Journalism 101

An old friend and the best editor I ever had has surfaced on the Internet. Please take a look at http://www.larrymccoyonline.com/ and in particular his "New Essay." I'll only quote from the most important part: an Editors' Code of Conduct. Here it is and if you've ever worked in a newsroom, you should appreciate every entry:

I ( insert name ) do hereby pledge that I will never slap, stab,
slug, shoot, strangle, or suffocate a writer/reporter nor will I scream
"you stupid son-of-a-bitch" or "you're the biggest asshole I've ever
met and you obviously come from a long line of assholes" when
the aforementioned person turns over copy, either near or far
from deadline, in which:

---The lead sentence begins with the word "meanwhile."

---The lead sentence is 87 words long, has nine commas, four
parenthetical thoughts and ends with a question mark.

---Montana is described as a state in the Midwest.

---The writer/reporter, when questioned about a key element in
the story, says, "How would I know? I don't understand it myself."

---A person named Miles Brewster IV is quoted as an eyewitness
to a big apartment fire in Connecticut when three weeks earlier a
Miles Brewster IV was said to be the only person who saw a mother
of three drive her car with the kids inside into a lake in Utah.

---The name of the town from which the reporter is allegedly
reporting is consistently misspelled.

---The lead paragraph says so-and-so was badly hurt in an accident,
and the fact that this person is now the late so-and-so is buried in the
11th paragraph.

---The expression "as everyone now knows" or "as is obvious to
anyone" is used.

---The writer/reporter refuses to include any meaningful back-
ground information, claiming "we've already reported that."

---Glenn Beck is presented as speaking for "Middle America,"
wherever that is.

---The copy looks exactly like what was on the AP wire minutes
ago, including the same five typos.

---An analysis piece ends with the wishy-washy "only time will tell."

---The writer/reporter misuses (after having the difference
explained to him 2,367 times) the words "infer" and "imply."

---The writer/reporter, when asked about a quote that doesn't
make sense, says, "Well, I think that's what she said. I didn't write
that part down."

---Any politician who isn't from the East Coast or the West Coast
is said to be "a leading representative of the Bible Belt."

---The winners of the World Series are called the "World
Champions."

And don't miss Larry's Memoir. It's titled "A Life Spent in What Is Now A Frivolous Profession."

Where Others Have Failed: China Drills for Oil in Kenya

A Chinese energy company has begun digging what will be the deepest oil well in Kenya, a country that has been searching for commercial oil for decades.

According to VOA, Kenyan Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi said Wednesday the oil well in northern Kenya eventually will reach a depth of more than five kilometers.

He says it will take China's state-owned oil producer CNOOC at least six months to determine whether there is oil at the site, and he appealed to Kenyans for patience.

Murungi spoke in Nairobi at a ceremony to inaugurate the project. Authorities moved the event to the Kenyan capital due to heavy rains at the Boghal-1 site in the Anza Basin.

Ten oil wells have been drilled previously in the Anza Basin but only to a maximum depth of 3,000 meters.

The Kenyan energy minister says the Boghal-1 oil well is expected to yield much more data for future exploration work than any of the 31 other wells drilled in the country so far.

Who's Doing Business With China? Surprise: Guinea Says It's A Good Deal!

VOA's Scott Stearns is reporting that Guinea's military ruler is defending a $7-billion mineral deal with China. Guinea is under a regional arms embargo following last month's killing of opposition protesters.

Guinea's military government says the Chinese mineral contract will improve the lives of its people by boosting investments in infrastructure including power plants and rail lines.

Mining Minster Mahmoud Thiam says the Chinese company will be a "strategic partner in all mining projects." Guinea is the world's largest source of aluminum ore and also has diamonds and gold.

The $7-billion deal has drawn criticism from human rights groups and political opponents as it provides an important source of revenue for a military government facing sanctions over the killing of opposition demonstrators.

The Economic Community of West African States has already imposed an arms embargo and the African Union is threatening further sanctions over last month's violence.

