http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"Israeli forces killed hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians and destroyed thousands of homes in Gaza in attacks which breached the laws of war, Amnesty International concluded in a new report published on Thursday. Operation 'Cast Lead': 22 days of death and destruction, is the first comprehensive report to be published on the conflict, which took place earlier this year.
'Israel's failure to properly investigate its forces' conduct in Gaza, including war crimes, and its continuing refusal to cooperate with the UN international independent fact-finding mission headed by Richard Goldstone, is evidence of its intention to avoid public scrutiny and accountability,' said Donatella Rovera, who headed a field research mission to Gaza and southern Israel during and after the conflict.
'The international community, led by the UN Security Council, must use all its leverage to ensure that Israel cooperates fully with the Goldstone inquiry, which now offers the best means to establish the truth.'"
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/impunity-war-crimes-gaza-southern-israel-recipe-further-civilian-suffering-20090702
-->The NY Times reported the story, but some of the facts were changed to protect the guilty, namely Israel. The NY Times story reports that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes, while the Amnesty report was much more critical of Israel. By the third paragraph, we are reading criticisms of the report by the Israeli military.
The last two sentences of the article, interestingly enough, reported the detention of Cynthia McKinney and Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire by the Israeli Navy, something the NY Times had refused to report on previously.
-------------------
"This is Cynthia McKinney and Iím speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza...
During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16ís rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israelís onslaught that Gaza had become Israelís veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons."
-letter was originally broadcast on WBAIX
-->The NY Times gave this story two sentences, while it was front page news in many newspapers around the world.
-------------------
"Three years ago, U.S. Department of Agriculture employees determined that synthetic additives in organic baby formula violated federal standards and should be banned from a product carrying the federal organic label. Today the same additives, purported to boost brainpower and vision, can be found in 90 percent of organic baby formula.
The government's turnaround, from prohibition to permission, came after a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers and overruled her staff. That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board's approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white 'USDA Organic' seal on an array of products.
Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest growing segment of the food industry...
But the USDA program's shortcomings mean that consumers, who at times must pay twice as much for organic products, are not always getting what they expect: foods without pesticides and other chemicals, produced in a way that is gentle to the environment."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/03
-->The NY Times is as protective of big agriculture as it is of Israel. There has been little mention of the attempt to water down the meaning of the 'USDA Organic' seal."
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"EMERGENCY: Israelis Attack Humanitarian Aid to Gaza...Last night, Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.
The seizure of humanitarian supplies and abduction of human rights workers is an act of piracy, a crime under international law. When the boat was attacked, it was not in Israeli waters and was on a human rights mission to Gaza. Israel's deliberate and premeditated attack on an unarmed boat in international waters is a clear violation of international law."
http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazashippetition
-->The U.S. government and corporate media has largely ignored or buried this story due to racism against Cynthia McKinney and the people of Palestine. Much like the deadly attack on the US Liberty which killed 34 US sailors. The NY Times didn't cover the attack on the Sprit of Humanity boat at all.
-------------------
In covering the Israeli "settlements" in the West Bank, Ethan Bronner of the NY Times uses as picture of a small boy outside a shack to represent the close to 500,000 Israelis who are stealing land captured in the 1967 war. Since when do these billion dollar funded settlements look like that? Crude propaganda from the NY Times, always eager to cast Israel in a favorable light.
While praising Israeli concessions, Bronner also fails to mention that 2,000 "buildings" (apartment buildings) will continue to be built according to Israel =150,000 people added to the 300,000+ existing settlers.
(Thanks to Felice Gellman for this story)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/middleeast/29mideast.html?hp
-------------------
Long a supporter of right wing military regimes in Latin America, the NY Times did not report that leaders of the recent military coup in Honduras were graduates of the infamous School of the Americas, located in Ft. Benning, Georgia. The story did admit that the US and Honduras has "long had a close military relationship." Just how close is out of bounds for the NY Times, which often prints propaganda stories thought up in the Pentagon.
