Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
MSM
MSM Really is Dying
210 hours ago
Source: http://libertycalling.net
By Judy Morris
MSM Really is Dying
Cable TV news continues to bleed viewers and big newspapers have been bleeding readers for years. The alternate Internet media comprising independent journalist, bloggers and website operators are kicking MSM ass. Folks tend to blame the media for just about everything. However, in a nation of 310 million folks, hardly anybody is tuned in to prime time Fox, CNN and MSNBC for news.
Mediaite reports on prime time news coverage audiences by show and provides charts that divide audiences into two categories – the highly coveted 25-54 age group and total viewers.
Mediate reports:
Fox was #1 in total viewers for prime time with 2.603M viewers. CNN came in at #2 with 1.882M total viewers and, once again, MSNBC was third with 926K. Fox peaked at 8pm with a special report from Shepard Smith, which drew 3.107M total viewers. CNN’s peak came two hours later at 10pm with Cooper, who drew 2.053M total viewers.
During heavy coverage of the Oklahoma tornado Monday night in prime time, CNN was #1 in the 25-54 demo with 790K viewers. Fox came in second with 632K and MSNBC was a distant third with 337K. Anderson Cooper‘s 10pm broadcast was a high point for CNN, winning the demo in that hour with 916K viewers.
Also notable, Fox outpaced The Weather Channel, a major destination for storm coverage, which saw 1.245M total viewers in prime time.
There can be no question that cable TV news got a boost from the Oklahoma tornado coverage but if you look at the raw primetime viewer numbers, the numbers are indeed pathetic: Fox 2.6 million views, CNN 1.9, MSNBC 926,000 and Headline News 672,000.
The numbers are even more pathetic in the 18-54 age group: Fox 632,000, CNN 790,000, MSNBC 337,000 and Headline News 229,000.
Read the complete Mediate report at Mediate: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/monday-ratings-fox-wins-in-total-viewers-in-prime-time-cnn-wins-in-demo-msnbc-distant-3rd/
Martial Law in Boston Did Not Catch the Suspect
41 month ago
Image source: http://www.shtfplan.com
I awoke this Saturday morning reflecting back on the heinous crime committed causing loss of life and so many casualties, grieving for the victims and their families. Then reflecting on the massive manhunt for this 19 year old, the lone surviving suspect of the crime, and the level that this manhunt has grown to. It appears all levels of law enforcement were involved, from local police to federal agents. Looking back at the massive amount of man (and woman) hours involved, the millions of dollars expended in the pursuit and lost community revenues due to city lock downs, along with the MSM spin time devoted to the coverage of the man hunt for this suspect, I think back to how this would have been handled in the pre-police militarization state we find our selves in.
When all is said and done, for now, the suspected criminal in custody, the cities are no longer locked down and life in these towns resume. So is it to be assumed the man hunt mission was triumphant? The police state enacting marshal law and locking down five cities came up empty handed. It took a home owner checking his personal property to find the suspect and close the current chapter of this story that a dominating military presence in the local streets could not, at least up to that point in time.
In the end, five cities locked down, cell phone service killed, people locked into their homes, military and militarized police patrolling the streets and entering to search door to door. The result when the victim was captured was praise and adulation, mission accomplished. The other mission accomplished was the social engineering, not only to the people in the Boston area, but also all those tuning in to the MSM, as armored personnel carriers, SWAT teams on roof top and police carrying M-16 rifles (called assault weapons if owned by civilians) while searching your homes are a good thing, as giving up person freedom and liberty is a small price to pay for false security. Finally, the assistance of an alert home owner was needed to accomplish what the police state was having great difficulty in completing.
My appreciation to Daniel’s post below featured on Lew Rockwell.
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Martial Law in Boston Did Not Catch the Suspect
Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com
Look at these chilling photos of a major American city under total martial law. The local police force and investigative units have switched over to military assault vehicles on the streets, robo-cop science-fiction soldiers plugged in to all manner of spooky devices looking like the Borg and screaming orders like “if you want to live, turn off your cell phones.”
