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- Magda Abu-Fadil: TV Fatwas, Sy Hersh and New Vehicles Dominate Arab Media Forum
- David Epstein: Two Obvious Truths About the Torture Scandal
- Mexico Prison Break: Suspected Drug Gang Breaks Free 59 Prisoners
- Obama Soccer PHOTOS: Sasha, Malia Cheered On By Soccer Dad Obama
- Tom Vander Ark: School Closings, Race, and Movement Politics
- Allison Kilkenny: Al-Barakaat: the little charity that could have saved Somalia
- Ed Westwick Cast In 'Wuthering Heights' (PHOTOS)
- Mark Joseph: How Pope Benedict Outsmarted Ron Howard
- Teryn Norris: First Analysis of Full Waxman-Markey Climate Bill
- Larisa Alexandrovna: Cheney MVP of the GOP?
| Magda Abu-Fadil: TV Fatwas, Sy Hersh and New Vehicles Dominate Arab Media Forum | Top |
| Over 80 satellite channels are airing fatwas, or Islamic edicts, aimed at believers in the Arab and Muslim worlds, with religious leaders bemoaning the credibility of media that spew venom and incite violence, participants at a Dubai conference were told this week. "Media privatization has led to the proliferation of outlets and chaos on the air," lamented Jameel Al Theyabi, managing editor of the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat's Saudi Arabia and Gulf Cooperation Council states section at the 8th Arab Media Forum . Jamil Al Theyabi and Al Jazeera anchor Khadija Ben Genna discuss TV fatwas on Arab satellite channels (Abu-Fadil) He said the most dangerous aspect of the trend was presenting ill-qualified, self-appointed experts to provide advice to the uninitiated. Worse than TV were control-free new media such as email and mobile phones for issuing fatwas from unknown sources, Thiyabi said. He noted that ignorant preachers play with simpletons' minds, mislead youth, and recruit suicide bombers and terrorists through this new fatwa industry and that the umma, or Islamic nation, must get a grip on the situation. The comments, during a workshop that preceded the forum's opening, grouped Islamic religious leaders who debated the hot potato issue that has prompted the Organization of the Islamic Conference's Fiqh (doctrine) Academy to detail the conditions and manners of issuing fatwas. The proliferation of fatwa channels has also spawned celebrity preachers, akin to their televangelist counterparts in the West, who cash in on followers' devotion, participants were told. "Fatwa shows are the first line of defense against violence and terrorism," argued Fahad Al Shimeimri, chairman of Al Majd TV in Saudi Arabia, adding that his station's preachers were qualified, understood the stakes, could communicate with audiences and were able to handle call-ins. New media have allowed preachers to enter people's homes, giving rise to sharp competition aimed at drawing audiences and viewers, said Abdel Hamid Ansari, a professor of Islamic Studies at Qatar University. In addition to fame and stardom, fatwas have turned into a lucrative business, he said. At another session, Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh packed the main conference hall with a talk on investigative journalism and lauded Arab media for reporting on issues neglected (intentionally or otherwise) by U.S. print and broadcast outlets. "The [American] press turned cheerleaders and did not challenge the WMD [weapons of mass destruction] story," he said of former President George W. Bush's war on Iraq. "Bush helped me in my career and I hope [US President Barack] Obama doesn't." Seymour Hersh promotes investigative journalism in Dubai (Abu-Fadil) But he cautioned that Obama was falling in the same trap as Bush and that nothing, except the leadership, had changed with regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Hersh praised Dubai for being at the cutting edge and urged Arab journalists to push for good governance but said an investigative journalist was like a dead rat brought to a party. "Nobody likes us, but if you don't do what you do, you can't change things," he said, adding that the Internet had changed the face of journalism. The Web's increasing dominance and print media's accelerating demise in the West, don't seem to have adversely affected newspapers in the Arab World where growth is still key, experts said. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have seen more newspapers come onto the print scene in parallel with the rapid increase of online media and portals drawing ever more readers and advertisers in the region. With the emergence of a knowledge society, new media and platforms are increasingly contributing to user-generated content and providing average citizens with vehicles to supplement traditional media reports. Algerian blogger Issam Hamoud and Google UAE's Husni Khuffash weigh in on new media and new platforms (Abu-Fadil) "What's new isn't just media but the handling of news, and anyone can be a content creator," said Sultan Al Bazei, CEO of Saudi Arabia's Attariq Communication . That scared more traditional journalists at the forum who feared editors, fact checkers and any modicum of ethical standards would disappear altogether. They also raised questions about the credibility of citizen journalism and whether video clips shot on mobile phones could be considered news. In another twist, representatives of foreign TV channels broadcasting in Arabic came under close scrutiny with detractors questioning their aims and messages. Panelists from the BBC , France24 , Russia Today and U.S. government-financed Al Hurra defended their stations, insisting they were not mouthpieces for the