Don't wait until the last second to make a 2005 tax-deductible contribution to Cursor and Media Transparency.

Reporting that "The effort President Bush authorized ... to fight al Qaeda has grown into the largest CIA covert action program since the height of the Cold War," the Washington Post quotes a former CIA attorney as saying that unlike past presidents who "set up buffers to distance themselves from covert action," Bush "seems to relish the secret findings and the dirty details of operations."

The Chicago Tribune provides some background on "one involved party" that "has remained silent" in the domestic wiretap scandal, as the Justice Department launches a new leak probe.

"No one even knew it was happening," the White House Internet director is quoted as saying, regarding the apparent use of banned Internet tracking technology on the White House Web site, but "Is no one at the White House responsible for oversight of contractors?" And which is worse?

The White House contractor's privacy policy explains how Web site visitors "can deactivate our customers' abilities to analyze your web browsing and purchasing behavior," and asks "each of our customers to abide by all applicable laws, rules and regulations."

A 94-page U.S. plan to invade Canada, reportedly "sits in a little gray box ...available to anybody, even Canadian spies. They can photocopy it for 15 cents a page."

The BBC reports that the number of detainees on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay has more than doubled since Christmas Day, with 84 prisoners now participating.

As election observers head back to Iraq to review voting results, the shut down of Iraq's largest oil refinery on December 18, reportedly because tanker truck drivers are "too afraid to go there," has brought 'Long Gas Lines in Baghdad' and a 30-day solution.

After Knight Ridder's Tom Lasseter reported that 'Kurds in Iraqi army proclaim loyalty to militia,' an Iraqi army office said quotes in the story "are false and created by followers of the ex-regime." Lasseter writes that "It wasn't clear whether the ministry was accusing Kurdish soldiers - almost all staunch opponents of the former regime of Saddam Hussein - or the Knight Ridder reporter of ties to the former regime."

An NBC News report which says that "the U.S. always wanted an aggressive police force in Iraq," includes an interview with a Sunni journalist who says police "hung him upside down and clubbed him with a metal pipe." But 'Iraqi police commandos say they use tea not torture.'

Editor & Publisher's readers respond to a claim by Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw that Bill Clinton would have gone into Iraq had 9/11 happened on his watch. Plus: 'Heck of a Job, Bushie.'

"There is more than one downside to impeachment," writes the former chief counsel to the senate Constitution subcommittee, especially considering the line of succession.

A recently-passed House bill, introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner and praised by President Bush, would subject priests, nurses and social workers who render aid to illegal immigrants to five years in prison and seizure of assets.

In 'The freest press money can buy?', William Fisher writes that the state department's announcement of a new journalism program "was strangely juxtaposed with the furor surrounding recent disclosures that the Pentagon hired ... the Lincoln Group to pay Iraqi journalists to publish articles written by the U.S. military ..." He also refers to a Washington Post article, 'Bloggers, money now weapons in information war.'

The Los Angeles Times marks the passing of a pioneer media analyst whose research convinced him that "heavy television viewers (more than four hours daily) came to consider the world as rightly belonging to 'the power and money elite' depicted on the small screen."

'Stem Cell Advance' is described as 'fully refuted,' despite alleged efforts by government officials to "bribe scientists who were considered potential whistle-blowers," with the "Korean spy agency ... delivering funds to Korean researchers at Pitt."

As part of a high school class on "immersion journalism," a Florida teen whose parents were born in Iraq said that "I thought I'd go the extra mile for that, or rather, a few thousand miles."

The top ten anti-war and underreported stories of 2005, the year's 'most valuable progressives,' the 'ten best top-ten lists,' and 'Enough already with those lists.'

Now that "reporters are ... paid by whose stories get the most clicks," a Seattle Times columnist ponders "the most widely read material this paper has published in its 109-year history" -- 'But Here's Why.'

December 29

Citing NSA sources, Wayne Madsen reports that the agency has "spied on its own employees" and "other U.S. intelligence personnel ... without any warrants," in addition to monitoring "their journalist and congressional contacts."

The placing of persistent cookies on visitors' computers by the agency's Web site, in violation of federal rules, was said to be "strictly to improve the surfing experience 'and not to collect personal user data.'"

Molly Ivins recalls that 35 years ago, like 'Big Brother Bush,' the Nixon administration "set our government to spying on its own citizens," and "the creepy part is the overlap."

"In a little-noticed holiday week executive order from President Bush," reports the AP, "three military service chiefs have been dropped in the Bush administration's doomsday line of Pentagon succession, pushed beneath three civilian undersecretaries ... who are Rumsfeld loyalists and who previously worked for ... Cheney when he was defense secretary."

