Crooks and Liars:

TT. First, invent arbitrary ethical or journalistic standards which apply to no one else in the universe, and then show how bloggers violate them. Second, assume beliefs and motives of bloggers, lumping them all together, and then invent charges of hypocrisy. Third, invent arbitrary benchmarks for accomplishments which if achieved prove bloggers have superpowers, but if not achieved prove they all suck. Fourth, elevate an invented concept of “civility” as an all-important value. Fifth, the practice of “nutpicking,” attributing the comments in unmoderated comments sections to the blogger him/herself.

I’m sure there are more.

washingtonpost.com, CBSNews.com and Newsweek.com have all added comments to their news story pages in the past few months.

“We felt that it was the most honest and direct way to include our readers, add their perspectives and start conversations,” says CBSNews.com editorial director Dick Meyer. “These were all things we publicly committed to when we launched ‘Public Eye’ and we were dead serious. This is a logical extension of what we started with ‘Public Eye.’ Obviously, the internet is the only news media that can do this is a deep, consistent way. Having said all that, I have some conflicting views of our comments. I am not, and may never be, comfortable publishing hateful and insulting writing, but some comments are just that. Though we try hard to filter out obscenities, racism, personal viciousness and other blatant offense, the line blurs. Many comments have nothing to do with the story at hand. And i know the very existence of comments is off-putting to some readers; to some, they’re clutter and they just don’t care. So my ambivalence with the execution aside, it was the right thing to do.”

Basic Info about Islam:

Islam regards the original Torah of Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible), the Psalms of DAVID and the teachings of JESUS as being no less divinely revealed than the KORAN, although the Koran is believed to be God’s final, complete, unadulterated and authoritative revelation

Bloomberg for President? — New York Magazine:

‘Let’s take that 60 percent approval rating out for a spin, see what it gets us.’

His American Dream

The Bloomberg-for-president scenario starts with the mayor’s growing sense of himself as a man of destiny. Throw in the country’s disgust with the two parties, add a half-a-billion bucks, and you’ve got yourself a race.

Reuters

Mia Culpa: Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe:

Arriving in tuxedos and gowns to honor departing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld last night, members of the Union League of Philadelphia were greeted by Celeste Zappala holding a sign: “Rumsfeld Betrayed My Son. Betrayed My Country. Gets A Medal… For What!”

Standing among dozens of protesters outside the Union League building on Broad and Sansom streets, the grieving West Mount Airy mom wore a poster with a large photo of her late son and the words: “We Mourn Sgt. Sherwood Baker. Killed in Baghdad. April 26, 2004.”

“Rumsfeld is the symbol of the failed policy that has killed 2,888 American soldiers and wounded over 20,000,” Zappala said, “and they’re giving him a medal for that? This is appalling.

“If they want to give out a gold medal, give it to our soldiers who somehow made it home alive.”

When the league gave Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor its Gold Medal in 2004, the event received full press coverage.

But the league kept the Rumsfeld medal cloaked in secrecy until the Daily News broke the story on Thursday, after club member James A. Ounsworth told a reporter that he was “astonished and ashamed” because “Rumsfeld is a failure. I don’t think you should give an award for failure.”

When asked about the secrecy surrounding the Rumsfeld medal, league spokeswoman Patricia Tobin said, “It’s up to the awardee. We always try to respect the wishes of the awardee.”

Asked why the league had chosen Rumsfeld to receive the medal, Tobin said, “I’m not going to be sharing that with anyone.”

The replacement of Donald Rumsfeld has been no great victory for anyone. He’s still the ‘official’ Secretary of Defense, and won’t be leaving that position until the end of this year, with a full government pension, and all the medals he can carry home. And worst of all, no one who replaces him will be any different.

-D.

Is the FBI doing its best to combat terrorism? – Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit – MSNBC.com:

Is the FBI doing its best to combat terrorism?
Highest-ranking Arab-American agent says no, sues for discrimination
By Lisa Myers, Jim Popkin & the NBC News Investigative Unit
Updated: 7:30 p.m. ET Dec 4, 2006

WASHINGTON – Bassem Youssef is the FBI’s highest-ranking Arab-American agent. He’s fluent in Arabic, ran the FBI’s offices in Saudi Arabia and is a terrorism expert. In fact, Youssef’s undercover work helping to infiltrate the terror organization of the so-called “blind sheik,” Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman, earned him the intelligence community’s most-prestigious award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal.

But now, for the first time, Youssef is speaking out against the agency he loves.

“I don’t believe that the FBI’s doing everything it can to combat terrorism,” the 18-year FBI veteran tells NBC News.

Though he’s one of only six FBI agents with advanced Arabic skills, Youssef believes that, since 9/11, the FBI has blocked him from playing a significant role in the war on terror. He claims discrimination, and sued the FBI in 2003.

“To be totally set aside, blackballed since 9/11, makes absolutely no sense,” he says.

Beyond Youssef’s own employment claims, depositions of nearly a dozen top FBI officials in his case have exposed what critics say are serious shortcomings in the FBI’s approach to counterterrorism. The taped depositions, which have never been aired before, seem to reveal a stunning lack of knowledge about some terrorism basics.

Terrorism 101
Dale Watson, now retired, was the FBI’s top counterterrorism official before and after 9/11.

In a deposition taken on Dec. 8, 2004, Youssef’s lawyer Stephen Kohn asked Watson: “Do you know who Osama bin Laden’s spiritual leader was?”

