolfowitz. (Acquisition, 3/18/04; San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/4/04)
March 11, 2003 - The Defense Department gives SAIC a $15 million sole-source contract for the "Iraqi Free Media" project. Though the company has worked extensively with U.S. Special Forces, it has no media experience. The contract is under Douglas Feith's purview.
(SAIC's vice chairman, Admiral William Owens (Ret.), was a member of the Defense Policy Board, advising Donald Rumsfeld. The company's board members include Gen. Wayne Downing (Ret.), who also worked on domestic and international business development for the company, and was a member of the board of The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Soon after SAIC hired him, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, "Downing became a vocal advocate for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, becoming a part-time lobbyist and military planner for Iraqi dissident Adnan Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.")
("In 1997, Downing drafted a detailed plan for invading Iraq, spearheaded by Iraqi insurgents with the help of 5,000 or 6,000 special operations forces . . . . Gen. Anthony Zinni [U.S. military commander for the Middle East] mocked it as 'the Bay of Goats'," evoking the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.)
(Until mid-2002 Downing worked for the George W. Bush administration as an NSC counterterrorism expert.) (Acquisition, 3/18/04; Asia Times, 8/16/03; Washington Post, 10/16/03; Village Voice, 11/12/03; San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/4/04)
Around March 11, 2003 - Robert Reilly, former head of the Voice of America, is hired to be project director for the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). Reilly worked for the Reagan administration as a liaison to Catholics, and as a publicist for the Nicaraguan contras. He was a member of the Center for Security Policy, whose credo was "peace through American strength." Other members included Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Elliott Abrams, Midge Dector, and Frank Gaffney. One of Reilly's publications posited an inherent incompatibility between Islamic theology and Western values.
Mike Furlong, who did military media work after the Kosovo war, is hired as Reilly's deputy and the Iraqi Media Network's program manager. (Reporters Without Borders Web site, 7/22/03; Center for Security Policy Web site)
March 20, 2003 - The U.S. invades Iraq.
March 21, 2003 - An email from a Defense Department contracting specialist indicates that someone from the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), the entity initially created by the Pentagon to rule Iraq, wants SAIC to hire four named individuals, including Shaha Ali Riza, as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for advice regarding voter education, business development, politics, women, and government reform. (Acquisition, 3/18/04; Contract No. DASW01-03-F-0537)
March 27, 2003 - SAIC is awarded an $834,744 contract for an "Advisor for Democracy and Governance Group," including Shaha Ali Riza. (In April 2007 it is revealed that Paul Wolfowitz, in response to nepotism rules evoked when he became director of the World Bank, arranged for Riza, his significant other, to be posted to the State Department and to be granted several large raises, increasing her salary to more than $193,000.) (Acquisition, 3/18/04; Government Accountability Project Web site, 4/5/07)
March 29, 2003 - British tanks fire on four al-Jazeera journalists filming food distribution in Basra. (Reporters Without Borders Web site,4/8/03)
March 30, 2003 - U.S. forces hit Iraq's Ministry of Information with a cruise missile, damaging the building and destroying satellite dishes. (Central Command News Release, 3/30/2003, Independent on Sunday (London), 3/30/03)
April 6, 2003 - American troops kill Qomran Abdul Razzaq, a BBC translator, when they bomb a Kurdish convoy in northern Iraq. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April 7, 2003 - U.S. forces fire on an al-Jazeera vehicle, prominently marked "press", on a road near Baghdad. (Reporters Without Borders Web site, 4/8/03)
April 8, 2003 - A U.S. tank fires on Baghdad's Palestine Hotel and kills Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Spanish Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso. (Associated Press, 4/19/04)
April 8, 2003 - A U.S. missile hits al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau and kills reporter Tariq Ayoub. The Pentagon had been extensively briefed on the bureau's location, which was festooned with barriers marked "TV". (MEED Weekly Special Report, 2/20/04)
April 10, 2003 - Ahmed al-Rikaby, hired by SAIC to be the Iraqi Media Network's first television director, broadcasts the announcement "Welcome to the new Iraq" from a tent erected by U.S. soldiers. Five days later, "The Voice of New Iraq" officially begins broadcasting on AM radio. (Associated Press, 8/6/03; Christian Science Monitor, 4/21/03)
May 13, 2003 - The Iraqi Media Network begins television broadcasting from Baghdad, featuring cartoons, Egyptian soap operas, folk singers, news, sports, and interviews about Iraq's lack of security and services. (Associated Press, 5/25/03)
May 15, 2003 - PR Week reports SAIC's launching of the newspaper as-Sabah, with an initial run of 50,000. Its "short-term goal is to quell unrest among Iraqis by establishing America's presence and control over basic issues. The San Diego-based information-technology firm holds a Pentagon-issued contract to set up a media operation in post-war Iraq in coordination with Psychological Operations and the White House communications staff." (PR Week (US), 5/19/03)
June 2003 - Administrator Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), successor to ORHA, issues Order No. 6, declaring that the Iraqi Media Network is an interim entity replacing Iraq's information ministry, eliminated by occupation authorities in May. IMN is given the ministry's equipment and facilities. It retains a few hundred reporters and other staff. More than 5,000 employees are fired.
