LTC Bateman who took the AP to task for their flawed article about the No Gun-ri article during the Korean War, has been one of the central figures in taking the AP to task once again for flawed reporting in Iraq.  Bateman’s latest article is about the flawed AP reporting of the “Jamil Hussein” controversy can be found over at Media Matters. 

Here is what he had to say about his prior experience dealing with the AP after uncovering the flaws in the No Gun-ri article:

In early 2001 the AP called my boss at work (an Army colonel) and tried to get my research (and book) about events that occurred at a place called No Gun Ri, in the summer of 1950, stopped. I was teaching History at West Point at the time. In effect their efforts were an attempt to have my career ended through an adverse report by my boss. Why would they do this? Well, because my research collided with that of the mighty AP. (Cue the irony bell) Because of information I had uncovered about an AP story which dealt with an event of military history, information that revealed that the AP had been completely duped by at least one fraud (and perhaps as many as three), the AP was not happy with me. The AP would not admit that there were any problems, though, and insisted everything was just fine. They chose to counterattack rather than re-examine. When their efforts to coerce my boss into squelching me failed miserably, they contacted my publisher and tried to censor me that way. Again, they did all of this rather than admit that their story had serious problems. The irony of the largest news organization in all of human history attempting to silence an individual soldier is almost too much to believe.

Here is what LTC Bateman had to say about the latest Jamil Hussein controversy:

The AP, I should note, in their counterattack against those who questioned their story and sources, said, "It’s awfully easy to take pot shots from the safety of a computer keyboard thousands of miles from the chaos of Baghdad." The AP executive who said that did so from New York City, but ya know what? Unlike that AP editor, I know something about Baghdad. Having lived in Iraq for a year (returning this past February, if you all recall), and knowing Baghdad well, one additional thing that has blown my mind about this, and the silence from the majority of the media (except E&P, which is covering the story well), is a simple element of geography.

The AP cites their source as being an officer in the Yarmouk district of Baghdad. Fine. Most people in the U.S. and the world don’t know Baghdad’s geography. But the question that hit me is "why is somebody in Yarmouk the main quoted source (originally) for a story about events in Hurriyah?"

Yarmouk is a neighborhood on the north side of what many people know as "Route Irish." Between Yarmouk and Hurriyah neighborhood are the districts of Al Andalous and Al Mansoor (parallel w/ each other), above that is Al Mutanabbi, and above that is Al Urubah … before you get to Hurriyah. It’s more than 3 miles away. Now for country folk like me, 3 miles isn’t but spitting distance. But in a city of 7 million, like NYC or Baghdad, 3 miles is a huge distance.

In other words, in going to their "normal" source for this story, the AP went to the equivalent of a Brooklyn local police precinct for a story that occurred in northern Yonkers! Hello? What would a cop in Brooklyn know about a crime in Yonkers? That’s what doesn’t make sense to me. (And why didn’t the AP reveal, until challenged, that this source was not from the district where the events allegedly occurred, or even from a neighboring district, but is from a moderately distant part of this 7-million-person city?)

To make things even more interesting is that Michelle Malkin has agreed to go to Baghdad with former CNN head honcho Eason Jordan to look for Jamil Hussein.  It will be interesting to see how the AP is going to cover their tracks this time.

I have to wonder if this crackdown on minors using cell phones will be as successful as the prostitution crackdown?:

Phone bill angst is rife in South Korea, where data from mobile service operators show that four out of five people own a handset and at least six out of ten school-age children have one.

A Telecommunications Ministry official said on Friday that from January, children will need parental permission to go above a pre-set limit, which can be up to 30,000 won ($32.57) a month.

Parents will also receive detailed information about the types of services their children subscribe to.

At present, parents can set a limit on how long children can talk on their mobiles, but all the kids have to do is ask the mobile provider to increase the limit.

In February, a teenaged South Korean boy killed himself after tallying a phone bill of 3.7 million won ($4,017).

“The ministry hopes these regulations will prevent teenagers from making a lot of mistakes about how they use their mobile phones, which can lead to mounting bills,” the telecommunications ministry said in a press release.

How about parents just take the damn phone away from them if they are using it too much?

CBS News has run an article about the US beef rejection in Korea as well the Lone Star witch hunt. Interesting read if you don’t know much about the Lone Star or US beef issues with Korea.

