MY LAI TO ABU GHRAIB & OTHER U.S. ATROCITIES EXPOSED BY INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST SEYMOUR HERSH

GEORGE BUSH SAYS TO STEVEN HARPER "SO YOU FOOLED THEM, EH !!! SO NOW A NEW AGE DAWNS ! Posted by Picasa  
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PHOTO OF MY LAI MASSACRE BY US FORCES 1968 MURDERING 350 MEN,WOMEN, CHILDREN & BABIES...LT. CALLEY SAYS "WELL, AS YOU KNOW BABIES WILL GROW UP TO BE COMMUNIST "Posted by Picasa
PHOTO FROM MY LAI MASSACRE 1968 VIETNAM
NEOCONS SAY KILL'EM ALL !!!Posted by Picasa
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST SEYMOUR HERSH WHO FIRST REVEALED HORROR OF MY LAI MASSACRE IN VIETNAM 1968. BLOWS THE WHISTLE ON " AGENT ORANGE "& TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB ETC.Posted by Picasa

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. ”
Edward R. Murrow

“ How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”
Adolf Hitler

“ The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. ”
Adolf Hitler

“ The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.”
Adolf Hitler

“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category. ”
Adolf Hitler


“ When an opponent declares, "I will not come over to your side," I calmly say, "Your child belongs to us already... What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community."
Adolf Hitler

“ Who says I am not under the special protection of God? ”
Adolph Hitler


Anyway getting back to the issue of journalistic integrity & Edward R. Murrow’s belief that the goal of journalism is to seek out the truth , to inform & enlighten not just to entertain or to uncritically support the status quo. Recently in the controversial case of the Danish cartoons of The Prophet Mohammad there has been much written about the Freedom Of The Press & the Media & the notion of a clash of civilizations & cultural values. Yet , even those who claim to support the Freedom of the Press & Freedom of Expression few seem to extend this ideal to criticisms of the now dominant philosophy & policies of the Neoconservatives in power in the United States & Britain & Canada & elsewhere in the West . Many Journalists & media personalities, for instance, saw nothing wrong with being “ Embedded” with the US military or her allies in the invasion of Iraq & thereby having their stories controlled by those conducting the invasion . Nor were most of these jounalist interested in stories about detainee abuses & often accepted without comment the Bush administration’s official statements about these abuses. Some felt they had to report on this matter once the evidence kept mounting & the infamous photos began streaming across the Internet . This to some extent is nothing new .

During the Vietnam War the US administration & those who supported the war did not take kindly to any criticisms of the rationale for going to war in Vietnam or of how the Americans were conducting the war . It was & has been argued that because the war was somehow righteous its goal being to stop the spread of Communism & to, in effect, spread the Western ideals of Democracy & Freedom, therefore, all that was done by the military & politicians to bring about this desired end was therefore justified .

So those in power went out of their way to defend “Carpet Bombing ”, “ free-fire Zones ” the indiscriminate & reckless use of Napalm & the widespread use of defoliants ( agent orange) & the ruthless reprisals of the American military against villages or towns which the American military believed were harboring Viet Cong enemy guerrillas as in the Massacre of 350 men, women & children of the Vietnamese village of Mi Lai in 1968. Throughout the decade or more of America’s involvement in Vietnam there seemed to be little interest in supporting any real democratic reforms in South Vietnam .

Anyone who pointed out any of these unsavory facts about the Vietnam War were painted as unpatriotic & as being Pro-Communist ,at least, according to the US administration whether it be The White House or the Pentagon or the CIA & FBI or the administrations staunch & hawkish supporters including many members of the mainstream media .

But in our own time there are a few journalists who are willing to confront the powers that be & are willing to question their policies & actions & to point out where they are mistaken in their beliefs & the results of those beliefs one such journalist is Seymour Hersh who is a reporter for the New Yorker. So I just want to take a brief look at the career of Seymour Hersh & his analysis of what is happening now.

He is well respected by many & hated by others. Neocons do not care for Hersh’s style of investigative journalism & they have various arguments for this but what it boils down to is that he uncovers or reveals the truth about events which they believe should remain secret & that the official accounts of such events are the only acceptable versions of these events whether it is the massacre at Mi Lai or the torturing taking place at Abu Ghraib or Guantánamo Bay or the Massive bombings of Fallujah or Samarra.

The problem , if you like, that Seymour Hersh has is that he seems to actually believe in the Democratic ideals which the Neocons claim to espouse but mainly just pay lip service to . And of course this stance on the part of Neocons is better understood once we see their relationship to the political philosophy of Leo Strauss who claimed society is best served by an elite who are permitted to use “Noble Lies” to promote their own agenda & to promote peace & security for America & ,at the least , prosperity for themselves. But more on the shadowy figure of Leo Strauss at another time.
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Here is a short Bio of his work from the website of The Lavin Agency
http://www.thelavinagency.com/college/seymourhersh.html
SEYMOUR HERSH

“ Seymour Hersh is one of America's finest investigative journalists. His work has challenged abuses of power and held the privileged to account in the court of public opinion.

Seymour Hersh has uncovered some of the most important news stories of our times, and in the process shown America that power, and the exercising of that power on the international stage, comes with a price. Nowhere is that more true than in his most recent bestseller, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, which has made him once again a subject of national and international attention. Hersh's work has won more than a dozen major journalism prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and four George Polk Awards.

He told the world of the CIA's complicity in the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile; of the secret B-52 bombing of Cambodia; of the unconstitutional wiretapping of newsmen and White House aides authorized by Henry Kissinger; of the CIA's illegal spying on American antiwar activists and other citizens (which led to the widely publicized Senate investigations into the CIA).