Along with the newspaper as-Sabah, the Iraqi Media Network operates a television station and two radio stations. The network's chief editor, former Iraqi-Canadian exile George Mansour, says its news bulletins are independent. In reality they feature coalition activities and statements by Bremer. Mansour insists his journalists are "genuine" Iraqis, but some mock its reporters' American and British accents. (Reporters Without Borders Web site, 4/26/07)
June 2003 - Independent press watchdog groups issue a report calling for the Iraqi Media Network to be dismantled because it is unclear whether it is to be an independent media outlet or a propaganda tool. Controversies include the hiring of Hero Talabani, wife of Kurdish leader/USG ally Jalal Talabani, to oversee editing, and its daily airing of a British program called "Toward Freedom." The latter issue has led five Iraqi Media Network officials to write to managers installed by SAIC: "We respectfully request to know whose political agenda is involved here. Certainly, it is not a professionally sound programming decision to use a mediocre propaganda program from abroad to supercede our own news program. Following an exhausting hour of 'Toward Freedom,' it is only the most dedicated news junkies who could tolerate it without seeking another channel." (Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003)
June 2003 - Iraqi Media Network staff are not paid and go on strike. They strike again upon learning their pay scale will be that of the former Ministry of Information -- $120 a month. A senior advisor to the IMN, former NBC correspondent Don North, says, "For some reason CPA have said we must adhere to the old pay scheme" despite intense competition for competent staff. (U.S. contractors hired for management positions are paid more than $200 per hour.) (Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003)
June 2003 - Robert Reilly leaves the Iraqi Media Network, suddenly. (Washington Post, 10/16/03)
June 2003 - Iraqi Media Network program manager Mike Furlong is fired. (Baghdad Bulletin, July 21, 2003)
August 5, 2003 - Iraqi Media Network's TV director, Ahmed al-Rikaby, quits, saying the network is inadequately funded and can't compete with al-Jazeera and other alternative news sources. Al-Rikaby's one-year contract to be television director and head of radio programs was scheduled to end in April 2004. He says low pay has led staff to leave the network. (Associated Press, 8/6/03)
August 10, 2003 - The Daily Telegraph, a conservative British paper, reports that former colleagues of Ahmed al-Rikaby say that Iraqi TV's problems arose from incompetence and nepotism, and that his claims of inadequate funding "should not be taken seriously." Al-Rikaby declares that he's been targeted by "a smear campaign," and says, "There was always an excuse as to why I couldn't get what I needed." (The Daily Telegraph, 8/10/03)
August 17, 2003 - U.S. soldiers kill Mazen Dana, a Palestinian journalist working for Reuters, while he is filming outside Abu Ghraib prison. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September 2003 - Dorrance Smith becomes media consultant to the CPA and head of the Iraqi Media Network. A childhood friend of George Bush and former producer for This Week with David Brinkley, he left ABC in 1989 to become media advisor to George H.W. Bush. He worked at This Week again from 1995 to 1999, when he was reportedly forced out, shortly before ABC decided not to renew the contract of commentator William Kristol. Kristol, a Smith colleague from the first Bush White House, was a principal cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq. (Media Research Center Web site, 12/30/99)
September 23, 2003 - Iraq's governing council bars leading Arab satellite TV stations al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya from its ministries and events. The Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders condemn the decision. IPS reports that the Iraqi Media Network has taken over a number of Iraqi radio stations and effectively shut down independent media outlets. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September 24, 2003 - U.S. soldiers open fire on AP photographer Karim Kadhim and his driver Qassim as-Saidi, and rake their car, prominently labeled "Press", with machine gunfire. The reporters escape death by leaping from the car. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September 30, 2003 - According to the Defense Department's inspector general, SAIC's initial $15 million contract for the Iraqi Free Media Program is now valued at $82.3 million: "approximately 71 percent of the costs were materials." (Department of Defense; Office of the Inspector General: Acquisition, March 18, 2004, p. 10)