We read the shocking full story in the Washington Post today. Perhaps some of us are too naive, but this still seems unreal in the United States:
“By order of the state, a public transit system that serves more than 1.3 million riders a day was padlocked. Amtrak trains were suspended between Boston and New York. Businesses, offices and some of the world’s greatest universities were shut. Taxis were ordered off the streets for part of the day. Residents were instructed to stay inside.”
As does this:
“An indication of the complex investigation ahead came Friday night, when an Obama administration official told NBC News that Tsarnaev would not be given a Miranda warning when he is physically able to be interrogated after receiving medical treatment.
“Instead, the official said, the government will invoke a legal rule known as the ‘public safety exception,’ which will enable investigators to question Tsarnaev without first advising him of his right to remain silent and to be afforded legal counsel.”
But this is what strikes one the most, pondering all of the above: the police state did not catch the suspect. The borg did not catch the suspect. Martial law did not catch the suspect. People forced to stay in their homes did not catch the suspect. Warrantless searches did not catch the suspect.
Like the government’s initial failure (or worse) to identify and apprehend the suspects before the bombing, the government also failed in its military assault on an entire city.
Let us never forget that Dzhokar Tsarnaev was discovered by a private citizen, who happened to go out and check on his boat (i.e. violating the lockdown order of the cops), see a body inside of it, and call the cops. In other words, the police state achieved nothing but the psychological conditioning of the population: when we, the state, decide any particular event is important enough, you will lose every single right including possibly the right to life if you resist.
Writing in the Washington Times Communities section, Thomas Mullen sums it up nicely:
19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev is in custody. Assuming that Tsarnaev is indeed guilty of these crimes, a very real threat to public safety has been taken off the streets. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that the Tsarnaev brothers have taken the last vestiges of a free society in America down with them.
The Bill of Rights was already on life support before this tragedy. Before the dust settled after 9/11, the 4th Amendment had been nullified by the Patriot Act. The 5th and 6th Amendments were similarly abolished with the Military Commission Act of 2006 and the 2012 NDAA resolution, which contained a clause allowing the president to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens on American soil without due process of law.
This legacy is the real Boston tragedy. The Rubicon has been crossed.
So Why Are We Still Drinking Fluoride, Again?
1Source: http://naturalsociety.com
Image Credit: http://naturalsociety.com
We know that over 20 studies, many of which come from prestigious organizations like Harvard and are published in federal government journals, have told us how sodium fluoride is crushing our IQ. We know that a major head at the National Cancer Institute revealed decades ago that fluoride was causing ‘cancer waves’ in the United States.
So, remind me again, why are we still drinking fluoride in our ‘clean’ tap water around the entire world?
As it turns out, it’s because Harvard and federal government journalists must all be wackjob conspiracy theorists! The peer-reviewed research warning that fluoride can cause permanent damage to unborn babies by affecting their neurological development is all a big conspiracy theory to the mainstream media. The sodium fluoride that is literally assaulting the brain in mega-high doses of 5,000 PPM in ‘prescription fluoride’ toothpaste being dished out by dentists who say their childhood patients are ‘deficient’ in the IQ-destroyer is perfectly safe in their eyes.
When analyzing the Harvard research, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, a component of the United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, we find quite a few concerning details. The study makes it explicitly clear how damaging sodium fluoride can be, with writers explaining:
“The children in high fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ than those who lived in low fluoride areas.”
The EPA had similar statements, demonstrating how fluoride displays ”evidence of developmental neurotoxicity” and can damage unborn babies. We read:
”Fluoride readily crosses the placenta. Fluoride exposure to the developing brain, which is much more susceptible to injury caused by toxicants than is the mature brain, may possibly lead to damage of a permanent nature.”
Let’s go even further back to the research of Dr. Dean Burke, head scientist at the National Cancer Institute and author of over 250 scientific articles. Back in 1977, the decorated scientist spoke out against fluoride and brought it to the attention of the National Cancer Institute. At that time, Burke found that sodium fluoride was fueling the development of cancer cells and tumor growth — at the average level of 1 PPM. He estimated that around 10,000 had died from the fluoride-induced cancer from that level.