In the 1980's Hersh revealed the CIA's illicit sale of U.S. weapons to Libya; the drug-running, vote-stealing, and other criminal activities of Panama's General Noriega; the CIA's complicity with South Africa's spying on the African National Congress; the deceit and incompetence of the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada; and the growth of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal... His reporting goes far beyond headlines to the core problems of ideology and personal intrigue that drive so much of American foreign policy. ”
___________________________________________________________

And from the website SALON.COM in BRILLIANT CAREERS David Rubien has this to say about Seymour Hersh
http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2000/01/18/hersh/

“ The man who broke the story of Vietnam's My Lai massacre is still the hardest-working muckraker in the journalism business. ”

And he continues:

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh must feel like he's howling into the darkness sometimes. His eighth and latest book, "Against All Enemies," which gruesomely details the extent of Gulf War Syndrome and the government's attempts to pretend it doesn't exist, has been selling indifferently and has been ignored by a surprising number of reviewers. His 1972 "Cover-Up," a report on the Army's cowardly investigation of the My Lai massacre -- the bloodbath Hersh had previously exposed in his blockbuster "My Lai 4" -- also sold poorly. When he revealed in 1991's "The Samson Option" that Israel was secretly stockpiling nuclear weapons, the response was yawns.

And as Lakshmi Chaudhry says in an article posted at AlterNet. October 27, 2004 about Seymour Hersh .

See: AlterNet: The Mix is the Message/MediaCulture
Seymour Hersh: Man On Fire
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20309/

“ For when Seymour Hersh speaks, he does so with unparalleled insight, passion, and candor. He is willing to say what most other star journalists rarely permit themselves to even think in this era of celebrity journalism, when image is king. When Hersh speaks, it's for two simple reasons: it's important and he cares. It's why we care to listen.

Be it his coverage of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War or his recent work exposing the Abu Ghraib scandal in Iraq, Hersh has been a dedicated watchdog for democracy. His latest book, ""Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib," builds on his reporting as a staff writer at The New Yorker. The book – among other things – reveals how National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was made aware of human rights abuses in Guantanamo Bay two years before the torture in Iraq took place. It is a searing indictment of the Bush administration for its willful ignorance, ideological agenda, and above all, a profound failure of leadership. ”

Past Peak: Cause for Alarm
HOME PAGE : http://www.pastpeak.com/
http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2004/07/post_1.htm
July 15, 2004
Seymour Hersh's ACLU Keynote Speech Transcribed
On July 8, Seymour Hersh addressed the ACLU's 2004 Membership Conference.

As Hersh comments on the lack of critical media coverage of political affairs in America:

“ … The truth is, it's so ironic… the best information we may get about this election may come from a combination of The Control Room, Fahrenheit 9/11, John Sayles, the nightly news from Jon Stewart if some of you watch that. At the height of the prisoner abuse stories, [Jon Stewart] had one of his mock news broadcasters say very seriously to the camera, on the Stewart show, he said, "The important thing is not that we commit torture and abuses, it's that we're a country that doesn't condone torture and abuses" [laughter] — that's a wonderful line. ”
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And as for what’s been happening since the Invasion & Forced Take-over of Iraq in April of 2003 here are some of his observations:
See website: The Shalom Centre
http://www.shalomctr.org/

SEYMOUR HERSH on Being Honored by SHALOM CTR, December 2005 with the MENORAH AWARD for bringing new light into dark places.

SEYMOUR HERSH:
“ About what's going on in terms of the President is that as virtuous as I feel, you know, at The New Yorker, writing an alternative history more or less of what's been going on in the last three years, George Bush feels just as virtuous in what he is doing.

He is absolutely committed... George Bush thinks this is the right thing. He is going to continue doing what he has been doing in Iraq. He's going to expand it, I think, if he can.

I think that the number of body bags that come back will make no difference to him. .. because he will see it as a price he has to pay to put America where he thinks it should be. So, he's inured in a very strange way to people like me, to the politicians, most of them who are too cowardly anyway to do much.

It gives Rumsfeld the right to do an awful lot of things he has been wanting to do, and that is basically manhunting and killing them before they kill us...”

And further he comments about the concentration & abuse of power that there are many in the Intelligence Community & in the military who do not support the policies of the administration but there is little they can do about it ...since...“ the amazing thing is we have been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government. ”

You do have to wonder what a Democracy is when it comes down to a few men in the Pentagon and a few men in the White House having their way. What they have done is neutralize the C.I.A. because there were-- serious senior analysts who disagree with the White House, with Cheney, basically, that's what I mean by White House, and Rumsfeld on a lot of issues, as somebody said, the goal in the last month has been to separate the apostates from the true believers. That's what's happening. ”

And goes onto more disturbing observations about the Bush administration & the War In Iraq which he claims has become a “ free- fire zone ” & “a turkey shoot ” & “ bombing the country into the stone age”...

“ ...Since we installed our puppet government, this man, Allawi, who was a member of the Mukabarat, the secret police of Saddam, long before he became a critic, and is basically ‘Saddam-lite’.

...every month, one thing happened: the number of sorties, bombing raids..., and the number of tonnage dropped has grown exponentially each month. We are systematically bombing that country.

“...which means that what happened in Fallujah, essentially Iraq -- some of you remember Vietnam -- Iraq is being turned into a “free-fire zone” right in front of us. Hit everything, kill everything. I have a friend in the Air Force, a Colonel, who had the awful task of being an urban bombing planner ...to make urban bombing be as unobtrusive as possible. ”

On the “Sunday after Fallujah I called him at home., and he has one of those caller I.D.’s, and he picked up the phone and he said, “Welcome to Stalingrad.” We know what we're doing. This is deliberate. It's being done. They're not telling us. They're not talking about it. ”

And in another article in The New Yorker magazine Seymour Hersh uncovers the secret operations for renditions & torture:

THE GRAY ZONE
How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2004-05-24
Posted 2004-05-15

as he states the case:

"The roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision... by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focused on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of elite combat units, and hurt America's prospects in the war on terror.

"According to interviews with several past and present American intelligence officials, the Pentagon’s operation ...encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners in an effort to generate more intelligence about the growing insurgency in Iraq. A senior C.I.A. official ...said that the operation stemmed from Rumsfeld ’s long-standing desire to wrest control of America’s clandestine and paramilitary operations from the C.I.A."