October 2003 - The Pentagon begins soliciting bids for a new $200 million contract to run the Iraqi Media Network. (Village Voice, 11/12/03)
October 16, 2003 - The Washington Post reports that Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) wants to transfer $100 million meant to expand Iraq's media network from the Pentagon to the State Department; however, the DOD's Office for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (in charge of psychological operations) retains control. (Washington Post, 10/16/03; Village Voice, 11/12/03)
October 22, 2003 - Japan's foreign ministry announces that the 1980s TV drama "Oshin", called a "tearjerker" by some, will be broadcast by the Iraqi Media Network. A Japanese official hopes that "the patience, enthusiasm and forward-looking attitude of Oshin, the story's heroine, will send out a positive message to the Iraqi people." (Japan Economic Newswire, 10/22/03)
Early November 2003 - George Mansour is removed as the Iraqi Media Network's news director. (Village Voice, 11/12/03)
November 3, 2003 - U.S. troops seize al-Jazeera cameraman Salah Hassan near Baquba, as he is interviewing witnesses to a roadside bomb attack, and take him to a U.S. military base, then to Abu Ghraib. He is eventually released without charge. (Observer, 11/27/05; Reporters Without Borders Web site)
November 12, 2003 -The Village Voice reports that a recent poll found that 67 percent of Iraqis with satellite receivers prefer TV news from al-Arabiya or al-Jazeera - not the Iraqi Media Network. (Village Voice, 11/12/03)
November 13, 2003 - The New York Observer reports that the CPA, dissatisfied with U.S. news coverage of Iraq, is about to create its own 24-hour broadcast operation, bypassing American networks. "It's C-Span Baghdad", according to CPA media advisor Dorrance Smith.
The article says that the U.S. military in Iraq and the CPA press office, described by one news producer "as staffed by political true believers, 'neocons and evangelists'," were "'apoplectic' at the press for under-reporting the 'good news' in Iraq." (New York Observer, 11/13/03)
January 7, 2004 - The satellite broadcaster Arabsat, based in U.S.-friendly Saudi Arabia, begins broadcasting Iraqi Media Network's al-Iraqiya TV programs. According to Radio Netherlands, "After the American attack on Iraq the management of both Arabsat and Nilesat announced that they w[ould] not let the Iraqi Media Network to be broadcast on both satellites but sounds like they gave it a second thought . . ." (BBC Monitoring International Reports, 1/7/04)
January 9, 2004 - After deciding not to renew SAIC's contract to run the Iraqi Media Network, the Defense Department replaces it with the Harris Corp., a military contractor based in Melbourne, Florida. The company announces, "the Defense Contracting Command-Washington (DCC-W), on behalf of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) currently governing Iraq," has given it a renewable $96 million to develop Iraq's "antiquated" media network. The total value of the contract could be nearly $165 million. Its "local teammates" will be the Christian-owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and telecommunications company al-Fawares of Kuwait. (Harris Corp. Web site, 4/27/2007)
January 20, 2004 - In his State of the Union speech, President Bush says, "To cut through the barriers of hateful propaganda, the Voice of America and other broadcast services are expanding their programming in Arabic and Persian - and soon, a new television service will begin providing reliable news and information across the region." (White House Web site, 1/20/04)
February 14, 2004 - With $62 million, the U.S. government launches al-Hurra, a network intended to compete with al-Jazeera, to broadcast news and entertainment to Arab countries from a base in Springfield, Virginia. According to the National Post (Canada), Washington has allocated an additional $40 million for a specifically Iraqi al-Hurra operation [which begins broadcasting in April 2004.] Its programs are to be modeled after Radio Sawa, a pop music outlet that the USG considers a relative success.
