This is the tale of two AP stories: one about Salim Ahmed Hamdan and another about Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. Both are set to appear before a military commission in Guantanamo this week. Although both men are accused of working for Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the news stories are very different.
Hamdan's begins with a sob story. The poor man didn't even get paid well:
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Salim Ahmed Hamdan says he earned a pittance for his family as Osama bin Laden's driver prior to the Sept. 11 attack. But U.S. officials allege he did more, serving as the al-Qaida leader's bodyguard and delivering weapons to his operatives.The 34-year-old Yemeni and Guantanamo terror suspect is to be arraigned Tuesday before a U.S. military commission that allows for secret evidence and no federal appeals, the first person to go before such a tribunal since World War II.
Then it highlights his defense attorney's outrage with the procedure:
"This process goes against everything that we fought for in the history of the United States," said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, Hamdan's attorney who is likely to challenge the government's classification of his client as an enemy combatant. Hamdan denies supporting terrorism.
Then it suggests that the defense has been rushed:
Depending upon what Swift has up his sleeve or what surprises the prosecutors hold, Hamdan could choose not to enter a plea and his attorney could ask for more time to prepare. It is also possible Swift will question whether the five-member commission panel's presiding officer, U.S. Army Col. Peter E. Brownback, has the capacity to judge the proceedings fairly.
Then it lists Pentagon allegations, pointing out that there is no charge that he did anything violent or participated in the planning of any mayhem:
The Pentagon, in a charge sheet, alleged Hamdan, who is also known as Saqr al Jaddawi, was a bodyguard and personal driver for bin Laden between February 1996 and Nov. 24, 2001.The Pentagon also alleged that he transported weapons to al-Qaida operatives, trained at an al-Qaida camp and drove in convoys that carried bin Laden. It does not say he took part in any specific acts of violence or participated in the operational planning of any attacks.
Then it suggests that Hamdan, haram, is too dense to understand what is being done to him:
With a fourth-grade education and few skills to interpret legal minutia, Hamdan doesn't understand why he's being charged as anything but a civilian, Swift says. Hamden has said he earned a pittance by driving bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks, but he denies supporting terrorism.
A bit later on it suggests that military officials are trying to get away with all this behind the backs of the human rights establishment:
Representatives from Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First and the American Bar Association were offered seats as observers for the pretrial hearings, but military officials have refused to let them tour the prison.The five groups said they will watch the hearings and will try to keep a representative present for all of the commission proceedings.
"The observers were invited for the military commissions," said Col. David McWilliams, spokesman for the commissions and preliminary hearings. No other explanation was offered.
And not just them, but even the Red Cross:
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was weighing whether to send an observer to the commission hearings, the first such proceedings since World War II.The Geneva-based group has been the only independent organization to have access to the 585 prisoners at the U.S. base accused of links to Afghanistan's ousted Taliban or the al-Qaida terror network.
And finally, the question of fairness stated openly, complete with sneer quotes around the word terrorists:
Human rights groups have criticized holding the men as enemy combatants, a classification giving them fewer legal protections than prisoners of war. They also have questioned whether the commissions ordered by U.S. President George W. Bush will be fair.Bush, as well as senior U.S. officials, has repeatedly has called the men "terrorists."
Now compare all that to the second AP story, about Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi. The two men's stories are similar: both are not well educated, and both are described as Osama's bodyguards and drivers. This one highlights how religious the man has always been -- which to any reader knowledgeable about how radical Muslims recruit, will send up a red flag:
Growing up in a middle class religious family in Sudan, Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud al Qosi spent most of his time in a neighborhood mosque, paying so little attention to his regular studies that he wasn't able to get into university after finishing high school.
Then it goes on to highlight the charges, without stopping first to criticize the process:
He must have been good at math, though. As an adult, Osama bin Laden trusted al Qosi enough to make him al-Qaida's accountant, paymaster and supply chief when the terrorist network was centered in Sudan and Afghanistan during the 1990s, according to U.S. military charges.Eventually, al Qosi became bin Laden's bodyguard and driver _ so trusted that he was with bin Laden and his inner circle "before, during and after" the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and helped them "evacuate" from Kandahar, Afghanistan, the military alleges.
Al Qosi, who is set to appear before a Guantanamo Bay military commission this week as a first step toward a trial, is among the more prominent detainees in Cuba.
Al Qosi has been charged with conspiracy as an al-Qaida member to commit war crimes, including attacking civilians and civilian targets, murder, destroying property and terrorism.
