war/peace

The New York Times editorial board supports a proposed federal shield law for journalists that is currently in the Senate. The bill, which would provide journalists with protections against having to reveal sources in federal court, also makes allowances for genuine needs on the part of law enforcement and security concerns. Despite those exceptions, the bill faces "near hysterical opposition from the Bush administration. ... The White House, as ever, is playing the fear card, orchestrating a barrage of warnings that the law would 'wreak havoc' on national security and 'completely eviscerate' the ability to investigate terrorism." But not all Republicans agree with the President. Indiana Representative Mike Pence countered, "The only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press." Nearly all of the States' Attorneys General have endorsed the bill, as have both John McCain and Barack Obama. A similar bill passed the House last autumn.

The Army National Guard is launching a new recruiting campaign, called the "Rock Star Hero Challenge." Developed by RedPeg Marketing, the effort focuses on venues where the Guard expects its target demographic to be: music festivals, NASCAR events, and fishing tournaments. Using a tour bus to be a presence at at many as 50 events that will draw 50,000 to 100,000 attendees each, the campaign will draw in potential recruits with "52-inch touch screen displays that allow potential recruits to see and participate in virtual missions. Interactive kiosks where visitors can pose with images of rock bands will sit outside the buses, tying into the musical nature of the events and emphasizing the figurative 'rock star' quality of Army National Guard members." LTC Joseph Day, chief of the Army National Guard's strategic actions and marketing, said that the National Guard is currently on track to meet its recruiting goal for 2008 and that "The interactive nature makes the 'Rock Star Hero' different and will appeal to our demographic's thirst for technology."

Netroots Nation, the annual conference for thousands of liberal bloggers, Democratic Party activists and liberal advocacy organizations is underway today, July 17, and through the weekend in Austin, Texas. In the decade since then-First Lady Hillary Clinton railed against the "vast Right Wing conspiracy," Democratic liberals have woven their own with dozens of new think tanks, lobby groups, funders like the Democracy Alliance and George Soros, scores of consultants and hundreds of millions of dollars raised and spent to grease the wheels of collaboration, all designed this year to win the White House and solidify control of the Congress.

Liberal bloggers are notorious dissenters and critics of mainstream Democratic policies, but there won't be much of that on formal display in Austin, nothing like the "Coffee with the Troops" which injected an unscheduled discussion of the Iraq War into last year's conference in Chicago. Potentially controversial issues including Dennis Kucinich's call for impeachment of President Bush, or the failure of the Democratic Congress to stop funding the war in Iraq, are off the official agenda at Netroots Nation.

A U.S. House of Representatives committee has released a report investigating the White House's media management efforts over the death from friendly fire of Army Ranger Pat Tillman and the rescue from an Iraqi hospital of Private Jessica Lynch. The report noted that Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan had e-mailed the White House’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Peter Wehner, recommending that he "find out what faith Tillman practiced and have the president go by that church and light a candle or say a prayer." In response to an email from Associated Press (AP) reporter Ron Fournier, Karl Rove asked "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this". Fournier replied "the Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight.'" Fournier told AP that he regretted the "breezy nature of the correspondence." Former White House spokesman Taylor Gross delivered the first official White House comment on Tillman's death on April 26, 2004. Gross went on to do PR for the pro-war lobby group Vets for Freedom.

Former Congressman Curt Weldon's employer Defense Solutions got a good deal in Iraq. So good, that "the deal, for decades-old, equipment, included terms so lopsided, they likely would have been illegal under U.S. law." Defense Solutions got a contract with the Iraqi government in 2005 to refurbish obsolete Soviet-era Hungarian tanks. While U.S. law would dictate that the company's fee be tied to performance, Defense Solutions' contract not only ensures payment, it also gives them a percentage of the total cost. Even the Pentagon admits that "A cost plus percentage of cost type arrangement would encourage the contractor to experience as much cost as possible to receive a greater amount of fee." The status of the tanks is not known, and the amount paid to Defense Solutions is confidential. The contract was signed on the Iraqi side by Ziad Cattan, who was put in place by the U.S. to oversee Iraq's defense procurement. During his time in Congress, Weldon was on the House Committee on Armed Services and chaired the Military Procurement Subcommittee under Armed Services.

