(Russia Today: 0719 PST, April 14, 2011) Tensions between the US and Pakistan have risen sharply in recent weeks leading Islamabad officials to demand a cut in the number of CIA personnel in the country. It comes as its foreign office called American drone-attacks a "core irritant" in the fight against terror. The latest attack drew strong criticism after several civilians were killed in North Wariziristan on Wednesday.

(Mosaic Video Alert: April 7, 2011) New TV features a profile on Libyan leader Omar al-Mukhtar, also known as the “Lion of the Desert,” and the “Sheikh of the Mujahideen.” In the early 20th century, al-Mukhtar founded the resistance movement in Libya against the Italian occupation and has long been seen by Arabs, especially Libyans, as a role model. In 1931, he was sentenced to death and executed by Italian forces in front of 20,000 Libyans.

(Associated Press: 1216 PST, March 16, 2011) The American Embassy says the Justice Department has opened an investigation into the killings of two Pakistani men by a CIA contractor in Pakistan.

(Democracy Now! 0930 PST, March 2, 2011) UN Reports have emerged of a dire situation on Libya's borders with Tunisia and Egypt, where tens of thousands have fled to evade the clashes. Democracy Now! speaks with Elizabeth Tan of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the agency working to provide shelter, sanitation, food and transportation at the border of Libya.

(Democracy Now! 0715 PST, March 2, 2011) Resistance in Libya as Gaddafi forces launch new assaults, and US silent on recent crackdown in Iraq.

(Democracy Now! 0945 PST, February 23, 2011) U.S. officials have admitted an American detained in Pakistan for the murder of two men was a CIA agent and a former employee of the private security firm Blackwater, now called Xe Services. Up until Monday, the Obama administration had insisted Raymond Davis was a diplomat who had acted in self-defense. The arrest of Davis has soured relations between the United States and Pakistan and revealed a web of covert U.S. operations inside the country, part of a secret war run by the CIA.

The Guardian newspaper of London first reported Davis's CIA link on Sunday and noted that many U.S. news outlets knew about his connection to the CIA but did not report on it at the request of U.S. officials. Democracy Now! interviews Declan Walsh, Pakistan correspondent for the Guardian, who first broke the story.

There are remarkably few positive things to say about Iraq today. The country seems to be in perpetual upheaval since the U.S. invasion in 2003. Dozens of people were killed across Iraq just days ahead of the start of the holy month of Ramadan, and more will probably lose their lives in the coming few days when insurgents typically step up their attacks. Yet the Obama administration has recently announced that the U.S. is "on target to end the combat mission." The U.S. government plans to withdraw its combat troops by the end of August and to remove all troops by the end of 2011.

But Iraq's most senior military officer, Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari, said that his forces, particularly the air force, were not ready to take over, cautioning that his security forces will not be able to secure the country until 2020.

The country has been facing many domestic challenges, such as a period of Sunni Arab insurgency, bloody attacks by al-Qaeda, confrontations with al-Sadr militias, and the ongoing tensions between various political factions; however, it's Iraq's vulnerability to neighboring countries that Zebari was alluding to.

"If America withdraws its forces and one of the neighboring countries causes problems, then we're going to have a problem," Zebari said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian last week,
Saddam Hussein's former deputy Tareq Aziz warned about a U.S. withdrawal and accused Barack Obama of "leaving Iraq to the wolves". Indeed, and even with the presence of 64,000 US troops in Iraq, both Turkish and Iranian troops have recently crossed Iraq's northern border in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. Last December, Iranian troops occupied an Iraqi oil well in the south, triggering popular outrage but little action from the Iraqi government.

It's worth mentioning that not everyone agrees with Zebari. A couple of days before his cautioning statement, General Ali Ghaidan, the commander of all Iraqi ground forces, told reporters at a news conference that his troops are "100 per cent ready" to take over.

But will the U.S. actually withdraw from Iraq?

Not really. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops will remain in the country to train the Iraqi army and provide it with logistical support. If need be, they will be engaged in combat missions. Meanwhile, the number of private contractors working for the U.S. in Iraq in sectors such as security, communications, utilities, and commerce is estimated at 100,000. This number is likely to increase significantly once the "combat forces" are gone, especially in the security sector.

Move on US Marines, here come Xe Services (better known as Blackwater)!

Meanwhile, the political stalemate between Nouri el- Maliki and Iyad Allawi if not resolved might soon trigger a major political upheaval, something that may cause the Iraqi government with its fragile coalitions to collapse; the last thing the Obama administration needs while withdrawing the troops.

It took 21 days for the U.S. armed forces to reach Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein, but leaving Iraq is proving to be more complicated than invading it.

Article originally published on the Huffington Post
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Every April, the city of Austin explodes into a rush of crowds dodging from tech event to film screening to music performance (to barbeque) as part of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. As Link TV’s Director of New Media I occasionally have to make the personal sacrifice of braving the crowds to keep Link TV on top of the latest tech trends. This has paid off through the many partnerships that were created last year that are now a part of our new project ViewChange.org.

At Link we’re often asked why not all of our programming is available online. It’s because we are largely an acquisitions broadcaster, which means that instead of only creating original programming, we often license the best content available from other countries around the world. These documentary and film rights are usually sold piece by piece to cable, satellite, and online, as well as “territory” by territory. That last point is why, for instance, Hulu is not available outside the US, and the BBC iPlayer is not available in the US. The rights have been carved up and sold to different regions and different platforms.

