Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1065

Jon Stewart Diagnoses Nancy Grace and Her IV of Human Tragedy

The night after adding The Daily Show's own conspiracy theory to our ongoing CNN Split-Screen-Gate investigation, Jon Stewart had some interesting ways to describe Nancy Grace and the perverse joy she seems to get from tawdry crime stories like the Jodi Arias trial. "Engorged tragedy tick," was one descriptor. Stewart also had some theories about how Grace sustains herself. "That's not rouge on her cheeks," he said. "She draws youth and vitality from human tragedy." 

So how will Grace go on, now that the Arias trial has concluded  Well, she's moved on to Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro, naturally. Though she says he "makes her sick" (emphatically) Stewart counters: "He doesn't make you sick. He give you life."

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Every Version of the Infamous Benghazi Talking Points, Revealed

ABC News has obtained every version of the government talking points that were distributed after the attack on the Benghazi consulate in Libya, along with evidence that the White House and State Department were more involved in the editing they want to admit. Reporter Jonathan Karl writes that the notes underwent 12 different revisions in the span of about 24 hours, with CIA and State Department officials going back and forth about the details, ultimately choosing to omit several direct references to terrorism.

We have put together a tool for comparing the different changes that were made in each draft. The Weekly Standard has also published an investigation of the email discussions that led to the various edits.

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used those talking points to prepare for appearances on Sunday morning talk shows five days after the attack on the consultate that killed four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya. Her assertion that Sunday that the attacks were "spontaneous" demonstrations led to heavy criticism from Congressional Republicans that eventually scuttled her chance to become the next Secretary of State.

The very first version of the memo says that "currently available information" points to "spontaneously inspired" protests that "evolved" into an assault, but also mentions reports that Islamic extremists "with ties to al-Qa'ida" participated in the attack. It even refers to one prominent group, Ansar al-Sharia, by name and mentions pervious attacks and threats against the consulate.

Those references were eventually scrubbed, apparently at the request of State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland, who worried about the political implications. In an email about the talking points, Nuland said those details "could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either?”

Despite claims that these edits are proof of meddling by Obama administration officials, White Press Secretary Jay Carney says that evidence doesn't contradict earlier statements that the talking points were created by the intelligence community. He says all the White House edits were "stylistic and nonsubstantive" and the CIA ultimately approved and signed-off on every version.

You can read all 12 version in the PDF below, via ABC News.

Benghazi Talking Points Timeline by dashbennett

       

Woman Found Alive in Rubble 17 Days After Bangladesh Building Collapse

In a stunning development out of Bangladesh, workers cleaning up the wreckage of a collapsed garment factory have found a woman still alive after more than two weeks trapped under the debris. The building collapsed on April 24, but rescuers long ago gave up any hope of finding more survivors. Even so, The Daily Star reports that a woman was heard moaning under the pile of rubble at around 3:15 p.m. local time and was pulled free about 40 minutes later.

The Associated Press reports that soliders working at the site saw the woman in the rubble and she waved to them. Al Jazeera broadcast footage of the woman being loaded into an ambulance and taken away to a local military hospital, and according to the BBC, she has "no significant injuries." It appears she was trapped in the basement or second floor of the building (which remained mostly intact) and may have had some access to water during the last two weeks. All work at the site, which is being cleared with bulldozers and cranes, was halted as rescuers cut her free from the tangled mess of iron rods and concrete.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the woman, who was identified as Reshma Begum, was trapped under the rubble, but was able to move around enough to scavenge biscuits from her dead co-workers, which she ate to survive. She also used an exposed metal pipe to breath and was banging on the pipe to alert rescue workers, who first heard the noise on Friday after removing a pile of rubble from on top of the spot she was hidden in.

Just incredible story: Named Reshma, spotted in basement of #Bangladesh factory, pulled alive 17 days after collapse twitter.com/WilliamsJon/st…

— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) May 10, 2013

Earlier on Friday, authorities announced that the death toll from the disaster was now officially over 1,000 people. More than 2,500 people were rescued in the first days after the eight-story building collapsed on itself last month, but with one final rescue to be made, it brings at least one small moment of happiness for a community still reeling from the tragedy.

