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{ warblog } 03.29.03 national |
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news report
 Saturday March 29, 2003 15:20 by warblogger
 Feel free to add your own links and representative portions of news stories you find on the net.... Analysis: US military takes stock ''But given the wider context - the unexpectedly stubborn resistance offered by irregular forces loyal to Saddam Hussein and the unrealistic expectations stoke by some Pentagon hawks in Washington - it is easy to see why people are wondering whether the US war plan is really still on track.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Whoever Wins the War, The US has Lost the Peace ''In the Allies' Central Command HQ in Doha, they produce images to show the precision of Western bombing and the rapidity of the US push on Iraq. Walk down the road and the studios of al-Jazeera are pumping out images of a Third World country trying vainly to fight back against a hyperpower of infinite technological superiority. There is no doubt which version most of the world believes. Even in India, where anti-Muslim feelings lie close to the surface, you don't meet a single person who thinks this is anything other than an American enterprise fought for selfish reasons. "Why," they ask you in genuinely concerned terms, "is Blair going along with it?" It's difficult to know what would shift this view. An early victory would only confirm the image of humiliating Western technological superiority. Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons might raise a counter-reaction, although even here many in the Third World would regard this as understandable given the technical disparity. But an outpouring of Iraqi delight at being freed from Saddam won't change opinion, as it would be taken as a byproduct of American actions, not its main intention. Donald Rumsfeld's suggestion that victory will bring a thousand friends misses the point. Of course small countries, and even quite large ones, must accommodate America's position as the world's only superpower. But to boast, as President Bush did in yesterday's press conference, that this "is a larger coalition than in the last Gulf war" is self-deluding nonsense.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For Broadcast Media, Patriotism Pays '' "Get the following production pieces in the studio NOW: . . . Patriotic music that makes you cry, salute, get cold chills! Go for the emotion," advised McVay Media, a Cleveland-based consultant, in a "War Manual" memo to its station clients. ". . . Air the National Anthem at a specified time each day as long as the USA is at war." The company, which describes itself as the largest radio consultant in the world, also has been counseling talk show stations to "Make sure your hosts aren't 'over the top.' Polarizing discussions are shaky ground. This is not the time to take cheap shots to get reaction . . . not when our young men and women are 'in harm's way.' " The influential television-news consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates recently put it in even starker terms: Covering war protests may be harmful to a station's bottom line. In a survey released last week on the eve of war, the firm found that war protests were the topic that tested lowest among 6,400 viewers across the nation. Magid said only 14 percent of respondents said TV news wasn't paying enough attention to "anti-war demonstrations and peace activities"; just 13 percent thought that in the event of war, the news should pay more attention to dissent.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - U.S. journalist suspended over antiwar protest SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 (Reuters) - A San Francisco Chronicle reporter suspended after participating in an anti-war rally said on Friday that he felt unfairly treated and that newspaper readers should not expect complete objectivity from any reporter. The Chronicle suspected technology reporter Henry Norr, 57, effective Thursday, after he was among more than 1,300 people arrested last week for blocking public streets in a protest on the first morning after the Iraq war started. "I don't write about national affairs, I don't write about national politics, I write about things like (e-mail) spam," Norr said in an interview. "To me, in any normal understanding of what is a conflict of interest, I didn't (have) one." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Did an errant U.S. cruise missile strike Kuwait? Explosion, Said to Be From Missile, Rocks Empty Mall in Kuwait ''Witnesses who gathered shortly after the explosion at 1:45 a.m. local time could see a twisted piece of metal on the esplanade near the shoreline about the size of a wastebasket and bearing the number "5420" in red. The words "place" and "protractor" could also be made out on a shard. Emergency workers put fragments into bags that they took away for analysis. .... Some Kuwaiti officials who examined the fragments said they believed an errant American cruise missile had been fired from the Persian Gulf toward Iraq. "It was an American cruise missile, we know from the markings and writing on it," said a Kuwaiti police colonel who did not give his name. "It doesn't go up, it comes in low from the sea, and that's why there was no alert." Another uniformed Kuwaiti official said that he, too, believed the missile to have been American and said that it "came from the sea." He then added that "it was a mistake" that it had struck Kuwait.