Dishonorable Motives, Idiotic Rationale

I'm linking to this not because I find the self-congratulatory excuses of a dishonorable and dishonored person compelling, but for another reason entirely. I have posted a number of times of the antics of the soon to be former lieutenant Ehren Watada who is being court martialed for his refusal to deploy to Iraq. He abandoned his oath and his soldiers in doing so. A truly dishonorable man. But Kevin Sites from Yahoo News has interviewed him - and there is an interesting pattern in the interview.

KEVIN SITES: Now, you joined the Army right after the US was invading Iraq and now you're refusing to go. Some critics might look at this as somewhat disingenuous. You've taken an oath, received training but now you won't fight. Can you explain your rationale behind this?

EHREN WATADA: Sure. I think that in March of 2003 when I joined up, I, like many Americans, believed the administration when they said the threat from Iraq was imminent — that there were weapons of mass destruction all throughout Iraq; that there were stockpiles of it; and because of Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorist acts, the threat was imminent and we needed to invade that country immediately in order to neutralize that threat.

Since then I think I, as many, many Americans are realizing, that those justifications were intentionally falsified in order to fit a policy established long before 9/11 of just toppling the Saddam Hussein regime and setting up an American presence in Iraq.

SITES: Tell me how those views evolved. How did you come to that conclusion?

WATADA: I think the facts are out there, they're not difficult to find, they just take a little bit of willingness and interest on behalf of anyone who is willing to seek out the truth and find the facts. All of it is in the mainstream media. But it is quickly buried and it is quickly hidden by other events that come and go. And all it takes is a little bit of logical reasoning. The Iraq Survey Group came out and said there were no weapons of mass destruction after 1991 and during 2003. The 9/11 Commission came out and said there were no ties with Iraq to 9/11 or al-Qaeda. The president himself came out and said that nobody in his administration ever suggested that there was a link.

You can read the entire mewling interview if you'd like, but the important thing here is the fact that Watada is sure to get the word out that his brilliant insight comes from the mainstream media. All his rationale, all his convictions. That would be this mainstream media that is called for not telling the truth by their own public editors. That would be this media that stands behind a ghost source who appears not to exist in any way, shape or form. The MSM that admits that altered photos get into print. The MSM that got caught flat out publishing said falsified pictures by bloggers.

Whether he intended it this way or not, Watada did prove the apocryphal statement attributed to PT Barnum. There is a sucker born every minute. Watada's minute has arrived. And his justification is as empty and hollow as can be expected from a man who's oath is broken at a whim.

Ghost Ships In Malaysia!

Well, ok, they were actually just big empty barges that washed ashore in Eastern Pahang state. But nobody knows how they got there or where they may have come from. These suckers are two football fields in length and three stories tall, so it isn't like nobody would notice they'd gone missing.

Villagers spotted the barges as they approached off the coast of eastern Pahang state in rough seas on Sunday, the New Straits Times said.

"I thought they may be mysterious islands which had surfaced unnaturally from the bottom of the sea," said villager Ismail Mat Taib, who had been herding cattle near the beach.

When they settled on the sand, the villagers discovered they were barges each the length of two football fields, and three storeys high.

Markings indicate they could be from Singapore. But who loses things this big? Car keys, sure. But barges?

That Is One Big Hook

Kind of a neat story out of Missouri. A man who searches for native American artifacts has discovered a rather unique one. A bone fishhook. Now that may not sound like a big deal, but this one is comparatively huge. It is about palm-sized instead of the more normal-sized ones found routinely.

Eric Henley, who has been hunting arrowheads and other American Indian artifacts for 13 years, found the hook on a gravel bar in the river near McBaine.

"The first thing I thought is, ‘I hope this isn’t metal,’ " Henley said. "When I picked it up, there was a pretty good jump for joy and a couple of ‘whoops’ and yells. … It’s the cream of the crop."

Henley, a maintenance man at the University of Missouri-Columbia, plans to show the hook to more experienced collectors to determine just how rare it is.

Bone fishhooks aren’t uncommon, but they’re usually found during archaeological digs, said Bill Iseminger, assistant site manager at Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site in Illinois. Bone matter deteriorates rapidly, so ancient bone artifacts typically have to be buried deep enough in the ground to be preserved.

Sandier soil in spots along the river might have kept the hook preserved, said Joe Harl of the Archaeological Research Center of St. Louis.

The hook could be anywhere from 300 to 12,000 years old, Harl said.

There's a good picture at the link. Given the location he found it, had he not recovered it, it likely would have been lost forever had he not spotted it. A historical oddity preserved by sheer luck. Henley has no plans to have it carbon dated as that process could destroy the artifact.

