"Control Room" takes a hard look at the Al-Jazeera news
network
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391024/
Control Room - review of documentary film about Al-Jazeera,
the news agency:'While
the documentary’s sympathetic portrait of Al-Jazeera
supplies clear ...
GOOGLE: Results 1 - 10 of about 711,000 for CONTROL ROOM -
Al-Jazeera news
Al-Jazeera demands 'US bomb' memo
BBC News, UK - 13 hours ago
A senior al-Jazeera executive is flying to the UK to demand
publication of a memo in which George Bush allegedly
discusses bombing the TV station's HQ. ...CLICK:
==================================
November 21, 2005
Lies and Official Secrets
We Must Hold the Scoundrels Accountable
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts11212005.html
=====================================
THE CHARLES GOYETTE SHOW
"The Man Who Sold the War - Meet John Rendon
Wed Nov 23, 2005 14:36
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=96269;title=APFN
THE CHARLES GOYETTE SHOW
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/index.cgi?2005-11-23-Charles
7:00 am-7:30 am
James Bamford
washauthor@aol.com Rolling Stone Magazine - "The
Man Who Sold the War - Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in
the propaganda war.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/8798997?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single7&rnd=1132759103789&has-player=false
7:30 am-8:00 am Carole Mckenna Arizona Peace Coalition Rally
Monday Nov. 28th in protest of Bush's attendance at a Jon
Kyl for US Senate fundraiser.
8:00 8:00 am-9:00 am
Sen. Bob Graham "What I Knew Before the Invasion"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/18/AR2005111802397.html
What I Knew Before the Invasion
By Bob Graham
Sunday, November 20, 2005; Page B07
In the past week President Bush has twice attacked Democrats
for being hypocrites on the Iraq war. "More than 100
Democrats in the House and Senate, who had access to the
same intelligence, voted to support removing Saddam Hussein
from power," he said.
The president's attacks are outrageous. Yes, more than 100
Democrats voted to authorize him to take the nation to war.
Most of them, though, like their Republican colleagues, did
so in the legitimate belief that the president and his
administration were truthful in their statements that Saddam
Hussein was a gathering menace -- that if Hussein was not
disarmed, the smoking gun would become a mushroom cloud.
The president has undermined trust. No longer will the
members of Congress be entitled to accept his veracity.
Caveat emptor has become the word. Every member of Congress
is on his or her own to determine the truth.
As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
during the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and the run-up to the
Iraq war, I probably had as much access to the intelligence
on which the war was predicated as any other member of
Congress.
I, too, presumed the president was being truthful -- until a
series of events undercut that confidence.
In February 2002, after a briefing on the status of the war
in Afghanistan, the commanding officer, Gen. Tommy Franks,
told me the war was being compromised as specialized
personnel and equipment were being shifted from Afghanistan
to prepare for the war in Iraq -- a war more than a year
away. Even at this early date, the White House was signaling
that the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was of such urgency
that it had priority over the crushing of al Qaeda.
In the early fall of 2002, a joint House-Senate intelligence
inquiry committee, which I co-chaired, was in the final
stages of its investigation of what happened before Sept.
11. As the unclassified final report of the inquiry
documented, several failures of intelligence contributed to
the tragedy. But as of October 2002, 13 months later, the
administration was resisting initiating any substantial
action to understand, much less fix, those problems.
At a meeting of the Senate intelligence committee on Sept.
5, 2002, CIA Director George Tenet was asked what the
National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) provided as the
rationale for a preemptive war in Iraq. An NIE is the
product of the entire intelligence community, and its most
comprehensive assessment. I was stunned when Tenet said that
no NIE had been requested by the White House and none had
been prepared. Invoking our rarely used senatorial
authority, I directed the completion of an NIE.
Tenet objected, saying that his people were too committed to
other assignments to analyze Saddam Hussein's capabilities
and will to use chemical, biological and possibly nuclear
weapons. We insisted, and three weeks later the community
produced a classified NIE.
