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.
---------
The New York Times:
"Public Unions Take On Boss to Win Big Pensions: Government unions are using their influence and campaign contributions to stave off cutbacks."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/business/22union.html?_r=1&hp
-->NY Times exposés about big salaries and pensions usually involve supposed union abuses. What if The NY Times had front page pictures of our nation's CEOs who make an average of $11,000,000 per year, a 23% increase since 2010 (S&P 500 Companies). How about Viacom's Philippe Dauman who made $84,500,000, Oracles's Lawrence Ellison who made $70,000,000, or IBM's S.J. Palmisano who made $31,700,000? Our newspaper of record would prefer its readers concentrate on the union lifeguard in Laguna Beach, CA who earns $84,000 per year. For those interested in doing the math, the lifeguard gets .0009% of what Viacom's CEO brings home each year.
"According to the Federal Reserve, U.S. corporations held a record $1.93 trillion in cash on their balance sheets in 2010. But they are not investing to expand their companies, grow the real economy or create good middle-class jobs. Corporate CEOs are literally hoarding their company’s cash—except when it comes to their own paychecks." -from Executive Paywatch
The trouble is that many Board of Directors of The New York Times are themselves high paid executives of venture capital, investment, pharmaceutical, and other large corporate enterprises. When is the last time The NY Times ran a story supporting unions, or explaining their importance in winning higher wages for all working people?
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Common Dreams:
"Osama al-Nujaifi, the Iraqi parliament speaker, has told Al Jazeera that the amount of Iraqi money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn.
Just before departing for a visit to the US, al-Nujaifi said that he has received a report this week based on information from US and Iraqi auditors that the amount of money withdrawn from a fund from Iraqi oil proceeds, but unaccounted for, is much more than the $6.6bn reported missing last week.
"There is a lot of money missing during the first American administration of Iraqi money in the first year of occupation. 'Iraq's development fund has lost around $18bn of Iraqi money in these operations - their location is unknown. Also missing are the documents of expenditure.'
The Bush administration flew in a total of $20bn in cash into the country in 2004. This was money that had come from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161962910765678.html
-->$18bn stolen from Iraqi oil sales, UN oil for food programs, and seized Iraqi assets didn't bother The NY Times enough to print this story. It had spent the early part of the last decade selling this war to the Americans as a way to improve the lives of the Iraqi people.
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The Guardian UK:
"Tim DeChristopher is scheduled to be sentenced in a Salt Lake City courtroom by U.S. District Judge Dee Benson on July 26. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $750,000 fine for fraudulently bidding in December 2008 on parcels of land, including areas around eastern Utah’s national parks, which were being sold off by the Bush administration to the oil and natural gas industry. As Bidder No. 70, he drove up the prices of some of the bids and won more than a dozen other parcels for $1.8 million. The government is asking Judge Benson to send DeChristopher to prison for four and a half years.
His prosecution is evidence that our moral order has been turned upside down. The bankers and swindlers who trashed the global economy and wiped out some $40 trillion in wealth amass obscene amounts of money, much of it provided by taxpayers. They do not go to jail. Regulatory agencies, compliant to the demands of corporations, refuse to impede the destruction unleashed by the coal, oil and natural gas companies as they turn the planet into a hothouse of pollutants, poisoned water, fouled air and contaminated soil in the frenzied quest for greater and greater profits. Those who manage and make fortunes from pre-emptive wars, embrace torture, carry out extrajudicial assassinations, deny habeas corpus and run up the largest deficits in human history are feted as patriots. But when a courageous citizen such as DeChristopher peacefully derails the corporate and governmental destruction of the ecosystem, he is sent to jail."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/20-11
-->The NY Times doesn't care about moral orders turned upside down, as long as corporations continue to profit. It didn't cover this story.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 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.
---------
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia):
"This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled funding for reconstruction in postwar Iraq.
But despite years of investigations, US defense officials still cannot say what happened to $US6.6 billion ($6.3 billion/Australian) of the cash. Federal auditors are now suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error.
After the US-led invasion in March 2003, the Bush administration flooded Iraq with so much cash that a new unit of measurement was born.
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $US2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $US100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash followed by 20 other flights by May 2004 in a $US12 billion haul that US officials believe to be the biggest ever international cash airlift.
Stuart Bowen, special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, said the missing $US6.6 billion might be 'the largest theft of funds in national history.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/13-3
-->Stories about the extreme corruption of the US empire never make much of an appearance in the US media. The Sydney Morning Herald thought this story was fit to print, but not The NY Times.
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The Guardian UK:
"The Gaza Strip enters its fifth year of a full Israeli blockade by land, air and sea on Tuesday with unemployment at 45.2%, one of the highest rates in the world, according to a UN aid agency report.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) found that by the second half of 2010, real wages had fallen 34.5% since the first half of 2006, when sanctions were imposed by Israel after Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, won a Palestinian legislative election. The UN says the strict blockade began a year later.
'These are disturbing trends,' said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, 'and the refugees, who make up two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population, were the worst hit.'