Then it explains how he got involved in Islamic radicalism, and details how the man is up to his eyeballs in involvement with Al-Qaeda:
He's accused of training in bomb-making and assassination at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan, but his introduction to Muslim extremism started at home in Sudan.Al Qosi quickly attracted the attention of high-ranking al-Qaida figures he met after arriving in Afghanistan in 1989 the year coup leaders in Sudan declared they could bring prosperity, end civil war and solve all of the country's other problems by instituting strict Islamic rule, say former militants and Middle East security officials.
Al Qosi arrived at the tail end of the Afghan fight against Soviet invaders, and well before Afghanistan's Taliban began imposing a strict Islamic regime similar to what ideologues prescribed for Sudan. At the time, Sudanese women who didn't cover up fully when on the streets were likely to be scolded by police, punishments such as chopping off the hands of thieves were instituted, and Islamic extremists from around the world found a haven.
In the early 1990s, al Qosi completed a 45-day military training course at al-Qaida's al-Farouk camp near Khost, Afghanistan, learning combat skills, bomb-making and assassination, according to the U.S. military and the Middle East security officials. After the course, al Qosi carried messages between al-Qaida leaders and cells in Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and elsewhere in Africa, one Middle East security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Al Qosi became close to Ayman al-Zawahri, leader of Egypt's Islamic Jihad Group and bin Laden's deputy and Abu Ubeidah al-Banshiri, the Egyptian who was al-Qaida's military commander and later its main operative in East Africa before he reportedly drowned in a ferry accident on Lake Victoria in May 1996.
Though he had only a high school education, al Qosi was appointed chief accountant, managing donated funds and parceling them out for training camps and operations, another expert said.
From 1992 to 1995, when bin Laden moved his operations to Sudan, al Qosi returned home and became deputy financial chief for al-Qaida and worked for an investment company founded by bin Laden, according to the military charges and Middle East officials.
Egyptian Muslim activists who used Sudan as a base to launch attacks against their secular government at the time remember al Qosi as one of very few Sudanese close to bin Laden.
When bin Laden left Sudan under pressure from the Clinton administration in 1995, al Qosi allegedly traveled to fight with insurgents in Chechnya. Later he rejoined bin Laden in Afghanistan and became a bodyguard for the al-Qaida chief, said a former Egyptian activist who knew al Qosi then, speaking on condition of anonymity from exile in Europe.
And it ends with a quote from his brother, again with red flags for those familiar with political Islam:
"He was only committed to his religion," Abdullah told the Khartoum daily Al Sahafa in one of the stories that newspapers in Sudan have published retelling al Qosi's saga.
Not a word in the second story about the human rights groups, the suspicions about the military tribunals, etc. Just a story about one man's involvement with Al-Qaeda.
Why am I telling you all this? Do a Google search for "Hamdan + Qosi" and you'll see. As of this moment, the first story appears in ABC News; the Philadelphia Inquirer; the Los Angeles Times; the Chicago Tribune; the Manchester Union Leader; the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel; the Hartford Courant; the San Marcos Daily Record; the Porterville Recorder; the Huntsville Item; the Bismarck Tribune; the Bonner County Daily Bee; the Dunn County News; the Idaho State Journal; the Albany Democrat Herald; the Lodi News-Sentinel; the Idaho State Journal; Diario Digital of Juárez, Mexico; the Selma Times-Journal; the Appeal-Democrat; the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier; the Cheboygan Daily Tribune; the North County Times; the Santa Maria Times; the Wyoming News; the Columbia Basin Herald; the Mattoon Journal; the Mt. Carmel Daily Republican Register; the Orangeburg Times Democrat; the Helena Independent Record; the Rapid City Journal; the Daily American Online; the Elko Daily Free Press; The Missoulian; the Petoskey News-Review; the Natchez Democrat; the Corvallis Gazette Times; the Benton Courier; the Carlisle Sentinel; the Hampton Roads Daily Press; the Bradenton Herald; phillyburbs.com; the Orlando Sentinel; Xposed.com; The Spectator Newspapers; the Grand Forks Herald; Kentucky.com; the Albany Times Union; the UK's Guardian; the China Daily; IrishExaminer.com; Canada's CTV; ic Wales; and more.
The second story? You can find it in the Sudan Tribune. That's it.
Now: do you understand how the media is trying to manipulate public opinion in the war on terror?
UPDATE: Mentat points out in the comments that it's not as bad as all that, with an adjusted Google search. Still, the first, more biased story is being featured much more prominently. Look around.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — Salim Ahmed Hamdan says he earned a pittance for his family as Osama bin Laden's driver prior to the Sept. 11 attack. But U.S. officials allege he did more, serving as the al-Qaida leader's bodyguard and delivering weapons to his operatives.
