UPDATE APRIL 23 12:25 PM

BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND ITS MEDIA MINIONS ARE OUT OF CONTROL

The push by Bush and the mainstream media folks to cement their joint stranglehold over America is getting more brutish every single day. Now we have phony stories being planted on command exactly when Bush needs them. We have nightly news shows and "unbiased" public forums like C-SPAN being turned into rightwing talk radio outlets and outlets for corporate front group propaganda....In short, these people are now in the process of making the final big push. They know their window of opportunity is closing and closing fast. So expect the worst in the coming days...and believe nothing they tell you.
EXAMPLES: These are just a few....they are EVERYWHERE, but these will give you an idea of the trend:


***JAY GARNER: I was given an inside tip from someone in a position to know that the mainstream media execs were given a memo by Victoria Clarke and/or Karl Rove that stated that Jay Garner was to be referred to at all times ONLY as "retired General Jay Garner." The rest of his identity was NOT to be discussed in any article. I have noticed that this is absolutely the case - from FOX to Washington Post, Garner is uniformly referred to as "retired general Garner."


What they leave out is that Garner is the PRESENT PRESIDENT OF A WEAPONS PEDDLING COMPANY: COLEMAN RESEARCH, a division of the L-3 Corporation. Garner only took a leave of absence to take the Iraq job. Garner was also a recent guest of honor in Israel of the Zionist group Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. During this visit, Garner signed a letter endorsing Sharon's brutal treatment of Palestinians. (scroll down a few stories to the one on Garner in today's collection - several links are there detailing background info).

**** Rampant use of corporate front groups - they have now infested every TV station, every paper, every radio program, replacing real experts with professional corporate propagandists. They are even doing book reviews! The lead book review in the Washington Post on April 23 was by Peter Bergen, a guy with the jingoistic front group (posing as the "new centrists") the New America Foundation. What was the review? A merciless bashing of three books that dare question Bush's role in the 9/11 tragedy, including Gore Vidal's latest work. So the Post is basically trying to deflect suspicion against Bush as the 9/11 investigation heats up. The same investigation Bush did everything in his power to block.

Here are the corporate front groups that have been used as if they were the White House Press office itself of late:

Cato Institute

American Enterprise Institute (see note below)

Club for Growth

Citizens United

Heritage Foundation

New American Foundation (see note below)

Hoover Institution (Rummy, Wolfowitz and Rice are all fellows)

Brookings Institution: This outfit used to be very reliable, but appears to have been gutted and its agenda set by the Bush administration in recent months.

(NOTE; re: American Enterprise Institute and New America Foundation. These two represent the new, slicker style of packaging the corporate agenda. They call themselves "centrist" (NAF) or moderate (AEI). But their material all pushes toward the right, and toward a specific agenda - the freemarket system, the darling brainchild of the corporazis. This sneak tactic is gaining favor now that Americans are starting to weary of blatant rightwing crap like Savage and Limbaugh. Hannity and Colmes is a prime example: this is supposed to be a rightwinger and a liberal, but what it really is is a rightwinger and a less-rightwinger pretending to be liberal. The idea, of course, is to pull America's concept of what consistutes true "moderate" and true "liberal" further and further to the right so that moderates are considered liberals and REAL liberals are isolated and condemned as "extreme.")


***Use of the media to frame Bush dissenters and to "legitimize" planted evidence to achieve that goal. In today's "Washington Post," the story was repeated that "evidence" against the fiery outspoken member of parliament Geo. Galloway was found ever so conveniently lying around in one of Saddam's ministsries. (the "document" is supposed to suggest Galloway was cutting oil deals with Saddam!). Why would Bush want to frame George Galloway? (to use Rumsfeld's ask-and-answer your own questions technique) Because Galloway slammed Bush bravely and relentlessly over Iraq and suggested that 9/11 was awfully damned convenient for Bush in facilitating the promotion of every single bit of his agenda. The conveniently found document, as it turns out, is an obvious forgery - just as much of the Saddam weapons evidence presented before the war was shown to be. But this did not stop the media from spreading any of these stories - or failing to officially discredit them later. So now, the papers go from shoddy reporting and propaganda dissemination to actually setting themselves up as kangaroo courts to prosecute dissenters!



***** Use of media to plant "evidence" of WMDs, at least in public's mind. There is no verifiable evidence other than convenient hearsay of WMDs being found in Iraq. Yet the media, including the Post, continues to trumpet stories that "scientists" (unnamed of course) say WMDs were destroyed at least minute, were all but invisible, were moved out of the country, blah blah blah. In the past, before the war, the media did the same thing - trumpet a story against Iraq, such as the Tony Blair "smoking gun" report, then fail later to as loudly report - if at all - that such stories were frauds.



