Thursday, January 29, 2015

NYT:
—>The NYT reviewed the new book, “Guantanamo Diary,” this weekend, Mohamedou Slahi’s own account of his suffering at the infamous US prison. The article is classic NYT and should certainly be read by anyone seeking to understand how our media makes such torture possible. 

The article gives one sentence to the approval of such methods by US leaders (citing Rumsfeld’s connection to a special interrogation in 2003). All the rest at the top are absolved of committing car crimes. In fact, The NYT never mentions “war crimes” at all in the article, despite the fact that they were obviously committed. 

How did our noble and good intentioned government ever do such things? Why, according to The NYT it was “woeful incompetence,” governmental “haplessness,” and and the fact that “secrecy makes blunders far easier to hide.” It was all just one big mistake.

Our newspaper of record then goes on to make the case for the prosecution. Mohamedou’s resume “cried out for scrutiny,” Communists did such things during the Cold War, and finally, he may be “simply a clever liar who has successfully hidden his crimes.” Did the CIA really have to redact huge portions of Mohanedou’s book when The NYT was willing to do it for them?

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Huffington Post:
“The Media vs. the Movement: 3 Ways the 'New York Times' Completely Misunderstands #BlackLivesMatter and Movements in General. 

Recently the New York Times published the latest in its series of sub-par articles on the current racial justice movement. Like its predecessors, this installment, ‘Protesters Out to Reclaim King's Legacy, but in Era That Defies Comparison,’ by Tanzina Vega, dutifully reinforces conventional wisdom that does not stand up to challenge. It is important to inspect the badly inaccurate depictions and deep misunderstandings that infect the Times' coverage. …

Notwithstanding its current hallowed reputation, at the time, many commentators portrayed the civil rights movement as ‘rebellious’ and ‘irrational.’ Apparently, we have learned little about movements in the decades since. We need to address the myth that movements last only as long as their media moments and develop a better grasp -- and more respect -- for the quiet, persistent periods of organizing that go into changing the flawed structures of our society.”

—>Yes, The NYT has a long track record of belittling and then dismissing social movements in the United States. It comes from our newspaper of record’s incestuous ties to big business and our government. All the news that the elites would like you to think.

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Defense News:
“WASHINGTON — American soldiers will deploy to Ukraine this spring to begin training four companies of the Ukrainian National Guard, the head of US Army Europe Lt. Gen Ben Hodges said during his first visit to Kiev on Wednesday.
The number of troops heading to the Yavoriv Training Area near the city of L’viv, which is about 40 miles from the Polish border, is still being determined, however.

The American training effort comes as part of a US State Department initiative ‘to assist Ukraine in strengthening its law enforcement capabilities, conduct internal defense, and maintain rule of law’ Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Vanessa Hillman told Defense News.

—>Soon, US soldiers will be killed in Ukraine. This brinksmanship with the world’s other nuclear superpower should be seen as criminally insane. Perhaps it will be the last bit of human folly before nuclear war brings an end to our species. Not to worry, however, since The NYT didn’t cover this story. Well, except for its resident warmonger, Thomas Friedman, crowing about “Czar Putin’s Next Moves.”