According to the Post, "The Pentagon-run Iraq Media Network has flopped. Iraqis have not warmed to its broadcasts of official statements by Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator, and members of the Iraqi Governing Council." (National Post (Canada), 12/19/03)
February 14, 2004 - Former CPA contractor and Iraqi Media Network senior advisor Don North says professional journalism training was obviously needed in Iraq - "A brutal form of training was delivered by the U.S. Army and CPA officials when they found stories offensive. They visited the offices of offending newspapers and often left them padlocked and in ruins. No mediation, no appeal."
He says the Iraqi Media Network's problems had many causes, including the fact that, "A revolving door of officials with no credible television or journalism experience dictated plans and policy to IMN."
Also, "A surprising lack of operating capital, in spite of IMN's being the most expensive U.S. government media project in history at an estimated $4 million a month, forced the IMN to run on a shoestring and look like it. There were no funds for basic equipment such as camera batteries, tripods or editing equipment. A $500 request for a satellite dish to downlink the Reuters news feed was refused. A $200 request for printing my training manual in Arabic for reporters was turned down."
Also, "Lack of planning for program production or acquisition resulted in illegal airing of copyrighted European and Hollywood film tapes confiscated from the mansion of Saddam's son Uday."
Also, "IMN staff were ordered to cover endless daily CPA news conferences, interviews and photo opportunities, leaving little time and few facilities to cover genuine news stories initiated by IMN reporters on the street."
Also, "The right of 'collective bargaining,' another American concept, was trashed by CPA management when IMN staff twice went on strike for higher wages. IMN staff were told in effect, 'our way or the highway'." (Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 2/14/05; Don North statement)
February 15, 2004 - Harris Corp. takes over the operation of the Iraqi Media Network from SAIC. Eleven months after SAIC was given a contract that was ultimately valued at $82.3 million, an official from one of Harris's two regional subcontracters, Lebanese broadcasting Corporation International, says, "We are practically starting from scratch." (MEED Weekly Special Report, 2/20/04)
March 3, 2004 - U.S. troops kill al-Jazeera editor-in-chief Mahmood Awad Hamadi in Falluja. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 18, 2004 - Near a checkpoint, U.S. troops kill correspondent Ali al-Khatib and cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news station. (Associated Press, 4/19/04)
March 18, 2004 - Nadia Nasrat, announcer, Majeed Rasheed, technician, and Mohammed Ahmad Sarhan, security agent of the Iraqi Media Network, are killed by armed men in Diyala (Baquba). (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 18, 2004 - The Defense Department's inspector general issues a report on CPA contracts. It says that SAIC's original program manager for the Iraqi Media Network bought a H2 Hummer and a Ford pickup truck and chartered a DC-10 cargo jet to fly them to Iraq for his personal use "outside the scope of the contract." When the Pentagon's contracting office refused to authorize the purchases, SAIC "went around the authority of this acquisition specialist to a different office within the under secretary of defense for policy to gain approval and succeeded." The inspector general could not specifically determine the cost but one category of expenses called "Office & Vehicle" totaled $381,000.
Also, when a subject specialist did not win a USAID contract, the director of the ORHA arranged for him to be covered by SAIC's Iraqi Media Network contract. He "was first placed in charge of determining how to dispose of garbage in Iraq, and was then made Senior Ministry Advisor for the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Neither of those roles was within the scope of the Iraqi Free media contract." ORHA's director wrote, "we anticipate . . . [the subject matter expert] would be used on a variety of special projects essentially outside of the Indigenous media contract's scope of work."
