Thursday, January 27, 2011

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

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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Guardian UK:
"British intelligence helped draw up a secret plan for a wide-ranging crackdown on the Islamist movement Hamas which became a security blueprint for the Palestinian Authority, leaked documents reveal. The plan asked for the internment of leaders and activists, the closure of radio stations and the replacement of imams in mosques.

The disclosure of the British plan, drawn up by the intelligence service in conjunction with Whitehall officials in 2004, and passed by a Jerusalem-based MI6 officer to the senior PA security official at the time, Jibril Rajoub, is contained in the cache of confidential documents obtained by al-Jazeera TV and shared with the Guardian. The documents also highlight the intimate level of military and security cooperation between Palestinian and Israeli forces.

The bulk of the British plan has since been carried out by the West Bank-based PA security apparatus which is increasingly criticised for authoritarian rule and human rights abuses, including detention without trial and torture."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/25/palestine-papers-mi6-hamas-crackdown

-->British complicity in human rights abuses directed at Palestinians? Not news worthy for publication by The New York Times.

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Jewish Voice for Peace:
"The recent release by Al Jazeera and the Guardian of some 16,000 documents related to nearly 20 years of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations sadly substantiates what Jewish Voice for Peace has said publicly for years- that the U.S. is not the neutral broker it claims to be.

The United States' unconditional support for Israel has helped to perpetuate the occupation by promoting endless negotiations that have enabled Israel to expand settlements while claiming to work towards peace.

Israel's lack of interest in ending the occupation and being a partner to peace is now nakedly revealed in documents which show its reaction to he Palestinian Authority's unprecedented concessions, shocking because they far exceed the requirements of international law. Israel offered an intransigent 'no' to every concession, with the U.S. looking on in approval."

-->These leaks prove that Israel, with the backing of the US, has no interest in reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians. The peace "talks" have been nothing but show while Israel steals more land on the ground in the occupied territories. Amazingly, The New York Times covered this story with generalizations like, "The documents, a mix of friendly banter and sharp exchanges illustrating the complex interpersonal relations between top Israelis and Palestinians." No hint of Israel's inflexibility. Ethan's Bronner, NYT correspondent, is a master at providing readers with a pro-Israeli narrative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/world/middleeast/25mideast.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=palestinian%20talks%20leak&st=cse

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Guardian UK:
"The Obama administration has privately made clear that it will not allow any change of Palestinian leadership in the West Bank, the leaked papers reveal, let alone any repetition of the Hamas election victory that briefly gave the Islamists control of the Palestinian Authority five years ago.

That is despite the fact that the democratic legitimacy of both the Palestinian president and Fatah leader, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), and prime minister, Salam Fayyad, is strongly contested among Palestinians, and there are no plans for new elections in either the West Bank or Gaza.

"The new US administration expects to see the same Palestinian faces (Abu Mazen and Salam Fayyad) if it is to continue funding the Palestinian Authority," the then assistant secretary of state David Welch is recorded as telling Fayyad in November 2008. Most of the PA's funding comes from the US and European Union."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/24/us-threat-palestinians-leadership-funds

-->Leaked documents that reveal the administration's bribing the Palestinian Authority to keep the same corrupt officials? It never happened for readers of The NY Times.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

