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Today's
Stories
March 14, 2005
Tom Barry
John
Bolton's Baggage
March 12 /
13, 2005
David H. Price
The
CIA's Campus Spies
Noam Chomsky
The Toothpaste Election
Laura Carlsen
Women's Rights Eroding in Latin America
Stan Goff
On Revolutionary Optimism: the View from Cumberland Co, NC
Valentina Nicoli
The Game of Role-Playing and the Ambush of Giuliana Sgrena
Michael Leonardi
Head Shot: Lifting the Veil on the Sgrena / Calipari Incident
Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson
Blood Money and the Riggs Bank: Pinochet's Bank Finally Pays
Up
Joe Bageant
It Ain't Easy Being White
Manuel García,
Jr.
The Question of American Guilt
Greg Moses
Electoral Lessons from Cuyahoga and Harris Counties
James J. Brittain
Run, Fight or Die in Colombia
Ben Tripp
Communist Watch
Joshua Frank
A Red State Paradox: Montana on the Cusp
Fred Gardner
Pesticides Made Her Sick; Pot Got Her Well
Walter Brasch
Bush's Horse Killers
Ramzy Baroud
Reining in Syria on Behalf of Israel
Christopher
Brauchli
Going All the Way for Usurers
Michael Donnelly
The Humiliation of Les "Timber Toad" AuCoin
Ron Jacobs
ZAP Comics: Still Kicking US Culture in the Ass
Richard Oxman
The Eternal Reciprocity of Tears
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Ford, Louise and Albert
March 11, 2005
Jerry Fresia
Targeting
Giuliana
Ron Jacobs
Making Lebensraum in the Middle East for Tel Aviv's Fears &
Washington's Dollars
Dave Lindorff
America's Magical Kingdom
William James
Martin
Ben Gurion and the Origin of the "Pushing into the Sea"
Myth
Muqtedar Khan
Modi's Operandi: American Business and Genocide Linked Again
Kathryn Ledebur
Bolivia
on the Brink
Mike Whitney
Saddam's Capture: Just Another Bush Lie?
Dave Zirin
Neo-McCarthyism
Slugs Baseball
Website of the Day
William Rivers Pitt, Another Hack for the Occupation
March 10, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
So
Much for the New Bush Economy
John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith
Vermont Vs. the War
Larry Birns
The Pathological John Bolton
Michael Donnelly
The Re-Reinvention of an Oregon Timber Beast
Luis Gomez
In Bolivia, Reality Changes Once Again
Jackie Corr
Whatever Happened to the Social Security Trust Fund?
Uri Avnery
Bush's Guru: Natan Sharansky
Website of the Day
Red Alert in the Siskiyous!
March 9, 2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Dirty
Harry's Fear of Flying: Making Love, War and Profits at Boeing
Ward Churchill
Who's the Terrorist?
Robert Fisk
Another Species of Cedar: a Half Million Lebanese March for Syria
Bernice Powell Jackson
No Justice for America's Nuclear Guinea Pigs in the Marshall
Islands
Mickey Z.
The Revolutionary of Potential Art
Dave Zirin
NHL Says: "Bring On the Scabs!"
Michael Donnelly
Standing Up to Ecocide in Oregon
James Reiss
Stopping by Words in Favor of Privatizing Social Security
Vijay Prashad
Get
Modi: a State Terrorist Visits Florida
March 8, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Syrian Delusion
Robert Fisk
Lebanon's Nightmare
Kurt Nimmo
War is Peace: John Bolton to the UN
Suzan Mazur
Time for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Polygamy?
Evelyn Pringle
Neil Bush and Crest: Another Profiteering Scheme
Giuliana Sgrena
My
Truth: "The Americans Don't Want You to Return"
Elaine Cassel
The Appalling Case of Abu Ali
March 7, 2005
Dave Zirin
Bloodlust
in Annapolis: Gov. Ehrlich Wants to Kill Vernon Lee Evans
Brian Cloughley
More War Crimes
John Chuckman
The
Creature Walks Among Us
Mike Whitney
Jose Padilla and the 10 Commandments
Mark Weisbrot
Haiti's Torment: Why Are US Human Rights Groups Silent?