Poor, poor Mr. Hamden, & note US officials "allege" he did more than driving Bin Laden. What has happened to journalists today? Considering the majority want Kerry (& hate Bush) to win, no matter what, what's truth got to do with it?
Too, sanity has been removed from the public square. There came a point, perhaps after The Watergate era, when journalism studies skyrocketed in college study. Be a journalist & change the world. Well, yes they seem to want to sway public opinion, but truth has left the building. Without TRUTH (& Kerry wants Bush to quash the swiftboat ads, and won't release his military records?)--well if we go along this path, we can kiss democracy and a republic of the people, for the people, goodbye.
Don't tread on me.
Agreed DoP. We need 4 more years of Bush, which will also give us a better chance of taking back the Supreme Court.
daughter of patriots,
Hamdan,kill him first, then put him on trial.
John Kerry is a "phony" war hero and yellow coward.He was unfit for command then and certianly is now.His "alleged" war injuries were self inflicted.
Visit Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has been formed to counter the false "war crimes" charges John Kerry repeatedly made against Vietnam veterans who served in our units and elsewhere, and to accurately portray Kerry's brief tour in Vietnam as a junior grade Lieutenant. We speak from personal experience -- our group includes men who served beside Kerry in combat as well as his commanders. Though we come from different backgrounds and hold varying political opinions, we agree on one thing: John Kerry misrepresented his record and ours in Vietnam and therefore exhibits serious flaws in character and lacks the potential to lead".
John Kerry gamed the system to win decorations and and then later betrayed his comrades by charging war crimes.
Here is a typical quote from Bob Hildreth who commanded an accompanying boat: "I would never want Kerry behind me. I wouldn't want him in front of me, either. And I sure wouldn't want him commanding our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan."
On May 4,2004 200 "Swiftees" signed a letter demanding Kerry release all records of his military service.
We are still waiting ...
Close textual analysis may have disappeared from most departments of literature, where it is so much easier for those teacher-careerists essentially not much interested in words to focus the attention of their long-suffering students on the ethnic, religious, and sexual backgrounds of the authors rather than to examine mere words.
Some students may accidentally stumble across a real critic, Empson or C. S. Lewis, or Donald Davie or Wimsatt or Brooks or Randall Jarrell, or Ricks in a more subdued, less zimmermanesque mode, and come to realize what they are missing, and may actually leave college more interested in books than when they entered (it happens, but very rarely). So it is pleasing to see that such textual analysis has received a new and necessary home in the analysis of political and journalistic idiocy, and that the words are made to bear exactly the right amount of analysis here, not too little, but not too much (that Ricks-Dylan problem alluded to above). The two lists of where each of the reports on two Guantanamo Bay prisoners appeared, noticeably unequal in length. All those American and English papers printing the version about the sweet, innnocent victim caught up by the Americans, in all their random viciousness. Why don't those papers just cut to their own chase and print a picture of hapless Mr. Hamdan and underneath a little musical score: Yo soy un hombre sincero/De donde crecen las palmas...Guantanamero, yo soy un guantanamero, and so on and so forth.
Professors at schools of journalism -- kindly distribute to your class the two different reports on Hamdan and al Qosi. Have the class analyze them, perhaps with the guidance provided by the first part of Mr. Spencer's analysis above. Please point out to those students that the analysis required both acuity and a certain stamina, and a kind of politico-literary-moral sense that is lacking in most journalists today. Then tell the students the list of places where each story appeared. And then assign a paper for them to write. Ask them to answer the one-word question -- Why?
Mr. Spencer:
The media bias is not as bad as you indicate. If you do a google news search on part of the text within the Qosi article, such as "middle class religious family", you come up with 65 hits for this article which, although not great, is better than one.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&scoring=d&q=%22middle+class+religious+family%22&btnG=Search+News
If you do a within text search on the first article, such as on the text, "he earned a pittance", you come up with 64 hits.
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&tab=wn&scoring=d&q=%22he+earned+a+pittance%22&btnG=Search+News
Although, Mr. Spencer and I are usually singing from the same choir book (in fact I am usually more intemperate than Mr. Spencer who is usually the sweet voice of reason compared to me),the media bias does not appear to be as bad as Mr. Spencer suggests.
"This process goes against everything that we fought for in the history of the United States," said Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, Hamdan's attorney who is likely to challenge the government's classification of his client as an enemy combatant. Hamdan denies supporting terrorism.
The man who he is defending, and the people he works for along with a large number of his fellow cult members, go against everything the Americans have fought for in the history of the United States.
