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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Agence France Presse:

"European NATO allies are to urge President Barack Obama to remove all remaining US nuclear weapons from European soil, as domestic pressure grows to rid its soil of outdated Cold War-era aerial bombs.

Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Norway will call 'in the coming weeks' for more than 200 American warheads, mostly stocked in Italy and Turkey, to be taken back, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yves Leterme told AFP.

A joint proposal by the five NATO members will demand 'that nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed.' Dominique Dehaene said.

Only the United States has nuclear arms stored in other NATO member states in Europe, he added."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/20

-->Even NATO growing impatient with US nuclear aggressiveness around the globe? The US media, however, portrays the US as eager to reduce the threat of nuclear war. More PR brought to you from the Pentagon and the nuclear weapons industry.

-------------------

Common Dreams:

"Here we go again.  A report issued Thursday by the new Director General of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano, has injected new adrenalin into those arguing that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon. 

The usual suspects are hyping—and distorting—thin-gruel language in the report to 'prove' that Iran is hard at work on a nuclear weapon.  The New York Times’ David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, for example, highlighted a sentence about 'alleged activities related to nuclear explosives,' which Amano says he wants to discuss with Iran. 

Amano’s report said: “Addressing these issues is important for clarifying the Agency’s concerns about these activities and those described above, which seem to have continued beyond 2004.” 

Sanger and Broad play up the 'beyond 2004' language as 'contradicting the American intelligence assessment…that concluded that work on a bomb was suspended at the end of 2003.'  Other media have picked that up and run with it, apparently without bothering to read the IAEA report itself. 

The Times article is, at best, disingenuous in claiming: 'The report cited new evidence, much of it collected in recent weeks, that appeared to paint a picture of a concerted drive in Iran toward a weapons capability.'"

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/22-1

-->What evidence? Judith Miller style reporting indicates that The New York Times is once again beating the drums of war, and this time for Obama.

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Observer/UK"

"In the weeks before and after the Copenhagen climate change conference last December, the science of climate change came under harsh attack by critics who contend that climate scientists have deliberately suppressed evidence - and that the science itself is severely flawed...

The fact is that the critics - who are few in number but aggressive in their attacks - are deploying tactics that they have honed for more than 25 years. During their long campaign, they have greatly exaggerated scientific disagreements in order to stop action on climate change, with special interests like Exxon Mobil footing the bill...

Today's campaigners against action on climate change are in many cases backed by the same lobbies, individuals, and organizations that sided with the tobacco industry to discredit the science linking smoking and lung cancer. Later, they fought the scientific evidence that sulfur oxides from coal-fired power plants were causing 'acid rain.' Then, when it was discovered that certain chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were causing the depletion of ozone in the atmosphere, the same groups launched a nasty campaign to discredit that science, too."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/21-6

-->US media like The NY Times gives about equal coverage to the scientists warning us about global warming and debunkers paid for by Exxon Mobil. Corporate money just talks louder in this country. Maybe that is why the Supreme Court recently decided that corporations can pour their unlimited millions into national campaigns. America has the best media and election campaigns that money can buy.

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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Democracy Now:

"Low-income Americans are facing a higher unemployment rate today than at the height of the Depression...The Center for Labor Market Studies at Boston's Northeastern University divided U.S. households into ten groups based on annual income. The lowest tenth, with an annual household income of $12,499 or less, had a fourth-quarter unemployment rate last year of 30.8 percent. The next lowest-income group had an unemployment rate of 19.1 percent."

Center for Labor Market Studies:

"At the end of calendar year 2009, as the national economy was recovering from the recession of 2007-2009, workers in different segments of the income distribution clearly found themselves in radically different labor market conditions. A true labor market depression faced those in the bottom two deciles of the income distribution, a deep labor market recession prevailed among those in the middle of the distribution, and close to a full employment environment prevailed at the top. There was no labor market recession for America’s affluent. 

http://www.clms.neu.edu/publication/documents/Labor_Underutilization_Problems_of_U.pdf

-->The NY Times, published for the affluent, did not report this finding from the Center for Labor Market Studies as news, although Op-Ed Columnist Bob Herbert wrote a column on it.

