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| Iraq-Jordan |
| US Army officer charged with murder in Iraq |
| 2004-11-17 |
| Not Sunday's incident in the mosque. The US military has charged an Army officer with premeditated murder for his part in the fatal shooting of an injured Iraqi man in Baghdad's Sadr City slum in August, officials have said. Army 2nd Lieutenant Erick Anderson was charged with premeditated murder and conspiracy to commit premeditated murder, according to a statement provided by Lieutenant Colonel James Hutton, a spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division in Baghdad. If tried and convicted in a US military court, he could face the death penalty. Military investigators had looked into whether Anderson authorised two subordinates, Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban and Staff Sergeant Johnny Horne, to shoot a young Iraqi man already grievously wounded and unlikely to survive. Some US military officials have referred to the incident as a mercy killing. Read the rest at the link. |
| Posted by:Tony (UK) |
| #22 The premise is that when most people have access to a wider choice of sources of information, as well as less biased analysis, the end-result is love of freedom -- neither socialism nor Islamofascism. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-11-17 8:30:29 PM |
| #21 Your position stills assumes that you are smarter than those who are brainwashed by that media. I submit that there's a difference between 'smart' and well-informed. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-11-17 8:23:05 PM |
| #20 Let's stipulate that most media is left-biased.Your position stills assumes that you are smarter than those who are brainwashed by that media.Ironically,just the type of superior mindset that many of you point at on the left side of the aisle. |
| Posted by: Me 2004-11-17 7:55:41 PM |
| #19 Yo,minime,us fat-assed dorrito munchers sure put a hurtin on New York Times,Dan Rather,and CBS.With out us fat-ass' they would have gotten away with thier lies,That being the case"Eat sh$t and bark at the moon". |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-11-17 6:16:58 PM |
| #18 The news format needs to change as well. Get rid of linear and static; shift to mutli-leveled, dynamic, contextual. Link to sources, trackbacks, background and bios of authors. Show contrary memes side by side. Show the readers stories as they evolve. Throw back the curtain. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 5:20:03 PM |
| #17 But I don't like you. I'm having to go to therapy twice a week because of goons like you who ripped off my election. |
| Posted by: me me 2004-11-17 5:19:12 PM |
| #16 Lex, Don.. Very interesting. You can see the transition to what you are envisioning right here on rantburg.... The peer review is instant, varied and hyperlinked. Spin is unspun and respun and as varied as the posters. The idea of hierarchial info dissemination is indeed a thing of the past - passed into the night like the horse and buggy did at the turn of the 20 Century. It won't go away completely - it just will be forced onto the backroads and where it won't get run over. As for the media monopoly. I believe it is already smashed. Think how much changed in news dissemination in the past 4 years! Think how much it changed in the last 8!! Maybe in the next election, the MSM will still have an impact - but I believe by the election in 2008 - the MSM will no longer be a viable player in shaping the news. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-11-17 5:13:17 PM |
| #15 Ban all media? Seems the media has pretty well censor opposing views itself. When a few outlets actually present opposing views, the media scream and howl at being challenged. Go ask Danny boy. |
| Posted by: Don 2004-11-17 4:36:52 PM |
| #14 Me: tee hee! you funny! As I said above, I want first and foremost to change the news format from static, centralized story-pushing to dynamic, multi-sourced, multi-memes. I want more competition, not less. The mainstream media are the last profession to cling to centralized, hierarchical info dissemination, with utterly no peer review or professional standards applied, and to resist all efforts by outsiders to offer competing product. Not even the AMA is as arrogant-- and they're true professionals who've engaged in grueling training over more than a decade in their scientific craft. MSM journalists are just guys who write stuff. Chiropractors show more professionalism than these jokers. The Rantburger community alone contains more expertise on the war and combat operations than you'd find in all the MSM's journalists and editors combined. Long past time we smashed the media monopoly, exposed the inside of the sausage factory, and brought some glasnost to the process. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 4:36:25 PM |
| #13 Lex,why don't we just ban all media except those who agree with Rantburgers? |
| Posted by: Me 2004-11-17 4:22:58 PM |
| #12 Brilliant, 2b. Exactly what I was thinking. As to the multi-blog site itself, some other thoughts: Do our own sourcing and reporting, borrowing a page from the open-source software development model. Key is to show how the (news story) sausage is made. Present journalism as a process rather than a series of self-contained little products. Specifically: 1) Strip the story of the author's weasel words, blind sources, hints, oblique allusions etc and highlight the raw meme in its nakedness. The MSM Meme du Jour in this case is "US Military Wins Battle, Loses in Court of World Opinion". Has zip to do with justice, facts, logic, human rights. 2) Provide links to the author's sources, his bio and ideological bent. Who the f*** is Kevin Sites? What's his bgrd, his agenda? Bring it front and center. 3) Use the interactive comment format of weblogs to gather counter-memes. Display them next to the original meme and let each story evolve, dynamically, dialectically, as site visitors provide input. What do other marines have to say? Anyone have more bgrd on the hard boyz who were shot? Create a counter-meme. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 3:54:25 PM |
