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New York, 3:25 PM
Wed Nov 11
57 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/13/09
10/13/09
09/10/09
Krakauer's book about Pat Tillman is a definite bestseller. NFL player. Hero. Cover-up.
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
Why is it that the New York Times or other newspapers have no problem suspending the publication of a story that is in the public's interest when it involves their own staff, while they have numerous times published information that puts troops lives in danger or scuttles missions that might benefit the US and its allies?
Case in point is the news story in, I believe, the Washington Post after 9/11 that pointed out intelligence forces had picked up bin Laden's satellite phone signal. About three days later that signal went dead, never to be picked up again, striking a blow for efforts to find him.
Just sayin'.
09/09/09
09/09/09
"Who dares, wins."
R.I.P.
09/09/09
09/09/09
"Mr. Farrell, who holds dual Irish-British citizenship, said he heard more British voices and shouted, 'British hostage!'"
R.I.P., Mr. Munadi.
09/09/09
2) It was not a "US special forces operation" - it was a UK special forces operation supported by Afghan troops. No US troops were involved.
09/09/09
"As the three men sped toward the village, they discussed what to do if stopped by militants along the way."
This might be something to consider before going out on your own in the middle of a country at war.
-Adah
09/09/09
09/09/09
So, a commando is uselessly dead because these two journalists took a miscalculated risk (and waited to discuss their exit plan until they were on their way).
09/09/09
Sultan A Munadi, the OTHER journalist kidnapped with Farrell, was killed.
Munadi wrote this haunting little blog post for the Times just days before his death:
"I would not leave Afghanistan. I have passed the very darkest times of my country, when there was war and insecurity. I was maybe four or five years old when we went from my village into the mountains and the caves to hide, because the Soviets were bombing. I have passed those times, and the time of the Taliban when I could not even go to Kabul, inside my country. It was like being in a prison.
Those times are past now. Now I am hopeful of a better situation. And if I leave this country, if other people like me leave this country, who will come to Afghanistan? Will it be the Taliban who come to govern this country? That is why I want to come back, even if it means cleaning the streets of Kabul. That would be a better job for me, rather than working, for example, in a restaurant in Germany.
Being a journalist is not enough; it will not solve the problems of Afghanistan. I want to work for the education of the country, because the majority of people are illiterate."
[atwar.blogs.nytimes.com]
09/09/09
[www.nytimes.com]
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/09/09
09/03/09
Laura Ling looks like she swallowed something bitter. Japanese plums?
The VICE crew went to the PRNK one year before, *with* permission and NK handlers, and were almost jailed for taking movies there. Google 'The Vice Guide to North Korea' and watch.
Oh, and even with permission and being guys they were scared shitless.
It's not like Current & Vice don't talk. The girls knew *exactly* what they were up against.
Where were the Chinese soldiers? On their side of no man's land. The 'girls' were still on Korean soil.
What point of view? The Current clubkids were trying to one up the Vice clubkids, using the PRNK as a prop.
Every time I see one of these clubkids go to a REALLY BAD SPOT in the world and then go 'Ima scared' into the camera I just roll my eyes.
09/02/09
I also don't see the problem with Lisa Ling using every single person in her Rolodex to get her sister out of that crime syndicate of a country. It's her sister. Flesh and blood. You wouldn't have done the same? You would have had enough moral rage to declare that she did the crime and she shall do the time, and just leave her there to die?
What about the Iranian-American female journalist that was jailed in Iran for vague reasons? She lived and worked in Iran knowing full well the Iranian government has a hard-on for journalists and media types, and will incarcerate them any chance they get. Isn't that sort of asking for it as well?
When these ladies were still incarcerated in North Korea, the majority of the comments here were supportive of their release. All of a sudden now they're back on American soil, they have become ungrateful ingrates for trying to tell their stories? People begrudge them for trying to get a book deal or TV movie deal? Would you like to sit in solitary confinement in North Korea for a while with an uncertain future in exchange for possible book deal?
09/02/09
09/02/09
As for the harshness of their solitary confinement, it has been reported by "Han Park, an American academic who was visiting North Korea at the time, [that] they were housed in a guest villa designed for foreign visitors outside the capital of Pyongyang. Professor Park said that Korean officials laughed at any suggestion that the women were receiving harsh treatment. ‘We are not Guantanamo,’ he was told."
Again, it seems that Ling and Lee mishandled themselves, putting themselves, their handlers, and perhaps even the Korean underground railroad and its beneficiaries at risk.
09/02/09
09/02/09
It will be interesting to see how the several arguments weaving through Gawker and Jezebel reconcile, if ever. (Man, I'm getting whiplash trying to keep up.) Were Ling and Lee dedicated journalists who took a calculated risk? Were they naive fameballs who stumbled into making themselves the story? Were they innocents manipulated into danger by their negligent bosses?
I seem to be stuck on simply expecting Ling and Lee to accept the consequences of their judgment and actions, and even to accept that in all ways they got off much better than the true victims of the story they went (or went sent) to get: The citizens of North Korea.
09/02/09
09/02/09
Here's another thing: I read that Euna Lee was born in South Korea and then moved to California as a university student. If that is true, how could she have grown up in the ROK and not known (and prepared better for) the dangers that she faced by merely being within sight of the PRNK border?
Again, I don't know how the National Geographic's guys pulled this off without making themselves the story. Seriously, read their article and look at thier photos. Were they not in the midst of it all? I believe it had to be professionalism and good planning that accounted for their success (and lack of capture), not luck.
09/03/09
But equating what the clubkids *did* and their current [no pun intended] attitude *now*, all that's going to do is piss off elements in the PRNK to think they were punked by the Americans. Again.
They're coming off as ungrateful ingrates because they're not as 'really really really sorry that they did anything wrong' as they were before their release.
There's nothing wrong with getting a book deal or a movie [that will never be seen in the PRNK].
There *is* with going to the world press and saying 'Nuh-uh, we had backsies' (and that apology, you can shove it).
Dear clubkids. The fearless leader has a TV. He probably gets current now. And now the fugitive crossing issue is up on his radar.