BAGnewsNotes

Gitmo Sixth Anniversary/Bringing Suits

Mr. Swanson's photo set follows the D.C. protest sequentially
right up to the point of the arrests on the steps of the Supreme Court.

 

80 Arrests at Supreme Court (AP)
Guantanamo: A Look Back at Six Years of Imprisonment, Torture and Suicide (Democracy Now)
Six Years Of Guantánamo: Enough Is Enough (Andy Worthington -- author of  The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison. HuffPo via Cursor)
The Gitmo Torture Cell Tour (360º panorama via Lightstalkers)
An Exceptional Paradise -- BNN Contributer Bryon Finoki's update on migrant detention installation on north side of Guantanamo Naval Base - Subtopia blog)
Our shameful Guantanamo anniversary (Salon)
Witness Against Torture: A Campaign To Shut Down Guantanamo (Non-violent direct action campaign)
ACLU Close Gitmo Pledge

(images: David Swanson's photos/Flickr)

Destiny And Fate

Listening to coverage while spending most of yesterday on the road, one expert likened the Bhutto killing -- in terms of the impact on Pakistan -- to the assassination of JFK.

I don't have a sense of how, or how well the metaphor transfers.  What I do know is that, seeing a photo like this, taken just seconds before the killing, one feels in close proximity to destiny and fate.  Another interviewee on the radio yesterday spoke about the pattern of propping up dictators, and the failure of the U.S. to help build "systems" or institutional structures in Pakistan.

On that level, this image is just another sad testament to how thoroughly the Administration squandered the opportunity to target South Asia, al-Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11, and how much the world is paying for it.

Bhutto Assassination (NYT slide show)

(image: John Moore/Getty Images.  December 26, 2007.  Islamabad.  via nytimes.com)

Iraq Still There

Sign of the times, here's another shot from Michael Kamber, taken in Ramadi on December 8th.  He writes:

"Found hanging on the wall of the marine base here--an old cold dirty building with no furniture, just bare brick walls."

War Is Over--Say the Pundits (FAIR)
In a Force for Iraqi Calm, Seeds of Conflict (NYT)

(Michael Kamber/NYT.  December 8, 2007.  Iraq.  Used by permission)

Aja, Aja, Aja, Aja, OBollywood

What you have to like about something like this is the suggestion that America -- after years of xenophobia -- might possibly find a way to embrace diversity, pluralism and multiculturalism. 

(video: Barack OBollywood via Salon via YouTube via CamPain2008)

N.O. Demolition

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On Thursday, over intense public opposition, the NO city council approved HUD's plan to demolish 4500 units of public housing and replace them with "mixed income development."

Photographer Mario Tama -- who has been documenting one of the existing projects on and off for the past 6 months -- forwarded these images to The BAG. The first two photos were taken this summer.  The third, showing an early stage of demolition, was taken last Saturday.

Behind the fury is the belief that, as flawed as the original projects were, it would have been relatively straightforward and inexpensive to repair flood damage, as opposed to tearing the buildings down.  With rents up 45% and homelessness having doubled since Katrina, activists see the money and power trending toward corporate developers and up-market housing, resulting in poor blacks being pushed out of the city.  And, it's hard to dispel that thinking as the city has offered few options to the soon-to-be-displaced residents.

Regarding the photos, I don't think the intention here is to romanticize life in the projects.  The difference between the two earlier shots, and the recent one, however, using youth as "a constant," is to reflect the fabric of life then and now, when what's happening now leaves seems to leave even less to look forward to.

In pictures: New Orleans clashes (BBC Slideshow)
New Orleans' Public Housing Fight Rages (AP News)
The Shock Doctrine in Action in New Orleans (Naomi Klein)

(images: ©Mario Tama/Getty.  2007.  BW Cooper Housing Project.  New Orleans, La.  Used by permission)

Bridge World In An Uproar

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Here's the photo of the "incident" that "has the bridge world in an uproar."

The image shows America's women's team members (l to r) Jill Levin, Jill Meyers, Debbie Rosenberg and Irina Levitina during the award ceremony following their victory in the world championships last month in Shanghai.

