MEDIA ROOTS –  When Saddam Hussein used white phosphorous against his own people in March 1988, the United States labeled it a chemical weapon and considered it to be a weapon of mass destruction. This helped justify the American-lead invasion of Iraq in 2003. However, when coalition forces used the weapon in Fallujah the following year, it was classified as a permissible incendiary device. Like napalm, white phosphorous has well-known and predictable collateral effects such as fallout linked to birth defects. And according to international law, the thermal weapon is prohibited from use on civilians or in civilian areas. American defiance of this statute in 2004 not only warrants a war crimes investigation of the former Commander-in-Chief, the prolonged high-rate of birth defects in Fallujah makes plausible an investigation for crimes against humanity.

Since the invasion, birth defects in Fallujah have jumped dramatically from once every few months to several daily, according to many whom work at Fallujah General Hospital. The United States officially denies contributing to this increase and pundits continue to marginalize the effects of incendiary devices. But no matter how the story is spun, Fallujah now has a legacy of defects that is five-times the international norm, according to the news agency Al Jazeera in an investigative piece aired last week.

White phosphorous (WP) has been in the American arsenal since World War I. The use of “Willie Pete,” as it was referred to by American soldiers in Vietnam, was initially denied to have been used in Fallujah. However, the following year, United States General Peter Pace confirmed and defended its use for its ability to illuminate the battlefield and hide troop movements. The federal government today sells WP to allies such as Israel where it has been used numerous times against combatants in civilian areas.

Outcry for this injustice continues. The web page Birth defects in FGH was created in 2009 by a doctor at Fallujah General Hospital to help publicize the continued torture of the city’s newborns. Additionally the nonprofit The Justice for Fallujah Project has an advisory board that includes Doctors Noam Chomsky and Dahlia Wasfi and continues to fight for increased public awareness of this endemic.

Oskar Mosco

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Al Jazeera English highlighted the increased birth defects occurring now in Fallujah

in half-hour segment that aired last week.

Fallujah – The Hidden Massacre

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Photo provided by Flickr user Dapper Snapper.  

MEDIA ROOTS – Dr. Ursula Wilder, a clinical psychologist and Fellow at the Brookings Institution, recently wrote a piece entitled Inside the Mind of a Terrorist, in which she offers “provisional thoughts about [the most recent terrorist] bomb maker’s psyche.”  Instead, her rudimentary, superficial insight about terrorism unintentionally exposes the shroud of ignorance under which the U.S. war machine functions. 

Wilder describes the bomb maker as shadowy, enigmatic, compelling, fascinating, repellent, disciplined, meticulous, logical, adaptive, imaginative, and persistent.  These daunting adjectives depict a formidable mastermind.  However, she never mentions how the plot would never have gotten off the ground without CIA entrapment.  Regardless of the standards to which a “terrorist” inventor adheres, entrapment by security apparatuses are increasingly becoming the defining trait of so-called “terrorist plots.” 

The article claims without evidence that the bomb maker is unwilling to compromise ideologically, but completely neglects the rigid ideological underpinnings of the U.S. War on Terror.  According to Wilder, the bomb maker’s “unrestricted quality of thought is evident in the very concept of a device that conceals lethal explosives beneath the groins of operatives.”  Grasping at straws, she affords the bomb maker too much credit.  He is simply trying to circumvent airport security measures.  Placing bombs around one’s groin is merely a tactical exigency, yet Wilder classifies this act as being “eerily free” from the “boundaries of common decency.”  

Wilder never considers that dropping bombs of awesome power from an altitude of 30,000 feet is far more indecent.  U.S. government sponsored bombs and missiles rain down on civilians and resisters in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere on a daily basis.  Meanwhile, a lone “terrorist” underwear bomber sputters to get off the ground once a year.  Working within the blinding saturation of the War on Terror meta-narrative, Wilder insists positioning a crude bomb within underwear means the bomb maker’s mind lacks “some critical element endemic to the human spirit and to moral psychology.”  Wilder’s hypocrisy is deafening.  According to her rationale, those who invade, occupy, displace, murder, and rain terror, do not merit psycho-analysis; a lone bomber is the one who clearly lacks the fundamental attributes of humanity.

Continuing down the path of illogic and imprudence, Wilder affirms that the bomb maker views “the bodies of terrorist operatives and the anonymous bombing victims” as mere “tools” and “not the foundation of their personhood.”  The same can be said about U.S. war machines vis-à-vis innocent victims, except the U.S. public actually profit financially from war with the latter.  What about the collateral damage from our tools?  Wilder unintentionally answers this question when stating “terrorism is about hijacking the attention of the public with scenes of random carnage, and what locks the attention of viewers is fear and sympathetic horror.”  Although she intended to describe underwear bombs, her words accurately portray the slaughter of U.S. bombings, night raids, and drone strikes.

