[Peace-discuss] Democracy Now! moves right

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Is this an earnest of the Obama years?  Will they be dominated by "conservative 
liberals" running essentially the same policies as the "liberal conservatives" 
(a.k.a. neo-conservatives) of the Bush years?  It's beginning to look that way, 
as the leading neocon intellectual, Robert Kagan, has been saying for a while. 
That's why paleo-conservatives like Bill Kauffman are beginning to sound so 
good.  I'm beginning to think that the diagnostic test is the war in "Afpak": 
Obama (again to the right of the administration) wants to bomb terrorists in 
Pakistan, if Musharraf won't; people really opposed to the war want to get all 
US and NATO troops out of Afpak, now.  --CGE]

	June 11, 2008
	Whatever Happened to "Democracy Now?"
	By MUHAMMAD IDREES AHMAD

It is with some alarm and dismay that I watched Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” 
provide platform to right-wing Paksitani journalist Ahmad Rashid, long an 
apologist for Bush's war-on-terror, to recycle propaganda from British tabloid 
press and other discredited sources. His tale about al-Qa'ida recruiting white 
converts for terrorist acts in Europe originated with the British security 
services as part of their fearmongering campaign to build support for the 42-day 
detention without charge plan. No shred of evidence was ever offered.

Equally bogus are his claims of organized al-Qa'ida 'training camps', where 
recruits are offered foreign language training etc. Once again, these claims are 
the products of the vivid imaginations of the terrorologists proliferating in 
the war on terror fear factory. I suggest Goodman ask Rashid to substantiate 
claims, or issue a retraction. (When he claims 'Iraq is an Arab problem' and 
that it would be resolved when its neighbours 'stop interfering', I would have 
liked Goodman  to at least ask if he was aware the country is under U.S. 
occupation.)

He suggests the truce negotiated by the Pakistani government is tantamount to 
'supporting the Taliban'. Quoting U.S. military officials in Kabul he alleges 
that Pakistan is 'funding' the 'resurgence' of the Taliban. He faults Pakistan 
for not cooperating more enthusiastically in Bush's war on terror. Rashid 
appears to be living in a timeless world where the realities of 10 years past 
substitute for the present. Pakistani military's intervention in the FATA region 
has been brutal, now extending to the frontier heartland of Swat. Tactics have 
included Israeli-style collective punishment; wholesale demolition of 
recalcitrant villages; disappearing of opponents (mostly of the tribal homines 
sacri, not wealthy media figures of Rashid's stripe); bombing raids; 
extrajudicial killings. The response of the tribesmen -- all swept under the 
handy label of 'the Taliban' by the government and hacks like Rashid -- is as 
brutal as it is predictable. Only a few months back three rockets landed in the 
very safe neighborhood where my sister resides in the frontier city of Peshawar.

Kidnapping for ransom has become a common phenomenon. Suicide attacks on the 
military have been frequent. The Pakistani military death toll now numbers in 
the hundreds. So when a guest on Goodman’s show starts claiming that the 
Pakistani government is funding and encouraging the slaughter of its own 
soldiers I am forced to demur despite my disdain for the regime. When I hear 
Goodman’s guest fault Pakistan for not allowing US forces on its territory, and 
refusing CIA a base in the tribal regions, its your judgment I must question 
Goodman for letting this pass without challenge.

The government for some time has shown a preference for a negotiated political 
settlement, only to be thwarted every time by unauthorized US assaults renewing 
the conflict. Other times the government has caved under pressure and resumed 
the assaults itself to fend off accusations that it is 'not doing enough' in the 
fight against the Taliban. This is the same twaddle Goodman has allowed Rashid 
to recycle on her show.

There is no reason why Pakistan should be cooperating with the US “war on 
terror”. Under this rubric, the Musharraf regime has already devastated much of 
the tribal belt and created enemies where there were none. Contrary to Rashid's 
claim that the new government is 'willing to follow the US agenda', it has 
promised to open dialogue with the tribals in order to end hostilities. This is 
a positive development that makes the US apprehensive, as it does Uncle Toms 
like Rashid who have wedded their careers to the 'war on terror' as its 
sanctioned cheer leaders.

I hope Goodman shows more care in the future in vetting her guests. She 
certainly could not have been unaware of the political leanings of this guest as 
on her very show he had declared his preferred outcome for the region's 
conflicts: a NATO 'victory' in Afghanistan.

This is the second time in a week where Goodman’s editorial judgment has left me 
deeply disappointed. First was the refusal to cover -- yet again -- the AIPAC 
conference, with all its implications for US politics and the Middle East. In a 
year when even the mainstream media was finally forced to take notice (with Jon 
Stewart of the Daily Show going so far as to refer to the lobby group as the 
'Elders of Zion', Democracy Now appeared alone in missing the irony of three 
presidential candidates pledging to fight the domination of lobbyists in 
Washington genuflect to the most powerful of them all.

Amy, what happened to Democracy Now's promise to speak truth to power? Did you 
not say once that your aim was to go where the silence is? How is it that the 
Washington Post was able to break the silence even as Democracy Now remained 
AWOL? Why did Democracy Now join MSM in denying Mearsheimer and Walt a voice, 
instead allowing their views to be misrepresented by critics without a chance of 
rebuttal? How well placed are you to criticize the mainstream for refusing to 
stand up to power when you can yourself be considered guilty of the same?

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad is at the Department of Geography and Sociology, 
University of Strathclyde. He can be reached at m.idrees at gmail.com