Human rights groups say at least 157 people were killed in a demonstration against the expected presidential candidacy of military ruler Captain Moussa Camara. The military government says 57 people died, most in the crush of people fleeing the main sports stadium.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley would not comment directly on the Chinese mineral deal but said Washington has "expressed concerns about this kind of activity" because the United States believes "it's important that as you do business with countries you also have respect for human rights."

Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma Zhaoxu says the deal is in line with the interests of the people of both Guinea and China and is based on principles of equality and mutual benefit. He says investments by the Hong-Kong-registered firm behind the deal will help develop Guinea's economy and improve the lives of its people.

Captain Camara says it is a good deal for Guinea. He says the only reason it is drawing so much attention is because he is embarrassing foreign companies that he says have been stealing Guinea's mineral wealth for years.

Captain Camara praised young members of the military and the civil service who he says have the patriotic courage and conviction to join his campaign to develop Guinea by engaging in contracts with foreign investors who provide a win-win partnership for the country.

Captain Camara is calling on political opponents to join him in an interim government of national unity. But the main coalition of political parties, trade unions, and civil society groups says it will not take part in ECOWAS mediation unless Captain Camara resigns.

Mouctar Diallo of the New Forces of Democracy Party praised West African leaders for listening to opposition concerns and acting on an arms embargo.

Diallo says the ECOWAS decision is inspired and most welcomed because political opponents were afraid that parts of the army were importing weapons to use against the people of Guinea as they did on September 28. Diallo says the arms embargo should not just be a piece of paper but is something that must be enforced.

Diallo says a United Nations inquiry into the violence meant to shine light on the massacre will only succeed if it has the collaboration of the military government.

Captain Camara is promising to cooperate with that investigation and has launched his own inquiry into the violence.

He denies any responsibility for the killing because he was not at the stadium. He is blaming both political opponents who he says should not have had an illegal demonstration and what he calls "uncontrollable elements" of Guinea's military.

New Threat Against Chinese from al-Qaida

China Daily this week reported a new al-Qaida threat against Chinese targets in "reprisal" for the July 5 riots in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a video posted on an Islamist website, urged Uygurs in Xinjiang to "make serious preparations" for a "holy war" against the Chinese government and called on fellow Muslims for support.

This is not the first time a terrorist group has threatened to attack Chinese targets after the July riots, in which nearly 200 civilians, most of them Han Chinese, were killed.

In mid-July, al-Qaida's Algerian-based offshoot, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), issued a call for "reprisals".

AQIM pledged to target the 50,000 Chinese workers in Algeria as well as Chinese projects and workers across northwest Africa.

The Chinese embassy in Algeria then issued a statement on its website urging Chinese organizations and citizens in Algeria to be on alert.

Congolese President Keen To Open Embassy In Tehran! Really?

Iran's Fars News Agency is reporting that Congolese President Joseph Kabila is "eager" to open an embassy in Iran. At least that is what the country's Foreign Minister Basile Ikouebe is quoted by Fars as telling his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in a meeting on the sidelines of the 64th United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sunday.

Ikouebe is quoted as saying "The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo... is willing to open the Congo embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran as soon as possible."

Question: Given Iran's, how shall we put it, rather controversial activities of recent days --- testing missiles and admitting to having a secret nuclear facility --- is this really the best time for any nation to be "eager" to engage with Iran? Could this report perhaps contain a bit of exaggeration?

China and Africa: Aid With a Catch?

An eye-catching article in today's New York Times on China's expanding business dealings in Africa. You can read the whole item here.

But here is the general point of the report:

"From Pakistan to Angola to Kyrgyzstan, China is using its enormous pool of foreign currency savings to cement diplomatic alliances, secure access to natural resources and drum up business for its flagship companies. Foreign aid — typically cut-rate loans, sometimes bundled with more commercial lines of credit — is central to this effort.



"Leaders of developing nations have embraced China’s sales pitch of easy credit, without Western-style demands for political or economic reform, for a host of unmet needs. The results can be clearly seen in new roads, power plants, and telecommunications networks across the African continent — more than 200 projects since 2001, many financed with preferential loans from the Chinese government’s Exim Bank.



