Dahr Jamail.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
We would like to highly recommend two recently released books concerning
Iraq. For those interested in a deeper understanding of the occupation,
these books are required reading:
Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal
<http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1417>-
Anthony Arnove's book "Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal" (New Press), with
a foreword and afterword by Howard Zinn, makes a direct and clear case
for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. An excellent
excerpt, read by the author, can be listened to here.
<http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/multi_media/Iraq_The_Logic_of_Withdrawal.mp3>
The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time
<http://www.thebushagenda.org> - (ReganBooks, HarperCollins, April 2006)
Renowned international trade and finance policy expert Antonia Juhasz
exposes the Bush Administration's radical corporate globalization agenda
for global dominance. Presenting the Iraq War as the Agenda's most
brutal application to date, Juhasz reveals exactly how the Bush
administration uses corporate globalization as a weapon of war to
transform Iraq's economy for the advantage of the US corporate elite.
/"The Bush Agenda is a devastating indictment of the collusion between
government and big business that has turned the United
States-once-respected as Savior of Democracy-into a feared and hated
empire. Packed with facts and insider stories, it is a resounding call
to action."/ - John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
12.5.06
U.S. Scores Poorly on Infant Mortality
U.S. Scores Poorly on Infant Mortality
Shortcomings in basic health care, obesity cited for low rank among modern nations | ||
| by Lindsey Tanner | ||
| US is moving backwards QUICK. I feel sad for all nations with this problem, but in America, there is NO EXCUSE | ||
Among 33 industrialized nations, the United States is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly 5 per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia's rate is 6 per 1,000. "We are the wealthiest country in the world, but there are still pockets of our population who are not getting the health care they need," said Mary Beth Powers, a reproductive health adviser for the U.S.-based Save the Children, which compiled the rankings based on health data from countries and agencies worldwide.
"Every time I see these kinds of statistics, I'm always amazed to see where the United States is because we are a country that prides itself on having such advanced medical care and developing new technology ... and new approaches to treating illness. But at the same time not everybody has access to those new technologies," said Dr. Mark Schuster, a Rand Co. researcher and pediatrician with the University of California, Los Angeles. The Save the Children report, released Monday, comes just a week after publication of another report humbling to the U.S. health care system. That study showed that white, middle-aged Americans are far less healthy than their peers in England, despite U.S. health care spending that is double that in England. In the United States, researchers noted that the population is more racially and economically diverse than many other industrialized countries, making it more challenging to provide culturally appropriate health care. About half a million U.S. babies are born prematurely each year, data show. Black infants are twice as likely as white babies to be premature, to have a low birth weight and to die at birth, according to Save the Children. The researchers also said lack of national health insurance and short maternity leaves likely contribute to the poor U.S. rankings. Other possible factors in the U.S. include teen pregnancies and obesity rates, which both disproportionately affect black women and increase risk for premature births and low birth weights. In past reports by Save the Children — released ahead of Mother's Day — U.S. mothers' well-being has consistently ranked far ahead of those in developing countries but poorly among industrialized nations. This year, the United States tied for last place with the United Kingdom on indicators including mortality risks and contraception use. While the gaps for infants and mothers contrast sharply with the nation's image as a world leader, Emory University health policy expert Kenneth Thorpe said the numbers are not surprising. "Our health care system focuses on providing high-tech services for complicated cases. We do this very well," Thorpe said. "What we do not do is provide basic primary and preventive health care services." |
11.5.06
UPDATE 2-Bush denies spying infringing on Americans' privacy
Stock Market News and Investment Information | Reuters.com
(Updates with Bush comment, reaction)
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
BU*SH*IT
(Updates with Bush comment, reaction)
By Matt Spetalnick and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush denied on Thursday the government was "trolling through" Americans' personal lives, despite a report that a domestic spy agency was collecting phone records of tens of millions of citizens.
Defending his administration's espionage program, Bush said intelligence activities he had authorized were lawful and the government was not eavesdropping on domestic phone calls without court approval.
But Democrats and Republicans alike demanded an explanation after USA Today reported the National Security Agency was secretly amassing phone records from phone companies to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist plots.
"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities," Bush told reporters at a hastily called session aimed at damage control. "We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
Some Democratic senators suggested, however, the disclosure could complicate confirmation of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who was nominated by Bush on Monday as director of the CIA.
USA Today said Hayden, who headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005, would have overseen the call-tracking program.