There were troubling aspects to this 90-page document. While
slanted toward the conclusion that Hussein possessed weapons
of mass destruction stored or produced at 550 sites, it
contained vigorous dissents on key parts of the information,
especially by the departments of State and Energy.
Particular skepticism was raised about aluminum tubes that
were offered as evidence Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear
program. As to Hussein's will to use whatever weapons he
might have, the estimate indicated he would not do so unless
he was first attacked.
Under questioning, Tenet added that the information in the
NIE had not been independently verified by an operative
responsible to the United States. In fact, no such person
was inside Iraq. Most of the alleged intelligence came from
Iraqi exiles or third countries, all of which had an
interest in the United States' removing Hussein, by force if
necessary.
The American people needed to know these reservations, and I
requested that an unclassified, public version of the NIE be
prepared. On Oct. 4, Tenet presented a 25-page document
titled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs." It
represented an unqualified case that Hussein possessed them,
avoided a discussion of whether he had the will to use them
and omitted the dissenting opinions contained in the
classified version. Its conclusions, such as "If Baghdad
acquired sufficient weapons-grade fissile material from
abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year,"
underscored the White House's claim that exactly such
material was being provided from Africa to Iraq.
From my advantaged position, I had earlier concluded that a
war with Iraq would be a distraction from the successful and
expeditious completion of our aims in Afghanistan. Now I had
come to question whether the White House was telling the
truth -- or even had an interest in knowing the truth.
On Oct. 11, I voted no on the resolution to give the
president authority to go to war against Iraq. I was able to
apply caveat emptor. Most of my colleagues could not.
The writer is a former Democratic senator from Florida. He
is currently a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of
Politics.
Guest: U S Senator Bob Graham, Bob Graham, Carole Mckenna,
James Bamford
Subject: Peace Rally, John Rendon, The Man Who Sold The War,
Rolling Stone Magazine, Iraq War Propaganda, Bob Graham
* Listen to the MP3 Audio - Segment 1 (9.88 MB)
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-11-23-Charles-01.mp3
* Listen to the MP3 Audio - Segment 2 (9.69 MB)
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-11-23-Charles-02.mp3
* Listen to the MP3 Audio - Segment 3 (8.63 MB)
http://www.charlesgoyette.com/archive/media/2005-11-23-Charles-03.mp3
------------------------------
KXXT AM 1010 PHX AZ... AIR AMERICA
Charles Goyette is a familiar voice to radio listeners all
across Arizona. His broadcasting career has taken him from
Flagstaff to Sedona and Tucson, with stops in southern
California as well, before settling in Phoenix. In 2003
Charles Goyette was voted the best local air personality.
Charles positively delights in questioning the conventional
wisdom. There is no political correctness, no sacred cow or
authority that he won't challenge - with plenty of fun along
the way. -
charlesgoyette@cox.net
LISTEN:
http://1010kxxt.com/charlesbio.php
==================================
July 27, 2004
Control Room
Inside Al Jazeera
By MIKE WHITNEY
There's a chilling scene in Jahane Noujaim's new documentary
Control Room where an American F-16 is seen slowly turning
in the sky over Baghdad. The plane arcs lazily in the blue
sky and then quickly noses downward, following a straight
line towards the building that houses the Al Jazeera news
facility.
In a flash, two laser guided missiles are fired at the
building and their impact knocks out the visual.
It all happens in a matter of seconds.
Veteran journalist, Tarik Ayoub was killed instantly in the
attack.
Later that same day, fighter pilots would bomb the Abu Dhabi
media facility in similar fashion.
The day's events would end on the streets of Baghdad where
an Abrams Tank slowly turned its turret towards the
Palestine Hotel; the accommodation for all the visiting
media in Iraq.
The tank lifted its muzzle towards the 13th floor, and
moments later fired...killing a Spanish journalist and
wounding three others.
No one who sees this shocking segment will confuse it for
anything other than what it was....cold blooded murder,
authored and directed by the Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld. (Al Jazeera even provided the US Military with its
exact coordinates so they wouldn't be attacked as they were
in Kabul)
No officer, however vindictive, would have ever jeopardized
his career with such a reckless and ruthless attack on
innocent people.