"Increasingly, though, experts argue that China’s aid comes with a major catch: It must be used to buy goods or services from companies, many of them state-controlled, that Chinese officials select themselves. Competitive bidding by the borrowing nation is discouraged, and China pulls a veil over vital data like project costs, loan terms and repayment conditions. Even the dollar amount of loans offered as foreign aid is treated as a state secret.



"Anticorruption crusaders complain that secrecy invites corruption, and that corruption debases foreign assistance."

Have we heard this kind of thing before? Yep. I found this item from October 2008 on the Voice of America website. In it, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Jendayi Frazier was quoted as saying China needs to be more transparent with how it gives debt relief and loans to African nations.

"We certainly are concerned about China's lending practices potentially undermining our efforts to insure that Africa doesn't reaccumulate unsustainable debt," said Frazer. "We don't want to on the one hand cancel that debt and then on the other hand, China's giving more debt."

Operation Objective Voice Update

The U.S. military’s Africa Command is seeking $7.8 million for the fiscal year beginning October 1st to continue Operation Objective Voice, an operation described by AFRICOM as one “that strikes at the heart of violent extremist ideology” through broadcast and other messages. The operation, first reported here exclusively in April of this year, involves the deployment of Military Information Support Teams, known as MISTs, in Africa.

A spokesman for AFRICOM confirmed the budget request for the 2010 fiscal year in response to an inquiry from this blog. Efforts to obtain information on actual spending on the program during the past year have been unsuccessful.

In the past, Africa Command confirmed the deployment of Military Information Support Teams (MISTs) in Nigeria, Mali and Kenya. An AFRICOM official said those teams have undertaken several programs. He said these include Ethnic and Religious Tolerance programs, Anti-Smuggling/Anti-Trafficking programs, Conflict Resolution training or broad-based radio programming. In Kenya, for example, the official said the MIST team has conducted Peace and Reconciliation programs. These efforts are closely coordinated with U.S. Embassy programs.

The official disclosed AFRICOM has also conducted OOV-sponsored surveys in Chad, Niger, Senegal, and Algeria. "We have sponsored an Embassy program in Niger. We are working on OOV programming initiatives in Senegal and Burkina Faso. We also have MISTs deployed to Mauritania, Niger, and Ethiopia," the official revealed earlier this year.

Although not specifically conceived as part of OOV, the official confirms AFRICOM sponsors a news and information website, www.magharebia.com. He said AFRICOM also has Civil Affairs teams conducting small-scale Humanitarian Assistance projects in several countries; and "while these are not funded or overseen by OOV, they also contribute to the achievement of the command's OOV Effects," the official said.

The AFRICOM official said the MISTs deployed in Africa did not deploy with radio, television or other equipment of their own. He said they use capabilities already in existence in the countries where they work.

He said, "Typically (though not always), they will employ TV, radio, newspapers, billboards and posters, and what we call 'Durable Messaging Goods' (the things you give to people, such as shirts, hats, soccer balls, etc.). TV may include buying ad time or sponsoring documentaries; radio may include buying ad time, sponsoring live discussions or call-in shows, or producing radio dramas/series."

According to Foreign Policy online, the durable messaging goods including “advertising vehicles,” such as mosquito nets and water bottles that are not explicitly identified as coming from the U.S. government.

Asked by AFRICOMWatch if the U.S. military was considering the deployment of Commando Solo airborne broadcasting platforms, the official said earlier this year it is an option. "While we may seek to deploy it, it would likely be a temporary measure in support of a specific operation, such as Counter Piracy operations. It would likely NOT be deployed in support of OOV; because OOV is a long-term effort in several countries, and the temporary employment of an airborne broadcast platform is not well-suited to long-term OOV needs."

In the meantime, the Voice of America has reported the U.S. is planning to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles in the Seychelles islands to combat piracy. The use of land-based drones is a new approach to deter ship hijackings in the region.

VOA’s Alisha Ryu quoted a spokesman for the U.S. military's Africa Command as saying several Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles will be in the Seychelles by late October or November. He says they will be used to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions throughout the Indian Ocean region.