The NY Times also failed to report that the US is in violating of its own law to cut off all aid to governments that come to power through a military coup. The US is undermining the demands of the rest of the world that elected President Manuel Zelaya be returned to office without conditions.
Contrast the massive coverage the NY Times gave to the election protests in Iran to its tone when describing the overthrow of an elected president in Honduras.
"Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor. But the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America’s poorest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html?pagewanted=2&sq=Honduras&st=cse&scp=8
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"EMERGENCY: Israelis Attack Humanitarian Aid to Gaza...Last night, Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.
The seizure of humanitarian supplies and abduction of human rights workers is an act of piracy, a crime under international law. When the boat was attacked, it was not in Israeli waters and was on a human rights mission to Gaza. Israel's deliberate and premeditated attack on an unarmed boat in international waters is a clear violation of international law."
http://www.iacenter.org/palestine/gazashippetition
-->The U.S. government and corporate media has largely ignored or buried this story due to racism against Cynthia McKinney and the people of Palestine. Much like the deadly attack on the US Liberty which killed 34 US sailors. The NY Times didn't cover the attack on the Sprit of Humanity boat at all.
-------------------
In covering the Israeli "settlements" in the West Bank, Ethan Bronner of the NY Times uses as picture of a small boy outside a shack to represent the close to 500,000 Israelis who are stealing land captured in the 1967 war. Since when do these billion dollar funded settlements look like that? Crude propaganda from the NY Times, always eager to cast Israel in a favorable light.
While praising Israeli concessions, Bronner also fails to mention that 2,000 "buildings" (apartment buildings) will continue to be built according to Israel =150,000 people added to the 300,000+ existing settlers.
(Thanks to Felice Gellman for this story)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/middleeast/29mideast.html?hp
-------------------
Long a supporter of right wing military regimes in Latin America, the NY Times did not report that leaders of the recent military coup in Honduras were graduates of the infamous School of the Americas, located in Ft. Benning, Georgia. The story did admit that the US and Honduras has "long had a close military relationship." Just how close is out of bounds for the NY Times, which often prints propaganda stories thought up in the Pentagon.
The NY Times also failed to report that the US is in violating of its own law to cut off all aid to governments that come to power through a military coup. The US is undermining the demands of the rest of the world that elected President Manuel Zelaya be returned to office without conditions.
Contrast the massive coverage the NY Times gave to the election protests in Iran to its tone when describing the overthrow of an elected president in Honduras.
"Mr. Zelaya, 56, a rancher who often appears in cowboy boots and a western hat, has the support of labor unions and the poor. But the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America’s poorest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/americas/29honduras.html?pagewanted=2&sq=Honduras&st=cse&scp=8
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"My primary feeling today is one of grief and despair and an element of anger when I see the destruction perpetrated against innocent people…. Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings...
The starving of 1.5 million human beings of the necessities of life — never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself...
I feel partially responsible for this as must all Americans and Israelis."
President Jimmy Carter, speaking during his recent visit to Gaza.
http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
-->The NY Times, although it did cover Carter's trip, entitles the story, "Carter, in Gaza, Urges Hamas to Meet Demands." Most of these quotes were left out.
-------------------
"Israel Radio ran a scoop this morning: poll data showing a sharp drop in Americans' perception that Israel's government seeks peace...
According to the poll, conducted among a rather large sample (800
registered voters) between June 9 and June 11, there has been a 20% drop in the perception of Israel's government as peace seeking. Furthermore, there is a steep decline in the percentage of Americans who say that the U.S. should support Israel. That has dropped from 71% in March 2008 (at the time of the Annapolis process) to only 44% now. Israel Radio reported that the Israel Project confirmed the validity of the poll and the data...
An analysis of the results shows that the largest decrease in support for Israel is among women and Democratic Party voters. Those who commissioned the poll have decided not to publicize it for now because of its negative results regarding Israel."
http://www.peacenow.org
-->Such polls showing declining support for Israel in the US simply aren't deemed newsworthy by the NY Times.
-------------------
"A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.
The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction...
Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan 'to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover'. Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/21/iraq-inquiry-tony-blair-bush
-->Bush and Blair planning war crimes before the invasion of Iraq? Thank goodness the NY Times doesn't print upsetting stuff like that.
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"My primary feeling today is one of grief and despair and an element of anger when I see the destruction perpetrated against innocent people…. Tragically, the international community too often ignores the cries for help and the citizens of Palestine are treated more like animals than like human beings...
The starving of 1.5 million human beings of the necessities of life — never before in history has a large community like this been savaged by bombs and missiles and then denied the means to repair itself...
I feel partially responsible for this as must all Americans and Israelis."
President Jimmy Carter, speaking during his recent visit to Gaza.
http://activistnewsletter.blogspot.com/
-->The NY Times, although it did cover Carter's trip, entitles the story, "Carter, in Gaza, Urges Hamas to Meet Demands." Most of these quotes were left out.
-------------------
"Israel Radio ran a scoop this morning: poll data showing a sharp drop in Americans' perception that Israel's government seeks peace...
According to the poll, conducted among a rather large sample (800
registered voters) between June 9 and June 11, there has been a 20% drop in the perception of Israel's government as peace seeking. Furthermore, there is a steep decline in the percentage of Americans who say that the U.S. should support Israel. That has dropped from 71% in March 2008 (at the time of the Annapolis process) to only 44% now. Israel Radio reported that the Israel Project confirmed the validity of the poll and the data...
An analysis of the results shows that the largest decrease in support for Israel is among women and Democratic Party voters. Those who commissioned the poll have decided not to publicize it for now because of its negative results regarding Israel."
http://www.peacenow.org
-->Such polls showing declining support for Israel in the US simply aren't deemed newsworthy by the NY Times.
-------------------
"A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.
The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction...
Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan 'to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover'. Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/21/iraq-inquiry-tony-blair-bush
-->Bush and Blair planning war crimes before the invasion of Iraq? Thank goodness the NY Times doesn't print upsetting stuff like that.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"The AMA does not represent me. It is a common misconception that this organization speaks on behalf of most American physicians but that is a misconception with very serious consequences at such a critical time in the health care reform debate. So long as the public, the media and our elected officials lump all physicians together as 'the AMA,' then we are guilty by association of a failure of our hippocratic oath to 'first, do no harm.'
In fact, the AMA represents less than one-third of America's physicians and half of those are retired. The American Medical Student Association endorses Universal Health care Reform.
The AMA's longstanding opposition to every effort to change health care financing, including Medicare in the 1960s, has resulted in decades of needless and countless morbidity and mortality."
CAROL PARIS, MD
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/15-0
-->The NY Times, in describing the AMA's opposition to the single payer health care reform option, makes no attempt to inform readers of these common misconceptions.
-------------------
"The White House and the Democratic Congressional Leadership are playing a very dirty game in their effort to ram through supplemental funding for the escalating US war in Afghanistan and continued occupation of Iraq. In the crosshairs of the big guns at the White House and on Capitol Hill are anti-war freshmen legislators and the movement to hold those responsible for torture accountable...
In order to block passage, 39 Democrats need to vote against it in the House. As of this writing, 34 reportedly are committed to voting against it. Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake has been doing great coverage of this issue, much of which can be found here. So too has David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet. This does seem to be one issue where phone calls and letters matter-tremendously."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/15-11
-->But readers of the NY Times are being pretty much kept in the dark about the White House pressures to get antiwar legislators to vote for supplemental war funding. Maurice Hinchey is undecided. The great peace candidate, John Hall, is missing in action and has not come out against the bill. UPDATE: Very few NY representatives voted against the war funding. Hinchey, Hall, and Murphy were among the sellouts.
-------------------
"Spain honors International Brigade
If the Spanish ambassador was surprised to see a defiant and elderly fist thrust into the air in the elegant reception room of his Belgrave Square office today, he gave no sign of it.
The 96-year-old hand held in clenched salute belonged to Paddy Cochrane, who, along with six others, had traveled to the embassy to receive a Spanish passport as thanks for volunteering in the Spanish civil war more than 70 years ago.
The gesture had been prompted by the words of another International Brigade veteran, Sam Lesser, who recalled how the communist politician Dolores Ibárruri – La Pasionaria – had promised the foreign fighters in 1938 that they would one day return to find a peaceful, republican Spain.
'We've taken a while but now we've come home,' Lesser, 94, said in Spanish. 'We've come home. But there are those of us who did not come home, who sleep under the sun, the soil and the olive trees of Spain.'"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/09/spanish-civil-war-veterans
-->This is exactly the type of story the NY Times would never cover. Spanish Civil War? Honor war vets who happened to be Socialists or Communists? Never happen in the good old US media.
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"The AMA does not represent me. It is a common misconception that this organization speaks on behalf of most American physicians but that is a misconception with very serious consequences at such a critical time in the health care reform debate. So long as the public, the media and our elected officials lump all physicians together as 'the AMA,' then we are guilty by association of a failure of our hippocratic oath to 'first, do no harm.'
In fact, the AMA represents less than one-third of America's physicians and half of those are retired. The American Medical Student Association endorses Universal Health care Reform.
The AMA's longstanding opposition to every effort to change health care financing, including Medicare in the 1960s, has resulted in decades of needless and countless morbidity and mortality."
CAROL PARIS, MD
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/15-0
-->The NY Times, in describing the AMA's opposition to the single payer health care reform option, makes no attempt to inform readers of these common misconceptions.
-------------------
"The White House and the Democratic Congressional Leadership are playing a very dirty game in their effort to ram through supplemental funding for the escalating US war in Afghanistan and continued occupation of Iraq. In the crosshairs of the big guns at the White House and on Capitol Hill are anti-war freshmen legislators and the movement to hold those responsible for torture accountable...
In order to block passage, 39 Democrats need to vote against it in the House. As of this writing, 34 reportedly are committed to voting against it. Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake has been doing great coverage of this issue, much of which can be found here. So too has David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet. This does seem to be one issue where phone calls and letters matter-tremendously."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/15-11
-->But readers of the NY Times are being pretty much kept in the dark about the White House pressures to get antiwar legislators to vote for supplemental war funding. Maurice Hinchey is undecided. The great peace candidate, John Hall, is missing in action and has not come out against the bill. UPDATE: Very few NY representatives voted against the war funding. Hinchey, Hall, and Murphy were among the sellouts.
-------------------
"Spain honors International Brigade
If the Spanish ambassador was surprised to see a defiant and elderly fist thrust into the air in the elegant reception room of his Belgrave Square office today, he gave no sign of it.
The 96-year-old hand held in clenched salute belonged to Paddy Cochrane, who, along with six others, had traveled to the embassy to receive a Spanish passport as thanks for volunteering in the Spanish civil war more than 70 years ago.
The gesture had been prompted by the words of another International Brigade veteran, Sam Lesser, who recalled how the communist politician Dolores Ibárruri – La Pasionaria – had promised the foreign fighters in 1938 that they would one day return to find a peaceful, republican Spain.
'We've taken a while but now we've come home,' Lesser, 94, said in Spanish. 'We've come home. But there are those of us who did not come home, who sleep under the sun, the soil and the olive trees of Spain.'"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/09/spanish-civil-war-veterans
-->This is exactly the type of story the NY Times would never cover. Spanish Civil War? Honor war vets who happened to be Socialists or Communists? Never happen in the good old US media.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Fantasyland Media:
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"WASHINGTON - Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) introduced two bills last night to stop the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) use of satellite imagery from intelligence agencies for homeland security and law enforcement purposes. The legislation, H.R. 2703 and 2704, will prohibit funding for and close the DHS' National Application Office (NAO). This troubled office is responsible for a domestic surveillance program that the American Civil Liberties Union had long opposed in testimony and letters to Congress over the past two years.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
'Today, Representative Harman put the brakes on the drift towards the surveillance society. Thanks to Representative Harman's leadership, Congress will take the first step toward shutting down the National Application Office and its ill-conceived domestic surveillance program. This legislation would restrain domestic use of spy satellites while allowing the Department of Interior's program to continue using its imagery in a responsible way. With billions of dollars going to build satellites that see more than the human eye, the idea of turning these lenses on Americans should raise alarm bells for everyone.'"
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/05-1
-->The NY Times is so untroubled by domestic surveillance that it didn't even run this story.
-------------------
"HELENA - Maryland psychiatrist Carol Paris is calling herself one of the "Baucus 13" these days - in other words, one of the 13 doctors, nurses and activists arrested last month while protesting before a Washington, D.C., health reform hearing chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
On Friday, Paris was in Montana, doing what got her arrested: urging Baucus, Congress and the president to consider a single-payer system of national health insurance that covers all citizens equally....
Paris's arrest was covered prominently by her local newspaper but received little or no attention from national news outlets.
She said she's not surprised: 'The mainstream, national media have blacked us out as much as Congress has. ... I would say they're following the lead of the president and Congress and simply not giving us a voice.'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/06-2
-->True to form, the NY Times never informed its readers that physicians across the country were doing civil disobedience to protest the lack of single payer in any of the government's plans for healthcare reform. All the news that is fit for insurance companies.
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"WASHINGTON - Representative Jane Harman (D-CA) introduced two bills last night to stop the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) use of satellite imagery from intelligence agencies for homeland security and law enforcement purposes. The legislation, H.R. 2703 and 2704, will prohibit funding for and close the DHS' National Application Office (NAO). This troubled office is responsible for a domestic surveillance program that the American Civil Liberties Union had long opposed in testimony and letters to Congress over the past two years.
The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
'Today, Representative Harman put the brakes on the drift towards the surveillance society. Thanks to Representative Harman's leadership, Congress will take the first step toward shutting down the National Application Office and its ill-conceived domestic surveillance program. This legislation would restrain domestic use of spy satellites while allowing the Department of Interior's program to continue using its imagery in a responsible way. With billions of dollars going to build satellites that see more than the human eye, the idea of turning these lenses on Americans should raise alarm bells for everyone.'"
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/06/05-1
-->The NY Times is so untroubled by domestic surveillance that it didn't even run this story.
-------------------
"HELENA - Maryland psychiatrist Carol Paris is calling herself one of the "Baucus 13" these days - in other words, one of the 13 doctors, nurses and activists arrested last month while protesting before a Washington, D.C., health reform hearing chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
On Friday, Paris was in Montana, doing what got her arrested: urging Baucus, Congress and the president to consider a single-payer system of national health insurance that covers all citizens equally....
Paris's arrest was covered prominently by her local newspaper but received little or no attention from national news outlets.
She said she's not surprised: 'The mainstream, national media have blacked us out as much as Congress has. ... I would say they're following the lead of the president and Congress and simply not giving us a voice.'
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/06-2
-->True to form, the NY Times never informed its readers that physicians across the country were doing civil disobedience to protest the lack of single payer in any of the government's plans for healthcare reform. All the news that is fit for insurance companies.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"Obama's Support for the New Graham-Lieberman Secrecy Law...
The White House is actively supporting a new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman -- called The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 -- that literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any 'photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States.' As long as the Defense Secretary certifies -- with no review possible -- that disclosure would 'endanger' American citizens or our troops, then the photographs can be suppressed even if FOIA requires disclosure. The certification lasts 3 years and can be renewed indefinitely. The Senate passed the bill as an amendment last week."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/01-9
-->Obama administration covering up US war crimes? The NY Times didn't see fit to publish this story. Nor did it cover the specifics of some of these photos: rape and sexual abuse. For that you would have to go to The Telegraph/UK:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/28
-------------------
"Obama Has 250,000 'Contractors' in Iraq and Afghan Wars, Increases Number of Mercenaries.
