I was struck this morning by the contrast to be made. Serious journalism in the US.

“The next six months in Iraq—which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there—are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time.”
(New York Times, 11/30/03)

“Well, I think that we’re going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months—probably sooner—whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we’re going to have to just let this play out.”
(MSNBC’s Hardball, 5/11/06)

Even more serious journalism in the US:

WOLF BLITZER: Because one of the things, as you know, that were said is that you had some sexually explicit Web sites that you were working on. I don’t understand what that is, but maybe you could explain that.

JEFF GANNON: Well, several years ago, before I came to Washington, I had registered various domain names for a private client. I was doing Web site development. Those sites were never hosted. There’s — nothing ever went up on them. And the client went on to do something else. - CNN, 2/10/05

Americablog: Further on down the page, on at least the early versions of the Web site (several versions over the span of a year and a half are cached online), you can see the logo for BELDesigns, Paul’s Web design business. There’s also a button that says “SEE MORE OF ME.”

This brings you to a page comprising 43 or so thumbnail-sized pictures of Jeff, in various states of undress. In one photo he’s lounging spread eagle on some pillows, fully erect. In another he’s bent over, naked, apparently checking something on his nightstand (while revealing a great set of lats), and in a third set of photos he is urinating. If you click on the thumbnail photos, you can see larger-sized versions (though not for all the photos, the archive is incomplete). If you look at the html source on this page, you will see that numerous of the photos are named “Jeff.” In several of the photos you will see Jeff wearing a distinctive silver watch with a solid black band. He likes to wear it on his left hand, slightly above the wrist joint.

Rabid Lamb in need of ethics panel:

This blog does not exist to write about or promote everything interesting or important under the sun. If you really think something important is being underaddressed by me or the world at large the tools exist for you to try to convince people that your pet thing is important. Lead, don’t whine.

Truthseeker:

This is Anna Politkovskaya’s final unfinished article for her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. It was written shortly before she was murdered last Saturday. After two wars of independence, Russian-backed forces are torturing a whole generation of young Chechens, she writes, to try to restore order in the troubled north Caucasus region
13 October 2006
Dozens of files cross my desk every day. They are copies of criminal cases against people jailed for “terrorism” or refer to people who are still being investigated. Why have I put the word “terrorism” in quotation marks here?

Because the overwhelming majority of these people have been “fitted up” as terrorists by the authorities. In 2006 the practice of “fitting up” people as terrorists has supplanted any genuine anti-terrorist struggle. And it has allowed people who are revenge-minded to have their revenge - on so-called potential terrorists.

Prosecutors and judges are not acting on behalf of the law and they are not interested in punishing the guilty. Instead, they work to political order to make the Kremlin’s nice anti-terrorist score sheet look good and cases are cooked up like blinys.

This official conveyor belt that turns out “heartfelt confessions” is great at providing the right statistics about the “battle against terrorism” in the north Caucasus (where Chechnya is).

This is what a group of mothers of convicted young Chechens wrote to me: “In essence, these correctional facilities (where terrorist suspects are held) have been turned into concentration camps for Chechen convicts. They are subjected to discrimination on an ethnic basis. The majority, or almost all of them, have been convicted on trumped-up evidence.

“Held in harsh conditions, and humiliated as human beings, they develop a hatred towards everything. An entire army (of ex-convicts) will return to us with their lives in ruins and their understanding of the world around them in ruins too…”

In all honesty, I am afraid of this hatred. I am afraid because, sooner or later, it will burst into the open. And for the young men who hate the world so much, everyone will seem like an outsider.

The practice of “fitting up” terrorists raises questions about two different ideological approaches. Are we using the law to fight lawlessness? Or are we trying to match “their” lawlessness with our own?

Recently, at Russia’s request, Ukraine handed over a certain Beslan Gadaev to Moscow. He is a Chechen and was arrested at the start of August in Crimea during a document check.

He was living there as a forced resettler. Here are some excerpts from the letter he sent me on 29 August: “After being extradited from Ukraine to Grozny (the Chechen capital) I was taken to a police station and asked whether I had killed members of Anzor Salikhov’s family as well as family members of Anzor’s friend. I swore I had killed nobody and not spilt any blood, neither Russian nor Chechen. The policemen said with certainty: “No you are a killer.” I again denied it.

“They began to beat me. At first, they punched me twice in the area of my right eye. While I was coming to, they tied me up and handcuffed me to a metal bar lodged behind my knees so I couldn’t move my hands, though I was in handcuffs anyway. Then they took me, or rather they took the metal bar jammed behind my legs, and suspended me between two stools at a height of about one metre. As soon as they had me suspended, they attached wires to my little fingers. They began to administer electric shocks while they beat me with rubber truncheons wherever they could.

“I don’t remember how long it lasted but I started to lose consciousness due to the pain. Seeing this, they asked me whether I was ready to talk. I replied that I would talk but I didn’t know what about. I spoke to spare myself from torture, even for a little while. They took me down, removed the metal bar, and flung me to the floor. They said ’talk’.

“I said I had nothing to say. They responded by hitting me with the metal bar in the area of my right eye where they had already struck me. Then they hung me up again, the same as before, and repeated the same process. I don’t remember how long this lasted … they repeatedly poured water on me.

“Around lunchtime, a policeman in civilian clothing came up to me and told me some journalists had come to see me and that I had to confess to three murders and a robbery.

“He said that if I didn’t agree they would repeat everything (the torture) and would break me by sexually assaulting me in some way. I agreed to comply and gave an interview to the journalists and they (the police) forced me to testify that the injuries I had received from them had been sustained in the course of an escape attempt…”

Zaur Zakriev, a lawyer defending Beslan Gadaev, informed Memorial (a human rights organisation) that his client had suffered physical and psychological violence on the premises of the Grozny police force.

In the medical ward of prison number one in Grozny where Gadaev is laid up, charged with “banditry”, a document details his many wounds. His lawyer, Zakriev, has forwarded these complaints to the prosecutor of the Chechen Republic.

The text breaks off here with the article unfinished. Politkovskaya’s newspaper, ’Novaya Gazeta’, has promised to investigate the issues raised in the piece