Notebook: A Kill Team and a HST killer quote

Rolling Stone has produced the journalism other haven’t — or won’t. They’ve tackled the worst known war scandal since Abu Ghraib with their coverage of “The Kill Team.”

The mag published the photos of soldiers posing with their random kills. The photos I haven’t seen in any other U.S publication. The mag wrote about the Pentagon’s efforts to confiscate the photos — an effort to  quell the fallout, which came anyway, and looks worse with the cover-up.

Well, the fallout and great narrative came at the hands of this magazine journalism and a list of muckrakers including the author, Mark Boal, and dating back to Hunter S. Thompson.

Read it.

Unquote” the Good Doc

Reading a punch of prose from Hunter S. Thompson is like downing shots of Wild Turkey. His style wakes you up, makes you feel a bit more alive.

Here’s an Unquote” of his pitch to write for the Vancouver Sun circa 1958:

“The enclosed clippings should give you a rough idea of who I am. It’s a year old, however, and I’ve changed a bit since it was written. [Benign enough start, but keep reading.] I’ve taken some writing courses from Columbia in my spare time, learned a hell of a lot about the newspaper business, and developed a healthy contempt for journalism as a profession.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity. If this is what you’re trying to get The Sun away from, then I think I’d like to write for you.”

An Unquote” worth a drink

The disconnect from this fact in the Libyan war coverage makes The Tank want to pour another shot of Wild Turkey.

In Time, where complacence often reins, this upcoming Unquote” fact was in a story about energy, and probably not alluded to in the old guard’s war “reporting.”

“Libya: The site of the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, the nation remains largely underexplored.”

It’s a fact which makes the Tank think about John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hitman.” He would say this U.S.-led effort wreaks of an ulterior motive to grab at the country’s resources. A strategy he documented from his first-hand experience in the book how similar tactics occurred in Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Columbia, and later, Iraq, and others.

Somewhere, the World Bank, the IMF, the Rand Corp., Bechtel and Halliburton prepare business operations and light up for profits in Libya.

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Looking for a bigger picture

One news story this week has captured my attention more than any other — and it isn’t the war in Libya or the continuing fallout from the triple disaster in Japan.

It’s the U.S. court-martial of Spc. Jeremy Morlock for the indiscriminate killings of three unarmed Afghan civilians last year. He said, “the plan was to kill people.” But that isn’t really it.

What’s grabbed my attention was how the U.S. newspapers I read avoided publishing the photos the unit took of the “disconcertingly satisfied” soldiers posing with their kills.

The New York Times wrote about how the photos could divide the Afghan and U.S. governments at a crucial time in the war, but didn’t link the photos online. The St. Paul Pioneer Press picked up the Times’ story, but no photos either. The Minneapolis Star Tribune didn’t pick the photos or the story.

The German news magazine Der Spiegel published the photos on March 20. The Times’ story said “it was not clear how Der Spiegel obtained the images.” It also said, “a military judge had prohibited the release of the photos.”

But newspapers have shown they aren’t beholden to the directives of the U.S. government with their extensive coverage of the Wikileaks documents this winter.

The Tank just read about a book that included some 1970s history about how the editor of the New York Times refused to stop publishing the Pentagon Papers after Nixon’s administration threatened the newspaper with a violation of the Espionage Act. (Ironically, that’s the same charge the Obama administration is purportedly exploring the use of with Wikileaks’ Julian Assange.)

Morlock was sentenced to 24 years in prison Wednesday. The Pioneer Press continued to cover it; the Star Tribune again had nothing. The largest newspaper in Minnesota failed to include what the Associated Press called “some of the most serious criminal allegations to come from the war in Afghanistan.”

There is a precedence, however, with main newspapers ignoring damaging photographs. In 2004, when photos of U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison went public, London’s newspapers displayed them across their front pages and continued in full color on inside pages. The Tank saw this coverage on London’s Tube. Back in the U.S. the next day, only below-the-fold follow-ups from the U.S. papers.

Why is this? If Der Spiegel has the photos, U.S. news organizations could probably get them from Der Spiegel if they credit where they came from. There has to be more here. But since we’re not in the newsrooms of the major papers, the Tank will hope for answers later.

But if you don’t want to be beholden to the sometimes limited coverage of our nation’s newspapers, click here to see the photos. They aren’t pretty, but they help tell the story and they should have been run with the articles.

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My 5: Abandoned Farm and Chengwatana

The year anniversary of the South American soiree came and went last weekend. No hubbub, just ho-hum — with a slight sigh about how quickly six months can pass in a blink.

In the spirit of the trip, Pessa and I went on a day hike. A new place. A map. A pack with snacks. We stopped by an abandoned roadside farm on our way to snowshoe in the Chegwatana State Forest in Pine County.

With pealing paint, slate skies, a rare sights of a red hat , here are two My 5s:

My 5: Chengwatana

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Respect your Hair-itage

My current obsession with facial hair might need a clinical diagnosis, but the boys and girls at Nike get me. They really get me.

They have introduced a line of T-shirts dedicated to Hall of Fame baseball players with outstanding ‘staches, fu manchus, beards, afros and dreads.

The best include Reggie Jackson, Ozzie Smith, Manny Ramirez and, of course, Rollie Fingers.

I don’t buy new clothes, but I need something to wear during the Twins World Series run this year. Overlooking the coming Casilla crash, melancholy over Morneau’s melon and being on the brink of bullpen blunders, I’m optimistic. So, here’s what I’m going to wear over a long-sleeve shirt in late October and early November.

KIIIIRRRBBBBYYYY PUCKETT. That’s right.

That’s good, but these three are better.

The aviators make Mr. October’s the best T.

Still the gold standard

A crusty old sports reporter the Tank knows laments the fall of Sports Illustrated from top-notch sports journalism to little more than pop culture drivel.

While they have pop culture graphics and blurbs, they still produce great reporting, including recent stories about Aliquippa (Pa.) High School football, Jake Plummer and the investigation into crime in college football.

SI led me to this pop culture. The video is good, but not near the greatness of other Nike commercials/shorts.

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Bearded

A full beard is a sight I praise; proper documentation of a full beard is a sight I envy.

This video is from Carlton College student Corey Fauver and his posterity prowess. He’s just sharing the greatness of facial hair growth.

Two Noxious Numbers

37

The number of deaths of U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, according to a Star Tribune letter writer.

It’s easy to forget about the wars — and the Tank can be as guilty as the rest — but we should try and fight those omissions.

1,000,000,000

The estimated number of undernourished people in the world, according to the World Bank.

That’s about 1 in 6. A shocking number on the dire needs of this planet.

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