The inspector general concluded, "We could not determine how the contracting officer obtained a fair and reasonable price for the Iraqi Free Media contract." (Department of Defense; Office of the Inspector General: Acquisition, March 18, 2004, pp. 18, 21)
March 26, 2004 - U.S. troops kill ABC cameraman Burhan Mohammed Mazhoor in Falluja. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April 6, 2004 - SAIC says "its revenue soared to a record $6.7 billion" during the last fiscal year, with "a surge in defense spending . . . . government business accounted for 80 percent of its revenue, with Pentagon contracts amounting to $3.7 billion." (San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/7/04)
April 15, 2004 - Donald Rumsfeld declares, "what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable." (Department of Defense Transcripts, 4/15/04)
April 16, 2004 - According to a leaked memo, George Bush discloses in a meeting with Tony Blair that he plans to bomb al-Jazeera's Qatar headquarters, but Blair dissuades him. (The Mirror (U.K.), 11/22/05)
April 19, 2004 - The St. Petersburg Times reports that development work on the Iraqi Media Network's al-Iraqiya and other media projects "has come to a near halt in recent days as Harris and other companies have been in lockdown because of the violence. Even with armed guards and armored vehicles, [project director David] Sedgley has been unable to move more than a mile or so beyond the Green Zone . . ."
The Times notes that Harris won the Pentagon contract to run the Iraqi Media Network through its "one-man Iraqi Initiatives project." Because "it knew nothing about programming," it subcontracted "a non-controversial Arab network," and Newsweek's Kuwaiti printer. (St. Petersburg Times, 4/19/04)
April 19, 2004 - On a road leading to Samarra, U.S. troops shoot and kill correspondent As'ad Kadhim and driver Hussein Saleh, and wound cameraman Bassem Kamel, employees of the Pentagon-funded al-Iraqiya TV station. (Associated Press, 4/19/04)
May 15, 2004 - Shortly before the end of its rule in Iraq, the CPA announces creation of a new framework for Iraq's broadcast media, turning it into a sort of public broadcasting system. (Agence France Presse, 5/15/04)
Mid 2004 - A company called Iraqex, created to look for business opportunities in occupied Iraq, forms a partnership with the Rendon Group. (New York Times, 12/11/05) [Rendon has a long history of propaganda activities on behalf of conservative and Republican Party causes.]
August 7, 2004 - Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi suspends al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau. (New York Times, 8/8/04)
September 4, 2004 - The Iraqi interim government breaks into al-Jazeera's Baghdad bureau, searches it, and closes it down indefinitely. (Agence France Presse, 9/6/04; Associated Press, 9/7/04)
Around September 2004 - The U.S. military awards the year-old Iraqex company a $6 million contract. The company is to undertake "an aggressive advertising and PR campaign." It has "no background in public relations or the media." (Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, 10/6/04; Haymarket Publishing Services, 11/19/04; New York Times, 12/11/05)
October 7, 2004 - Ahmad Jasim, al-Iraqiya reporter, is killed by unknown armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
November 2004 - The CPA changes the Iraqi Media Network's name to Iraqia Network and hires J. Walter Thompson for public relations work "to convince Iraqis that IMN or Iraqia was credible." [The network continues to be referred to popularly as the Iraqi Media Network.] (Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 2/14/05; Don North statement)
November 1, 2004 - Reuters cameraman Dhia Najim is shot in the head and killed by a U.S. sniper while covering fighting between armed men and American troops. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 20, 2005 - Harris Corp. announces it has been awarded a second, three-month, $22 million contract by the Iraqi Media Network, covering training, programming support, systems, and deployment. (Harris Corp. Web site, 1/20/05; 4/27/2007)
February 20, 2005 - When asked by the St. Petersburg Times how Harris Corp. can "counter the perception that the Iraqi Media Network's TV station, al-Iraqiya, is a mouthpiece for the U.S. government - especially during the time the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority was running the country," project manager David Sedgley says, "First, Harris Corp. has never received a dime from the U.S. government - the Iraqi Media Network, including al-Iraqiya, is totally funded by the Iraqi government with Iraqi funds."
He also says one of Harris's objectives is to develop "fair and balanced" broadcasts, and that it has "reduced the amount of pro-American subjects" being aired.