He’s Back

Scott Burgess from the Daily Ablution has returned after taking a bit of a rest (mental detox he calls it). And right out of the gate he's right there with some environmental information you will not be reading about in the MSM. This seems even more important in light of this post, too.

That's not to say that one or two end-of-year items didn't catch my interest - did you realise, for example, that last year was the coolest worldwide since 2001 (PDF - see page 3)? (Indeed, the Russian winter of 2005-06 was the coldest for decades). Would it surprise you to learn that the arctic ice cap recovered slightly from its 2005 extent (PDF - page 2)? Probably, given the spin on facts that most of the media almost invariably employ when the topic of climate change arises. Similarly, coverage of the IPCC's recent adjustment of its worst-case projections for sea level rise this century (from 34 to 17 inches) seems muted, especially when one considers the likely media response had the estimate been increased by the same proportion.

Incidentally, on the subject of climate, I was very happy as a former New Orleanian to see the unexpectedly mild hurricane season in the Atlantic - a phenomenon which may in part be explained by the fact that "at the opening of the 2006 hurricane season, sea surface temperatures were 2 degrees cooler than they had been at opening of the 2005 season", according to NASA.

As always, Burgess has quite a lot more on a number of subjects. Take a look and welcome him back with a little traffic.

France To Release UFOs

Well, actually, they are going to release all their UFO reports online so people can examine them.

Jacques Arnould, an official at the National Space Studies Center (CNES), said the French database of around 1,600 incidents would go live in late January or mid-February.

He said the CNES had been collecting statements and documents for almost 30 years to archive and study them.

"Often they are made to the Gendarmerie, which provides an official witness statement … and some come from airline pilots," he said by telephone.

Given the success of films about visitations from outer space like "E.T.," "Close Encounters of The Third Kind" and "Independence Day," the CNES archive is likely to prove a hit.

It will be amusing to see what hysterical warnings this will prompt. They'll have to go a ways to beat the British on that score.

Somali Islamists Issue Threats

Apparently at least one of spokesmen for the Somali islamists stopped briskly walking long enough to issue threats against the Ethiopians and Somali government forces. This is at least as credible as the islamists last vow to never run from their enemies. The did that before the last brisk bug-out, of course.

The Islamists, who fled their last stronghold on Monday after a two-week conflict, said they refused a government offer to surrender and reports of a deadly ambush against Ethiopian forces showed the fighting may be far from over.

A day after Ethiopian troops rolled into the southern town, a resident in Jilib said a Somali gunman shot dead two of their soldiers in the area on Tuesday.

He said Ethiopian forces killed the attacker and, later, two other Somalis. A Somali government source confirmed the ambush but said only one Ethiopian soldier had been killed.

The Islamists did not claim direct responsibility but said such attacks represented a change of tactics.

Analysts say the Islamists, joined by some foreign fighters, may launch an Iraqi-style insurgency against a government they see as propped up by a hated and Christian-led power.

Ethiopian planes, tanks and troops helped the Somali government drive the Islamists from Mogadishu last week, after breaking free from its provincial outpost Baidoa to end six months of Islamist rule across much of southern Somalia.

"If the world thinks we are dead, they should know we are alive. We will rise from the ashes," Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Ali Mudey told Reuters by phone from a hideout.

"The attack is what we have been promising, as a change of tactic in the fight against the Ethiopians," Mudey said. "We are scattered all over, our troops are almost everywhere."

We were fortunate enough to get an exclusive photo of the islamist's new hideout. We expect the AP to pick this up at any moment.

How Bob Spent His Christmas Vacation

Bob Owens from Confederate Yankee spent a good deal of time trying to track down any published corroboration for some 40 Associated Press stories that quoted Iraqi "police captain" Jamil Hussein as the source.

He couldn't find any.

No one raised questions about Hussein's accuracy or his very existence for a span of run of stories starting on April 24 until his late November unmasking as a probable specter; a remarkable run that Curt at Flopping Aces pegged at 61 stories. This run as a named source doesn't begin to account for any stories he may have contributed anonymously as "an Iraqi Police Captain" or "according to Iraqi Police" over his two-year relationship with AP.

And so it was more than a month after Hussein was compromised that I did what the Associated Press editorial process should have been doing the entire time: I began attempting to fact-check the claims made by Jamil Hussein. I took the list of 61 AP stories citing Hussein, opened my web browser to Google.com, and went to work.

