William Bowles – Essays
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Extra! Extra! Do something about it! By William Bowles
25 March 2006 Judging by the stats on the site’s usage, many thousands of you read the daily GI Special, in fact it’s one of the most read sections on InI. The reason I mention it is that it reveals that the information put out by the MSM not just on Iraq but on virtually… Continue reading
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Race Matters By William Bowles
21 March 2006 These days, writing about ‘race’ is like walking on soft boiled eggs, especially if you’re a whitey but there’s no getting away from the fact that the issue of race is central to virtually all of the major issues of our times and indeed it can be argued that ever since imperialism… Continue reading
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Imperial Manoeuvres By William Bowles
History is a powerful weapon, perhaps that’s why they don’t teach it at school in the UK (except for the UK’s bizarre obsession with WWII, but then again it makes sense if you want to impart a sense of Britain’s former ‘greatness’ and what better propaganda weapon than our victorious struggle against the evil ‘Hun’). Continue reading
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Re “historical curiosity” or the semiotics of a war crime By William Bowles
Is it simply a historical curiosity or do you think … [the memos have] some relevance to what is happening in Iraq at the moment? The question whacked me between the eyes for what it revealed about the sick mindset of the smug and sanctimonious bastards at the BBC’s misnamed news department (I await expectantly… Continue reading
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Creature Comforts By William Bowles
Growing up in the ‘mother of empires’, it’s difficult to comprehend how most of the world perceives us, even if, like me, you’ve lived in other cultures, it’s still difficult to ‘break the chains that bind’ us to a view of the world defined by privilege, a world of assumptions reinforced by an unrelenting barrage… Continue reading
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One nation under the sleaze By William Bowles
L’affaire Berlusconi is just the latest in a long list of sleazy goings-on that reveals a cynical ruling class that long ago abandoned any pretence at representing the citizens and a labour government that is in bed with big capital in a big way. Cosy relationships such as the one Blair has with Berlusconi, darling… Continue reading
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Book Review: The Silence is Poisonous! Bioweapons – The US government’s Nuremburg Crime By William Bowles
Okay, what are we dealing with here? Boyle’s short and impassioned book deals with the US government’s illegal multi-billion dollar biological weapons programme. A programme, that as Boyle makes abundantly clear presents itself as “defensive” but of course, in order to produce a ‘defense’, requires the development of offensive bioweapons. Continue reading
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I Glorify in Revolution! So arrest me damn you! By William Bowles
From shouting out “nonsense” at the Labour Party Conference to attending film festivals or wearing a t-shirt that disses Blair, we are all subject to arrest and/or detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. And it’s clear that the police have been given orders to use it to intimidate and harass anyone who speaks out… Continue reading
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Media Misinformation Roundup: How the BBC and the Guardian transform torture into bad PR and “history” for the occupiers By William Bowles
19 February 2006 The Western propaganda onslaught is relentless and most goes unnoticed largely because it appears to be ‘objective’ reporting. What is important to note with this alleged news is the insidious nature of the way events are presented to us, cloaked in seemingly innocuous language, yet an entire mindset is embedded in the… Continue reading
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Empire Redux – Climate Catastrophe and Capitalism By William Bowles
Awhile back I made reference to the idea that the two leading imperialist powers, the US and the UK had come to the conclusion that climate catastrophe was unavoidable and that steps needed to be taken for capitalism to survive the catastrophe essentially intact. Continue reading
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The Devil lives in the detail – Demonising Iran By William Bowles
The Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory (and Israel is not), and to which the BBC reluctantly concedes Iran is in compliance with, was as Simon Jenkins points out, pretty much set up by the then nuclear ‘club’, with the view to keeping everyone else out. Meanwhile, the US is adding to… Continue reading
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Devious Dealings and Dire Threats – Iran, the EU and the Petro-dollar – Anglo-US brinkmanship By William Bowles
Introduction: I first published the essay reproduced below (Iran: First it was ‘October Surprise’ – now it’s No Surprise) back in June, 2003 and dug it up whilst doing research on this essay on the latest saga involving the most devious ruling classes of modern times, the US and the UK and I think it… Continue reading
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Whatever happened to what’s-his-name? By William Bowles
‘Scourge of Western civilisation’, ‘leader of the insurgency’, ‘al-Queda in Iraq’, ‘Usama’s right-hand man’, the Scarlet Pimpernel of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. For the past couple of years we have been bombarded with stories of the mythical man’s dastardly deeds, then all of a sudden—he disappeared from the headlines. Continue reading
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Bush-whacked? Not by the media that’s for sure By William Bowles
Now as regular readers maybe aware I often have a go at the Independent for its crass and often just plain inaccurate reportage but in the edition of 31/1/06 it outdoes itself in deception, myopia and dissembling regarding the Bush presidency and its significance for those of us living in the real world. Continue reading
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How the BBC hollows out the news By William Bowles
A major problem anybody confronts when trying to sort fact from fiction in the news—aside from any confusion that occurs in trying to figure out if anything the mainstream media ‘reports’ is ‘news’ or merely opinion posing as fact—is the sheer volume and consistency of the coverage, which ultimately depends on specific words and phrases… Continue reading
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The US-Iran ‘crisis’ – it’s the oil stupid By William Bowles
Anybody who doesn’t think control of energy sources is at the root of USUK actions in Iraq and elsewhere is suffering a serious (but hopefully treatable) delusional disease of denial. Even the most cursory exploration of the 20th century reveals the centrality of oil to pretty well every event of any significance, and in no… Continue reading
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The Iran ‘crisis’ – the bullshit continues By William Bowles
A story in the London Independent (14/1/06) is typical of the kind of propaganda war being waged by the UK and the US over Iran’s alleged programme to acquire nuclear weapons. In fact, the story is a model piece, worthy of dissection for the various messages it carries to a public which has been deliberately… Continue reading
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Prime (Time) Evil By William Bowles
Iran’s relations with its erstwhile partners in Europe seem to be hurtling downhill like a snowball out of control.– Bridget Kendall, BBC diplomatic correspondent, 27 October 2005 No prizes awarded for what inspired this classic piece of state propaganda but it speaks reams about the relationship between the state and the corporate media. After all,… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 