Here's the article link for background on the punishments being levied; what the world bridge organizational ground rules are for brandishing political communications scribbled on the back of a menu; and comments, by the players, about the atmosphere at the competition, which was described as less warm toward the Americans than during previous tournaments, with a lot of anti-war, anti-torture and anti-Bush sentiment being expressed.

In my mind, the biggest deal about this image -- photographed during the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" while several team members were waving small American flags -- is why it's a big deal at all.

Window On Jena

First off, I should say I haven't looked at a wider cross-section of media images from Thursday's march in Jena.

Through the window of the one NYT slide show, based on 12 photos by Times photographer Damon Winter, however, I have an editorial and a historical observation.  (For easier reference, by the way, each image is numbered and linked to as a pop-up at the bottom of the post.)

From the accounts I read, it seemed the march was notably peaceful, even festive.  This series of photos, however, seems to be "looking for trouble." 

For example:

The Soldier Referendum: Watch The Hand

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This post is not about McCain.  It's about the rapidly escalating war over the war.

The conventional wisdom might be right -- that the Dems, ultimately, will not take on Bush, and that the country will still be in Iraq after Junior leaves office.  I offer that thought, however, against a powerful and building, almost manic political tension.

What is intensifying, as well, is the media's projective casting of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi veterans.  Over the past few months and weeks, "the soldier" (along with his or her slightest impression) has sharpened into the focal symbol and conduit for gauging, on a near daily basis now, the political status of (and emotional temperature surrounding) the war.

Under those terms, what makes this photo so significant -- taken at Virginia Military Institute yesterday, where McCain gave a nervous, if unqualified pro-war speech -- is the apparent expression of hesitancy on the part of the soldier to give it up for McCain.

Of course, how can you trust one instant in time to indicate hesitation as motive?  Obviously, you can't.  Just as well, perhaps, the Times could have (first) run this shot, taken one instant later, in which U.S. Marine, Iraqi Veteran and Cadet First Classman Robert Frazier does shake McCain's hand, while supplying the socially-normative warmth and eye contact.

Still, it's the shot above that commanded attention first, capturing the skeptical look of VMI Iraq veterans set up selected to sit in the front two rows.  It's an image, by the way, which remains fully consistent, if not even as skeptical as the look on the faces of the vet-Cadets in the shot with the smiling Frazier).  And then, it seems to also embody the self-conscious quality of the (made-for-TV) event.  (If you watch the NYT video, notice how McCain has to prompt for applause after recognizing the student veterans).

If there's one caveat to the skepticism, it's the possibility the reaction has more to do with McCain than the war itself.  That's completely reasonable, of course.  But, outside of Bush, this war doesn't have a bigger cheerleader than McCain.  And to look down on John as the fallen messenger as the soldier's "visual verdict of the day" is just as determinative of the war (and the political surge) as anything more direct.

(h/t: Dave)

(image: attribution unavailable. Matthew Cavanaugh /European Pressphoto Agency. Lexington Va.  April 11, 2007. nytimes.com.  linked image: Don Petersen/AP.  Via YahooNews)

Looking More Like It

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No, I'm not advocating civil disobedience.  "It," in this case, refers to a more determined and evocative opposition -- which comes through in the images of this weekend's antiwar protest in D.C.

If you're looking for fervor, take this image that accompanied the absolutely trivial and condescending article in the NYT as an example.

It's a shot that contains news value as well as historical allusions.  The gas masks and the show of manpower speaks of current confrontation or threat -- as well as the memory of it from the Vietnam era.  If you take the Code Pink protesters out of the background, the protester's jeans, jacket and long hair, paired with the policeman with the crew cut, makes it look like, well, 1967.

Compared to the demonstration in Washington this past February, this one was considerably smaller.  Reading the images, however, I'd say this one was much more significant.  (For a summary of the event -- and a a rare piece of MSM protest coverage that is nostalgic, informative and inspired, check out WAPO's profile, "Theater of Battle With A Familiar Script.")

So, what made this weekend's protest more effective and significant than previous events?