When applied to the U.S. war machine, Wilder’s words are quite precise.  She describes the bomb maker as lacking courage, since “courage requires persevering in the face of danger that is fully understood in all its facets – physical, psychological, moral, spiritual.”  But it is the generals, the rear-echelon feather-merchants, and the executives of war corporations that lack courage, since they deliberately ignore all academic, moral, and psychological traits of the “terrorist” fighting against the U.S. war machine.  When attempting to summarily describe the bomb maker, she unintentionally defines the main deficiency of U.S. militarized foreign policy: “Judgment – that ephemeral mental quality that captures maturity, wisdom, sympathetic understanding of the totality of reality, including tolerance for the complexities and ambiguities of shared morality – is quite broken.”  Wilder’s ultimate failure – typical of most individuals who are tied so intricately to the military-industrial teat – is her inability to introspect.

The sad truth is: we are the pathologically deficient.  We, citizens of the most powerful nation, could have used the trillions we spent on war since 2001 on good deeds.  Instead, we use trillions to kill on a mass scale.  We could have ended deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest, saving our planet’s lungs and enriching the lives of every living being on the planet.  We could have provided years’ worth of shelter and food for all U.S. citizens.  Instead, our pathologically noxious society idles, wages interminable war, deliberately pollutes our only environment, and exists in intentional disharmony with nature.  Who are the real fiends?  

Written By Christian Sorensen for Media Roots

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Photo by Flickr User Red-Pill Photo Gallery

MEDIA ROOTS – If AIPAC can write legislation, then the U.S. electorate can too.

Dear People of Iran,

Whereas the CIA overthrew your democratically-elected government in August 1953;

Whereas the CIA and the White House supported the Shah, who suppressed political dissent violently and relentlessly throughout your country;

Whereas the aforementioned oppression contributed to the rise of political Islam within your country;

Whereas our country armed Iraq in a war against your country during the 1980s;

Whereas the chemical weapons which our country sold Iraq killed thousands of your citizens;

Whereas the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in July 1988;

Whereas, one month later, President George H.W. Bush stated: “I’ll never apologize for the United States of America. I don’t care what the facts are.”

Whereas our military has maintained a constant presence in the Persian Gulf since the 1980s;

Whereas our presence in Southwest Asia has surrounded your country on multiple sides;

Whereas Persia has not initiate hostilities with any neighboring country for over 200 years;

Whereas the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) manipulates our corrupt politicians to the detriment of both the U.S. and Iran;

Whereas our corrupt politicians profit from lucrative weapon contracts by hyping war with your country;

Whereas our corrupt politicians serve on the boards of war corporations when they retire from “public service”;

Whereas war is a racket, and U.S. corporations profit excessively from endless armed conflict;

Whereas our intelligence agencies concede that your country is not currently producing a nuclear weapon;

Whereas our sanctions against your country, including banning you from using SWIFT services, are an aggressive detriment to your wellbeing;

Whereas our corporate media demonize you and promote conflict in order to attract higher ratings and to profit from increased advertising revenue;

Whereas our unconditional support for the state of Israel has directly contributed to the deaths of your scientists;

Whereas our corrupt politicians and special interest groups use the “threat” posed by your country to install a black hole of unproven technology known as a “missile shield” in Eastern Europe;

Resolved that we, the people of the United States of America, apologize on behalf of our elected and unelected officials;

At the end of the day, we have a lot in common: The people of Iran and the United States are victims of election rigging; We both have religious currents, some of which prioritize ritual over education; Both our peoples enjoy rich artistic histories, and have created breathtaking cinema, sculpture, and poetry; Sizeable portions of our societies protest the corruption emanating from our respective capitals; Finally, both of our governments are targeted heavily by the Israeli Mossad.

We have a lot of work to do.  We both must work daily to change the corrupt nature of our governments, and to never forget the common humanity shared by the people of Iran and the people of the United States of America.

Written by Christian Sorensen for Media Roots.

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Photo by Flickr user Ali Reza_Parsi 

MEDIA ROOTS – According to neoconservative Robert Kagan, the USA has been involved in military conflict abroad 70 percent of the time since the end of the Cold War.  Many times, these foreign wars need to be “sold” to the U.S. public in order to galvanize the populace against a common enemy (e.g. Noriega ’89, Saddam ’91, Bin Laden ’01, and Saddam ’03).  This “selling” of war comes in the form of deliberate deception and manipulation by Executive authorities and Pentagon officials.  The Pentagon’s vast resources, propaganda apparatuses, media links, and international ties are crucial in fomenting public support for military aggression.

If we, as a society, want to progress beyond such militancy and avoid future wars of aggression, it is crucial to recognize manipulation of public opinion when it occurs.  The 28 minute CBC documentary To Sell A War details precisely the elaborate lengths to which the Pentagon and Executive Branch will go in order to rally the public for war.  As you will see, nothing is off limits.  

