COVERAGE OF CIVILIAN DEATH DOWNPLAYED

ISRAELI LOBBY UNDER INVESTIGATION

WMD OPENS IN THREE CITIES TONIGHT

OOPS: First, an apology or at least an explanation. To save money and be more efficient, MediaChannel shifted to new service provider. When the moment of truth came for them to push the magic button and send the Dissector blog flying through cyberspace yesterday, their technology got a bit overexcited. All of our subscribers received THREE copies. And did some of you ever let me know it. Sorry, I ‘m the guy down in the engine room pumping up the words, not pushing out the product. We hear you. We are on it, as they say.

IT AIN’T ME BABE

It’s December 3, anniversary of Union Carbide’s Bhopal disaster (4000 dead). CNN is reporting that 44% of the American people are medicated. This is your country. This is your country on drugs. On this day, CBS released excerpts of an interview with Bob Dylan, his first on TV in 19 years, (I think I produced his last one for 20/20.) That’s a story I will tell you one day. Dylan now pronounces: ”

“I never wanted to be a prophet or a savior,” Dylan says, according to extracts of the interview released by CBS on Thursday. “Elvis maybe. I could see myself becoming him. But prophet? No.” (CNN)

I am crushed.

KERIK TO HOMELAND SECURITY

Bernie Kerik, former top cop of the NYPD and Rudy G’s boy (Rudy said he was too busy because of his new career as an investment banker) was nominated to replace Tom Ridge at Homeland Security. Kerik went to Iraq to train police there (A success?) and campaigned for President Bush. (A success!) Anyone read the 911 report on all the screw-ups with the radios that his cops had on 911 and in his operation. Never mind. Poof: he’s now another certified “Hero.” What is it that rises?

DEMOCRACY DEAD IN OHIO?

For an update, see…

C-span’s interview with Cliff Arnebeck, National Co-Chairman for the Alliance for Democracy and counsel in the lawsuit challenging the presidential election in Ohio. He discusses the legal challenges to the 2004 vote in Ohio, indicating both voter suppression and fraud. They are actually challenging the election in OH, asking that the results be thrown out.

http://tinyurl.com/5twqz

FALLUJAH AND THE TALMUD

Did you know that Fallujah was the birthplace of the Talmud.Neither did I. The Shalom Report, a progressive Jewish site notes: “Fred Astren, professor of Jewish studies at San Francisco State University, writes on the Jewish-studies listserve —

“While recently reviewing lecture notes on early medieval messianism, I realized that Fallujah is Pumbeditha (re: the messiah of Pallughta).

“Pumbeditha, one of the great centers of Jewish learning 1800 years ago in “Babylonia,” one of the centers where Talmud Bavli and Rabbinic Judaism were shaped. Where great teachers and great students wove words into a civilization.

“Falluja, the city of 300,000 people just shattered by the US military in a war created and continued by lies. Words woven into bloodshed and destruction.

US TROOPS ADMIRE “INSURGENTS”

Speaking of Fallujah, Tom Lasseter of Knight Ridder, the best US news organization when it comes to covering Iraq, reports “U.S. troops marveled at the tenacity of insurgents in a cat-and-mouse pursuit in Fallujah…

‘’It’s intense, that’s about all there is to say,'’ said Spc. John Bandy, 23, of Little Rock, Ark. “The determination these guys have against our forces, these little bands of guys shooting at tanks, it’s almost admirable.'’

‘’We trained to fight a country with armor on a field,'’ Laird said. “These guys shoot at us, drop their weapons and become a civilian again.'’

www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/10317451.htm?1c

Meanwhile Jeffrey Sachs indicts our media for not reporting on the massacre of civilians.

“Evidence is mounting that America’s war in Iraq has killed tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and perhaps well over 100,000. Yet this carnage is systematically ignored in the United States, where the media and government portray a war in which there are no civilian deaths, because there are no Iraqi civilians, only insurgents.

“American behavior and self-perceptions reveal the ease with which a civilized country can engage in large-scale killing of civilians without public discussion.”

INFO DOMINANCE

One reason for the blackout is the way the Pentagon uses psychological operations strategies to deceive the media and the public. As I have mentioned, I spoke with Sam Gardiner, a retured Airforce colonel who studies this in my film WMD. Sam was just on Democracy Now discussing this…

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain this idea of psy-ops, psychological operations, how it’s used abroad and what’s happening now at home?