As I detail in the video below, now we see levels as high as 5,000 PPM in toothpaste, 500,000% higher than the water fluoridation levels Burke was examining:
I guess no one told the media that even the United States government called for lower fluoride levels after a mountain of research accumulated regarding these links. They must be conspiracy theorists too.
The fact is that the fluoride debate hits a brick wall thanks to the rhetoric the mainstream media and laughable ‘skeptics’ use by throwing around terms like ‘conspiracy theory’ to discredit any real debate. In fact, it’s actually working against them. Right now we have so many conscious citizens realizing that they don’t want to consume the tainted tap that it’s really considered outlandish in many areas to drink from the tap without at least a fluoride-removing filter of some kind. A lot has changed as more information comes out.
We’ve seen a push for fluoride bans around the world, from Australia’s Queensland to regions within Florida. And the movement has been heating up.
But still, how could we possibly allow this fluoridation to go on for as long as it has? Even if there was only some research indicating an issue, isn’t it enough to begin withdrawing it from the water — or at least enough to conduct more independent research? I think any reasonable person would agree the answer is yes.
It’s time to accelerate this issue from a tired debate of ‘conspiracy’ theory name-calling to a topical issue we can generate a victory for. We’ve done it for GMOs; we’ve done it for high-fructose corn syrup; we’ve done it for BPA. It’s time to blast this information into the stratosphere and demand action.
About Anthony Gucciardi:
Google Plus Profile Anthony is an accomplished investigative journalist whose articles have appeared on top news sites and have been read by millions worldwide. Anthony’s articles have been featured on top health & political websites such as Reuters, Yahoo News, MSNBC, and Bloomberg. Anthony is also a founding member of Natural Attitude, a leading developer of super high quality spagyric formulations.
Where Have All the Watchdogs Gone?
2On occasion one stumbles across a post that rings true to the thoughts one is currently thinking. This post on godfatherpolitics.com rang true to my thoughts entertained this evening.
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Source: http://godfatherpolitics.com
There was a day, I think back when the dinosaurs were still alive, when journalism schools taught their students about asking hard questions and the importance of being the public’s watchdog against all-too-often-corrupt government.
Woodward and Bernstein were held up as examples, but also people like Edward R. Murrow, Edna Buchanan, Jack Reed and William Marimow, journalists who were smart and tough enough to pin down the politicians and bureaucrats and hammer them until they gave up the information the public needed.
Journalistic role models were typically old guys and gals who had risen through the ranks of crime and government reporters to finally earn that esteemed title of editor, men and women who had devoted their lives to finding the truth, who weren’t afraid to take a phone call from the Secretary of State and demand “what the —- does the president think he’s doing?”
Those journalists, if they ever truly existed as a breed rather than unique individuals, are long gone. What we have now is a cadre of go-along types who mostly regurgitate whatever pablum is doled out by the local government press office.
The old saw about “accuracy, accuracy, accuracy” has been replaced by “lie three times and we’ll say it’s true.”
It’s much easier to just rewrite the press release and file your story. Save the real investigations for the interesting topics, like baby hippo twins born at the zoo.
Case in point, President Obama’s recent million-dollar fantasy golf weekend where he got to play against Tiger Woods. The Washington press corps was incensed at not having access to the president — so much so that they issued a statement of protest saying they would continue to demand “tranparency” from the Administration.
When they finally got a chance to ask the president a question after he’d blown a million taxpayer dollars on yet another vacation, during a time when the government is raising taxes and running huge deficits because it can’t live within a budget, the press members all clamored to know … did the president beat Tiger?
So much for asking tough questions and ensuring transparency. …
Compare the press corps’ outrage over the Tiger blackout to its utter lack of interest in the dearth of information about the September 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead. “Meet the Press” host David Gregory summed up the media’s attitude best: “Cover-up of what?”
“Transparency” on Benghazi doesn’t exist, and the media couldn’t care less so long as they get to cover the president’s round of golf, which mostly entails the press corps hanging around the clubhouse ordering daiquiris on their news outlet’s dime.
