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lol, trusting blogs as new sources is worse than trusting the tabloids. Reading some of the other posts, the writer sounds like a nut.
I suppose anything is possible...but I am as likely to believe my roommates copy of WWN (which claims the pope was his by an asteroid for the second time) than I am to believe a blog when it comes to news.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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When I was in college at the U of Arkansas, there was a man standing in front of the student union handing out pamphlets and declairing in a loud voice that Pres Bush, Reagan and then Governor Clinton were involved in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into Mena, Arkansas.
All these Oliver Stone/Michael Moore style blogs remind me of what I said to that gentleman. "You must be a looney."
quote:Three days ago, a German TV newsmagazine called Report Mainz broadcast an eight-minute segment reporting that the International Red Cross found at least 107 children in coaliton-administered detention centers in Iraq.
The report also quotes from a yet-unpublished June 2004 UNICEF report, which (as near as I can tell through my crappy German) confirms that children were routinely arrested and "interned" in a camp in Um-Qasr. UNICEF seems particularly vexed with the "internment" status, since that means indefinite detention.
[. . .]
In addition to the Red Cross and UNICEF concerns, Report Mainz broadcast an original interview with U.S. Army Sgt. Samuel Provance, who was stationed for six months at Abu Ghraib and later quite famously blew the whistle about abuses there and the subsequent cover-up. In this interview, Provance confirms the presence of teenagers in Abu Ghraib, describing the torture-by-cold-and-exposure of a teenage boy in order to get his father to talk.
The General Secretary of Amnesty International in Germany, Barbara Lochbihler, is finally shown demanding a full accounting from the U.S. government, describing the information as "scandalous."
[. . .]
Meanwhile, there's not a damn thing -- I mean, not a single word I can find -- about this yet in the U.S. media, but it's starting to pick up speed on the rest of our tiny planet, so far showing up in Der Spiegel (roughly Germany's equivalent to Time), an Australian ABC Radio report, and TV2 and NRK television in Norway, where the story might even lead to a change in Norway's participation in the U.S.-led coalition.
If you're an American news reporter led here by a reader, but you need a hook that doesn't place the incendiary charges in the lead (for whatever reason), OK, here's your story on a platter: Bush may even lose another ally over this. Hit the Norwegian links, and you'll find that the local Amnesty International has stated that "Norway can not continue its military collaboration with the US in light of the alleged torture of children." Norway actually listens to its activists; you'll find that the Prime Minister's office says it plans to address the situation with the U.S. "in a very severe and direct way."
If this ain't news, I don't know what the hell is.
Granted, I haven't yet confirmed that they're telling the truth about the sources cited, but presuming he is, they seem relatively reliable. At least for now.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
And yeah, Steve, the bin Laden thing's been going around for some time now. I've come to nearly expect him to be conveniently captured either during the Democratic convention or within a few weeks of the election.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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It's difficult to find a "reliable source" when you're unfamiliar with the media in other countries and there is in fact not a word about this in the US press. http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2894655Posts: 4292 | Registered: Jan 2001
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What cultural differences are there between the Middle-east and first-world countries like the US and Norway that might land a 13 year old Iraqi boy in a military detention center?
posted
Dunno that any are necessary. How many US juveniles are in jail for violence associated with gang membership? How hard is it to convince a punk kid that being a gang/clique member is cool/brave? How hard is it for older and more connected gang/clique members to convince a newbie to take the risk of doing something really stupid? Frat-boy initiations, anyone? Ever watch a group of newly"made" gang members peacockin' around town as if they'd just earned somethin' to be proud of? How long do you think it takes for them, all by themselves, to think up somethin' really really STUPID to do in hopes of impressing senior members?
The phenomenum is probably worldwide: witness the popularity of Brit EltonJohn's "SaturdayNight'sAllRight for fighting..."
As a proportion of population, I suspect there is a low number of prisoners in Iraq as compared to the US.
That being said, age ain't a barrier to pulling a trigger. So what I'd really like to know is: How many of those kids were pulled off the street for carrying weapons or being involved in a firefight? And how many got rounded up with their families, or for being street protesters, or for putting up anti-American grafitti?
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