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School of Americas Watch:

"Since the 'election' of President Porfidio Lobo in late November, in a balloting process boycotted by the majority of Hondurans, over 10 leaders of the resistance movement have been murdered. Those who dare to raise their voices about this situation are also targeted. Last week two cameramen from media programs opposing the government were kidnapped and tortured. After filing reports on these and other situations, members of the COFADEH human rights team received death threats.

Instead of denouncing this critical situation, the Obama Administration is doing the opposite: attempting to rally international support for an illegitimate regime that almost no other government recognizes. This is part of a complete turnaround by the administration. When SOA graduates orchestrated a coup against President Manuel Zelaya last June, President Obama lent his voice to the chorus of rejection coming from all corners of Latin America. In the following months, however, that position shifted from rejection to complacency to acceptance to promotion. While most Latin American nations view the recent Honduran elections as an illegal effort to whitewash a coup, the U.S. insists that they are legitimate, and the resulting change has been positive."

http://soaw.org/article.php?id=1795

-->The NY Times "see no evil" reporting when it comes to right wing death squads in Honduras is all the more deplorable since we read about Iranian human right abuses every day. In Honduras, the US supports the dictatorship. In Iran, the US wants to overthrow a democracy. And The NY Times plays its role as media harlot of the US Pentagon.

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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Inter Press Service:

"Civil liberties advocates and legal authorities struck back Friday at what they describe as the 'deliberate targeted killing of U.S. citizens far away from any active hostilities, as long as the executive branch determines unilaterally that they meet a secret definition of who the enemy is.'

In an admission that took the intelligence community and its critics by surprise, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair acknowledged in a congressional hearing Wednesday that the U.S. may, with executive approval, deliberately target and kill U.S. citizens who are suspected of being involved in terrorism.

The American Civil Liberties Union is among those expressing serious concern about the lack of public information about the policy and the potential for abuse of unchecked executive power."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/05-11

-->US citizens locked up without charges, and now murdered by executive authority? These are distopian visions a society's dissent into lawless authoritarianism. Not the type of stories fit to print in The NY Times.

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LA Times:

"The U.S. military plans to extradite stop-lossed Iraq veteran and IVAW member, Marc Hall, to Iraq "within a few days" to face court martial for allegedly threatening military officers in a protest rap song he made.

Marc has been sitting in Liberty County jail near Fort Stewart, GA since December 11, 2009 becuse he wrote a song called, "Stop Loss" about the practice of involuntarily extending military members' contract.

Marc's lawyer believes that moving him to Iraq will violate his due process, isolating him from his legal support and making calling witnesses on his behalf nearly impossible..."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-rapping-soldier,0,329386.story

-->We don't think the mainstream media is covering the abuse of US service personal by their own military. Stop loss is nothing more than Shanghing young people after their tour of duty is over. Take action to support Marc by calling Ft. Stewart Public Affairs Chief, Kevin Larson at 912-435-9879. Thanks to Pat for reporting this story.

SONG: Stoploss

-------------------

The Independent, UK:

"An orchestrated campaign is being waged against climate change science to undermine public acceptance of man-made global warming, environment
experts claimed last night.

The attack against scientists supportive of the idea of man-made climate change has grown in ferocity since the leak of thousands of documents on the subject from the University of East Anglia (UEA) on the eve of the Copenhagen climate summit last December.

Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organisations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/07

-->The NY Times doesn't do stories about right wing think tanks like Atlas Economic Research Foundation that influence public opinion on climate change. This despite the fact that Atlas Economic Research Foundation is based in the US. Or maybe because it is.

-------------------

Agence France Presse:

"JERUSALEM - Human Rights Watch said on Sunday that Israel has failed to properly investigate alleged crimes committed during last winter's devastating Gaza war as demanded by the United Nations.

'Israel claims it is conducting credible and impartial investigations, but it has so far failed to make that case,' said Joe Stork, HRW's New York-based group's deputy director for the Middle East.

'An independent investigation is crucial to understand why so many civilians died and to bring justice for the victims of unlawful attacks,' Stork said in a statement.