Reacting to a report that revealed American cigarette exports to Iran have risen tenfold during George W. Bush's time in office, Republican presidential candidate John McCain commented, "Maybe that's a way of killing 'em." He followed this by saying, "I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years." McCain's public joke about killing Iranians was the second of his campaign. Last year at a South Carolina campaign stop, when he was asked if there was a plan to attack Iran, McCain responded by saying "You know that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran?" He then sang "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" before discussing what he believed to be the serious threat Iran poses to Israel's national security.

The Pentagon is attempting to influence filmmakers and future movies depicting the U.S. conflict in Iraq. Vietnam-era war movies like "Apocalypse Now" and "Born on the Fourth of July" helped stereotype Vietnam veterans as crazy or psychologically damaged. To prevent this from happening again, the U.S. Army has assigned a lieutenant colonel to an office in Los Angeles, given him the job of reviewing movie scripts about the Iraq conflict and deciding which ones will get military assistance in their making. If the Army approves a script, it means the filmmaker can gain valuable access to bases, ships, planes, tanks and Humvees, and receive advice from the military in making the movie. In exchange for advice and access to these props, though, the filmmaker must agree to address any "problems" the Pentagon finds with their script. If the filmmaker refuses, the Pentagon can pull its offer. Some filmmakers view the Pentagon's script advice as a subtle form of censorship or an attempt to spin the war. Filmmaker Paul Haggis, who wrote and directed the Iraq war movie "In the Valley of Elah," said he believes the Army is not interested in telling honest stories about soldiers or the war. "They are trying to put the best spin on what they are doing," he said. "Of course they want to publicize what is good. But that doesn't mean that it is true."

To understand how the Bush administration "could fool tens of millions of Americans, intimidate Democrats, and transform the vaunted Washington press corps from watchdogs to lapdogs," look to the 1980s, suggests Robert Parry. On Consortiumnews.com, Parry publishes the "lost chapter" (pdf) of the Congressional report on the Iran-Contra scandal, which was excised in order to win "the votes of three moderate GOP senators." The chapter details how a "public / private network set out to accomplish what a covert CIA operation in a foreign country might attempt -- to sway the media, the Congress, and American public opinion in the direction of the Reagan administration's policies." The chapter describes a 1983 meeting between CIA director William Casey and PR professionals, including Philip Morris' Bill Greener. The topic was how "to sell a 'new product' -- Central America -- by generating interest across-the-spectrum." Edelman is also mentioned as being paid $92,000 to organize "press conferences and speaking tours by persons supporting the Contras." Another PR firm, International Business Communications, was "awarded a secret contract for $276,186," from the State Department's Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Despite U.S. Food and Drug Administration warnings, the Veterans Administration (VA) failed to alert 32,000 veterans using the smoking cessation drug, Chantix. Nearly 1,000 of the vets were "enrolled in the Chantix study suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and had been recruited, with monthly $30 payments, for a behavioral study with the drug." The combination of PTSD and Chantix puts the vets at particularly high risk for suicidal or violent behavior. There was a three month lag between the link being discovered and the vets being notified. Despite that, the White House said the VA "is doing everything they can to be mindful of the safety of these veterans ... under wonderful leadership by Secretary Peake." Deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto said, "It hurts me to have anyone think we would treat our veterans as lab rats." The initial warning letter to the vets did not mention suicide specifically, but a new letter currently being drafted will. As CMD previously reported, Pfizer has been working to counter bad press about the drug.

Alhurra's "Inside Washington" showThe U.S. government-funded Arabic news channel Alhurra "paid former Bush and Clinton administration officials, lobbyists and high-profile Washington journalists tens of thousands of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to appear on the network as commentators," report Dafna Linzer and Paul Kiel. "While it is common for television networks to pay journalists who appear on their programs, many reporters decline to accept money from government-funded organizations." Media ethics specialist Kelly McBride commented, "You wouldn't let a reporter take money from a clearly partisan group. The same standard should apply to taking money from an operation set up by the government to influence opinion." The highest-paid Alhurra commentator was Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute, who received $10,300. Donnelly said his discussions of the U.S. presidential primaries on Alhurra were "useful" in highlighting "the competitive and participatory nature of an American democracy." Other paid guests include Republican official turned lobbyist Chad Kolton and Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen recently called for an investigation of Alhurra, following reports on station practices and broadcasts of "anti-American and anti-Israeli viewpoints," along with "pro-Iranian policies."