He said: 'It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution.' "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/14/un-unrwa-report-blockade-gaza-unemployment
-->In the heart of the empire, few stories about apartheid Israel see the light of day. The NY Times, in particular, censors out information critical of Israel's blockade of Gaza. It didn't print this story. UPDATE: The NY Times printed this story several days later, under the heading of "U.N. Charts High Jobless Rate in Gaza, Despite Israel’s Easing of Blockade." The story by Ethan Bronner, whose son served in the Israeli Defense Force, does its best to obscure the reason behind the unemployment figures. Most of The NY Times story talks about Hamas. Of course, the UN spokesman's quote about Israel "deliberately" impoverishing so many people was deemed unfit to print.
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Common Dreams:
"On May 17, 2011 at 5:00 AM the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided the home of Carlos Montes, a long time Chicano activist and active member of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. The SWAT Team smashed the front door and rushed in with automatic weapons as Carlos slept. The team of Sheriffs and FBI proceeded to ransack his house, taking his computer, cell phones and hundreds of documents, photos, diskettes and mementos of his current political activities in the pro-immigrant rights and Chicano civil rights movement. Also taken were hundreds of historical documents related to Carlos Montes’ involvement in the Chicano movement for the past 44 years.
Carlos was arrested on one charge dealing with a firearm code and released on bail the following morning. His first court appearance is set for June 16, 2011.
This attack on Carlos Montes is part of the campaign of FBI harassment taking place against the 23 peace and justice activists which has until now been centered in the Midwest. Carlos Montes’ name was listed on the subpoena left in the office of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee last September 24. When Carlos Montes was placed in the LA County Sheriff's car, an FBI agent approached and asked him questions about the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
http://stopfbi.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=8b7315d854bc40ca9fa6dd227&id=74805d70be&e=5c238101f1
-->FBI crackdown on dissent? Peace and social justice activists harassed and arrested? Our newspaper of record, The NY Times, would never sully itself by printing stories about our emerging police state.
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.
---------
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia):
"This month, the Pentagon and the Iraqi government are finally closing the books on the program that handled funding for reconstruction in postwar Iraq.
But despite years of investigations, US defense officials still cannot say what happened to $US6.6 billion ($6.3 billion/Australian) of the cash. Federal auditors are now suggesting that some or all of the cash may have been stolen, not just mislaid in an accounting error.
After the US-led invasion in March 2003, the Bush administration flooded Iraq with so much cash that a new unit of measurement was born.
Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $US2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $US100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash followed by 20 other flights by May 2004 in a $US12 billion haul that US officials believe to be the biggest ever international cash airlift.
Stuart Bowen, special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction, said the missing $US6.6 billion might be 'the largest theft of funds in national history.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/13-3
-->Stories about the extreme corruption of the US empire never make much of an appearance in the US media. The Sydney Morning Herald thought this story was fit to print, but not The NY Times.
---------
The Guardian UK:
"The Gaza Strip enters its fifth year of a full Israeli blockade by land, air and sea on Tuesday with unemployment at 45.2%, one of the highest rates in the world, according to a UN aid agency report.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) found that by the second half of 2010, real wages had fallen 34.5% since the first half of 2006, when sanctions were imposed by Israel after Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, won a Palestinian legislative election. The UN says the strict blockade began a year later.
'These are disturbing trends,' said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, 'and the refugees, who make up two-thirds of Gaza's 1.5 million population, were the worst hit.'
He said: 'It is hard to understand the logic of a man-made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution.' "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/14/un-unrwa-report-blockade-gaza-unemployment
-->In the heart of the empire, few stories about apartheid Israel see the light of day. The NY Times, in particular, censors out information critical of Israel's blockade of Gaza. It didn't print this story. UPDATE: The NY Times printed this story several days later, under the heading of "U.N. Charts High Jobless Rate in Gaza, Despite Israel’s Easing of Blockade." The story by Ethan Bronner, whose son served in the Israeli Defense Force, does its best to obscure the reason behind the unemployment figures. Most of The NY Times story talks about Hamas. Of course, the UN spokesman's quote about Israel "deliberately" impoverishing so many people was deemed unfit to print.
---------
Common Dreams:
"On May 17, 2011 at 5:00 AM the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided the home of Carlos Montes, a long time Chicano activist and active member of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. The SWAT Team smashed the front door and rushed in with automatic weapons as Carlos slept. The team of Sheriffs and FBI proceeded to ransack his house, taking his computer, cell phones and hundreds of documents, photos, diskettes and mementos of his current political activities in the pro-immigrant rights and Chicano civil rights movement. Also taken were hundreds of historical documents related to Carlos Montes’ involvement in the Chicano movement for the past 44 years.
Carlos was arrested on one charge dealing with a firearm code and released on bail the following morning. His first court appearance is set for June 16, 2011.
This attack on Carlos Montes is part of the campaign of FBI harassment taking place against the 23 peace and justice activists which has until now been centered in the Midwest. Carlos Montes’ name was listed on the subpoena left in the office of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee last September 24. When Carlos Montes was placed in the LA County Sheriff's car, an FBI agent approached and asked him questions about the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
http://stopfbi.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=8b7315d854bc40ca9fa6dd227&id=74805d70be&e=5c238101f1
-->FBI crackdown on dissent? Peace and social justice activists harassed and arrested? Our newspaper of record, The NY Times, would never sully itself by printing stories about our emerging police state.
