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Evil Angels: Destroying a person's good name

making monsters

August 30th, 2007 by Nancy Reyes

The movie “A Cry in the Dark”, is about how a feeding frenzy by a cynical press led to the conviction of Lindy Chamberlain for the death of her child…until the child’s blood stained clothing was found in a dingo’s den and her conviction overturned.


The Australian name for the film is “Evil Angels”, which is how the press characterized the couple as monsters and their church as a dangerous  cult (they were Seventh Day Adventists). But by the end of the film, the title seems to refer to the press itself…


But things don’t change, and “a lie goes ’round the world while truth’s still putting its boots on.”

So today we see two stories of how printing unsubstantiated charges and the feeding frenzy of the press can destroy lives.


Richard Jewell had died at age 44 of complications of Diabetes.

Richard jewell was a lowly security guard who spotted a suspicious backpack at the Atlanta Olympics. His quick thinking resulted in the area being evacuated, and as a result only one person was killed when the bomb went off.

Yet when a “profiler” decided that a white male might have placed the pack, Jewell was named a suspect and hounded by news teams:

From hero to hounded suspect, with a fleet of satellite trucks outside his mother’s front door, eager to show the guilty face…..talk show fodder, headline material and a cover villain for magazines?

Turned out, of course, he didn’t do it. But by the time everyone had agreed on that, and the chase was on for Eric Rudolph, the damage from this perfect storm of ill-placed infamy had been done.

So blessings on you, Mr. Jewell, and condolence for your family.


But Mr. Jewell’s story is not the only one in today’s papers about how the press can ruin people’s lives.


The NYTimes finally has acknowledged what the right wing blogs have known for some time: that the case against the Marines who fought in Haditha has fallen apart. The problem is a lack of evidence, and even the Times admitted that there was civilian pressure to convict the Marines for civilian deaths.


Yet it is the right wing firebrand Michelle Malkin who posts the report which explains in detail why the case fell apart. LINK1  LINK2


It is basic rules of engagement, Human rights groups are right to protest that these rules result in civilian deaths, but in a war where insurgents wear civilian clothing and hide among women and children–essentially ignoring the “rules of war”– you give the soldiers little choice.The dirty little secret is that in a war, if you hesitate, you end up dead.


But the irony is that in the long term, it doesn’t work because you make people mad…you need the trust of the good people…and even Sadr knows that he’d better reign in his militia after they killed a lot of civilians in the crossfire at the Karbala pilgrimage.


Michael Yon’s report on the Marines changing tactics to win over the Anbar tribes (in contrast to Alqaeda’s murderous bullying tactics) show how complicated fighting modern insurgency is, whether it be the war in Iraq or the war here in Mindanao.


Yet one has to ask: Why was the press eager to convict American soldiers before all the evidence was examined?


The accusations by Congressman Murtha allowed him to go on all the important talk shows to spread the story of US Soldiers committing mass murder…knowing that the Marines could not defend themselves in public.


Yet the press failed to mention a critical fact known to political insiders: that Murtha was using the case to bolster his standing so that he could become House Majority leader.


 I don’t think a lot of people realise how important innocence is to innocent people. says Michael Chamberlain to the press at the end of the Cry in the Dark.


One doubts the press, who has since gone on to the next “important” scandal, will bother to learn that lesson.

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Chinese/Russian anti terrorist exercizes

  I came across this:

The six member countries of SCO — China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — will stage a joint anti-terrorism drill, dubbed “Peace Mission 2007? from Aug. 9 to 17.

Anti Terrorism?

The general conception of the exercise is: under the support of an international terrorist organization based in the north border of country N, a terrorist organization of country A launched an anti-government movement....
About 4,000 troops and 80 aircraft from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are participating in the joint exercises. silk road

Hmmm…
Notice the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan?

China supports Pakistan, and has been involved in training their military. If Musharef should fall and be replaced with an extremist Islamicist government, how would this affect China and the nearby countries?

Is there a reason that this war game posited terrorists from another country helping indigenous terror groups in a second country? (Hint: China has a small but worrisome Islamic ethnic group in their wild west).

But India worries that the Chinese might upset the balance of power in the region of Kashmir.  Does this have something to do with the US supporting India’s nuclear program?


Sounds like Kipling’s “Great Game”…



(longerversion crossposted BNN )

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Fighting evil makes things worse....right

President Bush pointing out that allowing the murderers take over Viet Nam led to millions being killed or fleeing is now being ridiculed by the MSM, who editorially point out in news reports that the only reason the people got killed was that the US made them mad, so of course they had to kill people.

But never mind. It's not about history, it's about the baby boomers congratulating themselves for their "courage" in opposing that war. Asians were merely a prop for their narcissism that had nothing to do with reality.

Yet a few things in recent days show that maybe, just maybe things are looking up in Iraq and other places.

