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BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2005 — Is there a future Steven Spielberg hidden among the Army's ranks in Iraq? Walk into 1st Lt. John Prettyman's room and you might start to think so. You won't find the normal pictures or calendars hanging on the walls. Instead, Prettyman, with the 70th Engineer Battalion, has news articles that have captured his interest neatly taped to the white fiberboard wall. Piled on a cot, there's a computer, editing decks and perhaps the latest issue of Moviemaker magazine. You'll also find a camera, which can fit in the palm of a hand. This is...

Kurds in Iran's western city of Mahabad are rioting against the Iranian government after the torture and brutal death of activist, Shovaneh Ghaderi, at the hands of the police. Shovaneh was a member of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan. His crime evidently was to call for autonomy in Kurdistan. Reports are that Shovaneh was shot by police and tied to a car. He was dragged by the car to the police station, suffering severe lacerations. At the police station, he was allegedly tortured until he died. Shovaneh was 25-years old at the time of his murder. The police brutality came...

IRAN Imprisoned Journalist Akbar Ganji / Concern Over Brutality Towards Peaceful Protestors / Importance of Freedom of the Press QUESTION: Can I ask you about the case of Ganji, the journalist who's jailed in Iran? My question is, the Bush Administration has made clear that they want him released and also has urged human rights group, the United Nations, to try and sort of pressure on the case. Given all that's happened in the United States about journalism and the journalist who has been jailed, does that kind of diminish your chances of persuading other people to do it? It's...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's government said Wednesday that President Bush shouldn't intervene in the case of a jailed Iranian dissident, particularly given allegations of U.S. human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. Bush called Tuesday for Tehran to release Akbar Ganji, a journalist jailed for writing articles linking government officials to murder. The White House statement came as some 300 Ganji supporters gathered in front of the Tehran University to demand Ganji's release. "The White House talks about violations of human rights in Iran while the world hates the U.S. violations of human rights in both Guantanamo...

TEHERAN - Iran’s most prominent jailed dissident, journalist Akbar Ganji, has completed one month of hunger strike and is now demanding his unconditional release, his wife was quoted as saying on Monday. “After 31 days of hunger strike, Ganji has a very good morale and wishes to continue his action,” Massoumeh Shafiie told the semi-official ILNA news agency after meeting her husband in Tehran’s Evin prison. “He is demanding his unconditional release and believes the only way to secure this is by continuing his hunger strike. He says he will only eat when he is unconditionally freed,” she added. Ganji...

When the leaders of the world's industrialized nations meet today in Scotland, they would do well to take time out from their policy debates to focus on the fate of Akbar Ganji, who is becoming known as the Iranian Vaclav Havel. He is the journalist and dissident entering his 27th day of a hunger strike inside Evin Prison. Over the July 4th weekend, the chief of Iran's society of journalists told IRNA that Ganji was in critical condition. If Bush meant anything when he proclaimed in his second inaugural, "As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you,"...

Note: Sgt. Steve Boggess is one of ChronWatch's newer writers that editor Gregory Borse, Barbara Stock, and I have worked with recently. Steve is currently stationed in Germany, but was on duty in Iraq when he first contacted us, saying that he aspires to become an op-ed writer and political commentator. He expected to be reassigned back to Iraq soon. We were sorry today to receive the e-mail message below from his wife, Rhonda. I hope that you will include Steve in your prayers. And I think it would be excellent if ChronWatch readers would send get-well messages to this...

Recently, I read an article written by John Kaminski, who is a conspiracy theorist who sees a plot behind every tree. Sadly, Kaminski is an American who claims to live in a “leaky trailer” in Florida even though he is the author of several books. Obviously, the books are not selling or he could repair his trailer. Kaminski absolutely believes that the evil right-wing neo-cons carried out the attack on 9/11. He disregards the admission from bin Laden, believing it to be faked. Kaminski believes there is no threat from Islam or the Arab world at all. He feels that...

Stephen King exhorts UMaine grads to stay Boston Globe ORONO, Maine -- Delivering the commencement speech at his alma mater, the best-selling author Stephen King counseled University of Maine graduates yesterday to be voracious readers, to donate a tenth of their earnings to worthy causes, and to carve out their careers in Maine. May 8, 2005 --> Stephen King exhorts UMaine grads to stay By Associated Press  |  May 8, 2005 ORONO, Maine -- Delivering the commencement speech at his alma mater, the best-selling author Stephen King counseled University of Maine graduates yesterday to be voracious readers, to donate a...

