Tag Archives: Amnesty International

The Big Shill

Hey kids, The New York Times has published an eleven-page article by David Barstow that is absolutely fascinating, and I suggest you read the whole thing. Here are snippets:

In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.


Original DVD cover.
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Filed under 9/11, ABC News, Alberto Gonzales, Chimpy, Chris Matthews, CNN, Defense Department, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Fox News, George W. Bush, Guantanamo, humor, Iraq War, Justice Department, Lockheed Martin, Media, movies, parody, Pentagon, politics, September 11, snark, State Department, Stephen Hadley, United Nations, Wolf Blitzer, Wordpress Political Blogs

St. Louis Says Phooey!

From Student Life:

Dressed in orange jumpsuits, bearing signs and chanting anti-Gonzales slogans, more than 100 Washington University students and members of the St. Louis community protested former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ speech on Tuesday night.


Original DVD cover.
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Filed under Alberto Gonzales, Chimpy, Congress, Democrats, Geneva Conventions, George W. Bush, Guantanamo, humor, Media, movies, parody, politics, Republicans, snark, Torture, waterboarding, Wordpress Political Blogs