OP-ED; NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATE

The Long, Hard Slog…

Donald Rumsfeld knew it all along, but he and his cohorts sent American and multinational soldiers into harm’s way anyway. He knew, when he wrote the now infamous memo, that we may be creating more terrorists than we are killing by invading Iraq. He knew that we would be in it for the long haul. He knew.

President Hosni Mubarrak of Egypt said the same thing when the US was building up for invasion: we will create 100 more bin Laden’s for every terrorist we kill.

But that did not stop the march to Baghdad, rather it emboldened and encouraged the cowboys of Washington. “Bring it on!” President Bush retorted.

Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and many, many other Republicans, snarling, baring their teeth, itching for a fight, echoed his sentiment.

So the new National Intelligence Estimate, portions of which were leaked in advance to the New York Times and Washington Post, must be sobering to the drunken glee at which the US government invaded Iraq. But it isn’t.

The National Intelligence Estimate is a document collected, produced, and analyzed by the 16 US intelligence agencies. Produced in April, it is the first complete assessment of global terrorism since the Iraq invasion three years ago.

According to officials involved in the drafting of the document, as cited by the New York Times, it was scrubbed multiple times, partially due to a prior structure and focus with which some government officials were unhappy. However, the unhappiness notwithstanding, the officials said that the language was not softened for political purposes.

The document, entitled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ says that the threat of global terrorism has increased greatly and spread further around the world, rather than receding, as public officials both advertised and asserted before, during, and since the Iraq invasion.

Dozens of anonymous sources, in the intelligence service and familiar with the final draft of the estimate, interviewed for an article for the New York Times, echoed the sentiment of the Estimate, without getting into the still highly classified details.

The report states that terror cells no longer operate on the directive of Osama bin-Laden; instead, they are independent, but still working for the same cause. The threat has adapted, but the US has not. “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you want,” Secretary Rumsfeld once said. Interesting diction, considering the war in Iraq was a war of choice, and now has made the world less safe from terror.

Naturally, the damning indictment of the Iraq war has stirred strong response from both sides of the aisle. The White House released a ton of documents in response to the leak (read: “Friday night follies”) and the documents attest to the administration’s policies decimating the Qaeda leadership. But that is no longer the nature of the enemy.

House and Senate Republicans are also toeing the party line established by the Administration. “The difficulties faced by the US have emboldened terrorist groups,” the maverick-turned-party hack Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) acknowledged on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” He added that terrorists “did not need any motivation to attack us on Sept. 11.”

Democrats are ratcheting up the rhetoric, and to good effect. “Even capturing the remaining top Al Qaeda leadership isn’t going to prevent copycat cells, and it isn’t going to change a failed policy in Iraq,” Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

The National Intelligence Estimate is sure to be another election year battle. But hopefully, this time it won’t fall on deaf ears.

CONCERT REVIEW; HEAD AUTOMATICA

Concert Review- Head Automatica f/The Gateway
3/5

A chilly Wednesday night brought out the ‘emo’ kids, the ‘punks,’ the ‘in crowd’ and just about every other image stereotype for Bellmore natives Head Automatica.

Local openers The Gateway played to an ambivalent crowd to open the show. Their brand of power-pop-punk is quite generic, and ultimately boring. The sound was reminiscent of the power-pop of The Lashes, the ‘easycore’ of New Found Glory, and the poppiest of the pop-punk vets Blink 182. For a half hour, they pranced, danced, and hopped around, much to the mocking delight of the few that happened to be paying attention.

A half hour later, Head Automatica sauntered out onto the stage. They began to play a song with a driving beat, and vocalist Daryl Polumbo ran out on stage, grabbed the mic, and started to sing.

Polumbo has a jarring stage presence: running around the stage, he rallied the “troops” (the rest of the band) and keeping the crowd entertained.

The set was largely uneven, split between songs off their new release Popaganda and their debut Decadence.

Most of the newer songs, the single “Graduation Day” notwithstanding, fell flat as the crowd had no familiarity with the music. Despite the crowd’s familiarity with the song, it doesn’t excuse the terrible nature of “Graduation Day” itself.

Songs off Decadence fared much better, however. “Brooklyn is Burning” created a dance club atmosphere and set closer (by popular request) “The Razor” made for a grand finale.

ALBUM REVIEW: TV ON THE RADIO

TV on the Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain
4/5
Interscope Records

Brooklyn’s own TV on the Radio is back with a new album, their first with a major-label. Fresh from their Shortlist Award-winning debut Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, this new album expands upon the ideas found on that release. Demos and leaked versions have been all over the Internet for nearly a year, but the record’s official US release was not until September 12. 4AD Records released it around the world on July 6, 2006. The record has been lauded in the press prior to its release, and for good reason.