SAM GARDINER: Well, Amy, this has a very long tradition in the U.S. Military and in militaries in the world which is the notion that you use bad information or distorted information to target the enemy. Up until probably about 15 years ago, that notion was meant that it would be done on the battlefield. It became a growing idea within the military of a thing called information warfare which was sort of the concept that you would bring it outside the battlefield. And what’s happened, and this is what’s so serious, is that it has now been taken into the public airways and we can’t tell whether or not we are getting the truth from the military or psychological operations. …

MERCENARIES WANTED

Al Jazeera reports that mercenaries from many countries are now in Iraq. Why? Big Bucks.

“Huge pay drawing NZ soldiers to Iraq

“Security jobs paying up to $216,000 a year in Iraq are proving too strong a lure for New Zealand soldiers.

“Defense chief Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson said on Thursday that almost a quarter of army staff with less than six years experience had left to become contractors in the Middle East.

“They’re leaving because they’re getting $200,000 and $300,000 a year to go across and be security guards [in Iraq].

“The salaries are huge. I just can’t compete,” he told parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee.

http://tinyurl.com/3sh4q

WHAT OTHERS SEE OF US

While Americans are getting uncritical coverage of US actions, overseas there is another media frame. Adam McConnel reports from Turkey:

“Something good happening here, especially since the election: Bush’s evangelical ties have been receiving some serious attention in the Turkish press. Last weekend a major Turkish daily, Sabah, had a full-page article on Bush and the evangelists; last week CNN Turk showed (3 times, in prime time) a CNN documentary about the evangelistic movement in the States. News discussion shows have been picking up the topic . . .”

FBI RAIDS ISRAEL LOBBY

Ha’aretz the Israeli newspaper reports:

“Four members of the AIPAC pro-Israel lobbying group have been served with subpoenas to appear before a grand jury as the FBI investigates whether Israel had a high-level spy in the Pentagon, AIPAC said on Wednesday.

“Federal Bureau of Investigation agents conducted searches Wednesday in AIPAC offices, as part of the investigation into suspicions that senior AIPAC officials received classified information from Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, and transferred that information to Israel.

“The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said the FBI visited its offices to request files related to two employees, Steve Rosen and Keith Weisman, and served four others with subpoenas. The four were identified as Howard Core, Richard Fishman, Rene Rofting and Ravidan Zinger.

“AIPAC said it was cooperating with the investigation. “We believe any court of law or grand jury will conclude that AIPAC employees have always acted legally, properly and appropriately,” it said.

CHINA: COMMUNIST PARTY UNDER ATTACK

The Chinese language newspaper The Epoch Times published the first of “Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party.” These commentaries begin a discussion with the millions of readers of the Chinese language editions of The Epoch Times around the world about the imminent end of the CCP. The commentaries argue that the Chinese people need to understand the true history of the CCP and the reasons for its inevitable demise.

The Commentaries are being published in English on the English Epoch Times website, with the first one posted yesterday (www.theepochtimes.com).

YOUR LETTERS: ON THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Bob Johnson of Ocala, Fl comments on the experience of Sally Vitamvas, one of our readers who ran for office in Iowa:

“Interesting, as the same thing happened in the 6th CD of VA (Goodlatte’s district) when a group of us tried to put forth a candidate to run (however forlornly) against Goodlatte. I could not believe the stonewalling and roadblocking the Dem party put in his way. This is more than just disarray, although the VA Dems certainly are just that. The party is pathetic and I tend to blame two elements: left over segregationist Dems and the DLC.

“Now that I moved to north Florida, I am just as disappointed. But then I never believed either of the parties have the slightest interest in democracy and the people. It seems more than ever that it is all about money and we all know that corporations have the bulk of the nation’s available money. If they were honest (and perhaps they are among themselves) the motto of our political system is “Screw the People, Power to the rich Few”.

Ed Devitt writes from Mesquite, Texas:

“The government has gone from trying to dismantle the television conglomerate in the 50’s to enthusiastically advocating HDTV. Why? I’m sure that it is just a product of my vivid imagination, but perhaps there are chips in these HDTV’s that will alert Big Brother to what you watch, when you watch and where you watch. Of course, this is just my perspective. Please try to have a good day.”

ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF DENMARK

Last night I ran into Pentagon Papers leaker Dan Ellsberg and told him about a report Pia Raug shared with us about a Danish whistleblower who was convicted for leaking a military document,. He was shocked. Now Pia writes again:

“We are considering giving Grevil a courage prize. Both his defense lawyer and the prosecutor chose to appeal the sentence yesterday. The one for a longer term, and Grevil off course for acquittal. People I have talked to all day were shocked and disgusted. We have been so privileged always to be able to trust the independence of our court system. No more. It is good that you had a chance to tell Ellsberg. People of their kind of ethics and courage must be told how grateful we are, that they carry the brother part of society’s cowardice on their shoulders. They need to be told. That they are not alone. And we are grateful.

“More people today have also seen and commented with gratitude on your posting my letter in your blog yesterday.”

FRANCE IN THE HOUSE

Tim Carlson writes from Paris:

“Thanks for your great film, and the chance to see it in Paris! Two thoughts on the problem of strategies to adopt in current America:

“1. Many Americans appear to have lost the ability to distinguish among various audiovisual materials: ads, news items, fiction, public service announcements, etc. As usual the Republicans are way out in front of the Dems in exploiting this blindness, an excellent example being the White House infomercials pumping the Pres’ Medicare “reform”. But there are ethical problems with this tactic anyway, and progressive forces need to find a way to open up some real dialogue that can cut through these dangerous confusions. (I sometimes wonder if the distinction disability is correlated to the eternally increasing number of hours per day Americans spend watching TV — perhaps the one medium or cultural form where the less one is exposed to it the better a critic one is equipped to be.)

“2. What has settled upon America seems to be what the French call “a dialogue of the deaf”. The Brokaw snippet in your film has a grain of truth; everyone has their media and there’s a media voice for every position. But major media are supposed to somehow rise above this to sponsor debate, no? (The current situation looks like what you get after two or three decades of “single issue” politics, a regrettable invention.) What might a red-blue colored debate space look like? The new spate of documentaries is at least taking the debate to the movies, which may well be an improvement over leaving it on TV. Even the marvels of the Internet, indisputably useful for the “new politics”, haven’t yet found a way to get messages out beyond the perimeter. For me this is one of the biggest questions we are facing…”

WHITHER TOLERANCE?

I had a troubling note from an old friend who advises that she will not read my blog anymore because of my coverage of Arafat’s death:

“After your blog regarding Arafat some weeks ago I don’t read it anymore. How do I get off the list?” To unsubscribe, visit the MediaChannel-by-Email page (www.mediachannel.org/email/) if you must. I wish you wouldn’t. Note that the lead commentary I ran was from an Israeli journalist.

Darryl Bowles writes from Spain:

“This could be interesting in light of the Bushite plan to privatize the Social security system. They are already admitting that they are going to have to borrow a huge amount to pay the present pensioners what is due them but the question is: from who? With the dollar in free fall and with all the economic experts, including the ones close to Bush, saying it is going to have to go even lower who in their right mind would loan the American Government more money?

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=589199

Your points about the media are right on as usual and what irony. Rather gets the chop over some apparently forged documents although the content of them has never been refuted by Bush &Co. while the wicked witch of the West, Condi Rice who waved the “Yellow cake” documents in everyone’s face although knowing full well they were forgeries, gets a promotion. So now we have a Bush lapdog that just happens to be an oil executive in real life( If such a thing still exists in today’s Washington.) in charge in of foreign relations, another in the office of attorney general that believes the Geneva convention does not apply to Bush and that the constitution is not applicable to anyone who Bush or the pentagon says is a terrorist and now, an ex police chief who was quite willing to lock up any one who protested against Bush’s presence in New York. And a full scale media attack on Annan (Guess who is behind this?) who had the temerity to say Bush’s war was illegal. And now Tenent says the internet has to be controlled. The future bodes ill methinks.

PS:if you have time you might explain to Adam McConnel that I said nothing about living in Turkey of which I know very little. What I wrote about was life in a Turkish military prison. Not exactly the same thing I can assure him. (I would reply directly to Adam but I have no way of doing so.)

