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CBS Early Show Removes Anti-War Protesters From View in Kansas City    [

    Reporting From Baghdad
    By Scott Ritter
    Truthdig

    Thursday 06 September 2007

    It should come as no surprise that the Bush administration's newest military-man-of-substance-turned- political lapdog, General Petraeus, maintains that the situation in Iraq is not only salvageable, but actually improving, due to the "surge" of U.S. combat troops into Iraq over the past year. All the president and his collection of GI Joe hand-puppets ask for is more time, more money and more troops.

    There is no reason to believe that the compliant war facilitators who comprise the "anti-war" Democratic majority in Congress will do anything other than give the president what he is asking for. No one seems to want to debate, in any meaningful fashion, what is really going on in Iraq.

    Why would they? The Democrats, like their Republican counterparts, have invested too much political capital into fictionalizing the problem with slogans like "support the troops," "we're fighting the enemy there so we don't have to fight them here," and my all-time favorite, "leaving Iraq would hand victory to al-Qaida."

    There simply is no incentive to put fact on the table and formulate policy that actually seeks a solution to a properly defined problem. Like the Republicans before them, the Democrats today seek not to govern with the best interests of the people in mind, but rather to game the system in order to consolidate political power. Political sloganeering has so trumped reality that any political backlash that is generated from the so-called "Petraeus Report" will be limited to how the Democrats could better sustain a conflict that kills American troops, since no main-stream Democratic leader has expressed a true "get out of Iraq now" policy.

    Nearly 4 1/2 years following President Bush's ill-fated (and illegal) decision to invade and occupy Iraq, few people in a position to influence policy formulation and implementation in America have actually grasped the horrible truth about what has transpired, and what is transpiring, in Mesopotamia today. As the United States places the finishing touches on Fortress America, the new half-billion-dollar Embassy complex in the heart of the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, and more troops pour into mega-bases throughout Iraq, the reality (and futility) of permanent occupation has yet to sink in. What could be going through the minds of those members of Congress who keep signing blank checks for the president? Is there no oversight of how and why this money is spent? How can someone fund permanent infrastructure one day, then speak of the need to get out of Iraq the next?

    The compliant mainstream media, of course, is no help. The war in Iraq has become a major generator of advertising revenue for these corporations, so there is no incentive to actually report the truth, but rather manipulate the fiction. Iraq has become a prestige destination for every aspiring journalist or struggling anchor, determined to get "the big story." The most recent manifestation of this syndrome is CBS News anchor Katie Couric, who earlier this week travelled to Iraq because she was (in her own words), "Curious about very basic questions regarding living conditions, about how much fear there is in the street, about how the soldiers really are doing." That the situation in Iraq has been boiled down to these three big, burning issues (living conditions, fear in the streets, and how the troops are really doing), and that CBS is sending their multi-million-dollar investment to investigate, speaks volumes about the truly degenerate state of American journalism today.

    The real big three she should be addressing are "Why do Americans keep dying?" "Who is killing them?" and "Why?" Of course, answering these questions would undermine the very fantasy world Couric is being sent to cover, one where Americans are doing good deeds in the name of peace and justice for downtrodden Iraqis. Couric's jaunt is fraud on a massive scale. Ironically, she herself acknowledged this when she admitted that her up-beat reports from Iraq were reflective of what the US military wanted her to see, and not honest 'reporting' on her part.

    If Couric and her ilk won't answer these questions, I will. "Why do Americans keep dying?" Simple: Because we are in Iraq. We don't belong there. Our presence is derived from our own violation of law, not someone else's, and as such any effort to sustain our presence is tainted by this same foundation of illegitimacy. In short, Americans will keep dying in Iraq as long as we remain in Iraq. If Katie wanted to really get to the bottom of this story, she could venture out on her own to any one of the villages and towns where Americans have been killed recently. Of course, she would probably end up dead herself, which would defeat the purpose of trying to report the story.