The White House said Hayden's nomination was going "full steam ahead." Hayden proceeded with meetings with individual senators who will be considering his nomination.
Despite that, the controversy could compound Bush's political problems as he struggles to lift public approval ratings that have fallen to new lows, putting his Republican party's control of Congress at risk in November's elections.
"The intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress," a stern-faced Bush said before leaving for Biloxi, Mississippi.
Revelation late last year that the NSA was eavesdropping inside the United States without warrants on international phone calls and e-mails of terrorism suspects sparked an uproar. Continued ...© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
 |
|
BU*SH*IT
10.5.06
All of Us Participate in a New Iraq
All of Us Participate in a New Iraq
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 10 May 2006
*US*
Last Friday I was at the University of Texas, Austin, giving a
presentation on Iraq. After dumping an hour's worth of horrible "real
news" about Iraq, I was asked the question I have by now learnt to
expect: "Is there anything good happening there at all?" I understand
why people ask this. There must be some hope, somewhere, right?
I suggested that there are always the military press releases folks can
go to, for an "upper" about Iraq. Here I recounted one of these bogus
"news" reports. Released during my second stint in Iraq, a report of May
21, 2004, stated: "The Coalition Provisional Authority has recently
given out hundreds of soccer balls to Iraqi children in Ramadi, Karbala,
and Hilla. Iraqi women from Hilla sewed the soccer balls, which are
emblazoned with the phrase, All of Us Participate in a New Iraq."
*THEM*
That same evening after my presentation, I received an email from a
doctor friend in Baghdad. The email pertains to the question I was
asked, so I quote it here:
"Dear Mr. Dahr, I am wondering why? Americans and coalition forces were
supported by pro-Iranian Militias, like the Badr Organization! The
support and help of Iraqi Shiites at first helped to somewhat stabilize
and maintain the occupation. Death squads trained by the coalition
forces are working day and night under cover of the Ministry of
Interior, attacking innocent people: both Sunnis and Shiites!!!! In
spite of knowing very well who is doing what, we still see no
improvement in the security situation. On the contrary, the situation is
getting worse. I have many colleagues, doctors and other professionals,
who are now begging for help to get out of Iraq for their lives and for
their families' lives! The only losers are the Iraqis. The only Iraqis
who are benefiting from this war are those who spend all their life
outside Iraq and are now living in their big castle, the green zone!!!!!
Everyone now knows that the invasion of Iraq was carried out upon
falsified testimonies and lies!!!! What is going on on the ground differs a lot from what the media tells!!!!! I mean that."
As bad as things are in Iraq today, it may come as a surprise to many
people in the US, including many who never supported the illegal
invasion and occupation to begin with, that Iraq has been a disaster from the first day of the invasion.
Each time I hear this question, several scenes from my time there flash
through my mind, and I am left pondering whether anything good has
happened in Iraq since the beginning of the US-led invasion.
*THEN*
I recollect my experience of May 22, 2004, the day after the soccer ball
report. This was weeks after news of American soldiers torturing
detainees at Abu Ghraib had hit the corporate media. The first
mock-court martial had just convicted one of the soldiers complicit in
the atrocities, when I decided to go to Abu Ghraib. I wanted to meet and
interview the family members who were attempting to get into the prison
to see and talk to their loved ones detained there.
Prior to this trip, my interpreter and I had interviewed a man who had
been tortured horrifically in Abu Ghraib. He had laughed, "The Americans
brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house!" At
the dusty, dismal, heavily guarded razor wire-ensconced area outside Abu
Ghraib, many more horror stories awaited us. Despair and hopelessness
pervaded the atmosphere as grieving family members waited, hoping
against hope to be granted their chance to visit a dear one inside that
gruesome compound.
Congregated on that patch of barren earth were men and women and wailing
children. Their anguish matched their outrage as they remained unable to
gain access to their loved ones held in the prison, or to procure any
information about them.
Sitting on the hard packed dirt in his white dishdasha, his head scarf
languidly flapping in the dry, hot wind, Lilu Hammed stared at the high
walls of the nearby prison. It was almost as if he were attempting to
see his 32-year-old son Abbas through the tan concrete.
He sat alone, his tired eyes fixed unwaveringly upon the heavily guarded
Abu Ghraib. When my interpreter asked him if he would speak with us,
several seconds passed before Lilu slowly turned his head to look up at
us. "I am sitting here on the ground now, waiting for God's help."