The order came straight from the top, and it bears
Rumsfeld's imprimatur.
The footage of Ayoub's colleagues back in Doha is
devastating.
They all know what they've just witnessed, and the control
room is silenced with a palpable sense of horror.
No one has any misgivings about the message being conveyed.
As Al Jazeera's chain smoking manager avers, "We were told
that 'you are either with us or against us'....we have
received receipt of that message."
It's gut wrenching.
The majority of American's dismiss Al Jazeera as radical,
Muslim propaganda.
They need to suspend their judgment until they see this
movie...then decide.
The Al Jazeera news room reminds me of one of those old
Billy Wilder movies where everyone is frantically running
into each other trying to get the story out.
It bears no resemblance to America's assembly line news
broadcasts, with slick looking male models delivering the
"corporate friendly" version of events, suitably watered
down with endless commercial interruptions and inane human
interest stories.
This is hard-edged news.
It's easier to imagine Mencken or Edward R. Morrow wandering
these halls than the likes of Brit Hume or, God forbid, that
fatuous fathead, Bill O' Reilly. ("Just shut up!")
Most of Al Jazeera's team are graduates of the BBC, an
institution that is still respected around the world for its
objectivity and in-depth reporting. ( although the quality
of BBC reports seem to be on a steady decline)
This insures that the standards of journalism are high and
that the stable of talented and committed reporters is quite
expansive. (Up close, though, the reporters just look like
"stressed out newshounds" trying to meet a deadline.)
Apart from the control room chaos, these are flesh-and-blood
people and their humanity is readily on display. The
documentary is a fascinating window into the everyday lives
of people who are willing to put themselves at personal risk
to present the events of the day in an unbiased platform.
In Rumsfeld's parlance, this is tantamount to an act of war.
His response (bombing errant TV stations) indicates how
seriously he regards the threat of news that doesn't go
through the Pentagon filtration system.
Al Jazeera that has created a furor among the head honchos
in the Bush Administration. Their pictorial representation
of the war in Iraq is at odds with the cheerful narrative of
"liberation" and "democratization" being propagated in the
western press. Charred bodies and dead children tend to
disabuse viewers of the foolish notion that "wars of
aggression" serve a humanitarian purpose.
American's have been carefully screened from seeing any sign
of the vast devastation and suffering caused by the
conflict.
For many, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 was probably the
first time they even saw video of either dead Iraqis or
American amputees. These are the real costs of Bush's
illegal war. They are shockingly different than the
"Pollyanna" footage of laughing children and "rebuilt"
schools on the FOX News channel. The audience will have to
decide for itself which representation comes closer to the
truth.
American's will feel at home with the main characters in
Control Room. As a rule, they seem bright, sardonic and
hopelessly disheveled. They are sadly reminiscent of the
journalists who at one time made US newsrooms the center of
the media universe. Regrettably, the have been replaced by
cardboard paste-ups of "Barbie and Ken" who give the nightly
news all the credibility of a Vegas strip show.
The boiler-room atmosphere of Control Room indicates that
serious journalism is still "alive and well" at a far-flung
TV station in Doha, Qatar.
At Al Jazeera the main players still talk about a world that
is "conducive to freedom of the press and expression"; an
idea that seems tragically out of step with America's
commercially manufactured news. In the US the "bottom line"
has long determined what stories end up on the cutting room
floor.
The compelling need to generate profits is simply
incompatible with objective reporting.
Al Jazeera was recently criticized by Iraq's new provisional
government for "incitement."
In response they issued the following statement; "These
kinds of allegations will not prevent the channel from
pursuing its long cherished editorial independence, or its
adherence to professional principles and internationally
recognized media practices."
Editorial independence? Professional principles?
When was the last time these qualities were even remotely
connected to western media?
FOX News, look out!
I'd be surprised if a lot of people don't find this movie as
fascinating and infectious as I did.
Give it a shot...it's worth the 8 bucks.
Mike Whitney can be reached at:
fergiewhitney@msn.com
http://counterpunch.org/whitney07272004.html
