] "There is a feeling in our newsroom that you need to be
] as realistic as possible and carry the images of war and
] the effect that war has on people," he says. "If you are
] in a war, your population shouldn't just eat their dinner
] and watch sanitized images on TV and video games produced
] by the technological whizzes in the Pentagon and say,
] 'This is war.' No. You really need to show every family
] what your men and women are going through. That's
] important because the families [of dead soldiers] are
] going to be the only ones who see those gruesome images
] when they get the bodies. How about the rest of the
] American population? How are they going to appreciate
] their sacrifices? . . . If you leave it to politicians,
] you won't see anything."

I like Al-Jazeera.. They piss off _everyone_..

In the Line of Fire (washingtonpost.com)

] An Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim leader has urged Iraqis not to
] hinder U.S. invading forces after previously asking them
] to resist efforts to topple President Saddam Hussein, a
] Shi'ite group in the UK said on Thursday.
]
] In a religious ruling, or fatwa, Shi'ite cleric Grand
] Ayatollah Ali Sistani urged Iraqis to stop fighting in
] and around the Shi'ite holy shrine of Najaf, the Al Khoei
] foundation in London told Reuters.
]
] Grand ayatollahs are the highest authorities in Shi'ite
] Islam and Sistani is the only one in Iraq. The fatwa
] applies nationwide.
]
] "Until now the Shias of Iraq and the followers of Sistani
] were confused on whether to take up arms against the
] Americans, whether to fight," said a spokesman for the
] foundation, which represents followers of Sistani.

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

] York daily, Newsday. Palestinian Authority Chairman
] Yasser Arafat was instrumental in gaining the release of
] two Newsday reporters covering the war in Iraq and jailed
] there for eight days without trace.
]
] The two are reporter Matthew McAllester and photographer
] Moises Saman, of Palestinian origin from the West Bank
] town of Beit Jala, and they were covering the offensive
] in Iraq on behalf of the New York Daily, Newsday.

Ha'aretz - Arafat plays role in release of Newsday men in Iraq

] TEN MILES FROM THE IRAQI BORDER — J. and I are
] sitting in the middle of mountain valley, protected
] from surveillance by scrub and rocky outcroppings.
] Overhead the roar and rumble of bombers echoes
] against the mountain walls. Every now and then,
] we can hear the dull thuds of exploded ordinance
] — over Mosul? — as the sounds of the blasts roll
] through the valleys and off the sheer faces
] surrounding us. It is overcast, which is lucky.
] Tonight, we will ford one of the Tigris’
] tributaries and then walk two to three hours on
] foot — with a guide — into Iraq.

Christopher Evet appears to have made it to Iraq.. Lets hope his sat phone dosen't crap out on him again.

Back to Iraq gets back to Iraq

] On Thursday, March 20, 2003, our friend and colleague
] Maher (Mike) Hawash was arrested ("detained") as a
] "material witness" by the FBI and the Joint Terrorism
] Task Force in the parking lot of Intel Corp's Hawthorne
] Farms parking lot.

(Comments Decius)

This case is interesting on a number of levels.

1. The obvious ... the government can spirit you away without charging you with a crime. They can hold you arbitrarily. We ought to demand that when the government takes people they explain why and for how long. "Material Witness" rules were not meant to be a loophole in the requirement that the government have reasons for holding people. If this is the Patriot act at work then this is definately not acceptable.

2. The fact that you know about this. Over the course of two weeks this website has gotten a lot of coverage in blogistan. This story has not really been covered in the mainstream press (do a google news search).

I'm posting this because I want to see more information.

Free Mike Hawash

] However, security afforded by frequency-hopping methods
] is very dependant on the strict adherence to protocols
] for operating such radios. The US troops and other
] operators of frequency-hopping radio sets frequently
] disregard these protocols. An example would be an
] artillery unit passing digital traffic in the
] frequency-hopping mode, which would enable an
] unauthorized listener to determine the frequency-hopping
] algorithm and eavesdrop on the transmission.
]
] Even when proper protocols for using frequency-hopping
] radios are being adhered to interception and decryption
] of these signals is still possible. The frequency-hopping
] interceptors are special advanced reconnaissance wideband
] receivers capable of simultaneously tracking a large
] number of frequency-hopping encrypted transmissions even
] in high background noise environments.

And then there is GNU Radio..

War in Iraq - How US military radio transmissions are intercepted

] There is a war on, and danger lurks ahead, and the
] Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry are
] getting desperate — for tobacco.
]
] It's been two weeks since they left they relative
] luxury of their camp in Kuwait and their supplies
] of cigarettes and chewing tobacco are running out.
] They are rationing their precious supplies, and even
] begging smokes from local farmers.
]
] An army, Napoleon reputedly said, marches on its
] stomach. But for generations, armies have also
] marched on nicotine. And these Marines — smoking
] more than usual under the stress of battle
] conditions — are getting antsy.

The horror of war!!

Yahoo! News - Tobacco Shortage Makes Marines Irritable

] Russian military advisers have told Iraqi President
] Saddam Hussein and his government that the main Allied
] drive on Baghdad will not take place until mid-April and
] will then come around the west of the city, Russian
] journalists and analysts with strong links to Russian
] military intelligence now claim.
]
] Strikingly, the Russian analysts, whose work appears on
] the iraqwar.ru Web site, believe that U.S. and Allied
] forces are still overwhelmingly likely to win the war and
] that they are performing in a highly impressive manner.
] The reports are described as "based on the Russian
] military intelligence -- the Main Intelligence
] Directorate or GRU -- reports."
]
] A March 31 report on the site revealed that Iraq was
] receiving analytical advice from Russian officials.
] "Russian military analysts are advising the Iraqi
] military command against excessive optimism," it said.

United Press International: Analysis: Russia advises Iraq on U.S. plan

] President Bush today signed an executive order that will
] delay the release of millions of government documents and
] make it easier for presidents and their administrations
] to keep historical records secret.
]
] The White House disclosed a new policy that has drawn
] criticism from historians in an e-mail message to
] reporters early this evening, at the end of a day of news
] about the war in Iraq.

Bush Orders a 3-Year Delay in Opening Secret Documents

] AUSTRALIAN military divers yesterday questioned the
] effectiveness of the US Navy's mine-clearing dolphins,
] revealing one had disappeared for two days.
]
] The polite way to express their scepticism about the
] mine-clearing skills of the dolphins is to question their
] reliability and cost-efficiency, but one diver spoke more
] plainly yesterday.
]
] "Flipper's fucked, mate," he said.
]
] "The dolphins have had all this amazing publicity but as
] soon as they put one in the water it shot through.
] There's a war going on and Flipper goes AWOL (absent
] without leave)."

NEWS.com.au | US Navy's 'Flipper' goes AWOL