Thursday, March 31, 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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NPR:
WAMC/NPR interviewed Professor David Courtwright this Monday on US involvement in Libya. Dr. Courtwright assured listeners that our cause was just, and that "protecting innocent civilians" had the backing of world opinion. And since the US had no other motive for instituting a no fly zone in Libya, our government had to act. No question about it.

While Dr. Courtwright had worries about a protracted civil war in Libya, he never went back to his initial conclusion that the US had a moral imperative to initiate military action.

-->Dr. Courtwright's analysis is part of what Chris Hedges calls "the death of the liberal class," which is the title of his latest book. As a professor of history, Dr. Courtwright could certainly have come up with some other US motives in Libya, including controlling the oil, establishing of more US bases in the Middle East, and getting rid of an old enemy, Colonel Gaddafi. But the good professor could not, at least while maintaining his comfortable position as an NPR expert. Such is the sellout of our academic, liberal class to the military, industrial, corporate complex. NPR itself spends most of its time supporting the twin deceptions of American political life, that we live in a vibrant democracy, and that US wars abroad are always waged for moral reasons.

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Veterans Today:
"Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey has announced her country is developing a project to open up all crossings to the Gaza Strip, which has been suffocating for the last five years from an Israeli blockade.

She also said if Egypt would agree to open the Rafah crossing to bring in building materials and commodities, her country would be ready to restore it.

The statements came Monday during a meeting with several high-profile politicians in Europe staged by the European-Palestinian relations council.

Discussions included British MP Lord Andrew Phillips, member of European Parliament Alexandra Faith, MEP Derek Vaughan from Wales, and Swiss MP Geri Müller.

For his part, Lord Andrew Phillips, who headed the delegation, said world silence was to blame for Israel's obstinacy, saying that Tel Aviv understands that silence over recent attacks has provided a green light for more attacks."
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/03/24/swiss-president-announces-plans-to-break-gaza-siege/

-->The NY Times included a story about the Swiss President recently, but it involved the preservation of a 14th Century Chateau in Geneva. No mention of the preservation of 1.5 million Palestinians. The US media, complicit in the blockade of Gaza, would never let US citizens know of the international resistance to these war crimes.

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The Chronicle of Higher Education:
"The international campaign for an academic boycott of Israel claimed its first success on Wednesday when the University of Johannesburg Senate voted to pull out of a two-year-old joint research project with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev to battle algae that are infesting the South African city's reservoir.

The vote means that the University of Johannesburg is the first academic institution in the world to formally cut ties with an Israeli university as a result of pressure by supporters of the international boycott campaign...

The University of Johannesburg's Petition Committee, which led the campaign, said in a prepared statement that the Senate had also found 'significant' evidence that Ben-Gurion's research and other projects supported the Israeli military and, in particular, its occupation of Gaza."
http://chronicle.com/article/South-African-University-Is/126882/

-->Although the Chronicle mostly quoted Israeli professors who were opposed to the boycott, at least the story was covered. What is the excuse of The NY Times? Here is what the Guardian UK had to say: "Leading advocates of an academic boycott of Israel have stepped up their campaign calling for an 'outing' of Israeli universities which support their government's policy on the occupied territories.

Nearly 300 academics from around the world have published an open letter calling for leaders of Israeli universities to lay their political cards on the table and reveal whether they support the government's policies on the border conflict..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/mar/25/highereducation.uk