USA: climate of this complete disinformation and news turmoil

The US/UK government and their subordinate media machines have flooded the world with so much malarkey, doubletalk, and misrepresentation regarding the wars on terror that it’s become impossible to navigate through the mayhem of it, let alone believe any of it, including the recent video of N. Berg’s execution.   

Just consider a few inconsistencies and contradictions in this news bedlam: 

Bush vowed he’s going to get Bin Laden after 9/11 yet, for all practical purposes, he’s invaded and is now warring with a wrong country.  The reasons for the invasions are still unanswered. 

Bush and the CIA have always maintained no proof of linking al-Qaeda to Hussein yet a vast majority of Americans still believe that the war has something to do with 9/11.  Cheney, amazingly and contrary to his boss’ statements, is among them.  The confusion persists. 

Blair said Iraq has a 40-minute rocket delivery capability.  D. Kelly, the UK weapons expert, was found dead after he said the intelligence was “sexed up” to make a case for war.  Blair said Kelly had committed suicide yet after Blair was cleared by Hutton’s snowjob, some media sources pointed to foul play.  Though largely forgotten, the matter remains untied. 

For two years, Bush, Powell and Rumsfeld insisted that Iraq had WMD yet early this year Bush said Iraq was neither the threat it was made out to be before the war nor probably didn’t have WMD.  He simply watered down his original claim to “I believe one day Iraq may have WMD” and continued with the war.  The WMD allegations are still unrequited. 

Bush said Iraq had WMD yet Blix found none and the US found none either so Bush and Blair shifted focus to Hussein instead making the reason for war the toppling of Hussein.  Hussein’s capture took place in Dec ‘03 yet, with the goal achieved, the war is not over.  Bush and Blair say they’re turning power back into the Iraqi’s hands yet 130,000 US soldiers have made Iraq their home with no plan to ever leave the now permanently occupied country.  The occupation still today lacks even the faintest outline of some exit strategy. 

Bush said he didn’t know about the al-Qaeda planning the 9/11 attack yet in April ‘04 he said that on 9/11, right after he was briefed on the chilling news, he “was angry” that “al-Qaeda had succeeded”.  A lawsuit alleging Bush’s conspiracy in the 9/11 attack and links to the Bin Ladens was never picked up in the US mainstream yet the very same machine goes into overdrive each time M. Jackson makes a court appearance no matter how insignificant.  M. Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 film supposedly linking Bush to the attack and the Bin Ladens has been blocked from distribution in the US.  Perhaps most fundamentally, the issue of whether the US government played a role in 9/11 astonishingly remains the greatest quandary still today.  The US media has for nearly three years failed to ask, much less to investigate, why 9/11 occurred.  

Bush said he’s a “liberator” justifying the war as bringing “democracy and stability” to the region.  In April ’04 he changed his idealistic tune and himself called his occupation of Iraq what it is: “an occupation”.  Bush’s slip apparently went unnoticed by the media. 

Bush said he’s proud of the high ethical integrity of his military yet the entire world stands in shock and disbelief over the still mounting blood-curdling evidence of the American tortures and the not unlike Nazi maltreatment of the Iraqi prisoners of war.  The US media is side stepping the issue, obscuring the evidence, concealing sources, softening the disaster by allowing only small portions of the condemning facts to be seen at a time, and generally taking all possible steps to downplay the emerging American crimes against humanity.   

Blair tells us that the top priority of his administration is the bringing a swift end to the Iraq war yet when one of the most crucial Red Cross’ reports was given to Blair’s Special Envoy on Iraq, no one in his cabinet including Blair himself ever bothered to open it.  Equally, Bush said he didn’t know anything about the tortures yet Bremer was briefed by Red Cross in Nov ’03 and Rumsfeld was told in Feb ’04.  Rumsfeld said that “the world” knew in Feb ’04 yet somehow that excludes Bush, Cheney, Blair and his staff.  Red Cross says that everyone in the coalition forces was told and was given a report on the prison maltreatments in April ‘03 yet apparently no one has ever bothered to open it.  Rumsfeld admits he knew of the abuses in Feb ’04 yet he did absolutely nothing about it.  The obvious conclusion that both the US and UK governments were simply trying to ride it out, hoping it would never leak has still not been stated by any media source despite the oodles of contradiction. 

Blair would have us believe now that his government conveniently forgot about it as though that would be somehow acceptable.   When this report hit the desk at 10 Downing, the Armed Forces Minister simply “didn’t see it”, the Defence Secretary “didn’t see it”, the Foreign Secretary “wouldn’t have expected to see it”, and finally, the Prime Minister himself never bothered either. (But amazingly when a copy of some heavy metal song by an ex-Black Sabbath member was sent to Blair, he not only opened the package but apparently found the precious time to listen to it and in fact even respond.)  An person in the workforce would be fired on the spot for ignoring important work issue yet in the case of the US and UK governments no one has even questioned Bush and Blair’s capability to continue performing their jobs.  

Bush said he stands by Rumsfeld yet Rumsfeld has admitted to approving “harsh” conditions in Guantanamo prison.  The US media has not connected the dots on this one either: clearing up whether Bush also approves of “harsh” prison conditions. 

Although Rumsfeld saw the distressing evidence of the prison abuse and has made an apology alongside with Bush, Rumsfeld still later defended the US interrogation techniques and claimed no international rules were violated.  The Geneva Convention protects prisoners of war from the very kinds of abuses the evidence shows yet the US officials maintain ignorance of the world treaty.  The US media has failed to respond to this blatant contradiction and clarify whether evidence breaches the Geneva Convention or not. 

The US military has found some scapegoats and court-martials a few privates now to appease the growing fury yet the command of abuse clearly goes far higher, if not to the top.  Cambone, the Undersecretary of Defence of Intelligence said he knew of “severe interrogation techniques”.  General Boykin, the man who won the heart of the US media with the claim that Bush was elected by God, not by the voters, had authorized the ‘softening up’ of the Iraqi prisoners.  Court-martialled Private Lynndie England, the US model appearing in the torture pictures, swears she was following orders.  Despite the evidence of chain of command in the systematic policy of crimes against humanity and breaches of Geneva Convention, still no one in the US or UK media has brought up the possibility of indictments by the Hague International Tribunal.  

Bush says he is spreading democracy around the world, yet in the US, the opposite seems to be taking place.   The US media kowtows to Bush, which violates the very basis of “Free Society” and “democracy”.  Even pictures of coffins arriving from Iraq to the US are a no-no for the public to see.  Pictures of war (such as shown on www.thenausea.com) never made the US mainstream. The US public isn’t even sure about the death toll.  While some sources claim some 600 US soldiers have been killed, others claim well over 800.  All US sources however agree on ignoring the casualty count of the Iraqis, the very people the US is trying to save which has surpassed a staggering 10,000. 

It seems that the news coverage is in the business of manufacturing contradiction generating more and more questions at a far more rapid pace than closing and resolving issues.  This trend has grown so much out of control that it’s no longer possible to rely on the integrity of any one news source.  

In today’s climate of this complete disinformation and news turmoil, it is with extreme caution and a large pile of salt that one should approach news, especially those from the US/UK mainstream sources. 

Pater Havlasa

Special for PRAVDA.RU