Thursday, June 09, 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.
---------
Business Insider:
"A Wikileaks post published on The Nation shows that the Obama Administration fought to keep Haitian wages at 31 cents an hour.
It started when Haiti passed a law two years ago raising its minimum wage to 61 cents an hour. According to an embassy cable:
This infuriated American corporations like Hanes and Levi Strauss that pay Haitians slave wages to sew their clothes. They said they would only fork over a seven-cent-an-hour increase, and they got the State Department involved. The U.S. ambassador put pressure on Haiti’s president, who duly carved out a $3 a day minimum wage for textile companies (the U.S. minimum wage, which itself is very low, works out to $58 a day)."
http://www.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-haiti-minimum-wage-the-nation-2011-6
-->All those Americans who gave disaster relief to the poor in Haiti were just throwing their money away because the state department, pressured by US corporations, cut the minimum wage in half. Good thing The NY Times didn't publish this story, the ugly face of the US occupation.
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Democracy Now:
"The Nation magazine, in partnership with the Haitian weekly newspaper, Haïti Liberté, has launched a series of reports based on more than 19,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. Called 'The PetroCaribe Files,' the series begins with an exposé of how the United States—with pressure from Exxon and Chevron—tried to interfere with an oil agreement between Haiti and Venezuela that would save Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, $100 million per year.
'It’s really amazing to see an ambassador pushing around a president, and all his officials telling them what to do, that they don’t understand this, they don’t understand that, trying to tell them what Haiti’s interests are. It’s the epitome of arrogance,' says the report’s co-author, Kim Ives."
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/3/wikileaks_cables_reveal_secret_history_of
-->Again, US corporations cheating the impoverished Haitian people. This is what US imperialism in Haiti looks like. Is it any wonder that Latin America sees the US as its greatest threat to peace and prosperity? Thankfully, readers of The NY Times are spared any knowledge of how their brutal empire works.
---------
Common Dreams:
"In January, the government of the United States of America saw fit to seize $4.207 million in funds allocated to Cuba by the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the first quarter of 2011, Cuba has charged.
The UN Fund is a $22 billion a year program that works to combat the three deadly pandemics in 150 countries. 'This mean-spirited policy,' the Cuban government said, 'aims to undermine the quality of service provided to the Cuban population and to obstruct the provision of medical assistance in over 100 countries by 40,000 Cuban health workers.'
Most of the funds are used to import expensive AIDS medication to Cuba, where antiretroviral treatment is provided free of charge to some 5,000 HIV patients."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/30-1
-->Has Obama changed the cruelty and arrogance of US policy in Latin America? Readers of The NY Times may think so, but that is because our newspaper of record just doesn't run stories critical of the empire. This story never made it to print.
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.
---------
Business Insider:
"A Wikileaks post published on The Nation shows that the Obama Administration fought to keep Haitian wages at 31 cents an hour.
It started when Haiti passed a law two years ago raising its minimum wage to 61 cents an hour. According to an embassy cable:
This infuriated American corporations like Hanes and Levi Strauss that pay Haitians slave wages to sew their clothes. They said they would only fork over a seven-cent-an-hour increase, and they got the State Department involved. The U.S. ambassador put pressure on Haiti’s president, who duly carved out a $3 a day minimum wage for textile companies (the U.S. minimum wage, which itself is very low, works out to $58 a day)."
http://www.businessinsider.com/wikileaks-haiti-minimum-wage-the-nation-2011-6
-->All those Americans who gave disaster relief to the poor in Haiti were just throwing their money away because the state department, pressured by US corporations, cut the minimum wage in half. Good thing The NY Times didn't publish this story, the ugly face of the US occupation.
---------
Democracy Now:
"The Nation magazine, in partnership with the Haitian weekly newspaper, Haïti Liberté, has launched a series of reports based on more than 19,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. Called 'The PetroCaribe Files,' the series begins with an exposé of how the United States—with pressure from Exxon and Chevron—tried to interfere with an oil agreement between Haiti and Venezuela that would save Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, $100 million per year.
'It’s really amazing to see an ambassador pushing around a president, and all his officials telling them what to do, that they don’t understand this, they don’t understand that, trying to tell them what Haiti’s interests are. It’s the epitome of arrogance,' says the report’s co-author, Kim Ives."
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/6/3/wikileaks_cables_reveal_secret_history_of
-->Again, US corporations cheating the impoverished Haitian people. This is what US imperialism in Haiti looks like. Is it any wonder that Latin America sees the US as its greatest threat to peace and prosperity? Thankfully, readers of The NY Times are spared any knowledge of how their brutal empire works.
---------
Common Dreams:
"In January, the government of the United States of America saw fit to seize $4.207 million in funds allocated to Cuba by the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the first quarter of 2011, Cuba has charged.
The UN Fund is a $22 billion a year program that works to combat the three deadly pandemics in 150 countries. 'This mean-spirited policy,' the Cuban government said, 'aims to undermine the quality of service provided to the Cuban population and to obstruct the provision of medical assistance in over 100 countries by 40,000 Cuban health workers.'
