UPI reports Pentagon weapons test successes

Looking at UPI's headlines recently I noticed something interesting.  Several articles on new weapons from our defense contractors, and their successful tests on the first try.  When did UPI start doing this type of stenographic reporting?  The archive on the web goes back to 2001.

Looking again at the website I now found these as well. Remember that this is just today's headlines from a wire service, not Jane's Defense Weekly or a military paper.  All of them are written by Richard Tomkins.  

May 29, 2015 here are 6 out of the top 15 headlines.

• Harris Corporation completes acquisition of Exelis
• Ground broken on final phase of National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility
• Raytheon opens maritime subsidiary
• Indian Air Force jet test fires Harpoon missile
• BAE Systems researching common weapon launcher for Typhoon
• Rockwell Collins Canada given avionics support contract

We know that there are lots of problems with military procurement and actual success of weapons systems, like the F-35, V-22 Osprey, Iron Dome in Israel and David's Sling from the Gulf War, just to name a few recent examples.  

There are Other Issues with Richard Engel

We learned this week about another scandal at NBC News, this time involving the kidnapping of Richard Engel in Syria (unless you read As’ad AbuKhalil's article on Angry Arab News Service in 2012 ).

I first heard about it on Emptywheel

In both Syria and Ukraine, the US press has largely been as obedient as the press is forced to be in Russia, telling convenient narratives that justify our armed intervention. The notion that US Congressmen who themselves spew propaganda are squealing about Putin’s great power of propaganda is almost pathetic in the face of all that.

The New York Times broke the news after their investigation

A Sunni militant group not connected to Assad, Iran or Hezbollah

NBC News on Wednesday revised its account of the 2012 kidnapping of its chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, saying it was likely that Mr. Engel and his reporting team had been abducted by a Sunni militant group, not forces affiliated with the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

Engel did not see a dead body himself

In his Vanity Fair article, Mr. Engel described one of his captors lying dead. In his statement Wednesday, he acknowledged that he did not see bodies during the rescue.

He said that one of his producers, Aziz Akyavas, climbed out of the van through the driver-side door, stepping over a body. “I climbed out of the passenger-side door,” he wrote. “A bearded gunman approached and said that we were safe now. That was our introduction to Abu Ayman. He said that he and his men had killed the two kidnappers. Under the circumstances, and especially since Aziz said that he had seen and stepped over a body, I didn’t doubt it and later reported it as fact.”

Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept elaborates about who knew what and when.  No one has said outright that Engel knew who his captors really were.

There were ample reasons at the time to be suspicious that this was a scam (perpetrated on (not by) Engel and his fellow captives) to blame Assad for the abduction.

continued

Nobody can blame Engel — a courageous reporter, fluent in Arabic — for falling for what appears to be a well-coordinated ruse. Particularly under those harrowing circumstances, when he and his fellow captives believed with good reason that their lives were in immediate danger, it’s completely understandable that he believed he had been captured by pro-Assad forces. There is no real evidence that Engel did anything wrong in recounting his ordeal.

But the same is most certainly not true of NBC News executives. In writing his new account, Engel does not mention the most important and most incriminating aspect of The New York Times reporting: that NBC officials knew at the time that there was reason to be highly skeptical of the identity of the captors, but nonetheless allowed Engel and numerous other NBC and MSNBC reporters to tell this story with virtually no questioning.

Engel's own statement says

I, along with two other Arabic speaking members of our six-member team, believed they were from the Shabiha.

continued

it is clear that we were kidnapped by a criminal gang for money and released for propaganda purposes. We still cannot determine whether we were set up to be kidnapped from the start

The Myth of the Moderate Free Syrian Army

As’ad AbuKhalil: I was skeptical about the entire enterprise of Western journalistic coverage of Syria, particularly by American correspondents in the region. There was a lot of stuff that’s been told and transmitted that contradicted the realities on the ground. They created this myth about a moderate, secular group called the Free Syrian Army. And they were, in fact, attacking people like myself and others who were saying that the bulk of the fighting force of the so-called Syrian revolutionaries were militant fanatics of the bin Ladenite style. And in reality, we knew at the time that what is so-called the Free Syrian Army is no more than a coterie of criminal gangs and thugs that were running amok throughout the area of the so-called liberated sections of Syria, and they were engaged in sectarian kidnapping, ransoms, murder, indiscriminate shelling, and they would sometimes kidnap people, and they’d sell them to other gangs

So, but there is also something political, as Glenn mentioned, which is, there is—there was a war lobby. There were people hedging at the time in order to get the United States to intervene militarily on the side of these rebels, along with Saudi Arabia, the same allies that we now have in the so-called war on Yemen. And at the time, the statements that Richard Engel made—and I should mention that what is—I mean, there is a political story, and there’s a journalistic story. I mean, there are questions to be raised not only about the credibility of Mr. Engel, but also about bad judgment. And this is a correspondent, one of the few who’s fluent in Arabic. He can speak it fluently, he can understand it. And yet, upon his release, he taped a video in Arabic for the propaganda arm of the Free Syrian Army, in which he made fantastic claims. And I went and watched it yesterday to my amazement. I mean, he admitted yesterday to The New York Times that in fact he may have lied when he said he witnessed, at the time of his rescue, dead bodies. Now he’s saying he didn’t. But if you watch the video he taped for the Free Syrian Army benefit, he in fact claimed he saw more dead bodies upon being captured. And he also told a fantastic story about how these awful Shiite militias went about to burn somebody alive, but they couldn’t find enough gasoline. I mean, he has to account for that.

