Salam Pax found

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The UK paper The Guardian has found Salam Pax, of the Where is Raed? weblog — and while they’re still keeping his identity secret, he will be writing for the Guardian starting next week.

No one in Baghdad knew who he was or the risks he was taking. Apart from a select group of trusted friends, they still don’t. The telephones and the internet haven’t worked here since the collapse of the regime, so the Iraqis never had a chance to read the diaries of the Baghdad Blogger. Outside the country, many didn’t even believe that the man who wrote only under the sobriquet Salam Pax truly existed. It was the great irony of the war. While the world’s leading newspapers and television networks poured millions of pounds into their coverage of the war in Iraq, it was the internet musings of a witty young Iraqi living in a two-storey house in a Baghdad suburb that scooped them all to deliver the most compelling description of life during the war.

(via MeFi)

Hoisted by their own petard

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I linked to this yesterday, but seeing as how permission has been granted to reprint and republish, I thought this was well worth making a full post of its own.

What a tangled web we weave…

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

— Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002: Speech to VFW National Convention

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.

— George W. Bush, September 12, 2002: Speech to UN General Assembly

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.

— Ari Fleischer, December 2, 2002: Press Briefing

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.

— Ari Fleischer, January 9, 2003: Press Briefing

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.

— George W. Bush, January 28, 2003: State of the Union Address

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.

— Colin Powell, February 5, 2003: Remarks to UN Security Council

We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons — the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.

— George W. Bush, February 8, 2003: Radio Address

So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? … I think our judgment has to be clearly not.

— Colin Powell, March 7, 2003: Remarks to UN Security Council

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

— George W. Bush, March 17, 2003: Address to the Nation

Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly…all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.

— Ari Fleisher, March 21, 2003: Press Briefing

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And…as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.

— Gen. Tommy Franks, March 22, 2003: Press Conference

I have no doubt we’re going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.

— Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman, March 23, 2003: Washington Post, p. A27

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.

— Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark, March 22, 2003: Press Briefing

We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

— Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003: ABC Interview

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find — and there will be plenty.

— Neocon scholar Robert Kagan, April 9, 2003: Washington Post op-ed

I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.

— Ari Fleischer, April 10, 2003: Press Briefing

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.

— George W. Bush, April 24, 2003: NBC Interview

There are people who in large measure have information that we need…so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.

— Donald Rumsfeld, April 25, 2003: Press Briefing

We’ll find them. It’ll be a matter of time to do so.

— George W. Bush, May 3, 2003: Remarks to Reporters

I’m absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We’re just getting it just now.

— Colin Powell, May 4, 2003: Remarks to Reporters

We never believed that we’d just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.

— Donald Rumsfeld, May 4, 2003: Fox News Interview

I’m not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein — because he had a weapons program.

— George W. Bush, May 6, 2003: Remarks to Reporters

U.S. officials never expected that “we were going to open garages and find” weapons of mass destruction.

— Condoleeza Rice, May 12, 2003: Reuters Interview

I just don’t know whether it was all destroyed years ago — I mean, there’s no question that there were chemical weapons years ago — whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they’re still hidden.

— Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne, May 13, 2003: Press Briefing

Before the war, there’s no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.

— Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps, May 21, 2003: Interview with Reporters

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we’re interrogating, I’m confident that we’re going to find weapons of mass destruction.

— Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, May 26, 2003: NBC Today Show interview

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don’t know the answer.

— Donald Rumsfeld, May 27, 2003: Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations

For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.

— Paul Wolfowitz, May 28, 2003: Vanity Fair interview

Originally compiled by billmon.

US Secret Biological Experimentation

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Feeling all safe and secure because you live in the U.S., instead of nasty places like Iraq where the country’s own citizens aren’t safe from their leaders lobbing nasty chemicals at them? Nice, isn’t it?

You probably shouldn’t read this, then.

1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.

1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word “experiments” to “investigations” or “observations” whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation’s veteran’s hospitals.

1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.

1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.

1970 United States intensifies its development of “ethnic weapons” (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.