See:
Hersh, Seymour M. : CHAIN OF COMMAND: THE ROAD FROM 9/11 TO ABU GHRAIB, PUB. 2004

Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism
Graduation 2003
Journalism Commencement Address by Seymour Hersh
(audio is available at the website)
http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/students/graduation2003/hersh.asp


THE NEW YORKER
THE COMING WARS
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17

From DEMOCRACY NOW
Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Seymour Hersh: "We've Been Taken Over by a Cult"
http://www.democracynow.org/article

By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 11 October 2004
Watch the Webcast: Seymour Hersh
UC BERKELEY
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases

PBS.org NOW
2.21.03
Politics and Economy
Transcript: Jane Wallace Interviews Seymour Hersh
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_hersh.html


Then there are a couple of interviews of Seymour Hersh by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now :

Monday, May 17th, 2004
Rumsfeld Knew: Iraq Prison Abuse Part of Pentagon-Approved Black Ops Program
http://www.democracynow.org

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2004
Seymour Hersh: Israeli Agents Operating in Iraq, Iran and Syria
interview of Seymour Hersh by Amy Goodman for Democracy Now

See for instance New York Times editorial:
Restoring Our Honor
May 6, 2004, Thursday
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NYT); Editorial Desk
(reprinted at Peace Corp Online: http://peacecorpsonline.org

"I have never known a time in my life when America and its president were more hated around the world than today"

see for instance on Mi Lai

CUSP
JOANNA BOURKE, Men and Killing
23 February 2000
Kingston University
http://www.kingston.ac.uk/cusp/Lectures/bourke.htm


Also see comparisons of Mi Lai to Torture at ABU GHRAIB

COUNTERPUNCH
Weekend Edition
May 1 / 3, 2004
An Army Vet on Prisoner Torture in Iraq
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
By DIANE REJMAN
http://www.counterpunch.org/


And from PORTLAND INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER
April 15, 2004
imperialism & war
Falluja = My Lai Massacre revisited
Bring the criminals to justice. NOW!
My Lai Massacre

On attrocities in Iraq see:
website: NOT IN OUR NAME
http://www.notinourname.net
Wasting Fallujah & THE HIDDEN MASSACRE
US used white phosphorus in Iraq
BBC. November 16, 2005

STEPHEN HARPER " GOTTA STOP THOSE QUEERS & HOMOS & START BLOWING THINGS UP " ???
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PAUL ROBERTS & ANTHONY SHADID & THE HORRORS OF THE U.S. INVASION OF IRAQ & THE DEAFENING SILENCE OF THE MEDIA

THE DEBACLE IN IRAQ
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THE NIGHTMARE IN IRAQ
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PICTURE FROM www.DubyasWorld.com
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CANADIAN S.O.S.
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FROM www.dubyasWorld.com : THE NEED TO STOP ALL NEGATIVE NEWS STORIES ON IRAQ OR NEW ORLEANS
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Anyway I just read a couple of good books on the Iraqi War which I would
like to recommend ..

