And They're Off!

Whew, the Little Laptop that Could is back on NPR on Friday morning. All right, seems that INTERPOL has determined that the computers seized in Colombia's raid on a FARC camp in Ecuador have files that were not tampered with. Notice how the BBC covers it:

• "Interpol certified the authenticity of the files, not their contents..."
• "Interpol head Ronald Noble said his team had not analysed the information contained on the drives....he was quick to stress that the fact that the files had not been tampered with did not prove that the information contained within them was totally accurate."
• "But the files use codes and aliases throughout and nowhere is Mr Chavez mentioned by name."

NPR is a little less restrained:
Renee Montagne gets it rolling with "...the international police agency INTERPOL is backing charges by Colombia that computers seized from rebels show that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been supplying those Colombian rebels with weapons."
Juan Forero then pours it on:

• "documents...show how Venezuela's populist government offered guerrillas help in obtaining surface to air missiles and rocket propelled grenade launches...Interpol announced that the computer files were authentic"
• "major topic among rebel commanders was the increasingly friendly ties with Chavez's government and the aid Chavez was willing to provide"
• Forero includes Sean McCormick of the State Department saying that Venezuela's government is "supplying arms and support to a terrorist organization."
• Forero also notes ""four intelligence officials interviewed in Bogota say Colombian forces have confiscated" Venezuelan provided weapons.
• He also interviews a "young man who recently deserted" who states that "the one who supplies arms to us [FARC] is the Venezuelan government."

Kind of makes you wonder who's writing the script at NPR, doesn't it? But what else could you expect?

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The Apology that Wasn't from the Story That Isn't

A little flashback to Tuesday ATC's story on Rev. Hateful Hagee's apology and it's acceptance by the William Donohue, President of the Catholic League of Rightwing Bigotry and Hate. Here's Michelle Norris' report:

"...a controversial supporter of Senator McCain's issued an apology today. It came from John Hagee, and evangelical pastor. McCain sought his endorsement earlier this year despite Hagee's habit of making comments that many find offensive....But now the pastor has sent a letter to the head of the Catholic League, William Donohue, expressing quote 'deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful.' Donohue quickly issued a statement accepting the apology and he wrote, 'This case is closed.' Senator McCain...called Hagee's letter helpful."

Norris puts in some nifty rhetorical slights of hand. She simply calls it an apology (even though it's a typical non-apology). She also qualifies Hagee's slimy bigotry as "comments that many find offensive" and she simply notes Donohue's acceptance without any information about Donohue's extreme right-wing anti civil liberties bona fides and allows his "case closed" pronouncement to stand unchallenged.

No Comment Needed

Thursday Morning Edition's coverage of Bush in the Knesset:
Montagne:

"...another thing linking the US and Israel is concern over Israel's neighbor, Iran, and its nuclear ambitions."

Northam:

"Well the speech was part reflective...how the two countries have this unbreakable bond and that the US will always stand behind Israel and that includes in opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. He said that letting Tehran atomic weapons...."

"...and one of the reasons why the President is here is he's trying to push along negotiations towards a peace deal between Israelis and the Palestinians."

"last night there was this lavish event at a convention center and Mr. Bush and the First Lady received a standing ovation and the Israelis just heaped praise on him and the US."

And then on Thursday's ATC:
Northam:

"and one reason for his visit to this area is to push the two sides to make more progress in their negotiations."

"...the President said terrorist groups are driven by power...and he dismissed the argument the US should try to negotiate with them..." [Bush talking about the unsourced Sen. William E. Borah quote 'Lord if I could only have talked to Hitler'] President Bush said that was the false comfort of appeasement which has been repeatedly..."

See if you can tell where Bush ends and Northam begins...

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To the Heart

On Tuesday morning NPR's Renee Montagne talks to Michael Oren, who "served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, in the paratroopers in the first Lebanon War, and as a liaison with the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War, and an army spokesman in the second Lebanon War Center" (definitely not a militant!) NPR innocuously identifies him as "a senior fellow at the Shalem Center." Montagne lets Oren spread the BuSh with nary a whimper. He states that "Israel faces existential challenges: a threat from a rapidly nuclearizing Iran, from Hizbollah and Hamas terrorists..." and he's not joking! Toward the end Montagne gets deep: "Just a personal question to you...what do you personally hope to see in your lifetime?" Oren responds, laying it on how "Israel is an extraordinary success story; there's really nothing like it...grew out of the ashes of the Holocaust."

To "balance" Tuesday's discussion Montagne is back on this morning, Wednesday, to interview Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian columnist and scholar. You know it's going to be an NPR special when it begins with "President Bush arrived in Israel this morning in hopes of reviving the Middle East peace process." After a few modest questions about Kutab's memories of Jerusalem in the 1950s, Montagne closes with this doozy: "Just a last question, and this one is in a sense to the heart. If you can speak for Palestinians, how much sympathy is there for people, the Jews, who lost so many and so much before they found a homeland in 1948? Is there sympathy, or is 60 years of loss for the Palestinians, has that made that sort of something impossible?"

Think of the questions she might have asked:

• "Do Palestinians still have any hopes of achieving peace with a nation that has stolen their land, tortured them, slaughtered them by the thousands, etc.?"
• Or "Does it seem ironic that a nation that uses the Holocaust to justify its existence, treats Palestinians with such violence, brutality and racism?
• Or how about simply "How on earth have Palestinians maintained their humanity in the face of such empty promises of "peace" from the US, Israel, and even its own corrupt leaders?"

