I was talking to a highly educated man the other day, an avid reader of The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Economist. The name Bradley Manning didn't ring a bell and he had a vague idea of Wikileaks. He considers himself a "liberal." In his day, he'd protested Viet Nam.

It made me feel rather sick.

5-6 years ago, an italian journalist wrote a book in which

he traces the WMD or yellow cake misinformation to an employee of a foreign embassy in Rome, who purchased this made-up product from someone well known for producing and sell fake intel products that he knew would be in demand at the moment and sell like hotcakes in the black market. he sold the same product to UK, France, Germany etc, as well as Italy, of course.

allegedly, each intel office contacted the other(s), compared their purchased notes, and concluded the intel was collaborated. well none of them had incentive to cast any doubt, even if prolly all the rest of the intel was against that conclusion.

so either they shared the intel with the US or the US already was one of them, or something like that.

i heard the story on WBUR. it was fascinating. i wish i remembered the name of the author. amazon used to carry the book.

Well documented WikiLeaks news timeline by that ultimately has the DoD coming out and essentially saying the documents weren't the threat to soldiers and Afghans that the Government, pundits, and media hyped it to be.

Nevertheless, since trolls get their news from M$M, Fox, and other propaganda sources, I expect them to keep yelling that WikiLeaks has blood on it's hands.

It is also another example of the propaganda process of getting misinformation out early while the subject is in the news. Other examples, Iraq War, Shirley Sherrod, still going on with Israel's propaganda and Iran...

And then weeks, months or years later the lies get exposed as utterly false, but it does not matter, because the goal is well-achieved: the falsehoods are ingrained as accepted truth. Yes Glenn,the Media has been guilty of propaganda for a long, long time and to cite an example: If you look at old maps of the U.S. you will notice that the vast amount of what is now the U.S. was listed as INDIAN TERRORITORY, I misspelled it on purpose because when our government decided to steal it from the indigenous peoples they were called savages which equates to the pejorative of terrorists. Which does not matter because the goals were achieved as we stole their country from them in what was euphemistically and falsely called Indian wars, when the indigenous peoples were just trying to protect their country from being occupied by a foreign power, no different than what is going on in foreign countries today where we are the invaders and occupiers. The fact that the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars were and are based on falsehoods does not matter because the war racketeers and profiteers made and are making billions of $. Which brings us to 911 which has been proven to be beyond a shadow of a doubt another falsehood and there is a plethora of information that corroborates the falsehood of 911, but it does not matter because the goals of a worldwide, endless, punic, canard of a war on terror has been achieved. Good and truthful article by Glenn Greenwald.

Our only hope for a change is that all this war mongering is no longer affordable. Pretty soon it will be obvious that when you even treat your own population with disdain, the end is near.

(From full article)

Liz Cheney sez: "(Assange) may very well be responsible for the deaths of American soldiers in Afghanistan."

***
Hey, Liz ... at your next big family gathering, I could introduce you to someone else who's responsible.

Julian Assanage should have won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, since he's actually trying to stop a war and bring about peace.

An example of pure propaganda from Saturday's New York Times' Ethan Bronner, its Israel correspondent,

"The United States and Japan take no stand on the settlements’ legality, according to spokesmen of their embassies in Israel, although they oppose them on policy grounds."

A child doing a school assignment using the Times as a source would safely conclude that the US does not consider the settlements, let alone occupation, to be illegal. I would only ask, "Since when has the US recognized anything about the occupation and ethnic cleansing to be legal?"

(Since Bronner's propaganda piece was published, Japanese officials have made it clear that the settlements are illegal.)

TY to Greenwald and all those who tell the truth and provide examples and sources.

I was momentarily shocked to see included in the full article, the quote by Paul Rieckhoff ("I think Julian Assange and WikiLeaks already probably have blood on their hands.") who also has said, "Bradley Manning should go to jail..."

For some reason, I had thought Rieckhoff was connected with IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War) or some similar anti-war organization. Actually, he's an advocate for vets with IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) and a frequent 'expert' in the media.