Fred Gardner
The Cannabinoid Messenger
Richard Neville
The Italian Job
Uri Avnery
The
Next Crusades
March 5 / 6,
2005
Alexander Cockburn
Arnold
vs. the Nurses
Gary Leupp
What's Happening in Lebanon: an Interview with Fadi Agha, Advisor
to President Lahoud
Ron Jacobs
Lies Military Recruiters Tell
Tom Reeves
Haiti: One Year After the Coup
Jenna Orkin
Memories of Kawaggi, Saudi Arabia
Tom Barry
Negroponte: Intel Czar or Policy Hack?
Joshua Frank
The Trials of Max Baucus
Moshe Adler
When Pfizer Came to New London: Corporate Giveways vs. Eminent
Domain
Jane Stillwater
My Jury Questionnaire: "Do You Agree that a Corporation
is a Person?"
Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir
Double Standards on S. Africa and Israel: an Open Letter to UNESCO
Christopher
Brauchli
Target: Al Jazeera
John Pilger
The Fall of Saigon: 30 Years Later
Raúl
Zibechi
Colombia: Militarism and Social Movements
David Krieger
Saving the Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreement
Three Takes
on Nepal
Surendra R. Devkota
Another Blow to the King of Nepal
Bhishma Karki
Nepal in Twilight
Joseph Pietri
Murder at the Palace
Ben Tripp
The Good Old Days
Poets' Basement
Hassen, Chief Running Late, Wuest, Albert and Collins
Website of
the Weekend
O'Shaughnessy's: All About Medical Pot
March 4, 2005
Frederick Hudson
Caught
in a Cage
March 3, 2005
Pat Williams
"Social Security Protects the Young as Much as the Old"
Brian Cloughley
Headlines, Beliefs and Deceptions
Dave Lindorff
Why Do the Democrats Pamper Greenspan?
Amira Hass
Oslo All Over Again
Greg Moses
In Oscar Texas: One Down, One to Go?
Lynne Landes
Exit Poll Madness
Nelson P. Valdés
Rapture Takes Leftists
John Ross
Mexico's
Fox Schemes to Jail Front-Running Leftist
March 2, 2005
Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen
The
"Noble Liars" Attack Syria
Mike Roselle
The State of Oregon vs. Mike Roselle: Criminalizing Environmental
Dissent
M. Junaid Alam
Columbia University and the New Anti-Semitism
Suzan Mazur
Inside the Polygamy Cults of Southern Utah
Jackson Thoreau
Texas Congressman Calls for "Nuking Syria"
Michael Donnelly
No Love for Teresa Heinz; John Edwards Gets a Pass
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Uncle
Bucky Makes a Killing
Website of the Day
The Ghosts of Karl Marx & Ed Abbey
March 1, 2005
Scott Richard
Lyons
Million
Dollar Bigotry
David Lindorff
Stealing Workers' Pensions
Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders
Bloodbath in Iraq
Ron Jacobs
The Last Poets Recalled
Tanya Garcia
USA Next: the Industry Front Group to Privatize Social Security
Joseph Pietri
The Drug Trail Ends in Kathmandu: Golden Tar Heroin and the Black
Prince
Kona Lowell
Woody: Broken in Vietnam
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Coming End of the American Superpower
Website of
the Day
Petition: No US Intervention in Iran
February 28,
2005
Gary Leupp
Year
4 in the Five Year Plan: a June Attack on Iran?
Bill Quigley
Haitian Police Open Fire on Nonviolent Marchers
Mickey Z.
The
Million Dollar Interview: Mary Johnson on Clinton Eastwood, Hunter
Thompson and the "Right to Die"
Paul de Rooij
Why
Ted Honderich is Wrong on All Counts About Israel
David Swanson
Basic Income Guarantee Versus the Corp Media
Mario Lamo
Jimenez
Maria
Full of Cultural Contradictions at the Oscars
Emma Perez
The Attacks on Ward Churchill: a Test Case in the Neocons Purge
of Academia
Diana Johnstone
Censorship
and the Empire
Website of the Day
Stop the War Campaign!