    "Who is killing them?" Another easy answer: Iraqis. We are occupying their homeland. We are violating their sovereignty. We are butchering, abusing and torturing their citizens. Our continued presence is an affront to the socio-economic-political fabric that is (or was) Iraqi society. If someone occupied my hometown in the same manner Americans occupy Iraq, I'd be killing them any way I could. And I would be called a hero by my own people, and not a terrorist. The Bush administration, in an effort to deflect public attention away from this reality, has created the fiction of a massive al-Qaida presence in Iraq, working in parallel with a similarly large Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command presence, which apparently is responsible for the majority of anti-American violence and dead U.S. troops.

    Rhetoric aside, however, American officials who make these claims have been unable to back them up with hard facts and figures. There is an al-Qaida presence in Iraq. However, the majority of what is known as "al-Qaida in Iraq" is composed of Iraqis, not foreigners. The whole phenomenon is a direct result of the American occupation of Iraq, and would dissipate the moment America left the country. Likewise, the accusation of direct Iranian involvement in anti-American violence is questionable. Iranian political support of Iraqi Shiite groups who violently oppose the American occupation of Iraq is real, but then again we know this: We invited the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq to join us in toppling Saddam. Based out of Iran, functioning as a de-facto arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command, SCIRI did as we asked. Why, then, are we shocked when SCIRI maintains ties with the very entity that created and nurtured it? It is Iraqi Shiites who are killing Americans, not Iranians. And they would kill us with or without the support of Iran.

    Now we come to the third and perhaps most difficult question: "Why?" In some odd way, Katie Couric's jaunt to Iraq answers that question: Because Americans truly don't care. Oh, we care about vague softball issues, such as "conditions in the street," "fear," and of course, "how the American troops are really doing," especially when they are fed to us in 30-second sound bites or three- minute "in-depth" stories. Little feel good segments planted in between commercials, designed not to infringe on our intellectual curiosity for more than 30 minutes so we don't loose our focus watching the latest "reality" show or made-for-television drama.

    The fact is, Couric's made-for-television news is to what is really happening in Iraq as "CSI: Las Vegas" is to what is really happening on the streets of Sin City. CBS knows that, which is why they are packaging Katie in this fashion. The shame is that for most Americans watching, they think they're getting the real deal. They are not, but will continue to wallow in their ignorant indifference. Katie will struggle to tell us that our kids keep dying in Iraq to "improve the quality of life" and "reduce the level of fear" on the streets of Baghdad. She solemnly informs us that "our boys and girls" are suffering, but they know it is in support of a just and noble cause. Katie will continue to report the story in Iraq from the perspective of an American political dynamic, not Iraqi reality.

    She won't go visit one of the American mercenary units in Iraq, the private military contractors who challenge the American military for numerical supremacy. She won't burrow into the never-never land of legal ambiguity that allows these mercenaries to commit murder at will, to treat Iraq (and Iraqis) as second-class citizens in their own nation, and whose continued abuse of Iraq results in a deep and undying hatred for all things American. Katie may catch a movie in a hardened underground theater on one of the Pentagon's mega-bases, or go shopping in a PX inside the "Green Zone" to get a "feel" of life for our troops, but she won't venture up north, into Kurdistan, where other secure outposts of foreign occupation sit, out of sight and mind. If Couric would visit the Iraqi Oil Ministry, she might be shocked to witness the legal maneuvering and exploitation carried out by foreign oil companies (including, directly or indirectly, American oil companies).

    Working with local Kurdish officials, small oil exploration and drilling camps are sprouting up all over northern Iraq, where they siphon off the wealth of the Iraqi people. Shipped out of Iraq via Turkey and (surprisingly) Iran, using long-established smuggling routes, these illegal ventures are generating billions of dollars in income for oil companies, and because these ventures aren't supposed to exist, this income goes unreported. You can't miss these sites. Any review of Google-Earth imagery would show these facilities springing up like mushrooms over the last few years. The U.S. military knows about them, and yet does nothing. Note to Richard Kaplan (Katie Couric's producer): If you want to investigate this story, I'll provide you with the geographic coordinates. Drive up and try to talk your way into the security perimeter. Position Katie well for the camera shot and demand answers. Just look out for the Canadian, South African or American mercenaries who are charged by "Big Oil" to keep this dirty little secret "secret."