As'ad writes also that

Richard Engel has to account for those statements in this propaganda video for the Free Syrian Army

As'ad writes about Engel's Arabic that

I am most impressed with Engel's Arabic. He is really fluent in Arabic and speaks it with a semi-Egyptian accent. I must state that I did not expect this and I don't recall knowing or meeting one US correspondent in the Middle East with such fluency. He did not get stuck on words in the entire video and uses the language with such facility. If all correspondents in the region know Arabic like Engel, US media coverage of the region would be much better.

When I heard about the story I immediately knew this was not a lone incident with Richard Engel

this is not the first controversy involving Richard Engel's reporting
— BiasedReporter (@biasedreporter) April 17, 2015

Looking around I remembered where I had seen the articles discussing other problems with Engel's reporting in the Middle East.

In July 2012, Engel wrote himself that

the first casualty of war is the truth.

Here is the full paragraph as Engel documents Assad's crimes

The Assad goverment is concentrating its firepower on big cities like Damascus and Aleppo. Government troops left this village last night to join the attack on Aleppo. But the rebels, and Syria, need urgent help to prevent huge losses of life, both among fighters and civilians – Sunni, Allawite and Christian.

Many myths circulate in Washington and in the media about the Syrian opposition and the fighting in this country. From what I’ve seen traveling with the rebels, many of the commonly accepted ‘truths’ seem to be incorrect. After all, the first casualty of war is the truth.

He reports on "myths" and reports what he sees on the ground (random examples)

Myth: The rebels are getting weapons and money from abroad and will soon finish off Bashar’s army on their own.

View from the ground: The rebels are fighting with almost nothing

Myth: The rebels are disorganized, have no leaders and are rife with infighting.

View from the ground: The rebels have no central leadership. They do not have a single commander. The rebels generally do not recognize the leaders of the Syrian opposition in exile in Turkey and Europe. But on the ground here in Syria the rebels are well organized.

Myth: The rebels are al-Qaida or at least infiltrated by al-Qaida.

View from the ground: We have not seen evidence of a large al-Qaida presence. This is not an al-Qaida fight.

Engel was 100% right in 2009 about Afghanistan

“I honestly think it’s probably time to start leaving the country.” Engel added, “I really don’t see how this is going to end in anything but tears.”

As As'ad recognized, Engel learned Arabic in Egypt, and so his coverage of Egypt differs from other countries.

Remember that I look for biases in media.

2013 Richard Engel wants US aid to Egyptian military to continue to support WESTERN interests http://t.co/0dUbCYOT8Q
— BiasedReporter (@biasedreporter) April 17, 2015

FAIR explains

But on Meet the Press (8/18/13), NBC foreign correspondent Richard Engel appeared to make his feelings known: The U.S. should not cut off aid to the Egyptian military:

People in this country and around the region think it would be an absolutely disastrous idea for the United States to cut off aid, that Washington has real interest with the Egyptian military, preferential access to the Suez Canal, military over flights, and not to mention the Camp David Accords.

Preferential access to the Suez Canal (for oil shipments and other trade issues with the West), military over flights are not necessarily Egyptian interests.  They are Western interests and have been since Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798.  The Camp David Accords is a good-neighbor policy and where US aid fits in to Egypt's interests.

Then there is the Arab Spring in Egypt. FAIR explained the "controversy." (emphasis mine)

NBC Nightly News reporter Richard Engel held up a tear gas canister on the air to show that it was stamped “Made in the USA.” But something else he said on the January 28, 2011 newscast struck me:

But what’s scattered on the streets of Cairo right now are these little canisters. These were the tear gas canisters that were fired by all those riot police today. And if you look at them closely, they say clearly in English, “Made in the USA.” Egyptians have been picking them up, they’ve been looking them over. And from an Egyptian perspective, it does seem like Mubarak and the United States are working together. So the U.S. is walking a fine line here.

Strange perspective they’ve got over there.

