February 11, 2005

Breaking news per NRO's the Corner and the stunningly wonderful blogger La Shawn Barber:
Yahoo! News - CNN News Executive Eason Jordan Quits

CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.

Jordan said he was quitting to avoid CNN being "unfairly tarnished" by the controversy.
[Translation: Any video or transcript of his remarks that were finally released would have been damning!--Jen]

Maybe it's me, but this seemed easier for the Blog jihad than Rathergate...and the results are more satisfying, although weasel Eason did wait until Friday afternoon to announce his departure.
This should have happened when he confessed to collaborating with Saddam's regime to keep their Baghdad bureau open, but now will be fine.
We can't have the head of the leading cable news service (which goes out all over the world, BTW) getting people to believe that the U.S. military is really the enemy in wartime.
Buh-bye, Eason and don't let's hear another peep out of you!

February 08, 2005

After CNN Chief News exec Eason Jordan's remark at Davos stating his belief that the U.S. military was deliberately killing journalists, the blogosphere's finest went into a posting frenzy refusing to quit howling until the MSM was forced to tackle the story.
Check out the "blog swarm" here:
(Be sure and start with these entries and then look at their previous posts about Jordan for the few days preceeding if you need to familiarize yourself with the story)
Michelle Malkin
Captain's Quarters
Jim Geraghty at The Kerry Spot
Jay Rosen
Instapundit on Slate
La Shawn Barber's devoted a whole section to Easongate.
Of course, the men at Powerline blogged up a storm.
And, finally, there's a new blog devoted entirely just to EasonGate:
Easongate.com

Here's hoping this *reasonable* piece--which was put in the "Style" section--by the WashingtonCompost's Howie Kurtz is just the first such instance of Old Media finally confronting one of their own again when he screws up:
Eason Jordan, Quote, Unquote
Jordan shouldn't be allowed to get away with this and I'd like to see his resignation, too.
(He, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes can start a poker game or something...)
This isn't the first time that Mr. Jordan's been involved in some nefarious media antics:
He admitted that CNN had collaborated with Saddam and his régime of torture and murder so that CNN could keep reporting from Baghdad.
Read the longer post here about this huge 2003 scandal at Cox & Forkum.
And on a personal note, he's been dating the widow of murdered WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded by radical Muslims in Pakistan.
At CNN, like any other company, the CEO sets the tone of the entire company's work product.
How can we expect "news" without an agenda when its top exec so clearly has one, which is so grossly anti-American and anti-U.S. military and pro-Islamist terrorism?
Jordan's even accused the Israelis of "targeting journalists" in 2002:
Slublog has the 4-1-1, but the news story, in which Jordan said this about covering the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict in has been "disappeared:"

EJ: Absolutely, well the Israeli government is making a mistake if it considers CNN the enemy, CNN is just trying to tell the story of Israel, the story of Palestinian areas in a straightforward way. We're not trying to favour one side over the other we're not going to pull any punches in our reporting but the truth hurts sometimes and it hurts both sides but it's a mistake to target the news media. We've had enormous frustrations in having access to occupied areas of the West Bank and Israeli forces on a number of occasions have shot at CNN personnel and in fact did shoot one CNN correspondent, he was badly wounded. The Israelis say they're actually trying to restrict our access to these areas and they say it's too dangerous for you to be there and my response to that is that it wouldn't be nearly as dangerous if you didn't shoot at us when we're clearly labelled as CNN crews and journalists. And so this must stop, this targeting of the news media both literally and figuratively must come to an end immediately.

If Jordan's guilty of nothing else besides BIAS, it's gotta be his fast and loose use of the word "target." When we have every reason to believe that the MSM are still colloborating with IslamoFacist killers in Iraq-- and everywhere else-- against us, why should Jordan be allowed to whine about the "safety" of his reporters in the war zone when it is so biased in favor of the enemy? Notice how the "insurgents" in Iraq always stage their attacks in the morning, a particularly marked instance of which was last Sunday's election? That's no coincidence--it's so they'll make the morning news cycle here in the West for maximum effect. Worse still, journalists and their photographers always "happen" to be there when the "insurgents" launch an attack or have a point they want made. CNN, as well as Reuters, AP and NBC, have been sleeping with the Enemy--I personally won't forgive ever NBC reporter Kevin Sites for his "merciless Marine" story. (Last time he was heard from, he was reporting on tsunami relief for NBC, even though he's "freelance and doesn't really work for NBC" from some Asian disaster site.) What are our choices but to turn off the TV and blog but for them to take their pro-enemy-in-wartime propaganda off?

Update: The New York Sun, which is giving both the Old Gay Lady and even the NYPost a run for their money, has a story on Easongate today also!

