War / Peace

A Wall By Any Other Name

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

The Israeli government refers to the controversial barrier it's building in the West Bank as a "security fence," but that may soon change. The Associated Press reports that a new name, the "terror prevention fence," was discussed at a recent meeting between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and high-ranking officials. According to AP, the name change is part of an effort "to improve its international image" prior to a case on the barrier's legality before the International Court of Justice in The Hague next month.

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, Friday, January 16, 2004
Topics: 
International
Rhetoric
War / Peace

Bush Targetted Saddam Pre-9/11

Submitted by Laura Miller on

Almost as soon as George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he and his top advisors were plotting a regime change in Iraq, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill told CBS' "60 Minutes." At Bush's first National Security Council meeting 10 days after the inauguration, O'Neill said going after Saddam Hussein was topic "A."

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Main Source: 
CBS "60 Minutes," January 11, 2004
Topics: 
Iraq
U.S. Government

Al Iraqiya Fails To Be 'Independent' News Source

Submitted by Laura Miller on

The U.S. funded Iraqi Media Network was supposed to bring "independent" journalism to a "liberated" Iraq. The reality, however, is that IMN's Al Iraqiya radio and television station are failing, according to CorpWatch's Pratap Chatterjee. The stations, run by top CIA contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), seem almost irrelevant given the more popular satellite news channels Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya and the common criticism that "Al Iraqiya has no news.

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Main Source: 
CorpWatch, January 6, 2004
Topics: 
Iraq
Media

2003 Spin of the Year: WMDs

Submitted by John Stauber on

The Guerrilla New Network has "picked the administration's packaging and sale of the case for war based on Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction as our Spin of the Year. The case has turned out to be so flimsy that the administration has been forced to backtrack and deflect questions about the still missing weapons. Paul Wolfowitz told Vanity Fair this summer that it was a 'bureaucratic' decision to focus on the WMD, and even Rumsfeld has repeatedly contradicted specific claims he made to reporters in the run-up to the invasion."

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Main Source: 
Guerrilla News Network, December 31, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

White House Web Scrubbing

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"It's not quite Soviet-style airbrushing, but the Bush administration has been using cyberspace to make some of its own cosmetic touch-ups to history," writes Dana Milbank. "White House officials were steamed when Andrew S. Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said earlier this year that U.S.

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Main Source: 
Washington Post, December 18, 2003
Topics: 
Internet
Iraq
Secrecy
U.S. Government

No WMDs? No Big Deal, Says Bush

Submitted by John Stauber on

"The man leading the US hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction [David Kay] will leave his post prematurely in the next few months amid dwindling expectations that there is anything to be found. ... 'This is a big blow to the administration and it will signal the effective end of the search for weapons of mass destruction,' said Joseph Cirincione, a weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment Institute for Peace in Washington. 'Some will continue looking but very, very few expect there to be any significant finds at this point.' ...

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Main Source: 
The Guardian, December 18, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Dissent in the Bunker

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Newt Gingrich, who has been advising the Bush Administration as a member of the Defense Policy Board, has gone public with his worries about the shortcomings of administration policy in Iraq, arguing that the administration has been putting far too much emphasis on a military solution and slighting the political element. "The real key here is not how many enemy do I kill. The real key is how many allies do I grow," he said.

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Main Source: 
Newsweek, December 15, 2003
Topics: 
Right Wing
Iraq

The Saudi Connection

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, America's longtime ally and the world's largest oil producer, is "the epicenter" of terrorist financing, according to a new report by David E. Kaplan. Prior to 9/11, moreover, "moves by counterterrorism officials to act against the Saudis were repeatedly rebuffed by senior staff at the State Department and elsewhere who felt that other foreign policy interests outweighed fighting terrorism."

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Main Source: 
U.S. News and World Report, December 15, 2003
Topics: 
Terrorism
International

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