Outside the Perimeter

Go towards the light!

Reading a couple of front page articles in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution, you might get a little confused about an important detail on the ongoing Iraqi prison abuse scandal. From an article under the headline "Sorry for the humiliation" we find out that (emp mine):

The prison abuse scandal came to light last week when CBS' "60 Minutes II" broadcast photographs of Iraqi stripped naked, hooded, and being tormented ...

But, to the left of that in an article called "Army report supports claim that prison guards had no training in how to treat inmates" (and after flipping to page A12 where this article continues), we find out that (emp mine):

The enlisted man who brought the Abu Ghraib affair to light, Spc. Joseph M. Darby, ...

I emailed the AJC public editor and cc'ed the writers of both of the articles to try to find out which of these two stories is true. I probably will not get an answer (I hardly ever do), but it's interesting to note that the online version of the first article, the one that credits the press for bringing the story to "light", has been changed. The equivalent paragraph now reads:

Bush, who has said he first learned of the photographs when some were aired last week on the CBS's "60 Minutes II," ...

The truth is that the press has been virtually ignoring this story until the photographs came out. If you want to know how the actual timeline of the story, including the fact that the commanding general of the prison was relived back in January, this don't miss this page at the Mudville Gazette.

Update: I did hear back from the Public Editor and the two writers of the articles about this. AJC's public editor said in effect that he did not see where most readers would be confused and that he did not think many readers would think that the whole story started with the 60 Minutes II broadcast. The writers, on the other hand, did see where some confusion might result and (hold for the musical fanfare) did apologize for the confusion. In the long run, I am sure that my little letter writing campaign will have little effect, except to perhaps make the editors of the AJC more careful in looking for two front page articles using the same cliché on the same day

That "evil" President Bush

I take a look at The Corner, on the National Review Online, several times during the day. There I found a link to an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer, which featured this picture:

Photo by Lynn Faulkner.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

In a moment largely unnoticed by the throngs of people in Lebanon waiting for autographs from the president of the United States, George W. Bush stopped to hold a teenager's head close to his heart.
Lynn Faulkner, his daughter, Ashley, and their neighbor, Linda Prince, eagerly waited to shake the president's hand Tuesday at the Golden Lamb Inn. He worked the line at a steady campaign pace, smiling, nodding and signing autographs until Prince spoke:
"This girl lost her mom in the World Trade Center on 9-11."
Bush stopped and turned back.
"He changed from being the leader of the free world to being a father, a husband and a man," Faulkner said. "He looked right at her and said, 'How are you doing?' He reached out with his hand and pulled her into his chest."

This just in ...

Wouldn’t you know that the Atlanta Journal Constitution would spoil my fun by finally printing a news story on the U.N. Oil for Food scandal? True, the story was buried on page A10, I suppose because they had to make room for a picture of a BMW sticking halfway out of a parking building (No wonder BMW drivers get more sex. Those guys are crazy lucky) and an article about hometown girl Diana DeGarmo surviving the latest American Idol vote. So there I was this morning, mentally composing what I thought would become my next email to the AJC, and I found the story with this headline: Bill would compel U.N. to help probe. The article had to do a lot of backfilling to bring readers up to speed (emphasis mine):

The GAO told Congress last month it had estimated that "the former Iraqi regime attained $10.1 billion in illegal revenues" from the program, "including $5.7 billion in oil smuggled out of Iraq and $4.4 billion through surcharges on oil sales and illicit commissions."

And then:

In January, an Iraqi newspaper published the names of 270 people from 46 nations who it alleged had received vouchers from Saddam Hussein's government to buy discounted oil.

The question is, since both of these stories came out months ago, why were they not covered then?

Would it be a story only if Kofi Annan smoked some killer weed?

Here is today's letter to the public editor of the AJC:

Great front page story on how pot is growing more powerful. I am sure that information comes in handy for the, what, 4% of American adults your article says use Mary Jane.

