They were talking about this as the "videoconference scandal" on CNN a
bit ago. "
Maybe people will start to believe what we've known for years.. bush
and his cohorts are lying sacks of shit. I guess it's safe to say that the Bush Admin has jumped the shark now. Was today's presidential videoconference with some soldiers in Iraq staged and scripted? Let's find out! Here's the White House version:
QUESTION: How were they selected, and are their comments to the president pre-screened, any questions or anything...
It
was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions
President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were
choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's
vote on a new Iraqi constitution.
"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant
defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived.
....A brief rehearsal ensued. "OK, so let's just walk through this,"
Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you
hand the mike to whom?"
"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.
...."If the question comes up about partnering — how often do we
train with the Iraqi military — who does he go to?" Barber asked.
"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.
"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in
Tikrit — the hometown — and how they're handling the political process,
who are we going to give that to?" she asked.
[....]
SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Good morning, Mr. President. I'm Master Sergeant
Corine Lombardo, with the Headquarters 42nd Infantry Division and Task
Force Liberty, from Scotia, New York. First, I'd like to say that this is
a pleasure to speak with you again. We had the honor of your visit in New
York City on November 11th, in 2001, when you recognized our Rainbow
Soldiers for their recovery and rescue efforts at Ground Zero.
THE PRESIDENT:Were you there?
SERGEANT LOMBARDO: We began our fight against terrorism in the wake of
9/11, and we're proud to continue it here in North-Central New York --
North-Central Iraq.
THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you something. Were you there when I came to
New York?
SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Yes, I was, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT:I thought you looked familiar.
SERGEANT LOMBARDO: Well, thank you.
THE PRESIDENT:I probably look familiar to you, too.
More here
about drilling the troops to make sure their answers were suitably
soothing for His Bubbleness. As Atrios says, it's a sad day when the
Bush administration can't even produce a photo-op competently. That's
always been the one thing they were good at.
But Atrios, theres nothing new here:
a) the toppling of Sadam's statue,
b) the "Mission Accomplished" mess on the aircraft carrier (prolonged
circling offshore, putting the president in a flight suit, and blaming
the banner on the Navy),
c) tearing down the relief station in New Orleans after one photo-op,
d) turning off the power after another New Orleans photo op,
e) halting all relief flights in New Orleans during his visit to New Orleans,
f) putting "Made in USA" labels over a bunch of boxes labelled "Made in
China" for a photo op on American manufacturing prowess
(http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0122-10.htm)
This stuff is endless. The benefits to the
mainstream media of making a noise about this crap has finally exceeded
the benefits of not making a noise about it.
Now if they could ask the questions they wanted to ask, they'd all ask one of two questions:
During the October 11 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes,
the network suggested that former Marine Corps captain Josh Rushing may
be a "traitor" for taking a job with Qatar-based news network Aljazeera.
While co-host Alan Colmes was promoting Rushing's upcoming appearance
on the show, saying that "a former U.S. Marine captain will be here to
defend his decision to take a job at a television network that is
frequently criticized for its anti-American coverage," a picture of
Rushing appeared on the screen, with text below it asking, "TRAITOR?"
Josh Rushing, former Marine captain and an accidental star of the movie Control Room made news of his own last week when he signed on to become the American face of
the controversial Arab news network Al Jazeera-International. Top U.S. officials,
including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, have repeatedly complained
that Al Jazeera's coverage is unfair or untrue. Yesterday, Rushing sat down with TIME for his first interview on why he
took the job and what the new network will cover.
The 33-year old Rushing came to fame in Control Room,
a movie critical
of media coverage of the Iraq war as a military public affairs officer
who
increasingly questions how the war was being portrayed by the Pentagon.
In the movie, Rushing is articulate and passionate in defending the
troops and never directly criticizes the war. And his honesty draws
viewers to his side—he describes his different reactions to seeing on
Al Jazeera images of Iraqi casualties one
evening and dead U.S. soldiers the next. "It upset me on a profound
level that I wasn't bothered as much the night before," Rushing
explains at one point in the movie. "It makes me hate war. But it
doesn't make me believe we can live in a world without war yet." He
admits—then and now—to being troubled by
the "politicization" of the military command and what he describes as
U.S. TV
networks being "co-opted" by the Bush Administration.
One reason he wanted to leave the Marine Corps, says
Rushing, is that his superior officers had forbidden him to speak to the press. He
was torn between his loyalty to the Corps and his duty as a citizen. "I felt
like I had a platform and something to say. I thought it
would be a missed opportunity to say, take a public relations job in Houston,
which I was about to do."
The journalists at Al Jazeera-International, says Rushing, are
a
mix of nationalities and most in the Washington Bureau come from
established outlets like CNN, BBC, Britain's ITN and even Fox News.
Rushing thinks that
diversity will be part of Al Jazeera-International's appeal. "I'm an
American and proud of it. If that affects my objectivity, then so be
it," said Rushing.
Rushing will be based in Washington for Al Jazeera, which is backed by the
government of Qatar and headquartered its the capital, Doha. Al
Jazeera-International, which Rushing compares to the international versions of CNN and BBC,
plans to start broadcasting in the U.S. in the spring of 2006. Rushing will
likely do set pieces on issues, interviews and perhaps even have a 30-minute
international affairs show. The format is still being finalized, but Rushing
knows who he considers models: NBC's Tim Russert and Bob Costas, and National
Public Radio's Terry Gross. The target audience, Rushing says (while recording
our interview on his iPod) is global, English-speaking and
owns iPods— people who have turned off the TV news in favor of the Internet.
Rushing says he looked into the accusations about Al Jazeera
distorting
the news, and found nothing to stop him from joining. "I'm not
condoning
everything they do but the Arab media is a key part of national
security and how to
deal with Arab world. The network has long been the only one in the
region
with a point-counterpoint approach, where many others are
'point-point-point.' Al Jazeera, for example regularly has Israeli
spokespeople on." Rushing says the State Department and Pentagon have
both shown interest in working with the new network.
Rushing thinks part of his mission is to educate the American public on the reality of
war. "War in America has its own branding—it's the American flag, it's that Lee
Greenwood song, it's a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square. But Americans need to be aware of the consequences."
Like it or not, "Al Jazeera is the most
influential Arab voice outside of mosques. It is the largest shaper of ideology,"
says Rushing. And if American voices are not heard in that venue, then they have
no chance of having virtually any influence. "I've dedicated my adult life to
the health and security of the United States and to representing the best of
American ideas. I will maintain my credibility by continuing to do that."
Rushing may discover that being a Marine might have been the easy part.
Was today's presidential videoconference with some soldiers in Iraq staged and scripted? Let's find out! 