governments that funded them. It followed charges of "foreign political agendas" permeating those media. "We don't represent French policy or the French view but a French perspective," said Nahida Nakad, deputy editor of France 24, an all-news French channel that recently increased its Arabic-language programming to compete in a crowded broadcast landscape long dominated by the BBC. Hosam Al Sokkari, head of BBC Arabic TV, radio and online services (Abu-Fadil) Later a very heated discussion erupted between the news heads of Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera channels who argued over Israel's war on Gaza and their respective linguistic differences over coverage of that conflict. "Martyr is a religious term, I cannot issue a judgment on the dead person because I am not God," said Al Arabiya's Nabil Khatib during the Gaza session, to the dismay of Ahmad Al Sheikh of Al Jazeera who said his station's hyped coverage aimed to halt conflicts and victims' suffering. Khatib said he must consider his audience despite the old adage that what bleeds leads, and that a lot of news reaching newsrooms during conflicts was misleading. Other sessions dealt with the worldwide financial crisis and the media's handling, or mishandling, thereof. The harsh reality of online media taking over worldwide means funders' mentality has to change and advertisers will seek "fast fooders," participants heard experts say. A key question raised at the forum was whether industry was willing to invest in new content and delivery systems. Conferees agreed on the need for extensive training to upgrade and update journalists' skills. The two-day forum organized by the Dubai Press Club (www.dpc.org.ae) drew over 600 people from the Arab world and beyond. 8th Arab Media Forum draws over 600 participants (Abu-Fadil) It concluded with the highly touted Arab Journalism Awards handed to print reporters, editors and publishers from across the region. The forum and awards are supported by Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum at Forum opening (Abu-Fadil) More on Saudi Arabia | |
| David Epstein: Two Obvious Truths About the Torture Scandal | Top |
| Obvious Truth #1: Let's say there's this terrorist, and he has plans to blow up a major US landmark, killing lots of people (maybe even your son or daughter!). I'm walking past his house, ten minutes before the bomb is set to go off, and I see the folder with his plans right there on his kitchen table! (He's perhaps not the most organized or secretive of terrorists.) I can get the plans and save all those people's lives (maybe even your son's or daughter's!), but I have to break into his house to do it, and that's a crime. The answer should now be obvious to you: stealing should not be a crime! Still not convinced by my logic? This could really, really happen! I saw it on an old episode of SWAT (or was it Get Smart?). Why are you still opposing me? Why are you willing to put innocent American lives in danger? Tough guys (especially tough guys who got out of fighting real wars when they had a chance) rob houses. (Back to reality.) There's lots of good debunking of ticking-time-bomb scenarios out there, but I have yet to see the simple point made that even if such a situation did arise (which in real life might happen once every decade or two), and even if torture would work in such a case (no real-life examples of that yet, outside of 24), that wouldn't justify a regime that makes torture legal. Torture is wrong, hideous, and abhorrent, and if you needed it for a once-in-a-lifetime crisis, you could get the equivalent of a judicial bypass, or warrant, from the President for that one occasion. But it makes no sense at all to torture what are likely innocent Iraqis and Afghanis, sold to US forces by their neighbors looking to make a buck, and justify it under the ticking-time-bomb scenario. Obvious Truth #2: Torture is to the Iraq War what the internment of Japanese-Americans was to WWII. In both cases the exigencies of war created a special kind of hysteria that let us brand certain human beings as "others" and do unspeakable things to them, to our lasting national shame. Of course, even by these standards what we've done now is dastardly: at least the forces we fought in WWII posed much more of an existential threat to our country than Al Qaeda ever will, and even then we merely forcibly relocated innocent people rather than torture them. It also follows that in 50 years (or maybe sooner), the US will officially apologize for what it's done here, just like we apologized to those interned during the Second World War. And I hope Condi Rice realizes that future school children will watch tapes of her, like others from the Bush Administration, still make the claim that "we didn't torture" and be told that yes, it's unbelievable that she could say something like that, but that's just an object lesson in what bad people do. | |
| Mexico Prison Break: Suspected Drug Gang Breaks Free 59 Prisoners | Top |
| Suspected members of a Mexican drug cartel disguised as federal police entered a state prison in the northern state of Zacatecas on Saturday and freed 59 inmates, police and army officials said. More on Mexico | |
| Obama Soccer PHOTOS: Sasha, Malia Cheered On By Soccer Dad Obama | Top |
