Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Iraq, Falluja, Filkins and Beau's e-mail

Good evening and we'll start with Democracy Now!

Chalabi Heads Back to D.C.; No Investigation Yet on Iran Spy Charges
The Wall Street Journal reports 17 months have passed the Bush administration announced a full criminal inquiry into allegations that Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi leaked U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran. Since then FBI hasn't even interviewed Chalabi or any U.S. official connected to the matter. Chalabi is arriving in Washington today for his first official visit in two years. He is planning on speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday and will be meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Canadian Teen At Guantanamo to Face Military Tribunal
The Pentagon filed war crimes charges against five more detainees at Guantanamo. Those charged include Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has been held by the US since he was 15 years old. Khadr's attorney Muneer Ahmad protested Monday's decision saying "Through torture, abuse, and three years of illegal detention, this government has robbed Omar of his youth... The fact that this Administration has seen fit to designate a child for trial by military commission is abhorrent." The Bush administration has refused to provide assurances that they will not seek the death penalty against him. Khadr was detained in Afghanistan allegedly after throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier.

Democracy Now! also notes the one year anniversary of the slaughter of Falluja. As my buddy Wally noted this morning, C.I. had a link up to the Italian footage last night. Which brings up an e-mail by Beau.

Beau writes noting that "suddenly" people want to talk about Falluja online. They don't seem to know anything though, do they?

As Beau points out, C.I. has not let go of Falluja or the Green Zone reporting. If you wanted someone calling Dexter Filkins crappy reporting at the New York Times out, you've had that at The Common Ills. Beau says he kept waiting to see someone, anyone, comment on Dexter Filkins today but no one did.

"There are a lot of people who didn't seem to give a damn, maybe they blogged on it once or twice but they never stayed on it and they certainly didn't call Dextroid to the carpet," Beau writes.

I think Beau's right. C.I.'s been the one leading the cry against Filkins reporting. C.I.'s gotten nasty e-mails especially before this summer. One of the most anoying things about all the empty chatter about Judy Miller this summer has been how the blogs have acted like Judy Miller was the only one lying at the paper. C.I. made the point time again that if Miller got us over there it was the reporting by Filkens that kept us there.

For anyone new to this, Filkins witnessed the slaughter of Falluja. You can't tell it from his rah rah articles. And he even got an award for that crap.

So today's the anniversary and Beau writes he checked out 77 blogs and though most were noting the anniversary, no one was calling Dexter Filkens out for his "reporting."

Filkins has gotten a pass for a year and you have to wonder is it a lack of bravery or is it just ignorance that keeps people from calling him out?

Dad thinks it's because so many are uninformed and only repeat what everyone else is saying.
He goes C.I. is a reader. C.I.'s not chasing down the blogs trying to find out what the "hot" thing to write about is. Or looking to see if it's "safe" to call someone out.

Imagine all those Judy Miller whiners, if they'd taken half their space to note Dexter Filkens' Falluja Lies, imagine the kind of traction the truth about Falluja could have right now?

But they're either too scared to stand up without everyone else standing up with them or they missed Filkins "reporting" because they don't really read.

That's why they write idiotic things like "Cindy Sheehan is not asking for the troops to be brought home." They write it and they get it pointed out that they're wrong and they still act like they're right.

The Falluja slaughter is a big thing in my home and C.I.'s refusal to act like it didn't happen is one of the things that got my whole family interested in The Common Ills to begin with. There are people who follow the "hot" topic and really do nothing much that they can point to. Then there are people who take brave stands.

One day Dexter Filkins will be stripped of the award he won for his Falluja "reporting." And when people look back to see who noted reality in real time, they'll see C.I. Beau sent me some posts he found by searching the web. You have "left" sites applauding Filkins Falluja Lies in real time. You have people afraid to stop their flag waving. You read the posts and you can see they come close to expressing some doubts but then they pull back and usually add, "I support the troops."

That's why The Common Ills was needed. No more bullshit. No more "I'll repeat all the right-wing slogans and no one will attack me!" type of "criticsm." Lot of cowards who were as cowardly as the mainstream media was until public opinion changed.

Beau pointed out in his e-mail that it was coming up on the one year anniversary of The Common Ills and asked if C.I. was going to note it? I don't think so. It's too "self-referential" for C.I. But I'll try to note it here when the time rolls around and try to work up some sort of retrospective. It's so funny because C.I. made a point of noting my one month anniversary and I know C.I. will note other people's yearly anniversaries.

I can't believe how much things have changed in a year and I give credit to both C.I. and The Common Ills community because while others played it "safe," they and C.I. haven't. I know it's influenced me, my family and my friends. I'll talk to Gina and Krista and see if they want to do something at their round-robin on the anniversary too.

One voice can make a difference and I think C.I. has. So I'll note it here.

I know The Third Estate Sunday Review will want to but C.I. will probably torpedo it so I'll talk to Elaine and Rebecca and Cedric to see if they want to do anything on it too.

I'll also add that Democracy Now! has covered Falluja seriously and at length too. But I'm talking about websites here.













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