Regarding security, he says, "If we knew it was going to deteriorate to today's situation, I would have recommended to my management not to bid this program." (St. Petersburg Times, 2/20/05)
February 28, 2005 - Raida al-Wazzan, al-Iraqiya TV announcer, is killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 2005 - Iraqex changes its name to the Lincoln Group. (Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter, 3/23/05)
May 31, 2005 - Jerges Mohammed Sultan, al-Iraqiya TV reporter, is killed near his house by armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
June 2005 - The Defense Department's Special Operations Command awards three five-year contracts, totaling $300 million, for articles, broadcasts, advertisements, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other messages meant to win international support for the U.S. government, including one to the Lincoln Group, which claims "select relationships in Congress, the Administration and the U.S. Department of State." According to the New York Times, Lincoln becomes "the main civilian contractor for carrying out an aggressive propaganda campaign in Anbar Province, known as the Western Mission project. Over the next several months," records show, "the military transfer[s] tens of millions of dollars to Lincoln for the project."
Another contract goes to SAIC, despite "widespread criticism for its handling of Iraq's first TV and radio network." Its earlier contract was not renewed in December 2003 "amid complaints that the network was mainly a propaganda tool for the occupying forces." The third is given to SYColeman Inc., headed by Lt. Gen. Jared Bates (Ret.), formerly director of operations for ORHA.
Mike Furlong, fired by the Iraqi Media Network in June 2003, is deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element and one of the officers in charge of the project. (USA Today, 12/13/05, 12/14/05, 12/23/05; San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/18/05; New York Times, 2/15/06)
June 1, 2005 - U.S. troops kill ad-Da'wa newspaper reporter Haydar al-Jourani in Najaf. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
June 22, 2005 - Yassir as-Salihi, Knight-Ridder reporter, is killed in his car by U.S. troops. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
June 28, 2005 - Ahmad Wa'il al-Bakri, ash-Sharqiya TV director, is killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July 1, 2005 - Khalid Sabih al-Attar, al-Iraqiya producer/presenter is kidnapped and killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July 3, 2005 - Editor-in-chief of Baghdad TV Maha Ibrahim is shot and killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
August 27, 2005 - Rafid Mahmood Said al-Anbagy, Diyala radio presenter for the Iraqi Media Network, is killed by armed men in al-Gatoon area. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
August 29, 2005 - Hayder Kadhim and Walid Khaled Ibrahim, Reuters reporters, are killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad while covering fighting. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
September 17, 2005 - Sabah Mohssin of al-Iraqiya is killed. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
September 22, 2005 - Ahlam Yousif, TV engineer, and Bassem al-Fadli, manager, al-Iraqiya, are killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
October 2005 - The Lincoln Group presents a plan called "Divide and Prosper" to the U.S. military's Special Operations Command in Florida. It recommends making Sunni religious leaders one of the "target audiences" for U.S. propaganda. (New York Times, 1/2/06)
November 2, 2005 - Defense Secretary Rumsfeld endorses Dorrance Smith to be his chief spokesman, despite outrage resulting from an April 25 Wall Street Journal opinion piece in which Smith wrote that U.S. television networks were "a tool of terrorist propaganda" because they re-aired footage from al-Jazeera. (Washington Post, 11/2/05)
November 28, 2005 - Akeel Abdul Ridha and Muqdad Muhsin of al-Iraqiya are killed by armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
November 30, 2005 - The Los Angeles Times reports, "the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq." The operation is handled by the Lincoln Group, and "is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military." (Los Angeles Times, 11/30/05)
December 2005 - A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll indicates that 72 percent of Americans think it is wrong for the Pentagon to secretly pay the Iraqi media to publish pro-U.S. stories. (USA Today, 12/23/05)
