War / Peace

Bush's Pro-War Front Group, 'Vets for Freedom', Rallies with Republican Senators

Vets for Freedom (VFF), the well-funded pro-war lobby group, is cranking-up its PR campaign on behalf of President Bush's war in Iraq with a news conference held July 17th in the US Capitol. A slate of pro-war Republican Senators including Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, Lindsey Graham, along with former Democratic (now independent) Senator Joe Lieberman, all participated with Pete Hegseth and other VFF lobbyists.

In June 2006, I reported that:

Citizen journalists on SourceWatch have been investigating and exposing the many Republican connections and the partisan pro-war political agenda behind Vets for Freedom,

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IraqSlogger Watches the Media

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on July 11, 2007 - 11:11am

Veteran Iraq war correspondent Chris Albritton has begun writing a regular MediaWatch column for the recently-launched news website, IraqSlogger.com. Recent columns have examined the amount of U.S.

Topics:

Iraq

Media

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From Bank to Tank: Wolfowitz Lands Back at AEI

Submitted by Bob Burton on July 5, 2007 - 3:13pm

One of the architects of the war in Iraq for the Bush Administration and former World Bank President, Paul Wolfowitz, has landed a role as a Visiting Scholar at the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute.

Main Source:

Washington Post, July 3, 2007

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No Slammer for Scooter

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on July 3, 2007 - 12:05am

Following the news that President Bush has commuted the 2 1/2-year prison sentence of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Brad DeLong is highlighting a column written two weeks ago by Jeff Lomonaco, which predicted this outcome.

Main Source:

Brad DeLong's Semi-daily Journal, July 3, 2007

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You Say Iraqi, I Say Al Qaeda

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on June 29, 2007 - 12:13am

Glenn Greenwald and Joshua Micah Marshall are calling out the mainstream media for uncritically parroting the Bush administration's new strategy of referring to Iraqi insurgents as "Al Qaeda." Greenwald writes, "What is so amazing about this new rhetorical development — not only from our military, but also from our 'journalists' — is that, for years, it was too shameless and false even for the Bush administration to use.

Main Source:

Salon.com, June 23, 2007

Topics:

Iraq

Journalism

Rhetoric

What We Still Don't Know

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on June 26, 2007 - 9:50am

According to a new poll by Newsweek, "Even today, more than four years into the war in Iraq, as many as four in 10 Americans (41 percent) still believe Saddam Hussein's regime was directly involved in financing, planning or carrying out the terrorist attacks on 9/11, even though no evidence has surfaced to support a connection. A majority of Americans were similarly unable to pick Saudi Arabia in a multiple-choice question about the country where most of the 9/11 hijackers were born. Just 43 percent got it right -- and a full 20 percent thought most came from Iraq."

Main Source:

Newsweek, June 23, 2007

Topics:

Iraq

Terrorism

Strange Culture

Eduardo Kac's "GFP Bunny"
Slate magazine has an online slide show this week about "bio art" — in which people use genetic manipulation to insert coded messages into DNA, or produce a transgenic rabbit using a gene derived from a jellyfish that makes it glow fluorescent green.

I was a little disappointed, though, that Slate failed to mention the work of Steve Kurtz, a bio artist whose work goes further than most in provoking debate about the ethical issues involved with genetic engineering — so far, in fact, that he is currently awaiting trial on charges that could land him in prison for 20 years.

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The Pentagon Gets Its Own Tony Snow

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on June 19, 2007 - 2:14pm

Citing an unnamed "senior administration official," The Politico reports that Geoff Morrell, "previously a White House correspondent for ABC News, has been hired as the Defense Department's on-camera briefer. ... The official said that a working journalist was chosen by Defense Secretary Robert M.

Main Source:

The Politico, June 18, 2007

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Michael Evans, A General in God's Army

Submitted by John Stauber on June 14, 2007 - 9:10am

Bill Berkowitz reports on the rise of Michael D. Evans: "In recent appearances on two U.S. cable news networks, he was slinging and zinging -- the well-rehearsed pitchman for the Biblical 'End Times' was dead certain that 'Iran is going to have to be attacked' before 2008.

Main Source:

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Hughes' New Public Diplomacy Plan More of the Same

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on June 13, 2007 - 3:07pm

Karen Hughes in Indonesia A new public diplomacy plan, authored by Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, says the United States must "offer a positive vision of hope and opportunity that is rooted in our most basic values." The "U.S. National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication" promotes a Hughes favorite, the "diplomacy of deeds," which is defined as "providing health care, education, economic opportunity, food and shelter, training for political participation, help after disasters." Also put forward is a "Counterterrorism Communications Center," to develop "messages and strategies to discredit terrorists and their ideology." The Center is "now being formed at the State Department and [is] staffed heavily with military and intelligence officers," reports Warren Strobel. The new plan stresses that "all communication and public diplomacy activities" should "support those who struggle for freedom and democracy." Former State Department official Price Floyd countered, "When people hear that, they stop and say, 'What about Abu Ghraib? What about Guantanamo?'"