Boston.com

James Foley : quand la presse unanime accusait le régime syrien

En avril 2013, on ne sait pas qui détient James Foley. On trouve quelques reprises de cette information : Parents talk about journalist kidnapped in Syria
▻http://bigstory.ap.org/article/parents-talk-about-journalist-kidnapped-syria

The U.S. does not currently have a formal relationship with Syria and there has been no regular or reliable information about Foley, his parents said. Though they have been in touch with federal officials, they said the most they’ve received are rumors of their son’s whereabouts.

À peine un mois plus tard, début mai 2013, c’est une autre histoire… Sur la base d’une unique source, l’accumulation des articles et des titres donne un effet de certitude imparable (malgré l’usage du conditionnel de précaution, parfois gommé dans les titres).

– Libération avec AFP : Un journaliste américain aux mains de Bachar al-Assad
▻http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/05/04/un-journaliste-americain-aux-mains-de-la-syrie_900834

Le journaliste américain James Foley, porté disparu depuis six mois en Syrie, serait détenu par des agents des services du renseignement syrien dans un centre de détention près de Damas, a déclaré vendredi un porte-parole de sa famille à Boston.

– Nouvel Obs : SYRIE. Un journaliste américain détenu par le régime d’Assad
▻http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/la-revolte-syrienne/20130503.OBS8172/syrie-un-journaliste-americain-detenu-par-le-regime-d-assad.htm

– Le Monde : Syrie : les journalistes, victimes du régime et des rebelles
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2013/05/03/syrie-les-journalistes-victimes-du-regime-et-des-rebelles_3170297_3218.html

Le journaliste américain James Foley, porté disparu depuis six mois en Syrie, serait détenu par des agents des services du renseignement dans un centre de détention près de Damas, a déclaré vendredi 3 mai un porte-parole de sa famille à Boston.

« Nous avons obtenu de multiples rapports indépendants provenant de sources confidentielles très crédibles ayant un accès direct et indirect, qui confirment notre évaluation que Jim est à présent détenu par le gouvernement syrien », a ajouté le PDG et cofondateur du média en ligne GlobalPost, Phil Balboni, qui fait également office de porte-parole de la famille de M. Foley.

– Le Parisien avec AFP : Syrie : Assad déterminé à rester au pouvoir
▻http://www.leparisien.fr/flash-actualite-monde/syrie-raids-aeriens-de-l-armee-dans-le-centre-du-pays-a-qousseir-19-05-20

Concernant le sort des journalistes américain James Foley et italien Domenico Quirico du quotidien La Stampa, portés disparus en Syrie, le chef d’Etat a affirmé n’avoir « aucune information » à ce sujet. La famille de James Foley avait affirmé début mai que le reporter serait détenu par des agents des services du renseignement syrien près de Damas.

Méthode intéressante : ici « Assad » est clairement mis en accusation – et contredit par la toute dernière phrase de l’article – pour l’enlèvement de Foley et Quirico. Aucun des deux n’étant pourtant détenu par le régime…

– Même article sur Le Point :
▻http://www.lepoint.fr/monde/syrie-l-armee-au-coeur-de-la-ville-rebelle-de-qousseir-assad-inflexible-19-0

– CNN (CNN Staff) : Missing journalist in Syrian custody, news outlet says
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/03/world/meast/syria-missing-journalist

U.S. journalist missing in Syria for nearly six months is most likely in Syrian government custody, according to the GlobalPost, an online international news outlet, and the man’s brother.

Gunmen kidnapped James Foley on November 22 and his family has since worked to obtain his release. Foley, a free-lance journalist, contributed stories to the GlobalPost.

According to a GlobalPost story on Friday, its CEO and president, Philip Balboni, said in a speech marking World Press Freedom Day that the outlet has a “very high degree of confidence” that Foley was “most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and turned over to Syrian government forces.”

“We have obtained multiple independent reports from very credible confidential sources who have both indirect and direct access that confirm our assessment that Jim is now being held by the Syrian government in a prison or detention facility in the Damascus area,” Balboni said.