Most of the funds are used to import expensive AIDS medication to Cuba, where antiretroviral treatment is provided free of charge to some 5,000 HIV patients."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/30-1
-->Has Obama changed the cruelty and arrogance of US policy in Latin America? Readers of The NY Times may think so, but that is because our newspaper of record just doesn't run stories critical of the empire. This story never made it to print.
Thursday, June 02, 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.
---------
Guardian:
"David Cameron (British Prime Minister) has stepped down as a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in a move pro-Palestinian campaigners claim is a result of pressure but which Downing Street insists is part of a general review of the prime minister's charity connections...
The JNF was originally set up to buy land in Palestine to establish Jewish settlements before the creation of the state of Israel. Now it is a global charity which describes itself as the 'caretakers of the land and people of Israel,' specialising in planting forests. Critics say it expropriated land belonging to Palestinians and has obliterated pre-1948 Arab villages by planting forests and parks. The JNF is involved in the demolition of Bedouin villages in the Negev desert as part of an afforestation plan.
Sofiah Macleod of the UK-based Stop the JNF Campaign said the organisation's lobbying had led Cameron to withdraw. 'There has been a change in public opinion and awareness about Israel's behaviour and there was specific pressure on [Cameron] to step down from the JNF,' she said. 'We believe he has stepped down as a result of this political pressure. Given the establishment support that the JNF has received, it's not a decision he will have taken lightly.' "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/may/29/david-cameron-resigns-patron-jnf
-->Somehow, English politicians can move away from supporting apartheid Israel and its stranglehold on millions of Palestinians. US politicians from Obama on down simply can't, and an active media in this country would have explored this issue long ago. Of course, The NY Times never covered this story.
---------
Common Dreams:
"US State Department Warns US Boat to Gaza and new U.S. Coast Guard Special Notice on the Gaza Maritime Area
On May 23, 2011, a delegation from the U.S. Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope, advised State Department officials that a U.S. flagged ship would be in the June, 2011 Gaza flotilla.
State Department officials responded with the Travel Warning from the Bureau of Consular Affairs. The travel warning states 'U.S. citizens are advised against traveling to Gaza by any means, including via sea. Previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea have been stopped by Israeli naval vessels and resulted in the injury, death, arrest and deportation of U.S. citizens…The Israeli defense Forces (IDF) strictly controls the crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and has essentially sealed the border. The security environment within Gaza and along its borders, including its border with Egypt and tis seacoast, is dangerous and volatile.'
The U.S. government offensive against the flotilla sailing continued with the comment that the U.S. Coast Guard was publishing a new notice about Gaza waters, but they did not yet have a copy."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/30-0
-->The NY Times, along with much of the US media, has created a wall of silence around the Audacity of Hope. 50 Americans are going to break the sea blockade of Gaza this June, and our newspaper of record can't bring itself to print one word about it. Zionist sympathies have always trumped the American people's right to know.
---------
The Hill:
"An increasingly war-weary House will vote this week on legislation that would halt the U.S. military intervention in Libya. The vote comes just days after lawmakers nearly approved a measure to expedite the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday the House would take up a resolution introduced by anti-war Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) that directs the president to remove U.S. armed forces from Libya. The liberal Democrat is acting under authority of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which enables legislators to force a vote on troop withdrawal measures under certain conditions.
Kucinich has used the mechanism to force votes on withdrawing forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, most recently in March, but this will be the first such vote on the two-month-old Libya mission."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/30-1
-->Congress weary of the continuing Obama wars? Never happened for readers of The NY Times. All the news that's fit to print, as long as it supports US aggression abroad.
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:
"David Cameron (British Prime Minister) has stepped down as a patron of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in a move pro-Palestinian campaigners claim is a result of pressure but which Downing Street insists is part of a general review of the prime minister's charity connections...
The JNF was originally set up to buy land in Palestine to establish Jewish settlements before the creation of the state of Israel. Now it is a global charity which describes itself as the 'caretakers of the land and people of Israel,' specialising in planting forests. Critics say it expropriated land belonging to Palestinians and has obliterated pre-1948 Arab villages by planting forests and parks. The JNF is involved in the demolition of Bedouin villages in the Negev desert as part of an afforestation plan.
Sofiah Macleod of the UK-based Stop the JNF Campaign said the organisation's lobbying had led Cameron to withdraw. 'There has been a change in public opinion and awareness about Israel's behaviour and there was specific pressure on [Cameron] to step down from the JNF,' she said. 'We believe he has stepped down as a result of this political pressure. Given the establishment support that the JNF has received, it's not a decision he will have taken lightly.' "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/may/29/david-cameron-resigns-patron-jnf
-->Somehow, English politicians can move away from supporting apartheid Israel and its stranglehold on millions of Palestinians. US politicians from Obama on down simply can't, and an active media in this country would have explored this issue long ago. Of course, The NY Times never covered this story.
---------
Common Dreams:
"US State Department Warns US Boat to Gaza and new U.S. Coast Guard Special Notice on the Gaza Maritime Area
On May 23, 2011, a delegation from the U.S. Boat to Gaza, the Audacity of Hope, advised State Department officials that a U.S. flagged ship would be in the June, 2011 Gaza flotilla.
