The loopy Left is attacking the one thing that everybody agrees on, namely, that al Qaida are the real bad guys and have the track record to prove it. For once, the incompetent Bushies got something roughly right (as opposed to being precisely wrong most of the time) in that the real enemy is and has been al Qaida.

Once again, Greenwald is wasting everybody's time.

I'm a news writer for a local station in one of the biggest markets in the country. I have noticed the "Al Qaeda" link over the past few days in AP articles, our "source" material for reporting on events in Iraq and around the world. We, and I mean news writers just about everywhere, take AP's word as gospel. If AP calls them "insurgents," that's the word we use. If they're called "Al Qaeda," we take their word for it. Even if we did attribute, saying, "The U.S. military says the suicide bombers were Al Qaeda fighters..." no one hears "The U.S. government says" part. The problem is, we never introduce the fact that the Bush Administration has a vested interest in labeling them as such... and that we, as writers sitting thousands of miles away in a newsroom, have no way of verifying anything.

There's a bunch of reasons for that: 1. No time. Most stories are 30 seconds or less. 2. No one else is doing it. 3. No one cares. We spent more time today (and every day, in fact) talking about Paris Hilton than Iraq.

There's no real reporting in Iraq, not anymore. We crank out the same exact story every day, just pausing to fill in the number of American dead. And no one's really listening anymore. There is also an invisible yet omnipresent influence that steers the tone of every story. When I try to insert a little depth and context into my copy, it's always been "edited" by the time it hits air. By copyeditors (who take their marching orders from the station General Manager, who in turn takes orders from the corporate powers that own the station), and even anchors, who diddle with copy to change anything that might seem "unpatriotic."

The only solution is for a news leader (say a Brian Williams or Charlie Gibson, or even Katie Couric) to echo the simple observation in Greenwald's article. Then, if the idea gains momentum, we will all fall into step. Dissent is dying. It takes a wave, starting with one brave reporter and/or news organization, (can you believe this is sometimes a role played by "the Daily Show??") to turn the tide back toward truth.

Glenn's original post is correct to raise the issue of how the media sources its pieces regarding who the US Military is fighting in Iraq. The clear and recent change in the language used by the US Military, constantly referring to Al Qaeda is troubling enough. But the press's practically unquestioning repetition of these statements, in full acceptance that the reality has shifted simply because US spokesmen say so, is doubly so.

We spent ten months in Iraq in search of the answer to a single question: Who is it behind the attacks on US and coalition forces? What we found is that it is primarily and overwhelmingly Iraqis who are fundamentally fighting to end the occupation of Iraq. It is complicated, but it is also that simple.

For some of the nuance, more information and clips from our documentary film, "Meeting Resistance" - the culmination of this ten months of reporting - please visit our website www.meetingresistance.com.

The National Media which has replaced the Constitution in America is now the fourth and secret branch of the government.

Washington could nothing without these robots picking up their cues and repeating the government propaganda.

The real irony of this new US tactic, which Glenn has not mentioned, is that it's a huge boost for the actual al Qaeda, which is operating in Iraq in small numbers. Think about it - al Qaeda is competing with other radical groups for the hearts and minds of angry people across the Middle East. To be described by US officials and the media as the real bad guys, the ones who are really giving it to US troops, is a propaganda win for them and a big recruitment tool. The US is giving them a status which they don't deserve and they'll be loving every minute of it.

An unattributed cut-n-paste from the Revolutionary Community Party's newspaper? The Darkness would never question your patriotism, of course, but We're wondering which country you believe yourself to be a patriot of. We Ourselves are partial to Mongolia, of late, though the mujihideen are keeping Us hopping around the globe.

Now anyone who opposes the objectives of these criminals in any way will be referred to as Al Qaida. Have you read the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, signed by Bush last October? I have copied an article with regard to it:

"In October 2006, Bush signed into law the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007. Quietly slipped into the law at the last minute, at the request of the Bush administration, were sections changing important legal principles, dating back 200 years, which limit the U.S. government's ability to use the military to intervene in domestic affairs. These changes would allow Bush, whenever he thinks it necessary, to institute martial law--under which the military takes direct control over civilian administration."

"So the changes to posse comitatus signed into law by Bush are extremely significant and ominous. Bush has modified the main exemptions to posse comitatus that up to now have been primarily defined by the Insurrection Act of 1807. Previously the president could call out the army in the United States only in cases of insurrection or conditions where "rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State or Territory by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings." Under the new law the president can use the military in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or "other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."

The new law requires the President to notify Congress "as soon as practicable after the determination and every 14 days thereafter during the duration of the exercise of the authority." However Bush, as he has often done during his presidency, modified this requirement in his signing statement, which declared, "The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to withhold information the disclosure of which could impair foreign relations, the national security, the deliberative processes of the Executive." In other words, Bush claims that he does not even need to inform Congress that martial law has been declared!

I think the People should be very alarmed by this!