If MSM Goes Belly-up, What Will Be The Next Vector Of Propaganda?

Is Internet Freedom A Human Right?

Cedric Moon and Dana Loesch discuss the impending demise of the MSM.



Surprise, surprise, the web is the second source of information for Americans. They discuss how many Americans are concerned about opinion being presented as news, and of course, propaganda being diseminated daily. Many see the "Internet," read the world wide web, as "Freedom guarenteed," and may not be aware that when on line, one is not annonomous as one believes, that using Google sets one up for "rigged" search results, which usually bring one to MSM news, and that spying on private individuals is the name of the game.



Today, we learn that the Obama administration is considering taking China to the WTO for unfair trade practices by sensoring Google. Is the US confounding Human Rights with the right to supervise, and impose standards on internet "providers" of content, like Google? Do countries have meaningful sovernty, and do they have the right to limit propaganda and spying that is pushed on them thru the new "free" web companies. What is internet freedom, and is it a value, a human right or a trade barrier issue?

H Clinton has been the most outspoken on the issue: "Properly, she did not hide the fact that communication over the Internet can be used for good (human rights activists) and evil (terrorists)." But one must remember that one countries human rights activist may be another countries terrorist. This "freedo," can be turned against the US in no time at all. Beware of what you wish for, you may get it.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9165140/Internet_freedom_and_security
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9165140/Internet_freedom_and_security

The attempted "Twitter Revolution" in Iran should be a cautionary tale. Rather than jump on the "internet freedom" bandwagon, based on perceptions generated by a known to be biased MSM, one should consider what "internet freedom" is really about.

What is really behind the Google-China-US internet freedom issue?

http://news.discovery.com/tech/internet-freedom-and-human-rights-20.html


But is Internet freedom itself a human right -- an entitlement that no just nation could infringe upon?

First, let's define Internet freedom, which really incorporates two ideas: access and privacy.
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China may have the most extensive Internet surveillance and enforcement apparatus in the world, but they're not alone in censoring content or targeting users for political reasons or otherwise.

Furthermore, although authoritarian governments, including China, are typically accused of being the major players in the censorship game (and they often are), the fact is: democracies do it, too.

The French government, for example, was recently engaged in a campaign to combat copyright infringement by targeting users on peer-to-peer networks.

It could be argued that China and France have the same justification for restricting Internet access: Both countries were simply enforcing the law. For both nations, the restrictions they choose to impose are simply a matter of priorities. China probably cares as much about enforcing copyrights as France does about limiting political discourse online. As in, not at all.

For a more direct comparison of the kind of censorship seen in China, let's take a look at India or South Korea (both democracies and U.S. allies).

India, the second most populated country in the world behind China, and the largest democracy, has taken an active role in censoring content from radical religious groups. India's Constitution dictates that free speech restrictions can be imposed for the purpose of maintaining "public order, decency or morality," so the government's right to censor other kinds of content can and has been applied to other situations. The nation even plans to step up its Internet surveillance and enforcement efforts.

South Korea, which has the highest percentage of connected citizens of any nation, has actively taken measures to curtail Internet privacy, imposing laws in 2008 targeting online anonymity.

If government restrictions on content are such an issue, why hasn't Google similarly pulled out of India, South Korea or other such countries? (For a list of other countries that have some kind of restrictions on content, click here.)

Iran Announces capture of Abdul Malik Rigi, head of Jundullah Terrorist Group Reportedly Funded By CIA USA

Iran has announced the capture and arrest of Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundullah, a group known for terror attacks on Iran. Reportedly, Rigi had a forged passport given to him by the US , and claimed that the US offered him a military base on Iran's border from which to opperate. UK has denounced the bombing of the Mosque, last year, during the Iran elections, as a terrorist act, while the US has remained curiously silent.




Recently we have heard that there are talks going on in Afghanistan that would bring the Taliban back into the Afghanistan government. meanwhile, the war heats up with action in helmand province, including house to house searches, and the clearing of mine fields. This would be required to farm, and to lay the TAPI gas pipeline, the one the US prefers, even though it goes thru territory controlled by the Taliban and not the Karzai government.

This flirting with the Taliban is not new, as they were guests of the White House before 911, and even visited Mount Rushmore.


