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Jefferson Review |
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"Your Liberty is Our Interest" |
May 17, 2004 | |
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Reason's Weekly Dispatch May 11, 2004
1. Rummy's Red Cross Alert 1. Rummy's Red Cross Alert Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld's largely winning performance before Congress last week turned on the argument that the Iraqi prisoner abuses, while heinous, were nevertheless uncovered by the military itself and dealt with swiftly as an aberration. However, the disclosure of a Red Cross report on prisoner abuse -- one that reflects complaints made to Coalition officials as far back as March 2003 -- throws Rumsfeld's timeline into question. The Red Cross report also makes the claim that, far from an isolated case of a few overzealous MPs, at least some rough treatment of prisoners was part of an interrogation plan intended to gain intelligence from detainees. Furthermore, the Red Cross criticizes the whole prisoner-handling process as lacking any sure way for Iraqis to know what happened to individuals once they have been taken into custody. Whether intentional or not, such "disappearing" of detainees is a police-state tactic common to the various thugocracies the Red Cross has monitored over the years. The White House seems to think the chief issue is the existence of yet more photos of abuse and is desperately trying to get everything out on the table at once so as to avoid a shock-of-the-day situation that might continue for weeks. But documentation of the Red Cross' repeated complaints about prisoner treatment -- for months prior to any change in policy -- appears to be a far more serious issue. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aTHnnliZZypo&refer=top_world_news 2. Bloody Chechen Trouble Russia's bid to bring order to Chechnya has been shattered by the assassination of Vladimir Putin's hand-picked Chechen strongman, President Akhmad Kadyrov. Putin may now try to turn to Kadyrov's son Ramzan, but the Russian plan to create a leader Moscow can trust is back on square one. There is also the question of how Ramzan can, in effect, be promoted after bungling the job of providing security for his father. Aside from the bomb that exploded, two more that failed to detonate were later discovered. If all the bombs had worked, the death toll might have been in the hundreds. Putin is already promising "retribution" against those responsible for the attack, by which he means the Chechen rebels. But he will also have to find a way to restrain those Kadyrov's supporters who might attempt a little retribution of their own. Unless, of course, this was an inside job. hhttp://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5092130 3. Text and Message Extra Will cell phones destroy newspapers? Some newspaper execs seem to think so. Text messaging on cells and other devices is so cheap and easy that it is becoming its own medium. Despite the fears of news types, however, text messaging would seem to be far too narrow a band to displace print or TV. Although it is no doubt true that, as one Spanish newspaper exec has claimed, text messaging helped spread the news of the Madrid bombings throughout Spain, the important thing to consider is what happened next. Did the text messages supply all the info that people needed, or did people seek out more detailed news sources? Like music executives who assume that every copied song equals one lost sale, some news-biz types seem to regard the information they trade in as remarkably easy to displace. Indeed, what seems to bother them most about ad hoc cell info networks is that there is nobody in control. That is both a strength and a weakness of text-messaging, and is not exactly a secret to people who use their cells to spread rumors back and forth. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1588643,00.asp 4. Quick Hits Quote of the Week "We're getting less security and it's costing us more." -- House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) on the persistent delays in granting security clearances that have put 188,000 Defense contractors in limbo. http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0504/050604d1.htm
Militia Mangle U.S. commanders in Iraq are pressing ahead with a plan to destroy Moqtada al-Sadr's militia with an attack on his headquarters in Sadr City. At the same time Coalition forces seem to be slowly tightening their grip around Najaf. http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aC1ZtjEMjD7A&refer=us Music Disconnect The verdict is in on Sony's new music service and it isn't good. In fact, it boggles the mind that a company like Sony, with fingers in both consumer electronics and mass media, could build such a frustrating mess. The Big One One 9/11 commission member promises a report the likes of which has not been seen in the history of America. 5. New at Reason Online Sluts for Jesus 6. The Print Edition Get your personal copy of the latest issue of Reason's print edition each month -- before it hits the newsstands and before it's posted on the Web! Subscribe Today! 7. News and Events Buy Reason T-shirts and coffee mugs! Click here for the latest on media appearances by Reason writers. Want even more Reason? Sign up for Reason Alert to get regular news from Reason Magazine and Reason Public Policy Instiute, as well as advance notice about media appearances and events. We encourage you to forward Reason Express. If you received this issue from a forward, please subscribe. It's Free! ---
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