We certainly need strong vocal veteran advocates, but speaking and working against modern war is as least as important because less war makes fewer vets, duh.

I was developing a rule of thumb re tv 'experts', to wit, the more often I saw them, the less I would rely on their opinions, when I decided to forego catv altogether. There is more, and more accurate, news and commentary online - which brings us back to WikiLeaks and CD, not to mention secure search engines and Wikipedia.

All Americans must adopt the idea that anything the U.S. government says on any subject at all is a lie - including the words "a" "and" and "the" - until, somehow, the lie can be proved not to be a lie.

It is getting really hard to tell if anyone is telling the truth about anything.

It's easier if I can actually watch the person and look at the body language, but the news hardly does this at all any more.

I do kind of have a benchmark though, from reading about Joseph McCarthy:

WHO said it, WHERE they said it and was it answering a question or making an independent statement. Of course, a " high source" or "anonymous whatever "is a big red flag too.

"I have in my hand a list of known communists in the State Department."

O.k. Joe, why would you make this announcement at the Womens' Club in Wheeling W. Virginia? What did you expect them to do? Or, were you just practicing how to speak while pretending to be sober?

The body language thing though, watch Powell PHYSICALLY tell the U.N. that he's lying about the WMDs. One would hope that reporters had a bettter sense of human nature.
Where have all the reporters gone?

Personally, I avoid the US Media in ANY FORM, as I am convinced it causes mental retardation...and I can show you over 300,000,000 case studies to back up that claim.

Another excellent one by Glenn!

Orwell was so right.

Veterans for Peace is actively in support of Bradley Manning

Fusion

AP article today on WikiLeaks upcoming leaks doesn't focus as much on substance of the past or future leaks but the Pentagon's handling of it and quotes unnamed sources as questioning WikiLeaks anti-war agenda.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101018/india_nm/india522534

Elizabeth H,

You are right to feel a twinge of nausea when you confront the devolution of what once passed, in some circles, as 'serious' informative journalism and 'responsible' opinion in America. The uncritical consumption of the periodicals and newspapers that you cite is evidence of the unashamed degeneration of political consciousness into 'the fashion system,' as elite, sublimated propaganda.

As soon as someone reveals themselves as 'an avid reader' of such publications (except perhaps for The Guardian), as "The New Yorker," "The Economist," and that rebarbative beacon of criminality, "The New York Times," the term 'highly educated man,' turns into a self administered epithet–evidence of a moral smugness and scurrility– rather than a commendation; when one adds that one considers themselves 'a liberal,' one can safely assume that the term 'neo-fascist' would be more apropos, if not throughly interchangeable.

Any association whatsoever, or paeans to these scabrous institutions of the haute bourgeoisie is a dead give away about what lies tumescently below the surface of appearances. In that sense, it is similar to those who believe that 'voting Democratic' somehow confers a tincture of moral luster, to what is truthfully, a barbarism.

You are right to "feel sick." But be grateful that those who offer up these divulgences are seldom aware they are giving themselves away, and have unwittingly provided a convenient litmus test of the reactionary mindset and temperament. Worry about those who are not made sick, as their numbers are legion.

The new 'wrinkle' in this wretched phenomena, is that now, formerly 'progressive' beacons such as "The Nation," can now safely be included in this sordid pantheon of propaganda.

"Some explanations of a crime are not explanations: they're part of the crime."
–(Olavo de Carvalho)

"In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible. ... Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer, cloudy vagueness."
George Orwell (from his essay "Politics and the English Language")

This is how the U.S. government and American media have broken the trust of the American people.

So much intelligence gets spurted out here on a regular basis embracing and reinforcing the negative side of the issue (this is what's wrong, this is how it's wrong, wait--you're wrong in saying you believe this is wrong in a manner which avoids my rationale entirely, etc., etc.), but alas...in a perfect forum for at least trying to solve the issue at hand (focused, anonymous, no pressure), we do what we always do on the Internet and sound our polarized and obviously well-informed YAWPS across the rooftops...