Understand that Human Rights laws only apply when dealing with actual humans.What defence do american,british and other allies get when taken hostage by the same terrorists this annoying mollusc is standing up for? None! So why should the murdering scum be treated any more fairly, okay I understand that we want to be seen as "better than that", by the rest of the world, but at the end of the day, does anyone other than these liberal dicks (most of whom have only fake morals) care how we treat our POWs, especially ones who are not even military fighters, but instead organized terrorist criminals.
The process for trying these wads of pulpified trash, is already lengthy enough, and far more just than any their native countries have.
Toughen up, for gods sake, you are making us look so pathetically weak.
Saw the John Kerry scandal that SOI mentioned, on last nights news, and think it's fair to say that he has well and truely flushed his ticket to the white house down the shitter.
His fries have been pissed on.
"Saw the John Kerry scandal that SOI mentioned, on last nights news, and think it's fair to say that he has well and truely flushed his ticket to the white house down the shitter".
Looks like Kj and the rest of the liberal faggets will be whining and crying on November 3rd when there man "Kerry" loses.
Paul Krugman's already whining that the results of this year's elections cannot be trusted. His solution? Intensive exit polling.
The problem with his half-baked solution is that it runs contrary to our principles regarding secret balloting - some people are not going to submit to exit polling, and why should they?
Throw these two onto the stack...
A bit off topic, but I want to share with somebody.
The BBC of late has been employing what I would call 'photo shifting' (exhanging photos) on major Mid-East stories, most recently the Najaf fighting and Abu Ghraib trails (but others as well, almost anything having to do with Israel). What's wrong with that?
Well, some of the photos obviously encourage vicious anti-Americanism (Abu Ghraib: the man in the black hood who looks like he is hanging by his neck...what does that really have to do with trails of American soldiers?) or mahujedin (always called 'militants' or 'fighters' or something neutral) with 50 caliber machine guns, defiant expressions, action...defending the 'Holy Shrine' against the American invaders. And then there are the headlines that use active verbs of positive connotation for so-called 'defenders' and negative ones for 'aggressors'...'holding out', 'fight on' as opposed to 'pound', 'tighten the noose' etc.
(I get the impression that those who wish to project anti-Americanism at the BBC think their readers have attention spams required for headlines and photos and that's it)
But the BBC is tricky. The photos most telling of their bias will disappear (an American tank facing a child), and other less provocative photos will slip in for a time (Najaf 'fighters' relaxing with their guns). And then, poof, they're back again.
Is this a strategy to disguise what is most obviously biased and inflammatory in BBC reporting? If it is then the problem at the BBC is not simply one of overt bias, but conscious manipulation of pictures and stories headlines (and other things as well, of course) to protect that bias from criticism, Think about it. That is pretty sinister.
And British taxpayers subsidize this?
I still can't get over it.
Why doesn't the BBC present the list of 'things unclean on Sistani's web site...that philosophical, quiet, nonviolent religious icon, who is the true leader of the holy shine...
Dogs, feces and kaffar (nonbeliever) are among those things 'unclean'. That means that every Brit who walks his dog with a pooper scooper in hand is cursed by Allah...from the 'Islamic philosopher's' own mouth.
But, of course, Al-Sadr is the violent radical and if only Sistani could control the situation...then there would be peace at the 'Holy Shrine'.
It will seem to be almost impossible to have the media not cover both trials by the this military commission.
It will be interesting to monitor the coverage during the trial and see which one of these two al-Qaida operatives gets the bulk of the coverage; I.E. Slant, Etc.
Boo-friggin'-hoo. Shoot them both.
JTF, you hit the nail on the head. The Soviets were kings at that kind of propoganda, and the liberals are their heirs.
~NMJ
The art of government propaganda is practiced today under the rubric of "public diplomacy", a term in diplomatic-speak that implies the direct relationship between a state and citizens (usually of a different state).
The House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations (Committee on Government Reform), held an oversight hearing yesterday titled, “The 9/11 Commission Recommendations on Public Diplomacy: Defending Ideals and Defining the Message.”
Chairman Christopher Shays (R-CT) courageously declared that the public diplomacy crisis is rooted in the clash of the Islamic ideology with the ideology of the West. He cut through the usual "Islam is a religion" bullsh*t. While the subcommittee members generally praised the commissioners for naming the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks as "Islamic terrorists", the two 9/11 commissioners who testified, Gov. Thomas Kean (commission chairman) and Jamie Gorelick, were dressed down by Congressman Shays for not sufficiently driving the message home.