His son had been in Abu Ghraib for 6 months, following a raid on his
home that produced no weapons. The young man had never been charged with
anything. Lilu held a crumpled visitation permission slip in his hand
that he had just obtained, which allowed for a brief reunion with his
son on the 18th of August, still three months away.
A pack of Humvees drove past, leaving us engulfed in a cloud of dust. A
woman standing near us exclaimed, "We hope the whole world can see the
position we are in now!"
I scan my memory further and recall November 11, 2004. My interpreter
showed up at my hotel in a very somber mood. The previous night, after
the curfew began at 9:30 pm, US military helicopters had been circling
his neighborhood until 3 am. "How can we live like this," he asked,
holding up his hands. "We are trapped in our own country." He confessed,
"You know, Dahr, everyone is praying for God to take revenge on the
Americans. Everyone!"
Later that night, another Iraqi friend showed up at my room with a wild
look in his eyes, sweat beads on his forehead. "My friend has just been
killed, and he was one of my best friends. I can't imagine that he is
dead, really, but I guess it is okay." He told me about his friend's
family. "They are so poor, they live 21 people in a house with three
bedrooms, and they are good people."
This wasn't all. A relative of his had been missing for six days. That
day, his body was brought to his family by someone who found it on the
road. The body, which showed visible signs of torture, had two shots in
the chest and two in the head. The four bullet shells that had killed
him had been placed in his trouser pockets.
"I am crazy today with this news Dahr," my friend exclaimed, his hands
up in the air, "The number of people killed here is growing so fast
everyday, it is shit." He hung his head back and took a deep breath,
then slowly exhaled. He reminisced how his whole life had been the same
in Iraq but never as bad as at that point. "When I was a child, it was
common to have some family member or the other killed in the war with
Iran," he said, "but now, everyone is dying every day."
On 12 November 2004, following this grim discussion with my two
interpreters, I remember meeting with Dr. Wamid Omar Nadhme, a Senior
Political Scientist at Baghdad University. An older, articulate man who
vehemently opposed the regime of Saddam Hussein, he had by then grown
critical of the US policy that was responsible for the violence and
chaos devouring his country.
Commenting on the current situation, he told me: "I can assure you, it
is well over 75% of Iraqis who cannot even tolerate this occupation. The
right-wing Bush administration is blinded by its ideology, and we are
all suffering from this, Iraqis and soldiers alike." I cannot forget his
concluding remarks to me. "Iraq is burning with wrath, anger and sadness."
Another telling instance of how nothing good happens in Iraq reached me
on November 19th, exactly a week after my meeting with Dr. Nadhme. I
received a call from one of my interpreters, who at the time was in his
mosque for the Friday prayers. I could hear the deafening roar of
hundreds of people chanting, "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest). The sound
reverberated in the confined area behind his panicking voice: "I am
being held at gunpoint by American soldiers inside Abu Hanifa mosque,
Dahr." His incredulous bewilderment was palpable as he yelled, "Everyone
is praying to God because the Americans are raiding our mosque during
Friday prayer!"
He kept making short calls, updating me on the atrocity. After a few
sentences of information he would hang up. His intermittent running
commentary from within the mosque where he was trapped remains one of my
most eerie experiences of Iraq. In the gap between his calls I would
quickly type in the last bit of information before he would call back
with more.
"They have shot and killed at least 4 of the people who were at prayer
and at least 20 are wounded now! I cannot believe this! I can't let them
see me calling you. I am on my stomach now and they have guns aimed at
everyone. There are so many people inside the mosque, and it is sealed.
We are on our bellies and in a very bad situation."
I could hear the screaming in the background amidst gunfire. The
soldiers eventually released the women and children along with the men
who were related to them. It was sheer luck that my interpreter escaped
that day. He was released because a boy approached him asking him to act
as his father.
When later he came to my hotel, he was distraught and crying. "I am in a
very sad position. I do not see any freedom or any democracy. If this
could lead into a freedom, it is a freedom with blood. It is a freedom
with emotions of sadness. It is a freedom of killing. You cannot gain
democracy through blood or killing. You do not find the freedom that
way. People were going to pray to God and they were killed and wounded.
There were 1,500 people praying to God, and they went on a holiday where
people go every Friday for prayers. And they were shot and killed. There
were so many women and kids lying on the ground. This is not democracy,
neither freedom."