    Instead of going to Iraq to report on why Americans keep dying, Katie could just stay here, in America. There are any number of corporations whose board rooms she could visit. Or she could smooth talk her way into a number of country clubs, to interview the human face of the "military industrial complex" that President Eisenhower warned us about a half-century ago. She might take a look at congressional campaign financing, where the profits from these corporations fund the campaigns of the politicians who continue to do nothing about Iraq. Then, and just then, would Katie come close to answering the question of "Why?"

    But she won't. Or should I say, she can't. CBS is owned by General Electric. GE is working hard to get favorable trading status with any number of foreign trading partners. The U.S. trade representative is working hard on GE's behalf. Hard-nosed "reporting" by the likes of Couric would not go over well in the bowels of the White House, where instructions to the U.S. trade representative are issued. "I'm Katie Couric," her broadcast could begin. "Tonight I am declaring independence from corporate control over how I report (i.e., read) the news." Answering the "why" of Iraq requires confronting the layers of corruption and corporate domination of America on so many levels that even if Katie wanted to, she couldn't - at least not from her perch as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

    In a way, Iraq is a manifestation of all that ails America today. A complete breakdown of fundamental societal checks and balances brought on by greed and hubris. From General Petraeus who will give it, to the mindless corporate-owned minions who populate much of Congress who will receive it, to the entertainment-as-news media which will report on it, and to the American people who will consume it with no foundation upon which to evaluate it, the "Petraeus Report" will have little relevance to what is really going on in Iraq. Once again, Americans will be searching for a solution to a problem they have yet to properly define.

    Just ask Katie Couric. Or better yet, watch her.

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    CBS Early Show Removes Anti-War Protesters From View in Kansas City
    By Matthew Rothschild
    The Progressive

    Tuesday 04 September 2007

    On August 10, the CBS Early Show came to Kansas City, Missouri.

    Using Liberty Memorial Park, the Early Show was featuring the country western band Big & Rich, which is famous for "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" and for leading audiences in the Pledge of Allegiance.

    When the local peace community heard that the Early Show was coming to the park, activists hoped to get their message to a national audience.

    "I received an e-mail about the event and a flier from the Early Show inviting people to attend," says Ira Harritt, Kansas City area program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). "I rsvp'd, saying some people from the AFSC would be there."

    Harritt recruited people to come and carry some AFSC "Cost of War" banners. These are seven feet long and three feet high, and they all give different answers to the question: "One Day of the Iraq War Equals." (Such as $720 million, or 84 elementary schools, etc.)

    "We started assembling the banners in the park," Harritt says, "and immediately, a CBS staff person said, 'You can't be here. You can't have those here.' "

    Harritt and the other activists challenged her, saying, "This is a public park. We have a right to be here," he recalls. And the anti-war activists had a lawyer with them who defended their right to be there.

    They reached a compromise. The CBS employee, along with security, allowed them to stay in the park so long as they did not get into camera view.

    "I promise you the TV cameras will not span this area," the CBS employee said.

    That's not exactly what the protesters had hoped for.

    "I was very disappointed," says Harritt. "CBS was censoring what messages Kansas Cityans were bringing to the Early Show."

    Harritt says other signs were allowed to be seen on camera.

    "One was supporting the Navy," he says. "One said, 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.' There were signs for things for sale, and commercial signs."

    Harritt finds that inconsistent and troubling.

    "Given that the Iraq War is the most important issue on people's minds," he says, "that they wouldn't allow this opinion to be on the public airwaves means that they want to make sure that the messages don't conflict with the large multinationals that are profiting from this war."