State Department officials responded with the Travel Warning from the Bureau of Consular Affairs. The travel warning states 'U.S. citizens are advised against traveling to Gaza by any means, including via sea. Previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea have been stopped by Israeli naval vessels and resulted in the injury, death, arrest and deportation of U.S. citizens…The Israeli defense Forces (IDF) strictly controls the crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and has essentially sealed the border. The security environment within Gaza and along its borders, including its border with Egypt and tis seacoast, is dangerous and volatile.'
The U.S. government offensive against the flotilla sailing continued with the comment that the U.S. Coast Guard was publishing a new notice about Gaza waters, but they did not yet have a copy."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/30-0
-->The NY Times, along with much of the US media, has created a wall of silence around the Audacity of Hope. 50 Americans are going to break the sea blockade of Gaza this June, and our newspaper of record can't bring itself to print one word about it. Zionist sympathies have always trumped the American people's right to know.
---------
The Hill:
"An increasingly war-weary House will vote this week on legislation that would halt the U.S. military intervention in Libya. The vote comes just days after lawmakers nearly approved a measure to expedite the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The office of Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday the House would take up a resolution introduced by anti-war Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) that directs the president to remove U.S. armed forces from Libya. The liberal Democrat is acting under authority of the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which enables legislators to force a vote on troop withdrawal measures under certain conditions.
Kucinich has used the mechanism to force votes on withdrawing forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, most recently in March, but this will be the first such vote on the two-month-old Libya mission."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/30-1
-->Congress weary of the continuing Obama wars? Never happened for readers of The NY Times. All the news that's fit to print, as long as it supports US aggression abroad.
Thursday, May 26, 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.
---------
Alternet:
"The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests.
In fact, opposition to U.S. policy is so high that a considerable majority think the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. In Egypt, the most important country, that’s 80 percent. Similar figures elsewhere. There are some in the region who regard Iran as a threat—about 10 percent.
Well, plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out. So that’s obviously an intolerable result."
-Noam Chomsky
http://www.alternet.org/story/150907/noam_chomsky%3A_'the_u.s._and_its_allies_will_do_anything_to_prevent_democracy_in_the_arab_world'/
-->These words, spoken at the 25th anniversary of FAIR, will never be printed in The NY Times. The analysis is just too close to the truth for a publication that spends most of its efforts justifying US occupations abroad. Of course, The NY Times didn't report the poll of Middle Eastern citizens either.
---------
McClatchy Newspapers:
"Buried in FBI laboratory reports about the anthrax mail attacks that killed five people in 2001 is data suggesting that a chemical may have been added to try to heighten the powder's potency, a move that some experts say exceeded the expertise of the presumed killer.
The lab data, contained in more than 9,000 pages of files that emerged a year after the Justice Department closed its inquiry and condemned the late Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator, shows unusual levels of silicon and tin in anthrax powder from two of the five letters...
The existence of the silicon-tin chemical signature offered investigators the possibility of tracing purchases of the more than 100 such chemical products available before the attacks, which might have produced hard evidence against Ivins or led the agency to the real culprit.
But the FBI lab reports released in late February give no hint that bureau agents tried to find the buyers of additives such as tin-catalyzed silicone polymers."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/19/114467/fbi-lab-reports-on-anthrax-attacks.html
-->The NY Times recently ran a story on its Times Topics blog about Bruce Ivins. No mention of the evidence overlooked by the FBI. Nothing about Ivins made it into the print addition.
---------
Common Dreams:
"Justice Department Withholding Information on Controversial Legal Theory.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ), demanding the release of a secret legal memo used to justify FBI access to Americans' telephone records without any legal process or oversight.
A report released last year by the DOJ's own Inspector General revealed how the FBI, in defending its past violations of the Electronic Privacy Communications Act (ECPA), had come up with a new legal argument to justify secret, unchecked access to private telephone records. According to the report, the DOJ's Office of the Legal Counsel (OLC) had issued a legal opinion agreeing with the FBI's theory. That legal opinion is the target of the FOIA lawsuit filed Thursday...
'Congress is currently debating how to reform surveillance statutes like the PATRIOT Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act,' said EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel. 'If the FBI is claiming that it has the right to secret, unchecked access to Americans' communications records, Congress and the American public need to know that now.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/05/20-0
-->The NY Times obviously doesn't believe that Congress and the American public need to know about increased FBI surveillance of telephone records without legal process or oversight. Our newspaper of record didn't cover this story.
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.
---------
Alternet:
"The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests.
In fact, opposition to U.S. policy is so high that a considerable majority think the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. In Egypt, the most important country, that’s 80 percent. Similar figures elsewhere. There are some in the region who regard Iran as a threat—about 10 percent.
Well, plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out. So that’s obviously an intolerable result."
-Noam Chomsky
http://www.alternet.org/story/150907/noam_chomsky%3A_'the_u.s._and_its_allies_will_do_anything_to_prevent_democracy_in_the_arab_world'/
-->These words, spoken at the 25th anniversary of FAIR, will never be printed in The NY Times. The analysis is just too close to the truth for a publication that spends most of its efforts justifying US occupations abroad. Of course, The NY Times didn't report the poll of Middle Eastern citizens either.
