I am not complaining that journalists are beginning to
admit that invading Iraq was a mistake...I wish they had
stood up much, much, earlier. I do not even know if this
opining was "on the record", but one would hope so...
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Speaking at the National Press Club Tuesday evening, CBS "Evening News" anchor Katie Couric pulled back the curtain on her personal views of both the war in Iraq and former “Evening News” anchor Dan Rather.
“Everyone in this room would agree that people in this country were misled in terms of the rationale of this war,” said Couric, adding that it is “pretty much accepted” that the war in Iraq was a mistake.
“I’ve never understood why [invading Iraq] was so high on the administration’s agenda when Terrorism was going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that [Iraq] had no true connection with al Qaeda.”
Further, Couric said the Bush administration botched the war effort, calling it “accepted truths” that it erred by“disbanding the Iraq military, and leaving 100,000 Sunni men feeling marginalized and angry...[and] whether there were enough boots on the ground, the feeling that we’d be welcomed as liberators and didn’t need to focus as much on security.” She added “I’d feel totally comfortable saying any of that at some point, if required, on television.”
The former “Today” show anchor traced her discomfort with the administration’s march to war back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“The whole culture of wearing flags on our lapel and saying ‘we’ when referring to the United States and, even the ‘shock and awe’ of the initial stages, it was just too jubilant and just a little uncomfortable. And I remember feeling, when I was anchoring the ‘Today’ show, this inevitable march towards war and kind of feeling like, ‘Will anybody put the brakes on this?’ And is this really being properly challenged by the right people? And I think, at the time, anyone who questioned the administration was considered unpatriotic and it was a very difficult position to be in.”
Couric referenced comments made by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday’s “The Charlie Rose Show,” and said she actually agreed with Ahmadinejad on one point. “Oftentimes Westerners don’t really understand fully the values of this particular culture,” said Couric. “And I think the jury is still out as to whether democracy can really thrive in Iraq.”
Couric, a native of Arlington, Virginia, was at the Club to discuss “Democracy and the Press” for a recording of “The Kalb Report,” a public affairs series hosted by journalist and scholar Marvin Kalb. The series is sponsored by George Washington University, the National Press Club and Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. People in the audience included Couric’s parents, “Evening News” executive producer Rick Kaplan, Shorenstein Center founder Walter Shorenstein and NPR’s Dan Schorr.
Couric also weighed in on the lawsuit recently filed by Dan Rather against CBS, in which Rather alleges he was unfairly squeezed out of CBS by network executives following a controversial 2004 story about President George W. Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service record. After evidence emerged that the story’s primary documents were possibly faked or forged, Rather stated on air that “if I knew then what I know now, I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.”
Couric took Rather to task for his reporting. “There were things in there that were quite egregious in terms of how it was reported,” she said. “And sloppy work is sloppy work…They did not dot their I’s and cross their T’s when it came to that story…And our job is to get right.”
I think everybody in the U.S. has wised up about the war and the Bush administration by now. The soldiers in the field have served multiple tours, their families have endured repeated absences of their family members, many have been returned home either maimed for life or dead, the loss of our constitutional freedoms under the guise of "security" and all the money (459 BILLION so far) has not produced an end to this madness. The soldiers themselves are complaining about the security contractors.
The rest of the world is also watching the Bush administration tare America apart (they probably feel we're getting our "just deserves").
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About This Video (the author of this video wrote this about Blackwater).
A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said ...
A defiant Blackwater Chairman Erik Prince said yesterday he will not allow Iraqi authorities to arrest his contractors and try them in Iraq's faulty justice system.
"We will not let our people be taken by the Iraqis," Mr. Prince told editors and reporters at The Washington Times. At least 17 of 20 Blackwater guards being investigated for their roles in a Sept. 16 shooting incident are still in a secure compound in Baghdad's Green Zone and carrying out limited duties.
"In an ideal sense, if there was wrongdoing, there could be a trial brought in the Iraqi court system. But that would imply that there is a valid Iraqi court system where Westerners could get a fair trial. That is not the case right now," said Mr. Prince.
Added: October 19, 2007
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About This Video
{Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."
*cut and paste off Nesweek article*
Added: October 14, 2007
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About This Video
The Iraqi government will file criminal charges...
The Iraqi government will file criminal charges against employees of U.S. security firm Blackwater who are blamed for a gun battle in Baghdad in which civilians were killed, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Sunday.
It is unclear how Iraqi courts will attempt to bring the contractors to trial. A July report from the Congressional Research Service said the Iraqi government has no authority over private security firms contracted by the U.S. government.
The Iraqi government claims that as many as 20 civilians were killed by the private contractors, who were guarding a U.S. diplomatic convoy.
Iraqi officials, who claim the shootings were unprovoked, dispute the U.S. claim that the guards were responding to an attack and said on Saturday they had a videotape that showed the Blackwater guards opened fire without provocation.
Added: September 23, 2007
Minutes after the World Trade Center collapse, it was being broadcasted on the news that it was masterminded by Osama Bin Laden of Afghanistan. Then it was said that Bin Laden was being supported by Saddam Hussein of Iraq. The U.S. had been in Afghanistan for years, so that was the most convenient excuse for invading Iraq.
Our brave soldiers have died pleasing the gods of the White House and will continue to do do so. Many of the survivors have been mamed for life and will spend the rest of their lives with their spouses and their children in a way they would in a nightmare. America has been bankrupted and sold out.
