NSA-Exposé Journalists Swept Up By Billionaire's Broom Like So Much Dust

Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of eBay, helped the U.S. government finance the coup in Ukraine, it turns out. This is the same guy who snookered Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras (both involved in the exposés of NSA crimes by whistleblower Edward Snowden), Jeremy Scahill (a thorn in the side of the U.S. government for his constant coverage of U.S. drone and other atrocities against civilians) and other dissident journalists into going to work for a website he's funding. [1]

A guy working hand in glove with U.S. imperialism to subvert and overthrow a foreign government and replace it with one hand-picked by the U.S. doesn't sound like someone I'd want anywhere near the documents Snowden managed to liberate from the NSA. Yet now he's lured into his embrace those very journalists who now possess the documents- the Guardian newspaper of Britain having been forced to destroy their copies by the British government and secret police. [2]

And Omidyar is no novice at subversion. He also helped fund a program that infiltrated the Indian parliament with paid legislative assistants, a program India shut down. [3]

Perhaps the worst crime Omidyar has committed was funding a Peruvian state terrorist, one Hernando De Soto. Omidyar gave $5 million to De Soto's propaganda and indoctrination center in Peru three years ago. De Soto was a close adviser to and “drug czar” for Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimoro, and closely interfaced with the death squad elements of the Fujimoro regime. Another key figure was secret police chieftain Vladimiro Montesinos, a regular lecturer at the notorious “School of the Americas” (since renamed due to bad PR) at Fort Benning, GA. Montesinos was misleadingly referred to as a “spymaster” in the U.S. media, which was infatuated with the Fujimoro terror regime, especially the New York Times, from which much of the rest of the U.S. corporate propaganda system takes its cues. One of Montesinos' numerous atrocities was the time his “security forces” kidnapped some “leftist” students and professors, cut up their bodies, and strewed the chunks of human meat along a beach, I suppose as a “warning” to others to not think wrong thoughts. All this was presented- omitting the gory details- in the U.$. media as heroically fighting the Maoist “terrorist” Shining Path. [The Omidyar Network website still has a boast on it about giving $5 million to the state terrorist De Soto. Hey, why not? It's all about liberty and empowering people. And the Vietnam War was a noble cause...]

After Fujimoro eventually fell, and after a long interlude was imprisoned, his daughter ran for president partly on a platform of springing her dictator dad from prison. De Soto was heavily involved in her campaign. This was 2011, the same year Omidyar gave him the $5 mil. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. Could it be that Omidyar favored a return to the neo-fascist economics promoted by De Soto and his “think tank”? If not, what other possibility is there?

So on the one hand, the bourgeoisie promote “free market economics,” and on the other, people who have a dissenting view get chopped up and scattered on a beach, to terrorize everyone else who might have a complaint about the system and social reality. This is the essence of totalitarianism. No deviation from approved thought allowed. Without apparent irony, De Soto's propaganda and indoctrination outfit which Omidyar funded is called the “Institute for Liberty and Democracy.” This from a guy who participated in a coup and was a key member of a terrorist regime. [4]

Doesn't lead one to believe that Omidyar's politics or ideology are progressive, pro-civil libertarian or pro-human rights, now does it?

This Omidyar character obviously isn't interested in weakening U.S. power or subverting the American establishment. So why would he hire all the journalists who are precisely those making the most trouble for the U.S. rulers and government? The answers can only be sinister.

Obviously he now has them under his control, as He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune. He can steer their coverage, misdirect them, and manipulate them. With the tech expertise at his disposal, he can help the NSA find out what documents Snowden took, something the NSA desperately wants to find out. He can find out how many copies exist and where they are. Software bombs could be planted in the data to destroy it. There are numerous possibilities for malevolent mischief here. Just getting details on Greenwald's movements and habits will be valuable for U.S. attacks on him, burglary attempts, malign plots, and so on.

By hiring them away, Omidyar has severed these journalists' connections with reputable, more trustworthy organizations. Greenwald had formerly been working with the Guardian of Britain, for example.

One telling giveaway that Omidyar is up to no good, and NOT trying to increase exposure of U.S. malfeasance and criminality, are the hosannas in the corporate media that Omidyar's move was greeted with. No attacks or negativity- very odd, given who he was hiring, people who are treated as enemies by the establishment, and whom he was allegedly going to bankroll handsomely to continue to reveal things the establishment doesn't want revealed.