"There has been no Western outcry against Saudi Arabia’s mediation between the Taliban and the Afghan government. On the contrary, the Mecca talks were accompanied by senior British and U.S. officials indicating that such discussions were an evitable part of ending the war in Afghanistan. Only one country has denounced the meeting as an unacceptable capitulation to terrorism and extremism: Iran. This position reflects the untold story of Iran’s tussle with Saudi Arabia for regional influence."
http://www.diplomaticourier.org/kmitan/articleback.php?newsid=228
http://www.diplomaticourier.org/kmitan/articleback.php?newsid=228

Iran claims that the Jundullah is a terrorist group, supported by UK, USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia. It operates from within Pakistan. I am still waiting for Senator Kerry's office to return my phone call about this opperation, and it's purported funding with American tax dollars. Recently, two US senators, Conyers and brownback, filed a bill, S 3008, that would send tax dollars to support "opposition groups" against Iran. Rigi, in a confession published on PressTV, claims that his US handler claimed that at this time the US cannot conduct military ops against Iran, so they need his group to do so.

The captured ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, has confessed that the US administration had assured him of unlimited military aid and funding for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The following is the detailed transcript of Rigi's confession, stated in Farsi, as broadcasted on Press TV.

"After Obama was elected, the Americans contacted us and they met me in Pakistan.They met us after clashes with my group around March 17 in (the southeastern city of) Zahedan, and he (the US operative) said that Americans had requested a meeting."

"I said we didn't have any time for a meeting and if we do help them they should promise to give us aid. They said they would cooperate with us and will give me military equipment, arms and machine guns. They also promised to give us a base along the border with Afghanistan next to Iran."

"They asked to meet me and we said where should we meet you and he said in Dubai. We sent someone to Dubai and we told a person to ask a place for myself in Afghanistan from the area near the operations and they complied that they would sort out the problem for us and they will find Mr. Rigi a base and guarantee his own security in Afghanistan or in any of the countries adjacent to Iran so that he can carry on his operations.

"They told me that in Kyrgyzstan they have a base called Manas near Bishkek, and that a high-ranking person was coming to meet me and that if such high-ranking people come to the United Arab Emirates, they may be observed by intelligence people but in a place like Bishkek this high-ranking American person could come and we could reach an agreement on making personal contacts. But after the last major operation we took part in, they said that they wanted to meet with us.

"The Americans said Iran was going its own way and they said our problem at the present is Iran… not al-Qaeda and not the Taliban, but the main problem is Iran. We don't have a military plan against Iran. Attacking Iran is very difficult for us (the US). The CIA is very particular about you and is prepared to do anything for you because our government has reached the conclusion that there was nothing Americans could do about Iran and only I could take care of the operations for them.

"One of the CIA officers said that it was too difficult for us to attack Iran militarily, but we plan to give aid and support to all anti-Iran groups that have the capability to wage war and create difficulty for the Iranian (Islamic) system. They reached the conclusion that your organization has the power to create difficulties for the Islamic Republic and they are prepared to give you training and/or any assistance that you would require, in terms of telecommunications security and procedures as well as other support, the Americans said they would be willing to provide it at an extensive level."

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=119481§ionid=351020101




This is another one of those stories you wont see on MSM in America. It is just another in a string of US interventions in the affairs of other countries since WWII.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

And from Wayne Madson we have this...

The CIA's support for Iranian Baluchis operating against Tehran has also had the effect of restoring the Baluchi Liberation Army, with CIA munitions destined for the Jundallah guerrillas falling into the hands of Baluchi secessionists in Pakistan, particularly among the Bugti, Marri and Mengal tribes that now threaten to disrupt trans-Pakistani pipelines to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, which is being developed by Chinese engineers and construction companies. The CIA, apparently unable or unwilling to distinguish between the Iranian and Baluchis and their agendas, permitted explosives and detonators destined for use in Iran to be used against regular Pakistani army units and Chinese assets assisting in the Gwadar port project.

Pakistan also suspects American energy politics at play. By stirring up Baluchis on both sides of the Pakistani-Iranian border, the CIA stands to disrupt planned natural gas pipelines from Qatar to Pakistan that will transit through Iran and the Iran-Gujarat oil pipeline.
http://arthurzbygniew.blogspot.com/2010/02/intel-updates-iran-baluchistan-echelon.html

UPDATE:: It is reported that Jundullah is claiming the US aided Iran in the arrest og Rigi.

Like I said, I have a call in to Senator Kerry's office, the current Chair of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, and am awaiting a call back.

Change we can believe in, or more of the same?

Freedom and Human Rights via War and Humiliation?