Here are some more pictures of the rescue:

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(AP Photo)

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(Reuters/Sanaul Huq)

       

Amazon Is Reportedly Building a 3D Smartphone You Can Control with Your Eyeballs

The Wall Street Journal says that Amazon is expanding its hardware offerings with a whole new line of gadgets, including a lame-sounding "audio streaming device" and a pair of next gen smartphones. We're going to be super honest. While the news is entirely unconfirmed — The Journal cites its favorite source: "people familiar with the company's plans" — the fancier of the two smartphones sounds kind of awesome. Greg Besinger reports:

One of the devices is a high-end smartphone featuring a screen that allows for three-dimensional images without glasses, these people said. Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they said. Users may be able to navigate through content using just their eyes, two of the people said.

It's as if Jeff Bezos told his research and development department to just build a phone with all of the trendiest, craziest features and then figure out how to make it cheap. Those features are trendy and crazy for a reason, by the way. Can you imagine the possibilities of a glasses-free 3D handheld device? That puts smartphones in Star Wars territory, if you can imagine objects floating in the air above the phone like a hologram. What if you could get the phone to beam a 3D representation of your friend into mid-air, like Princess Leia.

Sure it sounds cool, but Amazon's been enabling rumors like this for years now. Nearly two years ago, the Wall Street Journal affiliate AllThingsD reported that an Amazon phone was imminent, as the company sought to compete more directly with Google and Apple. Amazon had already shown prowess in the hardware sector with the success of the Kindle and Kindle Fire and there's long been talk of an Amazon streaming TV box, so a smartphone made sense as a next step. It was a heck of a rumor at a time when iPhone 5 speculation was owning the tech blogs, and Android was systematically gobbling up market share. However well placed, though, it was just a rumor. It wasn't too crazy to assume that Amazon was just giving Apple a taste of its own rumor-mongering medicine.

This latest rumor serves a similar purpose. Regardless of whether its true or not, reports about Amazon developing a 3D screen for mobile devices is a direct affront on Apple's strategy — that is, if Apple's patent history is at all indicative of the company's future plans. In recent years, Apple's been granted a number of patents for 3D technology, including eyeball-tracking, glasses-free displays. We wondered a couple of years ago if Apple would bring these innovations to the new iPad. It didn't, so it's anybody's guess whether or not Apple will make the leap into the third dimension.  

Whether by design or by chance, Apple's competitors have been winning the smartphone feature war lately. Samsung's Galaxy SIV brought the eyeball-tracking technology to market, enabling users to scroll through pages simply by moving their eyes. And if this Amazon 3D smartphone rumor is true, Apple will fall behind in that regard, too. Of course, what makes the Amazon rumor so curious isn't really about how it competes with Apple. It's about how Amazon isn't just a place to buy books any more. It's a technology company with unexpected ambitions, a zany CEO and seemingly limitless resources. Just like the rest of them.

       

New Details About North Korea's American Prisoner Are Appropriately Crazy

United States citizen and "devout Christian" Kenneth Bae is set to spend the next 15 years in a North Korea prison camp for possessing a National Geographic documentary, among other things. The North Korean state news agency say that the film "Don't Tell My Mother I'm in North Korea" is one of several "propaganda materials" that Bae brought into the country as part of Christian conspiracy to overthrow the North Korean government. That conspiracy, the Korean Central News Agency contends, is called "Operation Jericho," and it is not okay.

This situation is even crazier than we previously realized, and it was already pretty crazy. Bae, who was sentenced last week to hard labor for his alleged plot against the Kim regime, was a known evangelist that pushed the limits of what the North Korean government would tolerate. While some suspected that he was using his tour guide company to sneak missionaries into the country, it's remained a mystery why the North Korean government cracked down so hard on him. After all, Bae was hardly the only fervent missionary in the country. Sure, he might've snuck some photos of starving children out of the country, but really? Fifteen years?

The perceived severity of an all out conspiracy to overthrow the regime makes more sense. However, it's important to realize that the religious element of the affront is very important. Gawker's Adrian Chen spoke to Todd Nettleton, the director of media development for the anti-Kim regime Christian organization Voice of the Martyrs, and offers a clearer picture of how North Korea feels so threatened. "The deification of Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il, their political system is built on that idea," Nettleton said. "A new religion coming in is not just a religion—it literally undermines the very foundation of the government. North Koreans who accept Christ aren't just accepting a religion, they're committing a treasonous act."

