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You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / Rife With Possibility

Rife With Possibility

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Also via Drudge, it seems a few thugs escaped from the detention facility at Bagram Air Base:

Four “dangerous enemy combatants” have escaped from the main US base in Afghanistan, the US military has said.
A huge manhunt was launched around the Bagram air base north of the capital Kabul, after the men, said to be Arabs, escaped at about 0500 (0030 GMT).

The US says it is the first time any prisoner has escaped from Bagram.

Hundreds of detainees, most of them Afghan nationals but a number of senior foreign al-Qaeda suspects, are held at the detention centre.

The US military said the men who escaped were militants from Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Libya.

If you ever wondered why certain quarters howl in outrage about the press, the last few paragraphs offer up:

The Bagram facility has proved controversial.

US soldiers there have been accused of a number of abuses of prisoners – including torture and the deaths of two inmates – sparking criticism from human rights groups and a thorough investigation by the US military.

The details of the investigation were leaked to the New York Times in May.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he was shocked by the report and called for the guilty to be punished.

Just in case there is one BBC reader left who does not know about the abuses and allegations of abuse at Bagram. This does appear to be the sort of opportunistic America-bashing some in the media do too frequently engage in.

On the other hand, this could be entertaining- be the first to find someone claiming that the reason the men escaped was because press scrutiny has forced the military to relax standards. Because you just know someone will make the claim.

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    Rick

    Perhaps I’ll hope the four are slain in the manhunt. To spare them the tortures of the air conditioning trick, and the barenekkidladies taunts.

    Oh, yes, and the 18-24 hour feces.

    Cordially…

  2. 2.

    rreay

    I find that most news articles have some of the most basic background even for a highly publicized story.

    Check this out, it’s the first result of googling for OJ Simpson. It’s from 1996 and in paragraph 3 it says “Simpson was jailed during his murder trial, which ended last October with his acquittal in the 1994 deaths of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.” In 1996 OJ’s civil suit was happening and no one in the US needed to be told what it was about or why he was arrested ealier.

    Here’s another example from a another BBC Middle East article. This one ends with “Israel is planning to pull out all 8,000 Jewish settlers and the troops that protect them. It will maintain control of Gaza’s borders, coastline and airspace.” Anyone following news about Israel knows about the planned pullout.

    This BCC article isn’t bashing anyone, this is the basic newspaper template.

  3. 3.

    John Cole

    RReay- That is the standard stroy about Bagram Air Base?

    How about this for the standard template:

    “Bagram Airbase is located in the Parvan Province approximately 11 kilometers (7 miles) southeast of the city of Charikar and 47 Kilometers (27 miles) north of Kabul. The Airfield is served by a 10,000 foot runway built in 1976 capable of serving large cargo and bomber aircraft.

    Bagram Airbase has three large hangars, a control tower, and numerous support buildings. There are over 32 acres of ramp space. There are five aircraft dispersal areas with a total of over 110 revettments. Many support buildings and base housing built by the Soviets, have been destroyed by years of fighting between the various warring Afghan factions.

    Bagram Airbase played a key role during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, serving as a base of operations for troops and supplies. and Aircraft based at Bagram provided close air support for Soviet and Afghan troops in the field. Some of the Soviet forces based out of Bagram included the elite 105th Guards Airborne Division.”

    Instead of listing salient facts about the base, what it was and what it is now, they wrtie about the abuse. Which is more relevant to the story? What the base is and why it is there? Or that abuses have taken place in it?

  4. 4.

    Tim F

    IOW, whatever was the last news item mentioning subject X automatically ends up in the next news item mentioning subject X. Provides continuity.

    Using similar logic you could accuse a movie reviewer of Spielberg-bashing when he opens a review with a blurb about Always or AI.

  5. 5.

    rreay

    Instead of listing salient facts about the base, what it was and what it is now, they wrtie about the abuse

    Uhm yeah, because that’s the 30 second summary of why Bagram’s been in the news recently. The OJ article didn’t mention his hometown or that he was a football player or movie star. It rehashed the recent newsworthy stuff in his background.

    I didn’t mean to say that the abuse was the standard story of Bagram, all I meant to say that putting the blurb of otherwise obvious backstory into an article is SOP.

  6. 6.

    Rick

    I guess every BBC reference to Wm. J. Clinton must therefore note his impeachment, and surrender of his law license. It simply must, for the sake of continuity.

    Cordially…

  7. 7.

    Anderson

    I think the idea is to help the reader who’s going “Bagram? Where have I heard of that lately?”

    Surely y’all can find some better America-bashing than this?

Comments are closed.