U.S. Government

Private Sector Diplomacy

In response to a study finding "diminishing foreign regard for American culture and politics, a new organization of marketing and advertising corporations is preparing to raise an initial $1 million to combat anti-Americanism abroad." The Business for Diplomatic Action nonprofit organization plans to launch a website "where corporations could exchange information to 'help them be good citizens of a country vs.

No

Two Invasions = One War, No Politics

"As some troops have discovered," writes Richard Leiby, "... you can serve in both Afghanistan and Iraq and end up with a medal recognizing just one war. It's known in military-speak as the GWOT (rhymes with 'fought') medal, for the Global War on Terrorism." According to Pentagon spokesperson Jim Turner, "The GWOT medals tie today's global war to yesterday's global war, i.e. WWII.

No

Free the Press!

The Associated Press and the Mississippi paper Hattiesburg American filed a lawsuit "against the U.S. Marshals Service over an incident in April in which a federal marshal erased reporters' recordings of a speech Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia gave to high school students" about the U.S. Constitution.

No

Torture, Brand America and the Bottom Line

In its damning report, the Red Cross states that "physical and psychological coercion were used by [U.S.] military intelligence in a systematic way to gain confessions and extract information and other forms of cooperation" from Iraqi detainees.

No

How Chalabi Conned the Neocons

"Ahmed Chalabi is a treacherous, spineless turncoat. He had one set of friends before he was in power, and now he's got another," says L. Marc Zell, a former law partner of Douglas Feith, now the undersecretary of defense for policy, and a former friend and supporter of Chalabi and his aspirations to lead Iraq.

No

Battle of the Photographs

"The Bush administration, despite the savvy of its spinmeisters and Hollywood-trained publicists, has lost the war of images abroad," writes Juan Cole. "Although it has had more success in managing war images at home, cracks have increasingly opened up on the domestic front as well." Recent examples have included the publication of photos of flag-draped coffins bearing U.S.

No

Mayday for GI Janes!

A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that Selective Service System acting Director Lewis Brodsky, in a February 2003 proposal to Pentagon officials, recommended that the draft "be re-engineered toward maintaining a national inventory of American men and, for the first time, women, ages 18 through 34, with an added focus on identifying individuals with critical skills." The agency's public and congression

No

Cheney Praises Fox News

"It's easy to complain about the press -- I've been doing it for a good part of my career," Vice President Dick Cheney told tens of thousands of Republican supporters in a conference call. "It's part of what goes with a free society. What I do is try to focus upon those elements of the press that I think do an effective job and try to be accurate in their portrayal of events.

No

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