PROPAGANDA WATCH
Rense: A Classic Case Of Media Conditioning & Mind Control by Moshe Cohen
Hi Jeff,
Re: AL QAEDA WEAPONS FOUND HIDDEN IN U.S. http://www.nationalenquirer.com/stories/feature.cfm?instanceid=61849
I am really surprised you posted this article. This 'article' in my opinion is a complete fabrication from beginning to end, classical Ashcroft-FBI PROPAGANDA/misinformation, causing havoc to our American economy. It seems that it was written by Ashcroft/Condi/Cheney to scare the American people, justify 'Homeland Security' fascist Department, and especially to encourage all Americans to spy on each other. Now that we know the Nazi background of the Bush family, one wonders when Bush will use Patriot Act to fill the trains with Americans who do not worship him, and then ship them to Guantanamo?
(Note - We post articles like the one referenced here specifically to nudge our thinking audience to do exactly what Moshe has done: to evaluate, question and challenge these kinds of stories. -ed)
"CHECK IT"
Saturday, June 12, 2004
TERROR PR
Globalresearch: Who is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi? by Michel Chossudovsky
The US intelligence apparatus has created it own terrorist organizations. And at the same time, it creates its own terrorist warnings concerning the terrorist organizations which it has itself created. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after" these terrorist organizations.
Counterterrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The terror warnings must appear to be "genuine". The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies of America."
The underlying objective is to galvanize public opinion in support of America's war agenda.
The "war on terrorism" requires a humanitarian mandate. The war on terrorism is presented to as a "Just War", which is to be fought on moral grounds "to redress a wrong suffered."
The Just War theory defines "good" and "evil." It concretely portrays and personifies the terrorist leaders as "evil individuals".
Several prominent American intellectuals and antiwar activists, who stand firmly opposed to to the Bush administration, are nonetheless supporters of the Just War theory: "We are against war in all its forms but we support the campaign against international terrorism."
To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat.
The propaganda campaign presents the portraits of the leaders behind the terror network. In other words, at the level of what constitutes an "advertising" campaign, "it gives a face to terror." The "war on terrorism" rests on the creation of one or more evil bogeymen, the terror leaders, Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, et al, whose names and photos are presented ad nauseam in daily news reports.
CHECK IT
Globalresearch: Who is Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi? by Michel Chossudovsky
The US intelligence apparatus has created it own terrorist organizations. And at the same time, it creates its own terrorist warnings concerning the terrorist organizations which it has itself created. In turn, it has developed a cohesive multibillion dollar counterterrorism program "to go after" these terrorist organizations.
Counterterrorism and war propaganda are intertwined. The propaganda apparatus feeds disinformation into the news chain. The terror warnings must appear to be "genuine". The objective is to present the terror groups as "enemies of America."
The underlying objective is to galvanize public opinion in support of America's war agenda.
The "war on terrorism" requires a humanitarian mandate. The war on terrorism is presented to as a "Just War", which is to be fought on moral grounds "to redress a wrong suffered."
The Just War theory defines "good" and "evil." It concretely portrays and personifies the terrorist leaders as "evil individuals".
Several prominent American intellectuals and antiwar activists, who stand firmly opposed to to the Bush administration, are nonetheless supporters of the Just War theory: "We are against war in all its forms but we support the campaign against international terrorism."
To reach its foreign policy objectives, the images of terrorism must remain vivid in the minds of the citizens, who are constantly reminded of the terrorist threat.
The propaganda campaign presents the portraits of the leaders behind the terror network. In other words, at the level of what constitutes an "advertising" campaign, "it gives a face to terror." The "war on terrorism" rests on the creation of one or more evil bogeymen, the terror leaders, Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, et al, whose names and photos are presented ad nauseam in daily news reports.
CHECK IT
TERROR
Washington Post: State Dept. Concedes Errors in Terror Data
Two months ago, the Bush administration released its annual report card on counterterrorism and gave itself an A. The number of terrorist attacks around the globe, according to the State Department report called "Patterns of Global Terrorism," was at the lowest ebb in the past 34 years.
Not long afterward, however, the report was pilloried by academics, a lawmaker and others. They said its math defied the reality of a steady growth in the number and significance of terrorist attacks in 2003, as well as the worst type of attacks spreading from just a few countries to at least 10.
When you read the report, TTIC did not add [the data] properly. Even a third-grader could have found this," Johnson said. "The body counts in 2002 and 2003 were at the highest levels in history."
