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30. mars 2003
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Humanitarian aid
"Iraqi civilians fleeing heavy fighting have stunned and delighted hungry US marines in central Iraq by giving them food, as guerrilla attacks continue to disrupt coalition supply lines to the rear." (Yahoo! News)
A nice story; a relief from all the articles about death and destruction that dominates the war reporting. Who knows; as a bonus it might even be true.
6:43:15 PM 
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"The military are lying bastards"
CNN's Rena Golden made an interesting statement during News World Asia in August last year, talking about reporting during the war in Afghanistan:
If anyone who claims the US media didn’t censor itself is kidding you. It wasn’t a matter of government pressure but a reluctance to criticise anything in a war that was obviously supported by the vast majority of the people. And this isn’t just a CNN issue – every journalist in this room who was in any way involved in 9-11 is partly responsible.
ABC Australia's Max Uechtritz said:
We now know for certain that only three things in life are certain – death, taxes and the fact the military are lying bastards.
Any lessons learned from this? Don't think so.
4:45:01 PM
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Happy birthday Van Gogh!
It's the 150th birthday of Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh today Sunday.
No google logo in his favour, though. I am disappointed.
Picture: Starry Night, 1889.
3:32:06 PM
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Who turned off the lights for al-Jazeera?
Pretty immediately after the Arab news network al-Jazeera's English webpages were announced, they disappeared from the net. Sometime later, their pages had been defaced by an apparently pro-American hacking attack. In fact, the story is a quite complicated, in an odd mix of politics and technology.
PS: Currently an attempt to access the pages gives a "not authorized" error.
2:03:35 PM
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Suicide attack in Israel
An alleged suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a busy cafe in the northern Israeli town Netanya today. Preliminary reports say that 20 people have been injured, at least three of them critically. So far only the bomber is reported dead. No groups have claimed responsibility.
1:31:39 PM
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Rumsfeld under fire for overriding military experts
 The New Yorker magazine is quoting unnamed Pentagon sources saying that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at least six times overruled military experts and insisted on reducing the force in the Gulf. Rumsfeld wanted a cheap war, apparently, and thought that a small, lightly armed and highly mobile force was sufficient to conquer Iraq.
Sources also say the war is currently at a stalemate, as the armed forces are running out of supplies, especially cruise missiles and pricision guided munitions. Now the forces will need to be substantially reinforced for the war to continue, this time more in accordance with Colin Powell's old "overwhelming force" doctrine.
At every point, the article claims, Rumsfeld (picture right) overruled the military experts, including General Franks (left), who wanted to delay the attack to bring up the forces that were supposed to go in through Turkey. Rumsfeld "thought he knew better", and was was convinced the forces in Kuwait were sufficient for the whole war.
The administration currently needs an imminent decisive military victory to make the American people believe the war is going according to plan.
11:44:30 AM
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Amnesty: countries use war to cover up rights abuses
The human rights organisation Amnesty International warns that as the public eye is focused on Iraq, a number of countries are using the opportunity to trample on human rights.
It listed Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Norway, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Turkey, the United States and Yemen as transgressors.
Norway? Now that was a surprise. We find Sudan being mentioned for killing demonstrators, and in the same breath it lists Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Britain for for having "frozen decisions" on asylum seekers from Iraq. Oh, the horror!
I don't see the logic in this press release from Amnesty. Anything related to Iraq, including public demonstrations, is bound to get more, not less, attention during the war. So how can countries be accused of having used the opportunity to claimp down on human rights in relation to the Iraq incident to "cover it up"? It is the exact opposite!
If you want to talk about countries using the opportunity to cover up abuses, what about Cuba, which detained many journalists just as the war started, or Zimbabwe, which began a violent crackdown on the opposition at the same time? They are not even mentioned in this report.
10:44:40 AM
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Counter-propaganda watch
"Truth is the first casualty of war" — 32 occurrences of the phrase on Google News right now.
I think I see signs across the board that journalists, apart from the obvious cheerleading outlets, are wising up and becoming more skeptical. Not to say cynical.
10:31:06 AM
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Did Fox News ever pretend to be unbiased?
During a recent "die-in" demonstration against the war targeting the big media center Rockefeller Center, Fox News replaced its 6th Avenue news ticker with taunts directed at the demonstrators, with messages like:
- War protester auditions here today ... thanks for coming!
- Who won your right to show up here today? Protesters or soldiers?
- How do you keep a war protester in suspense? Ignore them.
- Attention protesters: the Michael Moore Fan Club meets Thursday at a phone booth at Sixth Avenue and 50th Street
Funny, perhaps. But it certainly declares their claim to be an unbiased news source null and void. Is anyone surprised?
7:30:02 AM
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Professor calls for US defeat in Iraq
Assistant anthropology professor Nicholas De Genova at Columbia University has caused a storm by saying he wants "a million more Mogadishus," in reference to the urban fighting that cost 18 American servicemen their lives and made then-president Clinton withdraw from the peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
He also said that the American flag meant "imperialism" and equated US patriots with white supremacists. Finally, he argued that the only true heroes are those who help bring defeat to the United States.
University administrators and other professors attending the "teach-in" have been quick to distance themselves from his statements.
Now, most anti-war protesters have been emphasising that they do not support Saddam Hussein's regime. Yet, marchers and speakers have commonly compared Bush to Saddam, using violent rhetoric that De Genova's outragous statements are only the extreme side of. It's not exactly uncommon in anti-war blogs to see an amount of glee at American setbacks.
Ironically, in the widely hated United States, such examples of sheer treason is protected by free speech. De Genova is likely to to derided and criticised, but will probably even keep his job and be able to keep deriding his country protected by the very institutions he despise. Acedemics in Iraq are not free to make similar expressions of support for enemy forces without being tortured to death. And De Genova will surely not see the irony of that, as he vents his hatred at everything that gives him a living.
7:15:58 AM
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Thaw?
French president Jacques Chirac has expressed his desire for Britain and France to work closely together with the UN in post-war Iraq, also expressing condolences for the loss of British troops in a recent phone conversation with Tony Blair.
The relationship between the two EU powers has been described as "frosty" after staunch French opposition to war in Iraq. Earlier, France would not discuss post-war reconstruction of Iraq since that could be interpreted as "implied support" for the war.
6:41:35 AM
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Change to daylight saving hours
 At least for many of us in the Northern hemisphere: at 2AM tonight, it becomes 3AM.
I noticed that XP didn't even ask; it just changed my time.
Here's a site explaining a bit about the background of DST, and which places do and don't have it.
Update: and that site tells me that North America changes next Sunday, while Europe just changed. Hope I didn't confuse anyone!
4:31:02 AM
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Defending al-Jazeera
Michael Moran, a veteran journalist, points out what al-Jazeera is, and is not. It is something as unique as an independent Arab news outlet that tries to report the inconevenient facts the Arab regimes would like to hide, built on the ruins of BBC's failed attempt to make an Arab television channel.
While having made missteps, the US administration should realise al-Jazeera's importance in winning Arab hears and souls. After all, up to well after 9/11-01, western media pretended Iraq did not exist, even though US planes bombed it regularly.
12:43:58 AM
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SARS discoverer dies from the disease
Dr Carlo Urbani, who identified the killer pneumonia that is called SARS, has become the disease's latest victim. According to Thai authorities, he died in a Bangkok hospital.
12:23:49 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:34:53.
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