Antony Loewenstein

Robert Baer, Time.com, December 5:

I myself have felt the pull of the conspiracy theorists — who believe that 9/11 was an inside job, somehow pulled off by the U.S. government. For the record, I don’t believe that the World Trade Center was brought down by our own explosives, or that a rocket, rather than an airliner, hit the Pentagon. I spent a career in the CIA trying to orchestrate plots, wasn’t all that good at it, and certainly couldn’t carry off 9/11. Nor could the real pros I had the pleasure to work with.

Still, the people who think 9/11 was an inside job might easily be able to believe that Abu Zubaydah named his American accomplices in the tape that has now been destroyed by the CIA.

It isn’t going to help that the Abu Zubaydah investigation has a lot of problems even without destroyed evidence. When Abu Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, two ATM cards were found on him. One was issued by a bank in Saudi Arabia (a bank close to the Saudi royal family) and the other to a bank in Kuwait. As I understand it, neither Kuwait nor Saudi Arabia has been able to tell us who fed the accounts. Also, apparently, when Abu Zubaydah was captured, telephone records, including calls to the United States, were found in the house he was living in. The calls stopped on September 10, and resumed on September 16. There’s nothing in the 9/11 Commission report about any of this, and I have no idea whether the leads were run down, the evidence lost or destroyed.

Time magazine has given Russian President Vladimir Putin its Man of the Year title. Observe the groveling at the start of an “exclusive” interview:

First of all, I would like to thank you on behalf of all my colleagues for your hospitality today. Second, we consider that it is a great honour for us to be able to conduct this interview. Your cooperation with Time magazine means a lot to us. Its result will be a serious material, and quite broad in nature and scope.

No, Time isn’t a publication published out of the Kremlin.

If Zionists are so passionate about Israel, why do they need payment to spread anti-Arab propaganda?

A group working to promote pro-Israel sentiment at American colleges is hiring students to act as campus emissaries of the Jewish state.

Jewish student leaders from Columbia University, New York University, and Queens College will receive up to $1,000 a year from the advocacy group StandWithUs to bring speakers and films to campus that portray Israel in a positive light.

“There’s an atmosphere that everything has to be intellectually valid,” a sophomore history major at Columbia University, Ariel Pollock, said of her campus. “It’s a great framework, but for some reason Israel has fallen outside of that paradigm.”

Ms. Pollock, 20, is one of 38 “Emerson Fellows” selected for the new initiative, funded by California-based philanthropists Rita and Steven Emerson.

She said she plans to use her stipend to bring to campus a film about Moroccan and Indian immigrants to Israel, “Turn Left at the End of the World,” and to organize academic debates between Columbia faculty in the department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures and pro-Israel professors she plans to invite.

Considering the fact that leading American Zionist lobbies are now tasked to deny other people’s genocides and defend every Israeli action, perhaps confused Jews will feel more inspired to defend the indefensible after a financial incentive.

Bill Moyers talks to Keith Olbermann about journalism, ethics, advertising and baseball

Saying “no” to Fox News (and thriving):

Priorities, priorities:

Israeli scientists said on Tuesday they have created the world’s smallest Bible, fitting a Hebrew-language version of the holy book on a gold-coated silicon chip smaller than a pinhead.

Researchers from Technion, Israel’s Institute of Technology, were able to pack the 308,428-word Hebrew Bible – known to most as the Old Testament – on a 0.5 millimetre square, Ohad Zohar, who directed the project, told AFP.

“This is the world’s tiniest Bible,” Zohar said. “The Guinness Book of World Records has a Bible 50 times bigger.”

The face of fundamentalist American Zionism is Morton Klein, National President of the Zionist Organisation of America (ZOA.)

Behold his hatred of Arabs, Palestinians, peace or compromise.

And remember this is a man who speaks for millions of American Jews.

Zionism is sick and in desperate need of a lobotomy.