The majority of today’s journalists are lazy, sycophantic and dishonest about the job they are doing.
We need to find a real-life Perry White if we’re ever going to hold the government accountable.
Read more and image credit: http://godfatherpolitics.com
China increasing Saudi Arabia oil imports by 11% in 2013. Joint 10 Billion venture in Saudi Red Sea Coast. London begins Swaps of Yuan.
03 months ago
Source: http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com
I have been keeping my eyes on China. I believe watching what is happening there will give us a clue when the dollar will be dropped for the Yuan as the Global Reserve Currency. I also believe it is due to Saudi Arabia staying with the dollar as oil trade (Petrol Dollar) as the reason why the dollar is still the official reserve currency.
Ever since the 2008 crisis, China has been positioning itself and it’s currency to be the Global Reserve Currency. The BRICS began trading in the Yuan between themselves last year. Australia is trading with China in the Yuan. China does things slowly but surely.
I have been writing about China and what they are doing the last couple of weeks. From the expectation of their demand for gold outstripping the supply by 2015, IMF using the words and confirming “Global Reserve Currency” for the Yuan, and China, itself using the words “Global Reserve Currency” for the Yuan. All of this information was just in the pass couple of weeks.
I found information in Arab news, China will be increasing their oil imports from Saudi Arabia this year by 11%. They will be importing 120,000 more barrels per day than in 2012 to be 1.17 million barrels per day, from Saudi Arabia.
To give you an idea what the U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia, I found that information here.
The U.S. imports approximately 1.319 million barrels a day (from Nov 2012 info) from them. In November, U.S. imports decreased 38 thousands barrels from the month before. Here are facts about Saudi Arabia and their oil business overall.
If you look at the numbers China is catching up with the U.S. in their imports of oil on a per day basis from Saudi Arabia. When you look a the numbers over all, you can see the U.S. has stayed steady and has had some declining oil demand compared to China having increasing oil demand.
Why look at all of this together? Why try and analysis what China and Saudi Arabia are doing?
To me, those two countries are the key to the dollar demise. They are countries to watch very closely and read in-between the lines in what new business and joint ventures they are doing together. To me the smart thing to do to know what may lie just ahead and to position yourself for the future by getting hints, is to dig into what is happening with China and Saudi Arabia.
Here are portions from the Arab News article: (this was written in December of 2012)
BEIJING: China’s crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia are likely to rise about 11 percent next year (2013), faster than this year’s growth rate, as refiners lift output in anticipation of an economic recovery and an increase in fuel demand, industry officials said.
China, the world’s second-largest crude consumer, is expected to buy about 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) of Saudi oil next year, 120,000 bpd more than this year’s contracted amount. The figures are based on estimates by industry sources with direct knowledge of the supply situation.
China, which imports about 5.3 million bpd of crude a year, is Saudi Arabia’s third largest customer after the US and Japan. In the year to October, imports from Saudi grew 8.6 percent on the year to 1.06 million bpd, compared to growth of 12.6 percent in 2011.
China sees Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, as a strategic partner capable of providing stable supplies, and the state energy companies of both nations are in a $10 billion joint venture to build a 400,000-bpd refinery on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
China’s crude oil demand is one of the factors propping up global crude prices, at around $100 per barrel . This year, China’s oil demand is forecast to grow just 2.8 percent in its slowest pace in more than a decade, the International Energy Agency says, due to a slowdown in the economy, but there are signs of a revival next year.
Sinopec Corp, Asia’s largest refiner, would take in more than 80 percent of the total Saudi supplies to China. China’s No.2 refiner, PetroChina, and state-run Sinochem Corp, will use up the rest, the sources said.
“Sinopec’s imports of Saudi crude have been increasing steadily over the past years and are expected to rise further as Sinopec’s refining capacity will rise steadily over the next few years,” said one Chinese trader.
All of the countries are upset with the U.S. for printing dollars in the billions every month. There are currency wars happening around the world, even though countries came out of the G20 meeting in Russia this last weekend saying “No Currency war.”