About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the 22-day onslaught launched by Israel on December 27, 2008, aimed at halting rocket attacks from the Islamist Hamas-ruled enclave. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the fighting."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/07-2

-->With pro Israel reporters like Ethan Bronner, and Isabel Kershner, stories like this don't have a chance in our newspaper of record. The NY Times didn't cover Stork's comments or Israel's failure to investigate war crimes. Kershner did write an lengthy article alleging Hamas war crimes. 

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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FAIR - Fairness & Accuracy in in Reporting:
"When progressive historian Howard Zinn died on January 27, NPR's All Things Considered (1/28/10) marked his passing with something you don't often see in an obituary: a rebuttal.

After quoting Noam Chomsky and Julian Bond, NPR's Allison Keyes turned to far-right activist David Horowitz to symbolically spit on Zinn's grave. 'There is absolutely nothing in Howard Zinn's intellectual output that is worthy of any kind of respect,' Horowitz declared. 'Zinn represents a fringe mentality which has unfortunately seduced millions of people at this point in time. So he did certainly alter the  consciousness of millions of younger people for the worse.'"
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/29-8

-->Horowitz is a right wing race-bater and Muslim basher. Nice going, NPR. Contrast this treatment of Zinn with NPR's treatment of William F. Buckley. NPR aired six segments commemorating him. Scott Simon, that windbag of conventional thought, had the final say: "Emphysema, such an unseemly thing for a man who was so often a breath of fresh air."

Call NPR and complain about Zinn's trashing: 202 513-3245

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Common Dreams:
"President Barack Obama is seeking increased funding for nuclear weapons research and security programs next year, even as his administration promotes nonproliferation and has pledged to reduce the world's stockpile of nuclear arms.

The administration on Monday asked Congress for more than $7 billion for activities related to nuclear weapons in the budget of the National Nuclear Security Administration, an increase of $624 million from the 2010 fiscal year...

Greg Mello, director of the nuclear watchdog Los Alamos Study Group, said budgets for NNSA and DOE have increased in recent years, but the nation 'hasn't seen any increase in weapons activities like this since the early years of Ronald Reagan.'

He called the budget 'a complete surrender to Senate Republicans,' who have argued that stockpile reductions must be accompanied by a modernized nuclear weapons complex."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/01-11

-->The NY Times carried this AP story on its webpage. But like a lot of stories about nuclear weapons and nuclear energy production, the news never made it into the print edition.

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Ynet News (Israeli News Service)
"The Amnesty International organization has called on Israel to lift the siege on the Gaza Strip immediately, as it serves as a collective punishment.

The organization said in a statement that the blockade does not hurt the armed organizations, but punished the civilian population in Gaza. Amnesty issued a document with testimonies from the Strip's residents, who are finding it difficult to rehabilitate their lives since Operation Cast Lead due to the siege."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3835804,00.html

-->It's OK to publish such criticisms of the blockade of Gaza in Israel. But please, not in the United States. The NY Times didn't touch this story.

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.

---------

Common Dreams:

"President Obama's plan to freeze 'non-security' discretionary spending could spell disaster for a broad range of federal programs. ... The proposed 'freeze' is actually a cut. The proposal caps non-security spending at $447 billion for each of the next three fiscal years. During that time, inflation will erode the purchasing power of that total, requiring additional cuts in services in each successive year. While meaningless in reducing the deficit, these cuts could be devastating to non-security discretionary programs such as nutrition, education, energy and transportation.

These types of programs account for only 17 percent of total federal spending, yet they will absorb all of the proposed cuts. ... Military spending, which in the current fiscal year represents roughly 55 percent of discretionary spending, will be spared the budget knife. And all indications are that military spending will go up next year. In fact, based on the Office of Management and Budget's projections as part of the FY 2010 budget request released last year, we will spend an additional $522 billion on the military over the next decade."

-Jo Comerford, Executive director of the National Priorities Project

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/26-14

-->Forget it if you are looking for this type of budget analysis in the NY Times. We don't talk about Military Empire in America's newspaper of record.

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Guardian UK:

"The health of 1.4 million people is being put at risk by the ongoing Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza, a report by more than 80 humanitarian organisations warned today.