RIchard Engel "US aid to Egypt should continue" because they're using an awful lot of it against Egyptians http://t.co/KaIcUTbmzP
— BiasedReporter (@biasedreporter) April 17, 2015

Mining News Updates

“ Coal-mining disasters often expose an economic system’s injustices”

I recently heard about a new book that recounts the story of the 33 trapped miners in Chile in 2010, a story that was widely covered in America in typical wall to wall coverage of nothing with little history, context or reflection after the events have ended.  (War coverage is another similar example, see for example Nathan Fuller's updates on US interventions in Syria and Libya, and the media's "in depth" coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan)

According to the Pew Research Center coverage of the Chilean earthquake in 2010 fared better than Pakistan's flood disaster, but even while Haiti's earthquake got more coverage overall, even that story faded rather quickly from US news after just 3 weeks.  Four years after the Haiti earthquake, rebuilding continues and immense humanitarian needs remain.

the United Nations has developed a two-year support plan to the Haitian National Plan to eliminate cholera and which focuses on four pillars: epidemiological surveillance; health promotion; medical treatment; and water, hygiene and sanitation.

According to the World Bank, about 38 per cent of Haitians lack access to safe drinking water, and only 24 percent of Haitian families has access to improved sanitation.

As is often the case, different media outlets used the story to push their own agendas and spin, such as the Wall Street Journal proclaiming that 

Capitalism Saved the Miners
The profit = innovation dynamic was everywhere at the mine rescue site.

The article explains that the drill bit that rescued the miners was developed by a company solely for making a profit, never-mind that capitalism also was the reason they were down there in the first place.  The Wall Street Journal also leaves out the role of the state owned mining company Codelco's role in financing the rescue operation because the privately held company couldn't afford it, an uncomfortable fact when praising capitalism for rescuing the miners that capitalism trapped there in the first place.

The mine was the San José Mine owned by the private company Compañía Minera San Esteban Primera (San Esteban Primera Mining Company) and it was public pressure that led the federal government's state-owned mining company Codelco that financed the rescue operation.

The mine had a history of safety issues and dangerous injuries and deaths before the collapse, and a 3 year investigation led to no charges filed.

Union leaders had persisted in warning of the hazards of the San José mine, where accidents and injuries were commonplace in the years leading up to the collapse. In 2004, a miner died as a result of a cave-in, and two years later another accident claimed a life. But the San Esteban Mining Company, which controlled the mine, continued to attract workers with higher-than-average salaries, although the work was known to be perilous.

Then in January 2007, a geologist was killed during a rock explosion in the mine and Sernageomin ordered it closed until new safety measures were in effect. But a year later, without the new measures fully in place, it was back in operation. Just two months before the 2010 accident, a miner’s leg was amputated as a result of another accident.

Even a year later while there had been improvements made, safety was still an issue for mine workers.

From The Guardian

Chile miners: rescue joy must not derail focus on why mine collapse happened
It remains valid to ask how the miners' plight could have arisen in a country lauded for its development progress

But with all the attention the trapped miners got at the time, other stories from Chile went unreported, a lot of which are reverberations from the 1973 coup.

Don't Fear ISIS Chemical Weapons Part 3

We aren't hearing much lately about the "Laptop of Doom" anymore since we've started actually bombing ISIS in Syria, but the media continues to scare us about terrorists

(Here is Part 1 and Part 2)

Our new Prime Minister in Iraq gives us a tip, there is a bad translation about imminence, then more scares about ongoing imminence...

Iraq’s prime minister said Thursday that captured Islamic State militants have told Iraqi intelligence agents of an alleged plot to attack subways in the United States and Paris

continued

Initially the AP quoted al-Abadi as saying ‘‘yes’’ when asked if an attack was imminent. A review of his remarks established that he actually said, ‘‘I’m not sure.’’

He said that the attack threat had not been thwarted.

‘‘No, it has not been disrupted yet... this is a network,’’

Officials say they are not aware of any threats, and the terrorists want us to live in fear and we refuse to do so

At a news conference outside the Union Square subway station Thursday afternoon, de Blasio worked to calm the nerves of New Yorkers after news of the alleged plot, saying city officials have found no specific threat.

“We are convinced that New Yorkers are safe,” he said. “We are convinced that people should go about our normal routine. Terrorists want us to live in fear. We refuse to live in fear.”

But just to be safe, worry about everything anyway and report anything weird that you see

The mayor also stressed the importance of the subway system’s “see something, say something” motto.

“The people of this city have an important role to play,” de Blasio said. “The phrase, ‘when you see something, say something’ is not an empty phrase. It is real.”

continued

police Commissioner Bill Bratton echoed the mayor’s statements.

“At this time, the people of this city should feel very comfortable and secure moving through the subways,” he said.

Republican Representative Peter King, a regular media figure talking terrorism (Islamic not Irish, see here or here) had a quote I found amusing for it's "don't worry but worry" aspect

“Anything involving ISIS is taken seriously and there is absolutely no evidence at all that there’s any validity to what the prime minister said,” King told 1010 WINS.

King said the nation must be on guard, but that the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies have not put out any advisories of an imminent threat against the U.S.

“If they thought it was imminent, they would be contacting New York state, New York City as soon as possible because when you’re talking about a subway attack obviously New York is always what first comes to mind,” King said. “We have at least 5,000 entrances and exits to train stations in New York, millions of commuters every day, millions of riders on the trains, so they would be first notified.”

