Iraq war: June 2003 Archives

Today I've written about several different aspects of media and the aftermath of the war in Iraq. I still have an anti war stance, I don't think it was the right thing to have done. It is going to be a long running mess in Iraq and the previous warzone Afghanistan for several years. The "exit plan" just hasn't been thought through for either country.
The t-shirt campaign from Agit Properties is an amusing parody on the near blanket pro War on Iraq stance from the majority of US media organisations. Henry Norr is a victim of companies deciding that they own your free time, as well as your paid time and can decide what is the right way to behave. The BBC is different, it is a media organisation being attacked by the incumbent government because it is asking valid questions of the decisions and policy around the pre and post war plans.

It feels like the war is not over yet and will run for most of the year to come. Certainly it will take at least a year if not two to get the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan even part way complete.

Henry Norr is a long time technology journalist who I have been happily reading for many years in Mac magazine, on Macintouch and occasionally on the SF Chronicle. That was until March through April, when Henry was dismissed for taking a day to go on an anti war protest. Google search for henry norr contains lots of different articles on his dismissal and reactions to it.
There is a support site for him, which has been setup by volunteers. The support site has a series of articles on what has happened in the case and some of the current proceedings. He was also part of a call to action from MoveOn.org, a US based citizens democracy organisation with over 2 million members which seeks to return some control to the people of America, rather than the current vested interests.

Today he emailed me and a thousand others who contacted him, I blogged about it a while back. Henry and others have organised a day off protest around the 4th of July. The plan is to boycott the mainstream media, the protest is focussed around the SF Chronicle, but people can participate world wide, by using independent media sources rather than the mainstream often advertiser swayed sources.

Click Read More to read the exended article and read the call to action.

Slightly scary interview with Alistair Campbell on Today this morning. My key take away words from the interview were his use of the almost soviet style "dissident" and the comment that Andrew Gilligan's file was getting larger. You could listen to the audio file and make your own mind up, but it is oddly not available from the today website, though Richard Sambrook's response is there. It is strange that Alistair Campbell's interview is not available, as viritually every other package from the programme is available.
Written coverage from the BBC new site main BBC response, Should Campbell go and Campbell makes WMD an issue of trust. Overview from The Guardian on the issue of No 10 and the BBC

Disclosure: I work for the BBC.

Agit Properties have attracted the attention of the Fox News lawyers by designing a Faux News t-shirt, with the amusing tag line "We distort, you comply". I think that this is a delightful parody and have ordered a t-shirt. Fox do not like it at all and have issued a cease and desist order. I found this via the Register, here is the original article.

I've been reading Stu Hughes blog, he has some powerful images and thoughts on his site. I was particularly struck by the image of the discarded canon camera, with its gleaming lens barrel covered in drips of blood from the reporters who were killed and injured in the hotel in Baghdad. The shiny cream barrel is normally an object of desire, here it is relegated to a simple contrast to the blood red.
Recently he has been talking about the hyping of cluster bombs (of which I'm a bit guilty) and how this distracts from the real issue of un-exploded ordnance (uxo) and mines. More pictures of UXO and the results.
He has a separate weekly diary with the BBC too. Stu is also closely involved with Mine Action Group, who actually clear mines worldwide, they are keen for donations to support their work. I think it is a great cause to give too, it'll go on the Campaigns section of this blog tomorrow.

The Guardian have tracked down Salam Pax and he will be writing fortnightly for G2, starting this Wednesday. Via Joi Ito.
I hoped that someone would sign him up for a contract, either a book or a newspaper column. He wrote a very compelling account of the real experience of living in Baghdad, one of the more interesting opinions on the war in Iraq.