---------
McClatchy Newspapers:
"Buried in FBI laboratory reports about the anthrax mail attacks that killed five people in 2001 is data suggesting that a chemical may have been added to try to heighten the powder's potency, a move that some experts say exceeded the expertise of the presumed killer.
The lab data, contained in more than 9,000 pages of files that emerged a year after the Justice Department closed its inquiry and condemned the late Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator, shows unusual levels of silicon and tin in anthrax powder from two of the five letters...
The existence of the silicon-tin chemical signature offered investigators the possibility of tracing purchases of the more than 100 such chemical products available before the attacks, which might have produced hard evidence against Ivins or led the agency to the real culprit.
But the FBI lab reports released in late February give no hint that bureau agents tried to find the buyers of additives such as tin-catalyzed silicone polymers."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/19/114467/fbi-lab-reports-on-anthrax-attacks.html
-->The NY Times recently ran a story on its Times Topics blog about Bruce Ivins. No mention of the evidence overlooked by the FBI. Nothing about Ivins made it into the print addition.
---------
Common Dreams:
"Justice Department Withholding Information on Controversial Legal Theory.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the Department of Justice (DOJ), demanding the release of a secret legal memo used to justify FBI access to Americans' telephone records without any legal process or oversight.
A report released last year by the DOJ's own Inspector General revealed how the FBI, in defending its past violations of the Electronic Privacy Communications Act (ECPA), had come up with a new legal argument to justify secret, unchecked access to private telephone records. According to the report, the DOJ's Office of the Legal Counsel (OLC) had issued a legal opinion agreeing with the FBI's theory. That legal opinion is the target of the FOIA lawsuit filed Thursday...
'Congress is currently debating how to reform surveillance statutes like the PATRIOT Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act,' said EFF Senior Counsel David Sobel. 'If the FBI is claiming that it has the right to secret, unchecked access to Americans' communications records, Congress and the American public need to know that now.' "
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/05/20-0
-->The NY Times obviously doesn't believe that Congress and the American public need to know about increased FBI surveillance of telephone records without legal process or oversight. Our newspaper of record didn't cover this story.
Sunday, May 22, 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.
---------
Press TV:
"A review of the Afghan military documents revealed more than 1,100 instances of US-led forces -- including Danish troops -- having used white phosphorus (WP) grenades, rockets and bombs, the Danish daily Information reported.
According to one document, US-led forces fired 20 to 50 WP rockets at a single target. Many of the WP munitions have often been used in residential areas.
White phosphorus is a substance that burns upon coming into contact with human flesh; it sticks to the skin and continues to burn as long as there is oxygen. The result is severe and possibly lethal chemical burns.
According to international conventions the use of white phosphorus is to be restricted exclusively to areas that are not densely populated.
However, the leaked documents from Afghanistan indicate that the WP has been used as an attack weapon in populated areas, including zones where the Danish troops are deployed."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179875.html
-->The NY Times avoids stories about American war crimes like the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. All the news that the Pentagon thinks is fit to print.
---------
Guardian UK:
"Transgressions by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories will be disclosed by a group of former soldiers in an internet campaign aimed at raising public awareness of military violations.
Video testimonies by around two dozen ex-soldiers - some of whom are identifying themselves for the first time - will be posted on YouTube. The campaign by Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former soldiers committed to speaking out on military practices, launches with English subtitles on Monday.
Some of the former soldiers describe the "neighbour procedure", a term for the use of Palestinian civilians, often children, as human shields to protect soldiers from suspected booby traps or attacks by militants. The procedure was ruled illegal by Israel's high court in 2005. Others speak of routine harassment of civilians at checkpoints, arbitrary intimidation and collective punishment."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/former-israeli-soldiers-break-silence
-->The NY Times, like most mainstream media, likes to avoid any mention of the IDF abusing Palestinians. It's just the wrong narrative. But then again, our newspaper of record didn't even cover the Winter Soldier Testimony, a three day event in Washington DC that involved hundreds of Irag War vets.
---------
ACLU:
"A few top congressional insiders are aiming to sneak new worldwide war authority in to a 'must pass' piece of legislation: the Defense Authorization bill.
This new war authority would give the president — any president — the power to unilaterally take our country to war wherever, whenever and however he or she sees fit. It would essentially declare a worldwide war without end.
It is shocking that Congress is entertaining such legislation at a time when many are looking to see an end to escalating conflict and abuses of power in the name of fighting terrorism."
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3195&s_subsrc=110511_AUMF&JServSessionIdr004=44caaegcy1.app220a
-->Although The NY Times did run and editorial critical of the National Defense Authorization Act, this story should have been front page news. The law's enactment would destroy another Constitutional limit on the Executive Branch, putting us ever closer to an imperial presidency.
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.
---------
Press TV:
"A review of the Afghan military documents revealed more than 1,100 instances of US-led forces -- including Danish troops -- having used white phosphorus (WP) grenades, rockets and bombs, the Danish daily Information reported.
According to one document, US-led forces fired 20 to 50 WP rockets at a single target. Many of the WP munitions have often been used in residential areas.
White phosphorus is a substance that burns upon coming into contact with human flesh; it sticks to the skin and continues to burn as long as there is oxygen. The result is severe and possibly lethal chemical burns.
