Critic accuses media of aiding US war propoganda
Reuters: "The New York Times also reported an Iraqi scientist told U.S. officials that Saddam destroyed chemical and biological equipment and sent weapons to Syria just before the war. The only trouble, MacArthur says, is that the Times did not speak to or name the scientist but agreed to delay the story, submit the text to government scrutiny and withhold details -- facts the Times acknowledged in its article. "You might as well just run a press release. Let the government write it. That's Pravda," he said. "
Propaganda in the "Free Press"
David Rose and Edward Herman, ZNet: "The propaganda model argues that the way the media works is based on the underlying structural conditions under which the media operates. It consists of five elements that can be looked at as filters of the news. Whether a news item is going to be used by the media or not is going to depend on whether it passes through these filters."
Banfield Lashes Out at Own Network (NBC)
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter : "Her comments, coincidentally, came on the same day that Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, ripped American radio and TV networks for their "shocking," and "gung-ho" coverage of the Iraqi war, according to British newspaper reports. Banfield, who hosted an unsuccessful talk show on MSNBC last year and is now reporting for both MSNBC and NBC News, criticized the networks for showing a bloodless war that gave a skewed picture which glossed over the horrors of battle."
Turner Calls Rival Media Mogul Murdoch 'Warmonger'
Duncan Martell, REUTERS: "The media is too concentrated, too few people own too much," Turner said.
THE PERFECT STORM - Part I Michael C. Ruppert, From the Wilderness: "Global Oil Shortages and Massive Price Hikes Imminent ... Paralysis Looming in U.S. Government ... and The WTO and Rockefellers Turning on Bush" THE PERFECT STORM - Part II
Michael C. Ruppert, From the Wilderness: "U.S. Press/Political Hostility to Bush Administration Intensifies – Major Papers Discussing Criminal Behavior, Impeachment as Focus Intensifies on Forged Niger Uranium Docs – Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld Implicated ... Oil Bonanza Fading as Economic Indicators Weaken in an Unstable Environment – Iraqi Oil Deliveries Interrupted – Reality Tramples Market Exuberance"
A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...
Tim Robbins: Transcript of the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003.
Killing the "Unembedded Truth"
Michel Chossudovsky, Center for Research on Globalisation: "How best to disarm the anti-war movement? Kill the independent media and convey the illusion that "the War is over."
Which War Are You Watching? The View from Spain
Dwight F. Reynolds: "When Iraq showed footage of its American hostages, European channels showed the footage (not shown in the
United States) back to back with Bush's angry denunciations and his statement that this violated the Geneva Convention- followed immediately by American footage from previous days of its Iraqi POWs and then images of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. "
U.S. Govt Accused of War Crimes against Journalists
Julio Godoy, Inter Press Services News Agency: ”Our films shows that the U.S. tank took its time at targeting the 14th floor of the hotel, where many journalists are hosted, at a moment of complete calm,” Sines said.
Crime Against Humanity
John Pilger, Z Magazine: "To initiate a war of aggression," said the judges in the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi leadership, "is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole."
'Terror' as the Ultimate Excuse
LA Times, Robert Scheer: "The word is being used by the U.S. and its enemies to condone savagery."
Detecting disinformation, without radar
By Gregory Sinaisky, ASIA TIMES: "Remember the following first rule of disinformation analysis: truth is specific, lie is vague. Always look for palpable details in reporting and if the picture is not in focus, there must be reasons for it. "
Obviously Oil
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, AlterNet - "Editor's Note: Although Dennis Kucinich was aggressively attacked by Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen for suggesting that the preemptive strike on Iraq was based on oil, the Post refused to print the presidential candidate and Ohio Democrat's response. "
The FlimFlam
Charley Reese: "If you watch the silly cable-news shows, you will recognize many of these names as part of the parade of "experts" in favor of war with Iraq. The American people are being played for suckers."
Media War Without End
Norman Solomon: Free Press or Washington propaganda machine? Norman Solomon exposes corporate media's willingness to put a White House spin on news content.
CNN tells reporters: No propaganda, except American
Patrick Martin: You can "depend on CNN" tailoring it's war coverage to downplay civillian casualties in Afganistan.....24/7.
The World Asks: Are Americans Getting the Full Picture?
Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald: Weighing into the US cable stations and networks for their "myopic view", James criticized editors for caving into patriotism "rather than informing viewers of the complex, sometimes harsh realities they need to know."
War: who is it good for?
Faisal Islam: 'For democracies, the lessons of history are clear: war does not pay. The economic costs of war are always likely to outweigh the benefits of subsequent reparations...'
Bush falters but who dare oppose him?
Tod Gitlin: The American press remains reluctant to note Bush's less than impressive following abroad - anywhere - but they do enjoy scandal stories, and there is some real reporting going on, for a change.
O' Reilly is a lying sack of *&%#@
O'Reilly denied calling the pope "senile" -- but he did
In response to a caller on his radio show, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that he "never said the pope was senile." In fact, in 2002, O'Reilly called Pope John Paul II "too senile to know" about the damage Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese, had caused by allegedly covering up incidents of sexual abuse of children by priests in the archdiocese.
Poor guy caught in yet another lie. Wouldn't it be cool if people actually believed the things conservatives say because they had a track record for telling the truth? That would be the day. To see all of his fair & balanced reporting, click here: Bill O'Reilly
Speaking of lying.... Cops lie too:
Videos Challenge Accounts of Convention Unrest
Dennis Kyne put up such a fight at a political protest last summer, the arresting officer recalled, it took four police officers to haul him down the steps of the New York Public Library and across Fifth Avenue.
"We picked him up and we carried him while he squirmed and screamed," the officer, Matthew Wohl, testified in December. "I had one of his legs because he was kicking and refusing to walk on his own." [...]
During a recess, the defense had brought new information to the prosecutor. A videotape shot by a documentary filmmaker showed Mr. Kyne agitated but plainly walking under his own power down the library steps, contradicting the vivid account of Officer Wohl, who was nowhere to be seen in the pictures. [...]
... there were two versions of the same police tape: the one that was to be used as evidence in his trial had been edited at two spots, removing images that showed Mr. Dunlop behaving peacefully. When a volunteer film archivist found a more complete version of the tape and gave it to Mr. Dunlop's lawyer, prosecutors immediately dropped the charges and said that a technician had cut the material by mistake.
A mistake. Riiiiiiight. Conservatives must hate it when those pesky facts get in the way of their blatant lies.
But hey, we all make mistakes right? Like planning a war with no exit strategy:
U.S. Has No Exit Strategy for Iraq, Rumsfeld Says
``We don't have an exit strategy, we have a victory strategy,'' Rumsfeld told soldiers during a surprise visit to Baghdad, according to a pooled broadcast report from the capital. ``The goal is to help the Iraqi Forces develop the skills and the capacity to provide their own security.''
Or for instance you might hire a company to help rebuild Iraq that is criminally negligent:
Auditors Questioned .3 Million in Charges From KBR
Critic of Halliburton Contracts Releases Report, Urges Hearings
Pentagon auditors have questioned .3 million -- about 13 percent -- of $1.69 billion that a Halliburton Co. subsidiary charged the government over the past few years, mostly for importing fuel to Iraq under a no-bid contract.
I thought it was the Republicans who were supposed to be the fiscally conservative ones! But then again what do i know. I also thought that the US was against countries developing WMD's as well:
New Nuclear Warhead Proposed to Congress
The head of the nation's nuclear weapons programs proposed yesterday that Congress approve funds to study the feasibility of building a new, more reliable nuclear warhead that could be deployed without nuclear testing in less than 10 years.
Saying that the current Cold War stockpile is inadequate technically and militarily, Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, "We want to explore whether there is a better way to sustain existing military capabilities in our stockpile absent nuclear testing."
In other news, it looks like the coalition is starting to become not quite as willing:
Poland to Pull Troops from Iraq at End of Year
Poland's government decided on Tuesday to withdraw its troops from Iraq at the end of 2005, making official an earlier proposal, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.
I wonder why our allies wuld want to pull out? What could we have done to make the world see us in a bad light?:
Torture Air, Incorporated
A sleek Gulfstream V jet with the tail number N379P has racked up more international miles than most passenger jets. Since October 2001, this plane has been spotted in some of the world's most exotic and forbidding airports: Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Karachi, Pakistan, Baku, Azerbaijan, Baghdad, Iraq, and Rabat, Morocco.
