REPORT FILED 12:00 Noon EST 3/23


Are Journalists being "fragged" by Pentagon?

Here are two stories that, when placed back to back, raise some frightening questions:

MARCH 10 2003: Veteran BBC journalist Kate Adie warns that Pentagon plans to target journalists. war author Phillip Knightley, reported that the Pentagon has also threatened they: "may find it necessary to bomb areas in which war correspondents are attempting to report from the Iraqi side."

www.gulufuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm

MARCH 22, 2003: British journalists may have been victims of "friendly fire"
www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,919832,00.html



NETWORK FOOTAGE EXPOSES BUSH LIE RE: "Humanitarian food packages"

During the Afghanistan invasion, the U.S. dropped tons of bright yellow plastic packages of emergency rations on the countryside. While the bulk of this "gift" ended up in the hands of blackmarketeers, hungry children and women eagerly scavenged the countryside for the desperately needed food. However, because these rations were the same color and surface texture of certain land minds, many Afghans were blown to bits or maimed by mines mistaken for food.
Bush swore he changed the color of the food packages. But in network footage on Saturday, March 22, of a convoy of American armored vehicles, it clearly showed Iraqi children running along side, smiling, clutching bright yellow plastic food packages.

MONEY WHERE HIS MOUTH IS ALERT!!! On 3/23 on Bush's return to the White HOuse after hiding out in Camp David for 48 hours to escape the protests, he announced that MASSIVE HUMANITARIAN AID (unspecified as to what) was on its way to Iraq IN THE NEXT 36 HOURS. I will closely track this story with RELIABLE sources.


3/23 AM: "Embedded" journalist David Bloom, farthest toward front of NBC journalists, reports on "capture of tank division" - However, there's no photographic evidence of this capture, only second hand reports from supposed witnesses. Embedded...or impacted?

In the "how do we know what to believe" department, there is case of the EXECUTED AMERICAN SOLDIERS. Several American soldiers were allegedly executed by their Iraqi captors. Rumsfeld has already been screaming Geneva Convention violation. however, the only evidence yet is footage being run on Iraqi TV of several bodies dressed in U.S. uniforms. How do we even know these men were executed and that this is not an Iraqi "psyche out" - a classic trick, with Iraqi casualties dressed in US uniforms....If these are dead US soldiers, how do we know they were not killed in action and then photographed? Bottom line, we don't, yet.

MEDIA LIE: Division of 8,000 Iraqis surrenders. This story was disseminated, in true CIA plant style (ala Mockingibird journalism) in an obscure paper - the Abilene times, and picked up around the world, unfortunately, also by some well-meaning progressive online sites.

About 2:15 on 2/23: military briefing....generals admit that just a TOTAL of 2,000 Iraqi prisoners have so far been taken...where are the 8,000-10,000 total claimed earlier?

PENTAGON LIE: At the same 2:15 briefing, the spokesperson said "Saddam Hussein has killed more Muslims than anyone in history."

TRUTH: The number of people killed directly and indirectly by Hussein trails well behind the body count inflicted directly and indirectly in Indonesia through the combined efforts of Suharto and the U.S. powerbrokers who put him in power, including Henry Kissinger. From 1965- present, in ongoing civil warfare initially fomented by the CIA through Suharto, over 2.5 million people have died - most of them (80%) Muslims. To read more about this U.S.-sponsored bloodbath, see
newsinsider.org/seal/bloody_hands_full_of_gold.html


RUMSFELD PROPAGANDA CORNER
Donald Rumsfeld brags about how he served in the military - but he served during peacetime and the closest he ever came to seeing a battle was probably food fights in the mess hall. He is now making his armchair warrior rounds - going from armchair to armchair as a guest on Meet the Press, FAce the Nation, etc., etc., trying to convince the world that day is night and up is down. Right now, Rumsfeld is like a big, sharp-toothed pike caught on a line, twisting, turning and spitting. He is now ever-more frantically recycling a mix of denial, bullyishiness, and corporate PR oil. Here are two particularly glaring examples of lie/spin spit by Rummy whilst being interviewed by Tim Russert on the morning of 3/23

RUMMY LIE: dismissed the nearly quarter of a million people in NYC and all other protestors around the world "There's always been war protests." He claimed that the current protests are no different from the protests held against WWI and II

TRUTH: There has NEVER, in recorded history, been across the board, international protests by so many nations against one war. To compare global protests participated in by millions with scattered US protests against World Wars I and II is outrageous. In his ridiculous statement, Rummy carefully avoided mentioning the protests that were actually a closer parallel - the Vietnam war era protests.