| ***SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS*** It's a busy Saturday for Barack Obama. First he named a new ambassador to China and then he switched from being president to being a soccer dad. Obama traded a business suit for jeans and a Chicago White Sox jacket before shuttling around Washington to see daughters Malia and Sasha play in separate soccer games. Obama cheered and clapped along the sidelines at 7-year-old Sasha's game with two Chicago friends. At one point, after Sasha's team scored, the president excitedly shouted "go ... go ... go ... goal." Obama then moved on to 10-year-old daughter Malia's soccer match. PHOTOS FROM GETTY Earlier Saturday morning, Obama introduced Utah's Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman as his choice for U.S. ambassador to China. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a busy Saturday for Barack Obama. First he named a new ambassador to China and then he switched from being president to being a soccer dad. Obama traded a business suit for jeans and a Chicago White Sox jacket before around Washington to see daughters Malia and Sasha play in separate soccer games. Obama cheered and clapped along the sidelines at 7-year-old Sasha's game with two Chicago friends. At one point, after Sasha's team scored, the president excitedly shouted "go ... go ... go ... goal." Obama then moved on to 10-year-old daughter Malia's soccer match. Earlier Saturday morning, Obama introduced Utah's Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman as his choice for U.S. ambassador to China. More on Barack Obama | |
| Tom Vander Ark: School Closings, Race, and Movement Politics | Top |
| (2nd report from Close the Gap: Education Equality Day) When it comes to educating our kid, we have an invention problem and an execution problem. We need to invent new tools and new schools for this new generation. In many respects, they are already living in a different world but attend schools out of the 1950s. We simultaneously need to address the huge quality gaps that exist in America. There are thousands of schools that are so bad they should be closed and thousands of teachers that shouldn't be in the classroom. The last reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (called No Child Left Behind) was an attempt to close these gaps, but the status quo protects bad schools and bad teachers. Every school develops a constituency, even bad ones. That makes closing and replacing them a political nightmare. Part of what complicates it is white politicians closing schools full of black and brown kids. Secretary Duncan suggests that states and districts should move aggressively to improve or replace at least 5000 failing schools--the lowest performing 5%. But there's not an active constituency for this aggressive action. That's one of the reasons that Chancellor Joel Klein formed an alliance with Rev. Al Sharpton--to inform, to mobilize, to close the gap. The Education Equality Project is an attempt to create a movement for good schools for all young people in America--to build support for the difficult dislocations and reshaping of alliances that come with school transformation or replacement. Movement making is mess work. At the Closing the Gap rally, there were voucher supporters and those that see vouchers as the end of public education; there were charter school supporter and opponents, there were union members and union opponents. Building local coalitions to support better schools is the art of speaking the truth, aligning interests, and mobilizing action. Klein clearly understands the power of faith congregations to make or block change. His alliance with Sharpton isn't an easy one, but the point seems to be that we need a series of unlikely alliances across this country to do the work the must be done to close the gaps. With a $5 billion federal fund, we have a once in a lifetime to innovate and improve execution. Both will take state and local leadership willing to challenge the status quo. Most politicians only take risks when they feel support or pressure. They'll get some of both from Secretary Duncan, but they'll need a lot more from local constituents--namely minority parents fed up with lousy schools--to take on powerful and well endowed unions. We need the Education Equality Project, or something like it, in every state to help build support to close the gap. | |
| Allison Kilkenny: Al-Barakaat: the little charity that could have saved Somalia | Top |
| Most Americans only hear about Somalia if the country's name precedes "is a failed state," or "is a hotbed of pirate activity." But what many Americans don't know is that the US worked to undermine a Somalian charity that stepped in to provide aid to the chaotic state. After the gross failure of the 1993 Black Hawk rescue mission which left 18 US Army Rangers and perhaps 1000 Somalians dead, the world turned its back on the impoverished country. Somalia was largely supported by a charity group, Al-Barakaat, which accounted for "about half of the country's $500 million remittances." Al-Barakaat, which literally means "blessings" was "set up to address the needs of Somali immigrants who sent, on a weekly or monthly basis, a significant part of their earnings to their families," writes Ibrahim Warde in The Price of Fear. Following the 1991 collapse of the Somali government and banking system, Al-Barakaat "assumed a significant role in the Somali government." Warde adds that at the time of the September 11 attacks Al-Barakaat was Somalia's largest business group with "subsidiaries involved in banking, telecommunications, and construction." The charity's model consisted of wiring money (much like Western Union) from expatriate Somalians to their families in Somalia-- for means of survival -- not terrorism. Warde explains that