Release: Josh Rushing
First features by former US Marine-turned-presenter Josh Rushing to air this week on Al Jazeera English
Monday 27 November 2006: Al Jazeera English this week will broadcast the much anticipated premiere feature reports by Josh Rushing, the Washington D.C.-based presenter and 14-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps who gained international prominence in the 2004 major motion picture documentary Control Room.
In his first two features for Al Jazeera English, Rushing will boldly examine the truth behind the United States’ public relations campaign for the war in Iraq, providing unique insight as a former government spokesperson for the war himself, and also examine the mysterious and seemingly forgotten disappearance of an Iraqi-American in Iraq in 2004.
Rushing’s features showcase newly-launched Al Jazeera English’s goal to cover key news stories and underreported stories.
In his first feature, SPIN: The Art of Selling War, premiering Monday 27 November and re-airing throughout the week, Rushing will take an in depth look at how, since Vietnam, the American government has repeatedly utilised the art of “spin” when it needs to go to war.
Rushing, one of General Tommy Franks’ former spokespeople for the war in Iraq, will provide an insider’s look at the process the Government uses to sell a war, including how he was directly part of the spin machine during the US invasion of Iraq, publicly justifying an invasion for reasons that turned out to be as recycled as they were untrue.
Rushing’s second feature, Vanished, airing Wednesday 29 November as part of Al Jazeera English’s Witness programme, will explore the story of Aban Elias, an Iraqi-born American citizen who, while working to rebuild his homeland in Iraq in May of 2004, was taken hostage and never heard from again.
Elias is one of dozens of foreign hostages taken in Baghdad since the invasion whose fate mysteriously remains unknown. While US politicians initially pledged to find Aban Elias, his family says they have heard little from American authorities since the beginning and has been abandoned by his adopted country.
In Vanished, Rushing travels to Denver to speak with Elias’s brother about his disappearance, and why it seems Aban has vanished not only in Iraq, but in America as well.
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Note to Editors: To view the shows live over the internet, please visit http://english.aljazeera.net.
About Josh Rushing
A 14-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps who held the ranks private through to captain, Josh Rushing gained prominence in the major motion picture documentary Control Room, which features his struggles as the United States military’s lead spokesperson to the Arab world during the invasion of Iraq. Josh’s outspoken and conscientious nature in this sensitive role – his conflicts with the Pentagon and his subsequent resignation from the Marines – as well his regular appearances as a fresh, non-partisan, critical voice in broadcast and print media have made him among the most recognisable young media voices in America today.
Viewing Times:
SPIN: The Art of Selling War
06:30 GMT Monday 27 Nov
14:30 GMT Tuesday 28 Nov
10:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
20:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
04:30 GMT Thursday 30 Nov
Witness: Vanished
03:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
08:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
13:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
17:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
23:30 GMT Wednesday 29 Nov
To view the programmes live over the internet please visit: http://english.aljazeera.net.
For information on how to watch Al Jazeera via cable or satellite, please visit: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/91EEF363-FE1D-4EB9-A7D9-EF3701E39A3B.htm
For video clips or images, please contact Marc Smrikarov at AlJazeera_Intl@brownlloydjames.com
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About Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera English is the world’s first English language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East. Broadcasting from within the Middle East, looking outwards, Al Jazeera English will set the news agenda and act as a bridge between cultures. With unique access as the channel of reference for Middle East events, and broadcast centres strategically placed around the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, Al Jazeera English will balance the information flow from South to North, providing accurate, impartial and objective news for a global audience from a grass roots level, giving voice to different perspectives from under-reported regions around the world.
Al Jazeera English is building on the ground-breaking heritage of its sister Arab-language channel – Al Jazeera, which was responsible for changing the face of news within the Middle East, now extending that fresh perspective from regional to global.
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