Watson: Can’t recall.

Lawyer: And do you know the differences in the religion between Shiite and Sunni Muslims?

Watson: Not technically, no.

John Lewis was until recently the FBI’s deputy assistant director of counterterrorism. During his deposition on May 17, 2005, he was asked if he knew the difference between Shiites and Sunnis.

Lewis: You know, generally. Not very well.

Lawyer: Was there any relationship between the first World Trade Center bombing and the 9/11 attacks?

Lewis: I’m aware of no immediate relationship other than all emanates out of the Middle East, al-Qaida linkage, I believe. Not something I’ve studied recently that I’m conversant with.

Counterterrorism experts say such apparent ignorance of the enemy is alarming.

“Not knowing these basic tenets is symptomatic of a lack of deep knowledge about your principal adversary, and that is unacceptable,” says Michael Sheehan, an NBC News terrorism analyst.

Senior FBI officials argue on the tapes that it’s not necessary to have expertise in Arab culture — even in terrorism — to run the FBI’s war on terror. It’s leadership that matters most, they say.

“The subject-matter expertise is helpful, but it is not a prerequisite. That’s not what I look for,” said Gary Bald, the former executive assistant director for the National Security Branch of the FBI, in his March 14, 2005, deposition.

However, Youssef says expertise is critical in evaluating threats, recruiting informants and allocating resources.

NBC News: You’re saying the biggest problem is the FBI still doesn’t have the expertise to effectively fight the war on terror?

Youssef: Yes, I believe that is the case. If you can’t get inside the mind of the enemy, we will never succeed.

Five years after 9/11, critics say the FBI has been slow to hire agents with Arabic skills or knowledge. In fact, only 33 of the FBI’s 12,000 agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, the agency says. Until recently, new agents used to get just two hours of Arabic culture training at the FBI facility in Quantico, Va. They now receive 12 hours of instruction in Islam and the evolution of militant Islamic ideology, plus much more extensive counterterrorism training.

FBI spokesman John Miller concedes that subject-matter expertise does matter in counterterrorism.

“To have that depth of subject-matter expertise and the executive and leadership skills is certainly a plus,” Miller says.

Miller adds that while top FBI officials may not have been able to pass a lawyer’s pop quiz version of Jihad Jeopardy, the FBI has brought in and trained a new generation of agents and supervisors with years of frontline experience handling terror cases.

“To ask them to go back and pick out details from cases from years ago, or other questions that I refer to as kind of Trivial Pursuit, they have analysts working for them who have those answers cold,” Miller says. “That is not necessarily their function at the top.”

Miller adds that the FBI is working hard to increase its pool of six fluent, Arabic-speaking agents.

“It’s not enough. And it’s not for lack of trying,” he says. “But you can’t just focus on agents. We’ve tried to break down the walls between agents, analysts and language analysts. They now work as a team, and we have doubled the number of language analysts and increased by 300 percent the number of Arab speakers among them. We still need to build on those numbers, but we have vastly improved.”

Justice Department watchdog
A Justice Department watchdog recently ruled that the FBI had blocked Youssef from getting a counterterrorism job because, in part, Youssef had angered and embarrassed FBI Director Robert Mueller at a face-to-face meeting with a prominent U.S. congressman. The DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility wrote in July that Mueller and senior FBI officials were upset when Youssef complained to Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., that Youssef’s counterterrorism training and Arabic skills weren’t being used after 9/11.

The FBI says in legal filings that it never discriminated against Youssef. Miller says he can’t discuss the merits of the case because it is still in litigation. However, some FBI agents privately grumble that Youssef has an inflated sense of his own worth, and used poor judgment in taking on the FBI at the meeting with Mueller and Wolf.

Youssef says he never meant to be disloyal or to air his problems outside the family.

“I had gone through every possible channel that I could think of within the family, and nothing was done,” he says.

Youssef says he will not give up his fight.

“I think every American would do whatever they can to fight terrorism, because we will never forget 9/11,” he says. “And having worked counterterrorism for so many years and not to do it, that devastates me.”

For now, Youssef has a desk job with the FBI running a squad that analyzes links between telephone calls — a far cry from terrorism’s frontlines.

The Washington Monthly:

Dear CNN,

Jeff Greenfield is wrong:

“Most of what happened here, I think, is a demonstration of the hair-trigger instincts that have grown up among some of the bloggers (not to mention the need to fill all that space every day, or hour, or 15 minutes).”

It is the 24 hour cable news cycle that has to fill time. Bloggers can say as little or as much as they want.

And we pay attention.

When one of the smartest, potentially progressive political candidates in the country is repeatedly associated with America’s vilest enemies, it’s not a joke.

And we are paying attention. Jeff Greenfield can’t stand the idea of an intelligent, black, progressive, American President.

What if the working class were taken care of? What if we understood that our policies had an effect on the environment? What if America was a place that stood for its ideals?

The corporate news culture can’t handle this and so it assassinates anyone who doesn’t fit the mold.

We have the most corrupt administration in the history of the country, having done more harm to the processes of democracy, the environment, international relations, economic policy, scientific development, and a black man wears a suit jacket without a tie and has a name that can easily be manipulated and that is where our focus is?

Again, you and Greenfield should be ashamed of yourselves.

Spin it any way you want, but you and he know what you are doing and we are paying attention and we find it reprehensible.

TULLYCAST IT!

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