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whomod said:
I'm half expecting for Rumsfeld to ban all video recording equipment and anyone who is in possesion of a camera will be deemed a "terrorist". Can't spin a lie if inconveniences like proof surface only a few days later.





I'm like fucking Nostradomus!

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Mobile phones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Britain's The Business newspaper reported yeterday.

Quoting a Pentagon source, the paper said the US Defence Department believes that some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.

"Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq," it said, adding that a "total ban throughout the US military" is in the works.

Disturbing new photos of Iraqi prisoner abuse, which the US government had reportedly tried to keep hidden, were published in Friday's Washington Post newspaper.

The photos emerged along with details of testimony from inmates at Abu Ghraib who said they were sexually molested by female soldiers, beaten, sodomised and forced to eat food from toilets.

AFP



...Or are these guys just incredibly predictable... You decide. And truly, I was just joking. I was actually expecting Dave or someone to call that bit "liberal paranoia".


There's an Iranian spy in the house. Right behind the 1st lady even!!! Quick call the secret service!!!! How did he get there???!!!!
A few more fables and his work is done. I guess the Iran/Iraq war is now officially over, eh?

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On the front page of this weekend's edition of the Tablet, England's oldest Catholic newspaper, there is this: "The American President, George W. Bush, will be asked by the Pope at their Vatican meeting on 4 June to stop basing his policies in the Middle East on the use of force, a leading curial cardinal said this week." According to Cardinal Pio Laghi, former papal nuncio to the U.S. and a frequent messenger between the Vatican and the White House, the pontiff wants a multilateral peacekeeping force in Iraq, "one that is not under those who organized the war."

According to the cardinal, the pope intends to remind Bush that "the end never justifies the means, respect for life must always be honored and that struggle against terrorism does not justify giving up the principles of the state of law."

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that in the forthcoming issue of Inside the Vatican magazine, Cardinal James Francis Stafford, a senior American prelate serving in the Roman curia, will denounce the torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers and intelligence agents. "Is this what American democracy is producing? Men and women who, just below the surface, are barbarians?" asks Stafford, who enjoys a close relationship with the pope.



Them catholics and the Pope just turned "liberal".

and finally. Just for the shits and giggles. If you don't wanna take the time to read the whole thing, here's the punchline:

"The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, argued that the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves."


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Quote:

** FLORIDA COURT RULING SAYS MEDIA CAN LEGALLY LIE **

On February 14, a Florida Appeals Court ruled that there is absolutely nothing illegal in a major media organisation lying, concealing or distorting information. The court reversed the US$425,000 jury verdict of 2000 that was in favour of journalist Jane Akre, who charged she was pressured by Fox Television management and lawyers to air what she knew and documented to be false information.

On August 18, 2000, a six person jury was unanimous in its conclusion that Akre was indeed fired for threatening to report the station's pressure to broadcast what jurors decided was "a false, distorted or slanted" story about the widespread use of Monsanto's rBGH, a genetically engineered growth hormone given to dairy cows. The court did not dispute the heart of Akre's claim, that Fox pressured her to broadcast a false story to protect the broadcaster from having to defend the truth in court as well as suffer the ire of irate advertisers.

Fox argued from the first, and failed on three separate occasions, in front of three different judges, to have the case tossed out on the grounds there there is no hard, fast and written rule against deliberate distortion of the news. The attorneys for Fox, owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, argued that the First Amendment gives broadcasters the right to lie or deliberately distort news reports on the public airwaves.

The Court of Appeals, in its six page written decision, held that the Federal Communications Commission's position against news distortion is only a "policy", not a promulgated law, rule or regulation.

Fox aired a report after the ruling was handed down, saying that it was "totally vindicated" by the verdict.




Last edited by whomod; 2004-05-25 9:28 AM.