Iraq
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Off the Hook? By William Bowles
Well predictably the media here in the UK has, by and large, given Blah a clean bill of health, not because he didn’t lie but because he did such a good job of lying. Apparently, the more articulate you are at the business of dissembling, the more kudos you acquire. This is the ‘post-modern’ world… Continue reading
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A marriage made in hell By William Bowles
The media’s response to the ‘revelations’ of the Hutton inquiry reveals more about the nature of corporate journalism than it does about the role of the government’s propagandists. And especially, the back-peddling being performed in an attempt to justify the complicity of the media in not seeing what was patently obvious to anyone who cared… Continue reading
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Between Iraq and a hard place By William Bowles
The latest bombing in Iraq of the UN headquarters has, understandably, put the frighteners on the USUK alliance. For not only does it up the anté, it puts the USUK on the spot. Continue reading
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Dr David Kelly, loyal foot soldier of the state By William Bowles
Far from being troubled about the impending invasion, Dr David Kelly could just as easily have been troubled by the use of ‘evidence’ that “takes away from the case for war.” In other words, Kelly’s statements can be interpreted as continued support for the war but that he objected to the way it was being… Continue reading
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Discovered! Shoal of Giant Red Herrings By William Bowles
The government’s propaganda campaign to scare the populace into accepting an unacceptable war, has, with the grovelling complicity of the media, including the so-called liberal arm of the press, entered a new but depressingly familiar phase. Continue reading
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Is the tail wagging the dog? By William Bowles
An essay by Stephen J. Sniegoski ‘The war on Iraq: Conceived in Israel,’ poses the idea that US foreign policy is controlled by a ‘cabal’ of right-wing Zionists, who have effectively hijacked the White House in pursuit of a ‘Greater Israel.’ Continue reading
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The Death of Dr David Kelly: Dark actors – dark forces? By William Bowles
Given Dr Kelly’s central role in the September document, he surely must have known well before its release in September 2002, that it contained false information to boost the case for war. So why wait until May of this year before voicing his concerns? Continue reading
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Mind your language! Part Three By William Bowles
Isn’t it amazing. All this time, since the ‘sexed up’ story first appeared, Gilligan, we were told, was the sole source of the story, hence his ‘unreliability’. Then, yesterday, the press carried reports about at least thee other UK journalists who had also been contacted by Dr Kelly and now, it seems there’s even a… Continue reading
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The Death of Dr David Kelly: Opening a can of worms By William Bowles
It is being suggested that he went through some kind of ‘sea change’ last year during his frequent visits to Iraq as part of the Unmovic inspection team and that he was convinced that Iraq had indeed, destroyed its CBW weapons. According to an unnamed analyst quoted by the Independent, he became disillusioned with the… Continue reading
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Mind your language! Part Two By William Bowles
So we have the ironic situation of BBC News reporting on its own alleged unreliability. Can the news be trusted? What is the future of public broadcasting and so on. Yet of course, the nature of the lack of trust in the state media is entirely misdirected. It’s okay that the coverage of the war… Continue reading
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Heil Caesar By William Bowles
“There is no more dangerous theory in international politics today than that we need to balance the power of America with other competitor powers, different poles around which nations gather.” — Tony Blair. Thus spake the Emperor’s English regent in paying his respects on a flying visit to Washington DC, our latter-day Rome, and spelt… Continue reading
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Biting off more than can be chewed? By William Bowles
16 July 2003 It’s fashionable to think that the US imperium has gotten itself into a quagmire with its occupation of Iraq, but of course this view depends on whether or not, the US cares about what happens to Iraq. And if the situation in Afghanistan is anything to go by, having served its purpose… Continue reading
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9/11: connecting the dots By William Bowles
If 9/11 had not happened, it would have been necessary to invent it. And the history of the last 150 years is full of convenient inventions that have justified invasions, occupations, subversions and the overthrow of sovereign states by the US in order to pursue its economic/political objectives. Objectives laid down in latter part of… Continue reading
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9/11: the unanswered questions By William Bowles
So the real reason for the invasion of Iraq was 9/11, at least that’s what Donald Rumsfeld, US secretary of defence is now telling us, as the mythological WMDs fade into the background. And will this now be the basis for the next round of ‘revelations’ based on Saddam’s connections to Al-Qu’eda? Wait for it,… Continue reading
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Blairspeak By William Bowles
Nowhere, in any of the evidence I’ve reviewed has anybody ever said that Blair personally invented the evidence, but that is what Blair says he’s been accused of doing. So now the argument will spin down a different road, leaving the essential issues behind obscured in a cloud of dust and small stones. Continue reading
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Manufacturing Terror By William Bowles
The vast and overwhelming propaganda onslaught that we’ve been subjected to since 911, is indicative of the lengths to which the ruling elites are prepared to go to in order to gain our consent for their actions. Indeed, the nature and scope of the propaganda war indicates just how insecure they feel. Continue reading
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From Burgers to Baghdad By William Bowles
For over fifty years , the West has carried on a campaign that pushes the idea that the superiority of the ‘Western way of life’ based upon unlimited ‘choice’ and the ‘free market’ as opposed to the drab and conformist communist world, is the best of all possible worlds. They sold us the idea, that… Continue reading
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Iraq: Desperate measures for desperate times
Is there no end to the government’s duplicity? Apparently not. On this morning’s (30/06/03) BBC Today programme, the Foreign Minister Jack Straw rolled out yet another ‘reason’, stating that the agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis (the ‘road map’) would almost certainly have not gone ahead, indeed it would have been ‘sabotaged’ by Saddam… Continue reading
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Red Herring Day By William Bowles
Straw’s statement is indeed a clever (but not clever enough) sleight of hand, because if challenged, as the letter says, he can say, ‘Yes, what I said was true because at the time of writing, there was no imminent (immediate, current, impending) threat.’ Continue reading
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Incredible! By William Bowles
Surely, the entire point of lying to us and using fabricated evidence is because the government had already made up its mind that it was going to invade Iraq. It lied because it knew it didn’t have the support of the British public because it didn’t have the evidence to convince us with, so it… Continue reading