One is the War Against Truth by Canadian journalist Paul William Roberts & the other is Night Draws Near by Pulitzer Prize-winner for journalism Anthony Shadid . These two journalists are examples of Journalist with some integrity.
Both authors were on the ground during the Invasion & Occupation of Iraq & were not embedded with the US military or other forces & so were able to report more openly & accurately about the situation as it unfolded. Both were also were able to talk to average Iraqi citizens as well as with military personnel .
Unfortunately many journalist fearing for their personal safety or were naive enough to actually believed the military would be open & honest with them about the unfolding situation. Of course this is not an issue for journalist who are as committed to the Bush’s administration’s overall view of the world & its ultimate goals.
Both authors have attempted to cut through the Western Media's propaganda about the war. They also give a more intimate account of the War in Iraq & put a human face on this great tragedy. Of course all of this is wasted on those who support President Bush & his administrators since they believe that they are the truly enlightened ones & can by definition do no wrong as they are the very people who are defending Christendom & the West & Capitalism & their peculiar version of Freedom & Democracy from the Savage Arabs & Muslims of the World. The invective & maledicta they use cannot point in any other direction except to create a climate of Hate & Intolerance to all Arabs & Muslims.
They have done their job well since even many individuals who see themselves as “ liberals “ or Humanists & as open-minded or fair-minded have more often than not fallen for these stereotypes & racist attitudes towards all Arabs & Muslims. Even they forget that those who attacked New York on 9/11 represented a small minority in the Islamic World . This minority has grown more emboldened though with each & every brutal attack on innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere.
Whether or not the war with Saddam Hussein was justified it becomes apparent how the US botched the whole thing. Unless ,of course, their intent was to literally destroy the country & culture of Iraq which many Iraqis & others have come to believe.
The so-called “ Clash of Civilizations “ has to a great extent become a self-fulfilling prophecy .
For instance ; The US administration knew there would be some serious problems arising over law & order , and re-establishing the infra structure i.e. communications television radio, telephone water supplies, sewage treatment, electricity, & gasoline supplies , food & medical facilities & medical supplies as well as medical personnel once the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled but they did not prepare for it.
And the US led forces continued for month after month which stretched into at least the first two years of occupation to do little to give aid to the Iraqi civilian population. After the US forces attacked a city , a town a village a neighborhood they little or nothing to give medical aid to Iraqi civilians since the Americans saw all Iraqis as the enemy & therefore as potential terrorists or insurgents & so refused to give them even basic humanitarian aid . This doesn't surprise those of us who were against the war since time & again Bush & his cronies said that the Geneva Convention & other International agreements no longer applied to the US forces in Iraq or elsewhere . From their point of view America is the final arbitrator of the Moral as well as of International Law.
The Neocons believe all these laws were drawn up by a discredited " Liberal Elite " comprised of " Secular Humanists " & Communist front groups like the ACLU & Pro-Choice & other special interest groups such as Amnesty International, World Watch & evil pernicious groups like the International Red Cross which insists doctors , nurses & other medical personnel as well as Hospitals & ambulances are not legitimate military targets. So Us forces blew up hospitals, first aid stations & clearly marked ambulances if they gave medical treatment to wounded insurgents or even innocent civilians.
The US forces often led reprisals against areas from which Insurgents supposedly came from & so would revenge themselves again on innocent non-combatants killing as many as they thought fit . At times the US forces seem to have acted in a manner more often ascribed to the Nazis of Germany in the Second World War or to the very Terrorists they claimed they were fighting . Of course to adopt the tactics of Terrorist seems odd to some of us since then one loses the Moral High-Ground as it were since one is no better than those you are fighting but NeoCons do not like such wimpy liberal sentimental unrealistic views .
For the NeoCons it is only by showing the enemy brutal naked force that one can subdue them & thereby eliminate them as a threat & as they tell us this has worked well in Iraq & Afghanistan & elsewhere even if it means bombing them back into the stone-age . For instance the Neocons & Religious or Christian Right believe it is appropriate , given the aims of their enemies , to use rather deliberate & brutal actions to control the “ Enemy Population” i.e. Iraqis .
And so it is justifiable To enter a neighborhood & then barge into peoples home waving their rifles around & shouting in English at men , women & children who speak Arabic & not English to then search their homes smashing the family's possessions , terrorizing them doing body searches while pointing the barrels of their guns to the heads of women & children while shouting & swearing at them .
This is not an exaggeration as many US soldiers in interviews have said in preparation for going to Iraq they were told all Iraqi's were their enemy & that they were a little less than human & that all Arabs & Muslims were godless evil creatures out to destroy America & Christianity. So what's a soldier to think especially a 17 or 18 year old kid who was told very little if anything about the Geneva Conventions or other International Agreements on The Rules of Engagement & then is told he must avenge the thousands murdered on 9/11 . And how should they behave when they are told that they are permitted to use whatever force or tactics they wish including humiliation, intimidation, threats, torture , mutilation of corpses & even shooting women & children. After what we are told has taken place at Quantanimo & Abu Ghraib there seems to be no real restraint placed on US forces or their allies in Iraq. The few who have been tried for such wrong -doing are merely a few scapegoats to appease the public who don't really understand the nature & dirtiness of war . These are the Neo-Cons martyrs to their cause. Most merely received a slap on the wrist even for killing prisoners in their care. Since only American lives count for anything ; what can one expect ?
For instance Paul Roberts points out that American forces have illegally used & continue to use anti-personnel cluster bombs in areas where there are innocent civilians who will also be killed .
Each of these cluster bombs when they explode scatter thousands of little bombs ripping into the bodies of anyone in the vicinity . But not all the little bombs or “ bomblets” go off & it just so happens the “ bomblets” look like a child’s spin top which then explodes when someone picks it up. This is done quite deliberately it seems in the same way the Americans have used Napalm or Napalm like incendiary chemicals on the attack on Fallujah & elsewhere in Iraq even though the use of such chemicals are prohibited by International Agreement which the US signed. As has been noted before the Americans may sign such agreements to appear as being somewhat reasonable but when it suits their purposes they chose to ignore them or prevaricate in various ways by putting their own Spin on the issue ; and putting their Public Relations people to work & by using Neo-Conservative lawyers to explain to the American public that the Us administration & military forces are either not doing what they are doing or that they are not really in breach of the particular agreement at issue.
This is how they have treated the issue of torture since day one- i.e. “We don’t use torture”, “Sometimes we use torture but it’s necessary ”,or These prisoners of war are not really prisoners of war but detainees & are terrorist & so international law does not apply to them” or “ What we do is not really torture .” Humiliation , beatings , sleep-deprivation & making a prisoner masturbate or perform sodomy these according to the average American , Canadian & British Good Little Christian Neoconservative do not see this as torture but as part of doing God’s work so we are told by the Bushites and their puppets in the Media .

Anyway don’t fret next stop Iran with Bunker Buster Mini-Nukes all for what aim well whatever Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz & Condoleezza Rice can come up with because they just want to rule the world & what’s so wrong about that their little puppets Tony Blair & Stephen Harper would like to know. It seems to me if I remember correctly when the Soviet Union did this sort of thing the Americans & her allies used to go ballistic , my, my how times have changed in this best of all possible worlds as Voltaire might add... These guys used to get all teary-eyed when they heard about some dissident in the USSR being tortured or even imprisoned for his or her beliefs or public utterings now any member of a US department who speaks out even on Global Warming or Evolution or whether or not NOAH literally in historical terms sailed on the biggest bloody ship ever built all so their God could invent rainbows ah well there you go... Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose someone once said...

The horror inflicted upon the Iraqi people by the US forces & their allies appears as completely unnecessary . The tragedy of the war was just another horror inflicted upon a people who had suffered for some thirty years under the rule & tyranny of Saddam Hussein &then had to undergo the ordeal of years of a pointless war with Iran followed by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait followed by the US counter-attack & then ten years of oppressive draconian sanctions which contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians leaving the country rather destitute before the US 2003 invasion.
There were no weapons of Mass Destruction & no connection with Al Qeda & the 9/11 attack.

Anyway the authors of these two books try to put the present situation in an historical context of the history of the Middle East especially since the time of the First World War. At that time much was promised to the Arabs who were willing to fight on the side of the British & French . In the end the Arabs were betrayed & the British & French and others carved up what they won from the Germans & the Turks leaving the Arabs to once again be left ruled by another group of conquerors. And so now they have been conquered again by another nation & so history of Iraq continues from broken promises & conquerors to Tyrants to new Conquerors .
As Kurt Vonnegut used to say , “ and so it goes, Hi, HO ”


Paul William Roberts HOME PAGE
www.paulwmroberts.com/
A WAR AGAINST TRUTH : An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq pub. 2004

"With regard to Iraq, we are continuing to act as imperialists or colonizers in a post-colonial age. The more we attempt to remake the world in our own image, the deeper the resentment against us will grow." -- PWR, 2002.