He had recorded the entire thing
<http://www.fsrn.org/news/audio/20041119better.mp3> on the small tape
recorder that we used while interviewing people.
These memories are but a glimpse of the horrible reality that the Iraqi
people are suffering on a daily basis under US occupation. The only
change that occurs is a worsening of conditions; it's a pattern I have
witnessed from the beginning.
*NOW: For Us and Them*
At least 122 Iraqis died over the last weekend. These were only the
reported deaths. The total number of Iraqis killed thus far as a result
of the occupation is most likely close to a quarter of a million.
Also last weekend, a British military helicopter was shot down in Basra,
killing five soldiers. This sparked a confrontation between British
troops and Basra residents, who pelted the occupation troops with petrol
bombs and stones while shouting profanities at them. Two British tanks
and a Land Rover were set ablaze. In the first week of May, 20
occupation soldiers have been killed in Iraq, bringing the total number
to at least 2,420.
At one point during that presentation in Austin, I attempted in vain to
describe to the audience what life in Baghdad is like. It was in vain,
because how can anyone in the United States begin to imagine what it is
like to be invaded, to have our infrastructure shattered, to have
occupying soldiers photographing detained Americans in forced
humiliating sexual acts and then to have these displayed on television,
to have our churches raided and worshippers therein shot and killed by
occupation troops?
It is only when more people in the US begin to fathom the totality of the destruction in Iraq that one may expect to hear the public outcry and uprising necessary to end the occupation and bring to justice the war criminals responsible for these conditions. Until that happens, make no mistake: all of us participate in a new Iraq, our hands dyed in the blood of innocents.
Where Are All the Leaders of Faith?
Where Are All the Leaders of Faith?
by Helen Thomas The Religious Right, that were wrong are hiding in fear for pushing to have this liar and murderer back in office. Rightfully so. They are busy scratching their heads in disillusionment. |
| Where are the activist priests and ministers who took strong stands during the Vietnam War and hit the streets with their protests? Three years into the war against Iraq, the silence of the clergy is deafening, despite U.S. abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and a reported American policy of shipping detainees to secret prisons abroad where, presumably, they can be tortured. There are U.S. chaplains of many faiths serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, ministering to the men and women in uniform and reaching out to local religious leaders in both countries. But here at home, the clergy seems to be in the same boat as the news media and most members of Congress: they are victims of the post-Sept. 11 syndrome that equates any criticism of U.S. policy with lack of patriotism. The clergy are not alone. There is a disquieting public acceptance of the status quo. Although the Iraq war has a role in President Bush's declining standing in public opinion polls, rising gas prices may be having a bigger impact on his popularity. During the Vietnam War, the clergy were vocal leaders of the peace movement and they picked up and marched. I was reminded of that bygone era -- a time when everyone got involved -- with the passing last month of Rev. William Sloane Coffin, a Presbyterian minister who served as chaplain at Yale University and pastor at Riverside Church in New York. He was a follower of civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and a liberal, to put it mildly. Coffin went on the dangerous Freedom rides in the South in the 1960s and worked for human rights of African Americans. He became famous for his protests against the Vietnam War and later espoused the causes of gay rights and anti-nuclear proliferation. He hailed from a wealthy family, attended Ivy League schools, and served in World War II. Before attending a theological seminary, he worked for the CIA. But he will be most remembered for his moral courage. The Nation magazine -- which counted Coffin as a contributor -- quoted Coffin as saying he had the "sense of fulfillment from being in the right fight." Writer and artist Robert Shetterly, Coffin's good friend, wrote on CommonDreams.org a eulogy of Coffin based on his long association with the minister, dating back to an anti-Vietnam War rally at Yale in 1968. He recalled that Coffin had written in his latest book "Credo," a 2004 collection of his writings, that "the war against Iraq is as disastrous as it is unnecessary; perhaps in terms of its wisdom, purpose and motives, the worst war in American history. Our military men and women were not called to defend America, but rather to attack Iraq. They were not called to die for America, but rather to kill for their country. What more unpatriotic thing could we have asked of our sons and daughters?" Shetterly's perception of Coffin was that he was not self-righteous and that he had doubts about his own convictions at times. He also wrote that Coffin made mistakes but learned from them. Shetterly said Coffin "spent his life trying to atone for having followed military orders in 1945, putting 3,000 white Russians who fought against the Stalin communist regime, on a train from Germany to Moscow "and sure execution." Some of Coffin's quotes are memorable. After Sept. 11, he said the U.S. government should have vowed "to see justice done, but by force of law only, not by the law of force." He also said that "the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love." Lest I have selected Coffin's only intellectual qualities, Shetterly also describes his human side and said that he liked "a good drink. A good joke. A good song. A moral act. A worthy laugh." Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers and a member of the White House press corps. |