The recent murder of Iraqi blogger Ali Shafeya Al-Moussawi, a contributor to the fascinating video blog Alive in Baghdad, reminds us of the real dangers in the war-torn country (notwithstanding deluded Murdoch commentators telling us otherwise.)

Like many bloggers around the world, Ali’s death is a loss to everybody in the blogging community. As the mainstream media buy the “surge has worked” line, Iraqis are continuing to die every day.

We now more than ever need independent voices and perspectives on the conflict.

Scott Horton, Harpers, December 17:

So the United States intelligence agencies in cahoots with major telecom providers are intercepting and reviewing your communications. This is occurring without warrants. And the legal community is in accord: it was criminal conduct. And that’s why the Bush Administration is frantically pushing right now for immunity: to ensure that its collaborators face no adverse consequences from their criminal acts. What kind of society does this sound like?

Journalists are increasingly paying the ultimate price for simply doing their job:

The number of journalists killed worldwide spiked to the highest number in more than a decade, with nearly half killed in Iraq, according to an analysis by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based independent organization that compiles information on the deaths of journalists.

After examining reports of journalists killed in direct connection to their work, the committee found that 64 journalists were killed in 2007, up from 56 last year. The death toll was higher only in 1994, when 66 were killed. The committee is still investigating 22 other deaths to determine whether they were work-related.

Iraq was the deadliest place to work, accounting for 31 deaths, with Somalia (seven deaths) the second-most-dangerous country. Twelve media support workers, such as bodyguards and drivers, also died in Iraq, the committee said, noting that since the war began in March 2003, 124 journalists and 49 media workers have been killed.

In all, 24 journalists in Iraq were murdered and seven deaths occurred in combat-related crossfire.

While the American Federal Communications Commission is making it far easier for moguls to own more assets in the same market, therefore lessening diversity, real journalists, like Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, are investigating stories that most of the mainstream is ignoring:

Today, a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive. A victim of the CIA rendition program—kidnapped, held in secret jails and tortured—speaks out in his own words. His name is Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah, one of hundreds of men to have passed through the CIA’s so-called “black sites.” Today, he tells his story.

Of course, some conservatives defend this use of torture (only when “we” do it, of course.)

Welcome to the modern Republican Party.

Freaks (and creationists) only need apply.

2007 was the year of Facebook, according to one media commentator. Newspapers now have little choice but to adapt to the online world. The days of print may never end, but they’re certainly in serious decline. But more fundamental questions remain. How does the American consumer actually view the products they’re consuming?

The Pew Research Center has tracked perceptions of the press among U.S. adults for more than two decades, asking the same questions over time. Some trends speak volumes:

• In 1985, when asked whether news organizations “get the facts straight” or are “often inaccurate,” 55 percent chose the former option and 34 percent the latter. This past July, when Pew asked this question, the responses were almost exactly reversed: 39 percent said news media get facts straight and 53 percent said they often don’t.

• In 1985, when asked whether news organizations were “moral” or “immoral” in their practices, 54 percent indicated the former, 13 percent the latter, and 33 percent said neither or that they weren’t sure. This past July, 46 percent said news media were moral while nearly a third, 32 percent, said immoral.

• In 1985, when asked whether news organizations “are pretty independent” or are “often influenced by powerful people and organizations,” 37 percent chose the former option and 53 percent the latter. That wasn’t good for the press then. It’s even worse now: In July, 69 percent said news media are often influenced by powerful actors and institutions.

• Finally, in 1985, when asked whether news organizations “protect democracy” or “hurt democracy,” 54 percent chose the former option and 23 percent the latter. In July, only 44 percent said news media protect democracy, while more than a third, 36 percent, said news media hurt democracy.

Sadly, most journalists are woeful at self-reflection and remain defensive when challenged on the failings of the industry. Personally speaking, most reporters I’ve known over the years prefer to be players, close to establishment power and happy to ignore a healthy distance between themselves and the power elite.

We all suffer as a result.