although the global money transfers understandably raised initial suspicion, accusations that Al-Barakaat was "closely associated with or controlled by the terrorist group Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya (AIAI)," which in turn gave a portion of money to Osama bin Laden "were dismissed by intelligence professionals, and attributed to political and business rivalries within the community." In 2001, President Bush accused Al-Barakaat of funding Al-Qaeda. He quickly announced that the Treasury Department would force the Somalian charity to close, and remarked that the termination would "[send] a clear message to global financial institutions: You are with us, or you're with the terrorists. And if you're with the terrorists, you will face the consequences.'' About a year later, The New York Times reported that American officials claimed they had proof that Al-Barakaat provided "as much as $25 million a year to Osama bin Laden's terrorists in weapons, cash and other support," but that "some United States officials now acknowledge that the evidence of Al Barakaat's backing for terrorism is more tenuous." All of these accusations turned out to be false, and the US government shyly snuck away from the mess. They were able to do so with an assist from the mainstream media, which barely reported on any of this. The wild goose chase not only negatively affected Somalia, but it tarnished the image of the United States. Allies, which had followed the US's lead on Al-Barakaat on good faith, began to doubt the accusations. Warde writes: "[A] Canadian judge, saying that he found no evidence of a link to terrorism, rejected the US request to extradite Liban Hussein, the chairman of Barakaat North America. The man was freed on a $12,000 bond." Creating a link where there is no link . The mantra should be familiar to Americans by now, particularly in light of the report that Vice President Dick Cheney's office "suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner ... who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection." By the time the US was ready to admit its colossal mistake, it was like watching a bull try to discretely back out of a china shop post-rampage. The mainstream media barely covered it. Worse, Warde writes, the US continued to use Al-Barakaat as an example of "a major victory of the War on Terror." The closing of Al-Barakaat had devastating effects on Somalia. International telephone service to 25,000 people was cut off. "The company was the country's biggest employer and ran the biggest bank, the biggest phone system, and the only water-purification plant," Warde writes. Perhaps the most devastating effect is on the psyche of the Somalian people, who feel betrayed that their largest charity was accused of terrorist activities, and that they have been robbed of a valuable human resource without so much as an apology or recognition of mistakes from the United States. Trust is another casualty of the War on Terror. In the Price of Fear , Warde cites a Wall Street Journal interview with a European diplomat assigned to the United Nations Security Council who said, "In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, there was enormous goodwill and a willingness to take on trust any name that the US submitted." That trust is gone now. It's gone because the intelligence community, and the government failed both in gathering intelligence during the lead-up to the War on Terror, and in how it has been treating War on Terror detainees, namely torturing them. An apology and an Obama administration change of course with its inherited War on Terror Overseas Contingency Operations seems like meager largesse considering the devastation the US (along with its propaganda-peddling media) has wrought on the planet, but it would be a small step toward reparations. Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog . Also available on Facebook and Twitter . More on Somalia | |
| Ed Westwick Cast In 'Wuthering Heights' (PHOTOS) | Top |
| 'Gossip Girl' guy Ed Westwick has landed a role to move him off televisions and onto the big screen in a new version of 'Wuthering Heights.' According to Variety , he will play Heathcliff alongside Bond girl Gemma Arterton as Cathy. Project has also seen a number of cast changes. Natalie Portman was originally tapped to play the role of Cathy. Scheduling conflicts saw her exit the project before being replaced by Abbie Cornish. Arterton will now play the iconic romantic role after producers opted to go younger with the pic. For those unfamiliar with the 'Gossip Girl' oeuvre, below is a slideshow of Westwick over the bet few years. PHOTOS: More on Photo Galleries | |
| Mark Joseph: How Pope Benedict Outsmarted Ron Howard | Top |
| So, it looks like Angels & Demons is going to be a box-office dud this weekend, barely holding off Star Trek and taking in a little more than half in box office revenue what the Da Vinci Code did in its opening weekend. This despite the desperate attempt by director Ron Howard to use these pages to try to create a controversy where none existed. Mr. Howard apparently thinks its still 1988 when Evangelical Christians showed their lack of smarts by protesting the release of The Last Temptation Of Christ, thereby giving it far more publicity than it would otherwise have received. But today traditionalists have become far more sophisticated in their response to movies like Howard's. They ignore them or even worse, praise them. A few years back the producers of Saved hoped to incite a protest or boycott by sending around screeners to religious leaders. What they got instead was a collective yawn. But Pope Benedict's Vatican offered the unkindest cut of all when it labeled Howard's film "harmless" For a film hoping desperately for an organized protest, that was the unkindest cut of all. | |