    CBS wouldn't even allow Harritt to circulate an anti-war petition where he wanted to in the park, he says. The petition was to defund the war and refund human needs.

    "I had been circulating through the crowd of about 1,000 people collecting signatures," he says, "when this same CBS staffer came by and said, 'You can't do that.' I wasn't even in camera view. But she reported me to a security officer. He told me I had to leave. A person was signing the petition at that moment. When he finished, the security officer threatened to arrest me if I didn't move. So I moved."

    Corva Murphy wasn't so lucky. She got handcuffed.

    The 60-year-old activist is a member of Peace Works, an anti-nuclear-weapons group.

    She and her husband, Everett, often join the AFSC members at peace rallies. And so they came to Liberty Memorial at 5:00 a.m. on August 10.

    "We had our anti-war signs," she says. "My husband's is bright yellow with red letters. It says: 'Out of Iraq Now.' Mine says: 'If you like this war, you're going to love the draft,' and the words 'war' and 'draft' are in red letters."

    Corva and Everett Murphy's son served in Iraq in 2005 as a Navy corpsman.

    "He was in Mosul," she says. "He's OK, but if this war keeps going, he'll have to go back."

    Corva Murphy says that's not the sole reason they are protesting. "We do it for all our sons and daughters, and all the innocent Iraqi people," she says. "That's why we're out there every chance we get."

    At Liberty Memorial, Corva and Everett Murphy decided to stand near where Harry Smith was going to be broadcasting.

    She says other people were holding signs, including ones that said, "I Love Big and Rich," and "Hey Dad, We Made It!"

    But it was only their sign that was verboten.

    "After a few minutes, somebody from security came and said, 'You can't be here.'

    Then someone from CBS said: 'You have to put your signs down. CBS doesn't want any political signs.' "

    Corva and Everett Murphy insisted that this was a public park, but they were told it wasn't.

    "My husband said, 'Yes it is. Our tax dollars pay for this.' "

    But a police officer responded:

    "You'll really have to go. I'll escort you. Your friends are down below," referring to the AFSC demonstrators.

    "He escorted us to where the Cost of War banners were," Corva says. "Then, my husband and I moved about ten feet back to where the steps started up to the main event. We stood there for about five minutes. And then security came again. They told us we'd have to move back and stand in the line with our friends. We couldn't stand where we were."

    Corva had, by this time, had enough.

    "I said, 'Look, I'm standing here. I'm not moving. This is my right as a citizen.'

    "They said, 'We'll have to call the police.'

    "I said, 'You just call the police then. I'm not moving.'

    "Two police officers arrived.

    "One said, 'If you don't leave now, I'll have to arrest you.'

    "And I said, 'You'll have to arrest me then because I'm not moving back.'

    "He said, 'OK, I'm going to put the cuffs on you.'

    "And I said, 'OK.'

    She was not prepared for the cuffing, however.

    "Was that ever a shock! They pull your arms behind you real hard, and put those cuffs on you immediately. Your arms are kind of jerked behind."

    Though Murphy was handcuffed, she was not arrested.

    She says she even asked the police officer to arrest her. "This will do our cause a lot of good if you do," she says she told him.

    But she says he responded: "I'm not going to arrest you because I'm off duty and that would mean a lot of work for me."

    After a while, the police officer took the cuffs off of her, but "he was always keeping his eyes on me," she says.

    He was nice, though. "He even came by with a nice cold bottle of water for me," she says.

    CBS said in a statement, "We had a huge, enthusiastic crowd that was very well behaved and appeared to be having a good time. We are unaware of any incidents."

    Mary Vincent, who is on the local AFSC program committee and is a founding member of the Kansas City Iraq Task Force, says there is no doubt that CBS was clearing the field of anti-war signs.

    "There was a woman with a CBS badge on who kept going back to the CBS trailer. And she told us, 'If those things get on the air, I'm going to lose my job.' "

    --------

    Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine.