November 2002 – Citizen Reporter

There is much to speak about regarding S-Korea, N-Korea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Equador…. but let the focus first stay with Iraq. Beyond just speaking about Iraq, what really needs to be spoken about is the American mainstream media’s state-run pro-war campaign.

There is fundamentally no difference between the behavior of the press in China and the United States of America. The only difference is one is state sponsored censorship and the other is self-censorship…. either way the news you receive ignores facts that could change public perception of a conflict.

For every sentence about Iraq in the Washington Post there is a cynical editorialized sentence. A writer will say “Iraq has fully coorperated with UN inspectors” and then there’ll be a comma “, for now.” As if this reporter knows the future, they throw in their opinion that war is eminent. Heres that example… the writer is Rajiv Chandrasekaran who has a “military matters” column:

HEADLINE: Inspectors Get Red Carpet in Iraq — So Far

The headline alone says it all. This is a pro-war journalist… and shouldn’t be read as objective or even balanced in his reporting. Essentially he works for the American military, for free.

FACT: Bush wants war.

FACT: Iraq is coorperating in the inspections in an enthusiastic manner

FACT: EVERY AMERICAN MEDIA OUTLET is already talking about war as if it’s a reality.

“It means that terror organizations and the regimes behind them are able to arm themselves with weapons which can cause mass casualties anywhere and everywhere,” Netanyahu said. “Today, they’re firing the missiles at Israeli planes, tomorrow they’ll fire missiles at American planes, British planes, every country’s aircraft. Therefore, there can be no compromise with terror.”

This is the empty and devious comment by Israeli foreign minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the attacks in Kenya against Israeli tourists. Notice how at first, he states the obvious…. terrorism is international… WHAT A BREAKTHROUGH! Then he points out that they can hurt alot of people.. again.. true genious. Then, notice how he cleverly ties in two important supporters on the so-called “war on terrorism”, tomorrow it could be americans or brits…. notice he didnt say Brazilians or Chinese…. no.. his goal was to specifically remind the two allies that they must spend more money on arresting and bombing impoverished people, and to give more $$ and military equip. to Israel. A truely scarey man. As this is written, he is trying to seem more to the right than the granddaddy of right-wing Ariel Sharon.

The only ray of hope is Labor’s Amram Mitzna… a man interested in peace and not stupid hardline military violence that has so far led to… lets see… oh.. a much more stable Israel indeed.

A 52 year old British UN worker was killed by the Israeli military last friday. He was inside a clearly marked UN building. He was working on a 20 million+ dollar project to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp which the Israeli “Defence” Force demolished in their anti-terrorism campaign last spring. According to the IDF, the soldiers mistook his celullar phone for a grenade. Shot him dead… According to more IDF statments, there were militants inside the compound. How did they know? They didn’t. It’s an easy excuse… “Oh.. he knew a terrorist…. Oh we thought he was going to set off a bomb” the Israeli military is free to do whatever they want and encouraged to kill whomever they can, this is a clear illustration of that fact. The UN has rejected the statenments by the IDF, saying there were absolutely no militants in the building.

If any other country did such a thing… killing a UN worker.. they would be slapped with sactions, they would be condemned, and if the US had any say in it.. they would be invaded! SO.. where are all the cries for justice? OH wait… its Israel… number one ally of the United States…. I guess it was just an accident.

The international community should demand nothing less than SANCTIONS! An apology! A Full investigation! And a TRIAL! For the soldiers and their superiors!

Flag of Convenience

Well… the Spanish government, as usual, has been completely impotent do defend Galicia from the toxic black poison that has hit the shores all over that region. Aznar has proven once and for all, to be one of the worst prime ministers in Spain’s history… the man has no plans for anything except arresting people who don’t follow his politics.

Local governments have tried setting up those floating bueys that are supposed to block the oil, but the ocean is so rough that the waves are going right over these barriers. The slick is making its way into the Minho River in northern Portugal. The EU is unacceptably taking forever to respond! This is precisely when a rapid reaction military force could be put to use… send them instantly to stop the oil slick. with all the guns and bombs – all they know how to do is destroy, they are rarely used to protect and serve.

The boat was registered in Bahamas. The government of Bahamas will be one of the first to be taken to trial if there is any justice on this planet! An American company was the last to inspect the ship, that company is the second entity to be taken to court, they let that ship sail! The European Parliament balked on a bill to ban ships like the prestige from sailing because they didnt want to hurt oil prices, the ENTIRE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT must be taken before a world court, charged with endangering the planet and destroying the lives of EU citizens. This should be war… this is truely terror!

International Oil Crime

There were no words, listening to the BBC this evening, to describe the horror. How many thousands of barrells of oil? The ship has split in two? The ship has sunk to the bottom of the ocean? Black waves crashing the Galician coast? Birds and shellfish unable to perform basic survival functions?

This is truely terror. And it’s barely news in some places. Some British expert tried to explain on BBC worldservice, that we really don’t know if its “a disaster”…. right… not a disaster sir.. we can categorize it as just a… mistake… or.. a boo boo. That man should have oil poured over his head and then be forced to drink it for every meal he has. His house and family should be covered in it. Would that qualify as a “personal disaster” then?

The owner of this ship… the oil company.. they should all stand trial in front of the International Criminal Court. The charge: CRIMES AGAINST THE EARTH AND ITS PEOPLE!

Galician Oil Spill

Twice the size of the Exxon Valdez! All over the northern and Western Coast of Spain… mainly IN GALICIA… OIL is WASHING UP! Birds and wildlife and liming around onshore… covered in black sludge! How many times does this have to happen? They fight terrorism, drugs, crime…. all things having to do with violence. A violence that is far more a threat to the world… environmental.. is ignored! WHY? Because it’s profitable! Because your world leaders are involved in the oil business. The Sheiks… the Royals.. the AMERICAN GOVERNMENT… they all receive money from or OWN oil companies. Yet its not in the new york times right now. No… it’ll appear later in small print… “LArgest Oil Spill Ever” will instead be reduced to “Oil Tanker has a little Spill” and it’ll be a cute story that we can read over breakfast before we get in our SUV’S and go to work where we use one sheet of paper for each word we write.

They’re sending a probe over to Venus…. hmmm.