So while there's no credible threat that anyone has heard about (or is admitting to) police will increase their presence once again

Bag inspections were being set up at some subway stations, more bomb-sniffing dogs and surveillance teams were deployed, and officers were working overtime and doing extra checks of subway stations

So the media is again trying to scare us about ISIS subway plots (as they reassure us as well)

But meanwhile a more dangerous threat lurks in the background, under-reported in the media

New lab incidents fuel fear, safety concerns in Congress

Scientists wearing space-suitlike protective gear searched for hours in May for a mouse — infected with a virus similar to Ebola — that had escaped inside Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, one of the federal government's highest-security research facilities, according to newly obtained incident reports that provide a window into the secretive world of bioterror lab accidents. During the same month at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, a lab worker suffered a cut while trying to round up escaped ferrets that had been infected with a deadly strain of avian influenza, records show. Four days later at Colorado State University's bioterrorism lab, a worker failed to ensure dangerous bacteria had been killed before shipping specimens — some of them still able to grow — to another lab where a worker unwittingly handled them without key protective gear.

continued

More than 1,100 incidents involving select agents were reported by labs from 2008 through 2012 and more than half were serious enough workers received medical evaluation or treatment

How much coverage did the July hearing mentioned in the article get?

Maybe if we were trying to start a war this would get more coverage.

My Posts on Police Shootings and Brutality

Death in Police Custody Law Obama signed into law a re-authorization of an expired law that requires reporting on those killed in police custody.  Data from the last time suggests it won't be complete as required reporting of data was lax.

No Merry Christmas in Ferguson

Governor Nixon gets it wrong  In a press conference discussing the pending Grand Jury decision on whether to indict Police Officer Darren Wilson, Governor Nixon called for protesters to be peaceful, saying "Violence will not be tolerated" while neglecting to mention the names of those killed by cops and ignoring the long history of police brutality.

The Strange Case of Damonte Shipp, aka Ceebo here I repost an article about the case of Ceebo the rapper, cousin of Ezell Ford.

As part of the post "Before Mike Brown" I found a map that shows every homicide in St Louis in 2014.  Here is the list of 199 killings

St Louis Homicides 2014

Before Mike Brown I take a look at St Louis before August 2014, to point out other police shootings and brutality, and the community efforts to stop the violence from cops and in the community.

Ferguson honors John Crawford Protesters in Ferguson shut down WalMarts in honor of John Crawford, killed by police in a WalMart in Ohio.  Includes other incidents of police brutality.

Just Wait, it gets worse  Two stories about law enforcement mishandling cremated ashes, and other things police mistake for drugs.

End the War on Drugs a report on some of the grant programs that give local police equipment and funding that can be used to buy equipment

The Police cannot handle.... Some situations of police brutality in everyday situations that should have been handled better.

We still need more information on police shootings a look at the statistics documenting police shootings and some problems with the reporting.

Crowdsourcing police shootings  A look at the difficulty in reporting police shootings

Police Shootings by State a look at where police do the most shooting, and what is not counted when discussing police shootings.

Don't Fear ISIS Chemical Weapons Part 2

On Friday I wrote about the article in Foreign Policy about the ISIS laptop with the chemical weapons documents.  The article was mostly scare journalism for several reaons.

• ISIS is currently killing plenty of people just with guns and bombs, although there is increasing evidence of sophisticated weapons including possible allegations of cluster bombs falling into the control of ISIS, as well as the very public capture of some heavy conventional wepaons left behind at the Tabqa airbase. (for more great reporting on the Syrian Civil War see the work of Brown Moses at Bellingcat)

• chemical weapons are hard to produce and use

• Syria's stockpiles pose a larger threat, yet we are currently fighting on the same side.

The West has its own history of chemical weapons use and support, most notably in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.  We supplied Saddam with chemical weapons despite our knowing that both sides were using chemcial weapons.  Saddam later used them against Kurds in Halabja.  Last year survivors of the attack sued Western companies that supplied Saddam with the chemicals.

We even took Saddam off the list of state sponsors of terrorism in order to give him chemical weapons.  I wonder who has America on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Syria has offered to help, and the US has at least mentioned that the coalition could include Syria, as General Martin Dempsey said

U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believed Syria and the U.S. will be joined in by key allies in the region, such as Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, in stopping the madmen ISIS jihadists.

"I think ISIS has been so brutal, and has wrapped itself in a radical religious legitimacy that clearly threatens everybody I just mentioned, that I think they will be willing partners," CBC quoted Dempsey.

IS is currently executing dozens in cities all across Iraq, and has also been in control of areas of Syria for more than a year, but they are shooting people and beheading many individuals and small groups, most notably American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as

• a Peshmerga soldier Hassan Mohamed Hashin, part of a larger group of captured Peshmerga, as well as the Syrian soldiers captured and massacred by gunfire who we saw marching in the desert in their underwear before they were killed.

• Christians and children in Mosul as well as burying them alive.

