Dr. Blix...How come you did not report everything?

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it seems suspect to me.

it is disappointing that there is no impartiality, or the appearance of it, in this process. i dont know why blix would not be upfront with such info. regardless this is mediachannel.org's danny schechter with his interpretation of how this built from a ny times story.

from danny schechter of mediachannel's weblog
Imagine the scenario. It is Saturday night at the State Department and more is stirring than a few mice. The Sunday New York Times has arrived. In it, that newspaper?s first editorial against the war.

"If it comes down to a question of yes or no to invasion without broad international support, our answer is no. Even though Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, said that Saddam Hussein was not in complete compliance with United Nations orders to disarm, the report of the inspectors on Friday was generally devastating to the American position."

You can just hear one of their media spinners exclaim: "We are losing New York." As they rambled through the Op-ed page, it got worse. Jimmy Carrter, our other Born-Again President, says the war will not be just. Tom Friedman seems to be sliding into the anti-war camp since no one in power seems to be listening to his complaints that "We" will need international support to rebuild Iraq so let?s not piss off the whole world. And the coup de grace: Mareen Dowd calls their boss "The Xanax" President commenting on his s-l-o-w performance last week at that White House press conference that seemed to suggest he was on drugs. She came right out and said it while others spoke of his sedate manner. Sedated was her conclusion.

ORCHESTRATING A STORY

What to do? Since the propaganda war is as important as the real war in the wings, they would have to find something to keep their agenda as the main frame of the debate. They needed to find something to give Secretary of State Powell a "smoking gun" to reveal/expose, and take the offensive on the Sunday TV talk shows--on which he seems to have become a permanent fixture. And sure enough, there it was on page 169 of a 176 UN inspectors technical report. Iraq may have rockets suitable for delivering chemical or biological weapons. GOTCHA.

On Sunday, on Fox, the homeland network, Powell cited the existence of drone aircraft that could unleash black rain on our boys. He hinted at what was to come: ""that?s the kind of thing we?re going to be making some news about in the course of the week," he said. "nd there are other things that have been found that I think more can be made of.? Underscore MORE CAN BE MADE. OF.

THE BIG LEAK

Fast forward, to Fox News this morning. The message of the day: Blast Blix for covering this up. It is on all the networks sources to, why, THE NEW YORK TIMES. Take that Howell Raines. They leaked the story to The Times to undercut the direction of the paper was heading. And where did the Times play it. Why, page one of course. It is today?s BIG story: "

"U.S. Says Iraq Retools Rockets for Illicit Uses

By JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr. with STEVEN R. WEISMAN

"Weapons inspectors recently discovered rockets configured to disperse chemical or biological agents, U.S. officials"

CHECK THE SOURCE

Note the reference to the US recently discovering the issue. That was not played up on the TV channels who reported Washington?s claims as fact. Actually the Times story traces this "new" disclosure back to 1996. But, never mind. The fact is that this story, played up by all the TV channels is another of item of which "more can be made. It is an allegation from officialdom, not some revelation that Times reporters investigated on their own. No inspectors are quoted in the story. No one by Washington officials are cited. And they are all unnamed. More telling there is no reference in the article to the report last week that DISCOUNTED, challenged and debunker earlier US claims about aluminum tubes, magnets, and uranium from Africa. That latter issue was, it was revealed, based on phony documents.

So here you have it, the newspaper of record, out to prove its impartiality, prominently reporting a claim by only one side in the world debate?the pro-war side?with no skepticism or context that would help readers evaluate its credibility.
 
Dreadsox said:


No, I am sorry, I just reread everything and I thing my Archie Bunker attitude from sepending a day with my relatives was coming through. My apologies, yours is not necessary.

Peace

Dread, apology accepted :)

I have to confess tho, I'd never noticed that news search thing on google before...I was searching the individual newsites (I have tended to stay away from search engine searches cos u can spend years wading thro unrelated stuff). But whatever, thanks again for the links.

I will now crawl back to my lurking place and never darken this doorstep again

take care :)
Peace to u too
 
UKTan said:


I was searching the individual newsites (I have tended to stay away from search engine searches cos u can spend years wading thro unrelated stuff). But whatever, thanks again for the links.

