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The Jose Padilla case

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was back in the news yesterday, as the Justice department in the US released supposedly damning information about Padilla and his supposed dirty-bomb intentions. Here’s the wire story: Suspect Sought to Blow Up Buildings.

Something has been bothering me about the whole thing though. Well, lots has been bothering me, in particular holding someone indefinitely without charges and only grudging and very limited access to counsel. But that’s not what’s bothering me since yesterday. I think the “evidence” that is supposed to show that Padilla is a Very Bad Guy is a joke. Not that it’s weak, or figuratively a joke – I think it’s really a joke. I think someone is playing Ashcroft for a fool on this whole thing.

Read this description from the wire story. Padilla et al were, “to locate as many as three high-rise buildings that had natural gas. They were to rent two apartments in each building, seal all the openings, turn on the gas, and set timers to detonate the buildings simultaneously at a later time.”

That’s not a terrorist plot, that’s Fight Club (the book and in particular the movie)! Go take a look at the screenplay and do an in-page search for “HISS” to find the relevent passage.

There are public companies

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and then there are “public companies”. It has been two weeks since Six Apart asked how people use Movable Type, and on Friday it will be two weeks since Mena Trott posted a short “it’s quiet, we’re working” blog entry in Mena’s Corner. It’s amazing that they persist in communicating so little with their customers.

This has had two effects. First, by not communicating effectively about their product, they force a kind of Kremlinology-lite among interested customers. Second, Six Apart has noticed this (not hard) but they see scared to death of it while resenting it at the same time. (See, there’s some Kremlinology right there!) I give them all the slack in the world on this whole issue, and this post is intended to be nothing but constructive. But almost two weeks of no public communication in the midst of a product launch? When their customers have very clearly let them know that they need more? It boggles the mind!

Marketing is not an add-on. A PR strategy is not a nice-to-have. Communication is not optional, it is not a second thought. This stuff is MORE important than development on the eve of (or during) a major product launch. There should be a steady flow of information – official, unofficial, anecdotal, simple reactions (“oh we never knew THAT, how fun!”), developing thoughts, etc. I really hope they get this together.

If you’re confused

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about what has been going on in Iraq on the governance side of things – and who isn’t, what with the nonexistent roadmap, the multiple acronymously-named groups with the same membership, and spying-for-Iran accusations – you can do much worse than to read Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, particularly the archives starting May 30 and May 23. Marshall’s conclusion, at least as of just now?

Now that some of the dust has settled, we can see one thing pretty clearly: the IGC basically hijacked the process. The IGC essentially reconstituted as a caretaker government. The new President, Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, was the current president of the IGC. Hoshiyar Zebari, who was the foreign minister in the IGC, is now the foreign minister under the interim government. Allawi was a member of and choice of the IGC, etc. And so on down the list. The only key issue is that Chalabi, if not his crew, has been purged. Brahimi agreed to a laying on of hands. But he didn’t make the choices. He was sidelined.

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