The Innocence Project: Guilty until Proven Innocent
The Innocence Project: Guilty until Proven Innocent
Capital punishment in the US is under the microscope and lawyers using the latest forensic science techniques have found justice wanting. |
| by Andrew Gumbel That's an understatement. Then some guilty are free, who are absolutely guilty. One high profile celebrity murderer is living quite nicely, playing golf every day and his assets are in a protected retirement investment, while another high profile celebrity was made an example of, while our Government officials were doing the same thing, on a much higher level. |
| Cameron Todd Willingham is the first and only man executed in the United States for suspected arson after his three children, all under the age of three, burned to death at their home in Corsicana, about an hour's drive south-east of Dallas, Texas, in December 1991. Willingham testified at his trial that he narrowly escaped the fire himself, that he tried and failed to rescue his children, that he then made repeated attempts to call for help and re-enter the building, at one point smashing a window with a pool cue in the hope of reaching the children's bedrooms. Not everyone, though, believed him. One of his neighbours, who knew he was a drifter, knew he had trouble holding down a job and knew about his fondness for going out to drink beer and play darts, thought he hadn't done nearly enough to save his family. When the fire marshals examined the aftermath of the fire, they too found some anomalies and began to wonder if Willingham hadn't set it deliberately. Particularly damning at his trial was the testimony of the deputy state fire marshal, Manuel Vasquez, who examined the burn patterns on the wood floor and the melted aluminium threshold piece, as well as the way certain pieces of glass has cracked into crazy patterns in the heat, and told the jury there was no way this was the result of an accident. Someone, presumably Willingham, had sprinkled fuel and set light to the building. "The fire tells a story," Mr Vasquez said on the stand at Willingham's trial. "I am just the interpreter. I am looking at the fire, and I am interpreting the fire. That is what I know. That is what I do best. And the fire does not lie. It tells the truth." Willingham was duly convicted of murder and, after 12 years on death row, was executed by lethal injection in February 2004. Now, though, compelling evidence has emerged that Mr Vasquez did not in fact know what he was talking about. None of his testimony has passed muster with a panel of acknowledged arson experts, which has gone over it in detail. And without his testimony, the case against Willingham is left essentially baseless. Unlike most capital convictions, where a defendant's protestations of innocence raise the question of who else might have committed the crime, this case may well have constituted no criminal behaviour whatsoever, just one more ghastly element in an unspeakable family tragedy. That is certainly what Willingham asserted as he went to his death. "The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man, convicted of a crime I did not committed," he said. "I have been persecuted for 12 years for something I did not do." Thanks to the work of the New York-based Innocence Project - a team of defence lawyers who put dubious capital convictions under the microscope of modern technology - his protest is looking increasingly believable. The group commissioned a real expert's report using advances in the understanding of arson evidence which will make uncomfortable reading for the prosecution in the Willingham case. Their findings will this week be handed to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is constitutionally bound to launch its own investigation and report back to Governor Rick Perry, the man who gave the green light to Willingham's execution. The Innocence Project's report will be hard to argue with. It was compiled by four of the country's leading arson experts who have testified on behalf of defence and prosecution in previous cases. Their conclusion: Willingham's conviction was based on bad science, and none of the evidence should have ever led investigators to believe the fire was set deliberately. "While we have no doubt that ... witnesses believed what they were saying, each and every one of the indicators relied upon have since been scientifically proven to be invalid," the report says. And so the stage is set for the next big showdown over the death penalty in the US. Already, the pace of executions in most states has slowed because of doubts in recent years about the safety of capital convictions. The release of death row inmates shown by DNA evidence and other methods to have been innocent of the crimes of which they were accused is steadily increasing. And a host of other doubts are being introduced. California's execution machine is at a standstill because of evidence that the lethal drugs administered during executions merely mask the pain felt by the dying prisoner instead of eliminating it. Reports emerged from Ohio on Tuesday