ISIS is bringing plenty of death as the UN considers it eligible for war crimes charges, but it is not through chemical weapons.  As the West tries to fight ISIS however, we are

• arming Kurdish groups alligned with the US and European designated terrorist group PKK as I have written about before (see for other examples Al Monitor and France24 and Jonathon Turley)

A search on Twitter for "PKK ISIS" shows different views of the situation, many have pictures of the female fighters, others have stories of how scared ISIS is of female warriors, there is the hashtag #RemovePKKFromUSTerrorListNow, while still others (mostly in Turkey) are warning the West of the dangers of arming the PKK.

So far these are the countries sending arms to the Kurds

Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Italy and Britain have committed to sending arms and equipment to the Kurds, Mr. Hagel said

despite many warnings from our allies against arming a group designated as a terrorist group, as well as our history of arming one group against a current enemy, only to have the group we armed come back and attack us later.   

As I mentioned above with Syria, the US and its western allies are forming an odd coalition against the current group to fill the role of the Planners of the "next 9/11" and the Worst Enemy Since Hitler.

We are currently allied with the above mentioned Kurdish "terrorist" PKK, as well as a fluid coalition that is forming, some willing and others unwilling to cooperate fully with military troops or arms shipments to allies on the ground fighting ISIS.

The list so far includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Britain, France, Australia and Germany.

Whether or not the US government accepts this offer, Syria could be a willing partner in the fight against ISIS as I mentioned above.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem said this week that his country was ready and willing to work with the international community, but warned the U.S. that any intervention should first be approved by his government.

The article in Foreign Policy bothers me because as I wrote earlier, Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have been trying since before 9/11 to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, or at least make people believe they can, to make people afraid.  So to combat the grouo that is the worst thing since Hitler and actively planning the next 9/11, we may be willing to partner with the Assad government in Syria, that is still using chemical weapons as it carries out it's own genocide.

Syria's chemcial weapons attacks continue, even as the international community praises the destruction of the "declared chemical weapons" after the attack last year and Obama's infamous red line.

The recent news on August 18, 2014 that

The United States said Monday that it had completed the destruction of the deadliest chemical weapons in Syria’s arsenal

which included

581 metric tonnes of DF, a binary precursor for sarin gas, and 19.8 metric tonnes of ready-to-use sulfur mustard (HD). They were neutralised with two Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems (FDHS) on the Cape Ray, which reduced their toxicity by 99.9 percent in line with the requirements of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Furthermore, the operation was successfully completed weeks ahead of the 60-day schedule the U.S. had estimated would be needed, and OPCW inspectors aboard the ship verified that no chemicals of any kind escaped into the sea or otherwise impacted the environment. The Cape Ray will now transport the effluent from the hydrolysis operations to Finland and Germany, where it will be offloaded for disposal at land-based facilities.

proves to be a complete farce when considering that yesterday September 1, there were Reports of New Improvised Chemical Weapons Used by the Syrian Air Force including a new investigation by OPCW into the use of chlorine, which was not part of the "successful" elimination of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

An OPCW team went to Syria to probe the new allegations of chlorine use. Chlorine has many peaceful uses but can be deployed in gas form as a chemical weapon, and such use is banned under an international treaty. Syria did not have to declare chlorine as part of its agreement to give up chemical weapons.

So Syria got to keep its chlorine, and has according to accounts used it as many as 8 times in April alone, as well as dropping barrel bombs against civilians.

Reasonable grounds exist to believe that chemical agents, likely chlorine, were used on (northern Syrian villages) Kafr Zeita, al-Tamana and Tal Minnis in eight incidents within a 10-day period in April," the report said.

Witnesses saw helicopters drop barrel bombs and smelled a scent akin to domestic chlorine immediately following impact." Victims, it said, had suffered "symptoms compatible with exposure to chemical agents, namely vomiting, eye and skin irritation, choking and other respiratory problems.

killing so far at least 191,000 by recent counts.

ISIS is dangerous, and they are capable and willing to kill thousands of people in Iraq and Syria.  They want Westerners to join them, and they want Western troops to come to Iraq and Syria to fight them.  However despite their ruthlessness I do not fear ISIS getting their hands on chemical weapons.  I fear scary journalism more, because it can alow governemnts to scare citizens into going to war.  The problem with war is that it leads to more war as enemies and alliances shift from one conflict to the next, and too many times as we are seeing now with ISIS, one conflict (the Iraq War) leads to new wars.

We need to fix our foreign policy fast.  That can be done, but it starts with informed citizens, and that starts with accurate informative journalism.

I leave you with some US government hypocrisy from to show you what this looks like.

June 25 
Iraq Crisis Puts US on Same Side With Assad, Iran Quds Force

we now see a situation whose supreme irony would be hilarious if only so many lives were not senselessly caught in the crossfire....inside Iraq, state media is initially unable to distinguish an action taken by Assad from one taken by the US. That is, Assad, whom we are fighting inside Syria, is on our side inside Iraq.