Now I'm exercising the same sort of circular rhetoric by very generally and vaguely chastising you, and sure...there are moderators who screen content; there are remedies to this issue which are in place--to the extent that they can be in place. But at the end of the day, the "powers-that-be" who manipulate the media to further their command of American talking points do so knowing full-well that the educated dissenters will flay each other to death in braggadocious and intellectually violent exchanges. These exchanges do much to bolster the dissenters' individual self-images, but the subject of the debate, itself, is then left to curdle unabated while those who hold the capacity to buck the trends crumble beneath their inability to unite and utilize.

So what do we do? Focus on action steps. Listen and respectfully observe our fellow man, content enough in our own brilliance never to cry foul, but instead to further the discourse through a sort-of idea-mining procedure. Pride comes before the fall. To varying degrees, there is beauty to be found in every post. This is my first post here, but I've been a reader for quite some time (long-time listener...). Thanks in no small part to the ruthlessly effective smears highlighted in this article, the Internet is the last bastion for the honest and open sythesizing of thought. I am very warmed by the fact that I am not alone in my outrage. I hope that you all are, too!

But remember: nobody is ever without blame. Ever.

Television (most especially the "news") exists to keep us watching television ads promoting unbridled desire for the consumption of utter garbage: like deadbeat, free-lunch "wars" against impoverished countries that never attacked America, and so on. Or:

"Boobie Infotainment"
(from Fernando Po, U.S.A., a Chronicle of Post-linguistic America)

Some chose to place a saintly crown
Upon her dead blonde head,
While others felt relieved at last:
“She’s better off,” they said.
A woman born of other’s needs:
An unreal life she led.

The tabloids built an image up
To vend to those who dreamed
Of two deadbeat aristocrats
Unreasonably teamed:
A fable for frustrated lives
Vicariously beamed

Into those households where the proles
Preferred their rubbish crass
Along with propaganda "news,"
Leaked from and to an ass,
Delivered by celebrities
With tits or balls of brass.

Thus Marilyn, Diana, or
Maid Monica will do --
Along with Michael Jackson and
Dead Elvis Presley, too --
Distracting 'Murcans from the bad
And ugly larger view.

Just so did Bush and Blair concoct
Some “coalition” fun.
They’d have a go at poor Saddam
And set him on the run:
The mad dog and his Englishman
Out in the noonday sun.

This illustrates a lesson that
Some liars never learn:
Do not believe the lie yourself
Or else you’ll surely burn
And find your ashes dumped into
A small ceramic urn.

As Hayakawa wrote, we have
This thing, the Empty Eye:
A Technicolor campfire on
Which Boobies now rely
To dull the pain with images
That pass too swiftly by.

The Eye emitted “content” both
Innocuous and bland
And pushed it past the limits of
What Boobie brains could stand,
Inducing thought rejection all
Across the Boobies' land.

The pictures came and went too fast
To process on the fly,
So Boobies felt upset but they
Could find no reason why.
The only thing they knew is that
They felt compelled to buy.

With nervous systems stunned and jazzed
They couldn’t bring to mind
Some cartoons from the past that told
Of just this Boobie kind:
A salesman of the bait-and-switch
Who robbed a sailor blind.

He’d beg a meal from Popeye then
This Wimpy guy would say:
“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for
A hamburger today.”
Which meant, of course, that he had no
Intention to repay.

King George the bumbling Boobie, too,
Worked things the selfsame way.
He waged a war on nothing down
But promised that some day
Some other one would come along
And all the costs defray.

“When Tuesday comes, I won’t be here,”
He snickered as he spent.
I’ll eat my burger now and get
Those bankers to relent
Till I can high-tail out of town
And stiff them for the rent.”

The Infotainment tabloids, though,
Saw no need to retort.
They liked the dead-blonde pictures that
They showed around for sport.
Convinced that only “good news” lies
Deserved a full “report.”

Michael Murry, "The Misfortune Teller," Copyright 2006, 2009

The fabled city was built on a hill made of manure. It's no wonder the foundation is crumbling and the winds carry stench.

It's almost time to clear the air and start anew.
Start contemplating and working on new designs.

Crapaganda