of convicted murderer Joseph Lewis Clark taking 90 minutes to die after the team trying to deliver a lethal injection had problems finding a suitable vein. The Project's lawyers have been instrumental in forcing courts to take new DNA-testing technology into account when reviewing convictions. Since 1992, when the Innocence Project first began, 175 prisoners have been exonerated, including 14 who spent time on death row. It was the Project's lawyers who first questioned the arson evidence. They assembled the panel of experts and commissioned the report. More strikingly, they were also responsible for lobbying the Texas authorities and bringing about the existence of the Forensic Science Commission in the first place. As the Innocence Project itself put it in a statement, the release of its report "marks the first time in the nation that scientific evidence showing an innocent person was executed has been submitted to a government entity that is legally obligated to investigate cases, reach conclusions and direct system-wide reviews to determine the extent of the problem". In other words, it could conceivably be the beginning of the end of the death penalty in Texas. It also spells political trouble for Governor Perry as he faces an election race this November. Many of the arson panel's conclusions had been reached even before Willingham's execution, by a Cambridge-educated arson expert called Gerald Hurst, who passed on his findings to the Governor's office. As he told an investigative team from the Chicago Tribune at the time: "There's nothing to suggest to any reasonable arson investigator that this was an arson fire. It was just a fire." It does not appear, however, that Dr Hurst's findings were taken seriously by either the Governor's office or the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Barry Scheck, one of the two principles of the Innocence Project, who remains perhaps most famous for his role in defending O J Simpson, said he had established through open records requests that the Hurst report had indeed been properly filed before the execution. "Neither office has any record of anyone acknowledging it, taking note of its significance, responding to it or calling any attention to it within the government," he said. "The only reasonable conclusion is that the Governor's office and the Board of Pardons and Paroles ignored scientific evidence and went through with the execution." The prosecution, meanwhile, presented last-minute, second-hand evidence that Willingham had confessed to his estranged wife, something she later said was untrue. Perhaps most poignant for Willingham's surviving relatives is that, at the time of execution, a similar case was going through the Texas legal system, that of Ernest Willis, who had been sentenced to death for his alleged role in setting a fatal fire in west Texas in 1987. Dr Hurst examined his case, too, found the forensic evidence similarly flawed and said he saw no evidence of arson. Willis was able to have his case reopened and dismissed. He walked out of death row a free man seven months after Willingham's execution. All this adds up to a potentially explosive cocktail of political and social issues. Texans may be more attached than most Americans to the death penalty, but even they tend to draw the line at putting innocent people to death. One candidate in the governor's race, the humourist and former singer Kinky Friedman, does not appear to have been harmed by his record of campaigning on behalf of death row prisoners. One of Friedman's campaign lines is: "Texas: 50th in education, first in executions... how's that working for you?" If the political tide is turning slowly, the sense of discomfort in the professional world of forensics and legal analysis is starting to be overwhelming. Copycat Innocence Projects have been set up. The original one, meanwhile, has been at the forefront of denouncing errors and unprofessional behaviour at forensic crime labs around the country, most notably in Virginia, Texas and Ohio. The group has also made disturbing findings about the functioning of the criminal justice system more generally. The Innocence Project has found that the single biggest cause of wrongful convictions is mistaken eyewitness identification testimony. In more than a third of cases, forensic science has also been misapplied in some way, with experts presenting "fraudulent, exaggerated, or otherwise tainted evidence to the judge or jury". Six years ago, the state of Illinois issued a blanket commutation of all its death sentences after it was established that 13 people on death row were in fact innocent of the crimes of which they were committed. (In that case, it was journalism students at Northwestern University who did the legwork.) Much more recently, New York state chose not to reinstate its death penalty law. The backlash against capital punishment may be coming too late for Willingham, but his case remains a potent weapon in the hands of the Innocence Project and other campaigners. If Texas, of all states, is forced to acknowledge it killed an innocent man, then the death penalty may be on its way to extinction. |
9.5.06
My Meeting With Rumsfeld
My Meeting With Rumsfeld
by Ray McGovern |