In eight hours over three days last week, I tracked down online examples of the first 40 of 61 Associated Press stories citing Jamil Hussein, as replicated in news outlets and even official government press offices around the world. I then took keywords, dates, and phrases from the paragraphs citing Hussein, and attempted to find corroborating accounts from other news organizations.

I am by no means perfectly suited to do the work here that needs to be done. I lack access to LexisNexis, a powerful popular subscription-based searchable archive of periodicals such as newspapers, and I'm not about to pay for their AlaCarte service, where reading this single blog post would cost you $3. Nor do I speak any of the languages of the Middle East in which one might encounter variations of these stories, meaning I am limited to searching English-only content. That said, I did the very best I could with a limited set of skills and tools. The detailed results of my search are here. Knowing what I now know, I don't think that the editorial processes of the Associated Press even put forth that paltry effort.

Even though limited in scope as Bob admits, this review should have found at least a few of these stories covered by other media. The odds are vanishingly small that the AP could score a string of 40 exclusive scoops in a short period of time. But the stories in question have contained some of the most lurid detail to come out of the Iraq theater. As Bob Points out in an update, none other than Eason Jordan, writing over at Iraqslogger has also been completely unable to locate the "captain", any family or, indeed, anyone who has ever met the supposed source.

In statements, the AP insists Captain Hussein is real, insists he has been known to the AP and others for years, and insists the immolation episode occurred based on multiple eyewitnesses.

But efforts by two governments, several news organizations, and bloggers have failed to produce such evidence or proof that there is a Captain Jamil Hussein. The AP cannot or will not produce him or convincing evidence of his existence.

It is striking that no one has been able to find a family member, friend, or colleague of Captain Hussein. Nor has the AP told us who in the AP's ranks has actually spoken with Captain Hussein. Nor has the AP quoted Captain Hussein once since the story of the disputed episode.

Therefore, in the absence of clear and compelling evidence to corroborate the AP's exclusive story and Captain Hussein's existence, we must conclude for now that the AP's reporting in this case was flawed.

To make matters worse, Captain Jamil Hussein was a key named source in more than 60 AP stories on at least 25 supposed violent incidents over eight months.

Until this controversy is resolved, every one of those AP reports is tainted.

Apparently, the AP has taken the old idea of "ghost writing" to a whole new level. They are using real ghosts as sources! Somebody call the Ghost Busters! Never mind, Bob's already on the case.

UPDATE: Armed Liberal: It's just a scratch. Well, we have our sources, too. In fact one of our stringers from Magic 8-Ball Undercover Investigations and carwash, Inc. happened to get his hands on the official AP identification picture for captain Jamil Hussein. So there.

It Is Important To Know Your Limitations

And your diameter. An overweight woman got stuck in a cave in South Africa. She insisted of going into the cave despite warnings from the staff that she really shouldn't. 23 other people were trapped behind her for almost 12 hours.

The woman was stuck inside the "Tunnel of Love" shortly after noon and was freed with the help of liquid paraffin and a pulley around 11:30 pm (2130 GMT), said Hein Gerstner, manager of the Cango Caves in the Western Cape.

"She was really quite a large woman," he told AFP Tuesday. "She was forewarned at the ticket office and by the guide that she might have difficulty on the tour, but she insisted on going along."

Rescuers from two nearby towns and a private ambulance service were called in to help.

"We used liquid paraffin to grease the surface area and used a pulley to lift her," said Gerstner. "She was eventually carried out on a stretcher."

Unfortunately, the report doesn't give the woman's name. So we'll just call her "Corky".

Announcing The 2007 Bad Neighbor Nominations

Not much more than a day into the new year there are already two serious contenders for the 2007 Bad Neighbor Awards®. Both involved food, oddly enough. And handcuffs.

Item: When the doughnut shop next door to the chicken shop started selling chicken, the owner of the latter decided to throw a barbecue for the owner of the former. He punched a hole in the wall between the shops, squirted in some gasoline and tossed a match.

The Bronx food fight began when a Twin Donut shop started competing with a Kennedy Fried Chicken by adding legs, wings, breasts and thighs to its menu and selling plates of food for 50 cents cheaper, supervising fire marshal Robert Pinto said.

The chicken place's owner, Kabeer Ahmad, whose business had taken a nosedive, used a hammer to punch a hole in the wall between the stores around 4 a.m. Monday, squirted gasoline into the doughnut shop and tossed in a lit match before driving off, Pinto said.

The blaze destroyed the doughnut shop, but the chicken restaurant was unscathed, he said. No injuries were reported.

Workers at a 24-hour deli in the same commercial building shared by the other stores called the Fire Department of New York when they smelled smoke. They told FDNY investigators they had seen Ahmad locking up and leaving the chicken store earlier than usual — right before the flames erupted.