If you haven’t had enough foreigner discrimination in Korea well the Big Hominid broke the story about the Pusan 9 Scandal followed by being blown wide open by the Marmot’s Hole. The Metropolitician has more on foreigner discrimination by describing how he was targeted by Kyunghyang Shinmun for teaching (gasp!) pro-Japanese propaganda! How dare he do such a thing? This independently produced movie isn’t going to help matter either, as it will only confirm what Koreans already believe about ex-pats and worse. Here is further evidence that Korea and Japan have more in common than they like to admit. Speaking of foreigner discrimination is Rosie guilty of it too?

In USFK news, we all knew the Yongsan moved was going to be delay the question that remains is how long? The delay has Camp Humphreys business owners angered and they say they are ready to take action. It is always humorous to see the con-men get conned themselves every once in a while.

The Asia Pages is back this week after a blogging hiatus and features an interesting read about Korean Business Ethics. Speaking of business, just like in Seoul, Japan now has their very own Krispy Kreme. This blogger gives his reasons why Krispy Kreme will fail in Japan.

The most important news of the week for all you Canadian readers out there, the Daily Kimchi has the latest on where to buy maple syrup in Korea. If anyone is into radishes here is a radish festival that some of you may find of interest; especially when it involves hot Taiwanese models. If you are not into radishes than maybe you can go to Kazakhstan and preach the wonders of lettuce there.

What does a Mongolian herdsman, the world’s tallest man, and dolphins have in common? Well find out here.

In milblog news, Blackfive5 has a story of someone you should know about but don’t. I never really cared much for Dennis Miller before but it may not be the case anymore. Also read the latest from Bill Roggio embedded in Fallujah. Finally Milblogs and myself would like to wish everyone a Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas:

The Chosun Ilbo has confirmed my earlier suspicions of why the South Korean government is pushing for a second inter-Korean summit:

Ruling Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae said late last month that he will ask the president to dispatch a special envoy to North Korea for the purpose of promoting an “unconditional” inter-Korean summit, and the former Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young said March or April next year would be the right time for the summit, when the presidential election is some six months away.

This government is now obsessed with an inter-Korean summit. Until the middle of its tenure, officials asked what the point would be unless the North Korean nuclear crisis has been resolved. But their rhetoric has recently changed: now the two heads of state must meet unconditionally. President Roh Moo-hyun keeps saying the North’s nuclear weapons are nothing to worry about: he is begging Kim Jong-il for a meeting.

The Kim Dae-jung administration paid Pyongyang US$500 million to make the first inter-Korean summit in 2000 happen. Having extracted that much money as the price for meeting a vigorous South Korean president in the first half of his tenure, North Korea is surely going to demand several times the money for meeting a lame duck. There is a strong smell of hustling for a summit about the government’s refusal to impose any additional sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear test, and in its earmarking of W1 trillion (US$1=W923) for “economic cooperation” with the North next year.

I hadn’t thought of the political angle, but yes an inter-Korean summit would appear on the surface to be something that would boost the Uri Party’s chances in next year’s elections, but I think it would back fire if South Korea gets nothing in return for the summit.  I think a second inter-Korean summit is a distinct possibility because President Roh appears intent on sending as much hard earned South Korean taxpayers money up North as possible to secure such a summit.

If a summit does happen I expect Kim Jong-il to only make vague promises and declarations with no substance.  President Roh understands Kim Jong-il won’t denuclearize or make any major concessions, but that isn’t what a second inter-Korean summit is about.  It is all about the photo-op of him toasting Kim Jong-il.  I think that would be a fitting legacy for President Roh.

Korea’s first Playboy model, Lee Sabi has new nude pictures coming to a mobile phone near you. Only in Korea is this national news.

Japan Probe has an interesting posting about a letter sent by a Japanese General on Iwo Jima to President Roosevelt. This General’s views about WWII are almost word for word what is taught at Yasukuni.

What you won’t see on the front page of your newspaper. US Military meets recruiting goals yet again. US Army leads the way with a 105% recruiting total.

UPDATE: Nomad is absolutely “shocked” by the Camp Humphreys delay announcement.

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Will this be the straw that broke the camel’s back of the US-ROK Alliance? From the Marmot’s Hole:

A government source told Yonhap that it looks like transfer of the U.S. garrison at Yongsan to Pyeongtaek, originally scheduled to take place in 2007, would be delayed by five years to late 2013.