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About This Video
This is a great video that everyone needs to watch that shows the Bush regimes main goal from day 1 in office.
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The controversial new documentary 9/11: Press for Truth raises important questions concerning the executive branches wrap up following 9/11 and is sure to inspire controversy and debate.
The film tells the story of four women who united together after each losing a family member to the 9/11 disaster. Feeling that the government had not spent nearly enough time investigating 9/11 or preparing for such an attack after several previous warnings, the women took on their own investigation, rallying the press toward their cause and putting pressure on the executive branch to launch a more thorough investigation.
The film makes accusations that may seem excessive, even ridiculous, at first, but as the story continues and ample information is provided to back claims, the points that the film strives to make begin to seem well-founded.
The film certainly inspires deep thought by raising important questions. Why did the World Trade center bulding seven tower inadvertently collapse when it was not even hit by a plane? Were explosives inside the building? Why was more money spent investigating Monica Lewinsky during the Clinton administration than was spent investigating 9/11 in 2001? Why didn't we, as the film suggests, capture Osama Bin Laden when we had him cornered in a cave in Afghanistan?
The film brings to attention the fact that the current administration has dodged these questions with suspicious awkwardness. Using live news and press footage, the film depicts the administration as a careless group of people, clearly lying to the American people and doing nothing to satisfy the desires of the nation. Interestingly enough, the majority of the accusers are Republicans, turned against an executive branch representing their own party.
Opinions aside, the film is very informative. Providing a great deal of detail concerning the steps taken following the 9/11 tragedy, Press for Truth uses media coverage from the past five years as a tool in revealing the irresponsiveness of the administration.
The film is certainly worth seeing. It poses a menagerie of questions that deserve to be answered, no matter what political ideology a person holds.
The official version of events is itself a conspiracy, Osama in a cave with nothing but a laptop directed the most diabolic crime in U.S. history, defeated a trillion dollar air defense and brought down three of the most well constructed buildings in the world using nothing but 19 men (6 of which are still alive) armed with box cutters because they "Hate our freedom" as Bush stated??
Added: October 30, 2007
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About This Video
9/11 Coincidences (Part Seven)
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Happy As Larry - The WTC7 Implosion
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Please visit the website to order the full version of 9/11 Mysteries:
Everyone remembers the Twin Towers exploding at 9:59AM and 10:28AM EDT on September 11, 2001. Comparatively few people can recall that there was a third massive skyscraper, also a part of the World Trade Center, which fell very rapidly to the ground on that day. This was World Trade Center Building 7. One reason that few remember WTC Building 7's collapse is that after September 11th it has been treated, both in the media and in The 9/11 Commission Report, as if it didn't happen.
The total collapse of the third huge skyscraper late in the afternoon September 11th was reported as if it were an insignificant footnote... most people never saw video of Building 7's collapse... Incredibly, it is virtually impossible to find any mention of Building 7 in newspapers, magazines, or broadcast media reports after September 11th."
The Commission avoids another embarrassing problem -- explaining how WTC 7 could have collapsed, also virtually at free-fall speed -- by simply not mentioning the collapse of this building.
The collapse of Building 7 at 5:20PM EDT was in itself a major event; the sudden and unexplained fall to earth of a 47-story steel-framed skyscraper is certainly news. Why has there been almost no mention of this in the US media, and why was there no mention of Building 7's collapse in The 9/11 Commission Report? These are questions of great significance, and they cry out for answers. To be able to approach any kind of explanation, however, first some pertinent and verified facts of the Building 7 aspect of 9/11 need to be scrutinized.
The fires in WTC 7 were very few and small, and certainly not evenly distributed, so a perfect collapse was impossible, yet it came down in perfect symmetry in just 6 seconds. WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein said to the fire department commander "the smartest thing to do is pull it." Firefighters withdrawing from the area stated the building was going to "blow up". The roof of WTC 7 visibly crumbled and the building collapsed perfectly into its footprint. Molten steel and partially evaporated steel members were found in the debris.
There can be only one conclusion as to what happened to WTC 7 - it was demolished.
Silverstein Properties made billions from the insurance policies he set up on the WTC complex just a few weeks before 9/11. He specifically took out insurance policies to cover terrorist attacks, then a few weeks later 9/11 happened. What are the odds on that?
Zoe, I respect you. Often I value the thoughts you share, especialy since they help me stay on track. I really wanted to get this out in front before I comment on Couric....just so you know ahead of time :)
I am complaining that journalists are only now seeminly coming to voice their own thoughts of criticism for the soon-to-be 5-year old storm of U.S.G.-sponsored terror fondly known back home in the states as 'the war on terror'. Journalists by and large are not their own person. Among the obstacles erected in thier strife to manifest as their own selves is that they are big-network's hired mouthpieces. This is especially true for any of them who've been furnished with a lavish livlihood whle posing their pastey mugs routinely before a big-network's tv cameras and microphones. This also applies to their legion in print and print / broadacst wannabe'dom. Among them Couric is just another me-too. Like the lot of them, she is a mind controlled well dressed hump. She just happens to be a mind controlled hump in a skirt harboring her own sad story to wear on her sleaves, which, coincidentally, the big-networks have previously, already, copiously provided her a broadcat forum via their grand network apparatus to air in taking to the people the telling of her saga; sniff..... and yes, while I may be caught up in another morning of cynicism, I'm confident that the meat of the foregoing doesn't change all that much even if I were having a perfectly fine & dandy morning.