ONE: "We've begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Anbar province, it's working," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Monday.

---------------

TWO: Sarkozy's moves to correct the mistake started even before his election when he met President George W. Bush at the White House in 2006 and described Chirac's policy as "arrogant"....

The new French policy on Iraq could also inspire a change of attitude in Moscow. With Schroeder and Chirac gone, Putin may find it harder to pursue an Iraq policy based on nostalgia for Saddam and petty enmity towards the US....France's return to Iraq strengthens the new diplomatic trend in favour of a positive attitude towards the new Iraqi regime. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are among several Arab countries that have decided to reopen their embassies in Baghdad and extend official invitations to the new Iraqi leadership.

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Three:

From working with tribal leaders to investing time and money at street- level, it's essential to "understand the Iraqi style" of doing things. It's counterinsurgency judo: working with the weight of tradition, instead of fighting a losing battle against it.

The general recognizes that political progress at the top in Iraq may lag as an indicator, but local initiatives look like the key to national success. He believes that, in this case, the politicians will eventually follow the people - who genuinely want better lives, not more bickering and butchery.

--------------------------------

Four:

Ironically, in Anbar Al Qaeda has become our best ally for killing al Qaeda. They’ve managed to do this directly, just by being al Qaeda. Despite the promised carrots, what Al Qaeda consistently delivered here was mostly stick, and with a special kind of hypocritical contempt that no sensible person would believe possible. (Not unlike the notion of baking the children of resistant parents or ordering shepards to diaper the corrupting genitals of goats.)

Al Qaeda has a management style—doing drugs, laying up sloppy drunk, raping women and boys, and cutting off heads, all while imposing strict morality laws on the locals—that makes it clear that they have one set of principles for themselves, and another for every one else.

In that kind of scheme, it didn’t take long before people in Anbar realized that any benefits from Al Qaeda having control would not be distributed equally. Once that realization spread, the tribal sheiks—almost all Sunni—had to consider the alternatives.

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Five: The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.

"AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces," al-Jashaami said.

Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of "most wanted" officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government....

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Another German woman was kidnapped last week in Afghanistan last week...with the Korean fisaco, I figured they were after money. Then I read she was "freed"...turns out that the Afghan police, with a little help from Norse special forces found and rescued her...

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Here in the Philippines war is breaking out



Manuel QuezonIII discusses how the Islamic terror groups spin their war...they cause a "humanitarian crisis" it allows the left and leftist countries to pressure the government to stop fighting...and they can start other terrorist acts which of course will never be blamed on them by the international community...
And the aim is a caliphate...and if you think he is extreme, just remember last week's meeting in Indonesia said the same thing.


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Nope, no HIPAA violation folks, just move along

How come that as a doctor if I accidentally tell the wrong relative about Grandmom, I can go to jail or be fined a quarter million bucks, but if an IT company puts 100 000 patients hospital bills on line (complete with social security numbers) for anyone to see, the company can simply fold up shop and go away.

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=8488&red=y#comments

No lawsuits, no federal investigations, nothing.
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It's the drugs, stupid

In a recent meeting between President Bush and President Karzai of Afghanistan, they disagreed about Iran.

The reason is that, as the Taliban gets furthur out of the mainstream (it is mainly attacking officials and kidnapping foreigners for cash) they are not as dangereous as the drug smugglers.

Yes, the Taliban both stopped growing poppies, and now benefits from the opium trade, but in the last few years, parallel to them is growing drug gangs.

Iran is a major point of the opium trade, and has the highest heroin addiction rate in the world, along with the start of an HIV epidemic.

The drug gangs in the Sunni provence of Baluchistan right now are after money but also could evolve into a full blown insurgency for independence, something a Sunni Farsi Iran, who has about 40% non Farsi population, doesn't want.

So as a result, the Iranians are helping the Afghans, and the US eradication of the poppy crop is helping Iran.

Lots of links but I'm too tired to post them..if you are interested, look for the links on  my BNN article LINK
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Saudi vs Iran in Iraq

Yesterday, the press noticed that a pilgrimage went off without major loss of life.

The reason that this was news might be found in this CSMonitor story: where the Iraq press is saying that some Saudi clerics have produced a fatwa against the shrines, saying they need to be destroyeid.

Given the large percentage of suicide bombers that come from Saudi, the Shiite groups are making a big thing of it, while Iran is funding the major militias that are trying to take over Basra.


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Semper Paratus: one million saved

Always prepared

Happy Birthday to the US Coast Guard, who just made their one millionth rescue since 1790.


Did you know they rescued 30,000 people during Katrina? And that wasn't even their largest rescue job...in 1928 Mississippi flood, they rescued 40 000 people and 100 000 head of cattle...

YouTube has a link to their top ten video rescues:LINK


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