Portions:
“We have not seen any such thing as a currency war. We’ve heard currency worries, not currency wars,” IMF Chief Christine Lagarde said at the forum.
“I see no serious grounds for currency wars but the crisis made all countries fear national protectionism. Some countries attempted to heal the crisis with money printing and this lead to debt troubles.”
This makes analysts say that it’s too late to renounce currency wars as they are already in full swing, says Mikhail Delyagin, the head of the Institute of Globalization Problems.
“These wars are being waged for years and everybody seems to have forgotten about their main player – the US. America is great at devaluating its dollar and, thus, hampering other traders. It’s a zero or even a minus-sum game as this time a participant’s loss is greater than the other participants’ gain. And the main thing is that the participants keep changing places.”
China is making the Yuan a Global currency very slowly and here is a good explanation why.
“If the currency is regulated by the government not by the situation on the market it cannot function as a global currency in economic relations. In order to make it a global currency it is necessary first of all to turn it into a market currency. If it happens the Yuan rate will double in comparison with its current rate and the competitiveness of Chinese goods will see a drastic decline.”
They are positioning themselves for the Yuan to be a traded currency. Another major step was just taken in London this week.
Small portion:
A BANK of England pledge to help London become a global trading center for the yuan has stirred talk of a revival in the city’s fortunes, similar to the explosion of the US dollar market in the 1960s and 70s.
In what many bankers saw as a pivotal move, the central bank said last month it was ready ”in principle” to adopt a currency swap line with the People’s Bank of China, providing a two-way pipe to the city as the still-unconvertible yuan starts to emerge as a world reserve currency.
Britain would become the first major developed economy to install a currency swap line with China, replicating existing arrangements available for the dominant freely-traded currencies such as the dollar, euro and yen.
China has agreed swap lines with more than 15 other countries but these tend to be emerging economies that have natural resources or goods used in manufacturing to export. The list does not include major industrial powers such as the United States,euro zone countries or Japan.
However, in a deliberate push to internationalize the yuan, or renminbi, China has beendeveloping an offshore market for it, as a precursor to allowing global firms, banks andasset managers access to its domestic market.
So, are you reading between the lines here? London has just begun Swap lines with the Yuan. Last year the CME group began trading the Yuan in Chicago.
It is simply good sense to watch everything going on with China and the Yuan and to pay attention to all of their business in Saudi Arabia. The facts are… we are not going to be told a few months before when Saudi Arabia begins trading directly with China in the Yuan. It will be an overnight event/statement. It doesn’t seem that China is quite ready for the Yuan to be the total reserve currency at this time, but they are definitely working that way. When it happens they will have protections in place that will not blow up their trading balances around the world. They are very careful and know exactly what they are doing.
When they have everything in place, we will not be warned in advance. People in the U.S. will wake up, one Monday morning to the shock of the dollar being replaced around the world by the Yuan. That day the dollar will go “Zimbabwe.” It will be a catastrophic event in the United States as the rest of the world breathes easier and can use a ‘gold’ backed currency to trade with. But to those paying attention and not being distracted by the fake news on MSM, they will not be shocked and have already protected themselves for the eventual outcome.
People need to stay paying attention to what is happening in China. I will be watching every day for news out of that area and their trading partners to get hints on when the “Big” day will arrive for the Yuan. We will know that day, when Saudi Arabia makes an announcement about how they will continue trading oil and in what currency.
A little extra news tidbit from Russia…. the manipulation of Gold prices and how it is ready to surge.
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For more detailed reports visit Sherrie at http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/
50 Days of Freedom – LIVE – 12 Hour Broadcast – Feb 23 @ Noon Central
03 months ago
Published on Feb 16, 2013
Join us for “50 Days of Freedom” as we chronicle our progress over the last 50+ days, showcase exclusive guests and remote reports from around the nation – this is an event not to be missed. Starting LIVE at 12:00 Central at http://
Danny Panzella, from http://TruthSquad.tv/, will be reporting LIVE from the New Hampshire Liberty Forum bringing us LIVE coverage & updates every hour.