A Cape Cod garbage man was charged with murder and rape Friday in the 2002 stabbing death of fashion writer Christa Worthington, whose mysterious slaying turned a national spotlight on the isolated outer Cape town of Truro.

St. Paul mystery writer John Camp wasn't thrilled to learn that a copy of the inside cover of his book, "Rules of Prey," was among the contents of a manila envelope that was sent to a Kansas TV station in February and has been linked to accused serial killer Dennis Rader. Nor does he think Rader, who was charged Tuesday with 10 strangulation deaths that terrorized Wichita beginning in 1974, took any "inspiration" from the book, he said, pointing out that all but one of the Kansas killings took place before the publication of "Rules of Prey" in 1989. It...

DENVER - Hunter S. Thompson, the "gonzo journalist" with a penchant for drugs, guns and flamethrower prose, might have one more salvo in store for everyone: Friends and relatives want to blast his ashes out of a cannon, just as he wished. "If that's what he wanted, we'll see if we can pull it off," said historian Douglas Brinkley, a friend of Thompson's and now the family's spokesman. Thompson, who shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home Sunday at 67, said several times he wanted an artillery send-off for his remains. "There's no question, I'm sure that's what he...

There's been a lot of spilled ink and wasted pixels on the complicated effort to eulogize the suicide of "new journalism" writer Hunter S. Thompson, with most of it coming out insincere, overwrought, or just not quite getting it. Steve H., the immensely talented blogger at Hog on Ice, is another matter altogether. Writing as someone who was influenced by Thompson, he takes a rueful, almost bitter, but straight look at Thompson and hits the target. He writes the first realistic assessment of what the man amounted to before he met his end. It's a cold hard look at Thompson...

AP News Alert ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- The son of Hunter S. Thompson says the author shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home.

When you think of a government information office, do you think of much more than dusty information pamphlets and glossy tourist brochures full of pleasant platitudes, putting the best face forward on a particular nation? Such is perfectly natural for friendly, and even some not-so-friendly nations, because that's what government information offices normally do. But Venezuela's Marxist government has an entirely different idea. The innocuously named Venezuela Information Office in Washington, D.C. is an aggressive Cuba-style PsyOps and disinformation operation sponsored by the Venezuelan government. Its operatives not only seek to get the Venezuelan government's castroite message out to the...

I'm engaged in a little debate on another board, and I need a bit of help finding a story that's a couple years old. I recall a writer and/or editor from what I thought was Salon.com who wrote an editorial admitting that he was hoping for more Americans to die in Iraq so the Democrats would gain political power from a "Bush defeat." I can't seem to find that story by going to Google. But then, maybe my memory is faded enough so I'm not "Googling" with the right "key words." I'd appreciate it if any of you could help...

HOUSTON - Will Denton, a prominent trial lawyer and adviser to best-selling novelist John Grisham, died Friday of complications following a heart transplant. He was 62. His health had been deteriorating for two years, said his wife, Lucy. Denton, a decorated veteran and former Air Force staff judge advocate, devoted more than half of his nearly 40-year legal career to personal injury cases that took him around the world. He developed case law that helped refine the Jones Act, a federal maritime law. Denton was attorney for the Biloxi Port Commission in Mississippi, a former Biloxi, Miss., city judge, co-author...

More 'Hit Lists' Found At Guilford County Schools 2 hours, 22 minutes ago Local - WXII ThePiedmontChannel.com School officials in Guilford County are investigating a series of "hit list" notes found in county schools Friday. One note, that threatened 12 students, was found at Northwest High School. It was left on a teacher's desk and was found after lunch. Two Jamestown Middle students were caught Friday in separate cases of writing threatening letters. Also, a similar note was found on a bathroom wall at Mendenhall Middle in Greensboro. The incidents occurred three days after a threatening note was found at...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - The Bush campaign agreed on Friday to stop playing the 1976 hit "Still The One" -- by the band Orleans -- at Bush's rallies, after the song's writer, John Hall, protested its use by the president and backed the challenger, Democratic Sen. John Kerry.

A little fun here. Name the writers of this song. If you hear the melody and know the title of this song, you might be able to know it. There are two. Here is a clip of this song.