| Teryn Norris: First Analysis of Full Waxman-Markey Climate Bill | Top |
| By Teryn Norris & Jesse Jenkins The landmark Waxman-Markey 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act was introduced in the House yesterday (May 15, download PDF here ), and the Breakthrough Institute has performed a preliminary analysis of how it would invest over $1 trillion in cap and trade revenue between 2012-2025. Our key findings for this period include (all numbers are approximate -- download spreadsheet here ): Polluting industries : 57.3% of allowances would be freely distributed to polluting industries, including 36.7% for the electricity sector, 12.3% for energy-intensive industries, 6.5% for local natural gas distribution companies, and 1.8% for oil refiners Direct consumer protection : 16.5% of allowances would be used for direct consumer protection , including 15% for low and moderate-income families and 1.5% to benefit users of home heating oil and propane Energy efficiency and clean energy technology : 12.2% of allowances would be used to fund energy efficiency and clean energy technology development and deployment Adaptation and technology transfer : 4.7% of allowances would be used for domestic and global climate adaptation and technology transfer Workforce development : 0.6% of allowances would be used to fund worker assistance and job training Deficit reduction and other : 8.6% of allowances would be used to fund deficit reduction and other public purposes (click image to magnify) How much money would these allocations translate into? That depends on the average price for each pollution allowance -- the EPA's initial price estimate was $13-17 per allowance, so we will assume an average price of $15 per allowance. The allocation would look like this: Investment in clean energy technology development and deployment is broken out here (Note: the amount for clean energy technology within the "Renewable Energy and Efficiency" program is not specified): Our analysis finds that Waxman-Markey would spend about $9 billion annually on a range of things that could generously be classified as technology innovation. By contrast, the legislation would give $32 billion to utilities, $9 billion to heavy industries, and $11 billion to low-income consumers annually. This $9 billion is far less than what Obama promised ($15 billion) and far less than the $30 billion that three dozen energy scientists and experts, including several Nobel laureates, called for in a sign-on letter during the fall of 2007. | |
| Larisa Alexandrovna: Cheney MVP of the GOP? | Top |
| Apparently political suicide is a surest way to become MVP in the GOP these days, at least according William Kristol anyway: [Cheney] made himself the Most Valuable Republican of the first four months of the Obama administration (ably assisted by a few bold denizens of the Hill like the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, Pete Hoekstra). Since when is attempting to stay out of prison for crimes against humanity a selfless act of heroism? Does Bill actually think that Cheney is being entirely selfless for the Republican cause? No wonder Republican beloved Ronald Reagan called Bill and his pals "the crazies in the basement." I always find it amusing that the current base of the Republican Party can continue to claim a love-affair with Reagan, but still fully embrace the lunatics that Reagan laughed at. Another hero in his brave defense of torture, according to Kristol, is Pete Hoekstra. The very same Hoekstra who had strange meetings with Iran Contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar . I had always wondered if Hoekstra went on behalf of Cheney to help "fix the facts" around yet another war. Perhaps while they are defending torture so bravely together, they might answer that question? Apparently Hoekstra is also defending Cheney's position on torture out of selflessness. Yes, the GOP is packed wall to wall with heroes like Cheney -- who never went to war, but was more than willing to send others to die for his lies. Hoekstra spends most of his time attacking the Speaker of the House these days and for political reasons, instead of actually doing his job. Perhaps if Hoekstra had been doing his job all along, he would not have made a fool of himself by publicly claiming that WMD were found in Iraq. Let me remind you : GIBSON : I'm really confused about this. You had to pry this information out of the Department of Defense, evidently, and they're in the business of trying to convince us that Saddam did have WMD. So why was it like pulling teeth? HOEKSTRA : Well, I'm not sure of that. That's one of those questions. Obviously, what is happening here, John, is that they see that WMD is a threat to our front-line troops. So perhaps the answer to that question is buried in, we need to make sure we get a hold of all of these weapons. We have found 500, and we need to get a hold of all the other ones that we think may still be in Iraq because they do pose a threat to our front-line troops. By all means Mr. Kristol, do send more such "bold denizens of the Hill" my way. Anyone who defends torture is going to be fairly easy to discredit and quickly. More on War Crimes | |
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