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Tuesday,
June 12, 2012. Chaos and violence continue, Gina Chon and the Wall St.
Journal part ways, Iraq and Iran grow further entwined, is Brett McGurk
the reason the alleged killer of 5 US soldiers will likely walk, Cindy
Sheehan talks about how the peace movement got hijacked by Democratic
Party operatives, and more.
It's official: The
Barack Obama administration is now the least accountable administration
in modern history. How did it earn that dishonor?
When Rupert Murdoch's Wall St. Journal
shows stronger ethics than your administration, there is a problem.
When Wall St. Journal reporter Gina Chon and married Bush administration
figure Brett McGurk decided to get hot and heavy in Baghdad in 2008,
each was violating written policies of their employers. At present
McGurk is still attempting to become US Ambassador to Iraq. Gina Chon,
however, has parted with employer today.
Howard Kurtz (Daily Beast) reports,
"Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon resigned on Tuesday over her
relationship with a U.S. official who is now President Obama's nominee
to be ambassador to Iraq." Lisa Dru (Business Insider) reports on the
news as well and includes the Wall St. Journal's statement:
Wall Street Journal
reporter Gina Chon agreed to resign this afternoon after acknowledging
that while based in Iraq she violated the Dow Jones Code of Conduct by
sharing certain unpublished news articles with Brett McGurk, then a
member of the U.S. National Security Council in Iraq.
In
2008 Ms. Chon entered into a personal relationship with Mr. McGurk,
which she failed to disclose to her editor. At this time the Journal has
found no evidence that her coverage was tainted by her relationship
with Mr. McGurk.
Ms.
Chon joined the Journal in 2005 in Detroit, followed by an assignment
as Iraq correspondent in Baghdad from 2007 to 2009. She also reported
for the Journal from Haiti in 2010 in the aftermath of the earthquake
and has served as a M&A reporter for Money & Investing in New
York since April 2010.
Whitney Lloyd, Jake Tapper and Dana Hughes (ABC News) explain, "The emails, first published by the blog Cryptome
last week and confirmed by ABC News, are sexually explicit and suggest
that Chon got much of her information, guidance and access for her
reporting from McGurk during their affair." Joe Coscarelli (New York magazine) quotes
Senator James Risch on McGurk's nomination, "Prior to these e-mail
revelations, I had reservations about confirming Brett McGurk as
ambassador to Iraq. Now that additional issues have been raised, more
information will be needed and I reserve final judgment until all the
facts are brought to light." Adam Martin (The Atlantic) observes, "In the end, it wasn't the sex with a source but the admission she shared unpublished stories with him that caused Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Chon to resign from the paper." Like Howard Kurtz, Meenal Vamburkar (Mediaite) is reporting that Chon took her leave of absence from the paper after the e-mails were published.
That's
what Lisa Du was explaining yesterday, "Aside from the fact that Chon
probably committed the biggest no-no in the journalism industry by
sleeping with her source, McGurk, by the way, was apparently still married when he and Chon had their rendezvous in the summer of 2008,
the Washington Free Beacon is reporting." And McGurk also had a
written code of conduct. We knew McGurk was hiding the affair from his
bosses (and he was hiding it because it was a violation of the written
rules of conduct he signed and agreed to follow). And it's the point Erik Wemple (Washington Post) makes today,
"Not alerting an editor to a relationship with a ranking official in
the center of her beat is a job-ending breakdown. Though a grace period
must apply to the initial stages of courtship, Chon had progressed
beyond that point, as the e-mails make clear. Let's just say that if
you're discussing masturbation with a high-ranking lover/source, you have some news for your editor. The statement from the Wall Street Journal states that Chon neglected to take that step."
And more troubles keep coming Brett McGurk's way. Josh Rogin (Foreign Policy) reports
on Senator Mark Kirk, "One Republican senator [Kirk] is now making an
issue out of McGurk's role in the case of Ali Musa Daqduq, the alleged
Hezbollah commander who was transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody last December and acquitted in
an Iraqi court last month. He remains in Iraqi custody pending an
automatically triggered appeal, but could be released thereafter. "
Who?