It is absolutely impossible to pigeonhole this band into any specific genre. Now, one may say that often, but rarely is it ever true. TV on the Radio mix shoegaze, hip-hop, ambience, alternative rock, and spiritual music into one relentless blend that does not stop. The band is a longtime darling of the indie-rock community, but this record could be their breakout.

Each track develops a unique mood using texture and production. The band is notorious for using such techniques to further the mood of the music which, in essence, makes them true artists. Vocalist and frontman Tunde Adebimpe has a background in art, as he is an avid painter and an animator on the MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch.

TV on the Radio has consistently grappled with politics in its songs, and this release is no exception. Post 9/11 anxiety pervades the record, as exemplified in the song “Province:” Suddenly, all your history's ablaze/Try to breathe as the world disintegrates. Notable icon David Bowie lends backup vocals to this urgent track.

Bowie’s been a source of major support to the band since 2003, when founding member David Sitek sold him a painting, as well as giving Bowie some of the band’s earliest recordings. Bowie has advised them on everything from what to do with record executives to how to release a one-off track recorded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The lead single, “Wolf Like Me” features fuzzy bass, shimmering guitars, and galloping drums, as well as Adebimpe’s and backup Kyp Malone eerie swirling vocals. As they build up into a fuzzing headtrip, it all disappears into light drums and instrumentation, with Adebimpe’s vocals more audible than ever. Suddenly, the fuzz is back, and the track reaches the climax with both parts of the song (soft and loud) vying for supremacy.

The one problem with the record is that it may be too overwhelming and too much for the casual listener. “Muso’s” (critics, musicians, et al.) will not have a problem, but this record may go over the average person’s head. Unless you own either/both amazing stereo speakers and/or excellent headphones, you are bound to miss something. I hope that this will not hurt record sales, which would marginalize this diamond in the rough of the music industry.

The US release features three bonus tracks, including a remix of “Hours” by El-P and two b-sides from the single for “Wolf Like Me.”

NEWS; JUDY SHEPARD COMES TO HOFSTRA

A wide cross section of humanity filled the Student Center Theater on a Thursday night to hear the story of Matthew Shepard. Homosexual, heterosexual, students, faculty, guests, and others sat in anticipation while Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, was stuck in traffic on the Grand Central Parkway. She finally arrived about a half hour late, and when introduced, received a healthy dose of applause.

Many students were already familiar with the story. Riss Wilson, a freshman, was a “techie” during a production of the Laramie Project, a play dedicated to the story of Matthew Shepard. He attended the lecture due to his support of gay rights and gay activism.

Matt Weaver, a junior, and a Resident Assistant in Liberty Hall, went because “The ignorance of people is eye opening, looking at the controversy surrounding marriage.” Roma Ramchandani, a sophomore at Adelphi University was “extremely excited to come” when she heard about the event, “because of [her] familiarity with the story and how remarkably strong Judy is.”

Judy Shepard is an activist against all forms of hate, not just the problem of anti-gay rhetoric and its related hate crimes. Her foundation, named after her late son Matthew, teamed up with the James Byrd Jr. Foundation, to fight against all hate crimes. All proceeds raised by Mrs. Shepard’s speaking engagements go to her foundation, which fights anti-gay legislation as well as raises awareness about the truth of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender lifestyle.

Matthew Shepard was beaten nearly to death in October 1998. He was tied to a prairie, and left for dead. He was brought into a hospital about 18 hours later, and he was placed in critical condition. Matthew’s parents, living in Saudi Arabia at the time, were called, and they rushed back to the states to be by their son’s side. He was pronounced dead at 12:53a.m. on October 12, 1998.

“It’s not just gay and lesbian people [that face hate]. It’s all of us,” Shepard declared during her speech. She then read her impact statement, which she had read during the sentencing portion of the trial of the man who murdered her son. The statement dripped of emotion. Her voice still cracks eight years after the fact when she says, “He was my son, my firstborn, and more…I never [will] understand why anyone would do this.”

Shepard described Matthew’s condition in stark detail. Walking into the room “of no emotion, tubes everywhere, his face swollen, his ear was reattached to his head and was still bleeding…” Initially, Shepard could not even recognize her own son. She shook Matthew’s arms, and he reacted, but doctors told her that the response was involuntary because of the touch.