The aid groups, including the World Health Organisation and UN agencies, said more than one-fifth of sick Palestinians who needed to leave the territory for treatment in Israel had either been refused or had their applications delayed. The groups called on Israel and Egypt to open the border crossings with Gaza.

Max Gaylard, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for the Palestinian territories, said the blockade undermined the local healthcare system and put lives at risk."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/20/gaza-blockade-health-risk-report

-->1.4 million people's lives being put at risk? Not newsworthy when it comes to the NY Times coverage of Palestine. Stories that cover US or Israeli human rights violations rarely make it into print.

-------------------

Common Dreams:

"The Obama administration may soon guarantee as much as $18.5 billion in loans to build nuclear reactors to generate electricity, and Congress is considering whether to add billions more to support an expansion of nuclear power.

These actions come after an extensive, decade-long campaign in which companies and unions related to the industry have spent more than $600 million on lobbying and nearly $63 million on campaign contributions, according to an analysis by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University.

Nuclear power generates about 20 percent of America's electricity, but many existing reactors are aging. No new plant has been authorized since the 1979 incident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, when small amounts of radiation were released and authorities feared for days that a huge surge might escape."

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/24-4

-->The NY Times has long had a soft spot for nuclear energy, and the billions in profits it brings to corporate interests. It didn't cover Obama's loan guarantees. Nuclear energy you can believe in.

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.
---------

Guardian UK:
"The US military's takeover of emergency operations in Haiti has triggered a diplomatic row with countries and aid agencies furious at having flights redirected.

Brazil and France lodged an official ­protest with Washington after US military aircraft were given priority at Port-au-Prince's congested airport, forcing many non-US flights to divert to the Dominican Republic.

Brasilia warned it would not ­relinquish command of UN forces in Haiti, and Paris complained the airport had become a US "annexe", exposing a brewing power struggle amid the global relief effort. The Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières also complained about diverted flights. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/18-10

-- >US troop flights clogging up Haiti's airport and delaying food and medicine to thousands of desperate quake survivors? Would you ever read about such deplorable US policy in the NY Times? No, you wouldn't. All you get is propaganda about our wonderful relief efforts.
-------------------

The NY Times:
According to the "Political Memo" published this Sunday on the front page of the NY Times, the Senate race in Massachusetts is close because Obama has tried to accomplish too much in terms of social reform during his first year.

Not one mention of the fact that large segments of the left are disgusted by Brand Obama for not doing enough. In fact, for not doing anything different from the Bush/Cheney war crime era.

No indication that voters might be furious with Brand Obama's healthcare reform, his gross sellout to the big insurance and pharmaceutical companies. No hint that Brand Obama's troop serge in the Middle East betrayed his peace promises. No voter anger because as he has continued the Bush policies of indefinite detention, government eavesdropping, military commissions, extreme secrecy, and immunity for government lawbreaking. Nope. No mention of this is the NY Times analysis.

Such analysis is for the politically lobotomized. Urging Obama to move to the right will leave him with no base at all, expect for the large corporations that pay for both parties and run the nation's media. And Brand Obama will go the way of "New Coke."

-- >One has to go to a newspaper outside the US for some less brainwashed analysis. The Guardian in UK said it so simply: "Prominent voices on the left of the Democratic party have grown increasingly concerned at what they see as too little change people can believe in, particularly on issues liberal activists are passionate about, such as healthcare legislation and America's wars." Now why couldn't the NY Times have thought of that?
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BBC in UK:
"A Spanish politician has said he was shocked to find out the FBI had used his photo for a digitally-altered image showing how Osama Bin Laden might look.

Gaspar Llamazares said he would no longer feel safe traveling to the US after his hair and parts of his face appeared on a most-wanted poster. He said the use of a real person for the mocked-up image was "shameless".

The FBI admitted a forensic artist had obtained certain facial features 'from a photograph he found on the internet.' The digitally-altered photos of the al-Qaeda leader, showing how he might look now, aged 52, were published on the state department's Rewards for Justice website on Friday." http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/17-5

-- >The NY Times put this story on its website, but didn't print it. Such stupidity from the FBI is seldom deemed "fit to print."
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New America Media:
"Forget about oil, occupation, terrorism or even Al Qaeda. The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer. Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment.

