Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 83

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About how you may feel at late-afternoon these days.

Still Gathering No Moss

Exactly 49 years ago next week, in mid-June 1965, Bob Dylan recorded in New York City, with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and the gang, what some (not just me) call the greatest single in rock 'n roll history, "Like a Rolling Stone."  It was released one month later, on July 20, reaching #2 on the Billboard chart.  Among other breakthroughs: It was the first six-minute single and DJs played the whole thing for weeks, before breaking off after two verses near the end of its run.   The rarely heard  first take in the studio was slow, almost a waltz, and Bob  on piano.  The Wikipedia entry describes it this way:  "The lack of sheet music meant the song was played by ear. However the essence of the song was discovered in the course of the chaotic session."  Greil Marcus has a whole book on the song.   Always amusing is tale of Al Kooper talking his way into the session, then taking over organ part just with chutzpah.

And then, below, two years later, Jimi Hendrix's amazing version at Monterey.  I saw Bob do it himself in November 1965, in Buffalo, with The Hawks.

Classic Koch

With Citizen Koch, on the Koch brothers, finally set to open this weekend, worth re-visiting what I posted one year ago:

Don't miss Jane Mayer feature at The New Yorker just posted on little-known story of how PBS's WNET in New York reacted in showing Alex Gibney doc “Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream.”  The film did air but see what surrounded it.   Problem: It partly focused on the Koch Brothers, with David a major WNET funders.

Gibney: “They tried to undercut the credibility of the film, and I had no opportunity to defend it...Why is WNET offering Mr. Koch special favors? And why did the station allow Koch to offer a critique of a film he hadn’t even seen? Money. Money talks.”  And then another documentary, Citizen Koch,  ran into trouble and lost funding.  But conclusion: "In the end, the various attempts to assuage David Koch were apparently insufficient. On Thursday, May 16th, WNET’s board of directors quietly accepted his resignation. It was the result, an insider said, of his unwillingness to back a media organization that had so unsparingly covered its sponsor."

Trailer for 740 Park, inspired by Michael Gross's book of that title:

Iraq, Moyers and Me, Six Years On

On this week in 2008, I appeared on Bill Moyers' show for a lengthy segment around the table with Knight Ridder/McClatchy's Jonathan Landay and John Walcott, much hailed for getting it right in the runup to the Iraq invasion.  We talked about the war and the occupation and the media, leading from publication of my book, So Wrong for So Long .   And, yes, it's been that long since Scott McClellan's book came out.  Whatever happened to him?  You can read Bill on the program and watch it here.

Michael Hastings, the FBI and the Missing Soldier

VICE with a big piece up just now on the long-forgotten Rolling Stone piece by Hastings--that sparked FBI interest--on Bergdahl, now very much in the news.  I've never been in the "conspiracy" camp on Hastings' death but still this is important reading.

At the time of the story’s publication, the media had all but forgotten about Bergdahl — who was released on Saturday after five years in the hands of the Taliban, in exchange for five Guantanamo prisoners. And, with the exception of some initial chatter, Hastings’ piece, which paints a deeply unflattering picture of Bergdahl’s unit and its leadership, hardly had the impact of some of his other investigations.

But someone did pay attention to it: the FBI.

That, at least, is what was revealed in a heavily redacted document released by the agency following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request — filed on the day of Hastings’ death — by investigative journalist Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro, an MIT doctoral student whom the Justice Department once called the “most prolific” requester of FOIA documents.

Key WikiLeaks file today.  

Gogh Forth and Multiply

Sacrilege of the day, week, month, year, almost forever:  They have re-grown Vincent Van Gogh's ear, based on genetic material provided by a descendent, and put it on display, in Germany.  "I use science basically like a type of brush, like Vincent used paint."  Well, not exactly.

This is one case where I really wish it turns out to be a hoax.

WikiLeaks Has Bergdahl File

And they've posted online--from the zillions of leaked docs via Private Manning.  Here's just the opening night on his capture/defecting.  Full report shows massive deployment of copters and drones and troops (and a dog search)  and notes receiving reports of soldier wandering around with camera and asking if anyone speaks English.

At 0430Z, TF 1 Geronimo reported a B Co missing soldier after he did not show up for the 0900L morning roll call at Mest OP, grid 42SVB 59236 47877 Yahya Khail District, Paktika. A full search was ordered. At 0535Z, TF 1 Geronimo initiated DUSTWUN procedures for the missing soldier. At 0645Z, all remaining units had reported in 100% accountability. Geronimo TOC ordered blocking positions set in and around Mest OP. At 0707Z, Predator (VooDoo) was on station in support. At 0940Z, a Pathfinder and tracking dog team arrived at Mest OP in support.

At 0945Z, Predator (Pfingston) arrived on station in support. At 1012Z, LLVI receives traffic that an American Soldier with a camera is looking for someone who speaks English. At 1303Z, Graphic 33(2x F-18) arrived on station in support. At 1309Z, FF receive intelligence that a U.S. soldier has been captured. At 1351Z, VooDoo and Pfingston RIP with Predator (Sijan). At 1520Z, Sijan RIPs with Predator (Kisling) and DUDE-21 (2x F-15) arrives on station to support. Between 1725Z and 1800Z, B Co conducted 2 breaches of suspected enemy locations with NSTR. Additional forces were moving into the area to place blocking positions and conduct searches based on all of the aerial and ground based intelligence sources available throughout the day and through the night.