After Matthew’s story, Shepard began imploring the students, gay and straight, men and women, to register to vote. She railed against the “religious right,” calling them bigots. Her most enthusiastic plea was for the audience to educate themselves, “I happen to think hate comes from ignorance.”

Her request was that all people should be treated as equals, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, and gender orientation. Examples of inequality are all around us, she said. It is everywhere, in the mass media, in our everyday conversation, and in our perceptions. Shepard’s story taught students to root out intolerance where it starts, within their minds.

OP-ED; BUSH IS A LIAR

Bush Implicitly Admits He’s A Liar

The President finally came around and admitted to the American people, and to the world, that he has lied to them, albeit in a roundabout way. It took damn long enough.

The President had never previously discussed the existence of secret prisons around the world in which American and foreign interrogators tortured suspected terrorists, including the alleged mastermind of September 11, 2001, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. However, he left it to his subordinates to neither confirm nor deny its existence to the American and world newsmedia. In a speech to families impacted by the attacks of September 11, he admitted their existence, arguing that they were vital in the War on Terror.

President Bush took this action because of a ruling by the Supreme Court, which stated that the procedures used by the administration in incarcerating, interrogating, and trying detainees violated both the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions. The ruling, as David Sanger writes in his news analysis in the September 7, 2006 New York Times, “visibly angered [the President].” The court finally held the President accountable to his policies, and now President Bush is about to try the Jacksonian role of defying other branches of government.

Further, President Bush said that he was moving the detainees from around the world to the compound in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they are to wait to stand on a military tribunal, with terms for the trial dictated by the President, including the inability for defendants to see or hear the evidence against them. These terms aggravated even the most loyal of Republicans, including former military prosecutor Senator Lindsey Graham (R-NC).

By implicitly admitting that his administration had lied about the secret prisons, President Bush also put Congress on the defensive, forcing their collective hands to vote for his concept of a military tribunal before the midterm elections. The minority Democrats cannot be seen as coddling terrorists, and Republicans do not want to be viewed as weakening their position on terror. This action can also have its downsides, however.

By admitting the fact that the CIA held detainees in secret undisclosed locations, the President opens himself up to the allegation of torture. He has vehemently denied such accusations, but he (and Donald Rumsfeld) also called the Abu-Ghraib scandal the “work of a few bad apples.”

Torture was authorized by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzalez in a memo dated August 2002. In the memo, al-Qaeda terrorists, and anyone else captured in the War on Terror, are not considered Prisoners of War, and thus not entitled to the protections provided by the Geneva Conventions. In a related memo signed by the President(!) the same concept is reiterated.

So why did he lie? Why keep these prisoners held in secret? Why torture them? The justification given by the administration is that this was the only way to get timely intelligence in a new war. They say that these tactics have saved the lives of Americans and those of their allies. But they miss an important point. The lies of the administration have led to the deaths of more people, rather than fewer.

President Bush, and his advisers and subordinates in his administration, lied to the American people, and the world. Men captured on the battlefields in Afghanistan and around the world were held in secret underground prisons in which they were tortured, degraded, and humiliated. Admission of said lying would further tarnish the already ruined American image around the world, so the President had to own up to his lies in a circular fashion.

Mr. President, didn’t your mother ever teach you that liars never win?

ALBUM REVIEW: DARKER MY LOVE

Darker My Love (S/T)
4/5

Psych-rock has not seen a debut this solid since Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy. Originally a side project featuring members of The Distillers and Nerve Agents, California’s Darker My Love break out with a sound no one was to expect from punk rockers. The sound is fuzzy, trippy, drowned in reverb, and guitar driven. The band has multiple psychedelic influences, ranging from the swirling melodies of Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine to the sometimes-directionless drone of Brian Jonestown Massacre and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Noise-rock and shoegaze influences pervade the sound as well.

Highlights include the driving-rock track “Hello Traveler” and the mesmerizing “Opening,” the obvious choice for an album intro. “Opening” features a guitar line bathed in feedback, but still allows for the listener to be swallowed in by the all-encompassing noise. “Hello Traveler” takes a kraut-rock foundation (driving, droning drums and bass) and makes it into a shimmering rock anthem, with exploding guitar sounds and swirling vocals.

The single, ironically the last track of the album, “Summer is Here,” captures all of the sound from the previous songs and creates a height that the band never reached before.

Layered, textured music is making a huge comeback, and Darker My Love are reveling in all its trappings. With bands like Secret Machines, Serena Maneesh, and Darker My Love receiving press coverage from larger and larger media sources, the shoegazing and trippy sound may finally crack the charts that it usually reviles.