Here are a few examples. In Falluja, which was heavily bombarded by the US in 2004, as many as 25% of new- born infants have serious abnormalities, including congenital anomalies, brain tumors, and neural tube defects in the spinal cord.

The cancer rate in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad has risen from 500 diagnosed cases in 2004 to 9,082 in 2009 according to Al Jazeera English...

Dr Ahmad Hardan, who served as a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, says that there is scientific evidence linking depleted uranium to cancer and birth defects." http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/09-6

-- >The NY Times doesn't do American war crimes. Our newspaper of record spends its time covering up stories about the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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.

-------------------

Daily Record UK:
"I've never, however, been in a more dangerous situation than last week in the tiny Sinai port of Al Arish to which the Egyptian dictatorship had insisted we bring our convoy.

Five hundred foreigners from 17 different nationalities with 200 vehicles were crammed into a compound without water, food or toilet facilities. They included 10 Turkish MPs one of whom was the chairman of Turkey's foreign relations committee.

We captured on film from a third floor office the thugs of the Mukhabarat (Intelligence) piling stones and sharpening their sticks behind the backs of several ranks of riot police with helmets, batons and shields. Then mayhem.

We may have complaints about our police, but I tell you, when you see policemen hurling half-bricks into a crowd of women and men who'd come to deliver medicine to desperate people under siege, you thank your lucky stars we don't live in such a state. Fifty five of our 500 were wounded and, but for the shocking effect on Arab public opinion (our own media didn't give a damn) of the live footage (all on Youtube now), we might still be there yet."
http://blogs.dailyrecord.co.uk/georgegalloway/george_galloway/

-->The NY Times reports things a little differently: "Overnight, Egyptian security forces and members of the convoy, which is led by left-wing British politician George Galloway, threw stones at each other when tempers frayed over the route the trucks were to take." But even this Reuters story is only on the NY Times website and never made it into print.

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National Priorities Project:
"NORTHHAMPTON, Mass - January 11 - Congress has appropriated an additional $136.8 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the 2010 fiscal year.  National Priorities Project estimates that for this fiscal year, $64.5 billion is directed to Iraq and $72.3 billion to Afghanistan.  Bills that included war-related funding were the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act (H.R. 2892) passed on October 28, 2009; the Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288) passed on December 16, 2009; and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act (H.R. 3326) passed on December 19, 2009.

These new appropriations bring total war-related spending for Iraq to $747.3 billion and for Afghanistan to $299 billion, with total war costs of $1.05 trillion.  National Priorities Project (NPP) updated its Cost of War counters to reflect the new totals and to show the local costs of these wars to states and many cities (http://costofwar.com/)."
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/01/11-12

-->The NY Times gives this information one line in a story published on the web. The story was never printed. In effect, the biggest news of the last decade was ignored: how US wars in the Middle East have bankrupted America.

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The Nation:
"German prosecutors have launched a preliminary investigation into allegations that the CIA deployed a team of Blackwater operatives on a clandestine operation in Hamburg, Germany, after 9/11 ultimately aimed at assassinating a German citizen with suspected ties to Al Qaeda. The alleged assassination operation was revealed last month in a Vanity Fair profile of Blackwater's owner Erik Prince.

According to Vanity Fair, one of the team's targets was Mamoun Darkazanli, a naturalized German citizen originally from Syria. Darkazanli has been accused by Spain of being an Al Qaeda supporter with close ties to the alleged 9/11 plotters who lived in Hamburg. The Blackwater/CIA team 'supposedly went in dark, meaning they did not notify their own station--much less the German government--of their presence,' according to Vanity Fair.

This week, a senior lawmaker in Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union called on Washington to provide an explanation. 'If this commando really existed and the U.S. government knew about it but didn't notify our government then this would be a very grave incident,' said the lawmaker, Wolfgang Bosbach."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/09-6

-->The NY Times has this story on its webpage, but did not see fit to print the possibility of US assassination teams working in Western European countries.