Last year many of us voted for change we can believe in. Now we hear that we may give Afghanistan back to the Taliban. Woman's rights groups advocate for more war in the name of woman's rights, meanwhile, woman and children are the biggest victims of America's war on terror. What exactly are America's goals in Afghanistan, and are they different from our goals in Colombia, Myanmar, Iraq, Iran, etc, etc, etc...



This you tube video is the first in a series of five. Let's look at the devestation left in the wake of the US bombing of "terrorists" in Afghanistan, and almost 10 years later, the abject failure of the US taxpayers billions of dollars, that flow "thru" Afghanistan, to reach the people we have dispossessed.

Faked Photographs Nothing New

We learn from the piece in the New York Times that faked photos are nothing new to journalism.

"“The very nature of photography was to record events,” said Hany Farid, a professor of computer science at Dartmouth University and a detective of photographic fakery. "


what an opportunity for manipulation. It didn’t take long for schemers to discover that with a little skill and imagination, photographic realism could be used to create manufactured realities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/weekinreview/23marsh.html

But faking or manipulating photo images is not the only way editors and reporters alike distort reality to "sell" their "version" of the "news." In this story posted on the Cambridge Chronicle website, Wickedlocal/cambridge, it is noted that the headline, or title, if you will, of an op-ed piece by the CEO of Whole Foods was replaced by the Wall Street Journal's own staff.

"the title of the piece was changed by Wall Street Journal staff from Health Care Reform to Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare, giving the impression that Mackey is actively opposing the Presidents plan. "

Certainly, for many reporters, letter to the editor writers, and now in an op-ed piece on an important issue, changing the 'title' of the piece is one way the editors of MSM can skew or distort both the purpose and the meaning that people get from reading the piece.

In some cases, like this one, the title results in inciting emotional bias to the point that those who 'support' Obama's plan, cannot give a fair reading to what Mackey wrote.

I found Mackey made several extreemly excellent points and suggestions, while other points fell well short of the mark. I am thrilled that he put himself 'out there,' in the current enviornment that has been poisoned by the two Ps in a pod, Palin with her death panel remarks, and Pelosi calling Americans who express different views, 'Unamerican!' We not only need a discussion of health care reform, we can all learn from such discussion, and learn about how others are actually doing in America.

The substtuted headline for the op-ed piece being is emotionally disruptive it generates outrage rather than considered discussion. It might sell papers, but it won't further civil discourse.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/business/x772313978/Protestors-converge-on-Cambridge-Whole-Foods-attacking-CEOs-health-care-reform-plan


For what purpose does manipulation like this occur?

In my opinion, this kind of distortion constitutes a denial of free speech, or should I say, a denial of the people's right to know. The reader is robed of his "mind" by being supplied a false "truth" and therefore is unable to form his own opinions. This is the true danger of propaganda like this. people fail to understand where and how they develop their "own" opinions.

We've Lost Cronkite!

Walter Cronkite, one of the greatest investigative journalist of all time, died today. His presence and voice are oftn inseperable from the great events of the 50s through the 70s. After the US fled Vietnam, there were those who blamed the media, and especially Cronkite for causing the American people to stop supporting the war. This is often the excuse that has been used by the Pentagon to refuse to permit journalists to report in the theatre of war, today. However, the result is harmful to the US. because, as a democracy we need to know what is going on.



Freedom of the press has limitations, with PR campaings, propaganda, and biased reports replacing true acurate and unbiased reporting, Americans have never before been so ignorant about what is happening in the world.

We have lost a great reporter, and he will be missed. perhaps now we can reconsider the People's Right to Know, especially in light of new revelations that the CIA was operating a secret program. I wonder how Cronkite would report this, and the rank buildup for regime change in Iran.

Take care, Walter, and thanks for your honest opinions.

Uighurs Are Caucasian?

Many Americans are surprised to find out that Uighurs in China are caucasian, not Asian. Most are Muslim, and China is the only country in the world that has preserved and protected their culture, traditions and language. A ethnic Turkish group, China provides for education in reading and writing Arabic script. In Turkey and other countries where Turkish groups live, they either speak and write a Russian or Latin language.

Uighurs migrated to China some 1000 years after Han Chinese. Claims by some human rights groups that Xinjiang is East Turkistan, the homeland belonging to Uighurs, and that Chinese are the invaders are unfounded. before arriving in Xinjiang, in the 8oos, Uighurs lived in Mongolia and Uzbeckistan.