| Hold ‘em, Yale” is one of the best short stories of "Guys and Dolls" creator Damon Runyon, who depicted the What I am doing in New Haven on the day of a very large football game between the Harvards and the Yales is something calling for no little explanation, for I am not such a guy as you are likely to find in New Haven at any time—and especially not on the day of a large football game. A variant came to mind Thursday as I walked through a posh What I am doing in Atlanta on the day of a very large lecture by Donald Rumsfeld to an establishment audience is something calling for no little explanation, for I am not such a guy as you are likely to find in such a venue at any time—and especially not when the ducat requires $40 up front. But serendipity prevailed. The ACLU of Georgia had invited me to their annual dinner on Thursday, May 4, to receive the National Civil Liberties Award. Friends in When those friends learned last Monday that Rumsfeld would be in The fact that my presence there was pure coincidence turned out to be a huge disappointment for those who began interviews later that day by insisting I tell them why I had stalked Rumsfeld all the way from Washington to Atlanta. Especially people like Paula Zahn, who asked me on Thursday evening "what kind of axe" I had to grind with him. To prepare for my presentations, I took along a briefcase full of notes and clippings, one of which was a New York Times article datelined This was the kind of unfounded allegation that, at the time, deceived 69 percent of Americans into believing that the Iraqi leader played a role in the tragedy of 9/11. Rumsfeld’s “bulletproof” rhetoric also came in the wake of an intensive but quixotic search by my former colleagues at the CIA for any reliable evidence of such ties. A fresh reminder of the Bush administration's I arrived at the Rumsfeld lecture early, took a seat near a microphone set aside for Q-and-A, and thought I might ask Rumsfeld to explain his use of the “bulletproof” adjective, which came at a time when none other than Gen. Brent Scowcroft was describing such evidence as “scant,” and the CIA was saying it was non-existent. (The 9/11 commission later ruled definitively in CIA’s favor.) Rumsfeld brought up bête noire terrorist al-Zarqawi as proof of collaboration between al-Qaida and When Rumsfeld broadened our dialogue to include the never-to-be-found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, saying, “Apparently, there were no weapons of mass destruction,” I could not resist reminding him that he had claimed he actually knew where they were. Anyone who followed this issue closely would remember his remark to George Stephanopoulos on March 30, 2003: We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and As soon as the event was over, CNN asked me for my sources, which I was happy to share. The CNN folks seemed a bit surprised that they all checked out. To their credit, they overcame the more customary “McGovern said this, but Rumsfeld said that”—and the dismissive “well, we’ll have to leave it there”—kind of treatment. In Rumsfeldian parlance, what I had said turned out to be “known knowns,” even though he provided an altered version on Thursday of his “we know where they are.” Better still, in its coverage, CNN quoted what Rumsfeld had said in 2003. That evening a friend emailed me about a call she got from a close associate in “upper management at CNN” to ask about me. She quoted the CNN manager: “We checked and double-checked everything this guy had to say and he was 100 percent accurate.” He then asked if those protesting the war “were getting organized or something.” She responded, “Indeed we are and have been for some time, and it’s about time the mainstream media caught up.” With the exception of CNN—and MSNBC which also did its homework and displayed the tangled web woven by the normally articulate defense secretary—the other networks generally limited their coverage to the “he-said-but-he-said” coverage more typical of what passes for journalism these days. Even CNN found it de rigueur to put neocon ideologue Frank Gaffney on with me for Wolf Blitzer. Gaffney is well to the right of Rumsfeld, so I should not have been surprised to hear Gaffney take the line that the U.S. may still find evidence of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda, and of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Hope springs eternal. And there were more subliminal messages. In some press reports I was described as a “Rumsfeld critic” and “heckler” who was, heavens, “rude to Rumsfeld.” Other accounts referred to my “alleged” service with the CIA, which prompted my wife to question—I think in jest—what I was really doing for those 27 years. I believe I was able to convince her without her performing additional fact checking. All in all, my encounter with Rumsfeld was for me a highly instructive experience. The Center’s president, Peter White, singled out Rumsfeld’s “honesty” in introducing him, and 99 percent of those attending seemed primed to agree. Indeed, their reaction brought to mind film footage of rallies in This was immediately greeted with what Pravda used to describe as “stormy applause,” followed immediately by rather unseemly shouts by this otherwise well-disciplined and well-heeled group to have me summarily thrown out. At the end, as we all filed out slowly, I could make eye contact with only one person—who proceeded to berate me for being insubordinate. Scary. No open minds there. A graphic reminder for those wishing to spread some truth around that we have our work cut out for us. We have to find imaginative ways to use truth as a lever to pry open closed minds. Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He was an analyst at the CIA for 27 years, and is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. |
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