Urging the Supreme Court to "order the prompt transfer of terrorism suspect Jose Padilla out of military custody and into a regular federal prison," the Justice Department charged that the 4th Circuit Court's refusal to go along "second guesses and usurps ... the President's Commander-in-Chief authority."

A Washington Post article on the Justice Department's move notes that the 4th Circuit, which "questioned the government's changing rationale" for detaining Padilla, "has been the administration's venue of choice for high-profile terrorism cases" since 9/11.

The CIA began "rendering" prisoners under President Clinton to "circumvent the cumbersome U.S. legal system," according to former counterterror agent Michael Scheuer, who told Die Welt that he personally developed and led the program.

A Los Angeles Times analysis, calling Iraq's election results "a bracing splash of ice water for U.S. officials," says that "the myth of a unified Iraqi identity may have finally been laid to rest."

'Ten killed in U.S. air strike on Iraqi village,' '14 Shiites machine-gunned to death in minibus,' 'Family of 11 Iraqi Shi'ites murdered' by "slitting their throats," as Iraq's election chief warns that "accusations of fraud in last week's vote were endangering the lives of the commission's members."

Roughly a quarter of Americans continue to believe that Iraq had WMDs when the U.S. invaded, and that some of the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, according to a new Harris poll, which also found that 22 percent of U.S. adults still think that Saddam Hussein "helped plan 9/11."

Saddam's chief lawyer is reportedly offering President Bush advice on how the U.S. could end its problems in Iraq.

Amid conflicting reports about the hunt for Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, Chilean police booked Gen. Augusto Pinochet following his indictment for the killing and disappearance of nine dissidents during his dictatorship, reports the AP, "the first time he has had to submit to a police booking."

The Pentagon's inspector general has reportedly concluded that two U.S. military Web sites that pay journalists to write articles and commentary supporting military activities in northern Africa and in the Balkans, are not in violation of U.S. law or Pentagon policies. They're maintained by the Anteon Corp., which is being acquired by General Dynamics.

A Small Business Administration report, said to confirm that 9/11 recovery loans went to "a South Dakota radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop, a Utah dog boutique," while small businesses near Ground Zero couldn't get assistance, was titled "SBA Inspector General Does Not Find That STAR Loan Recipients Were Unqualified For Program."

Although a Washington Post article says that lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rep. Tom DeLay "never became personally close," firedoglake notes that Newsweek previously reported that "for years, nobody on Washington's K Street corridor was closer to DeLay than Abramoff."

Describing his new Vice President of Policy, the president of Citizen Outreach -- "Political Action with an Attitude!" -- said that "I wish we had more public officials who think like Doug in elective office."

The Chicago Transit Authority has reportedly turned down Venezuela's offer of low-cost diesel fuel to power city buses, which came with a stipulation that the savings be passed along to poor residents in the form of free or discounted fare cards.

A New York Times style section article explained that wealthy Manhattanites were quoted anonymously because "the families did not want to expose themselves to envy, or even ridicule, because of the sumptuousness of their lives." Plus: PR firm names "10 Worst Spins of 2005."

December 28

Defense lawyers in terrorism cases are reportedly "preparing letters and legal briefs to challenge the NSA program on behalf of their clients," as a Bush administration spokesman claims that monitorees "have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings, and churches."

"With Bush's defense of his wiretapping," writes Jonathan Schell, "the hidden state has stepped into the open."

As 'The Times and the Post go silent on us,' journalists tell Editor & Publisher that the papers should have disclosed meetings that their editors reportedly had with President Bush.

"[T]he Times' decision-making is not the central story here," says the Village Voice's Sydney Schanberg. "The president's secret directive is... We've been lied to before. But this presidency has lifted these arts to new and scary heights." Earlier: 'Paranoia on the left and the right.'

A "regular guest on CNN" denounces "a lavishly funded and monolithic media effort to misreport the Iraq war for the purpose of bringing down the Bush administration."

The Wall Street Journal reports on TV commercials being run by Move America Forward, which claim: "Newly found Iraqi documents show that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, including anthrax and mustard gas, and had 'extensive ties' to al Qaeda." Earlier: 'At Russo Marsh & Rogers the "truth" is always on tour.'

Left I on the News parses an AP report that the CIA's inspector general is "investigating fewer than 10 cases where terror suspects may have been mistakenly swept away to foreign countries."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton "has the left in her back pocket," and "doesn't have to worry about catering to them," a political analyst tells the New York Times, while Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw agree that "the only difference between the Clinton administration and the Bush administration was 9/11."

A U.N. official declares Iraq's parliamentary election "credible and transparent," while Knight Ridder finds that 'Many Iraqi soldiers see a civil war on the horizon,' as insurgents get 'back to business' and Chalabi takes over the oil ministry.

