All Blog Posts from Public Eye

Today’s front page of the Washington Times definitely grabs your attention. And not in a good way.

The first thing you see? The corpses of five dead Iranian criminals, pictured from the chest down. Recently in the town of Meshad, there was a public hanging of criminals charged with rape, robbery and kidnapping. And the photo showed the five of the bodies, with police officials in the background examining the scene.

I frequently take issue with people who argue for censoring images, based on things like the “cereal test” – that being, don’t show people things too troubling to see when they’ve got a mouth full of Wheaties. Sometimes the world doesn’t pass the ‘cereal test,’ I tell them. And if there is a newsworthy reason to show something that may elicit a gasp from a viewer, than I fully support it.

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We're more than four years into the war, and the media may now be digging deeper into the brutal realities of Iraq than they ever have before. In recent weeks, reporters have been questioning whether Al Qaeda in Iraq is related to the Al Qaeda that attacked us on 9/11, as the president has implied. (The answer: Not really. Al Qaeda was not operational inside Iraq in 2001.) The media have also begun looking into the assistance that Iran is providing the Mahdi Army in Bahgdad as they fight American troops. And reporters have become more confrontational in presidential press conferences, with even Fox News folks starting to sound like Helen Thomas.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times took it to another level, asking: Who Are We Fighting? According to the blockbuster expose, very often it's an ally.

Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.

About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said …

The situation has left the U.S. military in the awkward position of battling an enemy whose top source of foreign fighters is a key ally that at best has not been able to prevent its citizens from undertaking bloody attacks in Iraq, and at worst shares complicity in sending extremists to commit attacks against U.S. forces, Iraqi civilians and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

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Johnston Ordeal Continues: The horrific ordeal involving kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston continues with the release of a video in which Johnston is outfitted with an explosive vest. "The situation now is very serious," he says in a video you can watch over at the BBC. "As you can see I have been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there was any attempt to storm this area. They say they're ready to turn the hideout into what they describe as a death zone if there is an attempt to free me by force."

Hostage In A Toy Factory: New York Times reporter David Barboza went to a Chinese toy factory to meet the maker of a toy that had been recalled in the US. And then he was detained for nine hours. There were "hours of negotiations, the partial closing of the factory complex and the arrival of several police cars, a handful of helmet-wearing security officers and some government officials, all trying to free an American journalist and his colleagues from a toy factory." The takeaway? That for all the rhetoric about everything in China being government-controlled, factory bosses have more power than one might think. Argues one business professor: "China effectively has no oversight over anything."

The Mess In Iran: Speaking of the Times, if you haven't read the grim Iran story that was printed yesterday, you really should check it out. Notes the paper: "Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women’s rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks." And what, with all that going on, is the Iranian news media focused on? "…attention has been strategically focused on [President Mahmoud ] Ahmadinejad’s political enemies, like the former president, Mohammad Khatami, and the controversy over whether he violated Islamic morals by deliberately shaking hands with an unfamiliar woman."

On last night's "Evening News," correspondent Sheila MacVicar reported that "Iran is continuing to make progress on its expanded efforts to enrich uranium — in spite of covert efforts by U.S. and other allied intelligence agencies to actively sabotage the country's nuclear program." You can watch the report by clicking on the video box.

Because the exclusive story discussed "covert" tactics against Iran's nuclear program, I asked MacVicar if she had concerns that airing it could have national security implications. As I noted yesterday, ABC News came under fire this week for its report on a covert operation to destabilize Iran's government.

"It was made very clear to me that the Iranians are extremely aware of foreign sabotage," MacVicar told Public Eye. "All of the players involved know what's happening, including Iran. Under the circumstances, the Iranians would be very foolish not to. Iran is very sophisticated and has very highly developed intelligence systems. Because of their reliance on the black market, they're aware that they are vulnerable and likely targets."

MacVicar said that she chose to feature the particular example that she did – a 2006 incident involving exploding power supplies – because the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency had already publicly acknowledged it and suggested that the equipment involved had been "manipulated." She said that Iranian officials believe that any and all technical problems could potentially be traced to this type of manipulation, legitimately or otherwise.

"It is the view of many observers that the Iranians are in state of heightened suspiciousness – almost paranoia, as someone said to me," she said.

MacVicar also said that there was information that she kept out of the report "because it wasn't clear to me that the Iranians had reached conclusions." She said she was not convinced that this information met the burden of proof and was reticent to use it because the impact of the operations in question was not clear.

Last night, the lead story on ABC's "World News" was an exclusive report on how the "CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert 'black' operation to destabilize the Iranian government." You can read about it here, and watch it here. Then again, maybe you shouldn’t. According to many of the commenters at ABC News' "The Blotter" – around 1,500 at last count – running the report was "traitorous" because it revealed a secret U.S. government action.

Bloggers are all over the story as well: As Lynn Davidson at Newsbusters sarcastically put it, "[w]hy should a country go to the effort of spying on Americans when all they have to do is follow the US media?" She compares this story to one in the New York Times exposing the SWIFT banking transaction database and another in USA Today about an NSA phone call database, both of which came under criticism from those who felt that the programs should not have been made public.

Here's a typical comment attached to the ABC News story: "I can't believe you would report something like this! You should be ashamed of yourselves. Whatever happened to country first? Someone should be thrown in jail. It is irresponsible for news agencies in the time of war to put people's lives in danger!" And that's one of the nicer ones.