I was dubious from the very start, when this venture was first announced by a totally-suckered Glenn Greenwald, a person who has done very important work as a journalist and has provided a public voice against U.S. lawlessness and the total police state it is perfecting. It didn't make sense to me that the billionaire founder of eBay, a man with nothing to indicate an interest in social justice, would suddenly come out of nowhere and dangle a quarter of a billion dollars in front of the noses of Greenwald and company and claim he wanted to fund radical (in establishment eyes) journalism. [5] Journalism that was the subject of hysterical denunciations by that establishment, including threats of criminal prosecutions against Greenwald. (Laura Poitras had been subjected to years of heavy harassment by the U.S., including scores of airport searches of her sensitive journalistic material.[6]) I figured there had to be a catch. But since the arrangement was presented as a black box to the public, without any explanation of how this had come about, of what had transpired between the obviously very crafty and manipulative billionaire Omidyar and the targets he lured into his money web, a specific analysis wasn't possible.

But now with the revelations of his participation in the U.S. coup in Ukraine, his obviously close and cooperative ties with U.S. imperialism are revealed- thus making it glaringly obvious that he can't possibly be interested in exposing U.S. government secrets. At a minimum, he will be giving the sinister U.S. police state a heads up on coming articles by Greenwald et al, in order that the U.S. government and commentariat can prepare preemptive responses or strategies for dealing with the stories when they are published. Moreover, with intel about stories in the works, the U.S. could possibly cut off, intimidate- or worse- sources and witnesses for such stories. (The idea that the journalists will refuse to tell Omidyar anything at all about what they're working on is ludicrous, and should be dismissed out of hand. By and by, a manipulator like Omidyar will insinuate his way further into their activities. Plus, having the IP addresses of the computers and other devices they use to communicate with him has enabled the NSA to plant its spyware remotely on those devices already.)

Omidyar, like all billionaires, is insatiably greedy. So greedy that he has to extort money from the world's poorest people by loansharking operations euphemistically called “micro-lending.” [7]

Omidyar's other anti-social crimes include a covert assault on public schools and teachers' unions. He showed his talent for deception and tricking his targets in that case too by luring teachers into his web of intrigue. [8]

Omidyar's company, eBay, the source of his billions, conspired with other tech companies in a massive, illegal scheme to depress the wages of tech employees, in violation of antitrust law. [9]

The initial response to all this, from Greenwald, has been disappointing and inadequate. He labeled the criticism “dumb.” He also said he knew nothing about the activities of the nefarious Omidyar Network, the vehicle through which Omidyar conducts his malign activities. “Ask them,” he said, passing the buck and acting as if it's none of his concern, I'm afraid that doesn't cut it. If a drug lord, say, was funding theintercept.org, the news site sugardaddy Pierre funded for him, Greenwald couldn't brush aside the questions so cavalierly. I certainly want to see Greenwald and the others continue to do their important work, but I fear they have walked right into a trap which they don't understand.

1] “Pierre Omidyar Pierre Omidyar co-funded Ukraine revolution groups with US government, documents show,” PandoDaily, Feb. 28, 2014.

2] We have unimpeachable smoking-gun evidence of the U.S. pulling the strings of its Ukrainian puppets from the notorious phone call between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine, the veteran of subversion ops Geoffrey Pyatt. The two are heard plotting, and picking and choosing the new Ukrainian government-to-be once the violent mob attack on the seat of government in Kiev, with fascists at its core and backed by the U.S., succeeded in overthrowing the elected regime. See “U.S.Enlisted UN Stooges in Ukraine Subversion,”

3] See “The Extraordinary The Extraordinary Pierre Omidyar.” Adventures in Journalism, nsfwcorp, Nov. 15, 2013.

4] Ibid.

5] Of course the figure of a quarter billion dollars is ludicrous, and is a dead giveaway that Omidyar is running a con. Unfortunately the journalists who were the marks in Omidyar's con were too bedazzled by the number to smell a rat. Since they are all under heavy psychological and other pressure from the enraged superpower, it must have seen like a lifeline from heaven when Omidyar suddenly appeared as a saviour, descending like an angel from the capitalist clouds above. I wonder which U.S. government psychological warfare specialists Omidyar conspired with to concoct this perfectly manipulative scheme aimed at the precise mental vulnerabilities of their targets- relief from unrelenting pressure, financial support, protection, freedom to pursue stories. A Fairy Godfather story indeed!

