by Starman » Fri May 20, 2005 7:08 pm
JaySuS -- The US 'Press'/MSM has been notoriously lax in holding themselves accountable to high ethical standards of journalistic integrity -- They have repeatedly disseminated official WH and Pentagon lies, as in parotting false pre-invasion reports, in repeating unsupported, false claims of Iraqi WPD, in systematically under-reporting Iraqi civilian casualties and the US military targetting of critical civil infrastructure (water treatment and pumping plants, electric power plants and grids, hospitals and clinics, food warehouses, schools and Mosques, etc.), and the largescale-use of weapons of indiscriminate, devastating effect -- all specifically banned by humanitarian law, Geneva and Nuremberg conventions, the UN and the US's own Manual of Land Warfare, and other treaty requirements. The Press/Newsmedia's malfeasance and complicity is quite evident to anyone reasonably well-infomed re: their censoring and covering-up the abuse-of-power and crimes of top WH and Pentagon officials and appointed functionaries in the many instances of foolish decisions that have had disasterous consequences for the people of Iraq and for the US's potential for actual 'success' in the region. On numerous occasions I have seen articles written by The NY Times and The Washington Post that refer to Saddam as 'having kicked-out the UN Weapons Inspectors' in 1998 -- a gross falsehood that repudiates these and other newspapers' accounts of the actual ciscumstances. In another instance, the press failed to report the disagreement of experts with WH officials' conclusions, based on spurious claims by the WH's hand-picked Office of Special Plans, that the nototious aluminum tubes were designed as uranium-ore centerfuges. As a reader of alternative and foreign news sources, even I was aware that these tubes were most-likely designed as conventional rockets. The US press and news agencies were also lax in reporting how widespread the instances of torture and abuse extended throughout the Iraqi prison system, instead falling-into-line with the WH/Pentagon's 'story' that the abuse happened ONLY at Abu Ghraib, and by a handful of malcontents. An even GREATER act of malfeasance was in their not reporting the abundant evidence, incluuding the Military's own reports, that torture and abuse were specifically authorized by White House officials (certainly Rumsfeld, possibly Cheney and Bush also) and implemented as policy by General Miller. There are numerous other instances of falsehoods and censorship by the US MSM.<br><br>As to the Pentagon's claim that the Palestine Hotel tank-shooting was in response to being fired-upon -- this was TOTALLY discreditted by actual video-recording taking place at the time, which recorded NO sounds of hostile fire occurring. There have been numerous reports (in the alternative/foreign media) of reporters, esp. 'foreign' and Arab, being illegally detained, beaten, having their equipment confiscated and destroyed, and so-forth, in what is OBVIOUSLY a policy to target, intimidate and 'warn-off' the press from reporting facts that are highly critical of the US military and administration.<br><br>Re:<br>--quote--<br>(Mark) Hyman (from the Sinclair Broadcast Network's 'On Point' program)called on Foley to immediately present evidence to support her claims or resign. <br><br>"Unfortunately, the damage may have already been done," he said. "Her remarks could lead to further bloodshed, including against Americans." <br><br>Hyman concluded: "The question is whether Newspaper Guild members will hold Foley accountable or will they give her a free pass in endangering American lives with inflammatory remarks without any proof?" <br><br>The Newspaper Guild posted an April 15 article on its website that blames the U.S. for the deaths of journalists José Couso and Taras Protsyuk, April 8, 2003, at the Palestine Hotel. They were on a balcony watching the Third Infantry tank division exchange fire with Iraqi forces, the report said. After a lull in the battle, a U.S. tank fired an incendiary shell at the hotel. U.S. officials say the troops believed they were taking fire from the hotel.<br><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44335">www.worldnetdaily.com/new...E_ID=44335</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2005/190505killingjournalists.htm">www.prisonplanet.com/arti...alists.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>See also the ParaPolitics.info previous threads on this topic...<br><<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.parapolitics.info/phorum/read.php?f=24&i=170&t=170#reply_170>">www.parapolitics.info/pho...reply_170></a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>ARCHIVE: Intentional Targeting of Independent Journalists<br><<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.prisonplanet.com/archive_iraq_aftermath.html#intentional>">www.prisonplanet.com/arch...tentional></a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>--unquote--<br><br>This is simply bloody-fugging incredible -- Hyman is actually BLAMING Foley for pointing-out what is evident to people still capable of critical thinking, the consequences of the US's brutal, unconscionable 'end justifies every means' actions. An even bigger flaw in Hyman's 'argument' (IMO) is his assertion that Foley's remarks are inflammatory, have triggered violence, and WILL place American lives in 'danger.' I'm sure the Arab press has been FAR more condemnatory of the violence being perpetrated against un-embedded Reporters. The Pentagon early in the war actually threatened to target any cell-phone uplinks detected, clearly a 'warning' to independant Journalists that not only would they NOT be protected, but they would actively be eliminated. In the absence of a 'Secret: For Your Eyes Only!' memo by Rummy to field-commanders to kill Arab Journalists, the Pentagon's own statement along with abundant evidence of the highest incidence of Journalists being killed, should be more than enough to vindicate Foley's tellin' it like it is.<br><br>Like, DuH ...? The 'endangerment' is the result of American troops being put in harms way as a brutal, hated occupying force enforcing the wholly illegal dictates of US Policy, and the enormously damaging, unjust and exploitive laws (which BTW have no basis in International Law and so are actually illegal!) imposed by US Adminstrators such as Paul Bremer.<br><br>Honest to Kriste: I'm embarrassed to see what's happened to America, as I'm appalled and disgusted by those in the media, politicians, public figures, and 'fellow citizens', who have allowed themselves to be so damn buffaloed and bullshitted by a cuthoat gang of Best Dressed, smooth-talking lying-cheating-despoiling operators -- murdering-with-impunity, war-profiteering, theiving and pillaging, treasonous butchers of the American Dream.<br><br>I think America's earliest significant turning-away from the core ideals of liberty and democracy, human-rights and justice, peace and co-prosperity happened with the Spanish-American war, when racketeering industrialists and grasping, greedy Politicans seized the opportunity to manipulate the public 'interest' for the sake of acquiring power and redistributing wealth to themselves and a self-chosen elite. The path since has utterly destroyed America as the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free.<br>Starman<br> <p></p><i></i>