TRUTH: Tim Russert referred to the White House meeting right after 9/11 in which Rumsfeld is reported by many sources to have taken extensive notes and to have said that the administration planned to go after Saddam Hussein - though there was not a shred of evidence of Iraq's involvement.

RUMMY LIE: Denied ever even taking notes during the briefing, even though all present in the room saw him. A man who will make this kind of denial in the face of eyewitness accounts is someone whose lies have been believed without question so routinely that he has become arrogantly overempowered. Can anything he claims be believed?

APPROPRIATE COINCIDENCE:
In the spellcheck on Earthlink, the alternative spelling for Rumsfeld offered is "reused." How appropriate - a cold war dinosar recycled from the Reagan-Bush years.


SKEWED POLLS: ELIMINATING THE BELL CURVE TO CONTROL RESULTS
The new polls showing growing support for the war (CBS claims 67%) by Americans more closely tracks the increasing control of the Bush Administration over the media than it does the real mood of Americans. The more under "war time control" the press is placed, the higher the "pro polls" get. Also, it reflects a marked increase in manipulative poll wording. For example, a recent AOL poll gave three choices: Very strongly support war, support war, do not support war. This is like giving a student 3 choices of grades: A, B, or F - eliminating the normal bell curve, and thus the majority of students - and poll respondents. There is also a tendency now to try to lump "support of war" with "support of troops." By not offering a response that allows poll respondents to choose between these, the results are completely skewed.

UPDATE 3/23 5:10 PM: AOL is "ratcheting down" its propaganda. The latest poll offers three alternatives equivalent to C, D and F - no A or B: "How do you think the war is going? As well as it could, Not as well as expected, or Not well at all. We'll call this new technique "Spin up-spin down" - with the A,B or F motif a "spin up" while D, C or F is a "spin down."



THE BUSH CORPORATE EMPIRE FORCES BLACK VOICES INTO THE "NEW GHETTO"

Bush and the corporate media have colluded to turn the American government and American military into a pre-civil rights era ghetto. Aggressive anti-war diatribes by white conservatives abound on mainstream media. Yet, the eloquent statements by black leaders, including the courageous members of Congress's black caucus, are ignored, and relegated to black newspapers and networks. If this is not segregation, then how would you define it?

Cynthia McKinney, who is still speaking out against this immoral war, was as aggressively targeted by rightwing whites and black wannabe-whites as Rosa Parks and other black activists were targeted by rightwingers in the early days of the civil rights movement. I am amazed she didn't end up the victim of a staged "accident", like Paul Wellstone was.
The night before Bush officially launched the war, the members of the black caucus spoke out. They called for an alternative to war to at least be considered, but were demeaningly shut off by the rightwing, Boss Hoggish Dennis Hastert. Yet was this last stand against the Bush war machine publicized in the mainstream media - if so, it was a passing comment, no more.
Yet this war, like every war since the Revolutionary War, is a race issue. Even when still enslaved, blacks were forced to fight in white America's wars. And, they have always been used as "cannon fodder." All black units are traditionally the ones sent into the hopeless situations - to take hills or cover ground under conditions amounting to turkey shoots. In Vietnam, blacks and Hispanics were assigned, in disproportionate numbers, to dangerous jobs such as mine sweeping. A high proportion of blacks compared to whites have turned to the military for economic reasons - their best chance, ironically, to escape the ghetto conditions created by America's white patriarchy....the same patriarchy now promoting the Iraq war.