– GlobalPost : American journalist likely held by Syrian government
▻http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/syria/130503/james-foley-american-journalist-held-syrian-government

After a five-month investigation inside Syria and the wider Middle East, GlobalPost and the family of missing American journalist James Foley now believe the Syrian government is holding him in a detention center near Damascus.

“With a very high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces,” GlobalPost CEO and President Philip Balboni said during a speech marking World Press Freedom Day.

(Cette page du GlobalPost est désormais précédée de la mention : “Since the publication of this story further investigations have been conducted on James Foley’s kidnapping, pointing in a different direction.”, avec un lien vers l’annonce de sa décapitation par l’État islamique.)

– RadioBDC blog - Boston.com : World Press Freedom Day Announcement : Jim Foley found in Syria
▻http://www.boston.com/ae/radio/blog/2013/05/world_press_freedom_day_announcement_jim_foley_found_in_syria.html

According to a private security firm hired by GlobalPost to find Foley, he is being held in a detention facility in the Damascas area. Foley was kidnapped in Syria in November, 2012, just a stone’s throw from the Turkish border, and has been missing for 162 days. Balboni told reporters today that Foley was captured by “pro-government militia” and then handed over to the Assad regime.

– Investigation Suggests American Journalist Missing in Syria Is ’Likely’ Held by Government - NYTimes.com
▻http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/investigation-suggests-american-journalist-missing-in-syria-likely-held-by-government/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

James Foley, an American journalist who has been missing in Syria for 162 days, “was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces,” the news site GlobalPost reported on Friday. Before he disappeared, Mr. Foley had contributed reports to GlobalPost and Agence-France Presse as a freelance correspondent.

The news site said that its conclusion was based on “a five-month investigation inside Syria and the wider Middle East.”

– The Boston Globe : Kidnapped journalist believed to be alive, in Syrian custody
▻http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/05/03/kidnapped-journalist-believed-alive-syrian-custody/x7lMeSepj6z7GVM2IJZZpO/story.html

Friday afternoon, Balboni said that he and Foley’s family began to receive information that Foley was in the custody of the Syrian government about two months ago. Since that time, Balboni said, more information has given them 85 to 90 percent confidence that Foley remains alive and in a Syrian prison.

– The Raw Story : Investigation indicates American reporter James Foley being held at facility controlled by Syrian intelligence
▻http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/03/investigation-indicates-american-reporter-james-foley-being-held-at-facili

A US journalist missing in war-torn Syria is believed to be held by government intelligence agents at a detention center near Damascus, a spokesman for his family said Friday.

– Huffington Post : James Foley ’Likely’ Being Held By Syrian Government : GlobalPost
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/03/james-foley-held-syria_n_3209513.html

James Foley, an American journalist who went missing in Syria, is “likely” being held by the Syrian government, according to his family and GlobalPost on Friday.

[…]

“With a very high degree of confidence, we now believe that Jim was most likely abducted by a pro-regime militia group and subsequently turned over to Syrian government forces,” GlobalPost CEO and President Philip Balboni said.

Ferguson Protests - Photos
►http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2014/08/ferguson_protests.html

http://rezo.net/local/cache-vignettes/L120xH80/arton213318-62ae1.jpg

There have been a week of protests, some peaceful and some violent, since the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo. The unrest prompted Governor Jay Nixon to declare a state of emergency on Saturday an implement a curfew in the St. Louis suburb. Tensions had flared Friday after police released the name of the officer who fatally shot Brown and named the teen as a suspect in a convenience store robbery that occurred shortly before he was shot. (...) Source: The Big Picture

A look back at the week’s events in #Ferguson in photos

In Gwen Ifill’s column Friday, “The optics of a national crisis,” she writes about how national events become remembered by the images that define them.

Twitter and Vine, she said, “were consumed this week with videos of tear gas, arrests and college students with their hands raised over their heads. Sen. Claire McCaskill realized the power of optics when she got herself to a black church in Ferguson to speak to her constituents about the violence breaking out all around them.