WE ARE FAMILY

Wendi Meremark writes from Oregon:

“Reached, then, to read Bill’s Boston Globe article. Nice polish. (Did you know ‘polish’ is the only English word that changes pronunciation when it’s capitalized?)

“Sweet story, and so common, and so much that is common is sweet but our hurly-burly fashion steps on it. My father-in-law came from same place and same time, and even after I was legitimately ‘family’ he did not tell details, all in avoidance, but, and, did not tell others — his wife, children — so it wasn’t personal against me, and in not saying came to forget what to say and no longer knew. Details.

“He changed his spelled name, and had a younger brother he disowned. The brother’s daughter was Miss Arizona, one detail that communicated, but her (original) name was not told and is not known.

So odd that it is a reflex to speak one’s own genealogy immediately on hearing another’s.

“The families of the world are so few and so close and, veritably, we are all brothers, cousin. Reunion experiences contain the strongest subjective sense of the social science finding that any two people in USSA (I steal that from you) are less than 3 degrees of separation — two random American citizens, each has a friend and those two friends have a mutual friend: that’s 3 people between any two people, 3 ‘degrees’ — and any two humans on earth less than 4 degrees of separation. Which is all GeeWhiz science when one reads the statistic, and turns into hearts and hands and life divine when one knows related strangers half-a-world, half-a-century away. In one thought, all is diaspora, all is lost, ever since out-of-Africa and for everyone, not just Jews. In the other thought, One World, One Love. All is found: we are family.

“As I read along, I kept retrieving my wandering attention to listen to the Family Secret story. Retrieving it from chasing down parallels between your grandmother’s family’s kept memories of dictators and war and suffering, and the memories being born today in Arab families as victims of US dictator and war and suffering. Danny, the ensuing karma of the scourge of this moron does not leave my thoughts. I can feel it constantly.

I haven’t slept an innocent’s sleep in months, since I found the photo proving the pentagon was not hit by Flt.77, really, and all became secondary to stopping the US invasion and stopping the 9/11 myth. “All” includes sleeping, eating, breathing, the usual. That is the preoccupied mind which was reading your family story but thinking about Arab grandmothers and their sister’s kids (kids) blown apart for generations all and only only only for this psychopathic family-phobic who is celebrated on the ignorance of mass-hypnotized TV-anaesthetized ‘average’ Americans. I cry and cry and cry. I shout the reggae: So much trouble in the world. There’s so much trouble in the world.

“And all that is in Bill’s essay.”

LOVE THAT DIRTY WATER

I am off to Boston to attend the opening of WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception) at the Landmark theater in Kendall Square, Cambridge. I was doing press all of yesterday and want to share an interview in the Boston Phoeniz:
www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/this_just_in/documents/04301667.asp

I also did a piece for Filmmaker’s magazine website:
www.filmmakermagazine.com/archives/online_features/weapons_of_mass.php

All of these reports and information about openings in Austin and Denver are on line at www.wmdthefilm.com.

BRAND X

Craig Whipps writes:

“I just sent you an email from your website. In it, I tried to warn you about IMDB using your name to sell a right wing propaganda film entitled:

“Weapon of Mass Destruction: the Murderous Reign of Saddam Hussein”

“Here’s the link:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402577/

“I accidentally picked it up at my local video store.

“I couldn’t believe my luck–I thought it was your new movie “Weapons of Mass Deception” which I thought wasn’t due to be released until late December. I ran home and plopped it in the DVD. Right away, something looked wrong.

I found this on Google:
www.christiancinema.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=663

It especially pisses me off because today on the news we had the L.A. Times story about the government using psyops on us, and this Orwell thing is way past the metaphor stage.

I mean, come on, when do we just come out and say it:

Big Brother is watching you!

“The Fahrenhype 9/11 thing is just as ridiculous but I didn’t warn Michael because he’s big enough to take care of himself. I figure you aren’t backed by the major studios, you need to know.

“Hope you get it all straightened out.

“A huge fan of the Dissector”

Thanks Craig. Our WMD DVD will come out when our theatrical run is over–and it is just getting going. If you live in Boston, Austin or Denver, come see the film. Stay informed about WMD at www.wmdthefilm.com

Have a great weekend. You can reach me at dissector@mediachannel.org