NBC NEWS with Tom Brokaw SAYS BUSH DAYS ARE NUMBERED - WORLD WILL NOT TOLERATE HIS KIND ANY LONGER!!!


Here's a case where the propaganda got so extreme this week that it curved back in on itself like light from a black hole. On 4/22, Brokaw had a segment on the alleged discovery of what may be counterfeit money in the cellar of one of Saddam's palaces. During this segment, a Bush wonk (didn't catch the name but he was from the US banking baron community) made a strong statement. He said that the world would no longer tolerate leaders who enriched themselves and their friends at the expense of their people, who lied and cheated and lived a lifestyle beyond the reach of everyone else...this type of leader's days were numbered!
So there you have it, folks: NBC CALLS FOR SPEEDY REMOVAL OF G.W BUSH AND FRIENDS!!

Rumsfeld's Latest Propaganda Technique: the mysterious "Senior White House Official" Ploy


At the Monday (4/21) Pentagon briefing, Rummy unveiled his latest propaganda tactic to the press corps. I will call it the Senior White House Official Doubleblind. This is a variation on the now over-used good cop/bad cop ploy in which two players on the same side, Blair and Bush, for ex., pretend that one of them is really a good guy, just trying to be reasonable (Blair, for eg.), who is heroically restraining the bad guy (Bush) from going too far...as all the while they are both dragging us all to EXACTLY where they both want to be.

The Senior White House Official Doubleblind goes like this: a "second stringer" in the White House, say Andrew Card, or perhaps even someone further down the food chain, leaks a strong statement to someone in the press - someone handpicked because they are easily flattered, gullible, eager to please or all of the above. The reporter is told that by the informant that they can only say that the tip came from a "Senior White House Official." The reporter, thinking they have the inside scoop, then gleefully runs the story. But, later, when Rummy, Bush, Rove or Fleischer are confronted by the newspaper report with its statement from the SWH official, they act horrified - deeply shocked! WHO could have said such a thing?!!!
The purpose of the SWH official doublebind is to confuse the public, discredit the press, and to distance the White House and Pentagon from unpopular goals and stands long enough for them to find a way to achieve the same goals and reinforce the same stands behind the scenes.

So on 4/21, a reporter confronted Rummy about the statement from a SWHO, printed in the NY Times, stating that the US plans to establish military bases in the country. Rummy reacted with such an exaggerated show of righteous indignation that I thought he was having an apoplectic fit. "What Senior Official? Who? I don't know any Senior Official that would say such a thing.! Why, it wasn't me! It wasn't Condi Rice! It wasn'r Paul Wolfowitz! It wasn't Ari Fleischer!" He he went through a whole list of specific names in his indignant denial. (Btw - "denial" in White House code means: D.on't E.ver N.otice I A.m L.ying. ) Anyway, this spouting of specific names is what I will call "categorical distancing of the White House from the bad things it is doing."


Rummy went on and on about the SWHO statement, saying how irresponsible it was to print such a thing: "It isn't at all helpful!!" His motive here is clear: trump up a case for why the media is an impediment to internationl relations and thus should be kept out of the loop at all times.


Of course, anyone who knows anything about the Bush Regime knows full well they have planned to use Iraq as a base of operations to expand their empire. But now they are trying to find a way to achieve that without anyone actually noticing that is what they are doing. Another instance of the Bush use of the doubleblind may help elucidate this:


In the case of Trent Lott, after his now famous (er, infamous) statements praising the bigotry of Strom Thurmond, Bush had every intention of canning Lott as Senate Whip to protect his own butt. But the way he did this was to "leak" this intention to the press via "senior White House Officials." When the story came out, of course, Bush denied any such thing - professed to be remaining neutral (which of course he was not). The end result? The leaked statement pushed events in the direction Bush wanted without his obvious involvement. Trent was removed as Whip but, incredibly, retained his post in the senate. And, Bush was able to remain in favor with his KKK- type backers while confusing everyone else.

Operation Eggy Freedom, with Handpicked Military Eggrollers, Turns White House Easter Event into Bush Agenda PR Moment

The famous egg roll on the White House is supposed to be a chance for Washington to reach out to everyday kids and their parents, to throw the doors open with acceptance and good will. Usually, about 40,000 people participate, from all walks of life from the D.C. area (which is a melting pot in its own right) - from the long-haired and unshaven to the preppy, from the white skinned to every shade of coffee, mahogany, saffron, and chocolate. But this year, the event was more like a meeting of the Republican Military Families Club. Due to "security concern" (Bush's excuse for everything), the egg roll organizers handed out just 12,000 tickets this year - every single one to hand-picked military personnel. If there were D.C. area children present, it was by sheer coincidence (i.e., their military parents happen to be on the Bush "approved list").