But what about a story for the rest of us? Hmmmm. I know, why don’t you guys get on the Oil for Food scandal at the United Nations. Did you know that there is a Congressional investigation into the corruption of the program? Also, it seems like Kofi Annan is obstructing that investigation. It might be an effort to look, but the Wall Street Journal IS covering the story. (link http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005039 )

You know, it seems like a major American newspaper would be interested in exposing corruption and scandal at powerful institutions. Or is it only news if there is such a story that involves an American institution?

So far I am 0 for 2 at getting a response from my local paper at why they have not had a story on the U.N. Oil for Food scandal.

Nekkid Pictures - Anything but that!

Sure, I am as outraged as anyone else about the abuse of prisoners in Iraq at the hands of some of our soldiers. Not so much for the sake of the prisoners (If you can't take the anal probe, then don't do the crime), but rather for the sake of the vast majority of members of the U.S. Forces in Iraq who suffer because of the acts of a few. They deserve better than to be painted as anything other than dedicated professionals and should be held in high regard.
But the left is all over this, so I guess we are in for some hand wringing, such as this article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution today:

The Arab television station Al-Jazeera on Monday broadcast an interview with two Iraqis who said they were abused at Abu Ghraib. One, identified only as Hashim, said guards "made us take our clothes off and they pushed us against the wall. They did things to us that I am unable to talk about."
The other Iraqi interviewed on Al-Jazeera, Haider Sabar, said an American intelligence officer, along with an Iraqi and an Egyptian translator, showed him "immoral photos of the acts that took place" — apparently to frighten him.

I mean, Saddam Hussein tortured, raped, and killed hundreds of thousands. Recently, residents of Fallujah, burned and drug through the streets four Americans. Thomas Hamill was shot, kidnapped, and held prisoner. But we showed an Arab some nekkid' pictures. (Aside: Lewis Grizzard, the only AJC columnist is recent memory worth a darn, defined being "naked" as having no clothes on. Being "nekkid", on the other hand, means you have no clothes on and are up to no good).
Sure, worse things were done by American soldiers, and the people responsible should be punished. But all of this introspection about the "outrage" of the Arab street is overdone. After all, if it were not for this story, then some other other "American outrage" would be dominating the airwaves of Al-Jazeera.
In my opinion, the Bush Administration should turn this around by saying that the prisoner abuse was wrong and not in keeping with U.S. policy or ethics. We will review our procedures to make sure it never happens again and we will punish those who were responsible.
At the same time, we will make every effort to punish anyone who abuses Coalition captives or desecrates the bodies of citizens of the Coalition. Finally, we should invite other Middle Eastern countries to display the same effort to eliminate prisoner abuse.

Bevon Savan, never heard of him

Bevon Savan is the United Nations official who was in charge of the U.N.'s Oil for Food program, which had an estimated $10 billion dollars skimmed off. Savan has also been implicated in getting a few million in kickbacks himself.
But the Atlanta Journal Constitution has never heard of him. Or at least their search engine has not.
For the fun of it, I put "Bevon Savan" in the search engine for both the AJC web site and the engine that searches through the "stacks". The results?
I received a grand total of 0 hits.
Next I tried searching for just the last name of "Savan"
All right, I got 27 hits! Surely one of these has to be about the U.N. or Oil for Food.
But what do you know, all of the articles are from four years ago (or more), except for one titled "High School Roundup", and seems to be reporting (from the article summary) on high school basketball scores. Somehow I don't think that Bevon Savan played basketball for a local high school, so I don't think I am going to pay the $5.95 to view the entire text of the article.
At the suggestion of chaitealatte I am going to keep writing letters to the public editor (insideajc@ajc.com, if you want to play too) until I either 1) get a response or 2) they finally publish an article on the scandal. I will not be holding my breath as I look better my natural pink color.

Update: Here is the text of the letter I just sent to the AJC email address:

Say, there is this thing, called the United Nations (meets in New York, I think), who is having a slight problem with a $10 billion corruption and kickback scandal. Not that I am the editor of a big city newspaper or anything, but you might want to think about having somebody write a news article about it.
I was very impressed, though, with the front page articles on “Rockin’ the Vote” and the one about people who travel to New York to watch TV shows being made.