1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government’s current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.

1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psychochemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War.

And that’s just grabbing one entry for each decade.

(via Morbus Iff)

Stop George!

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Stop George!

Stop George!

Less than half the eligible population voted in 2000, less than half of those who voted, voted for George. Do the math: less than 25% of America supported George! The majority of Americans consider themselves independent, if they vote, they vote for the candidate that appeals to them the most, not a candidate from a specific party, and let’s be frank, a lot of people vote for who they think will win, everyone loves a winner. Independent voters will choose the president in 2004. If they believe that George is the best man for the job and no one tells them any differently, he will win. However, if enough people see that it’s OK to disagree with George and are given reasons to disagree with George, the momentum will shift away from George. Have you ever been in a crowd of people you disagree with? You instinctively keep your opinions to yourself, afraid to create conflict. But if you are in a group of like-minded friends and encounter another group that has differing views, you are more likely to speak up and voice your dissent. We need to show Americans who are afraid to speak out against George that there are others like them and it’s OK to speak out. We need to show Americans who don’t even know that they have a reason to disagree with George that they do have a reason. And we need to encourage those who have not voted in the past that in 2004, their vote will make a difference. Remember, the last George was considered unbeatable less than a year before his defeat.

(via Kaliliy)

Fact-checking Reuters re: iTunes

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There’s an article from the Reuters news service covering the iTunes ruckus that has some rather surprising errors in it, not to mention being amazingly clumsily written. And, since I can’t leave well enough alone…

Earlier this week, Apple released an update to its iTunes music software for its Macintosh computers, which allows subscribers to download songs for 99 cents each.

Minor nitpick: iTunes does a whole lot more than that.

One feature of iTunes, called Rendezvous music sharing, allows users to share downloaded songs between three Macintosh computers and also allows users to share songs copied from CDs to be shared over the Internet.

Minor nitpick: Rendevouz is a system-level networking technology that allows computers to auto-sense their network environment, configure themselves, and automatically discover available services. iTunes takes advantage of Rendevouz, but is not tied to it.

The update eliminates users’ ability to swap songs copied from CDs, but doesn’t disable the Rendezvous feature, itself.

Minor nitpick: See above, regarding Rendevouz.

Minor nitpick: Songs ripped from a private CD library were available for streaming before the update, and still are (just not over the ‘net at large). They were never officially open for swapping.

The new service has been a hit, with more than three million songs downloaded since the service was released a month ago, according to Apple.

Bad writing: The facts in this paragraph are about the iTunes Music Store. However, with its placement in the story and unclear subject (“The service…” — iTunes? The iTunes Music Store? The Rendevouz-based streaming?), it seems to say that over three million songs have been illegally downloaded over the Rendevouz streaming feature.

Subscribers to the iTunes service, who paid \$10 to join…

Major error: I haven’t got a clue what this might be referring to. Neither iTunes nor any of its features require a \$10 fee of any sort. iTunes is free, all of its features are built-in, and the only charges from the iTunes Music Store are those accrued when purchasing music.

…started receiving notices on their computers from Monday urging them to update their iTunes software. While the upgrade is not mandatory, it shows up on a daily basis, forcing users to reject it until it is downloaded.

Error: I’ve been using iTunes for years, and have purchased a few tracks from the iTunes Music Store, and yet I never got any notice from Apple urging me to do anything. What this probably refers to is the Software Update feature of Mac OS X, which is simply an automated agent that checks Apple’s servers at a regular user-specified schedule to see if there are any available software updates.

If someone had their Software Update scheduled to check in with Apple daily, then they could conceivably get a daily alert about the iTunes update — but then, they’d get a daily alert about any software update that was available and uninstalled. If you choose not to install an update, and don’t want to be notified every time that Software Update runs, you can simply select it and disable any further alerts for that particular upgrade. Nothing is forced or urged upon the customer.

Normally I don’t have much problem with the stories I see on Reuters — but then, I’m not nearly as well-versed in many of the subjects I read from them. If the rest of their news reporting is as solid as this story was, I should just stop paying attention.