[Imc-chicago-audio] TODAY: Launch of Prog. Media coordination around Iraq for Sale

[Erin Polgreen]

Privatization and Iraq: Progressive media outlets coordinate coverage  
with release of Robert Greenwald’s new documentary Iraq for Sale


For more information, contact:

Tracy Van Slyke, Publisher
In These Times
773-772-0100 ext. 243
tracy at inthesetimes.com

In coordination with the release of Robert Greenwald’s new  
documentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, six media outlets  
will delve into the untold stories spawning from this hard-hitting film.

On September 7, AlterNet, The American Prospect, ColorLines, In These  
Times, Link TV and Ms. Magazine will publish interviews, reporting  
and analysis-with the goal of covering many of the unknown issues and  
individuals impacted by role of privatization within the Bush  
administration’s decision to wage war in Iraq.  Each media outlet  
will publish a story on their own Web site and link to the stories of  
their media partners a day before the film’s theatrical release.  The  
stories will also be linked on the Iraq for Sale Web site  
(www.iraqforsale.org).

All media partners are members of The Media Consortium  
(www.themediaconsortium.org), a new network of leading progressive  
independent journalism organizations. Reporters and media  
representatives are available for interviews individually and as a  
group.   All links to stories will be available on September 7.   
Highlights of stories include:

·      AlterNet (www.alternet.org) staff writer, Joshua Holland,  
examines how war profiteer CACI has become the ultimate symbol for  
the US military’s attitude toward torture — if the Pentagon can’t  
conduct it itself, then outsource it to an unaccountable company. The  
Pentagon’s relations with CACI underscore the increasing dangers of  
depending on private companies to pursue dark practices in wartime,  
and the total lack of control we have over them.  AlterNet will also  
resurface its archive of war profiteering stories run over recent  
months with this article.

·      The American Prospect’s (www.prospect.org) senior editor Tara  
McKelvey uncovers the legal limbo in which independent contractors  
operate, in “The Unaccountables.” Twenty-five thousand civilian  
contractors have worked for the military in Iraq since hostilities  
began, through cozy deals with companies like Titan Corp. Strong  
evidence suggests that contractors may have engaged in torture in  
Iraq – and, by evident design, they can’t be prosecuted for their  
crimes.”

·      ColorLines (www.colorlines.com) reports that today, because of  
a combination of U.S. policy to minimize the number of American  
soldiers on active duty in the war zone and a volunteer army  
unwilling to perform menial tasks, the bulk of the military support  
force in Iraq are tens of thousands of poor migrant workers. Called  
"Third Country Nationals", they come from Asian countries such as  
India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, and are paid  
monthly salaries between $200 and $1,000. They work as truck drivers,  
construction workers, carpenters, warehousemen, laundry workers,  
cooks, accountans, beauticians and similar blue-collar jobs for the  
U.S. military.

·      In These Times (www.inthesetimes.com) contributor Bill Scher,  
writes on the failure of privatization on both American domestic and  
foreign policy. Domestically, Scher explores the failures of  
privatization within FEMA and Medicare and privatization effects such  
as Social Security.  And internationally, by claiming to promote  
democratic government while putting a nation's security in the hands  
of unaccountable corporations, has only associated American democracy  
with corruption and bloodshed.

·      Link TV (www.linktv.com) produced a report about Iraq for Sale  
for its Media Watch series, including an interview with producer  
Robert Greenwald. The report will air in September on Link’s  
satellite network reaching 28 million US homes, plus cable systems in  
Washington DC and San Francisco.

·      Ms. Magazine (www.Msmagazine.com) examines how U.S. war  
policies in Iraq sell out women in favor of big oil.  Martha Burk,  
explores how oil was a major factor in the decision for the U.S. to  
invade Iraq, and how the U.S. ignored Iraqi women’s organizations  
demands for laws codifying women’s rights to work, equal pay,  
pregnancy leave and child care (all guaranteed in Iraq’s previous  
constitution). In an exclusive for the film’s release, Burk also  
looks at how the obscene profits paid to the corporate war profiteers  
have come at the expense of women and their children here at home.

·      MotherJones (www.motherjones.com) will also compile past  
reporting on the impact of contractors and privatization in the  
rebuilding of Iraq.

Iraq for Sale is an inside look of what happens to everyday Americans  
when corporations go to war and gives an inside look at the lives of  
the people who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering  
in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections  
between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the  
decision makers who allow them to do so.




Tracy Van Slyke
Publisher
In These Times
773-772-0100 ext. 243
tracy at inthesetimes.com
www.inthesetimes.com
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