17.01.2004 04:42

2003 - year of lies such as the myth of Jessica Lynch

2003 had false reasons for war and "not real" President dressed as "not real" soldier.
Action movies star becomes a governor, and the government starts producing its own adventure films where the leading role of false war heroes is given to real soldiers (Jessica Lynch).

"Don't think while working".

Such a note is included in the assignments sent by FBI directors to 18 thousand FBI offices on Christmas Eve. Policemen stopping drivers who broke traffic regulations, are required to pay special attention to those having various books of directories in their vehicles. Why directories? Books of such kind always bear significant amount of data - amount of population, weather forecasts, maps of buildings and important objects. In the FBI document such data named potentially dangerous weapon in hands of terrorists who are able to use them as guides while "choosing targets and preparing possible operations".

However, in the world overflown with information and potentially dangerous people, it is unfair to choose users of reference books as a target for police prosecution. The publisher of "The World Almanac" and "Book of Facts" said "the government is the basic source of information for us". Let alone local libraries: the "hiding place of potentially dangerous information weapon" can be found practically in any American town. FBI is informed about the potential threat the libraries bear and, due to the Patriotic Act, is authorized to conduct check-ups of libraries.

The fact of including various directories and almanacs on "black list" of 2003 became the logical end for last year - the year of declaring war against the truth and facts, when false statements and different falsifications were in favor. This year was triumph of lies: false reasons for war and "not real" President dressed as "not real" soldier. Action movie star becomes a governor, and the government starts producing its own adventure movies where the leading role of false war heroes is given to real soldiers (Jessica Lynch). Real reporters dressed as fake soldiers are embedded in fighting military units. Even Saddam Hussein got the role in this big performance: he played himself during his arrest by US troops. According to the Sunday Herald Scottish newspaper and some news agencies, all this became the super-lies of last year. The Sunday Herald wrote that actually the Iraqi dictator was captured by Kurdish special forces.

Nevertheless, the palm tree of superiority in achieving higher level of falseness belongs to Great Britain. During the visit of its Queen to Nigeria, press-secretary of Her Majesty Penny Russell declared "The Queen is going to meet as many Nigerians as possible". But, just as George Bush on his visiting Iraq never left the bunker in Baghdad airport, the assistants of Queen Elizabeth II decided that is not necessary for her to communicate too close with ordinary Nigerians. Therefore instead of the planned visit in the real Nigerian village, the Queen visited the village having some sort of African market: this "village" was constructed by BBC in the New-Karu and used as scenery for producing screen version of a novel. During this "false walk", as the "Sunday Telegraph" named it, the Queen had a talk with the paid actors representing fake residents of the village while the real Nigerian villagers were watching the meeting on the huge TV screen set behind the line of guards.

2003 was not only the year of lies and falsifications, but also the year of punishment for those who told the truth. British expert on arms David Kelli paid the highest price - he committed suicide after the public learned that he had been the source of information for the BBC report on fabricating classified documents. Employee of British Security Services Katharine Gun was sentenced to two years of imprisonment for revealing the plans of Americans to conduct surveillance over UN diplomats with the purpose of exerting pressure to them during voting in the Security Council. And in the United States Joseph Wilson who confessed that no proofs of the alleged trip of Saddam to Africa with the purpose of purchasing uranium had been found, was punished through the wife Valerie Plame who was named CIA agent.

Telling the truth was not the most favorable thing in 2003, contrary to telling lies. You can ask Rupert Murdoch about this. According to the research conducted in October, regular viewers of the Fox News TV Channel belonging to Murdoch, were the most badly informed citizens of the United States. 80 percent of the Fox News viewers were convinced that Iraq either the weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq or there had been the proofs of ties between Iraq and Al-Quaeda, or the world public opinion supported the war. Or they trusted all the three above mentioned false statements.

On December 19 the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) transferred Мurdoch the rights to purchase Direct TV satellite network - the biggest in the United States. This decision was made by FCC five days after the order of FBI relating to directories was passed. Everything is taking its place: if the books filling your head with various data transform you into terrorist, the TV tycoons hammering "information mashed potatoes" into your brain should be considered as heroes deserving the highest benefits.

When Bush entered the White House, many people believed that his ignorance would result in his fall. All of a sudden, Americans realized that their President who calls Africa "nation", is not capable to rule the country. Today we say that if Americans could recognize the lies they get, they would definitely become indignant. However, with at all my respect for "false books" ("Lie and those liars telling it", "Great lie", " George Bush's Lie ", "Five false statements made by Bush on Iraq", etc.), I am not convinced any more that the truth itself can liberate the United States.

In many cases falsification dominated over the truth, even in the cases when the truth was accessible. Real Jessica Lynch who confessed Diane Sawyer that "nobody had tortured or beaten her" was unable to do anything with her twin created by mass media and military and shown in the NBC film "Rescuing Jessica Lynch".

And Bush instead of being dismissed from President because of the ignorance and lack of knowledge of basic concepts, is actively adjusting the United States to his personality. Today lack of informing is welcomed: the special new order of FBI equates the desire to receive necessary information to crime.

According to the legend, at one point of history Spaniards had to pronounce "gracias" instead of "grathiath". It was in XVII century when the monarch having defects of diction ruled the country, and he was distinguished by extreme sensitivity. To please to the monarch, the citizens were told to imitate his bad diction and mispronounce the sounds "s" and "c".

All authoritative linguists think that this is an invented story. But in the United States ruled by Bush this is not important.

" La Jornada ", Mexico