RESTON, Va. — The American Society of Newspaper Editors has asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to reconsider reported plans by the Defense Department to distribute disinformation to foreign media organizations.
“We believe such a plan, if instituted, would be a serious wrong turn for the United States,” ASNE President Tim J. McGuire said in a letter to Rumsfeld.
U.S. undermining freedom of the press: media watchdog
VIENNA - The International Press Institute (IPI) launched a stinging attack on the United States Thursday, accusing it of undermining press freedom, as it revealed 55 journalists were killed worldwide last year.
"The manner in which the administration of (U.S. President George W.) Bush reacted to the work of the media during the war in Afghanistan, (Bush's) attempt to suppress the freedom of expression of the independent media was the biggest surprise in 2001," the IPI said.
The annual report by the IPI, this year called "The War Against The Media," was a marked departure for the institute, which usually reserves its strongest criticism for Asian, African or South American countries with despotic regimes.
David Dodge, author of the study, accused the Bush administration of having a "desire to control information."
Rocket attacks spread panic in West Bank
ISRAELI helicopter gunships swooped out of a piercing blue sky and began to blast buildings of Yassir Arafat’s Force 17 presidential guard.
Robertson Calls Islam a Religion of Violence, Mayhem
Television evangelist Pat Robertson yesterday described Islam as a violent religion bent on world domination, drawing immediate protests from American Muslims.
Deweaponization drive resisted in Afghanistan
QUETTA, Feb 21: One person was killed and another was injured seriously when fighting erupted between local people and forces of the Kandahar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai in Weesh town in Afghanistan, close to Chaman, on Thursday.
An Afghan border official confirmed the fighting and said that people opened fire on official forces that had asked them to hand over their weapons.
"A group of local people refused to hand over their weapons and resisted, which resulted in fighting," Zalmay Khan, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Office in Spin Buldak, told this correspondent over telephone.
Elite Colombian troops pour into Farc stronghold
Ten American-supplied Black Hawk helicopters dropped 200 heavily-armed élite Colombian paratroopers into the capital of a former rebel stronghold yesterday as the government poured in ground troops to recapture the zone.
Although one helicopter was reportedly strafed by machine-gun fire, the soldiers met little resistance from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), a day after President Pastrana launched a bombing campaign against the haven ceded to the guerrillas in 1998 as a peace gesture.
The president abruptly abandoned his three-year quest for a ceasefire mid-week after Farc's hijack of a civilian airliner to kidnap a senator on board. Some 13,000 ground troops are set to retake the lawless southern zone, roughly twice the size of Wales, which has been used as a rebel training ground, weapons cache, coca plantation and hostage hideout. One thousand soldiers were deploying east of the main town of San Vicente del Caguan yesterday.
Geneva Conventions are outdated, says US envoy
The Geneva Conventions are outdated and need to be rewritten to deal with the threat of international terrorism, the United States ambassador for war crimes said yesterday.
The forthright views of Pierre-Richard Prosper, who was personally appointed by President Bush, will fuel the controversy over the treatment of Afghan detainees by America. His remarks, in an interview with The Independent, represent the first time a senior figure in the Bush administration has spoken so unambiguously about an overhaul of the conventions. They reflect Washington'sexasperation at criticism by Western allies and international organisations of its treatment ofprisoners at Camp X-Ray on Cuba.
The Geneva Conventions have tempered some of the worst excesses of modern warfare, and attempts to tamper with them are bound to lead to opposition. However, there is a growing feeling in the administration that the present form of the conventions, signed in 1949, does not take into account the new type of conflict in which individuals and organisations, such as al-Qa'ida, rather than states, wage war.
US commandos to take control of Jolo island
MALUSO: The full contingent of 160 US Special Forces troops are to be deployed at the weekend in joint operations against suspected terrorists in the southern Philippines, a Filipino commander said Thursday.
Since Sunday, at least 80 Green Berrets have already joined Filipino forces in jungle camps on the Basilan island stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrilla group. The remainder are to be flown into Basilan over the next two days, Brigadier Emmanuel Teodosio said.
The Pentagon's 'Ministry of Truth'
WASHINGTON -- Wasn't this "Ministry of Truth" and "War is Peace" stuff was supposed to arrive 20 years ago?
George Orwell predicted a government stamping lies as truth and fighting a war so endless as to assume the monotony of peace. Writing against the early Cold War backdrop, he predicted this grim world to arrive in 1984.