In addition, the roll took place not on Easter Sunday, but on Monday and the Bush family was not represented. Instead, as Bush hid on his "ranch" in Texas with Laura and Condy Rice, and Dick Cheney hunkered in his bunker, Lynne Cheney presided over the event. In predictable "American Enterprise Institute" tradition, Ms. Cheney made sure to exploit the event for personal advantage and plugged her jingoistic manifesto for America's youth, "America: a Patriotic Primer" to the captive audience. To top off the military theme, the event was dubbed "Operation Eggy Freedom." (I'm surprised the they didn't hand out stuffed Easter bunnies dressed in desert fatigues) or supply teams of eggrollers with miniature tanks.


There was such a preponderance of white, scrubbed families that one reporter said it seemed fmore like an exclusive garden party than the tradition rough and tumble - fun - South Lawn event that lets kids be kids. Although blacks are highly overrepresented in the military, they were highly underrepresented at the egg roll. In fact, the Washington Post used an extremely devious tactic to make it SEEM as if there were more black families there. On page one of their "Metro" section, as lead story, the top-of-the-page photo is of egg rollers and their parents cheering from the sidelines - not a black face in sight. But, right below it, directly under the egg roll headline, is a photo of several black children at an outdoor event. At a glance, you are sure it must be part of the egg roll story. But when you look closely, you realize the shot goes with a totally different story about an event at the Zoo, made to superficially appear to be part of the egg roll event. On the second page of the egg roll story, the editors do the same thing: a side-by side (but with no clear divide) placement of the two different stories, so that the photo of cheering black moms and dads looks like a shot from the egg roll sidelines.


Also at Operation Eggy Freedom was a display of springtime traditions of several other nations. France, famous for its springtime traditions, was, of course, not represented.



How Much Proof Does America Need that Bush and His Circle of Favorites and Appointees are No Damn Good?

One of Bush's Top Picks for Iraq Reconstruction Used KKK to Terrorize South Africa Workers

Fluor Corporation is facing multibillion-dollar lawsuit claiming it terrorized black workers in apartheid-era South Africa. Lawyers acting for thousands of victims of the racist regime are to file a detailed suit in the US this week, which includes the claim that Fluor hired security guards dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes to attack unarmed workers protesting against poor pay and conditions," the UK Observer reports. Fluor was high on Bush's handpicked "short list" for reconstruction. "John Ngcebetsha, a lawyer for former employees, said: 'This company has a long history of human rights violations in South Africa. It cares nothing about the societies in which it works and its involvement in Iraq would be disastrous.' Meanwhile, it has emerged that Jay Garner, the retired US general who will oversee Iraqi reconstruction, is facing legal action over his activities while president of a defence company, SY Technology (now SY Coleman). "


www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,930554,00.html

Within just two weeks of this story coming out, the spin maestros at the Bush administration had concocted a "confuse and deflect" strategy to answer this devastating info: whip up an old story about South Africa's WMD program. In other words, starting singing out of tune on another part of the same stage to drown out the star's aria.

Jay Garner Not Only Visited Israel as Zionist Group's Guest of Honor, But Signed Letter Praising Sharon's Brutalization of Palestinians

"Nothing has so demonstrated to Arabs their political impotence than Rumsfeld's selection of retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner as Iraq's interim military governor. Now a defense contractor, he helped develop the Arrow missile-defense system for Israel. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Garner visited Israel as guest of the hard-line Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and signed that organization's letter praising Sharon's treatment of Palestinians. ''Out of the 270 million Americans,'' said Syrian Deputy Ambassador Imad Moustapha on NBC's ''Meet the Press'' Sunday, ''you choose a military ruler to rule Iraq who is closely related to the extremist factions in Israel.'' That is the price of losing the clash of civilizations, when you appear to be the next target."

www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak17.html

Coleman Research
www.spaceandtech.com/digest/sd2001-15/sd2001-15-005.shtml

Troubling Questions about Garner's appointment
www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp

Dump Jay Garner Campaign
dumpjaygarner.com/index.php


Jay Garner Honored Guest of Zionist Group, Signed Letter Praising Sharon's Brutality toward Palestinians
www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak17.html

Jay Garner Info on L-3 (Defense Contractor) Website
www.apcominc.com/about_l3/biographies/index.asp