Iraq
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Independence Day By William Bowles
There could be no better exemplar of the mindset of the servants of capital than yesterday’s (3/6/06) editorial in the London Independent. Titled ‘A protracted and messy conflict, with its myriad dark corners’, at first reading it would seem to be a condemnation of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, but a closer examination reveals… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Silence in the Service of Power
In November last year, as many as 24 Iraqi civilians – among them 11 women and children – were killed by US marines in Haditha, western Iraq. The New York Times has described the atrocity as possibly “the gravest case involving misconduct by American ground forces in Iraq”. Initial US army reports had suggested the… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Iraq Body Count – A shame becoming shameful
10 April 2006 — Media Lens John Pilger And A Leading Epidemiologist Challenge IBC Noam Chomsky once observed: “If you are not offending people who ought to be offended, you’re doing something wrong.” (www.journalism.sfsu.edu/www/pubs/gater/spring95/apr27/chom.htm) One indication that the Iraq Body Count (IBC) project is doing something wrong is that it is deemed, not merely inoffensive,… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Iraq Anniversary – BBC Whitewash
How could the war possibly be justified when the ‘justification’ was said by Tony Blair to be the “serious and current threat” posed by Iraqi WMD? And how can “disastrous miscalculation” be presented as the opposing argument? 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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Media Lens: Iraq Body Count Refuses To Respond
We found that the first 18 pages of the IBC database, covering the period between July 2005 and January 2006, contained just six references to ’coalition’ helicopter attacks and airstrikes killing civilians. Our research revealed that the IBC database consistently features the same bias – massive numbers of deaths caused by insurgents as compared to… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Oil For The Killing Machine – The BBC On Iraq
The political analyst Bertram Gross argued that there is no great malice driving the coalition of “the ultra-rich, the corporate overseers, and the brass in the military and civilian order” as it “squelches the rights and liberties of other people both at home and abroad”. It is just that their pursuit of profit inevitably means… 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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Media Lens: Beyond The ‘Blog-O-Bots’ – Part 2
23 January 2006 — Media Lens In Part 1 of this alert we reviewed Robert Fisk’s observation that “more and more people are trying to find a different and more accurate narrative of events in the Middle East. It is a tribute to their intelligence that instead of searching for blog-o-bots or whatever, they are… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Bambi Journalism – The Art Of Professional Naivety
9 January 2006 — Media Lens On October 20, 2005, we published a Media Alert, ‘Real Men Go To Tehran,’ www.medialens.org/alerts/05/051020_real_men_go_to_tehran.php We detailed media reactions after an anonymous British official had accused Iran of supplying Iraqi insurgents with sophisticated roadside bombs that had killed eight British soldiers and two security guards since May, 2005. Tony… Continue reading
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Ahmed Chalabi – Petroleum’s Point Man By William Bowles
Convicted fraudster, bagman, carpetbagger, (dis)informant, playboy, opportunist, failed mercenary army leader, go-between creature of imperialism, of one thing we can be sure, Ahmed Chalabi is a survivor by virtue of (almost) always being on the ‘right’ side. Continue reading
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On the road to Damascus By William Bowles
Oil in the next war will occupy the place of coal in the present war, or at least a parallel place to coal. The only big potential supply that we can get under British control is the Persian and Mesopotamian supply .… Control over these oil supplies becomes a first class British war aim –… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Real Men Go To Tehran
20 October 2005 — Media Lens The Roman historian Tacitus observed: “Crime once exposed has no refuge but in audacity.” What better example than Tony Blair’s declaration at an October 7 press conference: “There is no justification for Iran or any other country interfering in Iraq.”? (Adrian Blomfield and Anton La Guardia, ‘Stop meddling in… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Killing with Impunity – Nine-Second Coverage For Dozens of Dead Iraqi Women and Children
Last night’s BBC Newsnight programme reported the deaths of 70 “Iraqi militants” in US air raids on the western Iraqi city of Ramadi. The item lasted just nine seconds. This included three seconds of scepticism from an Iraqi doctor who reported that in fact civilians were amongst the dead. Viewers’ attention was then rapidly diverted… Continue reading
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‘Green slime’ invades Iraq By William Bowles
THERE’S a phrase set aside in the British army for men like Brigadier Gordon Kerr and it’s “Green Slime’’. Soldiers don’t mince words, and to regular squaddies and military brass, Kerr and his Intelligence Corps are on roughly the same level as pond life. Highly effective, immensely powerful and very dangerous pond life, but pond… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Immediate Withdrawal from Iraq – The Guardian Blanks Public Opinion
We do not know whether Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger wrote yesterday’s leader on “Britain’s post-invasion commitment to Iraq”, but we assume that he approved it. (’Signposting the Exit,’ The Guardian, September 21, 2005) “No one is arguing for an immediate pull-out”, the editorial claims. Presumably those calling for an immediate withdrawal, including many in the… Continue reading
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Iraq: Agents Provocateurs? By William Bowles
Fascinating. No really, the ‘evolution’ of state disinformation has probably never been better displayed than in the case of the two (more than likely) SAS soldiers who were ‘liberated’ after being arrested by the Iraqi police on 19 September by a phalanx of tanks and helicopter gunships that stormed the police station where the two… Continue reading
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Media Lens: The Mysterious Case of the Missing World Tribunal on Iraq
Media Lens has detected a recent shift in media reporting. It is hard to quantify, but there is a palpable uneasiness amongst media professionals at the increasing rise of the ‘blogosphere’ and internet-based ‘alternative’ media sites. Joe and Jo Public are increasingly aware that the news and commentary distributed by the BBC, ITN, Channel 4… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Conspiracy – The Downing Street Memo – Part 1
It is remarkable, but now indisputable, that the current leaders of Britain and the United States are responsible for just such a conspiracy…Carne Ross, a key Foreign Office diplomat responsible for liaising with UN inspectors in Iraq, said last week that British government claims about Iraq’s weapons programme had been “totally implausible”. Continue reading
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War preparations or how the media ‘disappeared’ the secret memo by William Bowles
The memo contains absolutely damning evidence that virtually the entire leadership of the British government lied and lied consistently over the issue of just about everything concerning the alleged threat posed by Iraq and, as the memo states, including lying about there being any kind of legal basis for an invasion. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 