Well, worse late than never. The Orwellian fears of post-World War II are taking form in early 21st-century Washington.
The prophesied "Ministry of Truth" is the Pentagon's new Office of Strategic Influence.
Sharon's buffer zones: dogs, ditches and mines
Buffer zones that Ariel Sharon is planning to create to thwart Palestinian attacks will be guarded by "obstacles" ranging from dogs that can detect explosives, land-mines and electric sensors, to fences and ditches, the Prime Minister's spokesman said yesterday.
The zones, which will vary in width from a few hundred yards to several miles, will be established in "chunks" in parts of the West Bank through which Palestinian suicide bombers pass on their way to attack Israelis, according to the spokesman, Raanan Gissin.
"They have a special mission, which is to prevent infiltration. It has no political connotation. It is only about security," said Mr Gissin, who estimated the cost at "several hundred million dollars".
Mr Sharon announced plans to create the zones during a speech to the nation on Thursday. But he was vague about details, saying only that work on marking them out would begin at once.
This led to suspicions yesterday among diplomats and Middle East analysts that the plan is no different from other measures in the West Bank, and is chiefly an attempt by Mr Sharon to reassure war-rattled Israelis and to shore up his standing in the polls, which has slipped by 16 points since December to 54 per cent.
Lies can come back to hurt you
PARIS The Pentagon has created an Office of Strategic Influence, according to the news from Washington, and is now in the process of discussing just who is to be disinformed, about what. The office was set up during the fighting in Afghanistan as the administration began to be concerned about losing support for its "war on terrorism" in foreign countries, particularly Muslim countries.
The reports say there is some opposition within the Pentagon to plans for using some false and misleading reports where that might help the United States, and the White House has not yet given final approval for that. So it can be assumed that this is another example of a hidden policy debate on how to shape public opinion.
The deliberate leak about the possibility of using misinformation to sway opinion shows that at least some of the people involved are aware of the risks.
In many ways, the battle of words, of attitudes, of sympathies is the major confrontation in this struggle against terrorism. The battle can be decisive at crucial points. So the Pentagon has decided that it should be involved. The question is how, and it is useful to give this some airing before too much damage is done to credibility.
What has war brought us so far?
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER
The last time I checked, the Constitution of the United States authorized only Congress -- not the president -- to declare war on anybody.
In the hyper-inflated atmosphere of unity and patriotism in which the nation finds itself, I suppose this is a minor technicality that it is politically incorrect to mention. So instead let's assess what this war has gotten us.
No one knows whether the war's ostensible, primary objective has been accomplished. Whether Osama bin Laden is dead or alive is anyone's guess; if he is alive, neither we nor our allies know where he is hiding. Bin Laden, in fact, has all but disappeared from public discussion, which has turned to ever-widening aims: toppling the government of Afghanistan, dealing with what President Bush terms an "axis of evil" that embraces at least three other nation-states and, in Secretary of State Colin Powell's declaration, going "after terrorism wherever it threatens free men and women."
Pounding a PBS Poohbah
The latest bugaboo for those on the right is Bill Moyers. Yes, he's liberal. Yes, he worked for LBJ. But there's something about the combination of Moyers's lofty style and his PBS perch that makes some conservatives' skin crawl.
What makes this a spectator sport worth watching is that Moyers is punching back. Hard.
American Arms -- Into Whose Hands?
Since Sept. 11, the US has stepped up military assistance to allies old and new. But might America's own weapons someday be turned against it?
E-mails detail Indiana Guard 'ghosts'
WASHINGTON — Evidence continues to grow that National Guard units across the country are undermanned and have faked their troop level reports to Washington for years in order to protect their flow of federal money and to hide their inability to retain troops.
Last Three Months Warmest on U.S. Record Books-NOAA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last three months were the warmest on U.S. record books, and January was the balmiest in the 123 years temperatures for the month have been recorded globally, government scientists said on Thursday.
Green groups cast the report as still more evidence of human-caused global warming. "The results underline the need to start cutting pollution that scientists say is causing global warming," said Jon Coifman, a spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
FACING SOUTH EXCLUSIVE - Haliburton: To the Victors Go the Markets
The influence of big energy corporations in the Bush Administration is no secret. But the story of Dick Cheney and his former company, Haliburton Co., has received little attention -- and it may be the most important
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