February 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
An
American Jew Laments Decline in Jewish Influence
Noam Chomsky
Nuclear
Terror at Home
Rev. William E. Alberts
Rhetoric in the Air; Reality on the Ground
Fred Gardner
AARP Gets Pot-Baited
Gary Leupp
Bush and Camus on Freedom
Saul Landau
An Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon (Part 3): the Miami
Mafia
Robin Philpot
Second Thoughts on the Hotel Rwanda
Yitkhak Laor
In Praise of the Facts
Ben Tripp
Out of Sight; Out of Mind
Justin Taylor
Zizek Seen Over the Handlebars
Jack Random
The Wounds from Wounded Knee
Rafael Renteria
Ward Churchill and White America
Jim B.
Reflections on the Eve of Fatherhood
Seth DeLong
Land Reform in Venezuela: More Like Lincoln Than Lenin
John Chuckman
A Season of Depressing Political Reruns
Alison Weir
Relativity, LA Times Style
Richard Oxman
Political Solitude: From Garcia Marquez to Maria Full of Grace
Dr. Susan Block
It Always Rains in California: All About Female Ejaculation
Poets' Basement
Landau, Lowell, Louise, Davies, Soderstrom, Norris & Albert
February 25,
2005
Roger Burbach
Murder
in the Amazon
Behzad Yaghmaian
Iranian Distrust of America: 50 Years in the Making
Kurt Nimmo
Conclave of the Brats
Joshua Frank
Diagnosing the Green Party
John Farley
How to Stop the War in Iraq: Punish Pro-War Politicians
Lawrence Reichard
The D'Aubuisson Memorial: Flowers of Evil
Pratyush Chandra
The Royal Coup in Nepal and Global Imperialist Designs
David Smith-Ferri
When
the Battlefield has No Borders
Website of
the Day
The 2005 Election in 3-D
February 24,
2005
Omar Waraich
The
Galloway Saga: Smearing an Anti-War Politician
Brian Cloughley
Bribing and Twisting Amerian Journalists: Valerie Plame &
30 Pieces of Silver
Tom Wright
Torture Nation: Abu Ghraib, a Year Later
Sharon Smith
The Anti-War Movement After Kerry: Learning All the Wrong Lessons
Dave Lindorff
Do These Roosting Chickens Have Flu?
Fred Feldman
Lynching Ward Churchill
James Reiss
On Hearing About a Plot to Assassinate President Bush
Diane Christian
Bad
Blood: Ritual & Sexual Torture in Iraq
Website of
the Day
The Gray Line
February 23,
2005
Werther
The
Poisoned Well: What the CIA's Nazi Files Can Tell Us About Iraq
W. John Green
A Salvador Option for Iraq? How Negroponte Changes the Ground
Rules
James Petras
A New Face to Bush Foreign Policy?
Conn Hallinan
Cornering the Dragon: the Return of the China Lobby
Joe Pietri
Cannabis: the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs (For Consumers and
Cops)
Louis Proyect
Hunter Thompson and the "New" Journalism
Alexander Cockburn
Hunter
S. Thompson and Gonzo
Website of
the Day
Did You Make the Blacklist? Why Not?
February 22,
2005
Naseer Aruri
The
Politics of the Hariri Assassination: Remapping the Middle East
Richard Manning
The
Economy of Hunger: Starvation is Part of the Economic Plan
William A.
Cook
Righteous
Racism Running Rampant
Paul Craig Roberts
The Agents of Instability
Ken Krayeske
Dr. Thompson is Out
Dave Zirin
How the Owners Destroyed the NHL
Kirkpatrick
Sale
Imperial
Entropy: the Collapse of the American Empire
February 21,
2005
Hunter S. Thompson
"He
Was A Crook"
John Ross
Mexico:
the Pentagon's Proxy Army in Iraq
Ward Churchill
What Did I Really Say? Why Did
I Say It?