Here are some of the images from Ferguson, Missouri, this week.”

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453643874-1024x693.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453644164-1024x679.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453582874-1024x712.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453505314-1-1024x682.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453575526-1024x706.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453492520-1024x681.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453583700-1024x670.jpg http://www.pbs.org/newshour/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/453619436-1024x682.jpg

On Friday morning, people gathered in the lot of the Quick Trip gas station — which was burned during rioting — as Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson released the name of the Ferguson police officer responsible for the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown on August 9.

▻http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/ferguson-photos

#photographie
cc @albertocampiphoto

Mammograms may cut breast cancer deaths by 28% - Health - Boston.com
▻http://www.boston.com/health/2014/06/18/mammograms-may-cut-breast-cancer-deaths/CQknrazRocdSxyLaUTehTN/story.html

In the new observational study, researchers tracked all Norwegian women aged 50 to 79 between 1986 and 2009, just as a national screening program was getting underway. Scientists used a model to estimate breast cancer death rates in women invited to get a mammogram as part of the government-funded program and in those who weren’t included yet. They said about 76 percent of women offered a mammogram actually got it.

The researchers estimated about 368 women need to be given a chance to have a mammogram to prevent one death from breast cancer and that screening reduces breast cancer deaths by about 28 percent — similar to what many other studies about mammography have concluded.

The research was published online Tuesday in the British journal, BMJ and was paid for by the Norwegian Research Council.

Bénéfices du dépistage systématique de la mammographie ?
Un marronnier. Cette fois-ci, il faut inviter 368 femmes (entre 50 et 79 ans) à se faire dépister, ou, vu le taux de non réponse dépister effectivement 280 femmes pour éviter un décès.

Dans l’article du Boston, l’un des auteurs évoque le risque de surdiagnostic et la baisse d’intérêt du dépistage étant donné les progrès des traitements…

‘‘Mammograms do provide some benefit, but the problem is the screening is so sensitive it captures tumors without malignant potential,’’ said Lars Vatten of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, one of the study’s authors.

Vatten said improved treatments for breast cancer were also lowering death rates in developed countries, making mammograms less important since even cancers caught later are sometimes still treatable.

He said the benefits of getting a mammogram justified ongoing national screening programs but that women should be given more information about the potential harms, like having unnecessary treatment including surgery and chemotherapy.

Ce que ne fait pas du tout l’article original ▻http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3701 , qui se focalise donc exclusivement sur les avantages.

World War I : Unseen Images from the front
▻http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2014/05/world_war_i_unseen_images_from_the_front.html

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/ww1/bp10.jpg

#Harvard-led team detects gravitational waves, evidence of cosmic inflation - Science - Boston.com
▻http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2014/03/17/harvard-led-team-detects-gravitational-waves-evidence-cosmic-inflation/319PYbiMlTc6r2MN3ID6XP/blog.html

A team led by a Harvard astronomer announced Monday that it had detected a pattern in the distant cosmos that reveals what happened in the first known moments after the Big Bang 13 billion years ago: a hyper-expansion of our universe known as inflation.

The scientists have also for the first time directly detected gravitational waves, which have been long predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity but never directly observed.

“Detecting this signal is one of the most important goals in cosmology today,” John Kovac, associate professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who led the team, said in a statement.

#expansion_cosmique

Photos from Argentina’s farms, documenting an agrochemical plague
▻http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/10/21/photos-argentina-agrochemicals/6446

American biotechnology has turned Argentina into the world’s third-largest soybean producer, but the chemicals powering the boom aren’t confined to soy and cotton and corn fields. They routinely contaminate homes and classrooms and drinking water. A growing chorus of doctors and scientists is warning that their uncontrolled use could be responsible for the increasing number of health problems turning up in hospitals across the South American nation. In the heart of Argentina’s soybean business, house-to-house surveys of 65,000 people in farming communities found cancer rates two to four times higher than the national average, as well as higher rates of hypothyroidism and chronic respiratory illnesses. Associated Press photographer Natacha Pisarenko spent months documenting the issue in farming communities across Argentina.