"Despite the bitter humor and riveting eyewitness accounts of the Iraq tragedies, a serious reading of this lacerating account of the crimes and the lives of the victims is about as enjoyable as ripping off scabs. But it is so vivid and compelling that it is impossible to put it down. Reading it is not only painful, but also as necessary as opening one's eyes in the morning, for those who want to perceive the world as it is and to do something about it."
-- Noam Chomsky on A WAR AGAINST TRUTH


2. Interview with "Night Draws Near" author Anthony Shadid
Sherri Muzher, Electronic Iraq, 30 September 2005

Appropriately beginning with the day of amnesty at the infamous Abu Ghreib prison when Saddam Hussein released all the prisoners, the new book Night Draws Near is an illuminating look into the ordinary lives of Iraqis during not so ordinary times. From this day on, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Anthony Shadid gets his first peek into deep-seated complaints and the long history of Iraqis, hardened by modern events but always proud of their identity.

Shadid, a 36-year-old Washington Post correspondent who chose not to be embedded with the military when the 2003 war was launched, embarks on a journey into the lives of numerous Iraqis. From the young girl Amal who writes a diary about the war and death she doesn't understand to Iraqi sculptor Mohamed Ghani who laments the looting and destruction of Iraqi historical artifacts to the clairvoyant Islamic mystic Hazem who provided comfort to Shadid's friend, Nasir Mehdawi, Shadid helps us to understand a society that was clearly misunderstood by the architects of the Iraq War. Not only does Shadid humanize the conflict, but he also explores the intersection of Eastern and Western cultures at a time of conflict.


See wbsites:
INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE for daily news
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

THE NEW YORKER
THE COMING WARS
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17

From DEMOCRACY NOW
Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Seymour Hersh: "We've Been Taken Over by a Cult"
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/1450204


By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 11 October 2004
Watch the Webcast: Seymour Hersh, 1 hour 22 minutes
UC BERKELEY
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml

Robert Fisk website & blog
which has audio & video of interviews & speeches of Robert Fisk
http://www.robert-fisk.com/

Other related books include:

Wheatcroft, Andrew : Infidels : THE conflict between Christendom and Islam, 638-2002 , Pub. 2003

Woodward, Bob : Bush At War Simon & Schuster Pub. 2002

Vidal, Gore : Dreaming War: Blood For Oil And The Cheney-Bush Junta,
pub. 2002

Hersh, Seymour M. : CHAIN OF COMMAND: THE ROAD FROM 9/11 TO ABU GHRAIB , PUB. 2004

Carter, GRAYDON : WHAT WE’VE LOST: BUSH’S WAR ON DEMOCRACY & FREEDOM , PUB. 2004

MARTIN , WILLIAM : WITH GOD ON OUR SIDE: THE RISE OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT IN AMERICA ( COMPANION TO THE PBS SERIES), PUB. 1996

FACKRE, GABRIEL : THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT & CHRISTIAN FAITH, PUB. 1982

MARTY, MARTIN E
& APPLEBY, R. SCOTT: THE GLORY AND THE POWER: THE FUNDAMENTALIST CHALLENGE TO THE MODERN WORLD ( COMPANION VOLUME TO THE PBS AND NPR TV SERIES) PUB. 1992

Anyway that's enough for now,
GOOD NIGHT ,AND GOOD LUCK
GORD>

IRAQ TURNED TO RUBBLE , JOURNALISTS & TRUTH OR PROPAGANDISTS FOR BUSH & FRIENDS

THE FUTURE OF IRAN UNDER A MUSHROOM CLOUD !!!
INFINITEJEST.ORG
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IRAQ , "OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR !!! "
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BEN FRANKLIN & BUSH & THE POLICE STATE
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And here a few quotes from C. S. Lewis ( 1898-1963) on Democracy , Tyrants & Theocracy:

Democracy demands that little men should not take big ones too seriously; it dies when it is full of little men who think they are big themselves.

Nothing gives one a more spuriously good conscience than keeping rules, even if there has been a total absence of all real charity and faith.

Unpublished letter (20 February 1955).

Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst. Of all created beings the wickedest is one who originally stood in the immediate presence of God.

Reflections on the Psalms, ch. 3.

Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already.

The Great Divorce, ch. 9.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment, Res Judicatae (June 1953).

I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to the rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is going wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations. And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic, held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated.

Of Other Worlds, p. 81.


Being a democrat, I am opposed to all very drastic and sudden changes of direction (in whatever direction) because they never in fact take place except by a particular technique. That technique involves the seizure of power by a small, highly disciplined group of people; the terror and the secret police follow, it would seem, automatically. I do not think any group good enough to have such power. They are men of like passions with ourselves. The secrecy and discipline of their organisation will have already inflamed in them that passion for the inner ring which I think at least as corrupting as avarice; and their high ideological pretensions will have lent all their passions the dangerous prestige of the Cause. Hence, in whatever direction the change is made, it is for me damned by its modus operandi...

I must, of course, admit that the actual state of affairs may sometimes be so bad that a man is tempted to risk change even by revolutionary methods; to say that desperate diseases require desperate remedies and that necessity knows no law. But to yield to this temptation is, I think, fatal. It is under that pretext that every abomination enters. Hitler, the Machiavellian Prince, the Inquisition, the Witch Doctor, all claimed to be necessary.

see article : Why C. S. Lewis Is Not a Culture Warrior by Ralph C. Wood
www.thefellowship.info/documents/

And also see:
DAILY TIMES
http://www.dailytimes.com
Friday, March 03, 2006
PURPLE PATCH: I am a democrat... — Cs Lewis


And on Materialism & Reductionism see article at Discovery Institute website
C. S. Lewis and the Materialist Menace
By: John G. West
July 15, 1996
http://www.discovery.org

So anyway that brings me to where my discussion ended in my last post & continues with idea of Journalistic Integrity . One wonders if almost anyone in the profession of journalism can have integrity since they appear to be too close & chummy with those in power. They appear to be too easily manipulated by those in power. Up until the election of Stephen Harper as Prime Minister of Canada this applied more to the United States than to Canada but it seems our journalists are trying very hard to catch up. Now more & more journalist will have to take more seriously the more radical Neo-Conservatives & the angry & militant Religious & Christian Right who see everything in black & white terms of good versus evil & there are no grey area. To them our civilization is on the brink of disaster & only they have been able to see how all of this is playing itself out & only they have moral fibre & integrity & are aware of the dangers facing our society & only they have the vision to stop the destruction of our civilization ; that is Western democratic capitalist Christian society. This will be interesting to watch with Prime Minister Harper appearing to mimic George Bush’s style & possibly his militarism & expansionist agenda .