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military Recruiting on Channel One: Geometry 101, Brought to
You by the US Navy
David Swanson
Fighting for a Living Wage, State by State
Dave Lindorff
All the News That's Fit to Fake
Stew Albert
Fear and Loathing: HST
Michael Neumann
Strategies
in Palestine: a Shrinking Pie in the Sky
February 19
/ 20, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Back
to Salem: Paul Shanley and the Return of "Recovered Memory"
Kathleen Christison
Struggling
for Justice in Palestine
Ted Honderich
On Being Persona Non Grata
Gary Leupp
Self-Hating Gays: Welcome to the White House & Welcome to
Commit Suicide
Don Santina
Reparations for the Blues
Jennifer Roesch
John Negroponte: Dirty Warrior
Scott Richard
Lyons
Ward
Churchill and the Identity Police
Chris Clarke
Ward Churchill and Liberal Outrage
George Beres
Censorship in the Land of Wayne Morse: Gagging W. Churchill in
Oregon
Harry Browne
The Belfast Heist: the Plot Unravels
Manuel Garc'a,
Jr.
Who Killed Rafik Hariri?
Mark Scaramella
Lessons from the Hidden Afghan War
Michael Donnelly
Whatever Happened to John Edwards?
John Pilger
First, They Attack the Past
Norman Madarasz
Death Wish for Reform in Brazil?
Surendra Devkota
The Monarchy in Nepal
Deborah Rich
How Anti-GMO Ballot Measures May Miss the Mark
Fred Gardner
When Dr. Tod Met Merle Haggard
CounterPunch
News Service
About King Mswati: Political Developments in Swaziland
Richard Oxman
CounterPunching Arthur Miller
Poets' Basement
Albert, Giebel, Tripp, Engel and Orkin
February 18,
2005
Ben Moxham
In
East Timor, the Nightmare Continues
Dave Lindorff
The
Scum Also Rises: the Bloody Career of John Negroponte
Larry Birns
Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Gregory Elich
N, Korea's Phantom Nukes and the US's Subversion of Diplomacy
Samuel Logan / John Meyers
The Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads
Nicole Colson
Shock and Awe on Civil Liberties: From Lynne Stewart to Ward
Churchill
Suzan Mazur
Whose National Security Are We Talking About?
Mickey Z.
"One
Man Has Stopped Killing"
February 17,
2005
Joshua Frank
Hogtying
of the Deaniacs
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media
Robert Fisk
Under
the Shadow of Death in Lebanon
Christopher
Brauchli
Where
Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military
Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be
Cannon Fodder?
Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples
the Laws It Wrote"
Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill
February 16,
2005
Robert Fisk
Lebanon:
a Battlefield for the Wars of Others
Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect
Retirement
Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...
Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration
Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff
Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities
in Texas
Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre
Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel
Website of the Day
The
World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch
February 15,
2005
CounterPunch
News Service
Dean
a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch
Robert Fisk
The
Killing of Mr. Lebanon
Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh,
We Have Come Back Again"
Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal
Mickey Z.
Radio
Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook
Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean
Nadia Martinez
Ending
World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now
Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of
Magical Thinking in Politics
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
American Job Sell Out
February 14,
2005
Robert Jensen
Ward
Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11
Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style
Patrick Cockburn
Outcome
of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War
Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?
Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?
Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood
Elaine Cassel
The
Lynne Stewart Verdict
February 12
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill's Genes
Saul Landau
Alarcon
Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nothing
to Fear But Bush Himself
Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All
Major Roads into Baghdad
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak
Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!
Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich
Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)
John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll
Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"
Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice
Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin
Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour
Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado
Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?
Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan
Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting
Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
March 14, 2005
The Ministry
of Defence in the Control Room
Did
the BBC Broadcast Fake News Reports?