Thank Mr. Bush for making the world a safer place
Washington Post: State Dept. Concedes Errors in Terror Data
Two months ago, the Bush administration released its annual report card on counterterrorism and gave itself an A. The number of terrorist attacks around the globe, according to the State Department report called "Patterns of Global Terrorism," was at the lowest ebb in the past 34 years.
Not long afterward, however, the report was pilloried by academics, a lawmaker and others. They said its math defied the reality of a steady growth in the number and significance of terrorist attacks in 2003, as well as the worst type of attacks spreading from just a few countries to at least 10.
When you read the report, TTIC did not add [the data] properly. Even a third-grader could have found this," Johnson said. "The body counts in 2002 and 2003 were at the highest levels in history."
Thank Mr. Bush for making the world a safer place
WAR ON SALE
Corpwatch: Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract
Occupation authorities in Iraq have awarded a $293 million contract effectively creating the world's largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former officer with the Scots Guard, an elite regiment of the British military, who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world. On May 25, the Army Transportation command awarded Spicer's company, Aegis Defense Services, the contract to coordinate all the security for Iraqi reconstruction projects.
"I am pleased to confirm that we've been awarded a contract to assist the Project Management Office (PMO) in Iraq by the United States Department of Defense," said Spicer, who started Aegis just over a year ago on Picadilly in London, only a short walk from Buckingham Palace. "The contract involves coordination of security support for reconstruction contractors and for the protection of PMO personnel
Corpwatch: Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract
Occupation authorities in Iraq have awarded a $293 million contract effectively creating the world's largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, a former officer with the Scots Guard, an elite regiment of the British military, who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world. On May 25, the Army Transportation command awarded Spicer's company, Aegis Defense Services, the contract to coordinate all the security for Iraqi reconstruction projects.
"I am pleased to confirm that we've been awarded a contract to assist the Project Management Office (PMO) in Iraq by the United States Department of Defense," said Spicer, who started Aegis just over a year ago on Picadilly in London, only a short walk from Buckingham Palace. "The contract involves coordination of security support for reconstruction contractors and for the protection of PMO personnel
UK: ELECTIONS
Guardian: Local election 'kicking' for Labour
Tony Blair suffered an electoral "kicking" as Labour limped into third place in local elections, losing control of key heartlands including Leeds, Doncaster and Newcastle.
The loss of Leeds and Newcastle to the Liberal Democrats is a major blow for Labour, which ran the metropolitan councils uninterrupted for 24 and 30 years respectively.
Guardian: Local election 'kicking' for Labour
Tony Blair suffered an electoral "kicking" as Labour limped into third place in local elections, losing control of key heartlands including Leeds, Doncaster and Newcastle.
The loss of Leeds and Newcastle to the Liberal Democrats is a major blow for Labour, which ran the metropolitan councils uninterrupted for 24 and 30 years respectively.
INTERVIW: RAPLH NADER
American Conservative: Ralph Nader: Conservatively Speaking
The long-time progressive makes a pitch for the disenfranchised Right.
Ralph Nader recently accepted Pat Buchanan’s invitation to sit down with us and explain why his third-party presidential bid ought to appeal to conservatives disaffected with George W. Bush. We think readers will be interested in the reflections of a man who has been a major figure in American public life for 40 years—and who now finds himself that rarest of birds, a conviction politician.
Pat Buchanan: Let me start off with foreign policy—Iraq and the Middle East. You have seen the polls indicating widespread contempt for the United States abroad. Why do they hate us?
Ralph Nader: First of all, we have been supporting despots, dictators, and oligarchs in all those states for a variety of purposes. We supported Saddam Hussein. He was our anti-Communist dictator until 1990. It’s also cultural; they see corporate culture as abandoning the restraints on personal behavior dictated by their religion and culture. Our corporate pornography and anything-goes values are profoundly offensive to them.
The other thing is that we are supporting the Israeli military regime with billions of dollars and ignoring both the Israeli peace movement, which is very substantial, and the Palestinian peace movement. They see a nuclear-armed Israel that could wipe out the Middle East in a weekend if it wanted to.
VOTE FOR NADER
American Conservative: Ralph Nader: Conservatively Speaking
The long-time progressive makes a pitch for the disenfranchised Right.
Ralph Nader recently accepted Pat Buchanan’s invitation to sit down with us and explain why his third-party presidential bid ought to appeal to conservatives disaffected with George W. Bush. We think readers will be interested in the reflections of a man who has been a major figure in American public life for 40 years—and who now finds himself that rarest of birds, a conviction politician.