Michael Salvi, host of TFPLive!!! and http://
Featured Guests:
1 Lew Rockwell
2 Attorney Georgia Sands
3 Alex Jones
4 John Dennis
5 Gerald Celente
6 James Corbett
7 David Keene
8 IRS Agent Joe Banister
9 Sheriff Mack
10 Robert Platshorn
11 Michael Boldin
12 Wayne Walton
13 Michael Badnarik
14 Jim Garrow
15 Jim Babka
16 Larry Pratt
and more surprise guests!
Icelandic MP planning Bradley Manning support trip despite US legal threats
03 months ago
Source: RT.com
Icelandic parliament deputy Birgitta Jonsdottir. (AFP Photo / Halldor Kolbeins)
Despite potential legal retribution from American authorities, the Icelandic MP and WikiLeaks member who released the infamous ‘Collateral Murder’ video showing US war crimes in Iraq has announced plans to visit the land of the free.
Birgitta Jonsdottir is an Icelandic Member of Parliament who nearly three years ago released a classified video of a US Apache helicopter killing civilians in Iraq. Known as ‘Collateral Murder,’ Jonsdottir made the footage public in a bid to express her support for Bradley Manning, the video’s alleged source, who now stands trial for treason. The video was also instrumental in unleashing the witchhunt on WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
Jonsdottir is planning to arrive in the US on April 5, despite a strong warning from Reykjavík of possible legal repurcussions. The politician says her trip, which coincides with the third anniversary of the video’s release, is her way of saying she refuses to live in fear.
“I don’t want to live in the shadows. I don’t think I’ve done anything illegal or that I’m an enemy of the US state, but if they think I’ve committed a crime, I want to know,” she told The Guardian.
Jónsdóttir also plans to exhibit photographs drawn from the ‘Collateral Murder’ on her itinerary in New York and Los Angeles. In June, the MP hopes to take the exhibition across the US ahead of Manning’s trial.
“It’s deeply troubling to me that he is the only one suffering the consequences – none of the people responsible for the war crimes in the video have been held accountable,” Jonsdottir says.
Following the release of the video, Washington has tried repeatedly to gain access to Jónsdóttir’s private information. In 2011, Twitter was forced to release her user data after a subpoena from Washington demanded personal data from her feed dating back to 2009.
Jonsdottir became the subject of US attention in 2010 when she helped Assange prepare the footage of the Apache attack allegedly leaked by Manning, who was deployed in Iraq at that time. She was responsible for organizing the volunteers, researched details of the footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad on July 12, 2007, and selected stills for distribution to the media. Eight men were killed in the attack, including two Reuters correspondents.
After the video’s release, Manning was arrested as the suspected source of the video and a large cache of diplomatic cables that he’d allegedly leaked to Assange. Manning now faces 22 counts of breaching national security, charges punishable with up to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Earlier in February, it was revealed that Iceland refused to cooperate with an FBI investigation into WikiLeaks back in August 2011, with the Icelandic interior minister having “made it clear that people interviewed or interrogated in Iceland should be interrogated by Icelandic police.”
Meet Zbigniew Brzezinski, Conspiracy Theorist
03 months ago
Episode 252 – Meet Zbigniew Brzezinski, Conspiracy Theorist
Source: http://www.corbettreport.com
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Conspiracy theorists like Zbigniew Brzezinski believe that organizations of interest work behind the scenes to manipulate world politics. They believe that false flag terror events are used to justify wars of aggression on political enemies. They believe that humanitarian rhetoric is used to mask military aggression, as in Syria. In short, they are realistic observers of world politics, just like Zbigniew Brzezinski. Join us today on The Corbett Report as we hear all about the conspiratorial view of history straight from the horse’s mouth.
For those with limited bandwidth, CLICK HERE to download a smaller, lower file size version of this episode.
For those interested in audio quality, CLICK HERE for the highest-quality version of this episode (WARNING: very large download).