6] For some of Poitras' travails at the hands of the vindictive and repressive U.S., see “Long Before Helping Expose NSA Spying, Journalist Laura Poitras Faced Harassment from U.S. Agents,” democracy now!, 6/17/13, and “Detained in the U.S.: Filmmaker Laura Poitras Held, Questioned Some 40 Times at U.S. Airports,” democracy now!, 4/20/12.

7] Micro-lending sounds like a good idea. But as in all things, the devil is in the details. The details of micro-lending as it actually exists are very ugly. For one thing, hundreds of Indians have been driven to suicide by it- some at the direct instigation of the lenders. Victims of natural disasters have been coerced into handing over their relief aid, as happened in Bangladesh.

The ugliness of Omidyar's “philanthropic” micro-lending operations are detailed at “The Extraordinary Pierre Omidyar.” op cit.

8] Ibid.

9] See “The Techtopus: How Silicon Valley’s most celebrated CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 tech engineers’ wages,” PandoDaily.com, Jan. 23, 2014, and “Revealed: Apple and Google’s wage-fixing cartel involved dozens more companies, over one million employees,” PandoDaily.com, March 22, 2014.

The simpering billionaire Pierre Omidyar. Isn't he groovy? (By the way, the Nature Conservancy is this bourgeois outfit that buys up land so rich people will have nice places to hike in. Who could object to that?)

"The New Yorker" Romanticizes Contra Terrorists

In 1979, after Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza was overthrown by the Sandinista national liberation movement, U.S. President Jimmy Carter initiated a campaign to reestablish U.S. control. The Somoza dictatorial dynasty started with Somoza's father; both Somozas were backed by the U.S. throughout their brutal reign.

Remnants of Somoza's vicious National Guard were reconstituted in neighboring Honduras as a terrorist army to attack civilian targets and committ atrocities in Nicaragua to destabilize the country. This is well documented in various reports by reputable human rights organizations and journalists. The World Court ultimately entered a multi-billion dollar judgment against the United States for its crimesand mayhem against Nicaragua (which included SEAL and other U.S. military units conducting sabotage operations), a verdict the U.S. refused to honor, of course.

But now The New Yorker magazine has decided to lie about history. According to their reactionary writer Jon Lee Anderson, "In the countryside [of Nicaragua], conservative peasants and Somoza loyalists began a resistance movement, which coalesced into an army known as the Contras. Nicaragua slid toward civil war." [1]

All lies. The U.S. created, supplied, and directed former Somoza state terrorists based OUTSIDE Nicaragua. The idea that peasants would commit atrocities against peasant villages, rape and slaughter civilians, blow up health clinics and schools, and use terror and mutilation as weapons of war, is absurd on its face. And it is flatly false to claim that a "civil war" was going on in Nicaragua. A foreign-supplied terrorist force based outside the country conducted terror raids into Nicaragua.

So much for that over-vaunted "fact checking department" at The New Yorker, stuff of bourgeois media legend.


 See also "Hugo Chavez: Champion of the Poor or Unhinged Megalomaniac?" for more on the
operations of right-wing political operative disguised as a journalist Jon Lee Anderson.



1]  "The Comandante's Canal," The New Yorker, March 10, 2014.

NPR Paints Smiley Face on Looming Global Warming Catastrophe

The U.S. government and corporate propaganda radio network NPR put a happy face on global warming (“climate change” as they put it, creating a layer of euphemism)

A new UN report is being released. I learned from Democracy Now! That a recommendation in the draft version that called for richer nations to kick in $100 billion a year to help the poorer ones was deleted from the report. (Naturally the various “all news” radio stations, and TV “news,” which is where the mass of the ignorant American populations gets its information from, ignored this.)

The recommendation was mysteriously deleted on orders from above. We can reliably assume one of those giving the order was the U.S.