| #11 Since they've charged him, he'll face courts martial. Note well, that the Area Defense Council who will represent him at the courts martial is not subject to the chain of command and must have performed as a prosecuting attorney in a previous assignment [both aspects are fallouts of the Vietnam period]. The military judge is also not subject to the command chain. While the case would normally be processed in the command and the officers of the board would be of the command, military law is explicit that any attempt by the command is unlawful. I personally sat on a retrial at Ft Leavenworth after the Court of Military Appeals found the command had interfered with the trial at the originial duty station. It will be interesting to see how the government is able to verify that the victim was not already brain dead as neither the sergeants nor the officer are competent medical authorities. Its not good enough to say that in some circumstances people suffer such injuries and survive. The question is whether this individual meet those conditions and how it was determined by competent authority. |
| Posted by: Don 2004-11-17 3:46:07 PM |
| #10 Yeah, a news operation is gonna spring up from all your fatasses sitting around eating Doritos and posting here.You nuts are in a fantasy world. |
| Posted by: Me 2004-11-17 3:38:32 PM |
| #9 Lex, the first obvious step is a multi-blog that would take the various news stories of the day and edit them to seperate opinion from fact. If all of the blogs then linked to that website rather than AP, Reuters, etc, it would be a nice start. Follow that up with real news culled from bloggers on the scene in different locations. Fires in San Diego, well there are a few dozen San Diego bloggers, post exerpts and news from them. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2004-11-17 3:30:43 PM |
| #8 Good thing MSM doesn't follow the Rangers around or delta guys for that matter, the Arabs would realy get pissed. I don't get it we are supposed to show mercy, but none of this is asked when they cut/saw off our heads. I think we need to have a Warrior Channel. It would go like this "We are here with the second Ranger Battalion for our first episode of "This Old Kill Zone" we are talking to SSGT. Jackson and his blood thirsty squad of young killers" "SSGT. Jackson what is on the agenda for today" "Well, see here Norm, about a block down the street here we have a known area of enemy activity, me and my troopers are going down that way to hopefully draw fire and kill anything that shoots at us" "Thats excellent SSGT." "Hey Norm why don't you just stay down here and we will be back in about 10-15 mikes, roger that" "Uh! Roger" 15 minutes goes by "Norm the SSGT. Jackson sent me to get you sir, its all clear, the good news is we killed the hell out of those Haji's" cut to commercial of Robinson Arms weapons. You could have this channel showing armed conflict all over the globe, lots of industry adds, etc... like Mtv but it would be Wtv. |
| Posted by: SGT. Rock 2004-11-17 1:50:26 PM |
| #7 I said this in a previous post; I know some Marines who had to double tap dying Iraqis during Gulf I - almost an unwritten rule. No one made an issue of it, only the pansies with a political axe to grind seem to have a problem w/it now. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-11-17 1:09:02 PM |
| #6 The best thing that could happen to this country would be to line up all the lawyers and shoot 9 out of 10. Exception: for ACLU members the rate should be 10 out or 10 and they should all be double tapped to make sure. |
| Posted by: Random thoughts 2004-11-17 1:08:06 PM |
| #5 you got that right, Lex. In my perfect world, it would look like this: From my cellphone - I have either audio and or (more cool) streaming video capapbility that I can view through an eye piece. Audio: From my "cellphone" Ilog onto the internet and access any website I wish through voice commands "access rantburg" and software converts the text to a computerized reader who reads to me as I drive, walk, etc. Just like listening to the radio only I get to choose the programming. Fred can then obtains advertising based on what advertisers believe his target market will bear. As for streaming video - same thing only I use one of those cool eye pieces and perhaps eye, rather than voice or mouse commands. When the search engines try to gobble it all up and deny access to certain sites - new search engines are formed to allow me access to whatever I desire. The technology already exists to do the audio - and possibly even the video. Adios MSM. And it would free me from sitting at the computer to get my fill. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-11-17 12:47:05 PM |
| #4 Asinine. Insulting. Outrageous. Yet more evidence why it's incumbent on bloggers, Rantburgers, anyone with a commitment to logic and facts to build an alternative news engine to rival the MSM. Screw these idiots. Bloggers and Rantburger-types need to start sourcing and reporting stories ourselves. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 12:30:53 PM |
| #3 This is complete bullshit. The dead guy already had half his brains spilled out of his head. The only question was how long it would take for him to die in agony. Fuck these political REMF Monday morning quarterbacks. Give these soldiers a medal for compassion (Bleeding Heart) and grief counselling (something the leftists can support). Lesson for the troops: better to stand around and watch these terrorists die slowly than to risk your freedom and your family's finances defending yourself in some politically contrived self righteous court. Take a cigarette break and watch them die. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-11-17 12:27:16 PM |
| #2 Mike, it's not about logic or justice. It's about perpetuating the MSM's twin Grand Memes: -- the US military is incompetent -- alternatively, where the US military succeeds, it does so only by committing war crimes. Facts, logic? Not relevant here. La resistance continue |
| Posted by: lex 2004-11-17 12:26:30 PM |
| #1 Let me see if I understand this. They might charge these guys for showing mercy, and might charge the Marine in Fallujah for not showing mercy? |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-11-17 12:22:07 PM |