Pat Buchanan: Let me start off with foreign policy—Iraq and the Middle East. You have seen the polls indicating widespread contempt for the United States abroad. Why do they hate us?
Ralph Nader: First of all, we have been supporting despots, dictators, and oligarchs in all those states for a variety of purposes. We supported Saddam Hussein. He was our anti-Communist dictator until 1990. It’s also cultural; they see corporate culture as abandoning the restraints on personal behavior dictated by their religion and culture. Our corporate pornography and anything-goes values are profoundly offensive to them.
The other thing is that we are supporting the Israeli military regime with billions of dollars and ignoring both the Israeli peace movement, which is very substantial, and the Palestinian peace movement. They see a nuclear-armed Israel that could wipe out the Middle East in a weekend if it wanted to.
VOTE FOR NADER
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
PEAK OIL
BBC: Is the world's oil running out fast?
If you think oil prices are high at $40 a barrel then wait till they are four times that much.
How will you pay to run your car? How will you get the children to school? How will you heat your house? How much will transported food go up in price?
How will we pay for plastics, metals, rubber, cheap flights, Simpson's DVDs, 3G phones and everlasting economic growth?
The basic answer is, we won't.
BBC: Is the world's oil running out fast?
If you think oil prices are high at $40 a barrel then wait till they are four times that much.
How will you pay to run your car? How will you get the children to school? How will you heat your house? How much will transported food go up in price?
How will we pay for plastics, metals, rubber, cheap flights, Simpson's DVDs, 3G phones and everlasting economic growth?
The basic answer is, we won't.
Monday, June 07, 2004
USA: RONALD REAGAN
Greg Palast: Reagan - More Proof Only The Good Die Young
You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.
Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.
In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis.
People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan, big hearted guy that he was, had put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua because he didn't like the government that the people there had elected.
Ronnie grinned and cracked jokes while the young woman's lungs filled up and she stopped breathing. Reagan flashed that B-movie grin while they buried the mother of three.
And when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog ... then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport.
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. www.GregPalast.com
Greg Palast: Reagan - More Proof Only The Good Die Young
You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.
Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.
In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis.
People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan, big hearted guy that he was, had put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua because he didn't like the government that the people there had elected.
Ronnie grinned and cracked jokes while the young woman's lungs filled up and she stopped breathing. Reagan flashed that B-movie grin while they buried the mother of three.
And when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog ... then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport.
Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. www.GregPalast.com
IRAQ
Zmag: Doctrines And Visions: Who Is To Run The World, And How?
by Noam Chomsky
We have just passed the first anniversary of the President's declaration of victory in Iraq. I won't speak about what is happening on the ground. There is more than enough information about that, and we can draw our own conclusions. I will just mention one aspect of it: What has happened to Iraqis? About that, we know little, because it is not investigated. Some surprise has recently been voiced in the British press about this gap in our knowledge. That's a misunderstanding. It is quite general practice. Thus we do not know within millions how many people died in the course of the US wars in Indochina. Information and concern are so slight that in the only careful study I have found, the mean estimate of Vietnamese who died is 100,000, about 5% of the official figure and probably 2-3% of the actual figure. Virtually no one knows that victims of the US chemical warfare that began in 1962 are estimated at about 600,000, still dying, or that it was recently discovered that the use of devastating carcinogens was at twice the announced rate, and at levels incomparably beyond anything tolerated within the industrial societies -- all in South Vietnam; the North was spared this particular atrocity
Zmag: Doctrines And Visions: Who Is To Run The World, And How?
by Noam Chomsky
We have just passed the first anniversary of the President's declaration of victory in Iraq. I won't speak about what is happening on the ground. There is more than enough information about that, and we can draw our own conclusions. I will just mention one aspect of it: What has happened to Iraqis? About that, we know little, because it is not investigated. Some surprise has recently been voiced in the British press about this gap in our knowledge. That's a misunderstanding. It is quite general practice. Thus we do not know within millions how many people died in the course of the US wars in Indochina. Information and concern are so slight that in the only careful study I have found, the mean estimate of Vietnamese who died is 100,000, about 5% of the official figure and probably 2-3% of the actual figure. Virtually no one knows that victims of the US chemical warfare that began in 1962 are estimated at about 600,000, still dying, or that it was recently discovered that the use of devastating carcinogens was at twice the announced rate, and at levels incomparably beyond anything tolerated within the industrial societies -- all in South Vietnam; the North was spared this particular atrocity
VENEZUELA: COUP AGAIN LOOMING?
