Harper’s Washington Editor, Ken Silverstein, makes it a point to link flashpoints in human rights and foreign conflicts around the world to what is happens in Washington. He goes beyond the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and general Middle East issues where the US has made itself the chief broker, and he delves into questions of the effects of work by American companies and global development — entities that are not the government, but often work in concert with US foreign policy or lobby to affect in favor of their activities.

Today he posted a brief analysis of the current conflict in Chad, starting with recent (but to some, long-forgotten) history of “development” efforts made by transnational corporations (ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco), backed by the World Bank, in concert with an obviously corrupt government.

Analysis like this is part of what journalism should be: Giving credit where credit is due and identifying the disparity between the asserted policy, the allegedly intended cause and effect and what the evidence suggests the actual cause and effect may be and, depending on how policy-makers act in the face of the evidence, what actual policy may be despite rhetoric.

Complementing Silverstein’s more wizened and first hand observations regarding this conflict, I had my own brief anecdotal encounter with the issue. One Friday evening last August, leaving the Press Building, I encountered a small demonstration by Chadians of their Ambassador at the National Press Club. Here are a couple of shots and a summary of what I learned from them.