A WSWS report details the recruiting practices that result in Latin American mercenaries being paid as little as $5.75 an hour to guard Baghdad's Green Zone. Earlier: 'Asia's poor build U.S. bases in Iraq.'

'Telling it like it isn't' Robert Fisk offers examples of "the semantic iceberg that has crashed into American journalism in the Middle East," while"the mutilated bodies of the victims of aerial bombing, torn apart in the desert by wild dogs -- are kept off the screen." Plus: 'Terrorist attack in Louisiana?'

The editor of Lebanon's Daily Star "would like to bet Donald Rumsfeld ... and Karen Hughes ... that the overall coverage of Iraq on the mainstream Arab satellite services has been more comprehensive, balanced and accurate than the coverage of any mainstream American cable or broadcast television service."

A key Enron figure cops a plea, three weeks before the scheduled trial of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, and finds himself portrayed in the Washington Post as "a likable family man who remained humble despite his corporate rank and salary."

A former federal prosecutor sees the plea agreement as "a tacit acknowledgement by the government that their case is far from overwhelming."

The Los Angeles Times reports that home mortgage lenders, seeking to undo consumer protections in state laws, are rallying behind a bill sponsored in the House by "Representative No. 1."

A Bloomberg columnist describes the recent scene on the Senate floor, in which a self-described "mean, miserable SOB," stymied on ANWR on the worst day of his life, sounded like "The Godfather" pleading, "When have I ever refused an accommodation?"

As the Chronicles of Narnia rap gets "the Paper of Record treatment," Carpetbagger asks: "when was the last time Saturday Night Live was this successful in creating a cultural sensation."

December 27

The U.S. embassy in London was forced to correct a claim by ambassador Robert Holmes Tuttle, that there is "no evidence ... that there have been any renditions carried out in the country of Syria."

It's the second misstatement in less than two months by the "new and clearly under-briefed" ambassador, who was also a major donor to President Bush's re-election campaign.

Media coverage of Bush's domestic spying scandal, says Norman Solomon, "has made virtually no mention of the fact that the Bush administration used the NSA to spy on U.N. diplomats in New York before the invasion of Iraq."

Citing "Two former NSA officials familiar with the agency's campaign to spy on U.N. members," Raw Story reports that "then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice authorized the plan at the request of President Bush, who wanted to know how delegates were going to vote."

Eugene Robinson asks readers to "assume for the moment that the president's only desperate motivation is to prevent another day like Sept. 11," and NewsHounds recounts a Fox News segment titled "Nuclear Holocaust," in which the host asked: "Did US News & World Report just make it easier for terrorists to hit America with a nuclear bomb?"

With the Pentagon set to release its Quadrennial Defense Review, the New York Times reports that "Military contractors brace for 'flattening' of budget," as "the Pentagon has weapons programs worth $1.3 trillion in its current portfolio, with $800 billion of that total still to be paid."

As the Rational Enquirer decides to hold its powder, "at least until the next war," Editor & Publisher tracks down 16 original "embeds" from the current one, finding that "the vast majority expected a quick resolution to the war," including one who says that "It surprises me that every time I have gone back, it has gotten worse."

Preliminary vote totals are said to have left Ahmad Chalabi "facing a shutout" in Iraq's parliamentary election, and a surge in Sunni Arab participation evidently does not extend to representation in the new Iraqi military. Plus: 'A Syrian Chalabi?'

Juan Cole's analysis of the 'Top Ten Myths about Iraq in 2005' includes a restatement of his argument that "the US has a responsibility to get out of Iraq responsibly" rather than "precipitately," a view previously challenged by Left I on the News and said by Alexander Cockburn to include a call for "bombing a la Cole."

After experts warned of a "tsunami of woe" from post-traumatic stress problems among returning Iraq and Afghanistan war vets, the Washington Post reports that PTSD has become a diagnosis under debate at a cost-conscious VA.

As Army recruiters in Minnesota object to a veteran's call to "Remember the Fallen Heroes," and spurn his offer of cookies, the Army National Guard goes outside the pizza box, while new recruits in the war on terror are all the buzz in Georgia.

A Pentagon survey finds that half or more of the women attending U.S. service academies in 2004-2005 reported being sexually harassed, and the Christian Science Monitor describes a "booming" phenomenon that is turning thousands of white European women into terror suspects.

The 'Must-See Politics' of the Alabama governor's race are said to include, on the GOP side, a tax-hiking conservative vs. "a rock star of the Christian right," while the Democrats feature a former governor under indictment, taking on an "I Love Lucy" campaign.

Reporting that 'Republicans May Lose Grip on Statehouses,' the Wall Street Journal notes that among GOP incumbents, "several reneged on pledges not to raise taxes." And read how Minnesota's governor may have cost the state $400 million by insisting on calling a sales tax on tobacco products a "user fee."