http://denverpost.slideshowpro.com/albums/001/496/album-416596/cache/argentina-agrochemicals-005.sJPG_950_2000_0_75_0_50_50.JPG

Potential effects of agrochemicals in Argentina - The Big Picture - Boston.com
►http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/10/agrochemical_spraying_in_argen.html

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/Agro_2013/bp4.JPG

Agrochemical spraying in Argentina has increased ninefold, from 9 million gallons in 1990 to 84 million gallons today. Yet the South American nation has a hodgepodge of widely ignored regulations that leave people dangerously exposed, and chemicals contaminate homes, classrooms, and drinking water. Doctors and scientists are warning that uncontrolled spraying could be causing health problems across the nation.

#photo #agriculture #pesticides #pollution #santé

How facts backfire
▻http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire

“most voters — the people making decisions about how the country runs — aren’t blank slates. They already have beliefs, and a set of facts lodged in their minds. The problem is that sometimes the things they think they know are objectively, provably false. And in the presence of the correct information, such people react very, very differently than the merely uninformed. Instead of changing their minds to reflect the correct information, they can entrench themselves even deeper.” (...)

#democracy

Les USA ne se prononceront pas sur un « coup d’Etat » en Egypte - 7SUR7.be
▻http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1505/Monde/article/detail/1675948/2013/07/26/Les-USA-ne-se-prononceront-pas-sur-un-coup-d-Etat-en-Egypte.dhtml

Je n’avais personnellement jamais lu une énormité de cet acabit,

« La loi ne stipule pas que nous devons déterminer formellement si un coup d’Etat a eu lieu, et effectuer une telle détermination n’est pas dans notre intérêt national » a déclaré (...) [un] haut responsable de l’administration du président Barack Obama, s’exprimant sous couvert d’anonymat.

Aid to Egypt Can Keep Flowing, Despite Overthrow, White House Decides - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/26/world/middleeast/aid-to-egypt-can-keep-flowing-despite-overthrow-white-house-decides.html

“We will not say it was a coup, we will not say it was not a coup, we will just not say,” the official said.

Les conséquences sont malheureusement elles aussi énormes mais autrement plus sérieuses, comme l’explique #Matthew_Lee :

Analysis : US stand on Egypt ’coup’ may have costs - News Nation Washington - Boston.com
▻http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/2013/07/27/analysis-stand-egypt-coup-may-have-costs/HDKfDjpdLg6FvJJs9ysYmN/story.html

Previous U.S. administrations have endured criticism for appearing to pay them ["American values"] only lip service. But this new and unprecedented finding sends a confusing message that probably will resonate beyond Egypt to other fragile — and perhaps not so fragile — democracies where soldiers are unhappy with ballot box results or the policies of their elected commanders in chief.

#mensonges #démocratie

Blade Runner IRL ▻http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2013/07/25/mit-scientists-plant-false-memory-mouse-mind/BmBV3wC4PhnSJlCFGOF2rN/blog.html

#bladerunner #mémoire #mémoireartificielle #expérimentation #expérimentationanimale

Snowden documents could be ’worst nightmare’ for U.S.: journalist | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/07/13/us-usa-security-snowden-greenwald-idUSBRE96C08Q20130713

Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who first published the documents Snowden leaked, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the U.S. government should be careful in its pursuit of the former computer analyst.

“Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had,” Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinean daily La Nacion.

“The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare.”

Protests in Turkey
▻http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/06/protests_in_turkey.html

http://rezo.net/local/cache-vignettes/L120xH67/arton203385-19c8a.jpg

An undercurrent of explosive anger at the government of Turkey found a fuse on May 31 as a protest over the demolition of a public park in Istanbul quickly spread to other cities and encompassed simmering passions on broader issues in Turkish political life. Police have used tear gas and water canons to break up the protests, which have grown as demonstrators express opposition to what they view as the increasing authoritarianism of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Source: The Big (...)