Barbara Lee's Courageous, Eloquent Statement on War

paknews.com/specialNews.php

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a congressional resolution calling on the Congress to disavow the "Doctrine of Preemption", foreign policy introduced last year by the Bush Administration that could be used to justify any military first strike made against another country without provocation.


www.house.gov/lee/releases/03Mar12.htm

Black Leaders express their opposition to Bush War
www.bet.com/articles/0,,p344gb5823-6571,00.html

One of the best online publications out there, black or white, is The Black Commentator. In this issue, articles include a blast of Colin Powell, a commentary by Cynthia McKinney, and a moving article on the real cost of war by a vet.
www.blackcommentator.com/34/34_3_guest_commentators.html


DISINFORMATION HIGHLIGHTS for 3/22


MEDIA Propaganda:

U.S. is pushing ahead, meeting little resistance from a cowed Iraqi military force, making it obvious that we are being greeted as welcomed "liberators."

TRUTH:
As of Saturday, 3/22, the U.S. force had not even reached the boundary of the southern No Fly Zone, a line which runs the 32nd parallel and approximately through the town of An Najaf, about 100 miles south of Bagdhad. So, in reality, the U.S. troops have been crossing territory that has, for years, been essentially secured by air coverage. In short, the U.S. troops have not yet begun to fight.

MEDIA DISINFORMATION: All troops and military families are enthusiastic supporters of the Bush War and view any casualties as "American heroes." This lie helps to "keep the warm bodies coming" and make potential military dissents afraid to speak out.

TRUTH:
A growing number of military families are rebelling against Bush. One group of military wives has started a "Bush Countdown" campaign through the Internet, that ticks off the days until Bush leaves office, on which occasion they plan to throw an nationwide party. They also plan to organize against Bush in the next election to make sure he is defeated and can no longer needlessly threaten the lives of their loved ones.

When a young Baltimore marine was killed, on the morning of 3/22, the Today Show was trying to present the usual spin - fallen warrior as hero, his family was proud he gave his life, etc. But the local news station got the real story, which, of course was suppressed. This is from WBAL Baltimore: "As he held a picture of his son, Waters-Bey's father, Michael, (pictured, left), said: "I want President Bush to get a good look at this, really good look here. This is the only son I had, only son." He then walked away in tears, with his family behind him. Kenneth, the Marine's only son, was with the family." Next to this paragraph is a photo of Mr. Waters-Bey holding a photo of his hansome young son up to the camera. The father's expression clearly says, "Do you see him, Bush? Do you give a damn?"

Of course, Waters-Bey is black...as a disproportionate
number of front line casualties are likely to be. www.thewbalchannel.com/news/2056537/detail.html(NOTE: on 3/22 in the morning, Katie Couric interviewed Waters-Bey on the Today Show...trying to wring patriotic schmaltz from the grieving family, who sat on the couch with stony faces...resisting her efforts. Then, later in the day, Waters-Bey made a Dixie Chicks-style apology....sorry he lashed out at Bush. What kind of threats do you suppose were made between the evening of 3/22 and the afternoon of 3/23?

According to a USA Today report on 3/22, some soldiers are saying they will refuse to fight because they believe this is an immoral, wrong war. In its coverage, USA Today commits a war crime by, in essence, calling in its headline for these soldiers to be condemned as cowards. The headline was changed by evening, 3/22, with the "critics condemn act as cowardly" deleted, undoubtedly due to a wave of enraged callers.

DISINFORMATION BRIEFS 3/22

FOX Ad: Running over and over, and always (from witness reports) directly after footage of protests. This slick package of an ad shows five scrubbed looking college students saying... "We speak..we listen..we unite...support our troops...." At the end of the ad, no attribution is given at all, which is suspicious, to say the least. Afterall, even Phillip Morris has to stick on an attribution at the end of its "anti-smoking public service ads). So who paid for the FOX ad? The Charitable Rumsfeld Foundation?

Just before 2:00 pm, TV news reports journalists being fired on. Suddenly, the networks cut back to regular programming." I.e., a blackout. I learn online later that at least 6 journalists have been killed in a "secured town." In times gone by, a disaster such as this would have triggered an intensive round of coverage...minute to minute. Now, because it works against propaganda, it is scrubbed until an appropriate spin can be constructed.

Meanwhile, AOL is running headlines (throughout the afternoon of 3/22) straight out of fantasy land: "Franks says fight is "on our terms." Do those terms include the slaughter of journalists? I wonder....
Another AOL headline: "U.S. won't use Turkish bases. " This wording, of course, implies that we have CHOSEN not to use the bases. The fact is, their use has been denied by the Turkish parliament. Here's the real story: www.canada.com/vancouver/story.asp