Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
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The Independent:
"A US cruise missile armed with cluster ammunition was used in an attack in Yemen in December which resulted in the deaths of 52 people, more than half of them women and children, according to a human rights watchdog.
The Yemeni government insisted their forces alone carried out the strike on an al-Qa'ida training camp in the Abyan region. US authorities backed the claim that insurgents had been attacked but officially denied direct involvement in the attack.
However, Amnesty International has now released photographs of missile parts from the attack which appear to show that it was a BGM-109D Tomahawk cruise missile designed to be launched from a warship or submarine."
-->The fact that our country would send missiles into another nation not at war with America is inconceivable to most US citizens. The fact that so many women and children were killed in the attack makes it even harder to believe. The NY Times, always the defender of US unilateral aggression, didn't print the Amnesty story.
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Guardian.co.uk:
"The Israeli government has been forced to apologise for circulating a spoof video mocking activists aboard the Gaza flotilla, nine of who were shot dead by Israeli forces last week.
The YouTube clip, set to the tune of the 1985 charity single We Are the World, features Israelis dressed as Arabs and activists, waving weapons while singing: 'We con the world, we con the people. We'll make them all believe the IDF (Israel Defence Force) is Jack the Ripper.'
It continues: 'There's no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the biggest bluff of all.'
The Israeli government press office distributed the video link to foreign journalists at the weekend, but within hours emailed them an apology, saying it had been an error. Press office director Danny Seaman said the video did not reflect official state opinion, but in his personal capacity he thought it was 'fantastic.' "
-->Such stories of Israeli insensitivity after murdering aid workers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla are routinely kept out of our newspaper of record, The NY Times. Maybe it reflects the insensitivity of our leaders, like VP Biden, who said "What's the big deal?" when a 19 year old US citizen was shot in the head four times at close range.
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Common Dreams:
"PORTLAND, Maine -- A Maine video producer recalled hearing shots amid the chaos that broke out as Israeli troops raided the aid flotilla he was on that was attempting to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
Scott Hamann of South Portland arrived in Maine late Friday night, five days after the flotilla was intercepted by Israeli troops, resulting in the deaths of nine pro-Palestinian activists...
He and hundreds of others on the flotilla were then brought to an Israeli prison and detained before they were deported. There, Israeli troops and intelligence officers intimidated and threatened the prisoners, he said. After being brought to an airport to be put on a plane, two deportees were attacked by soldiers when they refused to sign deportation orders, he said.
One of them, he said, was an American citizen who was beaten and bloodied. When soldiers gave him water to wash his face, he refused to do so, saying he wanted people to see what they did to him, Hamann said.
'Then they beat him up really bad and we haven't seen him since. The status, the last I heard, isn't good,' he said."
-->This first hand account of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was not reported in The NY Times, which has instead relied on a stream of official statements on the massacre from the Israeli government.