It has also frequently landed at Dulles International, outside Washington, DC and enjoys clearance to land at US military air bases in Scotland, Cyprus and Frankfurt, Germany. Observers around the world have noticed men in hoods and chains being taken on and off the jet.
Oh yeah, that....
And now back to the War on Terror, Already in Progress
Report Calls U.S. Intelligence 'Dead Wrong' on Iraq Weapons
The American intelligence community was "dead wrong" about Iraq's weapons arsenal in large part because of an outdated Cold War mentality and a vast, lumbering bureaucracy that continues to shackle dedicated and capable people, a presidential commission said today.
"The intelligence community must be transformed - a goal that would be difficult to meet even in the best of all possible worlds," the commission said in its report to President Bush. "And we do not live in the best of worlds." [...]
The report, several hundred pages long, contains portions that are classified and were not made public.
Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was pleased by the report. "I don't think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence," Mr. Roberts told The Associated Press.
Representative Ike Skelton of Missouri, leading Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The A.P. that the faults were obviously widespread. "I don't think you can blame any one person, although the buck does stop at the top of every one of these agencies," Mr. Skelton said.
Ok so they were wrong about the reason for going to war and killing thousands upon thousand of people. Ooops! But things in Iraq are improving right? ... Right?!
U.N.: Iraq kids suffer from malnutrition
Almost twice as many Iraqi children are suffering from malnutrition since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a U.N. monitor said Monday.
Four% of Iraqis under age 5 went hungry in the months after Saddam's ouster in April 2003, and the rate nearly doubled to 7.7% last year, said Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food.
The situation is "a result of the war led by coalition forces," he said.
Double ooops!
Mission accomplished?
Too Little Too Late
Colin Polwel was used. They put him out there and fed him lies. They used him as the sacraficial lamb.
They gave him evidence of WMD that they knew was false. I do not believe for one second that they ever actually believed Saddam had the WMD they claimed that he had. Why else would the reasons for the war keep changing? Well now Colin seems a bit bitter. And Rightly so.
Not as bitter as these folks though...
Powell Says U.S. Was 'Too Loud' Over Iraq -Magazine
The United States made errors in presenting its case for war against Iraq, but Saddam Hussein had to be removed, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told a German magazine. "We were sometimes too loud, too direct, perhaps we made too much noise," Powell told Stern magazine in an interview released on Wednesday. "That certainly shocked the Europeans sometimes."
He said terms like "Old Europe," the expression coined by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to describe countries such as France and Germany which opposed the war, had not helped ease European concerns about Washington's policies. [...]
Powell said he had argued for a diplomatic solution against cabinet colleagues such as Vice President Dick Cheney, who did not believe that diplomacy would work.
"The situation with Saddam Hussein had to be resolved, either by taming him or by removing him by military means," he said. "I'm sure that the Vice President's view from the very beginning was: we'll never solve this through diplomatic means."
Powell said he was "furious and angry" that he had been misinformed about Iraq's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction when he laid out the case for war before the United Nations Security Council in February, 2003. [...]
"Hundreds of millions followed it on television. I will always be the one who presented it. I have to live with that."
Powell got a raw deal.
If they can refuse service based on their beliefs couldn't they be fired for not doing their job? I mean if you job is to fill prescriptions and you are refusing to do that, then you are not qualified for the position you hold. If I am your boss your fired. Not on religious grounds, rather on the grounds that you refuse to do your job. Anyway its an interesting issue.
Pharmacists' Rights at Front Of New Debate
Some pharmacists across the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and morning-after pills, saying that dispensing the medications violates their personal moral or religious beliefs.
The trend has opened a new front in the nation's battle over reproductive rights, sparking an intense debate over the competing rights of pharmacists to refuse to participate in something they consider repugnant and a woman's right to get medications her doctor has prescribed. It has also triggered pitched political battles in statehouses across the nation as politicians seek to pass laws either to protect pharmacists from being penalized -- or force them to carry out their duties. [...]
"There are pharmacists who will only give birth control pills to a woman if she's married. There are pharmacists who mistakenly believe contraception is a form of abortion and refuse to prescribe it to anyone," said Adam Sonfield of the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York, which tracks reproductive issues. "There are even cases of pharmacists holding prescriptions hostage, where they won't even transfer it to another pharmacy when time is of the essence."
These people are in the wrong line of work.