In my last blog I focused on the broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow who was a journalist of personal integrity & had the courage of his convictions to take on powerful individuals like Joseph McCarthy whom Murrow believed was abusing his position of power to destroy the careers of individuals based on rumor, hearsay & innuendo. To some even now Edward R. Murrow & other like minded journalists should be impartial & objective in their reporting .
It is also believed that journalists , for instance, should not be using anonymous insiders in governments or in private corporations as whistle blowers to discover whether governments or corporations are being completely truthful to the public.

For instance when representatives of the federal government of a nation like the united States or Great Britain or Canada tells people that they want the people of their country to support the government & its military in their plan for going to war according to many journalist & the public in general should accept what those in power tell them as the “ Gospel Truth” & have “ Faith “ in those in power.
When the Bush administration presented their argument for going to war & invading Iraq they claimed their decision was based upon certain intelligence which had been gathered which those in authority claimed left them with no other option except to invade Iraq.
The Neo-Conservatives & the Christian Right telling us over & over again that we are involved in a Global Conflict with Terrorist call anyone who dares question those in power in the United States or Great Britain & Canada as being “unpatriotic ” “ soft on terrorism” “ anti-democracy” “ anti-Christian ” “anti-Capitalism ” “ anti-Western ” & part of the “ Great Secular Humanist Conspiracy ”
Others like Edward R. Murrow would argue that one should question those in authority & investigate to discover if what is being told to the public has some basis in fact .

There is this odd notion that journalist when reporting on a story they should be impartial & objective. It is claimed that both sides of a story should be given a fair hearing. It is contended that all sides be represented that each be given credibility . In many disputes or controversial events current or historical this approach may be appropriate. My contention ,as it were, is that this is not always the case. For instance Edward R. Murrow believed that Joseph McCarthy was abusing his position of power & Murrow made a judgement call. He believed there were important values at stake. There are certain instances in which one is forced to judge the merits of both sides & then render a judgement. Being fair-minded or open minded does not mean that one is simply “empty headed “ or that we do not hold to certain moral values. It is in this reluctance to make such judgements based upon certain moral principles that liberals & moderates & even those on the left have, at times, done a great disservice to themselves & to our society. It has left them without articulated principles or a comprehensible world view which can compete in the market place of ideas with those to the far right,& with the Neo-conservatives & the followers of Ayn Rand's " Objectivism" or the Christian Right or other fundamentalist religious groups be they Islamic or Hindu or some small fanatical cult . What is needed is a more comprehensive well thought out liberal philosophy which can be rigorously defended.

To digress for a moment consider some historical event like the Holocaust which sent six million Jews to their deaths. This was not a matter of opinion , it was & is not a matter to be resolved by public debate. First it is an historical fact. Secondly it was an act of horrifying proportion; if any act can be called “ evil” then it surely was an evil act. It was a crime against humanity since it was a deliberate attempt to wipe off of the face of the earth a particular group of people. Hitler & the Nazi party & millions of Germans focused all of their fear, resentment & hatred on the Jews of Europe claiming they were the cause of Germany’s & the world’s ills. My contention is that the extermination of six million people was morally wrong. Millions of other people stood by as the Holocaust took place & did nothing & did not speak up. Some because of indifference to Human Suffering while others did not speak up out of fear & others because they themselves were anti-Semitic & others did not believe it was happening or who could not imagine the extent of the tragedy .

Given the facts of the Holocaust ( SHOAH) if a journalist at that time had discovered Hitler’s plans for THE FINAL SOLUTION should the journalist keep quiet or should the journalist present “ both sides of the case ” entering into a debate that can not be debated. My belief is of course the journalist should speak up & report it without hesitation because it is his/ her duty as a journalist & as a human being to do so.
The Nuremberg Trials conducted after WWII attempted to bring about at least some form of justice to punish at least a few of those who took part in this horrendous event. This further led to the creation of a set of international laws to deal with any cases that might occur in the future .
The same I would argue applies to other similar situations such as the Genocide in Rawanda in the 1990's & the world then stood by & did nothing even though the world was told about it as it was happening.
So journalist at times are forced to speak out & to take sides.
This also applies to other atrocities committed in any part of the world whether it was committed by the Soviet Union in Tibet or a dozen other countries or the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (1975-1979)or the more public attack on America by Al Qeda on 9/11 or the War Crimes of Saddam Hussein or those committed by American soldiers at My Lai ( or the hundred other villages wiped out in Vietnam by US soldiers) or by American soldiers Special Forces or C.I.A. in El Salvador, Chile, Gautemala or Honduras or at ABU Ghraib Or Quantanamo .
Torture, for instance, is not a relative term though Bush Rumsfeld et al think it is.. It along with Genocide & other Crimes Against Humanity are well defined by International Law though George W. Bush and his friends see themselves as the true & only & final interpreters of law since they are God’s Messengers & enforcers.
The Bush administration supported by Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair & now by the new Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper claim that they will not be ham-strung by what they consider to be antiquated & “ quaint” international laws. They therefore reject all such international laws including those regarding the rules of engagement & Crimes against humanity and the prohibition on torture & inhumane treatment of combatants, prisoners of war & non-combatants & the requirements on nations to protect non-combatants in a war zone & to take on the responsibility to look after the basic needs of the civilian population i.e. food, water, medical needs, clothing & adequate shelter etc. once they have replaced the regime that was in power when they attacked that country .