Early January 2006 - Journalist Kamal Karim is sentenced to 30 years in prison for defaming Kurdish regional leader Masoud Barzani. His treatment is met by international outrage and his sentence is later reduced; he is imprisoned for six months. (Christian Science Monitor, 1/10/06)
January 1, 2006 - Mahmood Za'al, Baghdad TV reporter, is killed by U.S. troops in Khaldiya. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 2, 2005 - The New York Times reports that the Lincoln Group has been paying Sunni Iraqi religious scholars for propaganda assistance. (New York Times, 1/2/06)
January 4, 2006 - Through a recess appointment by President Bush, Dorrance Smith becomes assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. [On April 7, he is confirmed for the position by the Senate.] (Washington Post, 1/5/06; 4/8/06)
January 10, 2006 - The Christian Science Monitor reports that nearly 50 percent of Iraqis watch al-Iraqiya. However, according to its critics, "Iraq's version of America's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has simply become a propaganda tool for the country's leading Shiite politicians. Al Iraqiya was meant to stand as a model for a burgeoning independent press, but seems to have instead become one more political spoil for its competing factions . . . . The Iraqi Media Network is another factor that is helping to turn Iraqi society into a sectarian society." (Christian Science Monitor, 1/10/06)
Mid-January 2006 - The Defense Department inspector general begins an audit of the Pentagon's use of the Lincoln Group for "psychological operations." (New York Times, 2/15/06)
February 15, 2006 - The New York Times reports that two years ago the two founders of the Lincoln Group, recent Oxford University graduate Christian Bailey (né Christian Jozefowicz) and Paige Craig (formerly a U.S. Marines intelligence officer), "were living in a half-renovated Washington group house, with a string of failed startup companies behind them," until winning contracts from the Pentagon. "Now their company . . . works out of elegant offices along Pennsylvania Avenue and sponsors polo matches in Virginia horse country. Mr. Bailey recently bought a million-dollar Georgetown row house. Mr. Craig drives a Jaguar and shows up for interviews accompanied by his 'director of security', a beefy bodyguard." (New York Times, 2/15/06)
February 20, 2006 - Raeda Wazzan, al-Iraqiya news anchor, is kidnapped. Five days later she is found dead on a roadside in Mosul, where she had lived and worked. She had been shot repeatedly in the head. Her 10-year-old son was also kidnapped but he was later released. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 5, 2006 - The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo) reports that the Japanese Foreign Ministry is providing the animated series "Captain Tsubasa", about a soccer-playing boy, to the Iraqi Media Network for free. Twenty-six Japan Ground Self-Defense Force water tankers in southern Iraq have been decorated with giant decals of Captain Tsubasa. A Foreign Ministry official predicts Iraqi children "will be filled with dreams and hopes by watching the show, and boost pro-Japanese sentiment even more." (Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo), 3/5/06)
March 11, 2006 - Amjad Hamid Mohsin, director, and Anwar Turky, driver, al-Iraqiya, are killed by armed men in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 19, 2006 - Ali Hamid al-Mayahi, ad-Da'wa newspaper reporter, and Kamil Manahi Anbar, an-Nahar reporter and Institute of War and Peace Journalism correspondent, are killed by joint U.S.-Iraqi troops while the journalists are covering a military raid on a mosque in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
May 5, 2006 - Saad Shammari, TV host on al-Iraqiya, is found dead of apparent strangulation on a roadside in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
May 24, 2006 - The New York Times reports that an internal Defense Department investigation by Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk has concluded that payment of Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American stories could undermine U.S. credibility and should be stopped. (New York Times, 5/24/06)
May 31, 2006 - Jafaar Ali, al-Iraqiya sports presenter, is gunned down in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July 19, 2006 - The Defense Department drops the Lincoln Group and SAIC from the TV and radio components of a $300 million contract awarded in June 2005. SYColeman retains its part of the contract. A Pentagon psychological operations official says, "We learned that working with three companies increases expenditures in both time and money and does not provide best value to the government."