By
DAVID MILLER
A Spinwatch
investigation has revealed that journalists working for the Services
Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC) have been commissioned to
provide news reports to the BBC. The BBC has been using these
reports as if they were genuine news. In fact, the SSVC is entirely
funded by the Ministry of Defence as a propaganda operation,
which according to its own website makes a 'considerable contribution'
to the 'morale' of the armed forces.
In the US, Washington has been
rocked by the scandal of fake journalists. The Bush administration
has been paying actors to produce news, paying journalists to
write propaganda, and paying Republican party members to pose
as journalists. In the UK this has been reported with our customary
shake of the head at the bizarre nature of US politics and media.
Implicitly we are relieved that, however bad things are here,
at least we are not as bad as they are.
But Spinwatch can reveal that
we have our very own fake journalists operating in the UK. The
government pays for their wages and they provide news as if they
were normal journalists rather than paid propagandists. Normally
they work in a little known outfit with the acronym BFBS, which
stands for British Forces Broadcasting Service. BFBS exists to
'entertain and inform' British armed forces around the world
and is entirely funded by the British Ministry of Defence. BFBS
is run by the SSVC. But on this occasion no mention of Ministry
of defence funding was made. She was introduced simply as a reporter
'from the British Forces Broadcasting Service' who 'has been
embedded with the Scots Guards'. As one wag inside the BBC puts
it, this suggests a process of 'double embedding', first working
for the MoD and second embedding with a regiment. The report
began:
'Route 6 is the main road North
out of Basra. It runs through the badlands of Iraq's marsh Arabs
They make a living from crime - carjackings, smuggling and murder
are common place. It's also the scene of an age old feud between
two warring tribes.' (25 November 2004)
Naturally enough, we are told
that the regiment in which the reporter is 'embedded' has resolved
these tribal problems by negotiating 'a ceasefire' following
which ' the two tribes had had their first nights sleep in several
months'.
The British Army view of the
Iraqi people can be less than sympathetic. The army crackdown
on looting early in the occupation was codenamed 'Operation Ali
Baba' after the folk tale 'Ali Baba and the forty thieves'. Issuing
orders for Operation Ali Baba the commanding officer gave what
the Army now acknowledges was an illegal order to 'work them
hard'. This led predictably to torture, only discovered when
some brave soul in a photo developing shop reported the resulting
record of abuse to the police. The view of the Iraq population
as thieves is evidently shared by both torturers and propagandists.
There were interviews with
five separate British soldiers including one with a 'master sniper'
brought in to counter resistance attacks on the Iraqi police.
But there are no interviews with any Iraqis. The report concludes
with a straight forward piece of propaganda for the occupation:
'While the Scots Guards remain the ceasefire is likely to hold
strong. There's been little trouble in the area since the peace
was brokered and the ceasefire has been extended to December
the first. But the Iraqi police and national guard still lack
confidence and credibility to keep the peace on their own and
should the fighting resume, the governor of Basra has given the
go ahead for the Scots Guards to use more force to make route
6 safe again.' Even although the report has itself hinted that
the fighting is targetting the occupation, we are left with the
extraordinary statement that the army in illegal ocupation of
Iraq is actually a 'peacekeeping' force.
According to the editor of
Good Morning Scotland the piece 'was a bit a of a one-off because
she happened to have been embedded with the Royal Scots.
Until a few months ago Martha was a correspondent here
at BBC Scotland (had been for several years) and is
therefore a journalist we know and trust. 'It
was quite an unsual commission'. Unusual indeed, but not unique.
Further inquiries by Spinwatch have revealed that another item
from a different BFBS journalist was broadcast on Radio Scotland
on Christmas day 2004. Insiders at BBC Scotland are livid about
this, indeed several have contacted Spinwatch to pass on their
concerns. One reports that colleagues have remarked on the 'complete
lack of balance' of the piece and one described it as 'an audio
press release for the Army'.*
But were the BBC right to say
that the journalist concerned was one 'we know and trust'? Certainly
there has been a significant wave of journalists from the mainstream
media signing up to work for the government since the election
of the Blair government. Alastair Campbell is only the most famous.