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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Free Press:
"According to press reports on Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission announced its decision, by a vote of 4-1, to approve the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, one of the largest media mergers in history...
The FCC endorsed the deal despite pledges by Barack Obama during the last presidential campaign to oppose greater media consolidation. In June 2008, President Obama said, 'I strongly favor diversity of ownership of outlets and protection against the excessive concentration of power in the hands of any one corporation, interest or small group. I strongly believe that all citizens should be able to receive information from the broadest range of sources. I feel that media consolidation during the Bush administration has had the effect of eliminating a lot of the diversity of information sources available to persons who have to rely on more traditional information sources, such as radio and television broadcasts and newspapers.' "
-->The NY Times treats sell-outs like this with gentle omissions. Its article was filled with assurances from establishment talking heads, and only gave a one line reference to Obama. No quotes to show just how he had let down the voters yet again.
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The Guardian, UK:
"The United States was advised to adopt a policy of 'covert sabotage' of Iran's clandestine nuclear facilities, including computer hacking and 'unexplained explosions', by an influential German thinktank, a leaked US embassy cable reveals.
Volker Perthes, director of Germany's government-funded Institute for Security and International Affairs, told US officials in Berlin that undercover operations would be 'more effective than a military strike' in curtailing Iran's nuclear ambitions.
A sophisticated computer worm, Stuxnet, infiltrated the Natanz nuclear facility last year, delaying Iran's programme by some months. The New York Times said this week that Stuxnet was a joint US-Israeli operation."
-->This Wikileaks story doesn't seem to have made it into The NY Times, although its story referred to "clues" suggesting a joint US and Israeli effort. Why not offer proof? Maybe the Pentagon doesn't like the idea of following the advice of a German think tank.
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Daily Mail Online:
"Tony Blair misled Parliament and the public about the legality of the Iraq War, according to explosive documents released last night.
Former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the then prime minister’s claims that Britain did not need a UN resolution explicitly authorising force were not compatible with his legal advice.
In testimony to the Chilcot Inquiry, made public for the first time yesterday, Lord Goldsmith said Mr Blair based his case for invasion on grounds that ‘did not have any application in international law’...
Asked whether ‘the Prime Minister’s words were compatible with the advice you had given him’, he replied: ‘No.’
The shattering testimony is a watershed moment for the Iraq Inquiry, as it is the first time that Lord Goldsmith has directly contradicted Mr Blair. The claims will form the centrepiece of Mr Blair’s second grilling by the inquiry on Friday."
-->Why does an explosive story about Blair lying before the invasion of Iraq get no coverage in The NY Times? Or in the rest of the US media? Could it be that Americans might start wondering why Bush and Cheney are not being questioned about their many lies by a US inquiry?

Friday, January 14, 2011

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

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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Truth-Out.org:
"Since the June 2009 coup  and throughout Lobo's tenure (in Honduras), widespread human rights abuses such as the targeted killings of journalists, the removal of opposition judges, mass arrests, beatings and torture have been thoroughly documented by human rights organizations...
These serious accusations have been largely ignored by the United States mainstream press, leaving the American public in the dark about the true color of a regime that now has the support of US diplomats. Amnesty International released three reports about various abuses to the public and to journalists between August 2009 and June 2010, yet none received any notable mainstream media attention in the United States...
Human Rights Watch, the largest human rights organization based in the United States, has released 20 publications — a variety of reports, press releases and statements — documenting a wide range of abuses in Honduras between the date of the coup and September 10, 2010.
Amazingly, elite national publications in the United States have paid no attention to these reports. The New York Times has published 53 articles about Honduras since the coup in mid-2009, and Human Rights Watch was only mentioned in one of them — a September 29, 2009 article about two media stations being closed down..."
-->Human rights is simply treated as a propaganda tool by the Pentagon, using the The NY Times as its chief media outlet. China gets all the attention, along with Iran and Venezuela. Brutal dictatorships like the one in Honduras, put in place and supported by the Pentagon, supposedly don't have human rights abuses. That is if you depend on The NY Times for all the news that's fit to print.
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TomDispatch.com:
"Have you noticed that Lockheed Martin, the giant weapons corporation, is shadowing you?  No?  Then you haven't been paying much attention.  Let me put it this way: If you have a life, Lockheed Martin is likely a part of it.
True, Lockheed Martin doesn't actually run the U.S. government, but sometimes it seems as if it might as well.  After all, it received $36 billion in government contracts in 2008 alone, more than any company in history.  It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.  It's involved in surveillance and information processing for the CIA, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.
...Naturally, the company produces cluster bombs, designs nuclear weapons, and makes the F-35 Lightning (an overpriced, behind-schedule, underperforming combat aircraft that is slated to be bought by customers in more than a dozen countries) -- and when it comes to weaponry, that's just the start of a long list. In recent times, though, it's moved beyond anything usually associated with a weapons corporation and has been virtually running its own foreign policy, doing everything from hiring interrogators for U.S. overseas prisons (including at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq) to managing a private intelligence network in Pakistan and helping write the Afghan constitution."
-->When is the last time The NY Times ran an article about Lockheed Martin's domestic spying programs? The only reference this past year in The NY Times was a story about a $200M cost overrun to put cameras in the NY City subways.
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Press TV:
"The US administration is ramping up a 'secret war on terror groups' in hot spots around the globe by establishing a new military targeting center, officials say...
'The new center would be a significant step in streamlining targeting operations previously scattered among US and battlefields abroad and giving elite military officials closer access to Washington decision-makers and counter-terror experts,' the officials revealed to the Associated Press...
The revelation comes while the US military has already increased the number of special operations and commando raids in Afghanistan. 
'We've gone from 30-35 targeted operations a month in June 2009 now to about 1,000 a month,' said NATO spokeswoman Maj. Sunset Belinsky."
-->Assassination centers in numerous foreign countries is not something The NY Times would ever see fit to print. It is literally the establishment of world wide death squads by the US military. No reason to alarm the US public by reporting it in the US media.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

