Press Play with Madeleine Brand
"Fog of War" in Age of Drones, Belle Gibson, and Facebook’s News Grab
We take a two-part look at today’s White House revelation that two aid workers were accidentally killed by a U.S. drone strike in January. They were being held by Al-Qaeda. What kind of intelligence was behind the strikes, and how did it go so wrong? We also get the backstory on Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al-Qaeda originally from Orange County. Gadahn was also killed in January by a separate U.S. drone strike.
By Madeleine Brand • • 51m ListenWe start today with a two-part look at the news, revealed today, that two aid workers were accidentally killed by a U.S. drone strike in January. They were being held by Al-Qaeda. What kind of intelligence was behind the strikes, and how did it go so wrong? We also get the backstory on Adam Gadahn, an American member of Al-Qaeda originally from Orange County. Gadahn was also accidentally killed by a separate U.S. drone strike in January. Next, in our weekly web roundup, we look at the controversy surrounding Belle Gibson, the wellness blogger who faked having cancer. Then, Poet and memoirist Sarah Manguso on keeping a diary for 25 years. And finally, a look at Facebook’s attempt to bring in more revenue by pulling entire news articles onto its site, rather than just allowing for links.
Banner Image: A member of the Carabiniere's paramilitary police stands outside Giovanni Lo Porto's family house in Palermo, April 23, 2015. A U.S. drone strike in January targeting an al Qaeda compound in Pakistan near the Afghan border inadvertently killed an American and an Italian who had been held hostage for years by the group, U.S. officials said on Thursday. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
In this episode
5 storiesThe "Fog of War" in the Age of Drones
President Obama spoke this morning about the two aid workers accidentally killed by a U.S. drone strike in January. American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto were being held hostage by Al-Qaeda near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. During his speech, Obama said that in the “fog of war,” deadly mistakes can happen.
Read the story9 minThe Story of Adam Gadahn
Adam Gadahn, a.k.a. Azzam the American, was a senior operative and spokesman for Al-Qaeda. And he was one of the Americans killed in the January drone strikes. Gadahn grew up and was homeschooled on a remote goat farm in Riverside County. He left home as a teenager in the mid-90s and moved in with his grandparents in Orange County.
Read the story8 minWeb Roundup: The Belle Gibson Hoax
Food activist Belle Gibson had a simple plan for curing her brain cancer: eat good food, drink more water, meditate. You could cure your own cancer if you just tried hard enough, she seemed to suggest.
Read the story10 minOngoingness
Sarah Manguso can measure her life in words. The poet and memoirist kept a diary for 25 years, writing roughly 800,000 verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs… but over those decades of daily diary entries, the freedom from forgetting all the details of life began to feel more like a prison.
Read the story12 minFacebook Grabs at News Biz
Online readers get 40% of their news through Facebook, according to estimates. At least, that’s where people find the news. Click on a link and you’re launched from Facebook onto the New York Times, Buzzfeed or even KCRW.org . But Facebook doesn’t like it when you click and go to another website. They lose ad revenue that way.
Read the story8 min
