latest outrage

The Kos diarist I saw this first from called it "worse than Abu Ghraib." I dunno about that. But it has, I guess, similar incindiary potential in the Muslim world. Remember the allegations about Koran desecration? Well now one was used for target practice by a 4th Infantry Division sniper.

The CNN follow-up story ("Behind the Scenes: Apology for a Desecration") is pretty interesting as it chronicles the general's public apology to local religious leaders. It's very ceremonial, and a good example of the challenges in an occupation of this nature.

A former college quarterback, Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, stood facing the angry crowd. His face was grim and fixed as tribal sheikhs swirled around him.

"I am a man of honor, I am a man of character. You have my word, this will never happen again," the general told the angry crowd through loudspeakers, pounding the makeshift podium three times with his fist.

"In the most humble manner, I look in to your eyes today and I say, please forgive me and my soldiers." The act of his sniper was criminal, he said. "I've come to this land to protect you, to support you...this soldier has lost the honor to serve the United States Army and the people of Iraq here in Baghdad."

Martin stood before the crowd next, opening his address with an Islamic blessing. He announced the sergeant had been relieved of duty with prejudice; reprimanded by the commanding general with a memorandum of record attached to his military record; dismissed from the regiment and redeployed from the brigade.

Holding a new Quran in his hands, he turned to the crowd. "I hope that you'll accept this humble gift." Martin kissed the Quran and touched it to his forehead as he handed it to the tribal elders. The crowd's voice rose, "Yes, yes, to the Quran. No, no, to the devil."

But would it be enough to appease the mood in Radhwaniya? A local sheikh came to the microphone. "In the name of all the sheikhs," he said, "we declare we accept the apology that was submitted."

And the kicker, to me, was the phrase scrawled on this Koran -- "FUCK YEAH." And so the uncritical jingoist embrace of that film continues apace. Lovely.

US out of everywhere! Especially Haiti!

Some historical background useful for next time teaching Haitian slave revolt. Apparently we invaded and occupied Haiti from 1915-1934. And apparently we did some not so nice things and behaved in horribly racist fashion. Who knew?

media whores exposed

Big story this week is the NYT's "Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand," which finally reveals that all those talking military heads on teevee selling us this lovely war are -- surprise, surprise -- in the tank for military contractors, and coordinate their talking points with the Pentagon ministry of information. The bit that everyone is quoting:

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. ....

Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.

Also, they include a cool visual video thingie with it. Neat.

"It seemed he was reading it from left to right, and got the message entirely wrong."

Alastair Horne interviewed in Salon. A lot of it has to do with the embrace of his work on Algeria by people as diverse as Bush/Blair, Sharon, the PLO, and Pinochet. Needless to say, he's not sure they all got the point...