So coincidentally, after the news was on Democracy Now! (democracynow.org, Headlines for 3/31/14), NPR broadcast a story on the report. I was curious to see if NPR would mention the aforementioned censored recommendation, so I listened very carefully. Well, my crystal ball was spot on. Sure enough, there was no mention of the recommendation or of its removal from the report. Instead we got an upbeat report on how Bangladesh was coping. The thrust was Think Positive. Because Bangladesh had suffered so much from weather disasters, they were taking steps to protect themselves. (The details of these allegedly protective steps were sketchy, and given that Bangladesh is low-lying territory, the fact is that much of the country could be underwater in coming decades- a fact omitted by the young dweeb NPR-oid “reporting” the story and his masters at NPR.) We can learn from Bangladesh, the NPR reporter tells us. We get a Bangladeshi official putting an upbeat spin on things there.

I'll just quote the last two sentences of this happy-face propaganda to give you the flavor of it:

“We'll all have to deal with a warming world. This new report emphasizes that it will go a lot better if we all work together. Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.”

So NPR protects its U.S. government masters from unwanted exposure of yet another nefarious act. (One could argue about whether or not the richer nations should make donations to poorer- unless the question is suppressed before it can even be discussed. That's of a piece with Obama regime behavior on most matters- suppress suppress suppress. Of course Obama didn't invent suppress. That's a standard U.S. government procedure going back a long time. Which doesn't make it any less despicable. And they call this power system “democracy.” Keep people in the dark and powerless. That's a 1984-style definition of the word.)

NPR “Morning Edition,” 3/31/14.

Annals of Newspeak

In George Orwell's famous classic of totalitarianism, 1984, the ruling dictatorship had its own vocabulary, called Newspeak, which basically meant inverting words to mean the opposite of their previous meanings. For example, Slavery is Freedom.

Barack Obama and his minions have shown themselves to be assiduous disciples of the principle of Newspeak; to invert the meanings of words. Examples are legion: here are two recent ones I happened to notice.

In Ukraine, a violent mob overthrew the elected government, and the U.S. installed replacement “leaders.” These people Obama refers to as “democratic leaders.” Unelected, yet somehow “democratic.” Capitalists better no longer sneer at Bolshevik misuse of the word “democratic.” [1]

Another recent example is Obama's secret police henchman John Brennan. Obama wanted Brennan to replace Democratic Party apparatchik Leon Panetta as CIA head a few years back, but Brennan's involvement in CIA torture programs scuttled that back then. So Brennan was brought to Obama's side to run Obama's drone assassination program for him. So beloved by Obama is Brennan, that Obama last year once again moved to install Brennan at the top of the CIA, and this time he succeeded.

Brennan, as you'd expect of a career secret police type like him, can barely open his mouth without lying. But he has a habitual phrase whenever he utters a real howler. It's “Nothing could be further from the truth.” So during his Senate confirmation hearings for CIA Director, in denying that the drone death program ever harmed a hair on an innocent person's head, he used the phrase. [2]

Now that he was caught spying on Senate Intelligence Committee staffers and stealing documents off their CIA-provided computers, he once again denies what is proven fact with the phrase “Nothing could be further from the truth.

You can be guaranteed that if John Brennan says of something that “Nothing could be further from the truth,” it's true. It's like a tell in a poker player, a dead giveaway.

1] See “Obama Dictates Terms to Russia To Keep Its Naval Base in Crimea.”

2] See “Jeremy Scahill: Assassinations of U.S. Citizens Largely Ignored at Brennan CIA Hearing,” democracynow.org, February 8^th, 2013.

Guide To Ukraine “Crisis” Vocabulary

First, “crisis.” That means, the U.S. isn't getting its way 100%.

“Ukraine.” Can mean the actual country. Often it means the satraps the U.S. installed in power in Kiev. As in “Ukraine asked for Western help against the Russian invasion [sic],” or, “the American government supports Ukraine.”

“International law.” The rules the U.S. insists on imposing, which boil down to, the U.S. does whatever it wants, and other nations do what the U.S. wants. If the U.S. does it, it's legal. So arranging the overthrow of the elected Ukrainian government by a neo-Nazi led mob and installing people in power handpicked by the U.S. State Department is perfectly legal, whereas Russia protecting its naval base in the Crimea and letting people vote in a referendum to choose to secede from western Ukraine or not is “a violation of international law.” And of the Ukrainian Constitution, too, which apparently has a provision allowing for neo-Nazi hoodlums to overthrow the government and its replacement by U.S.-approved puppets.