Watch "Don't Tell My Mother I'm in North Korea" in full:

       

Did a Female North Korean Traffic Cop Save Kim Jong-un from Assassination?

When you win North Korea's "Hero of the Republic" award, you've probably helped the entire state during wartime, or helped it conduct a nuclear test, or satisfied the Supreme Leader in some major way. This week, an emotional young female traffic officer named Ri-Kyong Sim was honored at a military ceremony with the North Korean equivalent of the Medal of Valor — for what, nobody on the outside is exactly sure, but the best guess is that she may have inadvertently saved Kim Jong-un's life.

Here's the Korean Central News Agency report on Ri's heroic — if mysterious — deed: 

Ri dedicated herself to ensuring the traffic order in the capital city and displayed the heroic self-sacrificing spirit of safeguarding the security of the headquarters of the revolution in an unexpected circumstance. 

And here's video of Ri overcome with honor in receiving the honor...

...and here's a GIF:

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So, yeah, that footage from the ceremony in Pyongyang in front of Ri's fellow officers and military personnel is really something. But the propaganda machine doesn't tell us much more about why this ordinary traffic policewoman received such a high honor — beyond those two very mysterious phrases: "unexpected circumstance" and "safeguarding the security of the headquarters." As Agence France Presse points out, traffic cops doing their job to the utmost capacity tend not to receive this prize from the state:

The "Hero of the Republic" award is usually reserved for heroic acts during wartime, although it is also given to individuals who have made a major contribution to the country's advancement.

Recently, a large number were given to scientists and technicians involved in the North's long-range rocket launch in December and February's nuclear test.

Well, assuming this woman is not a secret nuclear rocket scientist hiding out in a police uniform, what could she have done to be honored for such an outstanding life during wartime? (It's pretty much always considered wartime in North Korea.) There's this, from her traffic cop boss, according to state TV: "Comrade Ri's action was not made possible by pure accident, but made possible because she had always harboured this longing for the respected leader day and night." And then comes the big juicy guess, from the secretary general of defector group NK Intellectuals Solidarity, speaking with the AFP:

"I suspect it might have been linked to an assassination attempt disguised as a traffic accident."

That same defector, Park Kun-Ha, said that someone of Ri's stature receiving this honor was "very rare." Turns out assassination attempts are not: Earlier this month, The Week reminded us that assassination attempts involving cars and staged accidents are far from unheard of in North Korea. Indeed, there was apparently an assassination attempt just last year involving a car, a secret North Korean agent in China, and the life of Kim Jong-nam — the oldest brother of Kim Jong-un whom the Supreme Leader doesn't like very much:  "South Korean officials claimed to have captured a North Korean agent who'd been ordered to kill Jong Nam by staging a car accident in China. Jong Nam fled Macau, and is now thought to be in hiding in Singapore," The Week's team wrote.

So could that woman breaking down above have foiled a similar plot against the young propagandist-in-chief himself? Or did Ri pull Kim Jong-un out of a burning Maybach with her gloved hands? Who knows? But your best guess is probably just as believable as some other North Korean propaganda out there.

 

       

Jon Stewart Rips Apart Fox's Benghazi Obsession by the Ifs, Ands, and Buts

With Fox News continuing its all-out coverage of the ongoing Benghazi hearings in Congress, it was only natural that Jon Stewart go after his least favorite cable-news network on The Daily Show last night. And Fox has been throwing around a lot of "ifs" when it comes to the president's role in the attacks on the American consulate last summer. Fox is outraged that the media at large isn't more outraged, Stewart says, except Fox's argument for outrage is predicated not so much on facts as many "if" clauses.

"I think I see the problem here," Stewart said. "You can't understand why everyone else isn't as outraged as you, when it's because the rest of us aren't sure if what your saying is true. And to be quite frank, you do have somewhat of a history of hysteria." 

