:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 4.25.2003 ::
:: War ::
From The Guardian UK:
Powell defends attack on Baghdad hotel
American secretary of state Colin Powell has written to Spain's foreign minister defending the decision by US troops to open fire on a hotel in Baghdad used as a base for foreign journalists.
Two journalists were killed, including a Spanish cameraman, and a further four injured when a US tank shelled the Palestine Hotel on April 8, provoking widespread criticism from press watchdogs and politicians.
"Our review of the April 8 incident indicates that the use of force was justified and the amount of force was proportionate to the threat against United States forces," Mr Powell wrote in a letter to Ana Palacio dated April 21.
ALSO:
Keep out of town hall, Kut tells US troops
Self-appointed Shia ruler issues decrees from barricaded building
US accuses Iran of stirring up protests
America's interim administrator admits that the strength of opposition by Shias was not expected
Goodbye to Baghdad
Reporter Suzanne Goldenberg files her last report.
On the elegant corniche that lines the west bank of Baghdad, a mansion that belonged to one of Saddam's bodyguards has been transformed into a search service for the disappeared. Volunteers from the Freed Prisoners Association - an offshoot of Islamist Shia forces - are going through files carted off from intelligence buildings, and putting up lists of the dead, laying them to rest at last, years after they disappeared into Iraq's prisons.
"After suffering for 35 years most of the people now want to punish the people who caused them pain," said Ahmed Hassan Mohammed al-Dujaili. Seven of his brothers were killed by the regime after they were arrested in 1982 for having Islamist tendencies. He was spared because he was then only 14.
"The new government will have to be smart to keep a balance between handing out punishments for the past, and building our future." He said he was happy and scared all the same. "Everything is vague now," he said. "Things must take shape."
posted by me
:: 10:16:00 AM [+] ::
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