Presidential candidates are also getting in on the anti-ABC action. As "The Blotter" itself notes, Tom Tancredo and Mitt Romney criticized the report, with Romney saying he was "shocked to see the ABC News report regarding covert action in Iran."

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At this point it’s news to nobody that sites like YouTube are political players. (Though to what extent, and to whose benefit, remains up for argument.)

But Salon today dissects the anatomy of John McCain’s recent gaffe where – in response to an audience member’s suggestion that America “send an airmail message to Tehran” – he half-sang “Bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boy’s song “Barbara Ann” in front of a South Carolina crowd.

Was it news? None of the big boys in the mainstream media outlets considered it worth mentioning. Only the Georgetown Times – and even then 450 words into a 750-word story – decided the musical attempt at humor was newsworthy.

Despite this almost-unanimous omission, McCain’s song ended up becoming a national story. How?

An anonymous/guerilla opposition researcher uploaded the video to YouTube and then made sure to pass it along to the Drudge Report, where it became the lead item and entered the political mainstream.

Opposition researchers – people retained by different politicians or political groups to dig up inconvenient information about politicians on the other side – are doing a lot of the legwork for mainstream journalists nowadays, finding inconsistencies in candidates’ records and dirty little secrets in their past. And the public’s dissatisfaction with the mainstream media seems to ratchet up by the month, giving alternative media outlets increasing momentum and influence.

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This piece, in which CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer talks to Iranian women about the police-enforced Islamic dress code, is one of my favorite pieces ever aired on the "Evening News." Check it out by clicking on the video box.

What About Pig Latin?: The fired U.S. Attorneys controversy has prompted White House aides to stop using their office email except for "purely professional correspondence," according to U.S. News. "We just got a bit lazy," one aide told U.S. News. "We knew E-mails could be subpoenaed. We saw that with the Clintons but I don't think anybody saw that we were doing anything wrong." Their communications solution? "Texting!"

Also, They Know About That Web Search For The Hello Kitty Backpack: Microsoft developed a 5,500 word dossier on Wired reporter Fred Vogelstein, who was doing a story about the company. And then it accidentally e-mailed it to him. It turns out there were about a dozen people keeping an eye on Vogelstein that he didn't know about. "Some transcribed the interviews I conducted; others kept notes on my every utterance for clues about what questions I might ask next and ultimately what my story would say; others briefed executives with questions I had asked and suggested good answers." The dossier also offered a critique of his work: "It takes him a bit to get his point across so try to be patient." Quipped Vogelstein: "I know my long-windedness drives my wife nuts occasionally. I didn't know it had become an issue for Microsoft's pr machine too."

Marine World: Sky News reports that "footage of the 15 British sailors and marines being held in Iran has been aired by Iranian TV." You can watch some of the footage here in English. The news is also up on CBSNews.com – click the video box to watch the footage direct from Iranian television. It's pretty fascinating stuff: Captured seaman Faye Turney is shown saying "obviously we trespassed into their waters," contradicting her government's position, and also says she has "written a letter to the Iranian people to apologize." She will reportedly be released soon, though there are no such plans for her compatriots.

Myprank: John McCain: Now an enthusiastic supporter of marriage between passionate females. Click the link to learn more -- you know you want to.

As the president of one of the countries that President Bush has identified as part of the axis of evil, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a world leader who garners a lot of attention and one who rarely gives interviews to Western media. He did grant an interview to Mike Wallace, which aired on “60 Minutes” Sunday, and again last night, uncut, on C-SPAN. (You can also watch the full interview here.) According to producer Bob Anderson, who produced the story for "60 Minutes," CBS News had been chasing an interview with the Iranian president for some time. It was CBS's “fixer,” or liason, in Tehran, Sia Zand, who had been in touch with the Ahmadinejad administration with an ongoing request to interview the president. In July, the press office called and said the president would be interested in granting Wallace an interview. Although Anderson isn’t entirely sure why Wallace got the interview, his best guess is that “we were probably helped by Mike’s stature in Iran,” given that Wallace had interviewed the Shah, the Ayatollah Khomeini and former President Hashemi Rafsanjani in the past.

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The furor over The New York Times’ decision to publish information on the U.S. government’s financial-tracking program has died down – for the moment. One certainly gets the feeling the issue of publishing sensitive information will return with a vengeance at some point in the near future, so you may want to check out an op-ed in today’s Washington Post. Written by Michael J. Berlin, a former United Nations reporter for the Post and the New York Post, the piece recalls one specific instance when the media as a whole collectively decided not to publish information it had after being asked not to by government officials.

Berlin tells us that in 1979, when Islamic militants took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran and captured hostages, a large group of U.S. and Canadian journalists obtained information that six Americans had evaded capture and were being protected by Canadian diplomats. Once the American fugitives were smuggled out of Iran, media organizations broke the story with all the details of the drama. Here’s how Berlin describes the atmosphere in 1979:

Toward the end of 1979, hundreds of American and Canadian journalists and news organizations got hold of a dynamite news story that would have made personal reputations and careers and sent circulation or broadcast ratings soaring. The facts were confirmed, unassailably. Any one of these reporters could have had the scoop of a lifetime.

And yet not one reporter, newspaper, network or newsletter ran with the story until given permission to do so (all at once) by the governments involved. No court or governmental threat of retribution forced them to do so. It was all voluntary.

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