John Pilger: How the media promotes the lies leading to catastrophic war

The world faces the prospect of major war, but the truth is turned upside down and inside out by journalists, including those who promoted the lies that led to the Iraq bloodbath. JOHN PILGER* 

John Pilger talks to the media after meeting with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has been seeking asylum for over two years.

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WHY HAS SO MUCH journalism succumbed to propaganda? Why are censorship and distortion standard practice? Why is the BBC so often a mouthpiece of rapacious power? Why do the New York Times and the Washington Post deceive their readers?

Venezuela: Economic war unleashed by the United States

(Dec. 23) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced on December 22 the formation over the next few days of a high level task force to address the situation of the economy, and reiterated that the country will break the financial blockade to which it is being subjected.

Venezuelans march against US sanctions

Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro said that the Americas will never be a colony of the United States on Thursday (December 18) in response to U.S. President Barack Obama signing legislation to impose sanctions on Venezuelan government officials.

6,059 Palestinians kidnapped by Israeli army in 2014

By TONY SEED

Abdul-Nasser Ferwana,* head of the Census Department of the Palestinian Committee of Detainees and Ex-Detainees, stated Sunday that the Israeli army has kidnapped 6,059 Palestinians in 2014, as well as arresting 1,266 children.

Iran unveils memorial to Jewish martyrs

Monument to Jewish Martyrs unveiled in Tehran on Monday

It is fitting that the US and Canadian monopoly media would ignore this story, because it conflicts with their narrative of the so-called existential Israeli crisis of anti-semitism allegedly caused by the Islamic Republic of Iran:

“This week, Iran unveiled a memorial commemorating the lives of Jewish soldiers who died fighting for the country in the Iran-Iraq war. The monument, located in Tehran, has inscriptions in both Hebrew and Persian, and the ceremony remembered the fallen soldiers as ‘martyrs.’”

Iran keen on cooperation with ALBA states and NAM

Tehran, Dec 29, IRNA – Deputy Foreign Minister for Euro-American Affairs Majid Takht-e Ravanchi said on Monday that Iran and Bolivarian Alliance ‘for the Peoples of Our America’ share common stance on various issues and can have extensive cooperation within framework of NAM.

He made the remarks in a meeting with ambassadors of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Latin American states on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of emerging the ALBA.

Israeli Zionists are losing the information war on social media

An interesting statistic on public perception over the social media (really, anti-social media) – recent polls shows US citizens aged between 18 and 29 think the Israeli aggression on Palestinians is unjust by a margin of 2:1. Along with the daily disinformation provided by the monopoly media, the Israeli Zionists pays people to support them over the internet, creating fake IDs on Facebook, etc., and even has a special team dedicated to falsifying Wikipedia entries. Despite this fact, the paid shills calling for genocide are drowned out by the voices of decent human beings around the world saying enough is enough!

Why 2014 was a game changer in Palestine

RAMZY BAROUD*, Palestine Chronicle

In terms of losses in human lives, 2014 has been a horrific year for Palestinians, surpassing the horrors of both 2008 and 2009, when an Israeli war against the Gaza Strip killed and wounded thousands.

While some aspects of the conflict are stagnating between a corrupt, ineffectual Palestinian Authority (PA), and the criminality of Israeli wars and occupation, it would also be fair to argue that 2014 was a game changer to some degree — and it is not all bad news.

US ‘perception management,’ Libya and use of human rights impostors to spawn NATO’s war of aggression

Anti-War Protestors at Halifax’s Spring Garden Library during federal election, March 26, 2011

The names change but the methods remain the same. In Iraq the imperial war facilitator was Ahmed Chalabi. In Libya he went by the name of Soliman Bouchuiguir, a shadowy figure whose baseless allegations against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi were endorsed by the UN system and its affiliated “human rights” agencies without the slightest verification. The warmongering chorus included one Nazanin Afshin-Jam, the sole Canadian signatory, a Harper appointee to the board of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and an advocate of aggression against Iran; she married Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who despatched Canadian warplanes to bomb Libya.

In this article originally published on October 17, 2011, MAHDI DARIUS NAZEMROAYA* in text and JULIEN TEIL in video shed light on a failed system of international law and justice, which made itself complicit in NATO’s war crimes in Libya.

The analysis has been borne out by the passage of time: the overthrow of Libya’s government by NATO and Gulf Arab powers, at the cost of over 30,000 deaths, has led to a complete collapse in human rights and social conditions. Benghazi is now the centre of a bloody tribal-based revolt against the NATO government. The Harper war government must be held to account.

US ‘perception management’: Attempt to subvert the anti-war movement

Demonstrating the necessity of a consistent and principled anti-imperialist and anti-war stand, Haligonians rally against threats of war against Syria, September 7, 2013 as part of its action program of weekly pickets

Since the anti-war protests on Vietnam, the U.S. government has made “perception management” of the American people a high priority, feeding them a steady diet of propaganda about foreign crises, even getting U.S. and Canadian “peace groups” to buy into and actually sell “pro-democracy” wars, write MARGARET SARFEHJOOY and COLEEN ROWLEY*.

