FAIR points out the NYT Calls for protecting Libyan Civilian by Escalating War–Like they did in Fallujah.

An editorial page in today’s New York Times [the "liberal" paper] suggests using the American A-10 and AC-130 aircraft which are, according to the Times, “ideally suited for carefully sorting out targets in populated areas.”

F.A.I.R. points out the inconvenient history of the Times reporting on this aircraft.  They actually had the nerve to bring up a story from November 16, 2004. It seems that the Time had reported that.

In April, American troops were closing in on the city center when popular uprisings broke out in cities across Iraq. The outrage, fed by mostly unconfirmed reports of large civilian casualties, forced the Americans to withdraw. American commanders regarded the reports as inflated, but it was impossible to determine independently how many civilians had been killed.

Another article in the Times the following day included an iteration of “unconfirmed deaths of civilians.”

There was nothing “unconfirmed” about the civilian deaths.

The head of Fallujah’s hospital, Dr. Rafie al-Issawi, has consistently maintained that more than 600 people were killed in the initial U.S. siege of Fallujah in April 2004, a figure that rose to more than 800 as the siege was lifted and people pinned down by the fighting were able to register their families’ deaths (Knight-Ridder, 5/9/04). More than 300 of the dead, according to al-Issawi, were women and children. On October 26, the independent British-based group Iraq Body Count reported that the civilian death toll in Fallujah in April was about 600, based on their extensive evaluation of the numbers reported by local hospital officials and the Health Ministry, as well as mainstream media accounts.

********************************************************************************

QUEEN’S COMMENTS

What continues to puzzle me is how ANY corporate owned mainstream media can ever be referred to as “liberal” is beyond me.  The only explanation is that such a lack of understanding can only be due to sheer ignorance. or perhaps relativity when one compares papers like the times to Republican mouthpieces like Fox News.

Bill Keller, age 63, executive Editor of The New York Times. Anyone who thinks that Keller is a “liberal” has more than one screw loose.

Keller is the son of former chairman and chief executive of the Chevron Corporation. Keller was one of the leading “liberal” supporters of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, explaining his backing for military action in his article ‘ The I-Can’t-Believe-I’m-A-Hawk Club’. Two days after the invasion, Keller wrote the column ‘Why Colin Powell Should Go’ arguing for US Secretary of State’s resignation because his strategy of diplomacy at the UN had failed. In contrast, Keller was much more sympathetic to Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, describing him as the ‘Sunshine Warrior’. It’s a toss-up as to which one Bill Keller disapproves of the most: Arianna Huffington or Julian Assange. I’m not sure what Keller is, but I’m fairly certain that it’s not a liberal.

Proclaim the Queen!

•