Suskind on Iraq

My good friend Greg Jackson was the researcher for Pulitzer prize winning journalist Ron Suskind's new book The Way of the World. If what Ron and Greg wrote in this book holds up under grand jury investigation, the President of the United States could be impeached.

The book claims that the CIA, on orders from the President, forged a letter between a former Iraqi intelligence chief named Habbush and Saddam which stated that Iraq and al-Qeada colluded to get uranium from Niger, and that 9/11 hijackers trained in Iraq. Suskind alleges that Habbush actually explicitly told CIA that Iraq had no WMD several months before the invasion of Iraq, and while publicly a wanted man, was actually a US-paid informant living in Amman.

Not only would this be the most outrageous government lie in modern history, but it would also be illegal. A 1991 amendment to a 1947 law governing the CIA forbids disinformation campaigns aimed at United States public opinion. There are no listed penalties for breaking this law, but one assumes it is an impeachable offense.

Suskind's main source, a CIA agent named Robert Richer, now denies his account. Others are speculating that the letter was forged, but it came not from the CIA, but from Doug Feith's Defense Intelligence shop, which would not be governed by the same laws.

By the way, the book is haunted with 'what might have been' if the Administration had actually finished the job in Afghanistan, focused on keeping America safe from loose nukes, and supported Bhutto and democracy in Pakistan.

The Global Soul vs. The Local Soul

I read with interest Ethan Zuckerman's recent piece 'The Moving Circus, the Post-National, the Global Soul and the Xenophile.' I agree with Ethan's central point that "the future, in a very literal sense, belongs to the post-national, the Global Souls, the economic migrants. They're the best placed to create solutions to global problems, to invent new products for global markets, to build bridges and understanding between different nations."

I have been an advocate for the Global Soul since 2002 when I helped host the first annual 'Interdependence Day' at the University of Maryland. However, I have always found the Global Soul to be an incomplete concept. To understand this, I want to look at a concept that I will call, for expedience sake, the Local Soul.

The Local Soul is someone who devotes their public life to a local community, a place they can touch or feel. Local Souls can be teachers or, in my mother's case, a county government employee in an emergency social service that helps poor people who are facing eviction or improper treatment from their landlords. My mother told me an anecdote this weekend that I think illustrates the value of being a Local Soul.

My mother spoke of a 31-year-old woman with two jobs and several serious health problems who came into her office for housing support because this woman's mother, who was her main source of economic support, had recently passed away. This woman had nowhere to turn and was facing homelessness. My mother, along with several associates, sat her down and advised the woman how to navigate the tricky local government bureaucracy to give her support in her job training, housing and medical treatment. Afterwards, they hugged emotionally, because this woman had realized that these caring people had given her another chance.

This is to say that what the Global Soul misses is both sentimental and pragmatic. The pragmatic challenge is that in the abstract sense, eliminating suffering faces the same barriers everywhere. However, in real terms of making peoples lives better, one has to deeply understand the local environment. Secondly, the Global Soul lacks a sense of what German
sociologist Albert Tonybee called gemeinschaft, a sense of community defined by its strong bonds and kinship (contra gesellschaft, or society, which connotes simply co-existence). Technology can mitigate the effects of this sentiment, but I don't believe it can eliminate the sentiment completely.

However, what Ethan is saying when he talks of zenophilia, is that being a Local Soul is no longer enough. We know that our (local) way is not the only way, and for personal and creative reasons it is necessary to reach beyond the bounds of the Local Soul. This is absolutely true, and perhaps what has attracted me to the Global Soul from the start. How do we balance this tension?

This is a Criterion

photo via Richard Distand (Facebook)

Dear Uganda:

This is a road race criterion. Crazy young lads get dressed up in space alien suits and sprint around a short road course at 35 miles/hour right up on each other's back wheel. They make hairpin turns and occasionally crash violently. Their bikes are both devastatingly elegant and rather dainty; they are super fast, efficient, aerodynamic but unable to handle the smallest pot hole. The race was in a parking lot on a Sunday morning at the University of Maryland (go Terps!), so they didn't have to worry about running into matatus or boda bodas. In short, this is not the bike you would want to take on a trip from Kampala to Capetown.

Well, time to get my space alien suit on and go for a ride.

This Is Snow

Dear Uganda:

This is snow. Saturday night the roads were clear and I was taking in the happy sounds of Aphrodizia at an intimate space in DC. When I woke up Sunday morning, the Washington Post and New York Times Sunday editions were buried under six inches of fluffy fun. The snow was light and wet, perfect for crafting snowballs and building snowmen. We even saw an eight foot tall igloo in a neighbor's front yard.
Missing you all. Josh

Some Work at U. of Maryland

Today I'm starting a new job at the University of Maryland. For the spring semester, I'm working with several different offices in Campus Affairs who are broadly charged with increasing the level of civic engagement at the University, both inside and outside the classroom. I'll be mostly working on ensuring that the web space for these projects is relevant and helpful to accomplishing these goals.

Since ultimately I'd like to be working (vaguely) with how IT can help communities in the developing world, it should be an interesting few months exploring how local communities (in the US) are using the internet to promote (both local and global) civic engagement. Maryland is providing some snappy leadership in this field, most notably the J-Lab: Institute for Interactive Journalism, whose work I have been following closely. U. of Maryland is also home to Peter Levine, one of my favorite bloggers, who writes alot on youth civic engagement and occasionally internet related projects.

Speaking of good things in the DC area, I have been pleased with the development of the local music scene since I've been gone. Rob Garza, from the legendary DC based Thievery Corporation, has a stellar new group called Dust Galaxy. They have a fantastic mix of the classic Thievery downtempo sound and indie rock glamour. Playing keys for the group, also from the DC scene, the lovely and charming aphrodizia, who lends the group some sultry, ambient sound. I heard about them too late to catch their Thursday night show at 9:30 Club, but surely they will be back.

Missing Kampala Running

Running in Uganda may have had its share of hazards: horrific carcinogenic air, traffic with no qualms of taking up both lanes and any curb space, waist deep potholes and the occasional maniacal meat truck. All the same, the extremity freezing, grey skies, North Polesque weather I just ran in in Washington D.C. makes me miss my Kampala runs.