Newly released Pentagon statistics show that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the number of armed contractors is rising. The DoD says it sees ,similar dependence on contractors in future.'
...According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number of 'Private Security Contractors' working for the Department of Defense in Iraq in the second quarter of 2009 and a 29% increase in Afghanistan, which 'correlates to the build up of forces' in the country. These numbers relate explicitly to DoD security contractors. Companies like Blackwater and its successor Triple Canopy work on State Department contracts and it is unclear if these contractors are included in the over-all statistics. This means, the number of individual 'security' contractors could be quite higher, as could the scope of their expansion.
Overall, contractors (armed and unarmed) now make up approximately 50% of the 'total force in Centcom AOR [Area of Responsibility].' This means there are a whopping 242,657 contractors working on these two US wars."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/01-6
-->No report in the NY Times or in mainstream media that the US will continue occupying Iraq using hundreds of thousands of mercenaries. Obama is ending the Iraq war, remember?
-------------------
"Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack...
The first thing the Israeli aircraft bombed and strafed were the Liberty’s communications antennae and other equipment. They succeeded in destroying all the antennae that were functional. One antenna on the port side, though, had been out of commission and had escaped damage...
The deck was still being strafed, but Halbardier grabbed a reel of cable, ran out onto the deck, and attached new cable to the antenna so a radioman could get an SOS out to the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean.
'Mayday' went out; almost immediately the Israeli aircraft and torpedo ships broke off the attack and went back to base; the Israeli government sent a quick apology to Washington for its unfortunate 'mistake;' and President Johnson issued orders to everyone to make believe the Israelis were telling the truth — or at least to remain silent.
To their discredit, top Navy brass went along, and the Liberty survivors were threatened with court martial and prison if they so much as mentioned to their wives what had actually happened. They were enjoined as well from discussing it with one another."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/02-9
-->No mainstream media has ever dared to tell the story of the June 8, 1967 deliberate attack on the US Liberty by Israeli planes and ships. Two-thirds of the Liberty crew of 294 were killed or wounded that day. All hushed up by the power of the Israeli lobby. If you don't believe that the US media is censored when it comes to Israel, do a little research on the USS Liberty.
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"Obama's Support for the New Graham-Lieberman Secrecy Law...
The White House is actively supporting a new bill jointly sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman -- called The Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 -- that literally has no purpose other than to allow the government to suppress any 'photograph taken between September 11, 2001 and January 22, 2009 relating to the treatment of individuals engaged, captured, or detained after September 11, 2001, by the Armed Forces of the United States in operations outside of the United States.' As long as the Defense Secretary certifies -- with no review possible -- that disclosure would 'endanger' American citizens or our troops, then the photographs can be suppressed even if FOIA requires disclosure. The certification lasts 3 years and can be renewed indefinitely. The Senate passed the bill as an amendment last week."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/01-9
-->Obama administration covering up US war crimes? The NY Times didn't see fit to publish this story. Nor did it cover the specifics of some of these photos: rape and sexual abuse. For that you would have to go to The Telegraph/UK:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/28
-------------------
"Obama Has 250,000 'Contractors' in Iraq and Afghan Wars, Increases Number of Mercenaries.
Newly released Pentagon statistics show that in both Iraq and Afghanistan the number of armed contractors is rising. The DoD says it sees ,similar dependence on contractors in future.'