In May, Mike Jaccarino (Fox News -- link is text and video) quoted
Charlotte Freeman stating, "It was like a pit (opening) inside of me. I
briefly read it and couldn't read on. I couldn't go there. It wasn't
like he was dying again. It was more shock that these people get away
with what they do. There's no justice. It's amazing and shocking to me
that someone who did what he did could go free." That was her reaction
to the news that Iraq planned to set freem the man who allegedly killed
her husband, 31-year-old Spc Brian S. Freemen as well as 22-year-old Spc
Johnathan B. Chism, 20-year-old Pfc Jonathon M. Millican, 25-year-old
Pfc Shawn P. Falter and 25-year-old 1st Lt Jacob N. Fritz. The 5 US
soldiers were murdered in January 2007. The US military had Ali Musa
Daqduq in custody along with others who were said to have orchestrated
the killings. But they let go of the League of Righteous members in the
summer of 2009 to help out England (5 Brits had been kidnapped -- only
one would be returned alive after the League was released). They kep
Daqduq in US military custody. What happened?
December 16, 2011, Liz Sly and Peter Finn (Washington Post) reported
on the US handing Ali Musa Daqduq over to the Iraqis, "He was
transferred to Iraqi custody after the Obama administration 'sought and
received assurances that he will be tried for his crimes,' according to
Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council in
Washington." Though US Senators objected to his being handed over to
Nouri's legal system, the White House insisted he would be prosecuted
and, if for nothing else, he might do eight years for entering Iraq
illegally!
5 deaths. Brutal deaths. This was
an attack that involved kidnapping. And Barack was fine with Ali Musa
Daqduq just getting a slap on the wrist for entering Iraq without the
proper travel visa. Then on May 7th, Suadad-al Salhy, Patrick Markey and Andrew Heavens (Reuters) reported
that Iraq's 'justice' system has cleared Ali Mussa Daqduq of all
charges related to the "2007 kidnapping attack that killed five U.S.
troops." This is currently on appeal but it's not exepcted to be any
trouble for Ali Mussa Daqduq to walk on all charges. Kitabat reported
in May that Nouri caved to pressure from Tehran and that's why he was
released. It was also noted that a number of US Senators were asking
the White House not to turn Daqduq over to Iraq but to move him to
Guantanamo or another facility.
Was Brett McGurk involved in those decisions? He was in Iraq as the decision was being made and as we quoted him in last Wednesday's snapshot telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee:
In
my last assignments in Iraq, I participated in almost every internal
conversation -- both inter-agency and in Baghdad -- about how not only
to plan the transition after our troops were withdrawing but also uhm,
uh-uh, how to get the size down. Uh, quite frankly, our presence in
Iraq right now, uh, is too large.
But
not that one, Brett McGurk? You were supposedly a whiz on the Iraqi
legal system. Didn't you blog about that? What happened to that blog?
Your now deleted blog? Maybe the Committee should ask you questions about that?
Cindy
Sheehan: [. . .] in 2005, when I camped out at Crawford, Texas, I was
there on a Saturday and I think that on Monday CODEPINK was there, the
founder of CODEPINK was there. Tuesday, MoveOn was there and they sent
some p.r. people. Then we were there for 26 days. And so I just want
to make a quick disclaimer right here. I love, I love-love-love
CODEPINK. I love the ladies on the ground. The ladies on the ground in
the different chapters around the country are far, far more radical than
the leadership is. And as you point out in one of your articles, one of the founders of CODEPINK was a $50,000 bundler for Obama. The
other founder went around the country getting out the vote for Obama.
So now, three and a half years later, they're trying to say, "Oh, but
we don't like his drone program and blah blah blah." Well, you know,
once you let the horse out of the barn, it's hard to get the horse back
in. But anyway, so I just want to say I love CODEPINK. I just did an
action with them last week at Beale Air Force Base, the Bay Area
CODEPINK and Sacremento CODEPINK. But the leadership, of course, they
also were involved in the 99% Spring, if I'm not mistaken, right?
Edmund Berger: Yeah, they were one of the key people, I believe. It's listed on their website.
Cindy
Sheehan: And as you point out in your article too, is that they do
extremely good things, especially around Gaza and things like that. So,
you know, we can't throw out the whole baby just because some of the
bath water is fishy. But anyway, So I think these Democratic-leaning
organizations recognized the power of Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas,
recognized the power that I was able to draw all these people in, people
who didn't even know there was an anti-war movement growing. But we
also brought other family members who lost loved ones in the war. We
brought veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, from Vietnam and things like
that. So it was a very powerful movement that sprang up in 2005. An
organization that I also think is really good at undermining movements
to move towards a Democratic agenda is United for Peace and Justice, I
don't know if you are familiar with them.
Edmund Berger: I'm not too familiar with them but they are a member of the 99% Spring.