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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Common Dreams:
"As Washington gears up for a fight over federal spending and the national debt, lawmakers may want to consider some new polling figures.
A survey from CBS News' "60 Minutes" and Vanity Fair magazine shows that most Americans, given a set limited choices for balancing the national budget, would prefer to see taxes increased for the wealthy.
As many as 61 percent said they would prefer increasing taxes on the rich over three other options: cutting defense spending, cutting Medicare or cutting Social Security. Another 20 percent chose cutting defense spending as the best option. Just 4 percent said they would cut Medicare, and just 3 percent said they would cut Social Security."
-Poll by "60 Minutes" and "Vanity Fair"
-->The NY Times, like our new Governor Cuomo, talks endlessly about the need to cut social spending, rather than make the rich tax pay their fair share of taxes. The billionaire hedge fund managers pay a lower percentage of their taxes than the average school teacher. Exxon Mobile pays no taxes at all. Where is the outrage? Certainly not on the pages of our newspaper of record.
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Press TV:
"A senior Republican senator has suggested that the US should devise a plan to permanently keep American troops in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina, told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday that Republicans would push for indefinite US stay in Afghanistan in the years ahead. 
'We have had air bases all over the world and a couple of air bases in Afghanistan would allow the Afghan security forces an edge against the Taliban in perpetuity. It would be a signal to Pakistan that the Taliban are never going to come back. In Afghanistan they could change their behavior. It would be a signal to the whole region that Afghanistan is going to be a different place.' "
-->The NY Times didn't cover Graham's recommendations. Maybe that's because this deeply unpopular war is wholeheartedly supported by Obama and both political parties. Only the American people want to end the war. Why make them uncomfortable about their children and grandchildren dying in Afghanistan?
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Fiscal Policy Institute:
"The Path Not Taken: How New York State Increased the Tax Burden on the Middle Class and Cut Taxes for its Highest Income Taxpayers by Over $8 Billion a Year...
Since the late 1970s, New York State has pursued an income tax policy that has meant higher than necessary income taxes for middle income families and huge tax cuts for the best-off 5% of state taxpayers - many of whom are actually residents of other states (primarily Connecticut and New Jersey) who commute into New York City to work...
At the other end of the spectrum are the big winners. A family earning $500,000 is now paying $22,000 a year less than they would be paying...At the $1 million level, this savings is about $63,000 and at $2 million, it is about $145,000.
Why has New York State pursued such an attack on the middle class just to provide huge benefits to those who have the least difficulty in making ends meet? Has this been a conscious effort at class warfare? or, Have our policy-makers just been oblivious to the impact of the state's misguided tax policies?"
-->The specifics about how NY Sate favors the very rich are often absent from the pages of The New York Times. It didn't cover this report by the Fiscal Policy Institute.

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