“The international community.” All the lackey and stooge nations that line up behind the U.S.

“The rights of all the Ukrainian people.” The U.S. decrees there shall be no partition and the entirely of Ukraine shall henceforth be in the U.S. domain. Self-determination for the populace of eastern Ukraine is not allowed. Controlled elections next year will ratify U.S. and neo-Nazi dominance of Ukraine.

“The territorial integrity of Ukraine.” No self-determination by the people of eastern Ukraine shall be allowed. A secession referendum is intolerable to the U.S. bloc, aka “the West.”

“Legitimate government.” The government of the U.S' choosing. See Obama statement of March 6th.

“Democratic leaders.” See “legitimate government.”

.

“Democracy.” A regime obedient to U.S. wishes. This is what that word always means.

Dictionary of Obama Regime Vocabulary

The Obama regime, and especially its Godfather, uses words in idiosyncratic ways that might confuse people. (Indeed that's the obvious intent.) Here, as a public service, a translation guide to common Obamaoid terms and their plain English meanings.

“Imminent threat.” - Hypothetical at some indeterminate future point.

“No one is reading your emails/ listening to your phone calls” - No one you know, that is.

“The proper balance between privacy and security.” - is zero to one hundred. (0:100.)

“Security.” - Deep state power.

“Freedom.” - Of those in power to do whatever they like.

“You can keep your health care plan if you like it.” - Until you can't.

“We're looking forward.” - by immunizing U.S. state torturers.

“I will close Guantanamo Bay in one year.” - Not.

“Due Process.” - Secret cabal of Obama officials draw up a weekly death list and Obama approves it.                     [ As per Eric Holder, Jr., Attorney General of the U.S.] 

“Transparent” government - Opaque and secretive. For good measure, persecuting journalists, including 

 wiretapping (AP and Fox, among others) criminally investigating (Fox), seizing notes and digital devices at U.S. borders, imprisoning them (Barrett Brown) and murdering them (Michael Hastings).

“Whistleblower protection” - Persecution of whistleblowers, including FBI home raids, felony charges, directives to all Federal agencies to make employees spy on each other, FDA spyware planted on scientists' computers, etc. etc.

“Immigration reform” - Record 2 million people deported by Obama regime, thousands of families smashed to bits, doubling of Border Patrol size, thousands incarcerated in county jails and private prisons.

Hiding the News, Yet Again, at NPR

The U.S. Government propaganda arm NPR is at it again, hiding facts and distorting reality in the most egregious way in loyal service to its U.S. government masters.

Victoria Nuland, U.S. State Department chief mouthpiece/propagandist and Queen Bee, was conversing via cellphone to the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and said at one point “Fuck the EU.” (European Union.) Apparently the Russians were listening in, NSA-style, and decided to share Nuland's conversation with the world. [Both the U.S. and EU are currently supporting the violent movement there that is trying to overthrow the government.]

So how did NPR “report” this, on February 7^th and 8^th, 2014? With Maximum Obfuscation.

Listening to NPR, it was impossible to guess what Nuland had said. It was “a derogatory remark,” was what they said February 7^th. Nuland “belittled the European Union” was the version fed NPR fed people who make the mistake of relying on it for news on February 8^th, (brought to you by NPR dweeb-creep Michele Kelemen- but “NPR creep” is a bit redundant, since everyone there is a dweeb-creep, judging by their on-air personas).

Obviously if the story is something Nuland SAID, that ruffled EU feathers, we need at least a HINT of just what Nuland said! Like, “she used a curse word in referring to the EU,” or “she used the 'F' word,” or “she said 'F the EU.'”

But this kind of bend-over-backwards to protect U.S. Government officials is standard on NPR, as is their anus-tonguing interviews with high government officials. Totally useless as information.

Rated as journalism, an F. As propaganda, maybe a C.