...According to new statistics released by the Pentagon, with Barack Obama as commander in chief, there has been a 23% increase in the number of 'Private Security Contractors' working for the Department of Defense in Iraq in the second quarter of 2009 and a 29% increase in Afghanistan, which 'correlates to the build up of forces' in the country. These numbers relate explicitly to DoD security contractors. Companies like Blackwater and its successor Triple Canopy work on State Department contracts and it is unclear if these contractors are included in the over-all statistics. This means, the number of individual 'security' contractors could be quite higher, as could the scope of their expansion.
Overall, contractors (armed and unarmed) now make up approximately 50% of the 'total force in Centcom AOR [Area of Responsibility].' This means there are a whopping 242,657 contractors working on these two US wars."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/06/01-6
-->No report in the NY Times or in mainstream media that the US will continue occupying Iraq using hundreds of thousands of mercenaries. Obama is ending the Iraq war, remember?
-------------------
"Navy Vet Honored, Foiled Israeli Attack...
The first thing the Israeli aircraft bombed and strafed were the Liberty’s communications antennae and other equipment. They succeeded in destroying all the antennae that were functional. One antenna on the port side, though, had been out of commission and had escaped damage...
The deck was still being strafed, but Halbardier grabbed a reel of cable, ran out onto the deck, and attached new cable to the antenna so a radioman could get an SOS out to the 6th fleet in the Mediterranean.
'Mayday' went out; almost immediately the Israeli aircraft and torpedo ships broke off the attack and went back to base; the Israeli government sent a quick apology to Washington for its unfortunate 'mistake;' and President Johnson issued orders to everyone to make believe the Israelis were telling the truth — or at least to remain silent.
To their discredit, top Navy brass went along, and the Liberty survivors were threatened with court martial and prison if they so much as mentioned to their wives what had actually happened. They were enjoined as well from discussing it with one another."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/02-9
-->No mainstream media has ever dared to tell the story of the June 8, 1967 deliberate attack on the US Liberty by Israeli planes and ships. Two-thirds of the Liberty crew of 294 were killed or wounded that day. All hushed up by the power of the Israeli lobby. If you don't believe that the US media is censored when it comes to Israel, do a little research on the USS Liberty.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Fantasyland Media:
http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"On April 24th, an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace. The plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it. On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for the French left-wing journal Le Monde Diplomatique and wrote about US involvement in Latin America. Ospina and his publisher said they will sue for compensation.
What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.
Hernando Calvo Ospina has written articles about the United States involvement in Latin America, and is currently writing a book about he CIA. The exact reason for him being on the terrorist watch list is unknown, and we'll probably never know what criteria are used for adding people to it. Air France is considering asking the United States for compensation."
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=922&Itemid=1
--->The NY Times would never reveal the hubris of the US empire by printing a story like this. How many countries do US planes fly over every day? And what if those countries didn't like what some US passengers were writing in American newspapers? But this is how the rest of the world sees us, in all our imperial ugliness.
-------------
"BigAg Ticked at Michelle Obama's Organic Garden...
Michelle Obama's decision to make her new White House vegetable garden entirely organic has angered America's powerful agribusiness lobby who are urging the First Lady to consider the use of appropriate 'crop protection products.'
Mrs Obama started work on the kitchen garden with a gang of schoolchildren last month. Media coverage of the first White House food plot since Eleanor Roosevelt 'dug for victory' in the Second World War garnered media coverage across the world.
But to the consternation of Big Ag, Mrs Obama has said the project will not use chemical products to tackle pests or give her plants a boost, the Times reports.
Shortly after the digging began, Mrs Obama received a letter from the Mid-America CropLife Association (MACA), which represents the companies producing the pesticides and fertilizers underpinning 'conventional' American agriculture, the paper said."
--->Imagine the presumption of power that corporations have in the US, telling the First Lady to use chemicals in her organic garden! But most Americans don't have to think too much about that, since stories like this are only carried in the foreign press. This one was in the Telegraph in UK.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/23-1
-------------
"Clark University canceled a campus talk scheduled for later this month by controversial Holocaust scholar Norman Finkelstein, saying his presence 'would invite controversy and not dialogue or understanding,' and would conflict with a similar event scheduled around the same time.