I will now crawl back to my lurking place and never darken this doorstep again



Ummm...doesn't that take a long time?

Why would you not post here? I am confused. This is a great place to come have a good debate.

Peace
 
Powell Decries New Iraq Weapon Discovery
By SCOTT LINDLAW
The Associated Press
Monday, March 10, 2003; 2:04 PM


Struggling for U.N. support to forcibly disarm Saddam Hussein, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Monday the world should be concerned about Iraq's continuing development of deadly weapons.

Disclosure last week by U.N. weapons inspectors that Iraq had developed drone aircraft capable of dispensing chemical weapons "should be of concern to everybody," Powell said after a meeting with Foreign Minister Francois Fall of Guinea.

"This and other information shows Iraq has not changed," Powell said in an exchange with reporters at the State Department.

Iraq also has developed a version of a South African cluster bomb that could disperse chemical weapons over a target, Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Iraq has claimed that it destroyed all chemical warheads.

President Bush, meanwhile, made an urgent round of phone calls to world leaders, trying to salvage a U.N. Security Council ultimatum giving Saddam Hussein until March 17 to prove Iraq has disarmed.

Bush spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Chinese President Jiang Zemin, South African President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Sultan Qaboos of Oman, spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

He said Bush was emphasizing humanitarian arguments for war with Iraq.

On Sunday, Russia said more explicitly than ever that it would oppose the new resolution.

Powell's meeting with the foreign minister of Guinea was part of the effort to gather a minimum of nine votes on the U.N. council to use force as a final option to disarm Iraq.

Fall declined to tip his hand publicly. "We are trying to resolve this peacefully," he told reporters.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is on a parallel lobbying campaign to line up Guinea, Cameroon and Angola, the three African nations on the council, to oppose the resolution, due for a vote this week.

Powell rejected any notion of a bitter competition with the head of the anti-war bloc. "We are both working for causes we believe in," he said. "I am not in competition."

China is a permanent member of the council and has veto power. Japan backed the new resolution Saturday, urging the council to pass it. While Japan is not on the council, it is a major source of foreign aid - an important consideration for the poor nations on the body.

Rules of the 15-member Security Council require nine votes to adopt a resolution. If one of the five permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, or China - votes "no" on a resolution, even one supported by the other 14 nations, that single vote kills the proposal.

Powell said he would not be surprised by a French veto. Such a step by France, he warned, would "have a serious effect on bilateral relations, at least in the short term." Powell said he could not be sure where another veto-bearing nation, China, stood on a vote that could take place as early as Tuesday.

In television interviews Sunday, Powell and Rice said they believed public opinion had been slow to follow the Bush administration. But they predicted the public and U.S. allies would come to support an American-led war with Iraq.

On "Fox News Sunday," Powell said "I think we're in striking distance of (nine or 10 votes). We'll be in intense negotiations over the next couple of days, a lot of diplomacy will be taking place."

Criticism rose from several quarters, meanwhile.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean contended that a U.S.-led war would give license to other nations who felt they needed to pre-emptively attack.

"It might be considered as a precedent for others to try to do the same thing," Chretien said on ABC's "This Week." "Where do you stop? You know, if you can do that there, why not elsewhere?"

"What is to prevent China, some years down the road, from saying, 'Look what the United States did in Iraq - we're justified in going in and taking over Taiwan?'" Dean said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California drew a standing ovation from members of the Communications Workers of America when she stated her opposition to an Iraq war now. Bush has alienated allies in the war on terror, she said.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said war could threaten the United States by fanning anti-American sentiment.

"Anti-Americanism is a threat to us," Levin said on CNN's "Late Edition."

Former President Carter, last year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, added his voice to that warning. "It is quite possible that the aftermath of a military invasion will destabilize the region and prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at home," he said in a New York Times opinion article Sunday.

"Increasingly unilateral and domineering policies have brought international trust in our country to its lowest level in memory," Carter wrote. "American stature will surely decline further if we launch a war in clear defiance of the United Nations."

Police arrested five anti-war protesters outside the ABC studios in Washington where Rice was interviewed, and several demonstrators followed her to the CBS offices where she was interviewed on "Face the Nation."

? 2003 The Associated Press
 
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