Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 40

Suspect Who Shot Trooper Is Domestic Terrorist

They've finally IDed the nut who allegedly killed one trooper and seriously wounded another over the weekend in an assassination act and, guess what, he's another survivalist bent on killing cops and others.  He's still at large.  “He has made statements about wanting to kill law enforcement officers and also to commit mass acts of murder,” Mr. Noonan said. “What his reasons are, we don’t know. But he has very strong feelings about law enforcement and seems to be very angry with a lot of things that go on in our society.”

Poitras Film on Snowden to Debut Oct. 10

Just announced, Snowden film added to sked at NY Film Festival.  And title:  "CitizienFour."  Poitras, of course, key to story since beginning (even pre-Greenwald).  And she's done other key films.

The resulting film, said NYFF director Kent Jones in a press release, is “a brave documentary, but also a powerful work from a master storyteller,” and a work whose screening for festival programmers left the viewers “alternately stunned, excited and deeply troubled.”

Poitras’ past work includes the Oscar-nominated “My Country, My Country” and “The Oath.” She contributed to the Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of NSA abuses by the Guardian and the Washington Post, and co-founded the digital magazine the Intercept with Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill.

Manning On ISIS

Out of nowhere--well, actually, from Fort Leavenworth--famed WikiLeaks leaker Chelsea Manning writes op-ed for The Guardian's site on how to deal with ISIS that might work better than backlash-provoking bombing.

Based on my experience as an all-source analyst in Iraq during the organization’s relative infancy, Isis cannot be defeated by bombs and bullets – even as the fight is taken to Syria, even if it is conducted by non-Western forces with air support.

I believe that Isis is fueled precisely by the operational and tactical successes of European and American military force that would be – and have been – used to defeat them. I believe that Isis strategically feeds off the mistakes and vulnerabilities of the very democratic western states they decry. The Islamic State’s center of gravity is, in many ways, the United States, the United Kingdom and those aligned with them in the region.

When it comes to regional insurgency with global implications, Isis leaders are canny strategists. It’s clear to me that they have a solid and complete understanding of the strengths and, more importantly, the weaknesses of the west. They know how we tick in America and Europe – and they know what pushes us toward intervention and overreach. This understanding is particularly clear considering the Islamic State’s astonishing success in recruiting numbers of Americans, Britons, Belgians, Danes and other Europeans in their call to arms.

Attacking Isis directly, by air strikes or special operations forces, is a very tempting option available to policymakers, with immediate (but not always good) results. Unfortunately, when the west fights fire with fire, we feed into a cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades. This is exactly what happened in Iraq during the height of a civil war in 2006 and 2007, and it can only be expected to occur again.

And avoiding direct action with Isis can be successful.

When FDR Shafted Upton Sinclair

As Ken Burns series starts on PBS:  The following happened 80 years ago this month,  just after "Uppie," the former Socialist, swept the Democratic primary for governor of California leading one of great grassroots movements ever,  EPIC (End Poverty in California)--and seemed headed for victory in November.  His meeting with a very friendly FDR at Hyde Park seemed to clinch the deal.  They even chatted about Teddy Roosevelt's response to Upton's The Jungle 30 years back.  Then Roosevelt and his top aides screwed him, backing his right-wing dullard GOP opponent. And the dirtiest, and one of the most influential, campaigns in USA history--it virtually created the modern campaign--emerged to defeat him.  Hollywood took its first all-out plunge into politics and the saintly Irving Thalberg created the very attack ads for the screen.  See a trailer for my book on what led to all this:

Shocking News (Or Not?) on Kajieme Shooting

Astounding to learn that the young man who shot the widely-viewed video of the shooting of Kajieme Powell by white cops in St. Louis (near where Mike Brown fell) has still not been interviewed by cops.  News of that just broke by St. Louis journo who also IDed the man.   The man had to be known to police because he turned over the video to them after he saw they had misled public on what happened. I was one of first to cover the controversy and for several days after. (Two of my pieces here and here.)

What They're Marching For

I'll be on a long car trip on Sunday so will miss big "climate chance" march in NYC on Sunday but here's an inspiration for us all, the greatest tone poem ever for nature and the earth and survival, Beethoven's "Pastoral" symphony, here in greatest concert version from Klemp:

Scots Free!

Groundskeeper Willie on the big vote.

Holey Shirt!

Urban Outfitters, after protests, has taken off sale a typical college sweatshirt that's not quite so typical--it's for Kent State, and it appeared to have faux blood stains and faux bullet holes, marking the 1970 shooting massacre there.  Or did it?  The company claims the pinkish color simply blotched and the holes were just the usual "distressed" look.  You decide. More here.  The university, and one of the surviving gunshot victims,  rip it. That certainly wasn't in their catalog description...Someone, naturally, selling one on eBay for $2500.

Media Playing ISIS's 'Sick Game'

Juan Cole asks why U.S. media take the bait and focus on the singular beheadings when they don't even cover the deaths of U.S. soldiers anymore.   It does seem Obama was "taunted" into war.

It seems to me that editors should refuse to play along with this sick game.
The fact is that almost no news organization covers the killing of American troops in Afghanistan any more. If it happens it is on page 17, and this had been the case for years. So let’s get this straight. The Taliban can actually kill US troops without our headlining the fact. But the slaughter of an innocent captive is front page news. These are editorial decisions, not acts of nature.

Go Get 'Em, Peru

John Oliver last night on the new "war on ISIS."