July 21
Kerry Castigates Putin For Using US Strategy of Training, Arming Rebels

the tragic downing of MH17....demonstrated the folly of training and arming rebel groups that often veer into extremist actions that result in atrocities. That point ties to the mad push to arm Syria’s rebels with the shorter range MANPAD antiaircraft missiles even though they are less powerful than the Buk missile that took down MH17.

June 11
US Foreign Policy in a NUTshell

This partial screen capture from the “World” section of today’s New York Times really needs no further explanation of the incompetence of US diplomats and military strategists

So our strategy to fight ISIS is...

• Western countries fear ISIS could develop chemical weapons and use them to kill thousands of civilians

• In order to make sure that doesn't happen, we are teaming up with a leader who has used chemical weapons and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. 

Don't Fear ISIS Chemical Weapons

Foreign Policy has an article about an ISIS laptop found in Syria that among other documents, including jihadi speeches, contains

a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals.

Marcy Wheeler compares this laptop "discovery" to one in 2004 that later turned out to be a forgery that contained Iran's nuclear program information.  Marcy says about this source

Either Abu Ali is lying, or he’s lying.

I am going to look at the media's scare tactics, and in another post who we should really worry about with chemical weapons (it's not ISIS). 

First, the story from the Foreign Policy article.

...after hours upon hours of scrolling through the documents, it became clear that the ISIS laptop contains more than the typical propaganda and instruction manuals used by jihadists. The documents also suggest that the laptop's owner was teaching himself about the use of biological weaponry, in preparation for  

 a potential attack that would have shocked the world.

The information on the laptop makes clear that its owner is a Tunisian national named Muhammed S. who joined ISIS in Syria and who studied chemistry and physics at two universities in Tunisia's northeast. Even more disturbing is how he planned to use that education: The ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals.

As you read the article further you see that it debunks itself.

Even the follow-up article debunks the story, while still being able to scare people 

Really difficult yet really easy!

The real difficulty in all of these weapons ... [is] to actually have a workable distribution system that will kill a lot of people," said Magnus Ranstorp, research director of the Center for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College. "But to produce quite scary weapons is certainly within [the Islamic State's] capabilities.

But the article still tries to scare us, but succeeds again only in debunking itself. (links are from the article)


"Al Qaeda has tried unsuccessfully for years to get such weapons"

Nothing on the ISIS laptop, of course, suggests that the jihadists already possess these dangerous weapons. And any jihadi organization contemplating a bioterrorist attack will face many difficulties: Al Qaeda tried unsuccessfully for years to get its hands on such weapons, and the United States has devoted massive resources to preventing terrorists from making just this sort of breakthrough. The material on this laptop, however, is a reminder that jihadists are also hard at work at acquiring the weapons that could allow them to kill thousands of people with one blow.

Yet with years of no success of acquiring chemical weapons, somehow they tested them on dogs in 2002

This isn't the first time that jihadists have attempted to acquire weapons of mass destruction. Even before the 9/11 attacks, al Qaeda had experimented with a chemical weapons program in Afghanistan. In 2002, CNN obtained a tape showing al Qaeda members testing poison gas on three dogs, all of which died.

Even the original report tries to scare us, reporting that several experts said the video showed clear evidence of nerve agents, with similar language as the Foreign Policy article saying that Al Qaeda (now ISIS) had clear capabilities able to attack Americans with chemical weapons.  In the end however even this article debunks itself as it devolves from a nerve agent, to cyanide in gas form, to "something"

Scary Nerve Agent!

a sign, say some of the experts who were shown the tape by CNN, of a nerve agent.

Sarin!

a very powerful and quick-acting chemical that behaves like a nerve agent...such as sarin, which was used in the Tokyo subway terrorist attacks in the 1990s," said John Gilbert, a chemical weapons specialist for Science Applications International Corporation who advises the U.S. government.

David Kay (UN Iraq WMD inspector in Gulf War and 2003)

Kay said he was convinced "above a reasonable doubt" that the gas on the tape is a nerve agent, possibly an improvised nerve agent or possibly sarin. 

Jonathan Tucker, a chemical and bio-weapons specialist from the Monterey Institute, to examine the tape. He, too, said he was shocked by what he saw. But Tucker believes that the dog's reaction to the gas indicate a form of cyanide, not a nerve agent.

 Senior Bush Administration Official

The official, who has knowledge of chemical weapons issues, said the video of the chemical tests on the dogs suggest a very strong desire to acquire the capability to use such weapons "obviously against humans."

 Jonathon Tucker

Jonathan Tucker, a chemical and bio-weapons specialist from the Monterey Institute, to examine the tape. He, too, said he was shocked by what he saw. But Tucker believes that the dog's reaction to the gas indicate a form of cyanide, not a nerve agent.

"We saw visible fumes from the material that you would not see from a nerve agent, but it is consistent with production of crude hydrogen cyanide gas," Tucker said, adding that it appears to be a very crude binary weapon that terrorists would be attracted to because it is low-tech and safe to use.