Cindy
Sheehan: Right. So they all came to Camp Casey and then the power of
Camp Casey was funneled into the elections of 2006, of getting Democrats
back into power in the House of Represenatives. And I had some leaders
of MoveOn come out to Camp Casey, like on one of the last days. And
they told me that they had spent a lot of money on the Camp. And I
said, "Well it's not money that I asked you to spend. You know, I didn't
ask you to do it. So if you spent it, that's your problem." But they
said that -- they said that there was a bill in Congress and I don't
remember exactly what the bill was about but I always called it the Get
Out Of Iraq Eventually bill. And it was co-sponsored by Dennis
Kucinich, Neal Abercrombie -- however, you say his name -- and Ron Paul
and Walter Jones on the Republican side. So they said, 'You, Camp Casey
and you, have to endorse this bill.' I said, "No, our demand -- our
demand is Troops Out Now! It's not Troops Out Whenever They Feel Like
Getting Troops Out." So I refused and then they totally pulled out of
Camp Casey and then these organizations -- I can see in hindsight what
happened. They were keeping me so busy, I didn't know what was
happening. And they totally co-opted the anti-war movement that could
have made powerful, structural change if it wasn't co-opted into getting
Democrats elected. But then we also have to talk about the Democrats
because all of the leading Democrats, right to my face, told me,
"Cindy, if you and the anti-war movement help us get in power, we'll
help you end the war." Well, you know, in 2007, the first thing they
did was fund the war. They didn't end the war, they voted to fund the
wars. So, and then, MoveOn -- that year, MoveOn.org, they were
encouraging their members to support the Democrats in voting "yes" for
the funding. Yeah. That's when I say Wes Boyd and Eli Pariser, they
have blood on their hands. But I was the devil for pointing this out.
That it was okay to call for defunding the wars when Republicans were
in office but, when Democrats got in office, all the sudden we had to
support funding the wars. That was a really, really difficult time. And
then 2008 was the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq and
we wanted to have -- a lot of organizations wanted to have a big demo
in DC, like we did in 2005 when we had hundreds of thousands of people
there and we were told by organizations like United for Peace and
Justice and Iraq Veterans Against the War that we weren't going to have a
big demo in DC because we didn't want to embarrass the Democrats. And
of course it was another election year.
With
the war there officially "ended" and most of our troops back home, Iraq
isn't getting much ink these days. But the story is far from over.
Indeed, according to Wadah Khanfar, former director general of Al
Jazeera, Iraq is still the most important story in the Middle East --
with a far greater impact on the region's future than Syria. "Nobody's
paying attention to Iraq anymore," he told me during dinner in London
over the weekend, "but it's becoming a client state of Iran, with a
giant amount of oil between them." This state of affairs is, of course,
primarily our doing.
And yet, as our soldiers have left, so has our attention. "The war in Iraq will soon belong to history," proclaimed
President Obama at Fort Bragg as he marked the occasion of bringing the
last troops home. But while the military chapter of that disastrous
undertaking might belong to history, its consequences belong very much
to the present. A present in which the very same voices that rose to
push us into war with Iraq are again rising to push us into war with
Iran -- but without ever noting that it was their misadventure in Iraq
that gave Iran a new and powerful ally.
As noted yesterday,
Iran and Iraq are now planning for ways for Iraq to secure leadership
of OPEC -- that would be the post of Secretary General. Peg Mackey (Reuters) notes the
two countries stand at odds with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates and that Iraq and Iran's desire to make more than $110 per
barrel of oil is going to lead the two to demand "Saudi Arabia, pumping
its highest in decades, [. . .] cut back when producers meet in Vienna
on Thursday." Mackey explains that Iraq worked out its strategy "when
Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi visited Maliki in Baghdad last week,
Maleki ordered the oil ministry to adopt a unified position with Iran on
OPEC production levels, say Iraqi oil sources." Iraq and Iran,
plotting together, like old friends. Una Galani and Christopher Swann (Reuters) adds,
"If Iraq's rising output isn't calibrated with the market's ability to
absorb it, oversupply could become chronic and prices could fall
further."
In
the US, Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Veterans
Affairs Committee which holds a hearing tomorrow. Her office notes:
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
CONTACT: Murray Press Office
(202) 224-2834
Murray to Question Defense Secretary on Military-Wide Mental Health Care Shortcomings
As military suicides continue to outpace combat deaths, Murray to urge Pentagon to expand ongoing Army-wide review of behavioral health evaluations and diagnoses to all branches, call for transparency in review process
WHO: U.S. Senator Patty Murray
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
WHAT: Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing
WHEN: TOMORROW – Wednesday, June 13th 2012
10:30 AM EST/7:30 PST - Hearing start time
Questioning from Murray likely to take place after 11:30 EST/8:30 PST
WHERE: Dirksen 192
Communications Director
U.S. Senator Patty Murray
202-224-2834 - press office
202--224-0228 - direct
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