( In future blogs I will discuus further on the need for articulated values as we venture into the Death of God, Reductionism, & Relativism C.S. Lewis meets Immanuel Kant & Ludwig Wittgenstein for Tea at a nuclear test site - see you there - )

Anyway here are a couple of examples of how the Bush administration & its friends have misled the public as they changed their story about the threat Iraq & Saddam Huesein presented to the world as the agenda of the Bush administration changed from 2001 to the Invasion of Iraq in 2003 .
These examples show that the decisions of those in power ought to be questioned & investigated. How does this sort of “ Flip-Flop” actually take place ? Are these the sorts of leaders that the American, British & Canadian populace should put their trust in ?

2001: Powell & Rice Declare Iraq Has No WMD and Is Not a Threat
from the website THE MEMORY HOLE
http://www.thememoryhole.org/index.htm

During the run-up to the 2003 attack on Iraq, we were repeatedly told by US leaders that Iraq absolutely, positively had weapons of mass destruction [read more]. The country was an immediate threat not only to its neighbors but to the entire world. It had the capability of launching WMDs within 45 minutes.

In August 2002, Cheney insisted: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

In a March 2003 address to the nation, Bush said: "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

In April 2003, Fleischer claimed: "But make no mistake--as I said earlier--we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about."

In February 2003, Powell said: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."

But two years earlier, Powell said just the opposite. The occasion was a press conference on 24 February 2001 during Powell's visit to Cairo, Egypt. Answering a question about the US-led sanctions against Iraq, the Secretary of State said:

We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq...

[See the page on the State Department Website with Powell's Cairo press conference. The Memory Hole's mirror of the page.]

AND further:

But Powell wasn't the only senior administration official telling the truth before the truth became highly inconvenient. On 29 July 2001, Condoleezza Rice appeared on CNN Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer (an anonymous reader sent me the full transcript from Lexis-Nexis). Guest host John King asked Rice about the fact that Iraq had recently fired on US planes enforcing the "no-fly zones" in Iraq. Rice craftily responds:

Well, the president has made very clear that he considers Saddam Hussein to be a threat to his neighbors, a threat to security in the region, in fact a threat to international security more broadly.

Notice that she makes it clear that Bush is the one who considers Hussein a threat. She doesn't say, "I consider..." or even, "We consider..."

Then King asks her about the sanctions against Iraq. She replies:

But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
In this news item we are told that much of what has happened in Iraq since the United States invaded the country the administration had been forewarned but refused to heed the warnings since they already had a plan & believed it to be workable & so refused to listen to any who doubted their plans & forecasts.


Common Dreams NewsCenter
http://www.commondreams.org
Published on Sunday, October 19, 2003 by the New York Times
State Dept. Study Foresaw Trouble Now Plaguing Iraq
by Eric Schmitt and Joel Brinkley


WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 — A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials.

Beginning in April 2002, the State Department project assembled more than 200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and other experts into 17 working groups to study topics ranging from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the military to revamping the economy.

Their findings included a much more dire assessment of Iraq's dilapidated electrical and water systems than many Pentagon officials assumed. They warned of a society so brutalized by Saddam Hussein's rule that many Iraqis might react coolly to Americans' notion of quickly rebuilding civil society.

Several officials said that many of the findings in the $5 million study were ignored by Pentagon officials until recently, although the Pentagon said they took the findings into account. The work is now being relied on heavily as occupation forces struggle to impose stability in Iraq.

The working group studying transitional justice was eerily prescient in forecasting the widespread looting in the aftermath of the fall of Mr. Hussein's government, caused in part by thousands of criminals set free from prison, and it recommended force to prevent the chaos.

"The period immediately after regime change might offer these criminals the opportunity to engage in acts of killing, plunder and looting," the report warned, urging American officials to "organize military patrols by coalition forces in all major cities to prevent lawlessness, especially against vital utilities and key government facilities."

Despite the scope of the project, the military office initially charged with rebuilding Iraq did not learn of it until a major government drill for the postwar mission was held in Washington in late February, less than a month before the conflict began, said Ron Adams, the office's deputy director...

So see you later,
AND GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK
GORD.

GEORGE CLOONEY as FRED FRIENDLY & DAVID STRATHAIRN AS EDWARD R. MURROW IN "GOOD NIGHT ,AND GOOD LUCK " ( DIRECTED BY GEORGE CLOONEY)
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SENATOR JOSEPH MCCARTHY (1908-1957)
"During his ten years in the Senate, McCarthy and his staff gained notoriety for making freewheeling accusations of membership in the communist party or of communist sympathies. These accusations were directed towards people in the U.S. government, particularly employees of the State Department, and those whose works were carried in government libraries overseas."--- --- "These inquiries later came to be referred to as "witch hunts" by McCarthy's detractors. Senator McCarthy was accused of victimizing innocent people - and to this day, dictionary definitions of "McCarthyism" include the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence and the use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition." FROM WIKIPEDIA
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PHOTO OF DAVID STRATHAIRN as EDWARD R. MURROW IN THE FILM " GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK "
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EDWARD R. MURROW A BROADCAST JOURNALIST A MAN OF INTEGRITY & COURAGE THE FILM " GOOD NIGHT,AND GOOD LUCK" & MCCARTHYISM

AMERICAN BROADCAST JOURNALIST EDWARD R. MURROW ( 1908-1965 )
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We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it. EDWARD R. MURROW


We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility"
EDWARD R. MURROW , MARCH 9, 1954

AND MORE QUOTES FROM EDWARD R. MURROW:

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.

Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
Edward R. Murrow

No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
Edward R. Murrow

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.

When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear that the circus was already there, and that TV has merely demonstrated that not all the performers are well trained.

The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue.

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful.