Hard to tell what it is

Frederick Sidell...retired from the U.S. Army's Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, said evaluation of the chemical is very difficult.

"The most common medical agent is something called mustard, which is a blister agent. And it's certainly not that," he said, adding that it also did not seem to him to be a nerve agent or cyanide.

Whatever it is, BE AFRAID!

Whatever the substance may be, the implication of the laboratory tests was unmistakable for the experts consulted by CNN.

"The implication is that al Qaeda, or another terrorist group, could create a number of different ways of attacking people, for example, in an enclosed area, such as an airport lobby, or in a theater or a train or a bus," Gilbert said. "Another is that it could be used against individuals selectively, who are targeted for assassination."

"There are a lot more questions this tape leaves than answers, unfortunately," he said. "Well, the questions are really bad questions."

I'm much more afraid of the bad journalism being repeated every time a new group emerges than their abilities with chemical or biological weapons.

It's HOT! HOT! HOT! (but SHH! it's not Global Warming!!)

ABC World News on Wednesday June 18, 2014 reported on the "Heat Emergency" as well as severe storms and drought, but didn't mention Global Warming.

Video, Heat Wave Emergency

Video, Severe Weather

How many times will media show "people who work outside during heat waves" ??

UPS driver says "It's Hot, I'm keeping hydrated."

Construction crews say "It's hot, I'm keeping hydrated."

etc, etc,

Dear ABC News, maybe this from AP will help you!

FEDERAL REPORT: WARMING DISRUPTS AMERICANS' LIVES May 6, 2014

Global warming is rapidly turning America the beautiful into America the stormy, sneezy and dangerous, according to a new federal scientific report. And those shining seas? Rising and costly, the report says.

Climate change's assorted harms "are expected to become increasingly disruptive across the nation throughout this century and beyond," the National Climate Assessment concluded Tuesday. The report emphasizes that warming and all-too-wild weather are changing daily lives...

the normal response from the normal groups

Some fossil energy groups, conservative think tanks and Republican senators immediately assailed the report as "alarmist."

climate change is happening now

"Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," the report says. "Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington state and maple syrup producers in Vermont are all observing climate-related changes that are outside of recent experience."

National Climate Assessment Home Page

Every region is affected by climate change

So yes, heat waves are increasing, and starting sooner, and storms are increasing in severity and frequency.  But this is not only just a weird story, nor just a weather story.  The story is global warming and the reports should reflect that.

Story on Iraq, then "pain at gas pump"
Video, ISIS approaching oil refinery
There was a report that ISIS was approaching an oil refinery--and yes while that may be a reason for some of the increase, you need to remind viewers, who are only scared by your story, that gas prices rise and fall all year, and typically rise and fall many times each year for various reasons, including market speculation and production increases or decreases.

Charts from Gas Buddy

Here is the 11 year Chart--before Obama, before Bush, before the war in Iraq or Recession

Here is the 2 year price chart as well, notice previous rises in prices in June 2012, February 2013 and February 2014

What Won't be Covered while Media focuses on Iraq

Iraq is a crucial story, but most of the media will get it wrong if they don't see this as the outcome of the US invasion in 2003, and the support of the Gulf Arab states, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others against Bashar Assad in the Syrian civil war.  ISIS, the Sunni jihadi group currently making their way towards Baghdad, was largely funded by American allies against Bashar Assad.

So my question here is What will the media ignore now as they cover Iraq?

Just to clarify, many of these topics---Media Freedom, several countries in Europe, and African and South American news stories get little or no coverage in American news media as it is, regardless of "breaking news" stories that get wall to wall coverage, like Iraq or Syria, or the missing Malaysian airline MH370.

Below is a brief selection of the hundreds of important stories happening around the world all the time that US media chooses to ignore.

40% of Oil and Gas wells are not being inspected for safety by Federal Government article
NEW CASTLE, Colo. (AP) -- Four in 10 new oil and gas wells near national forests and fragile watersheds or otherwise identified as higher pollution risks escape federal inspection, unchecked by an agency struggling to keep pace with America's drilling boom, according to an Associated Press review that shows wide state-by-state disparities in safety checks.

Israel Blames Hamas in Kidnapping of 3 Israeli Teens article
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli troops on Sunday arrested some 80 Palestinians, including dozens of members of Hamas, in an overnight raid in the West Bank as the prime minister accused the Islamic militant group of kidnapping three teenagers.

So interestingly this will probably be covered---but what won't be covered is the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

Palestinian boy, 7, dies of injuries from Israeli air strike: medics say article
GAZA (Reuters) - A seven-year-old boy has died of wounds suffered in an Israeli air strike that killed his uncle, a Palestinian militant, as they were riding on a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip, relatives and hospital officials said on Sunday.

Right-Winger Reuven Rivlin elected as Israel's President, replacing Shimon Peres in ceremonial post article
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Reuven Rivlin, a right-wing legislator opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, was elected Israel's president on Tuesday to replace the dovish Shimon Peres in the largely ceremonial post. Rivlin, 74, is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. He has a reputation for political independence and has had a frosty personal relationship with the Israeli premier.

