Nathaniel
Last week, we asked if American television networks were going to cover the story that the Pentagon coordinated pro-government statements in secret meetings with the news networks' on-air employees. In a word: No. They aren't going to cover that.
Politico: 'Deafening' silence on analyst story
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Thursday, May 8, 2008
USA: Pentagon Who?
Monday, May 5, 2008
Kenya: Linking Violence & Corruption
An analysis of recent political violence in Kenya posits that corruption and failures of the democratic process, not ethnicity, are driving the conflict. While few readers here will be shocked by this conclusion, the authors do a fine job of assembling the supporting evidence.
Authors Rachel Itwaru and Sarah J. Johnson:Indeed, though the killing has been mostly between members of different tribes, this tragedy is not simply a story of longstanding ethnic divisions. Instead, the conflict is a product of two political factors: Kenya’s historically corrupt government, and the willingness of some politicians to exploit the anger following the elections by encouraging violence.
Full analysis at the Harvard Political Review.
Global Integrity's take: Global Integrity Report: Kenya.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
USA: Military Ran Media Manipulation Campaign
Global Integrity considers press freedom to be a key driver of accountability in any country. Most Western nations offer a largely unrestricted press environment -- intimidation of journalists is almost unheard of, with some notable exceptions. However, press freedom is a necessary condition, not the whole story.
The press has to use this freedom to full effect, as watchdogs of government and corporate power. An uncritical press that parrots government talking points isn't advancing the cause of accountable government. In this area, the Western media has rather less enthusiasm than they could.
The latest drama comes in two parts.
1) A hard hitting story by the New York Times, published Sunday, exposes a coordinated effort from within the Pentagon to manipulate US television networks' and newspapers' coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, using retired military officers who frequently appear on news programs as "independent" analysts to counter growing criticism of then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
NYTimes:Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.
2) Despite the impressive legwork done by the Times, the US television networks have apparently taken a pass on this story. While coverage critical to the government may be welcome, coverage critical of the media itself is exiled to overseas and small town papers. The Times, to its credit, points out the numerous times the paper has published Pentagon-groomed material as supposedly independent op-eds. Will the cable news networks do the same?
Thursday, April 17, 2008
USA: $50M Air Force Contract Was Rigged
The Department of Defense's Inspector General has investigated a relatively small US$50 million Air Force contract, painting a vivid picture of how conflicts of interest play out at the highest levels of government.
Despite the distress of employees involved in the contracting, the weight of rank pressed the deal forward, which awarded a contract for entertainment at the Air Force's Thunderbirds air shows to retired military officers with ties to the Thunderbirds. After complaints from an opposing bidder (one of which bid to do the work at half the price), the contract was canceled, but no criminal charges were filed.
Washington Post: The report offers a searing, blow-by-blow account of how a relatively mundane Air Force contract spun out of control, highlighting serious conflicts of interest in the selection process, officers stacking the deck in favor of friends, and others influencing a system designed to eliminate such favoritism in spending taxpayer dollars.
Washington Post coverage here.
Our previous coverage of the funding struggles of the Inspectors General.
Image: (cc) Elaine Mesker-Garcia
Monday, March 10, 2008
Colombia: FARC Involved in Campaign Financing
Colombian news magazine Semana reports that rebel group FARC was deeply involved in politics in Ecuador and Venezuela, citing documents (confirmed by the AP) detailing correspondence between FARC leaders and politicians of Venezuela and Ecuador. Among the allegations: that FARC considered funding Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's 2006 campaign. Oversight and regulation of political financing in Ecuador is poor, earning a very weak rating in the latest Global Integrity Report: Ecuador.
Quoting the UPI: BOGOTA, March 10 (UPI) -- Colombian leftist rebels reportedly discussed contributing up to $100,000 to the campaign of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa.
The popular magazine Semana said documents discovered on the laptop computer of slain Colombian rebel leader Raul Reyes showed his Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, considered donating the money ahead of Correa's 2006 election, The Miami Herald reported Monday. It was not clear if any money was indeed sent to the Ecuadorian leader's campaign on behalf of FARC.
The rebel group and Reyes were at the center of a diplomatic firestorm last week when Colombian forces entered Ecuadorian territory to kill the leader and 16 other FARC members.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Timor Leste: Tears and Uncertainty
The International Herald Tribune has a recap of a traumatic week in Timor Leste, following the shooting of President José Ramos-Horta and death of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was buried today. IHT reports that emergency rule has been extended another ten days. For background on Timor Leste's political history, see our corruption timeline, part of the Global Integrity Report: Timor Leste.
While the Australian-lead security force has increased its commitment to the young nation, the soldiers can only do so much to solve what are fundamentally political problems. It is useful to remember that the rebellion of Reinado and his followers sprung from a dispute over the management of promotions and pay in the military. Armed rebel groups call to mind some fundamental ethnic or sectarian divide, but that is not the case this time. This specific conflict was sparked by failures of institutions.
The IHT reports: On Wednesday, Parliament approved Gusmão's request to extend the 48-hour state of emergency for another 10 days, under which an 8 p.m. curfew is imposed, unauthorized public gatherings are banned and the police are granted special additional powers.
Australia bolstered its 780-strong military deployment with an additional 140 troops and 70 police officers. East Timor's near neighbors, Australia and Indonesia, have justifiable concerns about the stability of the six-year-old nation. Civil war in East Timor following Portugal's abrupt de-colonization in 1975 caused a flood of refugees across the border into Indonesia and gave Indonesia the pretext to begin an invasion and a brutal 24-year occupation.
Hugh White, a former deputy secretary of the Australian Defense Department and professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, said the international military commitment increasingly looks like it has no exit strategy.
"I don't think additional troops will make much difference," he said. "In the end these are not problems that the military can solve, the problems have to be solved by political negotiation, or reconfiguration of East Timor's political structures to reflect the social realities. That process seems to be happening very slowly if at all."
Image: Manuel Faisco (cc)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Cyberwar and international law
Extortion: it's not just for oppressive governments. According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, several power utilities outside the U.S. have received extortion demands, in which online attackers (perhaps with inside help) threaten to shut down power grids via internet-based attacks. Some attacks have been carried out, the CIA says, darkening entire regions. Information Week has the story.
Legal scholar Duncan Hollis addresses the legal implications of cross-border cybercrime, and the larger question of international conflicts played out via software, like the nationwide attack on Estonian computer networks last year. "War has entered the Information Age, and it's time for international law to get a needed update," he writes in the Los Angeles Times.
Via Slashdot.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War
Global Integrity co-founder Charles Lewis is not one to let untold stories slip from sight. At the moment, the popular mood has turned against the Bush administration's rush to war in Iraq. But history is slippery and subject to revision, where truth becomes a game of that's-your-opinion, and 'balance' means giving the truth equal time with carefully orchestrated lies.
Unless, of course, single-minded journalists like Lewis stake down the truth in such clear and meticulously researched language that there is no room for spin. Their result is unequivocal:
President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.Read the report at The War Card, published by The Center for Public Integrity.
We are proud to have Charles Lewis as a member of Global Integrity's advisory board.
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