NPR Dishonesty About Massive Poisoning Of Charleston, W. Virginia Water Supply Continues

Another one of their young dweeb correspondents fed their victim-listeners more happy talk about the poisoning of the water supply for over 300,000 inhabitants of Charleston, West Virginia on their morning "news" program, Morning Edition, January 16. Once again the dozens of hospitalized victims went unreported. This time a particularly dishonest line ended the piece- that the EPA "has no information that [the chemical] is dangerous." See the slippery fast one they pulled? That leaves the impression it's NOT hazardous. In fact, there is "no information" that it is dangerous (if you ignore the burns people suffered) OR SAFE, because there are NO FORMAL STUDIES that TESTED the chemical. As with the majority of the hundreds of thousands of chemicals U.S. businessmen are allowed to use willy-nilly, there is no requirement that the chemicals be proven safe. ONLY when scientists manage to get funding to study a particular chemical (assuming some scientist somewhere happens to take an interest in a particular chemical) AND there are years of pressure which FINALLY forces government regulators to pay attention, is it even possible for a chemical to be controlled.

A non-deliberately-misleading statement would have been "there are no scientific studies on this untested chemical as to its possible long-term health effects on people."

Maybe someone should tell the EPA that a few dozen people had to be hospitalized. Do you think that constitutes "information"? NPR could have told them, for that matter. What despicable propagandists.

And if you wanted to know how many thousands of gallons were poured into the water supply, don't listen to NPR for that information. Nor would you have learned that the guilty corporation, the ideologically-named "Freedom Industries," moved the rest of the chemical to a nearby plant that has a "containment wall" with HOLES in it, same as at the original site.
That's what FREEDOM is all about! FREEDOM to do whatever you damn want to make a buck, everybody else be damned!

NPR- National Propaganda Radio- Commits Three More Crimes

The quasi-governmental U.S. national radio network NPR has a long history of egregious propaganda posing as neutral news and analysis. Here are a few of their crimes of the past few days.

There has been a major poisoning of the water supply of Charleston, West Virginia, by a criminally irresponsible company called "Freedom Industries." (The ideological arrogance of the criminals who appropriate words like "freedom" and "liberty" is truly galling.) A deadly chemical that causes burns on contact has contaminated the water for 300,000 people there. The company didn't even realize it was happening- the foul stench of the chemical alerted the local populace. The chemical is so dangerous that people have been warned not to even use it for washing. (Which didn't stop the company from issuing a mendacious statement claiming the chemical was non-hazardous!) [1]

What NPR has done for the past two days (January 13 and 14) is put a happy face on the situation. They have totally ignored the injuries caused by this befoulment of this basic necessity of life, blacking out the facts that two dozen people have been hospitalized, that people have sustained burns on their heads and faces and sores in their throats, that their homes have been filled with the stench of the chemical coming from their tap water (imagine how noxious it must be). Instead of reporting what is actually happening, NPR has put on a parade of braindead locals who aren't at all upset by the situation- at least in the edited portions of what they said to the NPR hacks- as if no one there is angry. (We know this is a lie because the local media there is up in arms, reflecting the popular mood, and Erin Brockovich went there yesterday to address a meeting of the people living there-NPR blacked that out too. Go to democracynow.org for a report on that, January 14th.)

NPR also ignored the criminal history of the company and its boss, as well as the feckless government lack of regulation, a product of the pernicious laissez-faire ideology that dominates U.S. society. (The plant hasn't been inspiected since 1991, over twenty years ago, despite being a storage site for 4 million gallons of dangerous chemical.) In fact NPR barely mentions the company at all. (I sure hope they hit the culprits up for a donation- they sure earned it!)

NPR's "coverage," in sum, consisted of putting on some locals to make anodyne comments (NPR apparently found no one who's even slightly angry at the corporation that did it) with NO suggestion of a need for regulation, or investigation, or punishment. It's covered as if it was a weather event! No one's to blame, as if it's unavoidable. This in the wake of repeated deadly chemical "leaks" and train derailments in the U.S. [2]

NPR is not only in effect defending a criminal corporation, (even the local U.S. attorney has launched an investigation), it is protecting the venal and anti-human ideological system in which it operates which allows such criminally negligent and reckless behavior by corporate leeches and government officials by hiding that system from view. NPR does everything it can to promote false consciousness by obfuscating the reality of American life.