Oh my, those questions might ruffle a few feathers here in USAIPAC. Instead Renee opts to reach in "to the heart" and rips it right out.

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Pushing for Peace

So Bush, with his anti-Midas touch of bringing war, death and misery to everything he touches, is off on a Mideast tour. Inskeep tells us Tuesday morning that "This is the day that President Bush travels to Jerusalem...The President will also be trying to make peace...NPR's Jackie Northam reports on the President's efforts to make progress before he runs out of time." Bush making peace and progress! Seriously, one has to be a liar or a fool to repeat such nonsense. Of course this complete acceptance of the Bushists as "peacemakers" is nothing new on NPR, where Sec. of State Rice is a "peace pusher" and Bush has "big goals" for the region.

NPR's coverage of Israel's expansionism has a brutal Groundhog Day repetition to it. As in the past the range of opinion stretches from what the State Department thinks to what the State Department thinks. Jackie Northam produces the report and here's the diverse range of expert opinions she offers us:

• Stephen Hadley, Bush's National Security Adviser who talks about the US commitment to Israel, to which Northam adds that "as part of that commitment President Bush will continue to push for peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians...."

• Jon Alterman who as his bio mentions "served as a member of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State and as a special assistant to the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs." This genius actually wrote the following this January: "Bush’s dedication to the theme of freedom in the Middle East is genuine. In his formulation, appreciation for the rights of the individual in the Middle East would expand liberty, undermine extremism, and enhance the security of Americans, Arabs, and others." Now that is some hard hitting scholarship, eh?

• Aaron David Miller (again) who informs us that "the US has to keep pushing both sides...Because if they (the Bushists) don't hand something off, the next President will walk away from this issue as quickly as George W. Bush walked away initially" (once again the same junk about Bush "walking away" from the Israel/Palestine conflict.)

I wish the misery and sadistic violence that the US and Israel keep heaping on the Palestinians didn't exist. Then there might be some humor to this repetitious charade of Bush and Rice pushing for peace in the Middle East, but I have to say it really just makes me sick at heart. Honestly, how much longer will NPR keep up this myth of a "peace process" or even the mirage of a two state solution, when everything that the US and Israel have been doing over the past 15 years has been to destroy any such solution?

(graphic is from the Bush's talk with the BBC where he says, regarding Iran and Syria, "So what's there to negotiate. They know my position.")

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The Secret Tapes

What a scoop! In my super-secret, cyber-strong inbox, I received the official transcripts of the meeting between an anonymous NPR producer and Kathy Lohr as they worked out the details for yesterday's Morning Edition feature feature story on a 56 year old Vietnam Vet, newly recruited for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's an edited version:

(WARNING: The excerpts in large bold italics are actual excerpts from the feature that NPR ran on Friday morning.)

(Producer): Kathy, you know my buddies in the Pentagon feel like we're not doing enough to support the war effort. They've loved our pieces on Army Strong, aircraft, drones, and counterinsurgency, but they're a little peeved at Danny Boy's poking into the post-war treatment of vets and said it's hard on the old recruiting efforts. So I told 'em, we've sent Dan as far away from veteran hospitals as we could, and that I thought you might come through with a feel-good gung-ho piece yourself - any ideas?

Lohr: Funny you should ask. I've got a great lead on a Georgia Vietnam Vet who, get this, is reenlisting at the age of 56. I think I could spin this baby faster than a stop loss turnaround! It'd be a great boost for prettying up the Vietnam War with its lies and millions of civilian dead. I can just hear our guest saying "I stood tall in a place of hell with other Americans doing a job that no one else wanted to do. I have no regrets. I'd do it all over again you know. That's what it's all about." I'll be careful to avoid the irony that anyone would be stupid enough to want to join in another illegal, immoral war based on lies and causing over a million deaths (because we definitely don't do that around here).

Producer: But Kathy, the guy's 56. Don't you think he's a bit too old to project the All-American Super Warrior image we want?

Lohr: No, no, no. That's the beauty of it; it'll be the he's old but "more than ready" storyline. I'll be sure to mention his "infectious smile" and that "he's a take-charge kind of guy." We'll get a lot of details about his physical prowess in there, stuff like "in the two minutes allotted for each exercise this 56 year old completes 47 push-ups and 60 sit-ups" and how in a 2-mile run "Owens finishes in 17 and a half minutes then he drops, does another 25 push-ups and runs back to encourage others." God, I get hot just thinking about it!

Producer: Yeah, sweet. I like it. A story like this will help blunt all the bad poll numbers that keep dogging the Decider and the Iraq War. Beautiful.

Lohr: Thanks. I thought you'd like it. And I see it ending on an upbeat call to arms for the glorious struggles in Afghanistan and Iraq. I'll be sure that I mention that "This new, or should I say old, recruit is ready to be back in the thick of things." I'll have to be careful that we actually have him saying, "My intention is to be on the front lines with them and supporting the war effort the best I can," - wouldn't want listeners to think that was me saying that!

Producer: We'll get our web people to put up a real GI Joe kind of page on this war hero, and have Renee remind listeners "To see Tom Owens as he aces his PT test, go to npr.org." If we do this right, I'm thinking that old guy ain't the only one in line for medals from the Pentagon.

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