Zmag: VENEZUELA 2004
Nicaragua's Contra War Revisited by Toni Solo
Another article in the continuing media campaign in Britain against Venezuela's President Chavez again posits civil war as a possible sequel to the current recall referendum process in Venezuela. In a self-contradictory account published by the Guardian on May 25th, Miami Herald writer Sybilla Brodzinsky writes that the recall referendum “...may also be the last chance to avoid a civil war, experts say.” She offers no source for the assertion, although she might easily have cited President Chavez himself who has openly referred to the possibility of civil war – as a result of foreign intervention.
The insistence with which the spectre of a spontaneous civil war has been invoked lately in the less reactionary British media by writers like Rupert Cornwell in the Independent and now by Sybilla Brodzinsky in the Guardian is noteworthy. It is as though all mainstream media reporting on Venezuela have been briefed to spread anxiety about a civil war. Thus, such fears become the very prophecy the White House war-crime machine is already primed to make come true.
The way the “free press” works can be seen from a report by Martha Sanchez in the Washington Post on May 20th. She writes “State Department officials say they are talking with U.S. editorial writers, hoping to send a clear message to Chavez through the press: let the recall referendum happen or face the consequences.” Pass-the-parcel threats, accompanying misrepresentation and downright falsehood, are routine in mainstream reporting on Venezuela just as they were on Nicaragua through the 1980s. Other similarities abound.
CHECK IT
Zmag: VENEZUELA 2004
Nicaragua's Contra War Revisited by Toni Solo
Another article in the continuing media campaign in Britain against Venezuela's President Chavez again posits civil war as a possible sequel to the current recall referendum process in Venezuela. In a self-contradictory account published by the Guardian on May 25th, Miami Herald writer Sybilla Brodzinsky writes that the recall referendum “...may also be the last chance to avoid a civil war, experts say.” She offers no source for the assertion, although she might easily have cited President Chavez himself who has openly referred to the possibility of civil war – as a result of foreign intervention.
The insistence with which the spectre of a spontaneous civil war has been invoked lately in the less reactionary British media by writers like Rupert Cornwell in the Independent and now by Sybilla Brodzinsky in the Guardian is noteworthy. It is as though all mainstream media reporting on Venezuela have been briefed to spread anxiety about a civil war. Thus, such fears become the very prophecy the White House war-crime machine is already primed to make come true.
The way the “free press” works can be seen from a report by Martha Sanchez in the Washington Post on May 20th. She writes “State Department officials say they are talking with U.S. editorial writers, hoping to send a clear message to Chavez through the press: let the recall referendum happen or face the consequences.” Pass-the-parcel threats, accompanying misrepresentation and downright falsehood, are routine in mainstream reporting on Venezuela just as they were on Nicaragua through the 1980s. Other similarities abound.
CHECK IT
SITE OF THE DAY
NOAM CHOMSKY WEBLOG
The official weblog of Noam Chomsky, including exclusive, original observations drawn from personal correspondence, ZNet Sustainer Forums posts, and direct blog entries
NOAM CHOMSKY WEBLOG
The official weblog of Noam Chomsky, including exclusive, original observations drawn from personal correspondence, ZNet Sustainer Forums posts, and direct blog entries
Sunday, June 06, 2004
USA
Capitol Hill Blues: Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader's state of mind.
In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as "enemies of the state."
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home
The President's abrupt dismissal of CIA Directory George Tenet Wednesday night is, aides say, an example of how he works.
"Tenet wanted to quit last year but the President got his back up and wouldn't hear of it," says an aide. "That would have been the opportune time to make a change, not in the middle of an election campaign but when the director challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President cut him off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your resignation and I want it now.'"
Tenet was allowed to resign "voluntarily" and Bush informed his shocked staff of the decision Thursday morning. One aide says the President actually described the decision as "God's will."
The mood here is that we're under siege, there's no doubt about it," says one troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. "In this administration, you don't have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President."
"CHECK IT"
Capitol Hill Blues: Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides
President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader's state of mind.
In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as "enemies of the state."
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home
The President's abrupt dismissal of CIA Directory George Tenet Wednesday night is, aides say, an example of how he works.
"Tenet wanted to quit last year but the President got his back up and wouldn't hear of it," says an aide. "That would have been the opportune time to make a change, not in the middle of an election campaign but when the director challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President cut him off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your resignation and I want it now.'"
Tenet was allowed to resign "voluntarily" and Bush informed his shocked staff of the decision Thursday morning. One aide says the President actually described the decision as "God's will."
The mood here is that we're under siege, there's no doubt about it," says one troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. "In this administration, you don't have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President."
"CHECK IT"
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