(Dec. 25) – “War is peace” double-speak has become commonplace these days. And, the more astute foreign policy journalists and commentators are beginning to realize the extent of how “liberal interventionists” work in sync with neocon warhawks to produce and sustain a perpetual state of U.S. war.

More and more “peace and social justice” groups are even being twisted into “democracy promotion,” U.S. militarism style.

US ‘perception management’: The ‘evil enemy’, from Reagan to Obama

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration pioneered “perception management” to get the American people to “kick the Vietnam Syndrome” and accept more U.S. interventionism, but that propaganda structure continues to this day getting the public to buy in to endless war, writes ROBERT PARRY*.

(Dec. 28) – To understand how the American people find themselves trapped in today’s Orwellian dystopia of endless warfare against an ever-shifting collection of “evil” enemies, you have to think back to the Vietnam War and the shock to the ruling elite caused by an unprecedented popular uprising against that war.

While on the surface Official Washington pretended that the mass protests didn’t change policy, a panicky reality existed behind the scenes, a recognition that a major investment in domestic propaganda would be needed to ensure that future imperial adventures would have the public’s eager support or at least its confused acquiescence.

Ukraine stops trains to Crimea

Crimean people celebrate being accepted as part of the Russian Federation in Simferopol, the Republic of Crimea, March 18, 2014.

Ukraine has stopped cargo and passenger train movements to Crimea, Crimean Railway head Andrei Karakulkin said on Saturday. “All Ukrainian trains have fully stopped traffic since today.”

“This is misunderstanding. People have to return tickets. Queues have formed at railway ticket offices. People are concerned over their families and relatives both in Crimea and Ukraine,” Karakulkin said.

From energy war to currency war: America’s attack on the Russian ruble

By MAHDI DARIUS NAZEMROAYA*

A MULTI-SPECTUM WAR is being waged against Moscow by Washington. If there are any doubts about this, they should be put to rest. Geopolitics, science and technology, speculation, financial markets, information streams, large business conglomerates, intelligentsia, mass communication, social media, the internet, popular culture, news networks, international institutions, sanctions, audiences, public opinion, nationalism, different governmental bodies and agencies, identity politics, proxy wars, diplomacy, countervailing international alliances, major business agreements, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights, prestige, military personnel, capital, and psychological tactics are all involved in this multi-spectrum war. On a daily basis this struggle can be seen playing out on the airwaves, in the war theatres in Ukraine and the Middle East, through the statements and accusations of diplomats, and in the economic sphere.

How the CIA recruited students in the 1950s & 1960s

In the 1960s, the agency sought to fight Communism and the people’s movements for rights  through subversion of the youth and student movement. There’s little reason to think its tactics have changed. An inadvertent confession | TOM HAYDEN

Nation (Dec. 2) – Only once in a while does a book come along that sheds new light on the 1960s. Karen Paget’s forthcoming Patriotic Betrayal (Yale University Press) is just such a work, telling the inside story of how the Central Intelligence Agency corrupted the natural and democratic growth of students’ rights movement by infiltrating the National Student Association (NSA) and directing it to its Cold War ends.

The monarch-in-parliament and the use of the royal prerogative

The Use of the Royal Prerogative

Royal assent, royal consent – The beneficiaries of the Royal Prerogative

The archaic character of the Westminster parliamentary system has been further exposed by the publication on January 15, 2013 of a previously confidential Whitehall pamphlet entitled “Queen’s or Prince’s Consent,” publically indicating for the first time the extent to which senior royals are asked to give their consent to legislation. The 23-page document, now available on the Cabinet Office website, details situations where this Royal Consent is required and gives various examples where it has been sought.

Sleepless in Seattle: Woman who tried switching to empty seat on airplane to sleep jailed for 3 days

Jean Mamakos

CBS New York (Tue, 23 Dec 2014 CETA) –  A Long Island woman claims she was treated like a criminal and pulled off of a United Airlines flight just because she wanted to change seats. As CBS2’s Jennifer McLogan reported exclusively, the in-flight fight turned into a three-day stay in jail for the woman.

Who is to blame for Syria’s refugee problem?

The United Nations World Food Programme announced cuts to a voucher program that feeds 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt, citing a lack of funding.

Despite an emergency grant from the United States, many refugees were weighing their options and hoping for better news in the coming days. CCTV America’s Natalie Carney reported from Istanbul.

The Heat interviewed a panel of experts for more on the ongoing civil war in Syria and the resulting refugee crisis across the region including Bill Frelick, director of Human Rights Watch’s refugee program, and Joelle Eid, communications officer with the United Nations World Food Programme.

The Heat also interviewed Rafif Jouejati, spokeswoman for the network of activists known as the ‘Local Coordinating Committees in Syria,’ and Mahdi Nazemroaya, a research associate with the Center for Research on Globalization.