A source from one of the related government ministries said the possibility of completing the transfer by 2008 as scheduled was currently low, and that Korean government ministries handling the move were actively discussing a plan to delay the transfer from Yongsan and the competition of new base facilities in Pyeongtaek to 2013.

The government will reportedly announce this plan sometime next week.

The source said the change in schedule was necessary due to delays in discussions between authorities connected to the move and setbacks caused by protests from residents and civic groups.

I agree with Robert’s analysis that the Korean government is trying to stop the relocation since Secretary Rumsfeld has been removed from the Pentagon. They are testing the new Defense Secretary Robert Gates who is scheduled to be sworn in on December 18th.

Those of us who have served in Korea for awhile knew the 2008 timeline wasn’t going to happen, but 2013 give me a break? The Korean government has never wanted to allow the USFK relocation to Camp Humphreys just like they have never really wanted to take operational control from USFK either. Both the Yongsan and the operational control issues have long served as great cannonfodder by South Korean politicians looking to demagoge the issue to their own political advantage. Plus the Koreans have never wanted to fully fund the move despite all the prime real estate they are gaining from the closed out USFK facilities. Heck they won’t even properly fund the US-ROK Alliance while giving over a billion dollars to North Korea a year!
You also have the Fifth Column in South Korea, organized by North Korean agents that want to stop the move because North Korea wants to keep 2ID and USFK locked into their current locations that are well within artillery range of North Korea which would mean their easy destruction during war time. Additionally the locations of the bases, particularly Yongsan have been completely surrounded by urban cities which has led to accidents and incidents with the Korean public that gets demagoged by the North Korean sponsored anti-US activists groups in order to draw a wedge between USFK and the general Korean public. The consolidation of US forces would remove all US forces out of North Korean artillery range and additionally under the ballistic missile protection of US Army PATRIOT missile batteries. This would create better force protection for USFK forces along with giving USFK commanders more flexibility during war time.

It will be interesting to see the Pentagon’s reaction if this 2013 timeline is true. I tend to think that the Pentagon would accept a 2009 relocation time line that would coincide with a 2009 handover of operational control. A 2013 timeline is just an effort to further push this issue down the road and hope the Pentagon gives up on it just like what the Korean government is doing with the operational control issue.
I think it may be close to ultimatum time. Is it too late to bring General Trexler out of retirement?

Discrimination of foreigners in Korea is nothing new, but recently it has been getting a lot of attention because of the current Minyeodeului Suda Scandal. This scandal has caused at least one K-blogger to start an online petition to protest KBS’s racism.

Well now the Korea Times has an article about foreigners being denied access to swimming pools and saunas:

Connie Arnold, a middle-aged English teacher at Pochon CHA University in Songu-ri, began having hip pain earlier this year and went to see a doctor. He identified it as muscle strain and swimming was prescribed.

Arnold knew of only one pool in town, but when she went there she was told, “No Foreigners Allowed.’’’ She asked a Korean co-worker to call for her and explain that she had to swim for health reasons.

“I explained about you (doctor’s order) but they said no,’’ the co-worker wrote in a follow up e-mail. “Foreigner(s) cannot use the pool.’’

None of this is really surprising to me because foreigners have long been treated like second class citizens in Korea. However, the ones that have it by far the worst are the people who come from third world countries to work in Korea’s manuafacturing businesses. Korea’s Confucian thinking puts these labors way at the bottom of the class structure. That is the real reason why foreigners are denied access to swimming pools, saunas, and even internet cafes:

Arnold said that besides the swimming pool and sauna, she has been refused entry to PC bangs in Songu-ri because she is a foreigner.

A reporter asking to use a computer at the Joy PC Bang in Songu-ri was told foreigners were not allowed to use the service.

I have never been denied access to an internet cafe or even a sauna, but the denial of GI’s to bars and restaurants is quite common, but also keep in mind the denial of Koreans and other foreigners to American only bars happens as well, which I don’t agree with. This is done the ville areas outside of some of the US military installations. The bars are owned by Koreans and just goes to show that they are willing to discriminate against other Koreans in order to make a buck.
There is plenty of discrimination in Korea, but I really think it has been getting better in recent years and the netizen outrage to the KBS show is encouraging, however it is going to take a whole lot more Hines Wards out there to end discrimination in Korea any time soon.

UPDATE: The Marmot’s Hole now has a posting on this article as well worth checking out.