According to international conventions the use of white phosphorus is to be restricted exclusively to areas that are not densely populated.
However, the leaked documents from Afghanistan indicate that the WP has been used as an attack weapon in populated areas, including zones where the Danish troops are deployed."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179875.html
-->The NY Times avoids stories about American war crimes like the use of white phosphorus in civilian areas. All the news that the Pentagon thinks is fit to print.
---------
Guardian UK:
"Transgressions by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories will be disclosed by a group of former soldiers in an internet campaign aimed at raising public awareness of military violations.
Video testimonies by around two dozen ex-soldiers - some of whom are identifying themselves for the first time - will be posted on YouTube. The campaign by Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former soldiers committed to speaking out on military practices, launches with English subtitles on Monday.
Some of the former soldiers describe the "neighbour procedure", a term for the use of Palestinian civilians, often children, as human shields to protect soldiers from suspected booby traps or attacks by militants. The procedure was ruled illegal by Israel's high court in 2005. Others speak of routine harassment of civilians at checkpoints, arbitrary intimidation and collective punishment."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/former-israeli-soldiers-break-silence
-->The NY Times, like most mainstream media, likes to avoid any mention of the IDF abusing Palestinians. It's just the wrong narrative. But then again, our newspaper of record didn't even cover the Winter Soldier Testimony, a three day event in Washington DC that involved hundreds of Irag War vets.
---------
ACLU:
"A few top congressional insiders are aiming to sneak new worldwide war authority in to a 'must pass' piece of legislation: the Defense Authorization bill.
This new war authority would give the president — any president — the power to unilaterally take our country to war wherever, whenever and however he or she sees fit. It would essentially declare a worldwide war without end.
It is shocking that Congress is entertaining such legislation at a time when many are looking to see an end to escalating conflict and abuses of power in the name of fighting terrorism."
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3195&s_subsrc=110511_AUMF&JServSessionIdr004=44caaegcy1.app220a
-->Although The NY Times did run and editorial critical of the National Defense Authorization Act, this story should have been front page news. The law's enactment would destroy another Constitutional limit on the Executive Branch, putting us ever closer to an imperial presidency.
Thursday, May 05, 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.
Press TV:
"The Egyptian foreign minister has called on the US to recognize Palestine as a state, as Palestinian factions are preparing to sign a unity deal.
Nabil al-Arabi urged the visiting US Congressman Steve Chabot on Sunday to 'press Washington to recognize Palestine as a state' in line with previous statements by the US administration about a two-state solution, Egypt's official news agency, MENA, quoted him as saying.
The issue came into view as Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshaal, will meet Fatah leader and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas at the Arab League headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on May 4 to sign the Egyptian-brokered deal."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177763.html
-->The NY Times avoids printing stories that have to do with the international movement to recognize Palestine as a state. It didn't cover this story.
---------
Common Dreams:
"Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has repeatedly challenged the Obama Administration’s policy on Libya, today made the following statement after a Libyan spokesman announced that a NATO missile attack on a residence in Tripoli killed Saif al-Arab, the youngest son of Colonel Gaddafi, and three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren. According to the spokesman, Gaddafi and his wife were in the home, but survived the attack. Saif al-Arab was reported to be a 29 year-old student and a civilian.
'NATO's leaders have blood on their hands. NATO's airstrike seems to have been intended to carry out an illegal policy of assassination. This is a deep stain which can never fully wash. This grave matter cannot be addressed with empty words. Words will not bring back dead children. Actions must be taken to stop more innocents from getting slaughtered.'
'Today’s attack underscores that the Obama Doctrine of so-called humanitarian intervention appears to be a cover for regime change through assassination and murder,' said Kucinich."
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/04/30
-->The NY Times did not cover Kucinich's remarks, nor even bother naming Saif al-Arab, the son killed in the assassination attempt.
---------
The New York Times Dec. 17, 1890:
"The Death of Sitting Bull - Story Of The Old Medicine Man's Last Fight. The Desperate Struggle to Resist Arrest That Ended In The Killing Of The Wily Old Plotter And His Son, With Other Indians.
Fort Yates, N.D., Is is evident that there was, cruel as it may seem, a complete understanding, from commanding officer to the Indian police, that the slightest attempt to rescue Sitting Bull should be a signal to send the old medicine man to the happy hunting grounds.
Major MLaughlin and Capt. Fechet had been informed by Gen. Miles on Saturday that the time to strike had come, and on Sunday Troops F and G Eighth Cavalry, and a company of infantry, proceeded by about twenty of the Indian police, started to the southwest to capture the chief of the recalcitrants...
The camp was already astir; at least 100 of the savages were stripped and in battle array and their ponies painted and bridled. The police were immediately surrounded by a jabbering, threatening band of reds, and the outlook for a massacre was excellent. The leader of the police, however, quieted the Sioux warriors to some extent by insisting that they had merely come down to camp to parley with Sitting Bull and fix up a general settlement of all difficulties. After talking with the old medicine man a few minutes, the police suddenly formed a cordon around Bull, gave a signal to the troops, leveled their Winchesters at the savages, and started on a run. They succeeded in getting him on a horse and moved off northward toward the cavalry.