Sharon, Abbas to announce an end to violence

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are to issue separate statements in Sharm e-Sheikh Tuesday designed to put an end to over four years of violence, even though the term "Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire" will not be used.
[Guess al-Reuters and the rest of the MSM decided not to pay attention: Middle East Cease-fire Awaited at Landmark Summit--Jen]

Representatives from both sides were meeting near midnight Monday putting final touches on the ceremony that will be hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and will also be attended by Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Mubarak, according to Israeli diplomatic sources, was widely expected to announce the return of Egypt's ambassador to Tel Aviv.
[Hosni wants to keep getting that $2 billion from us, which requires that Egypt officially recognize Israel.]
Jordan may follow suit, though there are some bilateral issues outstanding that may hold up a similar Jordanian announcement. Both countries withdrew their ambassadors in November 2002 to protest Israel's handling of the Palestinian violence.
[Betcha their view of the Jenin "massacre" had a lot to do with that!--J.T.]
[...]
Senior Israeli diplomatic officials said that the two sides would not announce a joint cease-fire, but rather that Abbas would issue a statement declaring a cessation of Palestinian violence, and Sharon would say that Israel's response to this would be a cessation of military activities against the Palestinians.

The official said that this rather arduous arrangement was created because Israel wanted to make it clear that it is not a partner to the internal Palestinian cease-fire. Israel has consistently said that the internal Palestinian cease-fire, or hudna, was not enough, and that the PA needed to take action to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.

Israel, a senior political source said, was insisting on the dismantling of the terrorist infrastructure in order to bring about an end to terrorism against Israel, and not just an end to the current terror attacks.

At the same time, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Sharon, in his speech, would make it clear that Israel would respond to Palestinian quiet with quiet of its own.

So, if I understand this correctly, Abbas is calling an end to the Intifada, but not the IslamoFacists war against the "Zionist enity."
Sharon, for his part, seems to be saying that as long as there are no more terror attacks, the "Palestinians" won't see the IDF.
Well, if it works, this is a real step to a permanent peace.
Coming as it does right after her visit, all I can is that when SecState Dr. Rice speaks, people listen!
I know how much the Israelis want a real peace with their Islamic neighbors, but they must hang tough with Abbas and hold his feet to the fire about staying on the "road map."
I'm not even close to convinced that Abbas and his followers really want peace, but maybe I'm too cynical, although the Arab Muslims have been fighting against Israel since the day she was created in 1948.
As Israeli PM Sharon will say today, we all want to see "deeds not words" from the Arafat-free Paleostinians.
(How the Israelis have the patience and the ability to" turn the other cheek" to endure this outrageous behavior for 57 years I'll never know, except that they must really have God's help in a big way!)

Here's the latest of several stories that alleged Islamist enemy combatants were tortured by the U.S. military:
Gitmo Detainees: U.S. Troops Abused Them

Nearly a dozen detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp contend they were wrongly imprisoned after repeated abuse by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan, including beatings with chains, electric shock and sodomy, their lawyer said Monday.
[...]
The government has denied using torture, but multiple investigations into abuse at detention camps in Afghanistan and Guantanamo are under way. It is not clear whether some of the men's statements could be dismissed if investigators confirm there was abuse during interrogations.

Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said all "credible" abuse allegations are investigated, but he suggested the Kuwaitis' claims were consistent with al-Qaida tactics to falsely allege abuse or mistreatment.

"That these detainees are now making allegations of abuse seems to fit the standard operating procedure in al-Qaida training manuals," Shavers said in response to questions from The Associated Press about the Kuwaitis' accusations.

London's Daily Telegraph reminded us last week how we know this is undeniably an AQ tactic to defang us in this war:

[...]
The men's claim that they were tortured at Guantanamo should also be set in the context of the al-Qa'eda training manual discovered during a raid in Manchester a couple of years ago. Lesson 18 of that manual, whose authenticity has not been questioned, emphatically states, under the heading "Prison and Detention Centres", that, when arrested, members of al-Qa'eda "must insist on proving that torture was inflicted on them by state security investigators. [They must] complain to the court of mistreatment while in prison". That is not, of course, proof that the Britons were not tortured in Guantanamo. But it ought to encourage some doubts about uncritically accepting that they were – which seems to be the attitude adopted by most of the media.

Ah, the perfect marriage--IslamoFacist killers, Liberal Left trial lawyers and the MSM!
I long for the day when our judges and ultimately, the USSC, shut the door on this tactic for good for the duration of the war.
And this lesson applies to the Abu Ghraib thing, too.
While the pictures were bad (Proving yet again that "Pictures speak louder than words."), no real harm seems to have been suffered by the enemy detainees in Iraq under U.S. military jurisdiction other than emotional and sexual humiliation from being forced to form nude pyramids or to wear women's panties on their head by an American women soldier smoking a cigarette.
The brouhaha made by the Dimocrats and their messengers in the MSM over the Abu Ghraib incident served only to tie the hands of our military in a war zone and I'm convinced that the consequent backlash lead directly to this incident last week:
U.S. troops fire on prison riot as 4 die

American troops opened fire to put down a riot Monday at a prison camp in southern Iraq that left four inmates dead and six wounded, U.S. military officials said.
[...]
The U.S. military said guards opened fire about 45 minutes into the riot, when verbal warnings and nonlethal measures failed to subdue the rioters.

Hope the Left is proud of themselves!
The whole Abu Ghraib mess, as well as the Gitmo charges of "abuse," will continue to be a successful strategy for the IslamoNazis to employ over and over, while for the Dems, the Media and the EUrowhiners it's their most accessible way to denigrate U.S. troops and to attempt to embarrass and weaken the offices of both President Bush and SecDef Rumsfeld.
Why not next time, instead of getting these killers an ACLU lawyer, we tell them to take their laments to Allah in their 5-times-daily prayers?