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 'Christian Science Monitor' Reporter Kicked Out of Unit ''A Christian Science Monitor reporter, who had not been officially embedded but managed to hook up with a U.S. Marine unit south of Baghdad earlier this week, was kicked out of the unit and escorted by Marines out of Iraq after he reportedly revealed the unit's location during a television interview.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - War Photo of the Day - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael Moore plans Bush-bin Laden film ''Filmmaker Michael Moore's next project might be more controversial than his Oscar-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine." According to a report in Friday's Daily Variety, Moore is working on a documentary about the "the murky relationship" between former President George Bush and the family of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The paper said the movie, "Fahrenheit 911," will suggest that the bin Laden family profited greatly from the association. .... According to Moore, the former president had a business relationship with Osama bin Laden's father, Mohammed bin Laden, a Saudi construction magnate who left $300 million to Osama bin Laden. It has been widely reported that bin Laden used the inheritance to finance global terrorism. Moore said the bin Laden family was heavily invested in the Carlyle Group, a private global investment firm that the filmmaker said frequently buys failing defense companies and then sells them at a profit. Former President Bush has reportedly served as a senior adviser with the firm. "The senior Bush kept his ties with the bin Laden family up until two months after Sept. 11," said Moore.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Informally Renames Airport for Bush ''TALLIL AIRFIELD, Southern Iraq (AP) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Army Depots in Iraqi Desert Have Names of Oil Giants ''The subtleties surrounding the sensitive role oil plays in the Iraqi war may have eluded the United States Army. Deep in some newspaper coverage yesterday was a report that the 101st Airborne Division had named one central Iraq outpost Forward Operating Base Shell and another Forward Operating Base Exxon. The Pentagon shrugged off concerns that now might not be the time to mention the names of foreign oil companies on Iraqi soil. "The forward bases are normally refueling points — they're basically gas stations in the desert," a Pentagon spokeswoman said. "Whether or not we're going to lecture everyone that, due to political sensitivities, you should be careful what you call your gas stations, I don't know if that's something that should be done or would be done." '' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - March 27, 2003 ''A coalition is afoot in the U.S. Congress to replace European with American cell phone technology in Iraq as soon as the conflict is over and the country rebuilds. Congressman Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) Wednesday introduced a bill based on a letter to the Pentagon, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and other lawmakers demanding that the Department of Defense and USAID show favor to CDMA (define) technology made by San Diego-based QUALCOMM (Quote, Company Info). Iraq needs a mobile-phone service. According to the U.N.'s International Telecommunication Union's 2001 survey, Iraq, North Korea and Afghanistan were the last three major countries without a major mobile infrastructure. The current reconstruction plan involves using U.S. funds to install a European-based wireless technology known as GSM (define) for a new Iraqi cell phone system. Issa's bill (HR 1441) would give preference to American companies, including QUALCOMM. "If European GSM technology is deployed in Iraq, much of the equipment used to build the cell phone system would be manufactured in France, Germany, and elsewhere in western and northern Europe. Furthermore, royalties paid on the technology would flow to French and European sources, not U.S. patent holders," Issa said in his letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and USAID Administrator, Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain.'' - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Harper's List Estimated number of applications that the U.N. received last year for its 302 weapons-inspector positions : 1,200 |
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Jump To Comment: 1Coalition of the Willing? Not us, say Solomon islanders
By Alan Perrott
The New Zealand Herald
March 27, 2003
http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=527
Sorry, President Bush, but if you are counting on the Solomon Islands National Reconnaissance and Surveillance Force to watch your back in Iraq, you're out of luck.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Allan Kemakeza yesterday said "thanks but no thanks" after hearing his nation had been shanghaied into the US-led Coalition of the Willing.
"The Government is completely unaware of such statements being made, therefore wishes to disassociate itself from the report," said Mr Kemakeza.
The Solomon Islands has no military capability, but according to the CIA World Factbook they do boast the above mentioned reconnaissance and surveillance unit and a Royal Police Force.