Because SXSW is a unique combination of film and technology, several panels dealt with the topic of online distribution. Industry icons Mark Cuban (owner of HDNet, Magnolia Pictures, Landmark Cinemas and the Dallas Mavericks) and Avner Ronen (owner of Boxee, a free media center application which will soon have Link TV programming) are notorious for their outspokenness, and together are also known for a public spat they had last year, which continued throughout the session, with Cuban arguing for cable- and satellite-based on-demand services, which are profitable, and Ronen pushing for online distribution.

Monday marked the public launch of AnyClip, a movie quote service which allows visitors to search for any scene from “any film” (caveat: they have indexed thousands of films, but not all films). After their successful private launch at TechCrunch last year, they were forced to reexamine the idea that they would be able to present actual video clips for their entire quote library online. This was an initial criticism I had for the site. The same rights restrictions that limit Link TV’s site are in play for AnyClip, and until they can guarantee a certain dollar figure in revenue to the studios, they will have to rely on text-only quotes.

	AnyClip's vice president of product and technology Nate Westheimer

Homing in on this feature could be lucrative for them, if they can partner with technology platforms like Blu-ray to provide quick search within films, or with other streaming services with larger libraries who would find the search tools useful. For instance, in another SXSW panel Peter Becker (Criterion) asked, “Why can’t you type ‘You know how to whistle don’t you?’ into Netflix and get the exact scene from To Have and Have Not?” If Netflix partnered with Anyclip, that could happen. But deeper than that, users can tag scenes with descriptions, for instance “Rocky training montage” or “When Harry Met Sally orgasm scene.”

Deeper than that, you can also find, for instance, all the scenes from boxing movies that involve trainer-athlete relationships. That could be a great tool for discovery, or displaying related content. AnyClip probably wouldn’t advocate this, but the potential for mash-up artists to create the ultimate, say, cross-movie training montage is fantastic. Now that there are multiple potential revenue models for AnyClip, they might find some more traction in the industry.

Read more about AnyClip at VentureBeat.

That’s it for tech right now. Up next: Film.

Earlier this year Link TV's Know the News project joined with the Poynter Institute's NewsU.org to bring our unique video editing tool to more classrooms. The online course, called Video News Editing: The Remixer Game, allows students to learn about media spin by comparing and editing new stories from broadcasters worldwide.

The start of the school year has brought many new schools and organizations to the Know the News remixer thanks to the partnership.

Here's a list of schools and orgs now using Know the News, which is funded by the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation:

Check out the Remixer Game at NewsU.org. For more information on the tools visit Know the News.

It's been a busy week for The Yes Men - an arrest on Tuesday hot on the heels of their enviro New York Post hoax on Monday. Ten months after their fake satirical New York Times issue, the faux-Post concerns itself with the current environmental crisis, and the tabloid-style headline is perhaps more accurate than usual for the notorious Post - "WE'RE SCREWED." The issue details, in fluent Murdoch-speak, the tragic and scary events scientists say are about to unfold thanks to our failure to move on climate change and other unchecked environmental damage, and was released to coincide with the U.N. meeting on climate change. Check out the complete issue, available online here. The group says nearly a million copies were distributed.

You can also watch this video of The Yes Men discussing the hoax:

Just the next day, Yes Men co-founder Andy Bichlbaum was arrested in New York while demonstrating their SurvivaBall which, according to their promotional materials, is "a self-contained living system—truly, a gated community for one. If you have a SurvivaBall, even if everyone else is dying, at least you can weather all storms."

Unfamiliar with The Yes Men? Here's the group's mission: "Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else." The Yes Men have released two films of their hijinks, and the first The Yes Men will be airing on Link TV, along with clips from the latest film The Yes Men Fix the World which will be released in theaters on October 7. We'll also be interviewing the recently arrested Andy Bichlbaum. Click here for airdates.

Also, check out these videos of other classic Yes Men moments:

Dow Spokesman Hoax

Trailer for The Yes Men Fix the World

Do you have a health care story? Visit Link TV's Real Conversations webcam site and tell us about it.

Health care reform is the hottest topic in U.S. news media this summer. One question that arises in this debate is whether the government should spend the money to overhaul the old system, or use the money to pay off federal deficits?
 
As one of the 47 million uninsured Americans, I think that the health care system in the U.S. is terrible. I earn barely enough to cover my expenses, and at the end of the month, I am left with very little extra cash to spend on something as important and necessary as health insurance.
 
I looked into buying insurance, and since I’m very healthy with no prior medical conditions, I expected to see insurance premiums of $50 - $85 a month. I was shocked to find that the lowest premiums started at $150 - $200, excluding dental or vision!! There was no way I could afford those prices.
 
Fortunately, I live in San Francisco, a very conscious and progressive city, where two years ago the City and County introduced a program called "Healthy San Francisco." This program covers primary care for all city residents, and the pay structure is based on income. I have now been with this program for one year and, although it doesn’t include major medical care, I’m happy.
 
But I began to wonder what would happen if I broke my leg. Would I be able to afford the hospital bills, or would they bankrupt me? A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation [PDF link] found that: "Every week, thousands of Americans file for bankruptcy related to medical costs [and] 42% of adults report having problems accessing health care due to cost." I definitely favor a system of health care that benefits everyone, especially those that cannot afford it. After all, the rich will always be able to afford health care whether it is universal or not.

Here’s a cartoon that says it all.
 
How do other developed countries manage their citizens’ health care? PBS Frontline’s "Sick Around the World" website describes how five of the world’s developed nations go about taking care of their sick.
 
A completely socialized health care system might not work in the U.S., but universal care with regulated options that are based on fair-market values just might work. While providing access to all, it will create motivation for insurers and providers to offer the best service they can.
 
In this week's Global Pulse episode, Health Care: America and the World, host John Hamilton asks for your health care stories. Share your thoughts at Link's Real Conversations site!