Neil Macdonald: U.S. media complicit in Obama’s drone doctrine
03 months ago
Source: http://www.cbc.ca
By Neil Macdonald, CBC News
Posted: Feb 6, 2013
Some say U.S. president is waging a ‘war on whistleblowers’
Neil Macdonald
Senior Washington Correspondent
In 2001, when Israel started killing militant Palestinian enemies (and, often, innocent bystanders) with missiles fired from helicopters hovering so high you could barely see them, foreign reporters were urged by the Israeli government to call the practice “targeted killing.”
Most of us, including many of my American colleagues, preferred the term “extrajudicial assassination.” We felt we were in the news business, not the euphemism business.
Today, 12 years later, the Washington Post carries a front-page headline about the U.S. drone program titled, “Targeted killings face new scrutiny.”
Yet another government document has been leaked, this time a so-called “white paper” in which the U.S. Department of Justice lays out the administration’s justification for killing American citizens it suspects of belonging to Al-Qaeda.
U.S. media outlets, it seems, are perfectly comfortable with the term “targeted killing,” now that it is a major tool for the Pentagon and CIA.
It’s also clear American media outlets are comfortable suppressing news the government does not want published. Today’s story reveals not just that the Americans have operated a secret drone base for years in Saudi Arabia, but that the Post, along with various other news organizations, have been keeping that fact to themselves at the government’s request.
History of suppressing sensitive information
It isn’t the first time such information has been suppressed. In 2005, bowing to the White House, the New York Times for months kept confidential the fact that the Bush administration had been carrying out warrantless wiretapping. The revelations eventually provoked Congress to pass a new law.
Reports on the U.S. drone program, also based on leaks, have described how Barack Obama’s administration has become ever more dependent on remote-controlled killing. Obama himself reportedly signs off personally on each target.
U.S. President Barack Obama, who once denounced George W. Bush-era security measures, has not just amplified Bush’s programs, but has begun hunting down and prosecuting officials who leak details. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
The American public has been largely unconcerned with the program, except when the person killed has been an American citizen. (The U.S., unlike many other countries, accords its citizens special protections from government intrusions.)
That is the focus of the latest leak. The “white paper” in today’s story appears under the arid title “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen Who Is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qaeda or an Associated Force.”
The term “senior operational leader” appears to be key. An American citizen who is a low-level fighter would appear to enjoy a legal immunity that does not extend to foreign nationals suspected of planning or involvement in attacks on Americans.
As the Post story rather dryly notes, “The number of attacks on Americans is minuscule compared with the broader toll of the drone campaign, which has killed more than 3,000 militants and civilians in hundreds of strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.”
There is an accompanying article today on the astonishing fact that 54 countries, including Canada, have participated in or enabled the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program of sending suspected militants to be interrogated, sometimes under torture, in secret prisons and by totalitarian regimes worldwide.
Twelve years ago, reporters had a different term for that sort of thing, too: kidnapping.
Obama’s ‘war on whistleblowers’
All these hardened security measures were begun under the Bush administration. President Obama, who once denounced them and even, as president, ordered Bush legal memos be made public, has not just amplified Bush’s programs, but has begun vigorously hunting down and prosecuting officials who leak details.
And that is one initiative the American media is not so comfortable with.
Some are calling it Obama’s “war on whistleblowers.” Current Attorney-General Eric Holder has prosecuted more officials for leaking information to reporters than any of his predecessors since the Second World War.
The government has hunted down intelligence officials who leaked details of expensive programs to spy on internet traffic, wiretaps placed in the Israeli embassy in Washington and of Obama’s personal involvement in selecting drone targets.
The lawyer for one of those officials said Holder’s prosecutors “don’t distinguish between bad people – people who spy for other governments, people who sell secrets for money – and people who are accused of having conversations and discussions.”
Several news outlets have noted, rather acidly, that the administration seems fairly expert at leaking classified material that makes the government look good.
None of this makes Obama different from any previous president. It just demonstrates his ability to keep the nation’s media on board, and mete out punishment when they publish the wrong sorts of secrets.
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Republished with permission
Piers Morgan Gets Shot on Live TV
0Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com
By Travis Holte
Sad news coming out of CNN. Just days after getting the flu shot on live TV Piers Morgan has the flu.
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