A monitored chat between two Taliban suggests he was using the toilet when captured (would undermine claim that he defected):

1- LOL THEY KNOW WHERE HE IS BUT THEY KEEP GOING TO WRONG AREA. 2- OK SET UP THE WORK FOR THEM. 1- YES WE HAVE A LOT OF IED ON THE ROAD. 2- GOD WILLING WE WILL DO IT. 1- WE WERE ATTACKING THE POST HE WAS SITTING TAKING EXPLETIVE HE HAD NO GUN WITH HIM. HE WAS TAKING EXPLETIVE, HE HAS NOT CLEANED HIS BUTT YET. 2- WHAT SHEAM FOR THEM. 1- I DONT THINK HE W 2-YES LOOK THEY HAVE ALL AMERICANS, ANA HELICOPTERS THE PLANES ARE LOOKING FOR HIM. 1- I THINK HE IS BIG SHOT THAT WHY THEY ARE LOOKING FOR HIM. 3-CAN YOU GUYS MAKE A VIDEO OF HIM AND ANNOUNCE IT ALL OVER AFGHANISTAN THAT WE HAVE ONE OF THE AMERICANS. 1- WE ALREADY HAVE A VIDEO OF HIM.

 And later:  Taliban might have traded prisoner for 15 of their own.

THE ELDERS WERE ASKED BY THE TALIBAN TO A TRADE BETWEEN THE U.S. AND TALIBAN. THE TALIBAN TREMS ARE 15 OF THEIR TALIBAN BROTHERS IN U.S. JAIL AND SOME MONEY IN EXCHANGE FOR PVT BERGDAHL. THE ELDERS ASSURED ME THAT PVT BERGDAHL IS ALIVE AND THAT HE IN NOT BEING HARMED.
THE ELDERS ARE GOING TO TO HAVE ANOTHER MEETING WITH THEMSELVES TO DISCUSS HELPING US THIS AFTERNOON. THEY REQUESTED TO HAVE ANOTHER MEETING WITH ME THE SAME TIME TOMORROW. THE MEST ANP COMMANDER IS ALSO WILLING TO HELP IN EVERY WAY HE CAN; EVEN TO THE EXTENT OF REQUESTING ASSESTS/MONEY FROM DAWLAT KHAN TO AID THE MEST ELDERS TO HAVE RESOURCES (CAR, FUEL, ARM TO DEFEND THEMSELVES) FACILITATING MEETING WITH THE TALIBAN. THE ELDERS ALSO ASSURE THAT THEY WILL DO EVERYTHING THEY CAN TO TAKE POSSESSION OF PVT BERGDAHL. THEY SAID THAT THEY WILL APPEAL TO THE TALIBAN BY SAYING THAT THEY ARE WHITE BEARDED MEN AS ELDERS. DURING OUR MEETING, THEY WANTED FOR ME TO TALK TO PVT BERGDAHL VIA ICOM TO ENSURE THAT HE IS DOING OKAY. TRIED TO GET COMMS WITH NO LUCK. 

 Later, amid frantic search from air:

UPDATE: 1248z SPOT REPORT MISSING US SOLDIER WAS LAST SEEN IN A VILLAGE AT GRID LOCATION VB 611 818; A BAG WAS COVERING HIS HEAD AND HE WAS WEARING DARK KHAKI APPAREL. HE WAS BEING TRANSPORTED IN A BLACK TOYOTA CORROLLA WHICH IN ADDITION WAS BEING ESCORTED BY 3-5 MOTORCYCLES.

The report on this day also peppered with unrelated incidents involving (seemingly) drone targeting  or other attacks on SUVs or tents, and injuries to a woman and her 15-month-old child.  

Nagasaki, the Day After

Interesting piece today on rare photos taken in Nagasaki the day after the A-bomb attack on August 9, 1945.  The subject of photos and film footage taken in the two atomic cities in 1945-1946 is one of the few areas that I am truly expert. (I''ve even interviewed the man who took the only photos in Hiroshima on the day of the tragedy.)  The claim that these photos were "newly found" might be technically true--the prints up for auction, from a scrapbook may be--but the images have been published for decades in magazines and books.  They were suppressed for years after the bombing, however, just like the footage shot by a Japanese newsreel team and an elite U.S. military crew (the subject of my recent book). 

Kristof: Some 'splain To Do

I missed this yesterday afternoon but here's NYT public ed demanding (as others had done for days online) that columnist Nick Kristof explain his role in yet another hero-scam. 

In Nicholas Kristof’s columns in the New York Times, he portrayed Ms. Mam in an extraordinarily positive light. He was not alone in doing so. Ms. Mam attracted many high-profile supporters, from Susan Sarandon to John Kerry to Sheryl Sandberg.

In a 2009 column, Mr. Kristof told the story of Long Pross, a teenager (also known as Somana) who said that her eye had been gouged out by a pimp, after she was forced into prostitution. Newsweek has reported, based on medical records, that the girl’s missing eye is the result of surgery to remove a non-malignant tumor when she was 13.

A great deal of money has been raised to combat sex-trafficking, in part as a result of Mr. Kristof’s writing about Ms. Mam on multiple occasions. And there’s little doubt that sex-trafficking is a problem worth paying attention to, and working to end. But now that Ms. Mam has stepped down from the foundation that bears her name — following not only the Newsweek story but the foundation’s internal investigation — many readers, on Twitter and in emails to my office, are asking what Mr. Kristof’s responsibility is for setting the record straight.

More here on Kristof's response  via Erik Wemple at Wash Post. 

Tank Man

Cool excerpt from film about the young Chinese student who stood in front of that tank in Tiananmen Square.  Much more from that film, and others, here.