Ahmad confessed when questioned. Item: Do NOT accept an invitation from this woman for dinner if it involves meatballs. Or anything else, for that matter. She has an unusual spice rack. A woman in Cheektowaga, New York has been arrested after cooking up a nice snack for her neighbor's dog. The meatballs were heavily seasoned with rat poison.

Charmaine Twarozek was arrested Friday after an officer found a frying pan coated with remnants of ground beef and rat poison in her trash. She was charged with poisoning a dog and cruelty to animals, misdemeanors, police said.

Sue Anderson, the owner of the German shepherd mix, said she and Twarozek had been involved in an ongoing dispute over Roscoe's barking.

Twarozek did not return calls seeking her comment.

Anderson said she discovered the meatballs Friday, when she and her husband noticed the dog was eating something by the back fence, near Twarozek's property in Cheektowaga, 10 miles east of Buffalo.

"My husband brought Roscoe in, and he had a meatball in his mouth. He dropped it on the floor, and I could see there were little green pellets, cooked right into the meat," Anderson said.

Remind me not to ask for that recipe. If this is any indication, we're in for an interesting year in the Bad Neighbor category.

A Challenge For Ban

Claudia Rosett, who was one of the few people interested in the Oil for Food scandal at first, has issued some advice for the new Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon. He would be well advised to listen to that advice, both on what to do and what not to do. Especially the latter.

As the new secretary general of the UN, South Korea's Ban Ki-moon faces a choice: style himself as the next self-serving pop star of global diplomacy or dedicate himself more humbly and bravely to transforming the corrupt UN into an honest institution.

If Ban chooses chiefly to promote himself, he can follow the trail blazed by his predecessor, Kofi Annan. He can spend his five-year term preening himself as - in Annan's words - "chief diplomat of the world." He can glad-hand tyrants and troublemakers and block genuine global security by covering up crooked UN programs, a la Oil-for-Food, and demanding more resources for ultimately unworkable "peace" deals, as Annan did this past summer for Lebanon.

He can expand yet further the sprawling, secretive and crooked UN system, filling positions with cronies, collecting money for murky initiatives, blaming failures and scandal on others (especially the U.S.), and raking in prizes from the likes of Mideast potentates and Swiss financiers. He might even win himself a second term.

But if Ban attends to his real job - which the UN charter defines not as top diplomat, but as "chief administrative officer" - he can far better serve the public interest. The UN suffers problems enough by way of a General Assembly and Security Council stacked with despotic regimes. If, on top of that, there is no integrity in the secretariat then even the best-meant policies stand little chance of working well in practice.

Avoiding becoming another Annan should be Ban's first priority. The former Secretary General spent what little time he had left after photo ops shrilly hectoring the US and kissing up to dictators. If Ban can clean the UN up he will go down in history as a goos Secretary General. Which is something Annan does not have to look forward to.

Avoiding becoming another Annan should be Ban's first priority. The former Secretary General spent what little time he had left after photo ops shrilly hectoring the US and kissing up to dictators. If Ban can clean the UN up he will go down in history as a goos Secretary General. Which is something Annan does not have to look forward to.

WaPo: Time To Drop All Charges

The Washington Post has come out with an editorial that calls for Durham County, North Carolina DA Mike Nifong to drop all remaining charges in the Duke lacrosse "rape" case. The media sharks have now swum full circle and are eying Nifong as the next main course.

In recent weeks, Mr. Nifong has admitted that he failed, as required, to turn potentially exculpatory information over to the defense: test results that showed the presence of semen from several other men, but not the Duke players, in swabs taken from the woman's body and clothing. Mr. Nifong says it was an accidental oversight. Yet the director of the DNA laboratory says that he and the prosecutor agreed to leave that information out of his report because it was so "explosive." If so, Mr. Nifong has a bigger problem than a botched prosecution. He should be subject to further ethics proceedings by state bar authorities, who filed charges Thursday against him for making inflammatory and misleading comments about the case in its early days.

In an interview with the New York Times, Mr. Nifong said that "until [the alleged victim] tells me these are not the right guys, we're prosecuting this case.'' But Mr. Nifong badly misconceives his job as a prosecutor, which is not simply to robotically prosecute claims or seek a conviction at all costs but to make an independent analysis of whether justice would be served by continuing with the case.

That Nifong is still even trying to sustain charges that are probably impossible to get a conviction on says more about his desperation than about what really happened that night at a party. That Nifong conspired to suppress evidence is in a whole different category. There is blood in the water, so to speak. The sharks have changed direction.