The Clark University Students for Palestinian Rights, a student-run group on the Worcester campus, had arranged for Finkelstein to speak...
The dispute came to the attention of college administrators after Hillel, a Jewish campus group, objected to Finkelstein's scheduled appearance...
Finkelstein asserted in his book 'Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History' that Israel uses accusations of anti-Semitism to deflect criticism, a response to Dershowitz's book 'The Case for Israel.'"
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/04/10/clark_drops_holocaust_scholar/
--->CounterPunch Magazine calls it the "new campus McCarthyism." In a recent article, this magazine identifies several faculty members who have been targeted as "anti-Israel" and simply blacklisted from speaking or denied tenure. These are smear campaigns orchestrated by the right wing Israeli lobby, a clear threat to academic freedom on today's college campuses. No mention of the new campus McCarthyism, however, in the NY Times. UPDATE: Clark University relented and Dr. Finkelstein was allowed to speak.
News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.
---------
"On April 24th, an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace. The plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it. On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for the French left-wing journal Le Monde Diplomatique and wrote about US involvement in Latin America. Ospina and his publisher said they will sue for compensation.
What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.
Hernando Calvo Ospina has written articles about the United States involvement in Latin America, and is currently writing a book about he CIA. The exact reason for him being on the terrorist watch list is unknown, and we'll probably never know what criteria are used for adding people to it. Air France is considering asking the United States for compensation."
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=922&Itemid=1
--->The NY Times would never reveal the hubris of the US empire by printing a story like this. How many countries do US planes fly over every day? And what if those countries didn't like what some US passengers were writing in American newspapers? But this is how the rest of the world sees us, in all our imperial ugliness.
-------------
"BigAg Ticked at Michelle Obama's Organic Garden...
Michelle Obama's decision to make her new White House vegetable garden entirely organic has angered America's powerful agribusiness lobby who are urging the First Lady to consider the use of appropriate 'crop protection products.'
Mrs Obama started work on the kitchen garden with a gang of schoolchildren last month. Media coverage of the first White House food plot since Eleanor Roosevelt 'dug for victory' in the Second World War garnered media coverage across the world.
But to the consternation of Big Ag, Mrs Obama has said the project will not use chemical products to tackle pests or give her plants a boost, the Times reports.
Shortly after the digging began, Mrs Obama received a letter from the Mid-America CropLife Association (MACA), which represents the companies producing the pesticides and fertilizers underpinning 'conventional' American agriculture, the paper said."
--->Imagine the presumption of power that corporations have in the US, telling the First Lady to use chemicals in her organic garden! But most Americans don't have to think too much about that, since stories like this are only carried in the foreign press. This one was in the Telegraph in UK.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/23-1
-------------
"Clark University canceled a campus talk scheduled for later this month by controversial Holocaust scholar Norman Finkelstein, saying his presence 'would invite controversy and not dialogue or understanding,' and would conflict with a similar event scheduled around the same time.
The Clark University Students for Palestinian Rights, a student-run group on the Worcester campus, had arranged for Finkelstein to speak...
The dispute came to the attention of college administrators after Hillel, a Jewish campus group, objected to Finkelstein's scheduled appearance...
Finkelstein asserted in his book 'Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History' that Israel uses accusations of anti-Semitism to deflect criticism, a response to Dershowitz's book 'The Case for Israel.'"
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/04/10/clark_drops_holocaust_scholar/
--->CounterPunch Magazine calls it the "new campus McCarthyism." In a recent article, this magazine identifies several faculty members who have been targeted as "anti-Israel" and simply blacklisted from speaking or denied tenure. These are smear campaigns orchestrated by the right wing Israeli lobby, a clear threat to academic freedom on today's college campuses. No mention of the new campus McCarthyism, however, in the NY Times. UPDATE: Clark University relented and Dr. Finkelstein was allowed to speak.
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