New York Times Screws Up Again; Uday, Qusay Deaths are Bad for Bush and Bl

[Judi Lynn]

New York Times Screws Up Again; Uday, Qusay Deaths are Bad for Bush and Blair; Kroeber and the Indians; General Hitchens Visits the Front

by Alexander Cockburn

Dissident Voice
July 28, 2003



Reeling from one blunder to the next, the New York Times plummeted to new depths on July 25, combining a serious falsehood with possible misrepresentation of authorship.

On the op page for 7/25 appeared a column, datelined Havana, under the name Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, identified as Secretary General of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, and titled "A Prisoner Becomes A Warden". The column narrated how its author had been with Castro in the original attack on the Moncada in 1953, had been imprisoned by Batista along with Castro and other comrades, had eventually turned against Castro. The thrust of the column was to compare the relatively decent prison and trial conditions (and eventual amnesty) enjoyed by Castro and the others in l953, with the grim sufferings and stinted rights of political prisoners in Cuba today.

Towards the end of the piece came the following sentence: "(Although there is no doubt in my mind that my younger brother, Sebastián, died in prison in 1997 because of deliberate lack of medical attention.)"

In fact Sebastian Arcos died in Miami of cancer, a couple of years after he was released from prison for humanitarian
reasons. But surely, you ask, Gustavo Arcos would remember where his brother died.

Gustavo is a brave and admirable person, but he is also very old and frail. The odds that he wrote that op-ed are slim indeed. For one thing, he doesn't speak English. (snip/...)

~~~~link~~~~

[teryang]

1. Kill Saddam tomorrow-

He's right, I hope they catch Saddam tomorrow. Then the truth will set in. I posted a similar comment about the ineffectiveness of Uday and Qusay as resistance leaders a couple of days ago. Here is Cogburn's comment:

<For obvious reasons, Bush and his entourage have been eager to identify Saddam, Uday and Qusay as the instigators of the attacks on the US and UK occupying forces...<snip>

To suggest otherwise would be to concede that there might be long-term, organized opposition to the Allied occupation ...nationalist, or Islamic/nationalist opposition to the invaders.

The fact that Uday and Qusay were holed up in the house of a relative scarcely suggests that they had elaborate flight plans, replete with secret command bunkers, prepared in advance of the US/UK invasion. It looks as though, like many others suddenly on the run, the only plan they could come up with was a desperate rap on the door of a family friend.>

The "serial lying of Judith Miller." RIP NYT. Does anything have a shorter life span than a scientist sending emails to Judith Miller?

:-)

[Composed Thinker]

2. Wait a minute

Now, I don't remember reading this, so I can't speak for the content, but isn't it possible that it was translated or something?

[bemildred]

3. It is interesting that this government clings so

tenaciously and consistently to its fantasies. The insulated
existence they lead in the corrupt American political environment
is clearly not good preparation for the real world outside.
When the fall comes, after decades of being able to get away
with anything, it's going to be smashing, like the end in VietNam
but without the underlying economic and political strength to
pull us through. What would Reagan have done if we were already
bankrupt back then?