There are Christian Churches, Buddhist Temples and Muslim Mosques in Xinjiang.

China has 56 "nationalities. Han make up 40% of the population of Xinjiang, with "minorities making up the other 6o% there are other ethnic groups that are Muslim, including Hui, Asian Muslims. There are many different native languages spoken in Xinjiang, not only Turkish. The common language is "Mandarin." this enables the widely diverse population to communicate with one another.

China has strong laws that give equal rights to women. No religious or traditional practice may deny women their equal rights in China.

China also has a right to work law.

There are 37 million Muslims in China, that is more than the total population of Iraq. Most Muslims are not Uighurs.



There are some seperatist groups that try to stir up support for their political cause, but not all Uighurs agree with the seperatists, and other minorities do not want to live under Uighur rule, they want to live in China. China has worked diligently to listen to the many voices, their hopes and dreams, and has brought improvements in education, medicine and economics to all nationalties in Urumchi. china, and the people living in Xinjiang are dedicated to continue to improve the lives of all nationalities.

US Held Iranians Hostage

"Three members of Iran's elite Quds Force who were seized in Iraq by the United States were held for more than two years even though they had not been involved in anti-U.S. activities and were functioning as diplomats at the time, a former and a currently serving senior U.S. official said Tuesday."




The Washington Times ran an exclusive news report today, stating US officials claim that the Iranians just released were held hostage by US. Iran claims they were diplomant, while the US claims they were terrorists. The US also states they have no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Iranians, who worked issuing visas at Iran's consulate in Northern Iraq.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/15/iranians-held-by-us-were-envoys/?feat=article_top10_read

"Both Iran and Iraq protested the arrests and prolonged detentions, which attracted worldwide attention. The Quds or Jerusalem Force is an elite unit in Iran's military and intelligence establishment. Many of its officials and veterans serve in top Iranian government positions.

U.S. officials have repeatedly suggested since the arrests that the three Iranians had been directly involved in support of anti-U.S. violence in Iraq but provided no specific evidence. The three were never charged with any wrongdoing.

Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a spokesman for U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq, which was responsible for the arrests and detentions of the three, declined to comment Tuesday on the reason the men were held for so long. "

There is much speculation as to why the diplomats were released.

"We had feared such a deal was in the works. On April 22, we noted in these pages that "the Iranian government is maneuvering to trade Ms. Saberi's freedom for that of five Revolutionary Guards captured by U.S. forces while training insurgents in Iraq."

The same day that Iran's chief judge, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, ordered a "quick and fair" appeal for Ms. Saberi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz and called for the immediate release of the "Irbil Five." This was a clear diplomatic signal of a potential deal."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/14/trading-for-iranian-hostages/?feat=home_editorials

"There is a whiff of "arms for hostages" in the air. It would be a mistake to reprise that failed attempt by the Reagan administration to curry favor with Iran in the mid-1980s by sending weapons in hopes Tehran would release U.S. hostages held by Iranian proxies in Lebanon.

The opening did not improve U.S.-Iranian relations, and President Reagan later admitted it was a mistake. In 1987, E.J. Dionne, writing in the New York Times, quoted then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. as saying that Mr. Reagan had been "blinded by the illusion" that there was "an easy solution" to the hostage crisis and had been misled "by people who had no competence in the area of foreign policy." Ironically, Iran expert Michael Ledeen reports that the deal for the release of the Irbil Five was coordinated through Vice President Biden's office."

The US State department denies any "deals" and claims the hostages diplomate, or detainees, held for 2 1/2 years without any charges were released in accord with the US - Iraqi accord signed on Jan 1st of this year. Why it took 7 months for their release, and why they are being released at this time remains unclear, as the Obama administration is not being transparent on this affair.
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=50908

"The State Department said the handover was not linked to the Obama administration’s effort to engage the regime in Tehran, but that it was an obligation contained in a U.S.-Iraq security agreement that came into effect on January 1."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2009459465_iran13.html

"Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said earlier that the transfer could help improve dialogue between the U.S. and Iran after a long adversarial relationship.

Iran and Iraq have enjoyed better relations after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, who launched an eight-year war against Iran in the early 1980s.

Many current Iraqi leaders were in exile in Iran and still have close ties with the Islamic Republic.

The release of the five has been portrayed in Iran as a victory at a time when the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under domestic and international criticism after the disputed June 12 presidential election and the ensuing government crackdown on protests"