A Paul Krugman column on 'Tax-Cut Zombies,' prompts the observation that "All politics is yokel!"

E. J. Dionne calls the recent budget bill "a road map of insider dealing," which "shows that when choices have to be made, the interests of the poor and the middle class fall before the wishes of interest groups with powerful lobbies and awesome piles of campaign money to distribute."

Geov Parrish's revisits the year's most overhyped and underreported stories, including among the latter the degree to which "George Bush is already a lame-duck president." Plus: 'Pop Goes the Bubble.'

As CJR Daily offers up "five excellent newspaper stories of 2005 that you might have missed," Danny Schechter sees 'More media decline in 2005.'

December 26

FBI officials confirmed and defended the existence of a secret program -- first reported by U.S. News & World Report -- to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in Washington, D.C., and other U.S. cities, "although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained."

The revelation has reportedly "sent a shockwave across the Muslim community," where "many ... in the Washington area, as elsewhere, believe that they are under watch."

Following a New York Times report that U.S. telecoms cooperated with the NSA to glean data on suspected terrorists, Sen. Patrick Leahy spoke of "the growing list of questions and concerns about the warrantless surveillance of Americans," and William Arkin's "guess is the government decided after 9/11 to monitor everyone."

A report that President Bush 'Pressed Papers to Kill Scoops,' reduces the whole matter of illegal wiretaps to "a partisan squabble," says firedoglake, as a Barron's editor calls on members of the House Judiciary Committee to "report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment."

"But who would do the impeaching?" asks Alexander Cockburn, arguing that the Democrats, who "fled" Rep. John Murtha "like a poisoned thing," have "lost as much credibility as the President and the Republicans."

The New York Times editorializes that "there are finally signs that the democratic system is trying to rein in the imperial presidency," but Steve Chapman contends that "to call this an imperial presidency is unfair to emperors."

The Miami Herald's Robert Steinback "wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help."

Following comments by the former Secretary of State on ABC's "This Week," Left I on the News finds the New York Times again trying to 'put lipstick on Colin Powell."

As post-election 'Violence Flares Up Across Iraq,' the Washington Post reports on U.S. forces' third attempt in three years to hand over the Sunni city of Samarra -- six months after surrounding it with a wall of dirt.

Two U.S. soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Christmas, while soldiers from the 101st Airborne conducted a raid on "Whoville," as 'U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians.'

Eliot Weinberger updates his Iraq classic, hearing that "in veterans hospitals, the only television news that is permitted is the Pentagon Channel," where "we obviously don't air speculation out in the civilian media that questions what the department is doing or its motives."

The consistent message of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's latest tour of Iraq, according to the AP's Robert Burns, is that "the U.S. military is getting out," but the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Fox News Sunday that "you could see troop level go up a little bit," because "the enemy has a vote in this."

As it's reported that immigration judges are scolded "time and time again" for their "intemperate and humiliating remarks -- and for "misconduct" in asylum cases -- the Los Angeles Times airs "an open secret along the border: romance between illegal immigrants and those responsible for deporting them."

With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said to be facing 'Rough Terrain' in 2006, his name was removed from a soccer stadium in his hometown "under cover of darkness" to "keep the media from taking photos."

Columnist Robert Novak warns that a potential decision to retire by Sen. Trent Lott "could signal that Southern political realignment has peaked and now is receding."

A study for the Transportation Department is said to "outline a public relations strategy ... to persuade the American public" that putting tamper-proof GPS Bugs in cars is "in their best interest," although "no restrictions prevent police from continually monitoring, without a court order, the whereabouts of every vehicle on the road."

As a winner is declared in the "war" on Christmas, 2005's "Misinformer of the Year" is cited for "egregious false and misleading claims, as well as his glowing and gushing praise for President Bush."

December 23-25

ARCHIVES

Current month
November, 2005
October, 2005
September, 2005
August, 2005
July, 2005
June, 2005
May, 2005
April, 2005
March, 2005
February, 2005
January, 2005
December, 2004
November, 2004
October, 2004
September, 2004
August, 2004
July, 2004
June, 2004
May, 2004
April, 2004
March, 2004
February, 2004
January, 2004
December, 2003
November, 2003
October, 2003
September, 2003
August, 2003
July, 2003
June, 2003
May, 2003
April, 2003
March, 2003
February, 2003
January, 2003
December, 2002
November, 2002
October, 2002
September, 2002
August, 2002
July, 2002
June, 2002
May, 2002
April, 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
Pre-9/11

We Want Your Link! If you've seen any recent articles that you think other readers might be interested in, send us the link.

Thanks to Francis Hwang for RSS programming.