Christian Sorensen for Media Roots

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Documentary: To Sell a War

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Photo by Flickr user US Army

MEDIA ROOTS – Kathyrn Bigelow made a huge splash at the 2010 Academy Awards by usurping predicted winner Avatar with her depiction of soldiers fighting in Iraq in her movie The Hurt Locker.  The Oscar winning film was revered by conservatives and anti-war liberals alike for its ‘balanced’ and ‘realistic’ tone, but in reality the movie is a clever form of pro-military American propaganda.  It depicts an imaginary super hero-like character wearing a bomb protection suit, whose sole job is to diffuse IEDs from military zones.

Bigelow’s follow up film to The Hurt Locker is called Zero Dark Thirty, which will portray a real time account of the unfounded Seal Team 6 raid that supposedly killed Osama Bin Laden.  Considering how the film is scheduled to be released immediately following the Presidential election, the Obama campaign will likely be ecstatic with the additional marketing boost they will receive from the Hollywood hype.  While a movie about this event was probably inevitable, regardless of government involvement or sanction, one can’t help but wonder how close the relationship between the White House and Hollywood was in this particular case.

It’s been long known that movies glorifying our military receive free props and sets from said military as long as the movie’s message is pro-military.  This type of quid pro quo has been commonplace in Hollywood for years, a perfect example being Top Gun, the popular eighties movie about U.S. Navy pilots.  However, syncing up political propaganda movie releases with major political events is something relatively new.  In 2006, the respected, gritty filmmaker Paul Greengrass released United 93, which illustrated via shaky cam the events that supposedly took place on the doomed Flight 93 before its inevitable demise on 9/11.  The coincidental timing of United 93’s release coinciding with the trial of supposed twentieth hijacker Moussai cannot be denied.  During his trial, they focused heavily on the events of Flight 93, even playing unreleased audio recordings from the plane.  United 93’s marketing campaign happened simultaneously with the media hype surrounding the trial.

Even though Democrats will argue that Obama isn’t running his re-election primarily on the supposed targeted killing of Bin Laden, it has been one of the main pillars of the Obama administration.  On top of the billion dollars that Obama already has at his disposal, he will now have the full force of a Hollywood movie marketing campaign behind his election which can be argued as the most expensive campaign advertisement ever made.  The trailers for Zero Dark Thirty will most likely be running constantly on television leading up to election day.

It was previously unclear if the White House had any direct involvement in the movie, but now there is ample proof that Bigelow and crew were given exclusive access to classified details in order to make the film that no one has ever seen.  Despite Obama’s claims that little facts about the raid could be made public because of “national security” purposes, apparently it was fine to share this information with a multi million dollar Hollywood production.

Not only is it highly disturbing that the corporate controlled media regurgitated this manufactured narrative of an event no one actually witnessed, but now it’s combined with an expensive major Hollywood dramatization that will make millions of dollars.  This collaboration will cement the government narrative forever in the American psyche, causing historical revisionism to prevail over truth.

Glenn Greenwald and Abby Martin of Media Roots and RT TV explore the significance of the link between the White House and the upcoming Bin Laden movie.  Abby discusses the subject with a White House reporter and writer from Politico on RT TV; notice as the guest shuts down Abby’s rational questioning about the raid while providing no proof to the contrary, instead he repeats official government propaganda as if it were religious dogma.

Written by Robbie Martin of Media Roots

Edited by Abby Martin

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SALON – As part of a court order in the Judicial Watch lawsuit, the Obama administration yesterday disclosed dozens of emails from the DoD and the CIA documenting that, as NBC News put it, “the Obama administration leaked classified information to filmmakers on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.” Politico‘s Josh Gerstein added: “Just weeks after Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency officials warned publicly of the dangers posed by leaks about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, top officials at both agencies and at the White House granted Hollywood filmmakers unusual access to those involved in planning the raid and some of the methods they used to do it.”

The internal administration documents — which pointedly note that the film has a “release date set for 4th Qtr 2012 (Sep-Dec)” — reveal enthusiastic cooperation with the filmmakers by top-level DoD officials, including Undersecretary of Defense Michael Vickers, all done at the direction of the White House. The very first DoD email indicates the request to work with the filmmakers came from the White House. Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta is deemed “very interested in supporting” the film. The documents also reveal a meeting between the filmmakers and Obama’s chief counter-Terrorism adviser John Brennan and National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, at which the two White House officials shared information about “command and control.” The DoD officials meeting with the filmmakers were given the White House talking points from the night of the raid, which including hailing the President’s actions as “gutsy” and stressing the heavy involvement of the White House in the raid.

Continue Reading Whitehouse Leaks for Propaganda Film.

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Abby Martin discusses the Bin Laden leak on RT with a writer from Politico.

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Article Photo by Flickr user Ssoosay

Front Page Photo Public Domain (by US law any photo taken by a solider while on active duty automatically becomes public domain)