The Indians were at first confused, and did not open fire on the police at the outset, else every one of the officers would have been killed. Very quickly, however, under the leadership of Blackbird, the son of Sitting Bull, the Sioux, with a hideous yell, charged on the police. Three of the police fell dead, and several others others were so badly wounded that they have since died.
About this time a detachment of cavalry rode up at a gallop and opened a furious fusillade upon the charging savages, who were quickly stampeded and run westward to the Grand River. Sitting Bull fell at the first volley, the shot having been fired by one of the police. As soon as he saw the Indians moving toward him Bull made a desperate attempt to join them, but the police, obeying their instructions to the letter, made a good indian of him without delay. The police then ran to cover, and the cavalry began firing at the reds with a Hotchkiss and a Gatling gun, the savages having retreated out of reach of the small arms. There were seven Sioux killed, among them Blackbird and Crowfoot, sons of Sitting Bull, the latter being a boy of but twelve years..."
-->Another time and another place in US history. But the assassination bears an eerie resemblance to our own troubled time. When will those savages ever learn?
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.
---------
"The Egyptian foreign minister has called on the US to recognize Palestine as a state, as Palestinian factions are preparing to sign a unity deal.
Nabil al-Arabi urged the visiting US Congressman Steve Chabot on Sunday to 'press Washington to recognize Palestine as a state' in line with previous statements by the US administration about a two-state solution, Egypt's official news agency, MENA, quoted him as saying.
The issue came into view as Hamas political leader, Khaled Meshaal, will meet Fatah leader and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas at the Arab League headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on May 4 to sign the Egyptian-brokered deal."
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/177763.html
-->The NY Times avoids printing stories that have to do with the international movement to recognize Palestine as a state. It didn't cover this story.
---------
Common Dreams:
"Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has repeatedly challenged the Obama Administration’s policy on Libya, today made the following statement after a Libyan spokesman announced that a NATO missile attack on a residence in Tripoli killed Saif al-Arab, the youngest son of Colonel Gaddafi, and three of Gaddafi’s grandchildren. According to the spokesman, Gaddafi and his wife were in the home, but survived the attack. Saif al-Arab was reported to be a 29 year-old student and a civilian.
'NATO's leaders have blood on their hands. NATO's airstrike seems to have been intended to carry out an illegal policy of assassination. This is a deep stain which can never fully wash. This grave matter cannot be addressed with empty words. Words will not bring back dead children. Actions must be taken to stop more innocents from getting slaughtered.'
'Today’s attack underscores that the Obama Doctrine of so-called humanitarian intervention appears to be a cover for regime change through assassination and murder,' said Kucinich."
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/04/30
-->The NY Times did not cover Kucinich's remarks, nor even bother naming Saif al-Arab, the son killed in the assassination attempt.
---------
The New York Times Dec. 17, 1890:
"The Death of Sitting Bull - Story Of The Old Medicine Man's Last Fight. The Desperate Struggle to Resist Arrest That Ended In The Killing Of The Wily Old Plotter And His Son, With Other Indians.
Fort Yates, N.D., Is is evident that there was, cruel as it may seem, a complete understanding, from commanding officer to the Indian police, that the slightest attempt to rescue Sitting Bull should be a signal to send the old medicine man to the happy hunting grounds.
Major MLaughlin and Capt. Fechet had been informed by Gen. Miles on Saturday that the time to strike had come, and on Sunday Troops F and G Eighth Cavalry, and a company of infantry, proceeded by about twenty of the Indian police, started to the southwest to capture the chief of the recalcitrants...
The camp was already astir; at least 100 of the savages were stripped and in battle array and their ponies painted and bridled. The police were immediately surrounded by a jabbering, threatening band of reds, and the outlook for a massacre was excellent. The leader of the police, however, quieted the Sioux warriors to some extent by insisting that they had merely come down to camp to parley with Sitting Bull and fix up a general settlement of all difficulties. After talking with the old medicine man a few minutes, the police suddenly formed a cordon around Bull, gave a signal to the troops, leveled their Winchesters at the savages, and started on a run. They succeeded in getting him on a horse and moved off northward toward the cavalry.
The Indians were at first confused, and did not open fire on the police at the outset, else every one of the officers would have been killed. Very quickly, however, under the leadership of Blackbird, the son of Sitting Bull, the Sioux, with a hideous yell, charged on the police. Three of the police fell dead, and several others others were so badly wounded that they have since died.
About this time a detachment of cavalry rode up at a gallop and opened a furious fusillade upon the charging savages, who were quickly stampeded and run westward to the Grand River. Sitting Bull fell at the first volley, the shot having been fired by one of the police. As soon as he saw the Indians moving toward him Bull made a desperate attempt to join them, but the police, obeying their instructions to the letter, made a good indian of him without delay. The police then ran to cover, and the cavalry began firing at the reds with a Hotchkiss and a Gatling gun, the savages having retreated out of reach of the small arms. There were seven Sioux killed, among them Blackbird and Crowfoot, sons of Sitting Bull, the latter being a boy of but twelve years..."
-->Another time and another place in US history. But the assassination bears an eerie resemblance to our own troubled time. When will those savages ever learn?
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