Re-establishment of Cuba-US diplomatic relations: Long live revolutionary Cuba!

Cuban President Raúl Castro speech, December 17 on U.S.-Cuba relations.

Statement of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist

On December 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would “end its outdated approach” and re-establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba which were severed in January 1961.

Glorious victory for justice! The Cuban Five are free!

Vancouver picket December 17, 2014 celebrates release of three Cuban heroes.

– Isaac Saney, Canadian Network on Cuba, December 17, 2014 –

The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC) celebrates with tremendous joy the release of the final three members of the Five Cuban Heroes: Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino and Antonio Guerrero. They had been imprisoned unjustly since 1998 in the United States for defending Cuba from terrorism, for defending Cuba’s right to independence, sovereignty and self-determination.

Cuba-US diplomatic relations: The Canadian connection

One of the salient features of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. is the fact that problems were sorted out through dialogue at the highest level. On the eve of the announcement culminating two years of talks, U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro had a 45-minute telephone call to sort out final implementation.

Christmas greeting

13th Summit of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America

Heads of state and government of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), meeting in Havana on December 14, reaffirmed the principles of solidarity, genuine cooperation and complementarity shared by the countries of the alliance.

OAS: Cuba will participate in the 7th Summit of the Americas

Speaking at the 5th CARICOM-Cuba Summit held on December 8, 2014, Cuban President Raúl Castro Ruz thanked the government of Panama for its invitation to participate in the upcoming 7th Summit of the Americas and expressed Cuba’s willingness to participate as an equal, without pre-conditions, reaffirming that this does not in any way imply a return to the Organization of American States (OAS). The summit hosted by Panama will be held in April 2015.

Venezuela: Massive rejection of Obama’s signing of sanctions

March and rally in Caracas December 15, 2014, celebrates 15 years of the Bolivarian constitution and denounces U.S. interference in Venezuelan affairs.

On December 18, one day after Venezuela publicly rejected sanctions against Cuba on the grounds that it is the people who bear the brunt, U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation to impose sanctions on Venezuelan government officials. The legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress the preceding week. The santions would deny visas and freeze assets of government officials.

Okinawa: People again vote to remove US military from their islands

The Japanese general election for members of the House of Representatives turned into a referendum in Okinawa on the post-WWII U.S. military occupation. Voters in the four ridings in Okinawa rallied around candidates firmly opposed to the construction of yet another U.S. military base on their islands.

Sighting. Why did you kill my family?

U.S. president Barrack Obama, the U.S. State Dept., Hollywood and the media are engulfed in a frenzied campaign to celebrate a movie made in Canada promoting the assassination of the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea based on U.S.-style “freedom of expression.”

Cuban Parliament thanks international solidarity with the Five

Havana (Dec 19) – The Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power, ANPP by its Spanish acronym, thanked today in plenary, all parliamentarians and legislators of the world for their support to the cause of the Cuban Five. In the presence of Raul Castro, President of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba, the 546 deputies present unanimously approved the statement from the International Relations Committee of the Parliament of the Caribbean nation,  read by the legislator Yolanda Ferrer Gómez.

This day in 1919: Exposure of Washington’s academics as spies

Franz Boas (1858-1942)

1919 (20 December): Under the heading “Scientists as Spies,” The Nation, a liberal journal based in New York, published on this date a letter by Franz Boas, the father of academic anthropology in America. Boas was one of the most prominent opponents of the then popular pseudo-science of eugenics and “scientific racism”, the fascist concept that race is a biological concept and that human behaviour is best understood through the typology of biological characteristics and not social and cultural factors.

Boas publically charged that four American anthropologists, whom he did not name, had abused their professional research positions by conducting espionage in Central America for the U.S. armed forces during the First World War – precisely when U.S. imperialism had aggressively occupied Panama, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti and was conspiring against the Mexican Revolution. Boas strongly condemned their actions, writing that they had “prostituted science by using it as a cover for their activities as spies.” 

Graphic details. US State Department’s imperialist geography

In the event of a Belarusian invasion of Ukraine, the 6th US Fleet will immediately be deployed to the shores of landlocked Belarus.

By TONY SEED

It is all too reminiscent of former prime minister Jean Chrétien trying to convince the Canadians in 2001 that the deployment of the Canadian navy to the Indian Ocean as part of the Anglo-American invasion of landlocked Afghanistan was done to fight the Taliban. And like current Canadian foreign affairs minister John Baird, who thinks the capital of Syria is Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Spokesperson Jen Psaki reveals a certain gap of knowledge of the countries targeted by US warmongering.

Graphic details. CNN’s imperialist geography (2)

According to CNN, Israel has also added Kobani to its occupation collection. Kobani (Arabic name is Ain-al-Arab) is the Kurdish community in northern Syria under siege of ISIS, ally of the Zionists in the war against the Syrian Arab Republic.