BBC journalists too have made the transition to propagandist
as in the example of Mark Laity who became a spin doctor at NATO
from whom no further work was commissioned..
The BBC editor claimed in defence
that 'I should stress too that BFBS is not controlled by the
MOD. It is funded by them in much the same way the
BBC World Service is funded by the Foreign Office. Their
journalists are actually employed by the SSVC, the Services
Sound and Vision Corporation, which is a charitable organisation
with editorial independence from the MoD.' (email to the author,
December 2004)
This is not quite accurate.
A quick visit to the website of the Services Sound and Vision
Corporation (SSVC) which is the parent of the BFBS reveals that
'Our work makes a considerable contribution to the maintenance
of the efficiency and morale of the three Services. Our activities
are carried out directly for the Ministry of Defence. Any profits
are donated towards Forces' welfare.' Whatever might be said
about the World Service relationship with the Foreign Office,
it has not ever been accused of donating its profits to the welfare
of Britain's diplomats. The notion that the SSVC which is wholly
funded by the MoD serves any other purpose than propaganda is
fanciful.
The BBC editor also noted:
'Nonetheless we did flag up in the cue that she was embedded
for the BFBS.' They did indeed, but very few radio listeners
are familiar with what the BFBS is. This is true of the whole
network of propaganda agencies in the UK is little known, but
anyone with an internet connection can find out about the organisations
involved. The Foreign Office runs a network of fake news operations
and has done for years. In recently times these have been contracted
out to private production companies with the helpful effect that
the government funding is further camouflaged. They have also
been extended markedly to focus more cetnrally on the middle
east since 2001. One such is the London Press Service which is
described as follows on the government I-uk site: 'an agency
offering the latest British headline news, news round-ups, features
and pictures for use by journalists overseas.'
This is a rather coy way to
describe a government propaganda service. Click on its website
for an admission of the defining feature of this whole network
of agencies; that the news on the site 'is for free use by journalists'.
Look in vain for an indication of who really funds this service.
All you will see is a notice at the bottom of the home page :
'The london Press Service is operated and maintained by Intelfax
Ltd.' Intelfax is in turn an independent production company but
the London Press Service is funded entirely by the Foreign Office.
Or take the example of British
Satellite News (BSN) broadcast for free over the Reuters World
News Service. According to its website, BSN 'is a free television
news and features service, which provides you with coverage of
worldwide topical events and stories from a British perspective.
Our dedicated team of experienced television journalists specialise
in producing topical stories that inform and entertain a global
audience. ' Again not much in the way of a clue that this is
a fake news site. BSN is run by a company called World Television
which does work for the BBC such as the live coverage of the
TUC conference and also works for multinationals such as GSK
and Nestle. The Foreign Office helpfully tells us that BSN has
'a particular focus on the Arab/Islamic world.' It also mentions
that BSN 's fake news 'is currently used by 35 broadcasters in
the Middle East and over 440 worldwide.' The secret of all this
material is that it is not only free to use but that it is used
as if it was genuine news and not British propaganda.
The UK is awash with fake news,
of which the examples here are only a taste, it is just that
we don't pay much attention to it. The American scandals over
fake news are played out against the background of some pretty
clear laws forbidding propaganda with a disguised source within
the borders of the US. There are no laws forbidding fake news
in the UK. Perhaps we needs some.
* Comments to the author
from a BBC staffer, who, not unnaturally, prefers to remain anonymous,
January 2005.
David Miller is the editor of Spinwatch. He can
be reached at: davidmiller@strath.ac.uk
Transcript follows:
_____________________________________
Good Morning Scotland, BBC
Radio Scotland, 25 November 2004
Presenter 1: Soldiers from
the Black Watch regiment in Iraq have carried out a major raid
against suspected insurgents in villages on the banks of the
Euphrates. The raid involving 500 troops was one of the largest
British operations since the end of the Iraq war last year.
Presenter 2: Meanwhile the
Scots Guards have successfully negotiated a ceasefire between
two warring tribes just weeks into their tour of duty in Iraq.