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

We cannot make good news out of bad practice.
Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow was a journalist who had integrity & the courage to fight for the democratic beliefs many leaders espouse but do not practice. Such men are rare in our society of self-interest , apathy & greed. Few journalist today are willing to take on those in Power even though it should be their duty to do so.
Here are some things I gleaned from the net on Edward R. Murrow.


EDWARD R. MURROW ( 1908- 1965)
U.S. Broadcast Journalist
From the website : THE MUSEUM OF BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS

Edward R. Murrow is the most distinguished and renowned figure in the history of American broadcast journalism. He was a seminal force in the creation and development of electronic news gathering as both a craft and a profession. Murrow's career began at CBS in 1935 and spanned the infancy of news and public affairs programming on radio through the ascendancy of television in the 1950s, as it eventually became the nation's most popular news medium. In 1961, Murrow left CBS to become director of the United States Information Agency for the new Kennedy administration. By that time, his peers were already referring to a "Murrow legend and tradition" of courage, integrity, social responsibility, and journalistic excellence, emblematic of the highest ideals of both broadcast news and the television industry in general.

David Halberstam once observed in The Powers That Be that Murrow was "one of those rare legendary figures who was as good as his myth." Murrow was apparently driven by the democratic precepts of modern liberalism and the more embracing Weltanschauung of the American Protestant tradition. In Alexander Kendrick's Prime-Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow, for example, Murrow's brother, Dewey, described the intense religious and moral tutelage of his mother and father: "they branded us with their own consciences." Murrow's imagination and the long-term effects of his early home life impelled him to integrate his parents' ethical guidelines into his own personality to such an extensive degree that Edward R. Murrow became the virtual fulfillment of his industry's public service aspirations.


Ed Murrow's rich, full, and expressive voice first came to the attention of America's listening public in his many rooftop radio broadcasts during the Battle of Britain in 1939. In words evocative of America's original founding fathers, Murrow frequently used the airwaves to revivify and popularize many democratic ideals such as free speech, citizen participation, the pursuit of truth, and the sanctification of individual liberties and rights, that resulted from a broader liberal discourse in England, France, and the United States. Resurrecting these values and virtues for a mass audience of true believers during the London Blitz was high drama--the opposing threat of totalitarianism, made real by Nazi bombs, was ever present in the background. Ed Murrow's persona was thus established, embodying the political traditions of the Western democracies, and offering the public a heroic model on which to focus their energies.

Murrow's most-celebrated piece was his 9 March 1954 telecast, in which he engaged Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in a program "told mainly in [McCarthy's] own words and pictures." In the aftermath of this episode, the descriptions of Edward R. Murrow and his tradition quickly began to transcend the more secular cast that appeared in response to his championing of democratic action and principles in Britain during World War II. In his review of the now legendary McCarthy program, for instance, New York Times' TV critic Jack Gould reflected an ongoing canonization process when he wrote that "last week may be remembered as the week that broadcasting recaptured its soul."


for a short history of the Television Documentary see:
-Tom Mascaro
http://www.museum.tv/archives


http://www.pbs.org/
And here is a bit about Mccarthyism often depicted as a dark period in American History though Neo-Cons more often than not see it as a Golden Age like those Rockwell paintings the kids at a swimming hole a kid carrying a fishing rod though of course they want to turn the clock back to before Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s. To a time when corporations weren’t regulated to the degree that they are today.

From pbs.org
http://www.pbs.org/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/mccarthyism.html
MCCARTHYISM


Throughout the 1940s and 1950s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism growing in Eastern Europe and China. Capitalizing on those concerns, a young Senator named Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred "card-carrying" communists had infiltrated the United States government. Though eventually his accusations were proven to be untrue, and he was censured by the Senate for unbecoming conduct, his zealous campaigning ushered in one of the most repressive times in 20th-century American politics.

While the House Un-American Activities Committee had been formed in 1938 as an anti-Communist organ, McCarthy’s accusations heightened the political tensions of the times. Known as McCarthyism, the paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers, many of whom were labeled communist sympathizers and were unable to continue working. Some had their passports taken away, while others were jailed for refusing to give the names of other communists. The trials, which were well publicized, could often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated accusation. Among those well-known artists accused of communist sympathies or called before the committee were Dashiell Hammett, Waldo Salt, Lillian Hellman, Lena Horne, Paul Robeson, Arthur Miller, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Chaplin and Group Theatre members Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan, and Stella Adler. In all, three hundred and twenty artists were blacklisted, and for many of them this meant the end of exceptional and promising careers.

During this time there were few in the press willing to stand up against McCarthy and the anti-Communist machine. Among those few were comedian Mort Sahl, and journalist Edward R. Murrow, whose strong criticisms of McCarthy are often cited as playing an important role in his eventual removal from power. By 1954, the fervor had died down and many actors and writers were able to return to work. Though relatively short, these proceedings remain one of the most shameful moments in modern U.S. history.



Also see:
Edward R. Murrow and the Time of His Time
By Joseph Wershba
http://www.evesmag.com/murrow.htm
Veteran journalist Joseph Wershba joined CBS News in 1944 serving as writer, editor and correspondent. He was a producer of the renowned "60 Minutes" from 1968-1988.



see:
The Center for Public Integrity
Ongoing investigative research and reports on public policy issues in the US and the world. Searchable databases include the Media Tracker which shows who ...
www.publicintegrity.org/ -

ON Mccarthyism see:
McCarthyism
This witch-hunt and anti-communist hysteria became known as McCarthyism
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm

So anyway that brings me to where my discussion begins with the idea of Journalistic Integrity which I shall continue in my next post. One wonders if almost anyone in the profession of journalism , at the present time, can have integrity since they appear to be too close & chummy with those in power. They appear to be too easily manipulated by those in power. This applied more to the United States than to Canada but it seems our journalist are trying very hard to catch up. This will be interesting to watch with Prime Minister Harper appearing to mimic George Bush’s style & possibly his militarism & expansionist agenda .

THAT's ALL FOR NOW
SO GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK as MURROW USED TO SAY
GORD.