The public dialogue that the free press represents is essential to the functioning of any democracy. Even with heavily biased private media empires, the truth will eventually emerge. In the meantime, the ultimate public discourse in the United States takes place in the legislative bodies at all levels of government, culminating in the dialogue such as that which the above subcommittee hearing represents, in Congress.
As Congressman Shay's remarks on the record yesterday demonstrate, the essential truth of the nature of the epic ideological clash that we now reluctantly witness, is slowly bubbling up to the collective consciousness of the American people. Yamamoto's mythic giant does indeed appear to being stirring and he is most assuredly filled with a terrible resolve.
Considering the Brits are some of the world's greatest dog lovers, this incompatibility may be the match that starts another civil war in England proper. With the moslems pushing more and more for special treatment and passes for obeying the laws of the land, when will the whinging begin about dogs?
First it will be made impossible for the natural brit to take his/her dog for a walk in a public place near any moslem quarters. Then it will expand until dog owners will only be able to keep a dog indoors or in the back garden as long as the neighbours cannot view, smell or hear the dog when outside.
I imagine by then the degree of frustration will have reached the levels of unsaturation.
I can't wait to see this. :)
Without TRUTH (& Kerry wants Bush to quash the swiftboat ads, and won't release his military records?)--well if we go along this path, we can kiss democracy and a republic of the people, for the people, goodbye.
Don't tread on me.
Posted by: daughter of patriots at August 24, 2004 07:48 AM
Yea kerry and his friends are for book burning WOW! is this not what the USA has been Fighting fr Years??
What a bunch of whinny babys? Can't even handel a few adds and they want him to handel the war we are in I think not!!!
I'm still waiting for the Trial of the guy [muslum] who through in the granade into the TENT and killed his fellow Americans? Why are the press not calling for his blood I am!!!
The people in getmo were caught on the battle field trying to kill Us and other mulsums? why did they give up? should they not be dead then we would not going this with the stupid UCLA
The American people will not put up with to much more!!!
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/8/23/163727.shtml
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Monday, Aug. 23, 2004
N.Y. Daily News Unearths 'Stunning' Democrat Vote Fraud
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - About 46,000 people, most of them Democrats, are illegally registered to vote in New York City and in Florida, the liberal New York Daily News reported today.
"The finding is even more stunning given the pivotal role Florida played in the 2000 presidential election, when a margin there of 537 votes tipped a victory to George W. Bush."
And the investigation doesn't include other states or even the suburbs of New York.
The pro-Kerry paper said that efforts to prevent such fraud "rely mostly on the honor system." That's a serious flaw when people who have no honor are involved.
Sixty-eight percent of those registered to vote in both states are Democrats. Sixteen percent did not list a party, and only 12 percent are Republicans.
The paper determined that 400 to 1,000 New Yorkers had voted twice in at least one election, "a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine."
A possible solution: a national voter registration system with federally assigned ID numbers. Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington, told the paper: "I don't think the country is ready for that. It may well be that a few hundred people spilling over and voting twice may be an inevitable friction within the system."
Even if it results in a repeat of the stolen presidential election of 1960?
Part of the American Tribe
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and All who Fight with her give them Strength,Wisdom and Courage to stay the course to Victory Amen
Is Hamdan's lawyer suggesting this guy be let off
because Osama DIDN'T PAY HIM MUCH!! What's that got to do with Hamdan being an Al Quaeda supporter??It is well known Osama prefers Yemenis
and trusts them more than other Arabs : also would
a man as fanatically Muslim as Osama employ anyone
who wasn't... Of course not. This Jihadist Hamdan knew EXACTLY what he was doing and should be given the full penalty.
As for the Sudanese, too bad he isn't getting the
same media exposure but he might if Court decides
to execute him... Send them both to their Satanic
Rock God.
JTF on the BBCs bias coverage in Iraq:
And British taxpayers subsidize this?
JTF,
I totally agree with you, I usually stick with C4 news as it is far more accurate , doesn't try to sway viewers opinions and argues both sides in interviews while leaving its reports as neutral as possible (it's also an independant TV network, commercials pay for it).
As for subsidizing the BBC (hawk!!!spit!!!),NOT ME!!! I absolutely,positively,imperitively and categorically refuse to pay for my TV licence (the BBC is the only channel funded by licence fees, the rest are independant), I'd rather go to jail (it won't be the first time).
Heard this one folks:
Q: Whats the difference between the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and John Kerry's BS?
A: John kerry was lucky his reputation is the only thing that got stained.
Q:Know why Kerry's so liberal?
A: In 'Nam,a piece of shrapnel got lodged in theRight side of his brain.