....LMB: "Dictionary Time"....

April 15, 2003

Okay, minor quibble, but it's bothering me.

CNN reported yesterday: US: Mobile labs found in Iraq

These "mobile labs" were buried near a weapons factory outside Karbala.

Okay. What bothers me is that, with the possible exception of earthworms, when you bury something underground, IT CEASES TO BE MOBILE.

Anyhow.

It really is amazing how little information is in the CNN article. Lucky for us, I was able to find a better article via Yahoo News.

Short version: The U.S. found 11 buried shipping containers, the kind that semi-trucks and trains haul. There was apparently "lab equipment" and lots of "documentation" inside some of the containers (no word on what topics are covered in the "documentation." Chemical weapons, Pokemon, no one knows yet). No WMD were found in or near the containers. U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Ben Freakly says that the containers could be "dual-use chemical and biological laboratories."

That really isn't much information. As shipping containers are usually used to, y'know, store stuff, it is entirely plausible that these were not mobile labs of death, but a makeshift storage facility for Iraqi lab equipment. Why would it be buried? Because the U.S. was going to bomb the country.

Of course, they could very well be mobile WMD labs. I just know that to date, every claim of "we've found the weapons" that the U.S. has made has been proven to be false, so my skepticism shields are at maximum power.

[edit]

U.S. military investigators are now claiming that the containers were probably not WMD labs

[/edit]

Posted by Jake at 09:05 AM | TrackBack (0)
Comments

CNN ceased to be objective as a media since the war started. What surprised me is how little "intelligence" and "common sense" they put in their reporting as in the case in point, the buried mobile labs.

Posted by: Canoe Driver at April 15, 2003 03:27 PM

As to the Coment

Why would it be buried? Because the U.S. was going to bomb the country.

Oh yea, lets bury our preciouis lab equipment to protect it from the bombings but lets not worry about all of those ancient artifacts and relics that are in our museums. (I'm sure they will be fine)

ummmmmm OK

Posted by: Cuda at April 15, 2003 07:38 PM

Cuda...

Considering that even the US Military has come out and claimed these are not WMD labs I think that media suspicion in regards to 'they finally found WMDs!' and the classic 'see, there IS a link between Saddam and al Qaeda' is pretty well founded.

Now just stop quoting LGF, Instapundit and asparagirl and think of something original, please.

Regards,
JHazard

Posted by: Johnny Hazard at April 16, 2003 09:51 AM

Sorry JHazard, never heard of LGF, instapundit and asparagirl. But I like the way they think maybe you should direct me there way.

Posted by: Cuda at April 16, 2003 07:21 PM

CNN was objective??? Since when???

Posted by: Eric at April 17, 2003 05:32 PM
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Media News

November 16, 2004

Tales of Media Woe

Senate May Ram Copyright Bill- one of the most depressing stories of the day that didn't involve death or bombs. It's the music and movie industries' wet dream. It criminalizes peer-to-peer software makers, allows the government to file civil lawsuits on behalf of these media industries, and eliminates fair use. Fair use is the idea that I can use a snippet of a copyrighted work for educational, political, or satirical purposes, without getting permission from the copyright-holder first.

And most tellingly, the bill legalizes technology that would automatically skip over "obejctionable content" (i.e. sex and violence) in a DVD, but bans devices that would automatically skip over commericals. This is a blatant, blatant, blatant gift to the movie industry. Fuck the movie industry, fuck the music industry, fuck the Senate.

Music industry aims to send in radio cops- the recording industry says that you're not allowed to record songs off the radio, be it real radio or internet radio. And now they're working on preventing you from recording songs off internet radio through a mixture of law and technological repression (although I imagine their techno-fixes will get hacked pretty quickly).

The shocking truth about the FCC: Censorship by the tyranny of the few- blogger Jeff Jarvis discovers that the recent $1.2 million FCC fine against a sex scene in Fox's "Married By America" TV show was not levied because hundreds of people wrote the FCC and complained. It was not because 159 people wrote in and complained (which is the FCC's current rationale). No, thanks to Jarvis' FOIA request, we find that only 23 people (of the show's several million viewers) wrote in and complained. On top of that, he finds that 21 of those letters were just copy-and-paste email jobs that some people attached their names to. Jarvis then spins this a bit by saying that "only 3" people actually wrote letters to the FCC, which is misleading but technically true. So somewhere between 3 and 23 angry people can determine what you can't see on television. Good to know.

Reuters Union Considers Striking Over Layoffs- will a strike by such a major newswire service impact the rest of the world's media?

Pentagon Starts Work On War Internet- the US military is talking about the creation of a global, wireless, satellite-aided computer network for use in battle. I think I saw a movie about this once...

Conservative host returns to the air after week suspension for using racial slur- Houston radio talk show host (and somtime Rush Limbaugh substitute) Mark Belling referred to Mexican-Americans as "wetbacks" on his show. He was suspended for a couple of weeks, and then submitted a written apology for the racial slur to a local newspaper. But he seems to be using the slur and its surrounding controversy to boost his conservative cred with his listeners.

Stay Tuned for Nudes- Cleveland TV news anchor Sharon Reed aired a story about artist Spencer Tunick, who uses large numbers of naked volunteers in his installations and photographs. The news report will be unique in that it will not blur or black-out the usual naughty bits. The story will air late at night, when it's allegedly okay with the FCC if you broadcast "indecent" material. The author of this article doesn't seem to notice that Reed first claims that this report is a publicity stunt, but then claims it's a protest against FCC repression. I'd like to think it's the latter, but I'm not that much of a sucker.

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