US version of Pressfreedom? - US bars Robert Fisk from entering country

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sat, 09/24/2005 - 02:16.

From Direland, Doug Ireland's political blog, Sept. 22:

The internationally renowned correspondent for The Independent -- the great British journalist Robert Fisk -- has been banned from entering the United States. Fisk has been covering war zones for decades, but is above all known for his incisive reporting from the Middle East for more than 20 years. His critical coverage of the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, and the continuing occupation that has followed it, has repeatedly exposed U.S. and British government disinformation campaigns.

He also has exposed how the bulk of the press reports from Iraq have been "hotel journalism" -- a phrase Fisk coined.

The daily New Mexican reports that "U.S. immigration officials refused Tuesday to allow Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East correspondent for the London newspaper, The Independent, to board a plane from Toronto to Denver.

Fisk was on his way to Santa Fe for a sold-out appearance in the Lannan Foundation’s readings-and-conversations series Wednesday night.

According to Christie Mazuera Davis, a Lannan program officer, Fisk was told that his papers were not in order. Davis made last-minute arrangements Wednesday for Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio’s daily news show, Democracy Now!, to interview Fisk via satellite from a television station in Toronto..."

A recording of this satellite interview will soon be available on the Lannan Foundation's website.

If Fisk has been barred from entry, it's very hard not to believe it has something to do with dispaches of his like this one from September 15.

Story - Url.: http://www.ww4report.com/node/1103

Fwd. by:

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

* Never trust them: the BBC and Warmongering - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6td3d

*Corporate News Media: Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

*Colin Powell: 'It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel' - Url.:http://tinyurl.com/22p6c And what is 'Press Freedom' about? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/atxyk

* Brainwashed? Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

*TODAY, September 24 - 2005 - Massive March, Impeachment Rally & Anti-war Fair - Gather 11:00AM at the Washington Monument - Info - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bnw4c

*Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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Dangers of a Drunk Dubya

FPF-fwd.: From Capitol Hill Blue - The Rant

By DOUG THOMPSON

Sep 23, 2005 - According to the National Enquirer, President George W. Bush, an alcoholic, is drinking again.

In normal times, such a story in a tabloid like the Enquirer would be dismissed as just another fantasy for the newspaper that normally devotes its front page to gossip about celebrity divorces. But an America with Bush as President is anything but normal and too many warning signs point to the sad fact that Dubya the drunk is back on the bottle. Plus we reported the same thing in a story about Bush’s temper tirades on August 25.

Like the President, I’m a recovering alcoholic. Unlike him, I’ve been sober for 11 years, three months and 16 days. Bush says he quit drinking without help from any organized program. I had a lot of help – from family, friends and Alcoholics Anonymous.  As an alcoholic, I can say without hesitation that available evidence tells me that Bush is drinking and drinking heavily.

The signs have been there for too long. Bush fell off a couch after, his aides say, “falling asleep.” He has appeared in public with bruises on his face, the kind of injuries a person would suffer from falling in alcohol-impaired conditions. He disappears from public view for extended periods, takes more vacations than other Presidents, has trouble forming words, appears disinterested in public and mangles his sentences.

In other appearances he rambles and appears unable to focus. During the Katrina crisis he displayed little emotion or compassion when confronted with the horrors along the Gulf Coast.

This web site reported last year that the White House physician had placed the President on anti-depressants. If Bush is mixing alcohol and anti-depressant drugs his judgment – which is already suspect – is impaired even more.

“The President all too often is out of control,” a White House source tells me. “People are afraid to risk his anger by telling him things he does not want to hear.  Newsweek magazine reported the same thing last week in their story: “How Bush Blew It.”

The Enquirer interviewed Dr. Justin Frank, a Washington D.C. psychiatrist and author of Bush On The Couch: Inside The Mind Of The President.

“I do think that Bush is drinking again,” Frank said. “Alcoholics who are not in any program, like the President, have a hard time when stress gets to be great. I think it's a concern that Bush disappears during times of stress. He spends so much time on his ranch. It's very frightening.”

Dr. Frank is a highly-respected psychiatrist at George Washington University and his book about the President’s problems has been praised by other psychiatric experts. We interviewed him last year for the stories about the President’s deteriorating mental state and his conclusions confirm Bush is losing it.

White House aides tell me rumors about the President’s drinking began circulating last year in the West Wing along with questions about possible abuse of prescription drugs. They report wide mood swings, cancelled meetings and an ever-decreasing number of aides with direct access to Bush.

“Two questions that the press seems particularly determined to ignore have hung silently in the air since before Bush took office,” Dr. Frank told us in August.  “Is he still drinking? And if not, is he impaired by all the years he did spend drinking? Both questions need to be addressed in any serious assessment of his psychological state.”

It’s scary enough to have a nutcase in the White House. It’s even scarier to think that nutcase may be drunk.

2005 Capitol Hill Blue - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/96tnj

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

* Never trust them: the BBC and Warmongering - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/6td3d

*Corporate News Media: Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Brainwashed? Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave or not - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cbgnc

*TODAY: September 24 - 2005 - Massive March, Impeachment Rally & Anti-war Fair - Gather 11:00AM at the Washington Monument - Info - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bnw4c

*Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FPF-COPYRIGHT NOTICE - In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107 - any copyrighted work in this message is distributed by the Foreign Press Foundation under fair use, without profit or payment, to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the information. Url.: http://liimirror.warwick.ac.uk/uscode/17/107.html

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