Afghan Election Run-off article
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghans braved threats of violence and searing heat Saturday to vote in a presidential runoff that likely will mark the country's first peaceful transfer of authority, an important step toward democracy as foreign combat troops leave.

Africa never gets much attention from US media, and South America gets even less coverage.

15 prisoners escape in Mali  article
BAMAKO (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and 15 prisoners escaped after a suspected Islamist militant detainee shot his way out of the main jail in Mali's capital Bamako on Monday, a government official said.

It is sad that media freedom stories do not get covered by American news outlets.

Al Jazeera Journalist Abdullah Al-Shay freed in Egypt article
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the release on Monday on medical grounds of Al Jazeera journalist Abdullah Al-Shamy, who had been on hunger strike for more than 130 days in protest over his detention, a statement from the prosecutor's office said.

The only news I ever see covered about Italy is Amanda Knox or the Pope

Italy's 5-Star Movement Willing to drop opposition to working with PM Renzi article
ROME (Reuters) - Italy's anti-establishment party, 5-Star Movement, said it was willing to drop its opposition to working with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi over electoral reforms if its own proposals are considered.

The only European politics we seem to cover besides England is Extramarital affairs (see France's Holland and Italy's Berlosconi)

Finland's Conservative PM candidate pledges to enter NATO if elected article
LAHTI Finland (Reuters) - Finland's EU minister Alexander Stubb, who wants to cut taxes and take his neutral country into NATO, won the leadership of his ruling conservative party on Saturday, putting him on track to become prime minister later this month.


It is important to remember that this represents only a small selection of some important stories happening around the world all the time.  American news media does not inform the public of what is important, choosing instead to focus on what drives ratings.

American news media should focus on in depth reporting on the US government's policies, not the daily political ups and downs.  Watch how much coverage the 2016 Presidential elections are getting, comapred with US policies affecting us daily right now.

American news media should be paying much more attention to South America and its governemnts, Africa and its governments, Asia and its governments.  If daily news coverage is too much to ask during the 24 hour news cycle (let me know if you are laughing at that!!) then maybe a weekly recap could be done.

I will say that Fareed Zakaria on CNN does cover some issues that are ignored the rest of the week.

Americans are largely uninformed about what is going on in the rest of the world, and they are shocked when they hear that the rest of the world doesn't like America---they think it is Americans that are hated.  It is not Americans or American ideals that are hated.  It is the effects that US foreign policies have on other countries, as we fight claim to fight for "freedom and democracy" while focusing only on US national interests, disregarding how it affects 85% of the rest of the world.

Welcome!

Welcome to The Biased Reporter

All news is biased. Not just Fox News, where the daily agenda is something like "Democrats are trying to destroy the greatness of America and only Republicans and Ronald Reagan can save it" or MSNBC, where it's only the Democrats who have the great ideas and it's the Republicans trying to destroy the middle class in favor of corporations.  I'll write more about these two arguments later.

Media bias occurs whenever a story is first heard, and immediately and even subconsciously there is a viewpoint attached to the news story.  Everyone does this, and it is not necessarily a criticism.  It is just an important fact to realize whenever we see news.  We have to take a step beyond the story and look further. What are the sources these media organizations turn to over and over for analysis? Do these pundits ever lose credibility as a source? What questions are being asked, and which aren't? These are some of the issues I will be discussing in this blog.

I am writing a blog of news,comments and media criticism.  I took the name "The Biased Reporter"

A) because I like it and it sounds good, compared with other names like Under the Radar and UnderReported

B) in order to show how other news organizations and journalists are biased---ALL of them in some way, when they report a story.

C) as part of the larger group of great reporters and journalists and the thousands of citizens worldwide trying to show the truth always, report what is important in the world, and break through the noise and spin.

My blog website is http://thebiasedreporterblog.blogspot.com (and now in 2015 on WordPress as well) because biasedreporter.blogspot.com was already taken (by one post on mortgages with links to other services), and thebiasedreporter.blogspot.com was taken as well, by someone named Biased Lois, who briefly in 2006 was doing what I want to do now.  I am not sure why she stopped blogging, but she certainly did a good job.

I am NOT "Biased Lois" but I agree fully with her sentiment that

I acknowledge that I do have biases. We all do. But I the first step toward giving readers fair and balanced news coverage is acknowledging those biases and working very hard to make sure other views are represented in news stories." see her blog here

As her profile rightly says,

Best way for journalists to give readers fair and balanced news? Admit there is no such thing as an "unbiased reporter."

I plan to continue in the footsteps, and in the path of the news organizations and journalists, independent and Mainstream, who tell the truth no matter what, and truly use their platform to inform the public, NOT for ratings, but to tell the citizens of this country what government is doing in their name, in order to make our experiment in democracy REAL, here and abroad, and to give the power of the people back to the people.