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Bangladesh Garment Industry Hit with Another Deadly Accident

As workers continue to pull bodies out of the wreckage of the collapsed Bangladeshi factory, another factory in the capital of Dhaka caught on fire, killing eight more than people. Though the building was mostly still intact on Thursday, the victims appeared to have died of smoke inhalation while trying to escape.

Meanwhile, the death toll of Rana Plaza collapse has topped 900 people and will probably rise over 1,000 before all is said and done, making it one of the deadliest industrials disasters in world history. 

Unlike most of the tragedies that befall the nation's troubled garment industry, Wednesday night's fire touched more than just the poor working-class employees, most of whom had left for the night. Two of the dead were local government officials and a third was the factory's managing director. He is also on the board of directors of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which is the country's most powerful industry trade group.

It's the fourth such disaster in Bangladesh since November, when 112 people were killed in a factory fire in the city of Savar.

       

Ariel Castro Is Arraigned, Confession Note Found in His Home

When Ariel Castro is eventually brought to trial for his crimes, one of the key pieces of evidence may be a letter he wrote confessing to his many crimes—a letter made more awful by the fact it was written nine years ago. Police found the letter while searching the house where Castro kept three women captive for over a decade and reporters from Channel 19 Action News have posted excerpts of it online.

In the letter, Castro admits that "I am a sexual predator" and that the women were being held against their will. He also wonders why he took a third captive when "I already had 2 in my possession." (If it was indeed written in 2004, that would have very close to the time that Castro kidnapped his third victim.) He doesn't absolve his victims from blame, however, saying they are captive because they made the "mistake" of getting in a car with him. 

Castro writes "They are here against their will because they made a mistake of getting in a car with a total stranger."

— Scott Taylor (@ScottTaylor19) May 9, 2013

The letter is described as a suicide note, since Castro says he wanted to kill himself and give all his money to his victims. Obviously, that did not happen and whatever guilt or remorse he may have briefly felt was not enough to get him to let the women go and the horrific abuse continued for many more years.

[image error]Castro made his first court appearance at 8:30 a.m. today for a very brief arraignment. Castro was given $2 billion bond on each case, making it unlikely that he will actually be released while awaiting trial. (He is being charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape, though other charges could be added in the future.) Castro said nothing and kept his eyes averted from the cameras and the judge.

Castro's two brothers, who were also arrested with him, are now believed to have had no role in the kidnapping. They each faced minor and years-old misdemeanor charges for open container violations, but their cases were simply dismissed.

       

Believe It or Not, the Electric Car Business Is Actually Profitable

Despite a contentious New York Times review, the crushing weight of the oil companies on its back, and ten years of hard work, Tesla says it finally managed to turn a profit in the first quarter of 2013.  It's a hell of a turnaround, too. Tesla's revenues spiked from $30.2 million a year ago to $562 in the first period of 2013. The electric car maker also reported $11.2 million in profit compared to a lost of $89.9 million just one year ago. (For the record, Tesla has reported a loss every single quarter since it went public in 2010.) But thanks to the company's competitive Model S sedan, of which 4,900 went to market last quarter, Tesla is suddenly looking rather viable. 

This is good news for everybody — well, everybody except the oil industry. It was only about nine months ago that The New York Times reported on how the electric car industry was suffering gravely from a lack of demand. The technology was there to make plug-in automobiles viable on a daily basis, and the cars were on the market. But not enough people wanted to buy them. It appears that Tesla's beaten the odds, offering hope not only to founder Elon Musk and his quest to kill the gas car but also all the other companies trying to market zero emissions vehicles.

It's good news for everybody, but it's mostly good news for Tesla. With its strong first quarter sales figures for the Model S, Tesla has finally surpassed the 4,421 Chevrolet Volt models sold and the 3,695 Nissan Leafs sold to become the best-selling electric car. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't somewhat surprising to see they've been able to turn a profit so quickly," analyst Alec Gutierrez told Bloomberg News on Wednesday. "It has the right stuff to be a strong player in the industry."

Now, it's time to see if the industry has the right stuff to be a strong player in the broader movement to abandon fossil fuels. This is no easy challenge. Tesla is doing well as a company. But you know what? Exxon Mobil is doing much, much better.