(SYColeman is a subsidiary of intelligence contractor L-3 Communications. Since May, L-3's president for government services has been Lt. Gen. Paul Cerjan (Ret.). After retirement, Cerjan had worked for Lockheed and Loral and was on the board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, along with Middle East policy hawks Michael Ledeen, Richard Perle, and James Woolsey. He had been president of Pat Robertson's Regent University for three years when he was called by ORHA head Jay Garner, and then "oversaw the demobilization the Iraqi army." After that he was hired by Halliburton as "vice president of worldwide military affairs" for its subsidiary KBR, where he was in charge of military logistics for Iraq.) (Washington Post, 7/19/06; TMCnet News, 5/10/06,; CorpWatch Web site, 8/9/06; Private Warriors (Frontline) Web site, 6/21/05)
September 2006 - Willem Marx recounts his experiences paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-U.S. stories secretly written by American soldiers while he worked as a $1,000-a-month intern for the Lincoln Group. He mentions on one occasion needing "an unusually large advance payment" to buy upfront air time for the "Western Mission" propaganda operation, and driving through Baghdad with $3 million in cash in the trunk of a car, "separated into thirty plastic-wrapped $100,000 blocks." The company, he reports, which paid Iraqi newspapers some $50-$1,500 to publish planted stories, expected to make $19 million for two months of work on the contract. (Harper's, 9/06)
September 5, 2006 - SAIC reports revenue of $2 billion in the second quarter of FY 2006, a five percent increase over 2005. Government contracts accounted for about 92 percent of its 2005 revenue of $7.8 billion. Its revenue has increased by 78 percent since 2002. It has around 9,000 active contracts with the government. (San Diego Union-Tribune, 9/6/06)
Late September 2006 - The Lincoln Group receives "a two-year, $12.4 million contract to monitor English and Arabic news outlets" and to produce public relations material for the U.S. military in Iraq. Previously, the contract was handled by the Rendon Group. (New York Times, 10/20/06; Haymarket Publishing Services Ltd., 10/2/06)
October 4, 2006 - Jassem Hamad Ibrahim, al-Iraqiya driver, is killed by unidentified gunmen in Mosul as he is running errands for the station. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
October 6, 2006 - The Defense Department inspector general reports that the Pentagon did not break the law when it used the Lincoln Group "to place articles in the Iraqi media . . . .Psychological Operations are a central element of Information Operations . . . to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to U.S. objectives."
However, the inspector general says that military officials violated contracting guidelines for competitive bidding and for overseeing costs in connection with a September 2004 Lincoln Group contract. But he recommends no punitive measures because the contract has expired. (Department of Defense Inspector General: Information Operations Activities in Southwest Asia, 10/6/06)
October 14, 2006 - Raed Qais ash-Shammari, an al-Iraqiya employee, is killed in a drive-by shooting in southern Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
December 29, 2006 - Akil Sarhan of the Iraq Media Network's sports TV channel ar-Riyadia is killed when his car is attacked on the way to work by armed men. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 9, 2007 - Akil Adnan Majid, as-Sabah accountant, is kidnapped outside the newspaper's office in Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
January 20, 2007 - Mohammed Nuri and Baha' Hussein Khalaf, reporters for the Iraqi Media Network, are killed in the Nineva governorate. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
February 4, 2007 - Suhad al-Khalidi, Iraqi Media Network reporter, is killed by U.S. troops as their patrol passes her car in Hilla. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
February 7, 2007 - Three unknown security guards for al-Iraqiya are killed by foreign security guards accompanying a delegation in as-Salihiya in central Baghdad, near al-Iraqiya headquarters. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March 20, 2007 - USA Today publishes an article entitled, "Democracy's Support Sinks; Iraqis Disillusioned, Divided on Government." It reports that a recent USA Today/ABC News/BBC/ARD (German TV) poll found that the percentage of Iraqis who view democracy as the best system for their country has declined from 57 percent to 43 percent in 16 months, that 51 percent, including 94 percent of Sunnis, believe that attacks on U.S. forces are acceptable political acts, and that "[b]y more than 3 to 1, Iraqis say the presence of U.S. forces is making the security situation worse." (USA Today, 3/20/07)
March 31, 2007 - Mohammed Jassim Yousif, Iraqi Media Network reporter, is killed west of Baghdad. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April 25, 2007 - The International Press Institute, a media watchdog group, reports that "Iraq remains the most dangerous country for journalists." It says, "The Iraqi government's policies towards the press closely resemble those of autocratic regimes in the region, and not those of an aspiring democracy." (Reuters Foundation Alertnet, 4/25/07)
(Most of the information in the Timeline on killed or kidnapped journalists is from the Brussels Tribunal Web site. The Tribunal's list is based in large part on one published in az-Zawra, the Iraqi Journalist Union's newspaper, on May 4, 2006. This timeline includes only casualties from the Iraq Media Network and its organs, or those killed or imprisoned by coalition forces. In total, the Brussels Tribune Web site lists 256 media professionals killed in Iraq as of April 2007.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)