Most dangerous city: San Pedro Sula, Honduras
▻http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/04/most_dangerous_city_san_pedro.html

San Pedro Sula, Honduras, has been given the unfortunate title of the most dangerous city in the world. The data was compiled by Citizen Council for Public Security, Justice, and Peace, a Mexican think tank focusing on crime statistics from the Western Hemisphere.

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Top Pentagon thinker bemoans “civilian subjugation to the military.” - War and Peace - Boston.com
▻http://www.boston.com/news/local/blogs/war-and-peace/2013/03/26/top-pentagon-thinker-bemoans-civilian-subjugation-the-military/rBJfLdIzNrzqlAJ0EsQyUL/blog.html

Gregory D. Forster :

“I think we collectively, the national security community, suffer from what I would characterize as conceptual deficit disorder,” he said, lambasting most defense practitioners for shirking their “moral obligations to be strategic.”

What is left is an “American way of war” on autopilot that is too expensive, wasteful, and indiscriminately destructive—“killing people and breaking things”—and a growing global reputation of hypocrisy.

“I want to talk about walking the talk, about practicing what we preach. I want to talk about being able to illicit moral authority,” he said. “When we preach peace but practice war, when we preach self defense but practice aggression we are[not] being consistent in how we exercise power.”

A soldier’s eye: rediscovered pictures from Vietnam
▻http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/03/a_soldiers_eye_rediscovered_pi.html

Charlie Haughey was drafted into the US Army in October of 1967. He was 24, and had been in college in Michigan before running out of money and quitting school to work in a sheet metal factory. The draft notice meant that he was to serve a tour of duty in Vietnam, designated a rifleman, the basic field position in the Army. After 63 days in Vietnam, he was made a photographer, shooting photographs for the Army and US newspapers, with these instructions from the Colonel: “You are not a combat photographer. This is a morale operation. If I see pictures of my guys in papers, doing their jobs with honor, then you can do what you like in Vietnam.”

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/vietnam_2013/bp19.jpg

One photographer’s journey inside #Iran - The Big Picture - Boston.com
▻http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/03/one_photographers_journey_insi.html

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New Zealand photographer, Amos Chapple, made three visits to the Islamic Republic of Iran between December 2011 and January 2013. Chapple “was amazed by the difference in western perceptions of the country and what I saw on the ground…” He goes on to say that every traveller he met inside Iran had the same sense of surprise.

#photo

National Archives: Searching for the Seventies
▻http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/03/national_archives_searching_fo.html

“Searching for the Seventies” takes a new look at the 1970s using remarkable color photographs taken for a Federal photography project called Project DOCUMERICA (1971-1977). Created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), DOCUMERICA was born out of the decade’s environmental awakening, producing striking photographs of many of that era’s environmental problems and achievements. Drawing its inspiration from the depression era Farm Security Administration photography project, project photographers created a portrait of America in the early-and-mid-1970s.

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Fashion weeks - The Big Picture
►http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/01/fashion_weeks.html

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For some, #fashion is a corporate industry. For others, it’s an artistic expression. And for still others, it’s an embrace of cultural traditions. Fashion is a shallow pursuit in the eyes of many, and a deep embodiment of identity for others. Definitions of what is fashionable are myriad and contradictory, but the annual spectacle of the presentation and the scramble of the preparations endure long after this year’s look is forgotten. Venues vary from a junkyard in Sao Paulo to the Royal Albert Hall in London. Creations from the absurd to the avant-garde by turns entertain, inspire, or pay homage. Gathered here are images from fall and winter shows both famous and obscure. — Lane Turner (38 #photos total)

#mode

Raised Behind Bars
►http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/12/raised_behind_bars.html

Five years ago, Reuters photographer Carolina Camps documented the stories found in the maternity wing of a women’s prison in Los Hornos, Argentina. The prison not only housed female inmates, it was also home to 63 of their children, who were allowed to live with their mothers inside the jail until they were four years old. Now, half a decade on, Camps tracked down four of the women to see what had become of them and of their young families.

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