A second crime: January 14th, 2 pm Washington, D.C. time, National Propaganda Radio at it again. Their “report” on the Egyptian military dictatorship's Constitutional plebiscite first of all ignores that this document was custom written for the military. They make it sound like a legitimate vote. “Egyptians are voting,” is the key phrase, technically accurate but misleading to the point of deception. NPR mentions “hundreds of thousands of soldiers” deployed for this Nazi-style plebiscite. No mention is made of the Muslim Brotherhood, the call for a boycott (thus guaranteeing a Saddam Hussein-style 99% “victory” for the generals), and no mention of the following facts that the BBC brought out yesterday in an interview with ruling class clique member Amr Musa (a “diplomat,” actually long-time Mubarak henchman and now serving the new dictatorship); there are big signs outside polling places telling people to vote yes; the “Constitution” continues the practice of military “trials” for civilians in political cases; the military will choose its own “Defense” Minister, not the figurehead puppet president fronting for the military dictators. (Musa brushed all that off as fine, fine.) And you know NPR must monitor the BBC. Many of their local stations run the BBC as part of their programming! (This very BBC interview was on NPR's most important station, WNYC in New York.)

So NPR ignores what even the BBC reports, so determined is NPR to pretty up the dictatorship now that it seems entrenched and the U.S. continues to funnel billions into the military's coffers for weapons purchases. (According to John Mersheimer, Israel guaranteed to the Egyptian generals that they and their American lobby would prevent a cut-off in aid, thus giving a green light to mass murder, arrests, and repression by the regime.)

Thus NPR ignores what even the BBC reports, so determined is NPR to pretty up the dictatorship now that it seems entrenched and the U.S. continues to funnel billions into the military's coffers for weapons purchases. (According to John Mersheimer, Israel guaranteed to the Egyptian generals that they and their American lobby would prevent a cut-off in aid, thus giving a green light to mass murder, arrests, and repression by the regime.)

Acting like a PR agency for a major polluter, legitimizing a tyrant regime's written-to-order “Constitution-” but NPR's not done. Since December they have virtually ignored the Egyptian regime's imprisonment of Aljazeera journalists. What kind of journalists stay silent when other (real) journalists are imprisoned by a military dictatorship? (The BBC is guilty of this too in this instance.) And the story was carried, for instance, in the New York Times on December 30^th, the lodestar for the rest of the U.S. media- but NPR had not a word about it on that date. [3]

Three strikes and you're out, NPR. Of course there are a lot more than three strikes against NPR, if we review their record over the years, which is beyond the purview of this brief essay.

These are crimes in a moral sense, based on ordinary human morality. They are also ethical violations of what journalism is supposed to be. Of course, propagandists posing as journalists is a total debasement of journalistic ethics.

1]  The chemical, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, is used to wash coal. Of course the coal industry controls West Virginia completely. Virtually every politician, government official, and judge there is a stooge of that industry, which is what is allowing the coal companies to literally destroy the state by "mountain top removal," the literal destruction of mountains and creation of a polluted wasteland in the place of green forests. Rivers are also wrecked in the process. See "West Virginia Democrats Tepid On New Regulations Following Chemical Spill," for a story about the criminal political accomplices to the polluters. Also “John Boehner On West Virginia Chemical Spill: ‘We Have Enough Regulations,‘”both at Huffington Post. [Jan 13 and 14.]


2]  The Huffington Post had no trouble finding angry locals. Their story January 14th describes an "angry" man watching out for his elderly neighbors. See "West Virginia Chemical Spill Aftermath Leaves Residents Struggling." In NPR's telling, on the other hand, everyone is taking it in stride.

3]  And one of the imprisoned Aljazeera reporters is even a "white" person! Peter Greste, an Australia, won a Peabody Award last year for his reporting from Somalia. And guess who he was working for then? The BBC! Yet the BBC ignores his plight. That magnifies the BBC's shamefulness even more.

I Have To Move

This site is a "service" of Google. I have been unable to get the email notification functions to work. There are no answers online for this problem, and Google does not provide answers or any way to contact them.

Therefore I will be posting my essays at http://jasonzenith.wordpress.com/ and hopefully people signing up for email alerts there will get them.

I do not know if the secret police, with or without Google's connivance, sabotaged this blog, or if Google did it at the behest of the secret police. I have experienced sabotage of Google gmail accounts however, which makes me suspicious. (Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo! email deleted all the messages from my accounts immediately after 9/11/01, obviously on instructions from the secret police.)

Unfortunately communications are more difficult in a police state such as the U.S. than in a free country.