The soldiers were called in after fighting flared along the main
road north out of Basra. Operation Energise aimed to stop the
violence which has been affecting transport and communications
to and from Basra City. Martha Fairley from the British Forces
Broadcasting Service has been embedded with the Scots Guards.
Martha Fairley: Route 6 is
the main road north out of Basra. It runs through the badlands
of Iraq's marsh Arabs They make a living from crime - carjackings,
smuggling and murder are common place. It's also the scene of
an age old feud between two warring tribes. The Garamsha and
Al Halaf (sp?) kept a low profile during Saddam's regime. But
recently the fighting's flared up again and the warriors and
tanks of the Scots Guards and Royal Dragoon Guards were brought
in as a show of force and as Sergeant Jason Manassi from the
Scots Guard has discovered they are also a source of fascination
for hoards of local people.
Jason Manassi: There's a lot
of people obviously trying to get involved but it's not in a
bad way -they are -I really think they don't mean any harm at
this stage. However we still need to be on our toes. We're at
the moment doing a re-supply. We are showing a bit of force at
the moment sending troops up all the time. It is working but
I think they are more inquisitive as opposed to hostile at this
present moment which is good, which is good.
We travelled with a convoy
of Scots Guards bringing supplies and fuel to the troops stationed
along route 6. The Iraqi police have set up vehicle checkpoints
along the road to try and control the violence and while they're
stopping and checking the vehicles, the British forces are providing
them with the support and credibility they need. But even after
the arrival of the Scots Guards there's been a murder on this
stretch of road. The second checkpoint we stop at is Beruki camp.
The Iraqi police service have a station here and the policemen
proudly show off their uniforms and weapons as we arrive. But
they fear for their safety. Three of their colleagues have been
killed by a sniper here in recent months. Scots Guards master
sniper Robert Milton set up an operation to find the gunman who's
thought to be holed up a mile away
Robert Milton: There's a sniper,
enemy sniper within the buildings to our front, just behind and
we're here to take him on basically. And it gives them reassurance
on the ground that we're here to take out this person if we can
find him.
MF: We return to route 6 the
following morning a ten day cease fire had just been negotiated
by the Scots Guards and the two tribes had had their first nights
sleep in several months. Commanding officer Colonel Harry Nicoson
says persuading them to come to the negotiating table was relatively
easy.
Harry Nicoson: If you've got
an armoured battle group and you plonk it in the middle of their
village you tend to get their attention quite quickly and that
is what happened. They immediately came up and spoke to us, we
had two separate meetings brokered the cease fire with both sides
and told them that if they didn't stick to it then we would come
and sort them out or words to that effect and that's where we've
got to at the moment. So we're now waiting for them to take it
forward, set up their own meetings, led by Iraqis to now try
and find some sort of solution to this problem.
MF: Meanwhile some of the heavy
armour has been rolled back as this tentative peace unfolds.
For Lance Corporals Stewart Thorpe and Ian McGinty it's been
their first chance to get out on operation since they arrived
in Iraq last month.
Stewart Thorpe: Basically we're
just sat in a static location. The Iraqi police are doing their
vehicle checkpoints and we're just showing a presence on the
ground. If anything does happen we're there to respond to it.
Ian McGinty: What we've seen
so far is the people are quite friendly they come and talk to
us there's no problems there but the threat's always out there
so we just have to wait and see and bide our time sort of thing
and keep safe. You just have to keep your wits about you, make
sure the guys are doing their job and that and make sure you're
doing your own job as well.
MF: While the Scots Guards
remain the ceasefire is likely to hold strong. There's been little
trouble in the area since the peace was brokered and the ceasefire
has been extended to December the first. But the Iraqi police
and national guard still lack confidence and credibility to keep
the peace on their own and should the fighting resume, the governor
of Basra has given the go ahead for the Scots Guards to use more
force to make route 6 safe again.
Martha Fairley reporting from
Basra city it's 8.42
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